Linux: How far has it really come?
In my lap I have a copy (from 1999) of Macmillan Linux 6.5 (based on Linux-mandrake 6.1(Based on Red Hat 6.0)).
It boasted a 2.2.13 kernel, KDE 1.1.2 on Xfree86 3.3.5. For most of my Flist that is pretty meaningless so let me see if I can find you a screenshot.
As you can see it had all the asthetics of win95. However being my first linux experience it had to show me something a lot more basic first. The long and convoluted install process took several hours and wouldn't detect my video card. so I was rather unceremoniously dumped at a command line filled with alien commands. I did eventually get X running and KDE and finally a working desktop although pretty much everything required fixing at the commandline.
Fast forward 10 years, Canonical release Ubuntu 9.10, I've played with Linux on and off over the last 10 years but nothing has grabbed me long enough to stay as my desktop on my main pc or my secondry desktop (at the moment my secondary is my laptop) now I wont run linux on my desktop for various reasons, gaming being a large one but my laptop, which is used for email, web browsing, chat, office etc is a perfect candidate for the kind of PC 90% of home windows users use.
After pulling my personal crap off the harddrive I grabbed the XFCE version of Ubuntu - rather unimaginatively named Xbuntu - and threw it onto the system, install took less than an hour and detected my audio, webcam, wireless, intel video... All without needing any configuration of additional software installs. I threw in a 2Gb SD card for shits and giggles. Instant window on the desktop, normally XP and Vista took 15-30 seconds to load the card so the sub 1sec time really took me by surprise. a 5Gb OCZ USB stick took under 5sec.
Compiz (the funky window compisitor that makes my windows all wobbly installed without a hitch however Emerald (the associated window manager) did not and instead compiz defaulted to assuming I was running KDE. 5sec at a commandline with apt-get fixed that and on we go. the dock at the bottom of the screen is a personal favorite and installed without a hitch. the information bar on the side of the screen is conky. So far I have had to use the command line once and not touch a single config file conky would change that however that isn't much of a surprise. Conky is based on the Lua scripting language and as such does nothing without a script to run. The config hacking therefore was simply giving it its scripts, a small amount of piddling around with the XFCE control panel had that, compiz and a few other useful programs running at startup - easier that sheduling programs to run at startup under windows. SWF, MPEG and a few other formats did not install by default due to licencing restrictions but a single package sorts that out straight from the simple package manager.
All out Linux has taken gigantic leaps on the desktop predominantly due to Ubuntu and its associated projects. The odd hiccup does happen but all up Linux is ready for the home desktop, something many people thought would never happen.
It boasted a 2.2.13 kernel, KDE 1.1.2 on Xfree86 3.3.5. For most of my Flist that is pretty meaningless so let me see if I can find you a screenshot.
As you can see it had all the asthetics of win95. However being my first linux experience it had to show me something a lot more basic first. The long and convoluted install process took several hours and wouldn't detect my video card. so I was rather unceremoniously dumped at a command line filled with alien commands. I did eventually get X running and KDE and finally a working desktop although pretty much everything required fixing at the commandline.
Fast forward 10 years, Canonical release Ubuntu 9.10, I've played with Linux on and off over the last 10 years but nothing has grabbed me long enough to stay as my desktop on my main pc or my secondry desktop (at the moment my secondary is my laptop) now I wont run linux on my desktop for various reasons, gaming being a large one but my laptop, which is used for email, web browsing, chat, office etc is a perfect candidate for the kind of PC 90% of home windows users use.
After pulling my personal crap off the harddrive I grabbed the XFCE version of Ubuntu - rather unimaginatively named Xbuntu - and threw it onto the system, install took less than an hour and detected my audio, webcam, wireless, intel video... All without needing any configuration of additional software installs. I threw in a 2Gb SD card for shits and giggles. Instant window on the desktop, normally XP and Vista took 15-30 seconds to load the card so the sub 1sec time really took me by surprise. a 5Gb OCZ USB stick took under 5sec.
Compiz (the funky window compisitor that makes my windows all wobbly installed without a hitch however Emerald (the associated window manager) did not and instead compiz defaulted to assuming I was running KDE. 5sec at a commandline with apt-get fixed that and on we go. the dock at the bottom of the screen is a personal favorite and installed without a hitch. the information bar on the side of the screen is conky. So far I have had to use the command line once and not touch a single config file conky would change that however that isn't much of a surprise. Conky is based on the Lua scripting language and as such does nothing without a script to run. The config hacking therefore was simply giving it its scripts, a small amount of piddling around with the XFCE control panel had that, compiz and a few other useful programs running at startup - easier that sheduling programs to run at startup under windows. SWF, MPEG and a few other formats did not install by default due to licencing restrictions but a single package sorts that out straight from the simple package manager.
All out Linux has taken gigantic leaps on the desktop predominantly due to Ubuntu and its associated projects. The odd hiccup does happen but all up Linux is ready for the home desktop, something many people thought would never happen.