If you tried to use Ubuntu then went back to your old OS, why did you do so? [closed]
Solution 1:
I stumbled a couple of times but mainly because I think I started on Ubuntu for the wrong reason. I've always been a geek and that has drawn me to Linux in general over the past 10 years with some quick stints on Mandriva and then Fedora, none of them lasting longer than a week on my computer.
Each time I'd load up the latest and greatest, see that everything was cool, have a fight with Amarok, play a game of Klondike and finally when I needed to get something done, I'd drop back to Windows.
I think it's very important you recognise that you perform tasks with your computer and if you don't plan ahead and see what you're going to be using (or find the workaround to see if/how you can keep using what you are now) you quickly find out that though it may look nice or have a nice feature, you haven't got a clue how to get your work done.
And then I became a professional ASP.NET developer. This halted my switchover for a couple of years. Mono was a wink in the milkman's eye and I really loved Visual Studio .NET 2002 (and 2003 and still love them today - they were great applications)... After I left that company, I found myself slowly spreading out over other technologies.
As a web developer (now freelance) I still had to deploy websites but I had the choice over what systems to use. I started a Dreamhost account for hosting various things (mostly media for my main ASP.NET written blog) but this gave me some exposure to the console. It wasn't long before I was writing fairly complicated bash scripts to automate things for me.
But just over three years ago, in the middle of all this and despite the Linux exposure, I declared myself "a Windows enthusiast". I had a workflow that worked and I just didn't care to switch to something that delivered pretty poor driver support (as it still was back then, especially with the dodgy support for ATI graphics cards) and none of the applications I needed on a daily basis.
I was still developing in ASP.NET but I did keep wanting to switch. I'd boot a LiveCD and test it out for a few hours but while I was still using ASP.NET and a FakeRAID chip that didn't work under Linux, I still couldn't justify moving over completely. Eventually my PHP had improved enough to use it for developing sites so most of my new work was through that. This was also about the time that VirtualBox started up and VMWare's desktop virtualisation was also getting quite usable...
And some bits of Vista were wearing me down and by autumn 2007, I changed my graphics to Nvidia and I was back at square one on my migration to Linux: Compiz blew my socks off. It was another silly "oh noes thaz too pretteh" migration that would have been doomed if it weren't for the pieces that had been put in place over the year:
- My workflow was now nearing platform independence
- I could run 3D things on my computer because I'd ripped out my ATI x800XT
- My mass-storage was still an issue. If I wanted anything from it, I had to boot to windows, copy it onto a non-RAID drive and boot back into Linux...
- I found one application that I realised I kept coming back for: Amarok. It was miles ahead of anything available for Windows
I still missed Windows. Not just the applications but how some things like how the Vista start menu worked, the simplicity of Explorer and the robustness of XP's Solitaire...
But for the things I missed I learned either to fix it (I moved my RAID to mdadm, moved Windows applications to VirtualBox and Wine), put up with it (the gnome menu is still as poor but I only use it now when gnome-do doesn't find something) or go without (there are dozens of games I own but can't play and more that I can play but don't work as well as a native install).
There is still an element of sacrifice if you really use your computer to get things done. Having documented half the pain of migrating over the years, if I could send it all back to myself in mid-2007, I couldn't guarantee I wouldn't just run away.
Solution 2:
As a design professional I can say why I keep getting back to Mac OS for some of my work. Although Ubuntu has some great and powerful graphic design tools (primarily GIMP and Inkscape, which can practically replace Photoshop and Illustrator, and also Blender for 3D work), there are some areas that are still lacking somewhat:
Video editing and post-production. There are some good software packages around (kdenlive, pitivi), but they're nowhere near in terms of capabilities to apps like AfterEffects or Final Cut pro. Multi-comp editing, 3D environment, general operations on objects and cameras, plug-in availability, only to name a few.
Animation. Simply nothing interesting and capable out there (hope someone can prove me wrong!). Blender is great for advanced 3D stuff, but if I need to put together a simple stop motion or line-art animation, I have to go back to Flash, AfterEffects or other tools.
Compatibility. Whether we like it or not, Adobe packages are the industry standard. When collaborating with other designers, there's often no alternative to using AI's, PSD's, etc.
Wondering if other designers working with Ubuntu have similar experience.
Solution 3:
2006: I went back to Windows for my home PC after a stint with Ubuntu because I was mainly using Ubuntu as a media centre, but my specialised wireless mouse (with play/pause/rewind buttons on it) didn't work (without my figuring out how to compile, hack C, and install drivers)