How many people solely use linux?

Did you try orca?

 

Orca is a pile of garbage. Have you used it?

I've yet to find a half decent screen reader... but it's not a high priority for me so I gave up.

 

No, not really. I played a bit with Knoppix 6.0 which has orca on board, but the german reader voice is very ugly. And since I have no real use for a screen reader I gave up pretty soon. But I thought that I just have missed some settings or speak the wrong language.

 

I used orca for a few days, and it would randomly bug out and grab focus for no apparent reason, when no key was bound to it... its functionality was basically nonexistent when it "worked." I wouldn't trash something so hard without really feeling like I tried to make it work. It just frustrated me to no end.

 

I prefer Linux over Windows for visual assistance. Ubuntu's high contrast theme >>> Window 7's high contrast themes. Much more streamlined and doesn't turn everything into ugly, block like objects. I also LOVE the ability to invert all the windows, including firefox, which makes things a hell of a lot easier to read. I reinstalled 7 today to flash my SSD firmware and decided to not stick with windows solely because of the better contrast themes available. It just works.

 

I duel boot Mint 9 KDE ( waiting for ver 10 KDE) and Windows 7

Interesting how 65% of users polled at this time do not use Linux exclusively. I wonder how that translates into the greater world around us.

I first started with Fedora about 8 years ago. Too much typing commands into the terminal. I have since tried Ubuntu for a while and now settled recently on Mint. I much prefer Mint KDE over Ubuntu 10.10 with Gnome. As a Windows user for over 15 years the Mint KDE desktop is way easier and more user friendly, way better looking and has more better functionality than Ubuntu. ( No I have not tried Kubuntu) I use Windows to play games and use software I cannot get easily in Linux without having to use the dreaded terminal as well as many apps I just like better in Windows.

One day when Linux grows up and is able to play all my Windows games and makes the terminal obsolete by having all functionality in a GUI, I may get rid of Windows.

 

Why is Linux not grown up until it plays all Windows games? Is Windows also not grown up because it can't run all Linux software?

 

Come on grown up don't play games...those who still play games have not grown up....

 

I think Mint hit the sweet spot, if one wanted to jump right into Linux. I tried Ubuntu and I though meh, OK so i'm running Linux. When I discovered Mint I found the interface very intuitive, and I usually found things where I thought it would be. My confidence level began to increase with Mint as well. When I ran into problems I Googled the solution and viola it answered my question.

For me Mint 10 is the cats meow. They bettered their interface, I also like the clean GUI as well. Mint also runs most things out of the box without having to install things much like Windows.

I think the biggest problem for Linux even today is that most people don't want to deal with a terminal, they just want things to work NOW and not have to do additional steps to get there. Windows in a way has made people lazy for the most part.

That's why I see Ubuntu Unity as a step in the right direction if Linux is to attract more Windows users. If it can bridge the gap and continue on the path to a full fledged OS where it's seamless and reduces the steps required to make things work I can see more users giving Linux a go.

 

Debian #! Statler isn't bad.....

Debguy has a point; I just think some peeps want to throw windows away and gaming keeps it on their machines

 

I have to agree with that. That's atleast why I kept windows around.

 

Simplistically yum replaces apt, to get started in Fedora quickly and find your feet after you've done the initial install.....

yum update

This will update all packages from the standard repos

then do

yum install yumex

this is a gnome gui frontend for yum

lastly do some googling for rpmfusion repos and get them installed.

Have fun, the learning curve isn't that steep if you've used Ubuntu for a while.

 

I would say 90% of computer users in the world have never even tried it linux. hell, most of the people i work with cant even manage to keep their computer updated or avoid malware.

 

Sadly, most of peoples don't know meaning of word "maintance".

 

They would not need to avoid malware when swithing to linux

 

I wish linux was more gamer friendly.

 

It is, if you download linux games. Linux was never meant to run windows software. I'm just surprised that after 15 years, the Wine community still can't get their act together. Out of a dozen games I tried, only one would run properly, while one other ran with problems. The others wouldn't run at all.

 

If that day ever come, I might stop running Linux. Terminal is the 'hot chick' for some.

 

+1 Linux is nothing without terminal

 

Ahh, do not misunderstand my friend. I do not advocate the removal of the terminal for those who wish to use it. Only more GUI functionality to give folks like me a choice. That way, we could all have the functionality we want. I certainly would not like to see Linux do something that caused lots of users to abandon it.

Then again if the Terminal looked and sounded more like a Hot Chick I may get more pleasure out of typing in her.

 

yep, all that's left then is social engineering.

 

Linux is gamer friendly. It just depends on which games you play.
I can play all of my favourite games:
Hedgewars, Warzone2100, Widelands, Battle for Wesnoth

And with Dosbox I can even run old DOS games like Destruction Derby, Prince of Persia, Master of Orion 2 or Comanche 3. Right now I'm playing C&C 1 again which I missed so much under Win2k/XP (the Win95 remake was unplayable due to scrolling problems).
I'm not that much of a FPS friend, but I know that some Windows-only users are real fans of Warsow or Nexuiz, which run natively under Linux.
What I'm missing a bit is a good racing game. Torcs is quite nice, but it lacks some polish in the end. I've been told that Vdrift (based on Torcs) adresses that, but I've not tested it so far.

On the contrary! I'm surprised how much they got working so far. They try to make closed source software running that was written for a totally different closed source OS. In addition to that high performance software (which games have always been with respect to the time of their creation) always tends to be written pretty dirty by circumventing well defined interfaced to get the last bit of speed out of the hardware.

 

You can still play games based on Quake3 engine

And still no native x64 support

 

True...I had Unreal Tournament running flawlessly, and this was around 8 or 9 years ago....used another install tool that's not around anymore....made the installation very easy....I can't remember the name of that outfit (it was base on wine obviously and depending on which game you wanted to install you downloaded a particular file) ?

 

Hmm maybe it was Cedega? I used that to try to run BF2142 for a month, but canceled my Cedega subscription because it really was not playable. At the time I was crazy about battlefield, but I don't even play games anymore really.

TransGaming Technologies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

UT2004 ran perfectly on Linux natively though. Too bad the same can't be said of UT3. Oh, and that steam rumor from this past summer went up in smoke too.

There's a Unigine challenge to build a game, they have a focus on Linux, maybe the strongest of any of the engines out now: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODkwMQ

 

It wasn't Cedega....someone on this forum remembered it months ago when I brought it up.....I've got a big case of CRS !!

 

are you talking about "playonlinux"?

 

No, what I used isn't around anymore....it'll come to me...

 

In September of 2009 I bought a Dell Inspiron 1545 Laptop. I used the Vista System to download Ubuntu, installed Ubuntu wiping out vista and I have not gone back. My current OS is Linux Mint Debian Edition, Xfce Desktop, 2.6.36-2.dmz.7-liquorix-amd64. My Laptop is in a drawer of my desk with a Logitech wireless keyboard & mouse, and a Samsung Syncmaster 2233 21 1/2" monitor. I added a Philips CD Radio with speakers as an auxiliary amplified sound system with Dynamic Bass Boost. Running 4GB RAM on Intel Core 2 Duo T3400 CPUs @2.16GHz. 160 GB Internal HD with two USB 250 GB External drives as Data and backup. Last year my Broadcom wifi card burnt out and I added a USB Netgear WG111v3 dongle. Now I have a desktop and a laptop all in one and I use it both ways.

 

Good Show! I also am using LMDE x64, and just got an update of the Liquorix kernel to 2.6.36-2.dmz.8-liquorix-amd64. Have you tried that?

Oh, welcome to NBR Linux Forum....

 

Yes, using Liquorix with Xfce desktop, superfast.

 

thanks...I mean the update to Liquorix...mine just updated from the one you listed as....xxxxxdmz.7 to xxxxxdmz.8

 

I'm going back to 10.10 after realizing Linux is much simpler to use, IMO. But I'm an OS jumper, so in a few weeks time I'll most likely be back with Windows... Sigh. I don't know why I just don't dual-boot, it would be so much easier. But TBH I don't have that much space that I can waste.

 

Get a really fast (at least 20MB/s write speed) USB key, SD card or Expresscard and install Linux on that one if your computer supports to boot from it. In most situations this speed will be sufficient.
But make sure not to have a swap partition on that medium and some other precautions to reduce the write accesses will also be helpful.

 

I use solely linux - openSUSE on my laptop and Fedora Core on my lab machine.... Never needed Windows - though have an Xp installation which I boot into once or twice in a year max

I made this switch nearly 1.5 yrs ago and have never regretted it...

 

I use Linux for all of my normal computer needs. For games, I boot to Win7. When I am done gaming, back to Debian.

It is funny how so many of my friends, when they see my PC, think I am running Snow Leopard (macOSX) because I have moonOS and Docky -- on my main desktop PC.

 

I've noticed that at least half of the grad students in my university's Computer Science department (including me) use Linux or OSX

 

Most music majors at my university, post grad, use MacOSX for reasons I can't understand.

Last time i checked line6 Guitarport worked on Linux.

 

Industry standards.

 

Not all "music majors" will want to use Guitarport. For me (a former music teacher), music notation software is most important, and the last time I checked, you can't run Finale or Sibelius natively on Linux. (I don't know if there has been success running either program under Wine.)

 

(meandering further off topic)

A poster here, and the Finale forums, suggests that Finale will run under WINE, and most of the last comments to the article here, suggest that Sibelius won't. However the article's author has written an updated article here, and it seems that Linux music notation software is steadily improving as well. Here's another Linux Music Notation software list, from which LilyPond and MuseScore look impressive, (albeit to a non-music person).

Good Luck..

 

I have been using GNU/Linux for a couple years (since about 99).

I was using Arch for a good bit and have now (today) switched to LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition).

Run Linux solo!

 

I've liked always the classic installers which give users the full control over the Linux installation like how openSUSE/Fedora Core/Red Hat do unlike Ubuntu - which tries to make Linux more like windows and trying to reduce the number of options given during installation....

 

Try Ubuntus alternate CD. Last time I checked (9.10 afair) it had the complete expert installer from Debian.

 

Hey glad to be aboard . Now I run LMDE on my laptop, Mint 10 on the wife's lappy, and KDE on our old HP. No windoze or OSX in our home presently although we are considering a Mac (after I messed with a Hackintosh for a bit) LOL

 

That all sounds like a winner to me! Know if Mint KDE has been released in beta yet? (10)

 

Gentoo, Fedora, CentOS, SuSE, Slackware, Debian, and Linux Mint. Machines at work include Gentoo, SuSE, & Fedora. Plus Solaris, HP-UX, IRIX, and AIX.

 

I truly wish that I could convert over to Linux full time. Unfortunately, somewhere between a PC gaming addiction, my Windows XP work box, and my side gig as a part time sysadmin for a few local businesses, its much easier to simply keep a windows box around. I do prefer Ubuntu/Debian for my at home tinkering, though, and I did spent a few months running Ubuntu exclusively, right around the time that Windows Vista hit the market.

 

I'm a bit the same... Except the work part... School has Windows and It's just easier for me to run it, as I don't want to be taught one thing at school then have to teach myself the replacement version on Ubuntu. My new desktop will be Ubuntu full time though while my laptop will be Windows.

 

In undergrad I had a professor that used Mythbuntu for video,projection during class.

Cool Philosophy prof no doubt.