Ubuntu's Unity Desktop Can Now Run Natively On Windows

[Sonadow]

There is nothing that you can do on Linux that you can't do in Windows just as well if not better.

As a non-gamer, I'll just say that there are some things that can be easily done on Linux which cannot be otherwise carried out on Windows. For example, Microsoft thought that providing very granular file permissions for NTFS was a good idea, but it turned out to be a nightmare. Nothing beats a simple chmod 555 over checking off permission boxes for individual files and praying that they do not end up unexpectedly affecting any parent or child folders.

Also, you can't build a fully running, 64-bit version of VLC on Windows natively; VLC insists that the i686 versions of mingw be used for native compilations, and let's not ignore the fact that msys2, no matter how good it is, is still not a true Linux layer on Windows and will fail to build certain software packages or libraries if compiled using the default autogen.sh, ./configure, make and make install procedure due to differences between it and a real Linux operating system. Even the Windows-native MPC-HC demands that mingw-i686 be used. This applies for many other OSS software out in the wild for Windows as well.

Finally, old drivers may not install in newer versions of Windows if the driver INF file explicitly declares that it's meant to be run only on a specific version (e.g.: NT 6.0) and needs to be quite extensively edited to force an install on newer Windows, sometimes with lots of other issues as well. In addition, Windows 8 and onwards mandate driver signature verification, so you'd need to reboot to the Windows Advanced Recovery mode, disable driver signature verification for that one session just to install the modified driver. Not fun.

But for everything else, Windows just wins hands down. Look at the number of Thunderbird forks out in the wild for Windows with a GUI vastly superior to that of Thunderbird. Even for most OSS software out there, the Windows version always launches and initializes faster than the Linux version. Proprietary hardware drivers often have much more advanced power saving features and functionality compared to the open drivers on Linux, or even their Linux proprietary counterparts. And Windows can even recover from a kernel driver crash, whereas in Linux it brings the whole system down.

[Passso]

Canonical aren't stupid, this is what they want. They specifically don't want to be just another Linux, they want to be the third desktop OS (and also somewhere in the mobile OS arena). Hence the ejection of all the Red Hat sponsored projects they can get away with.

Yes, and they are right. As long as it moves more and more users to Linux systems (and by Linux I do not count ChromeOS) I am fine with it. Every other distro have benefit over it.

[Passso]

This is PROOF that Canonical is sockpuppet of MS. Too much coordination in features, too much money sunk in turd project.

I'm eagerly waiting the time MS will "buy" Canonical and adopt Ubuntu as their new Windows.

Canonical is trying multiple ways to make real money and get their name known. As a "real world" company I think it is natural, but this is the main reason people here do not like them that much. (the 2d is Unity that most hate without even trying it really but this is off-topic)

Mark Shutterworth is convinced that convergence is the key to success and he is right. Anyway because of this strategy Canonical runs into too many battles at the same time considering their size... Can their devs really follow that rythm for years, I seriously doubt about it and now come a lot of delay in their projects.

For the M$ lunch : this would be fun I agree. But I am not waiting it at all. Generally when one day M$ buys something, the next day it dies.

[Mike Frett]

I think Master5000 deleted his post but he/she said "There is nothing that you can do on Linux that you can't do in Windows just as well if not better." So when did Microsoft start allowing you to view/edit the Windows code? What about Privacy, it's pretty darn difficult to hide when the Backdoors are built right in to the OS.

Gaming and the amount of Developers is what Windows wins. Which is really all anyone cares about unfortunately. Even with that you still couldn't pay me to use Windows again. I'll go to my Grave without ever touching another Microsoft product. Unfortunately with Linux, people have the attitude that if you want something then you need to do it yourself; which is why we have so few good Applications. I hope that attitude changes. I'm very thankful for Wine and Developers who take the time to port their App/Game to Linux.

[Passso]

Ubuntu and Microsoft should stop their crap and contribute to Debian xfce testing.
(Sorry guys I miss him)

[devius]

Nothing wrong in that. You are further proof to my point that only people that don't like traditional desktop will use unity.

And by "traditional desktop" you mean the Windows 95 desktop right? Personally I have no problems using Windows 95 style desktop UIs, and I also don't have any problems using more modern desktop UIs, MacOS or whatever it is. I don't like or dislike any of them, I simply adapt to what's in front of me and what I have to use, so I don't get this notion that you have to join a "desktop style team" and bash the other "teams" and you can only pay homage to one of them, and once you do that it automatically means that you hate the alternatives.

Ubuntu and Microsoft should stop their crap and contribute to Debian xfce testing.

OMG, dejá-vu...

[discordian]

Gaming and the amount of Developers is what Windows wins. Which is really all anyone cares about unfortunately. Even with that you still couldn't pay me to use Windows again. I'll go to my Grave without ever touching another Microsoft product. Unfortunately with Linux, people have the attitude that if you want something then you need to do it yourself; which is why we have so few good Applications. I hope that attitude changes. I'm very thankful for Wine and Developers who take the time to port their App/Game to Linux.

Not only that, but if you write something from Linux you will get taught how to "do it right" by the users, be cursed if you dint pick some favorite OS-License and even more so if the App isn`t open source.

And I would go farther than Gaming, because its a real pain to even get videos to play back without tearing. And I really miss is having my TV connected and the Mediaplayer picking the correct display-mode based on the movie (eg. multiple of 24, 25 or 30 Hertz). I hope Wayland will really clean this mess up, I can only stick with Linux for now because I got a PS3 for the rare occasion I got time to play, and the TV can playback most movies from a USB-Stick.

The kernel and services have a solid funding from companies, so you already pay for that indirectly. The desktop portion still has no similar scheme, thus a lack of funding, interest and quality.

[unixfan2001]

Wasn't it OSX? Most of those I know use a MacBook Pro.

Most of the ones I know have Macbook Pros and Macbook Airs. They all either run Mac OS X or a more colourful GNU/Linux distro on them.
Having a banged up Macbook with lots of stickers plastering the Apple logo is actually a rite of passage amongst certain groups of open source developers, regardless of the OS on that machine.

[unixfan2001]

Apple is literally satan, and if their users had any compassion for developers, they would boycott.

They're literally Satan? Really? LITERALLY?
So can we all assume you've caught Tim Cook in the act of donning a red costume accompanied by a pitchfork, roasting people on an open flame?

[Passso]

They're literally Satan? Really? LITERALLY?
So can we all assume you've caught Tim Cook in the act of donning a red costume accompanied by a pitchfork, roasting people on an open flame?

Yes. Adolph Hitler himself was vegan so he used to eat apples alive. Jews were fighting for kasher meat. So the war started and is still running in background.