Switching to Linux Full-time
Although I spend at least 90% of my time in Linux, there are a few things that keep me going back to Windows to accomplish. Whether or not these tools are just not sufficient in Linux or that I’m just accustomed to doing these tasks in Windows, I still can’t seem to shake it. The things I’ve encountered that keep me using Windows are:
- Photoshop - I know Gimp 2.0 has brought the Linux world closer to Photoshop (I’ll never understand why Adobe will rewrite for Mac OSX, but not for Linux.), but after 5 years of using Photoshop for web graphics, I find PS easier to use.
- DVD projects - whether burning, duplicating, or editing home videos, I haven’t found many robust tools for doing this in Linux. I’ve heard that Pixar and the like use Linux for their projects, but they must be using their own homegrown products, because Kino is the only thing I’ve seen that comes close to something for the masses. Even something as simple as watching a DVD seems easier in Windows. DVD-ROMs have been around for a while and my 1GHz celeron processor has issues with playing back DVDs. The video is always choppy.
- Office 2003 - I wish that someone would halt the Microsoft redevelopment of Office. Can’t they focus on fixing bugs and creating enhancements rather than rebuilding the damn suite every three years? OpenOffice is a fantastic alternative for MS Office, but I have found a few clients that send me heavily formatted documents created in Office 2003, which don’t fair very well when opened by OpenOffice. Currently OpenOffice supports up to Office XP.
If I can manage to get past these few things, then I think I’m ready for the complete independence from Microsoft. I really have nothing against Microsoft, but I think they should charge less for the bugs they provide us.
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