Is Vista Driving People Towards Linux?

Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
From our front-page news:
Alright, I admit that I'm somewhat of a Linux fan, given it's my primary OS, but I'm not about to make assumptions that Windows Vista is so bad, that it's driving people towards it. Could I be wrong? Well, according to an author at IT Wire, it's a definite possibility. The author explains that he himself had huge beefs with Vista, and from what I assume, he decided to stick with Linux.

For whatever reason, I actually seem to be going in a somewhat opposite direction when it comes to Vista-bashing. When the OS was first released, I had no end of Vista spite, but now that Service Pack 1 has been released, and I realized how much better the 64-bit version of the OS is, I'm starting to hate it a lot less. I've been using it as the primary OS on the Skulltrail machine here since earlier this year, and I really haven't run into any show-stopping issues.

I know I'm alone, though, and not a day goes by when I don't hear someone talking about how bad Vista is... which actually surprises me, given that the typical user tends to be a little more patient with OS annoyances than the advanced user. So is Vista actually pushing users towards Linux? I'm willing to be debated, but I'm doubtful. As is obvious from all the news posts I make about Linux, I love the OS, but it still has a way to go before people are going to begin flocking to it.

​

The eeePC and other notebooks are a hit because everything works. There is limited functionality but then that's all the buyer is looking for. Nerds and geeks drool over it as they would over any gadget. Businessmen find them handy to carry from place to place - they weigh very little. Compared to something like my IBM Stink... er, ThinkPad, the eeePC is a featherweight. Even a child can carry it around - as indeed I've seen some children do.

Source: IT Wire
​
 
Drew

Drew

E.M.I.
I don't know if Vista is driving people towards Linux but it is certainly helping to drive people AWAY from Microsoft. I personally don't care for Apple so I enjoy Linux.
 
b1lk1

b1lk1

Tech Monkey
I still blame most Vista problems on user error. Too many people trying to run 2+ year old hardware with it too. I also agree that the 64-Bit version is the one to run. I still say that there never should have been a 32-bit version and that alone would prevent alot of people running it on sub-par older hardware.

Pushing towards Linux? Maybe the few fringe, but considering 80%+ of the PC world happily and blindly run Windows in any form no matter the problems. Linux is still far too difficult for newcomers and it is still almost useless for games.
 
Kougar

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
I've had enough problems with Vista that I could write three pages of stuff, if I even remembered all of it and how to recreate some of it. I even started to, but it's just better to get over it than constantly bring up old complaints and issues they eventually, or mostly, solved. And NVIDIA gets much of the blame anyway, only having shakey "beta" drivers for around six months after Vista's launch, its no wonder they were behind a third of the total crashes or problem reports.

This isn't Windows 98 or 98se anymore, or even Me. Another facet to it is I feel people just forgot how buggy past MS OS launches have always been I think, XP had lots of problems of it's own before SP2, and tons more before SP1. Such as multiple drive capacity limitations, or inability to install from AHCI enabled drives without specialized drivers being loaded, so users would get BSOD's upon the first reboot, etc.

I've had two, maybe three people tell me Vista turned them into linux users, but that's really not many people. And they still have to use Windows XP for work or in a dual-boot, regardless.
 
Last edited:
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
The fact that you know of anyone that Vista has actually pushed to Linux suprises me Kougar. I keep hearing of people who've left for Linux, but haven't known anyone myself. I think it's amazing that anyone would shift from one OS to another just because the latest version isn't up to their liking. Why didn't they just stick with XP? It seems a bit odd.

The more people who move over to the Linux side, the better. If Linux had a much larger marketshare, developers might take it more seriously... especially game developers. Even Mac OS X... its marketshare far exceeds the one of Linux, and even it doesn't have good game support. Not sure what it's going to take.
 
Merlin

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
I only was interested in Linux as a dual boot option, just for fun.
As far as Vista, I'm all stable.... I was having a problem within the Network that I have set up, but that was a router ( D-Link ) problem, I went back to Linksys ( Cisco ) and the network stays connected.
I play any game that I wnt and even some demos with no problems.
Now, the demo of Vista was so buggy that I can understand if that OS was never changed from demo mode to what it is now, then the alarm switch could be valid.

Anyone here having ANY problems in Vista??
....or is it someone else in hear-say?

Merlin
 
b1lk1

b1lk1

Tech Monkey
XP was a steaming pile of garbage for almost 2 years before they got the bugs worked out. The people dropping Windows for Linux over Vista are fools and their poor choice shows it. I don't enjoy Microsoft's monopoly on the OS scene, but we have to live with reality. What makes me laugh the most is the fact that the newly converted Linux users will still dual boot their Linux with Windows for all the stuff Windows can do that Linux cannot (mainly gaming). Just look around for the old opinions of XP when it was first released. It was the same stupid talk.

I dabble with Linux myself. It is novel. It is free and does alot of things very well. The thing it does not do well is have a nice fancy GUI based installer which kills most new converts straight away. Then there is the less than stellar support for video card drivers. Add in the "command line" way of doing things and I just can't deal with all the Googling needed to get it working the way I want. Even the Linux forum old-timers are quick to be very rude when you ask things. I was constantly hearing how I needed to learn it on my own or to use the search function. Um, hello. I just did that and it brought me here sizzle-chest.

Anyhow, I love and will continue to run Vista. XP needs to die. Linux is a mere novelty until the gaming world takes it even remotely seriously (WINE is no solution at all). Mac and OS-X, that is a whole other topic that I won't get into but the day I even power up a Mac will be the coldest in history.
 
On_Wisconsin

On_Wisconsin

Coastermaker
b1lk1 said:
XP was a steaming pile of garbage for almost 2 years before they got the bugs worked out.
Click to expand...

Not to forget most systems at the time (IIRC) couldn't run XP until the price of RAM went down a few years later - and the systems could handle more services that XP has.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
On_Wisconsin said:
Not to forget most systems at the time (IIRC) couldn't run XP until the price of RAM went down a few years later - and the systems could handle more services that XP has.
Click to expand...

Well, I don't recall the first PC I had with XP, but I do remember being impressed by how well it ran on the relative beater of a PC I had going. I believe it was a 400MHz with 512MB of RAM... it wasn't a slow PC at the time, but the OS really didn't feel slow either. The biggest problem was with the bugs and crashes.

But, it was still a lot better than Windows ME, and easier to deal with post-install than Windows 98.
 
Kougar

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
XP was indeed slower... I eventually, reluctantly, migrated from 98se to XP using the same machine, and it did take longer to load and get up and running. But it wasn't that bad, considering it was a 1Ghz Thunderbird AMD system.

And after realizing that strange prorgam crashes and BSODs did NOT have to be a fact of life, I quickly came around to my senses and stuck with XP since. At least until Vista 64 bit anyway...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top