Approaching desktop usability
I read this tongue-in-cheek article over at News Forge. Nicely written from the perspective of a (Gnu/)Linux user evaluating Windows XP. The title say it all; Windows rapidly approaching desktop usability. Miller makes an issue out of a problem with an LCD monitor during installation. More seriously, he complains "Windows XP networking: Not for amateurs". I know his pain; I have struggled long with my wife's laptop (running XP Home) to get it to connect to our wireless network. Each time I declare victory, each time my wife reports back after a few days that she doesn't have Internet. connection. Most recently, I found that a mis-typed ssid was being remembered, when the correctly typed ssid was not. Only brute force deletion (editing the registry) fixed that one. Curiously, my laptop which has inbuilt 802.11g has little trouble connecting; and that despite there being no Linux driver; I use the windows driver together with ndiswrapper.
And the old trusty old W2K Server box that we connect to; that runs fine -- as long as I don't use the the console (and definately not Windows Explorer, which freezes at the drop of a hat). But all is not rosy in Linux either. Recently, the sound system started to report CPU overload. The DVD player Xine used to work fine, but now consumes 100% CPU. MPlayer has no such problem, but it suddenly refused to start because the there was no sound system. Printing -- a major headache on Windows XP -- works just fine using CUPS, apart from one irritating little detail; every time our wireless printer cycles power, When it changes IP address, I have to feed it manually into the CUPS setup. But at least that is a deterministic process compared to coaxing the XP laptop to connect to our printer server. That is pure black magic.
Swapping between W2K (at work) and Linux lets me see the good sides (and the not so good sides) of both. On Linux there is the Gimp; an amazing tool that I use to process RAW images from my digital camera. On Windows there is the awesome Rational Rose. Amazing functionality, disasterously poor UI. An increasing number of aplications are available on both platforms; Eclipse (though the Linux version has some small cosmetic defects); Firefox/Thunderbird; even the Gimp (though it doesn't work for me as there are DLL conflicts).
To be honest, I cannot say that either is approaching "desktop usability". I spend far too much time futzing with non-productive things. Where is the Desktop OS that "just works"?
Category: Desktop
And the old trusty old W2K Server box that we connect to; that runs fine -- as long as I don't use the the console (and definately not Windows Explorer, which freezes at the drop of a hat). But all is not rosy in Linux either. Recently, the sound system started to report CPU overload. The DVD player Xine used to work fine, but now consumes 100% CPU. MPlayer has no such problem, but it suddenly refused to start because the there was no sound system. Printing -- a major headache on Windows XP -- works just fine using CUPS, apart from one irritating little detail; every time our wireless printer cycles power, When it changes IP address, I have to feed it manually into the CUPS setup. But at least that is a deterministic process compared to coaxing the XP laptop to connect to our printer server. That is pure black magic.
Swapping between W2K (at work) and Linux lets me see the good sides (and the not so good sides) of both. On Linux there is the Gimp; an amazing tool that I use to process RAW images from my digital camera. On Windows there is the awesome Rational Rose. Amazing functionality, disasterously poor UI. An increasing number of aplications are available on both platforms; Eclipse (though the Linux version has some small cosmetic defects); Firefox/Thunderbird; even the Gimp (though it doesn't work for me as there are DLL conflicts).
To be honest, I cannot say that either is approaching "desktop usability". I spend far too much time futzing with non-productive things. Where is the Desktop OS that "just works"?
Category: Desktop
posted by John at 8:41 PM
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