Windows & vs. Ubuntu

[Jumbofile]

Im getting a new OS because Vista is a pain. Should i get win7 or ubuntu and my biggest question is how compatible is ubuntu?

[shado360]

Win7\. Ubuntu is free, therefore not as good. Also, Origins won't run, I don't believe; without an win. emulator :P If I'm wrong, someone please tell me. :P

[kilonox]

In my opinion, Ubuntu is great… IF you know what you are doing! While for most windows applications you can run them using Wine (a windows emulator (free)) some you cannot, like Visual Basic 6\. Also, you can dual boot it, if you want to learn a little about Linux systems. when I first used Linux, I dove head first... I was fun, until I hit the bottom (I forgot to partion my diskspace) and lost all my work for a few websites I was making >.>.

Wow, that was rambling.... All in all, get Windows 7\. If you want to be a techy, go with Ubuntu.... with no UI. jkjk...

[Lavos]

Linux in general is only good if you are more into the development field for programming. I ran into many issues with drivers with ubuntu and would take me twice as long just to get things running on it. Windows is just more easy to work with. working with terminals just takes too long. So it fucking sucks.

[The New World]

@Païn:

> Ubuntu is free, therefore not as good.

You're an idiot.

@Neno:

> Im getting a new OS because Vista is a pain. Should i get win7 or ubuntu and my biggest question is how compatible is ubuntu?

If you're used to Windows I can't do anything but suggest the crappy update. But if you're looking for something new, try google. Unix OS have a large learning curve, and differs much from the way Windows does things.

[schnurman]

It's pretty hard to choose, there completely different operating system. I guess it just depends what your using it for. For hard coding and more business stuff I recommend Ubuntu Linux. Other than that get windows 7.

[Godlord]

Pretty much all the opinions you are going to get here are coming from _inexperienced Linux users_.

@Banana:

> Linux in general is only good if you are more into the development field for programming. I ran into many issues with drivers with ubuntu and would take me twice as long just to get things running on it. Windows is just more easy to work with. working with terminals just takes too long. So it ducking sucks.

Not true, Linux is generally good for software development, artificial intelligence, scientific research, server hosting and a lot of other things. As for using bash or whatever your most favourite or most painful terminal is, they are fairly straight-forward to work with. It just takes a few seconds here to build a few projects and run them (whereas GUI applications take a while to boot up).

@Païn:

> Win7\. Ubuntu is free, therefore not as good.

Ironically, free beer usually seems to taste better than beer you have to pay for.

Regards,
  Stephan.

[Admiral Refuge]

I owned a legal copy of Windows Seven on a moderately expensive machine I have.  I later replaced the OS with Ubuntu (no duel booting); there's some games I'm sure wont work on it (especially if it uses direct X *cough*eclipse*cough*), but the games I play eithre work under Wine or Dosbox, or have been released for Linux.
I recently left Ubuntu after I concluded it was too slow for my needs (artificial life simulation, etc), so I switched to Gentoo – took several days to install, it's seriously not for the feint of heart.

If I had to choose between Win7 or Ubuntu, I'd choose Ubuntu.  If I _needed_ a Windows system though, I would go with Windows XP Professional SP3 and definitely not Win7.

@Païn:

> Win7\. Ubuntu is free, therefore not as good.

I'm willing to bet that my duel-core Gentoo machine can out-perform a quad-core Win7 machine any day.
I'm also willing to be that Gentoo box with LibreOffice can outperform your Windows Seven's Microsoft Word.
As last time I checked, Ubuntu doesn't require 2 GiB of ram just to idle.

[Drummerpete]

I'm dual booting Win7 and Ubuntu.
It must be said, I find myself rarely using Ubuntu lately, simply because of Photoshop and Guitar Pro. (I CAN run them through WINE, but the computer isn't powerful enough for it to run smoothly.)
But I LOVE Ubuntu, I just need a stronger computer :p

[renzo]

@Admiral:

> I'm also willing to be that Gentoo box with LibreOffice can outperform your Windows Seven's Microsoft Word.

Bringing word programs into this?  Shit be getting real now!

If your only going to use your computer for games/web surfing and don't care about how flashy your computer is, Win XP would be better, but if you care about all the bells and whistles you can cough up the extra cash for Win7.
Ubuntu is for people who want to do more than the norm on their computer.  Or hipsters… fucking hipsters..

[Aranshada]

I've been using a good mix of Ubuntu and Windows XP for years now. I run an Ubuntu Server machine out of my house that does my web hosting and houses most of my programming project, so I can work on them from anywhere. I dual boot my laptop with Vista (it came with it) and Ubuntu, and for my main rig I usually boot Windows XP and just hop on my server or fire up a VM when I need Linux.

I've tried several other distros including DSL, CenOS, LinuxMint, openSUSE, Slackware, and Backtrack (I'm sure I'm leaving a few out), but nothing even comes close to how nice it is to have the whole apt/aptitude package management setup. Almost everything I've ever needed on any Ubuntu system exists in the repository, and updating things is so easy, I have an alias set up so I can hit my shortcut to bring up a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+R), and type "doup" which expands to "doupgrades" (thank you tab completion), and it'll update the local package cache, search for updates, and download/install them. Hell, the alias was just 'cause I got sick of typing "sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get -y upgrade;". Yes, it's that easy. And you even get to see exactly what's being downloaded, how much has been downloaded, and how much has been installed - much better than the crappy Winblows system that just says, "Yeah, we're still doing stuff. Hold on." with no visible sign that anything is actually happening.

Linux can be a little frustrating at time, especially with wireless drivers, but support for old and even newer machines is simply amazing. The only reason I use Windows anymore is for gaming. When you design a game for a certain platform, you really have to use that platform (i.e. Windows instead of Linux/Wine), which is also why I'm against porting console games to PC because they ALWAYS manage to duck it up.

Once you get used to it, the way Linux does some things makes more sense (not all things, but definitely a lot of things).

tl;dr Coming from an experienced Linux user, it's a lot of give and take, and I advocate the use of each operating system under different circumstances. I like Linux for servers and development (when the target is Linux machines). I like Windows for gaming and… schoolwork that requires you to submit documents as .docx, or when you're in some stupid Database Concepts class that requires you to submit .accdb files every other ducking day.

[azure]

Considering your question I would not suggest Linux. If you care to keep resource cost low go back to XP, but keep in mind it won't be updated anymore starting in July. Truthfully with a few miner tweaks Win7 runs more smoothly than both XP and Vista despite the high resource cost.  The best non biased advice I can offer you is to compare any os's you may be considering to what your personal needs are, and then decide which you want.

[Robin]

You're 12\. Run Windows.

[saadhamza]

*sad face*

[mrmiguu]

If you're a **gamer**, stay with Windows.

If you're serious about computers, use Ubuntu/Linux/any distro out there.

[Homicidal Monkey]

@Robin:

> You're 12\. Run Windows.

[Admiral Refuge]

@serena85:

> because it is more stable and has more drivers.

…LOLWHAT?

Edit: I'll tell you what; grab an older computer with an esoteric network device, put windows on it, and try connecting it to the net with the default windows drivers.  After getting frustrated that windows doesn't recognize your videocard/soundcard/network interface, put an Ubuntu liveCD in, and watch everything get detected and work.

I've seen modules for almost everything under the sun with linux.

[Lavos]

@Admiral:

> …LOLWHAT?
>
> Edit: I'll tell you what; grab an older computer with an esoteric network device, put windows on it, and try connecting it to the net with the default windows drivers.  After getting frustrated that windows doesn't recognize your videocard/soundcard/network interface, put an Ubuntu liveCD in, and watch everything get detected and work.
>
> I've seen modules for almost everything under the sun with linux.

its 2011, so we need not worry about the usage of old computers. I have no problems running Ubuntu or feldora on netbooks and laptops, but ~~uninstalling~~ installing Ubuntu with older desktops from 2003 and lower will cause some much trouble shooting for searching compatible hardware and drivers. Heck i cant even use my bamboo tablet on the OS.

[Godlord]

**Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR**: worked out of the box on Linux, totally bugged on Windows (**TODO**: find drivers that do work).
**USB 3 XHCI interface**: worked out of the box on Linux, doesn't work at all on Windows (**TODO**: find drivers).
**ATI Radeon HD5770**: had to install drivers for both Windows and Linux for full usage (**stable**).
**Creative X-Fi Audigy SE** (or whatever): worked out of the box on Linux (lacks crystaliser, etc.), driver install required on Windows (provides full software, however) (**stable**).
**Asus N13**: had to compile drivers for Linux, had to install drivers on Windows (**stable**).
**Nintendo WiFi USB**: had to hack drivers for Windows, had to use NDISWrapper on Linux to use the Windows drivers (**stable**; for hosting APs, it's only usable on Windows).
**RTL8139 NIC**: works out of the box on both systems (**stable**).
**Any motherboard NIC and sound chipset I've tried** (which are a lot, really): works out of the box on both systems (**stable**).
**Nvidia Geforce 5200FX and 5600**: see ATI Radeon HD5770.

For sound cards (especially Creative), you are usually better off with Windows (at this moment), but for sound chipsets both work equally well (Linux ALSA might even work better). For video cards, both usually work equally well. For network cards, pens, etc. you are usually better off with Linux (except when you are using a broken WiFi driver, but WiFi itself is crap anyway). For touch pads and the like: it really depends (you can configure it on Linux, but it's not user-friendly; Windows usually has drivers, but sometimes they don't work).

If you care that much about driver support, go use Mac OS X.

@Banana:

> its 2011, so we need not worry about the usage of old computers. I have no problems running Ubuntu or feldora on netbooks and laptops, but uninstalling Ubuntu with older desktops from 2003 and lower will cause some much trouble shooting for searching compatible hardware and drivers. Heck i cant even use my bamboo tablet on the OS.

Majority of the machines I run are at least five years old.

Regards,
  Stephan.

[azure]

@Reign:

> You're 12\. Run Windows.

Upon inspection this is the correct answer, stop bickering over which os is best.