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Best Linux of 2012

Ubuntu for me. Gotta be honest though, ever since 64x Win7, I've been using it less all the time. I finally found a Windows I really do like in all regards. Basically at this point I'm just dual booting and using it for sdk related purposes most times.
 
iowabowtech said:
Ubuntu for me. Gotta be honest though, ever since 64x Win7, I've been using it less all the time. I finally found a Windows I really do like in all regards.
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Without hijacking this thread AND starting an OS war, I'm genuinely interested in what you said. As an unabashed, avowed hater of all things micro$oft, it's actually hard for me to imagine them coming up with something that's "liked in all regards."

I don't get how paying through the nose for an OS that you can't even customize--I mean 100% customize, like Linux--can be acceptable. :confused: To say nothing of how limited windows is in general. I'd be lost without the power of the Linux shell, or multiple desktops, or the security of the *nix file system, etc.

So if you're up for explaining, please do! :)
 
moodyblues said:
Without hijacking this thread AND starting an OS war, I'm genuinely interested in what you said. As an unabashed, avowed hater of all things micro$oft, it's actually hard for me to imagine them coming up with something that's "liked in all regards."

I don't get how paying through the nose for an OS that you can't even customize--I mean 100% customize, like Linux--can be acceptable. :confused: To say nothing of how limited windows is in general. I'd be lost without the power of the Linux shell, or multiple desktops, or the security of the *nix file system, etc.

So if you're up for explaining, please do! :)
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I dual-boot Windows and Linux Mint on a couple of laptops. And will explain a couple of reasons why I keep Windows around.

1) Mongolian Script and language. I'm studying and learning this for personal development, and to help me in my job as an English teacher in a Mongolian middle school. Basically support for Mongolian Script in Linux is to put it bluntly, unusable. Namely because there doesn't seem to be support for vertical writing systems. Mongolian is written and read top-to-bottom, like this..
17px-Monggol_bicig.svg.png


2) MS Office. I've often found that the FOSS office suites like LibreOffice don't render mixed language PPT (Chinese & English) presentations correctly, to the extent that it's unusable. I tried running MS Office 2010 under WINE, but it turned out to be a no go.

BTW I'm currently using Linux Mint to make this post. :)
 
Thanks for explaining your reasons, mikedt.

mikedt said:
1) Mongolian Script and language. I'm studying and learning this for personal development, and to help me in my job as an English teacher in a Mongolian middle school. Basically support for Mongolian Script in Linux is to put it bluntly, unusable. Namely because there doesn't seem to be support for vertical writing systems. Mongolian is written and read top-to-bottom, like this..
17px-Monggol_bicig.svg.png


2) MS Office. I've often found that the FOSS office suites like LibreOffice don't render mixed language PPT (Chinese & English) presentations correctly, to the extent that it's unusable.
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Have you made these issues known to the appropriate powers that be? It's user input that gets things added/tweaked/fixed in both Linux and various software applications for Linux. If no one's aware that these specific things are issues, they'll never get fixed.
BTW I'm currently using Linux Mint to make this post. :)
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:D
 
Well when I worked the past two jobs before being laid off both, I was able to get the latest windows & office suite from them. Since then, I have Win7 but haven't used it much. I did need Windows up until around '09, but now don't need it at home on current job.

I recently got a C2D system and did install W7 & Mageia on it but after about 2 months, I've removed W7 and put Salix on it. I also use LibreOffice and have no regrets.

I just don't need a free computer with every new version of Windows to come out!
 
moodyblues said:
Thanks for explaining your reasons, mikedt.


Have you made these issues known to the appropriate powers that be? It's user input that gets things added/tweaked/fixed in both Linux and various software applications for Linux. If no one's aware that these specific things are issues, they'll never get fixed.

:D
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Mind me asking who do I contact for the powers that be? Canonical? Linux Mint devs? Debian Project? Linus Torvalds?

Thing with the Mongolian support, seems there has been some work done on this. There's a distro from Mongolia called Soyombo Mongolian Linux, which is flagged as discontinued by DistroWatch.
DistroWatch.com: Soyombo Mongolian Linux
soyombo.png

I think this concentrated more on Mongolian Cyrillic rather than the traditional script. Mongolian Cyrillic is relic from the Soviet era, but is still widely used in Mongolia, but not Inner Mongolia, China, where I'm living. Linux Mint and Ubuntu both support Mongolian Cyrillic just fine, but not traditional Mongolian Script. Probably would have to find some willing devs that have a working knowledge of Mongolian Script.

The other issue is MS PowerPoint compatibility, which I think is a known issue anyway, and apparently work has been done on it. If I was creating presentations from scratch using say LibreOffice, it wouldn't be a problem. However I download and share a lot of PPTs with other teachers. And everyone is mostly using various versions of Microsoft Office.
 
mikedt said:
Mind me asking who do I contact for the powers that be? Canonical? Linux Mint devs? Debian Project? Linus Torvalds?
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No, not Linus! He's quite busy enough cranking out new kernels and such. :D

But there are bug reporting resources for just about everything. Here are a few, not just for you but for others who may be interested:

Ubuntu bugs
Linux Mint bugs
KDE bugs
GNOME bugs
LibreOffice bugs

As I said before, if no one's aware that there's a particular problem, it'll never get fixed; if no one's aware that something's missing, it'll never get added. So if there's something that doesn't work as you expect, please report it!
 
moodyblues said:
No, not Linus! He's quite busy enough cranking out new kernels and such. :D

But there are bug reporting resources for just about everything. Here are a few, not just for you but for others who may be interested:

Ubuntu bugs
Linux Mint bugs
KDE bugs
GNOME bugs
LibreOffice bugs

As I said before, if no one's aware that there's a particular problem, it'll never get fixed; if no one's aware that something's missing, it'll never get added. So if there's something that doesn't work as you expect, please report it!
Click to expand...

Actually last night I did encounter a bug with the Banshee music manager & media player on Linux Mint not playing music. It's been known for four years.
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=532632
...but was marked as "fixed" two years ago.

Has to do with Banshee's database becoming corrupted or something. Solution is to delete the database and re-import the music library.

I'm currently awaiting membership of Gnome Bugzilla, so I can re-report it with the appropriate terminal logs and version numbers. :)
 
mikedt said:
Actually last night I did encounter a bug with the Banshee music manager & media player on Linux Mint not playing music. It's been known for four years.
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=532632
...but was marked as "fixed" two years ago.

Has to do with Banshee's database becoming corrupted or something. Solution is to delete the database and re-import the music library.

I'm currently awaiting membership of Gnome Bugzilla, so I can re-report it with the appropriate terminal logs and version numbers. :)
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The last time I checked, which was a year or two ago, many of the hard core maintainers were still using the tried-and-true USENET news to deal with things like this. Have you tried combing through the maze of NNTP servers to see if there's a Banshee forum out there?
 
Speed Daemon said:
The last time I checked, which was a year or two ago, many of the hard core maintainers were still using the tried-and-true USENET news to deal with things like this. Have you tried combing through the maze of NNTP servers to see if there's a Banshee forum out there?
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I know about usenet, used to use it quite a bit back in the day. I used to use a paid service, Giganews. Not sure about accessing it now though, apart from subscribing and paying for Giganews again.

Not heard from Bugzilla yet.
 
mikedt said:
I know about usenet, used to use it quite a bit back in the day. I used to use a paid service, Giganews. Not sure about accessing it now though, apart from subscribing and paying for Giganews again.
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Doesn't your ISP include newsgroups? I've had Earthlink for years, and Netcom before Earthlink bought them out, and I've always had access to Usenet, and make good use of it!
 
moodyblues said:
Doesn't your ISP include newsgroups? I've had Earthlink for years, and Netcom before Earthlink bought them out, and I've always had access to Usenet, and make good use of it!
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Nope. I'm sure China Unicom :rolleyes: doesn't do that bastion of unmoderated free speech...usenet. When I was in the UK my ISP then was Telewest then Virgin, they did newsgroups but the service sucked. That's why I subscribed to Giganews, mainly for the binaries.

BTW it's living in China, that made me take a serious interest in using Linux and FOSS more and more.
 
mikedt said:
Nope. I'm sure China Unicom :rolleyes: doesn't do that bastion of unmoderated free speech...usenet.
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Ah! I wasn't even THINKING about the fact you're in China. Oh my goodness. Okay, got it.

But then...I wonder if you'd even be able to access something like Google Groups or Giganews. I mean, doesn't the government pretty much control/censor what people have access to?
 
moodyblues said:
Without hijacking this thread AND starting an OS war, I'm genuinely interested in what you said. As an unabashed, avowed hater of all things micro$oft, it's actually hard for me to imagine them coming up with something that's "liked in all regards."

I don't get how paying through the nose for an OS that you can't even customize--I mean 100% customize, like Linux--can be acceptable. :confused: To say nothing of how limited windows is in general. I'd be lost without the power of the Linux shell, or multiple desktops, or the security of the *nix file system, etc.

So if you're up for explaining, please do! :)
Click to expand...

Sorry, kinda lost track of this thread. I can't imagine buying windows as a standalone purchase, it came preloaded on a new machine I purchased awhile back. I don't need customization beyond what Windows allows I guess. I like to customize my phone like no other but not so much on the PC. Not sure why I don't apply it to both situations but I just don't. :dontknow:
 
iowabowtech said:
Sorry, kinda lost track of this thread. I can't imagine buying windows as a standalone purchase, it came preloaded on a new machine I purchased awhile back. I don't need customization beyond what Windows allows I guess. I like to customize my phone like no other but not so much on the PC. Not sure why I don't apply it to both situations but I just don't. :dontknow:
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A few weeks ago that's exactly what I did, rather than use the pirated hacked copy that came with a Lenovo laptop I bought recently. Did it online with Microsoft UK. As apparently one can't actually buy Windows in China, except when it comes with a new PC.
 
certainly for me it depends on the location of use :p

for those huge servers, I wont go apart from CENT os !
and for Desktop , Debian rocks ! laptop with Ubuntu and Arch to just experiment with !!
 
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