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It might sound
by Ben on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @04:57

It might sound strange but Windows is like television. So many of my friends including myself don't miss a TV set anymore. Unthinkable 12 years ago.

Apple is gaining market share, Vista does not really sell... Even Windows applications start to work out of the box with wine.

Windows is a large plattform with many developers and many users. KDE on Windows will be another step to get the choice of your OS irrelevant for most of the users. Most applications I used on Windows were free: firefox, thunderbird, azureus, freemind... They run out of the box on Linux as well.

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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whomever posted them.
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Re: It might sound
by Raphael Emportu on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @05:36

What do you mean? They run out of the box on Linux as well. Are you for real?

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Re: It might sound
by Ian Monroe on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @07:38

He means all those apps he listed run fine on Linux.

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Re: It might sound
by Soap on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @10:31

I miss the days of excessive packaging for software.

So when I install anything, I first make installation CDs, 3.5" floppies, and 5-1/4" floppies, then I print out all the documentation in a non-standard form factor, and spiral bind it (or put it in custom made 3-ring binders). Then I create some simple box art, print it on a piece of paper that wraps around a cardboard box with corrugated inserts for strengthening. The installation media goes in the cardboard box with the documentation, and all that goes on the shelf to collect dust.

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Re: It might sound
by kwilliam on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @10:57

Lol, that made my day. I think my favorite thing about switching to Linux was realizing that software could be installed by simply checking checkboxes in Synaptic... and if I didn't like it, I could UNinstall it by just unchecking those checkboxes! ('Course, now I do that with apt-get in Yakuake.) Trying new software and uninstalling it in less than 5 minutes - it was unreal! Installing software on Windows requires going through a bunch of "Next" buttons and giant splash screens that take up time, and uninstalling software from Windows was a dark art. (Sometimes programs left registry entries that caused trouble, or even left their Start Menu entries resulting in broken links.) Installing Software... now there's something where Linux really beats the Windows experience.

Assuming the program you want is in your repository... the playing field begins to even when you have to compile stuff yourself. :-/

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Re: It might sound
by Wyatt on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @14:52

"...the playing field begins to even when you have to compile stuff yourself. :-/"

I'm a Gentoo user, you insensitive clod! ;)

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Re: It might sound
by Michael on Monday 04/Feb/2008, @00:23

IMHO compiling yourself is overrated:

1) Debian based distros (Ubuntu) have a far larger repository than i.e SuSE
2) Quite often ./configure && make will already compile it. For KDE apps ./configure --prefix=`kde-config --prefix` && make
3) You can use "checkinstall" instead of "make install" to generate a package.
4) Now, uninstalling works like with any other package.

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Re: It might sound
by Santa Claus on Monday 04/Feb/2008, @15:24

First of all you mean e.g. not i.e., and SUSE as SuSE is the old way :)

Yeah Debian's is bigger, but don't underestimate SUSE's repository it's been growing a lot since things became much more open after Novell took over. It's pretty amazing. Check these out: http://en.opensuse.org/Additional_YaST_Package_Repositories

The new 1 click install from SUSE is also pretty neat for things like "Codec Packs" or "KDE4".

You make compiling sound easy. But even if the compilation process is easy you need the appropriate development tools for it to compile (sometimes that's plenty) so you have to get and install them, and you also need to track and install all the dependencies for the compilation to be successful. Same if you want to use checkinstall.

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Re: It might sound
by linuxaddict on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @10:55

Microsoft evidently doesn't think much of Vista, either. I read an article yesterday that said Microsoft is trying to fast-track Vista's replacement, which is not due out until the end of 2009!

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Re: It might sound
by SMB on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @12:05

They 'fast tracked' 2000's desktop replacement, and then XP's replacement as well, did MS have no faith in those products either? Remember, Vista was originally a minor upgrade to XP planned for 2003. Oh my, that timeline seems familiar. 2001->2003 = 2007->2009.

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