Linux Fanboy switches to Vista? oh boy…

Yea yea, I work for Microsoft and I have been writing a lot about Vista lately. That also means I have been using Vista a lot lately. I have been using it on two work machines (32-bit Enterprise on desktop and 32-bit Enterprise on Tablet Laptop) and two home machines (32-bit Business on home server and 64-bit Ultimate on my new home desktop.)

That is a whole lot of Vista going on. So in that I have had my fair share of Vista issues for sure. Pretty much the only machine that hasn’t had some specific problem is the Business machine, a Dell Optiplex that loaded all drivers the first time with no issues and has ran perfect since the install.

My other three machines have suffered from:

• Misidentified or inability to locate drivers (especially 64-bit)
• Aero taking a hike and not coming back
• Software that wouldn’t install

Beyond that, Vista itself has stumped me with things like:

• Control panel navigation is changed so much it’s difficult to find things
• Incredibly long shut down times
• UAC, what can I say.

That being said…. Windows Vista has been a freaking DREAM compared to Linux in my experience. First, let’s take a second to outline what that experience is.

I have been toying with Linux since probably 1998. I have been playing with it since they began selling it in stores, back when you could get Corel, Mandrake, SuSe or any of another half dozen variants on a CD or two that was nearly impossible to install.

For someone who is tech savvy, the frustration with Linux was the exact opposite of the regular Vista complaints, in Vista they say no old hardware works, in Linux ONLY older hardware works unless you have some technical know-how.

Sure, within a few weeks/months the packages are caught up and some usually not so stable drivers are available for you to use.

I guess I am one of those on the tech-edge kind of people who usually have really current hardware, so I don’t spend my days and nights whining that I can’t get my Circa 1999 Logitech Hand Scanner working in Windows Vista 64-bit edition (mostly cause it doesn’t even HAVE a serial port, but I digress)

I guess I always go back to my old standby question:

If you aren’t running a really current computer, why are you trying to run Windows Vista anyway? Shouldn’t you keep something that is more in line with your computer’s capability?

Technology progresses folks. When DVD finally gives up the ghost, you aren’t going to complain that your DVD player won’t play Blu-Ray are you? It’s really the same thing, if your computer is 5 years old, why do you expect it to not only run Windows Vista, but run it well? Ironically, my 6 year old Pentium 4 with 2 GB of ram will run Windows Vista Basic quite well. But that’s a topic for another day.

So the root of this blog is from an article I found on Digg that got over 1000 diggs about a Linux user who has switched to Vista for un-stated reasons.

Ryan goes into depth with Windows Vista’s weaknesses and preaches how Linux is so much better.

So I would like to hit up his points real quick, and just shed my opinion…

1. The UI is hard to customize: Have you heard of the 80/20 rule? In the case of Windows it’s made to support a very broad user base. The goal was for Aero to be the nice GUI and not for power users to be able to tweak the UI so it looks like something off of a Hollywood hacker movie. I can see the point on some key commands, but those are pretty nit picky things, resizing and moving windows is a very easy task, I would sincerely hope that’s not hindering productivity
2. Drivers in Windows Vista are too difficult: I kind of have to refer to my previous semi-rant, what are you putting this on? We all know the woes with Vista-Capable, but if your hardware is relatively current, a quick install of the chipset and video card should leapfrog the rest of the hardware being identified correctly. Of course if you have some really unusual advanced audio devices or capture cards, etc, this could be a bear, but the basic services of video, network and sound should be pretty easy to solve. If you can’t find the drivers, your hardware is most likely a bit too old.
3. Backwards Compatibility: Read previous and apply the same to software. Sometimes you just have to let things go, technology marches on and eventually things are deprecated, when you don’t you end up with a mess like Linux. I totally dig that you can have an awesome Linux setup that is gorgeous and easy to use, but a novice user can bring a Linux box down to a retarded blinking cursor just by trying to install a video driver, I have seen it happen. In that case, how do you tell a novice to go into vi, edit the xorg.conf file and pray it works.
4. Absolutely no package management: I am sure Microsoft would love to have solid package management. It’s a pretty difficult task when you have a million applications being written for it. It’s about scale, and when you get as large as Windows, it’s just not practical.  On that note, when you aren’t using no name Taiwanese hardware, it actually does a pretty good job of keeping most drivers up to date.
5. Personal User Experience: Lack of good command line tools and a good SSH client? I would call this just being lazy, download PowerShell and Putty and move on. I know they aren’t included, but dang, 99% of users don’t need them and they are really easy to get your hands on. Ryan may not be able to get by on Putty, but MANY do, and do well.

So Ryan ends telling us how he is leaving Vista, how he is home sick for KDE. I can’t say I am surprised by this, I would expect with the attitude going in and throughout that he wasn’t really willing to understand that a different operating system is just that, different. That’s why there are Windows Users, Mac Users and Linux Users. Each one has different needs and preferences and will always lean in a particular direction. I would expect a Linux user would be more likely to turn to OS X given the Unix roots of the operating system. I can’t imagine for the life of me why anyone would be married to a window manager like KDE or Gnome, sure they are sufficient and flexible but they are hardly polished or stable when you really tweak them.

My experience in Vista has been fantastic and my hiccups expected and easily dealt with. I don’t consider myself a novice user by any stretch, but I have no concern with my parents or non tech-savvy friends picking up and using Vista with great regularity. It’s a solid OS on current hardware and software, something that I just don’t think is an unfair requirement for a next-Gen operating system.

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