I don't get your comment about installing software on linux, though. I'm no expert by any means, but installing software on Ubuntu 9.10 is very simple. You can use Synaptic, but there's Ubuntu Software Center in the Applications directory that's even easier to use. There's thousands of programs available in the repos (although you don't have to stick to them), and I haven't compiled code in quite a while. I refuse to do so. I some program requires compilation, I'll look elsewhere, and can usually find something else similar that doesn't require it.
Yup. I haven't used synaptic in quite a while, but I'm fairly sure it works pretty much like yumex. With yumex, I bring it up, select the software I want to install, (it automatically pulls in the info from the repos), click Apply, and wait a few minutes while it downloads, and installs the software. I don't really see how much easier it could possibly be unless one wants your computer to somehow read your mind. Updates for all installed software is just as easy, if not more so, because it will give you a list of all sofware you have installed that has updates available. You simply tell it to go do it. Most of the time, (unless you do a kernel upgrade), you don't need to do anything at all after the upgrade to pick up the changes. I generally logout and back in if there is a KDE upgrade. I figure for microsoft programs, updating is fairly straightforward if you have auto-updates turned on, but what about all those other programs that have bugfixes/updates/upgrades?
I like the ease of use you find in modern Linux distros.
Thanks for your replies. What i mean is just by Googling i can find multitudes of quality, rated freeware that will run on multiple Windows platforms (esp. XP), and all i need to do is click on the download link run the installer, and it works as advertised with rarely a problem, and the scope of apps range from apps that give extensive info on your system (like SIW) to turning your keyboard into a piano, harpsichord, etc, (KB piano, version 1.2) to video encoders (Super8, etc.) to a better clock (TclockEx) And thank God for both Firefox and OpenOffice which both Windows and Linux can run.
With just Linux, freeware is out there, and you use Synaptic or the like, but can only safely install software from the distro’s repos, which offerings i find quite limited. You can add other repos, refresh Synaptic, and wait for that to finish, but still not get what you are looking for. (That’s why WINE is needed.) You can Google and find more, but we are warned not to install that way, and most, if any, distros do not make it easy to do so. If it could and did, if you could just download applications and run them, that would be a help.
In addition, as mentioned before, for full multi media capability one must buy certain codecs to be legal in the US. Even getting things like Flash to work in some distros can be problematic.
BTW, I have Minime 2010, a version of PC LinuxOS, installed on a hard drive on this PC, which has a 2..8 CPU and 3GB of ram, and a copy of Linux Mint 7 on an older PC (the new version is to slow) and they run work well, except for getting sound and printer to work, and getting full permissions on a drive from another PC.
Rather than dual booting, i install Linux with its GRUB on a separate drive, and use the F8 key option at boot to choose which drive to boot from. I use XP most of the time, but if i had only Vista i might use Linux more. But i thank God for all. And that we are not living in North Korea.