Just on a lark, I decided to drag out my XP disk and install it on my main desktop system. It took quite a while to get all the updates, because many of them were strictly sequential.
Every piece of my hardware works better in XP than in Linux — any Linux. That’s what makes me sick. You and I know it’s because the manufacturers of hardware aren’t exactly friendly with Linux for the most part. Even those who are, and who allow the specs for Open Source developers to write drivers, still can’t solve the problem. The drivers for the most recent distros of Linux don’t work as well. Let’s face it, many Linux drivers are marginal.
For example, the GUI. My monitor gives less flicker, and everything renders quicker. The same Firefox renders every page quicker and with fewer errors (mostly I no longer have missing images, something all too common under Linux). Regardless how I tweaked my X settings, it never looked this clear and sharp.
It reminds me just what a boondoggle we have with the X server architecture for the GUI. It drives me nuts I can’t find a good multi-view desktop driver for XP, and that’s about the only thing X does right. Otherwise, it’s still ten years behind, if not more. That is, ten years behind if one looks at it from the common user’s experience.
That’s what hits me the hardest. If I were a non-techie testing all this out, I would never use Linux. It’s better at some things, without any argument, but those are things I do as a techie, not as an ordinary user. This worries me. When I compare how it works under XP with everything else I’ve tried, I can’t make it work this well under Linux. They don’t care why, they only know it’s not the same.
More: webcam, sound, printer, mouse, power controls… everything works better. My ancient Panasonic KX-P2123 prints so neat and clean, I forgot how bad Epson emulation could be under CUPS. Further, it hasn’t locked up on me as it often did under CUPS. Granted, that may have been an issue with the mobo chipset and the printer port, but I’m using the same BIOS settings and it’s never a hiccup (so far).
This reminds me the one time I loved Linux printing was when you could still get drivers which would print in character mode, instead of graphical rendering. The one time I loved using Linux most was on the commandline, on a laptop too old to run X. It reminds how much I really wish there were a framebuffer interface, a TUI for Linux. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a single developer interested in pursuing that, but I’m not alone in wishing for it.
Now, granted, most people who have messed with Vista would prefer Linux. I suspect Windows 7 will be no better. Still, I am beginning to think I’m going to check out ReactOS and pray it gets solid real soon.
