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stupid avast

Why don't you guys install linux and be done with virusscanners for good?
#32
I grew up as a computer hobbyist in the 90s, back when tinkering with everything to get the computer to do cool things was fun. In the 2000s I taught myself how to be a hardware technician as a hobby. About 6 years ago I tried to convert to Linux. I tried again multiple times since. But every time I do, no matter what distro I try, I run into either some sort of hardware compatibility issue that grinds my life to a halt for days on end troubleshooting it, or find myself spending hours reformatting documents when I take them elsewhere to print (though to be fair, cross-platform documents and such have that issue even between different versions of the same proprietary software).

In the 90s and early 2000s, it was fun tinkering around with configurations and getting into the guts of a computer to see what made it tick and try to get it to do things more efficiently. Today...ain't nobody got time for that. Computers are not a hobby anymore, they are required to function reliably for my daily life, and so until Linux can provide me that experience, Linux is a hobby.
#32
http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/08/hand-of-thief-banking-trojan-doesnt-do-windows-but-it-does-linux/

The long perpetuated myth that "Macs don't get viruses" has finally been put to rest. Virus creators and writers of malware target systems that will net them an effective return. Mac OS X wasn't "secure by default" just because it couldn't execute Windows code natively, it fell victim to malware writers because it finally got popular enough to warrant it being worth their time. Don't delude yourself with the same notion that Linux is invulnerable as well.
I was thinking about mentioning something like that as well, Admiral, but the fact remains that Windows is still the most used OS in the world and has been for so long that there are likely about 1000 malwares for every 10 Mac has and every 1 Linux has. So the odds are a lot lower. Still, it's good to remember that no OS is invulnerable if a hacker wants to compromise it bad enough.
#32: I smell PEBKAC. I've had more issues when using proprietary software than free/libre software.
#36: to each his own. I've had nothing but issues with Linux. I am not a computer programmer, I am an academic. Libreoffice is great, until I try to load a document in Word to print it. GIMP is great, until I need it to do something that it can't do that Photoshop does with ease. I do use a lot of free/libre software even though I'm on Windows. I think a lot of good free/libre software exists. I also had a dual boot on my PC at home before I sold it when I moved to Japan, and I did enjoy using that particular distro of Linux (can't remember which one, but it was fairly streamlined to focus on driver compatibility) and I definitely appreciated having the dual boot in the rare event that I got a piece of malware that was difficult to remove. I also much preferred scripting in Linux when I was actually attempting to teach myself a little. I'm just saying that Linux ain't everyone's cup of tea, and for busy busy people who have to be able to transfer documents across machines and henceforth need comparability, Linux isn't an option since it cannot run that software.

It's also impossible to run any of my entire Steam library in Linux, so there's that, too...
The more "obscure" the OS, the lower chances of being attacked, try Qubes OS for example, or arch linux if you're up for it, those are bound to be safer than ready-made OSs... Ubuntu:BurgerKing::Arch:Subway
I see static_shadow's point. The biggest problem of free software isn't really the featureset, but compatibility with popular software that already exists (which is proprietary).

That said, I must disagree with you on Photoshop. I went to an art school you see, where, paradoxically, I was the only one without talent. Nonetheless, I got to see the way many photographers work. And boy, you can do some amazing things with Photoshop after a few classes in it. However, I would also emphasise that Photoshop is hardly a program most users need. :P The user interface alone tells you it's targeted at serious photographers and really isn't for the average point-and-shoot camera owner to edit their photos. But I agree that there is no replacement; as good as GIMP might be, it doesn't even come close to the capabilities of Photoshop.

For what it's worth, LibreOffice support for Word documents is *immensely* better in the just-released 4.4, but the UI is as awful as ever. I have actually been trained to use Microsoft Office 2007 (its sequels work similarly) and I can't get along with the classic interface paradigm of LO at all, though my dad really likes it. Not to mention its features are quite lacking for economics compared to the MS Office suite. CS students and programmers like to say other wise, but MS Office is still a staple of most workplaces outside the realm of computer science.

As someone who dual-boots (but spends most of his time in Linux), these are the programs I miss most:
* Games (self-explanatory, the AAA offering on Linux is very weak, though it is getting better by leaps and bounds)
* ShareX (open source, believe it or not; it's one of these really polished programs that feels really complete and satisfying to use; shell scripts are not a replacement for it or its awesome components, like Greenshot)
* WinDirStat (actually based on KDirStat for KDE 3... which hasn't been updated since. But it's hands-down the best way to clean up a hard drive. You won't believe how much crap is left behind after a good year of HD usage)
* Microsoft Office (this is slowly being resolved by LibreOffice, but still a-ways to go)

ONE MORE THING (the most IMPORTANT in this post): the "Windows is virus-prone" argument NEVER holds water with me. It is not the reason I switched to Linux. I ran Windows without an anti-virus for years and never had an issue. As long as you're not an idiot and don't download from malware-filled placed, you should be fine. And while Linux is rather more mistake-proof than Windows, it still is mostly vulnerable to how naive the user can be.

If you want to sell someone on Linux, approach it from another angle, because this angle assumes the user is a fool, as far as I'm concerned.

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