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| Windows Vista VS Linux Ryan Hadley |
| 摘自: blog.indigio.com 被阅读次数: 100 |
由 yangyi 于 2008-04-18 23:21:04 提供 |
It’s been about 3 months since I wrote my first impressions of Windows Vista (over here). I did not take the easy way out and just bail out back to Linux. For the last 3 months I’ve continued to try to live in Vista… And I’m sure Jack, who shares an office with me, is getting quite tired of my complaints. This isn’t really a comparison again, but I’d just like to share how I’ve managed to make myself as comfortable as possible, and my feelings on the switch after an entire 4 months. To summarize my complaints from after one month: * The UI is hard to customize. Specific UI complaints: o I like to use alt+ left click to move windows o I like to use alt+right click to resize windows o I can’t figure out how to set up simple keyboard shortcuts to launch apps o It’s what it is, and nothing more. It’s like having to cut off a finger to fit in to a 4 fingered glove instead of adding a finger to the glove so that the glove fits you. * Drivers in windows vista are too difficult o In Linux all my devices “just worked”. o After a clean install of Vista, nothing works. You then have to hunt down drivers. o Driver updates from windows update made my laptop less stable, not more stable * Backwards compatibility o Hardware: too old out of luck o Software: What? I can’t run old versions of Microsfot SQL Server on Vista? * Absolutely no package management * My personal user experience o Lack of good cmdline tools o Lack of a good SSH Client So let’s start at the top. User Interface I discovered that the most reliable way to use keyboard shortcuts to launch applications is to use your quick launch bar next to the Start Menu. It’s no where near as easy or customizable as KDE keyboard shortcuts are, but it gets the job done. To launch an application in your quick launch bar: Press Windows Key + Number. Where the Number is the place the application is on the bar. So since Firefox is the second app on my bar, Windows Key + 2 launches Firefox. For KDE style mouse shortcuts for moving and resizing windows, install WinMover. But be warned, once you try it, you’ll never feel comfortable without those shortcuts. If you need to make chat window larger, just hold down alt, right click anywhere in the window and drag. Overall I’m still disappointed with the UI. It’s not flexible, requires 3rd party apps to make it even slightly different, and really really really likes to show me “welcome” screens that spin for minutes. Drivers I have to admit, I haven’t had any more issues with drivers since November. I guess once you get up and running things even out. I still say drivers are soooo much easier in Linux. But hey… Backwards Compatibility I’ve had some suggestions of running older apps in Microsoft’s free virtual machine. So hey, if that works for you, go for it. I think that’s a cheap way out though. Package Management Still nonexistent. I didn’t find a single global option, even 3rd party, for managing what is and isn’t installed on my Vista laptop. User Experience This is a big one. I hated Outlook, it was slow, buggy and bizarre. I dreadfully missed Konsole, bash, sed, grep, awk, etc. All my attempts at finding alternatives and solutions (like cygwin… which fails in Vista) were failures. But I don’t like giving up. For Outlook, I switched to Thunderbird and Lightning. I don’t do a lot of scheduling and other junk in Exchange, so I managed to create a solution for Thunderbird that gets me by. I got full read only access to my Exchange calendar data, active directory contacts in my address book, and pulled email via IMAP. You can read about it here. For everything else… Putty wasn’t cutting it. So I sought and sought and sought for a way to get Konsole running in Windows. Then I saw a post on Mixx.com about andLinux. It was not a smooth install… but I won! Check out this screenshot of victory (with a free inspirational message from an Indigian that just happened to pop up in Twhirl as I pressed print screen). I have what I sought the most. A real, multi-tabbed, fully functional ssh terminal. AND this brought me a full bash shell with ALL the cmd line goodies… And I got to kick that horrible iTunes out, since an apt-get install amarok ran without a hitch! What Now? So now… here I am. I have some of my largest holes at least partially filled, others filled rather well. So where I stand is… I’m so out of here. I gave this 4 months. I fought hard to find ways to make myself comfortable and keep the same productivity that I had in Linux. I’m convinced now that I can participate in our Exchange environment adequately in Linux. Especially since I’m really only using Firefox/Thunderbird/Lightning in order to participate while in Vista. The Linux Remote Desktop client works just fine for administering windows servers. After getting Konsole and Amarok working in Vista… I got major home sickness. They feel warm and comfy… they want me to come back to a full KDE Desktop. So the only thing in my way is finding the time to redo my entire laptop. Hopefully… that’ll happen soon. Original link: http://blog.indigio.com/index.ph... |
