<flame> - I don't want to run another virtualized OS (and mess with data sharing) on my PC just because of few apps. - wine is not stable option for quite lot of apps - IMHO Linux distro is not alternative for (just few examples): - advanced photographer - there is not OSS alternative to Adobe Lightroom/Aperture which is stable, has reasonable GUI, process RAW files in the same quality and support complete workflow. And yes I know/used GIMP, Darktable, RawTherapee, DigiKam etc. Also support for color profiles is quite complicated. - video hobbist - show me usable alternative for video editing (iMovie). OSS alternatives are buggy or with terrible UI. I know, that there are professional grade and utterly complicated apps like Cinelerra. - CAD/CAM GNU/Linux at the other hand is excellent option in case: - you are developer, sysadmin - you need internet/office pc - you need HTPC for your living room - you need server - you have dedicated computer just for Therion stuff :-) </flame> @Bruce, Debian is great but I think Windows7 is the best system for you - solid/stable/supported and without UI experiments (Metro). L. 2013/12/4 Wookey <wookey@wookware.org>
+++ Ladislav Blažek [2013-12-04 14:22 +0100]:
I am big fan of free software and GNU/Linux but it is still not 100% alternative to Windows/OS X on desktop.
Which aspect do you find 'not 100%'?
Clearly this can be true if you have to use some particular windows-only application (In my case I can only file expenses at work with IE due to a crappy 3rd-party website design, and have had reason to run a windows app once every couple of years for some reason or another - such as demoing tortoisesvn use in a windows environment for cavers at hidden earth this year, and running pockettopo)
But wine and virtual machines (virtualbox) take care of this nicely.
The point being that my life is a great deal more civilised running GNU/Linux daily and digging out an instance of Windows occaisionally when needed, than it would be the other way round. Obviously others might make different choices, and I don't want to overdo the prosletysing, but just wanted make clear that I can't agree with the idea that it's not a viable alternative desktop OS.
Wookey -- Principal hats: Linaro, Emdebian, Wookware, Balloonboard, ARM http://wookware.org/ _______________________________________________ Therion mailing list Therion@speleo.sk http://mailman.speleo.sk/mailman/listinfo/therion