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PC - Steam coming to Linux - View Post

thelifatree on 23 April 2010
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Alby_da_Wolf said:
greenmedic88 said:
Alby_da_Wolf said:
greenmedic88 said:
Of course there are people using Linux. The question is what are they using Linux for?

As an end content consumer OS, it's usefulness is still limited relative to Windows or OSX, but it's things like Steam support that can slowly change this.

As for gaming, the Steam content delivery service doesn't = instant availability of all your Windows games on Linux. It's still up to software publishers to add Linux support in addition to ATI and Nvidia to adding regular GPU driver updates.

I almost always use Kubuntu to browse the web and for every serious task. In the past I used Windows for games and to scan images, as my old parallel scanner had only Windows drivers, but now I use it only for games as my current USB scanner has drivers and utilities far better on Linux than on Windows.

I don't need to use another OS to browse the web or scan images.

As for "serious" tasks, virtually all of my productivity is done with Autodesk and Adobe software. Only when both publishers support dual licensing for their productivity apps, would I consider "switching" to Linux. As it is, I'm already a dual platform/OS user between Win7 and OSX 10.6. 

Yes, I know some tasks still require Windows, but for most non specialized users and for programmers not working for them, Linux is already quite complete, with only Windows games still absent or having limited support.

yes, the free software is good.

but linux is a pain in the ass to install for drivers (although its getting better) and sometimes never end up getting things working 100% especially for  laptops.

In Ubuntu 9.10 as I had to change the ALSA Driver, find mp3, VGA, DVD, etc codecs. The Monitor Brightness function, only works in Ubuntu 8.04. And various other problems that occur depending on pc's But I dont want that.
Granted for new users, Linux Mint has all of this.
Also for budget laptops like netbooks flash eats up a lot more CPU on netbooks. And Flash doesn't work smooth on my 2GHZ atom, but it does on windows

I use it for the free software, and not having to buy virus scan, and I eventually got all of the things working besides the monitor brightness, but someone like my mom, I gave her linux, and it was hella confusing for her,  and she has to worry about little things like her nikon camera software etc. So I put windows back.

It's not easy for someone to transition, from windows to linux. And for a lot of people its not worth the time.

Keep in mind, I'm using linux now. So I love it. It's just not for everyone. And you always when you buy things you have to worry about will this product work (Camera Software, VideoSoftware) Will this scanner be a pain in the ass to setup, Or not work (As not all do)