netstrider

This is an article in Linux Format issue 82. I don't take credit for what is written here. I copied this straight from the magazine I bought. If I'm breaching copyright please remove this thread

What's written below is all Linux Format:

How Linux beats Vista - LXF article.

Windows Vista brings clarity to your world, so you can more safely and easily accomplish everyday tasks and instantly find what you want on your PC. Well, at least that's the line Microsoft is pushing on the world, and if you're already a Windows user it's probably partially true.

But you're reading this magazine precisely because you're not a Windows user, and it won't surprise you to know that many of the "innovative" new features Microsoft is claiming for Vista are already available on Linux. In fact, Linux even has some of the features that were cut from Vista to enable it to be release on time! We all know people still stuck on Microsoft, and many of them are drooling at the thought of a new Windows release.

So this issue we've provided you with some evangelism ammunition to help you show off how iceberg-cool Linux is and convince your Windows-using friends to make the switch. Anyone who sadi that Linux was never going to work on the desktop is about to be proved wrong...

Find files instantly

Users switching from Windows 2000 to Windows XP experienced one of the most pessimistic upgrades of all time: Microsoft renamed the Find menu as 'Search'. We have much sympathy with that - trying to find files you've downloaded or programs you've installed is no easy task on many operating systems, largely thanks to the ever-expanding size of hard disks. But with the launch of Vista, Microsoft promises a breakthrough: Instant Search, an "integrated desktop search" tool. Sound familiar?

On Linux we've become used to an instant search tool of our own: Beavle, which indexes documents, emails, instant messenger conversations, images, music and video files, applications - and even your web history. All this information is then made available through one search window, instantly.

Beagle works by watching your entire filesystem to see when files change. Years ago, this used to be done by a library called libfam (file alteration monitor), which used to say to itself, "hmm... has anything changed in /usr? No? OK. How about now? No? Righto", and so on - for every directory it was watching.

As you can imagine, libfam was not terrible fast, but we now have a solution: Inotify. This is built into the Linux kernel (which is where hard-disk data writing is actually handled), and it simply tells programs when files have changed. This almost no CPU overhead, but it enables Beagle to do a complete system scan of your machine once (when it's firest installed), then just do updates as files change.

Man's best friend

The magic of Beagle is that it doesn't use just filenames to match against your search: instead, it uses smart filters that handle different file types appropriately. FOr example, for an OpenOffice.org document or a PDF, Beagle will read the contents of the document (ie the words you've typed on to the page/spreadsheet/slide). For music, Beagle reads the ID3 tag that contains the artist, album title and other valuable information. For emails, it indexes the body of the email, but also the title and the sender/recipient information. In essence, Beagle reads each file intelligently so that it always gets the most helful data out of it.

Always by your side

Beagle is installed and available by default in bot Fedora Core 5 and SUSE 10.1, and many other distros include it as an option. Even more impressive is the fact that Gnome 2.14 - the desktop environment tahat's used as standard in the three most popular distros - uses Beagle as the back-end search mechanism for the mail explorer, Nautilus.

This new Gnome version is already standard in Fedora 5 and Ubuntu 6.06, which means you can hit Ctrl+F from any Nautilus window (or your desktop) to instantly search your files. Even better, the search will automatically update if a new file is created or if someone sends you a message that matches your search.

Shouldthere be particular searches you find useful, you can turn your results into a virtual folder by saving the search. From then on, you can repeat the search jut by double-clicking the saved search icon you want to view, and it will be updated to reflect any changes from your system. It's superb.

Get gorgeous graphics

One of the most touted new features in Vista is its new 'Aero' graphical user interface, which adds a 3D-like skin to the traditional XP look and feel. It looks nice enough, but doesn't really come close to the hardware-accelerated interface that Mac OS X introduced years ago.

But even if you took the best of Vista and OS X, you're still nowhere near how good Linux looks, thanks to the latest, greatest graphical innovation to date: Xgl.

True 3D , at last

Having been developed and redeveloped for several years now, Xgl at last brings the promise of true hardware-accelerated graphics. Before, drawing all your windows was the responsibility of the CPU, and it took up a fair amount of processing power. With Xgl, the entire process of drawing windows to your screen is done by your graphics card, which makes it a great deal faster. However, it also opens up many possibilities: your graphics card is capable of doing so much more than drawing squares and circles, so why not put it to use?

Xgl takes each window from your desktop and renders them on a polygon like a texture. It then layers them on top of each other in RAM, applying soft drop-shadowing, pixel smoothing and lighting. Each of your virtual desktops are then mapped on to the face of a cube that you can spin around in real time. No more do you see graphical 'tearing' as windows move on your screen; and you can even add effects that make windows wobble as they move around.

No one - and we mean no one - can see Xgl in action and not be impressed. Despite being quite new, Xgl is already more packed with features than a swanky mobile phone straight from Japan.

Always-on desktop widgets

Vista will introduce a new sidebar to handle desktop widgets - usefule little utilities such as calculators, clocks, post-it notes, RSS readers and more. Of course, Linux has had this for years in the form of SuperKaramba - a super-flexible widget system with thousands of pre-made themes available for download. The wide widget selection means there's something for everyone - from the wonderfully useful Liquid Weather tool, which shows the weather in your area for the next week, to the wonderfully useless Doom CPU monitor, which represents the system CPU usage using the face of the Doom here. As your system gets busier , the Doom guy gets angrier. Perhaps that one doesn't have Microsoft worried, but there are dozens of genuinely helpful widgets available at zero cost, giving Linux a firm lead.

What's more, work is already under way to add OS X Dashboard widget compatibility into KDE 4, which would bring hundreds more widgets to the SuperKaramba catalogue.

In the meantime, the best place to look for your widgets is http://www.kde-look.org, which lists widgets by rating and download frequency, with over a thousand to choose from. Be warned, though, it's all too easy to over the top and clog up your desktop!

Instant networking

With Windows Vista, setting up a network between multiiple PCs and devices is simple and intuitive. Well, we've tried it, and remain resolutely not blown away. Linux already has networking functionality, using Apple's Bonjour standard (previously known as both Rendezvous and ZeroConf). This is a network broadcasting system that sends out a general 'hello' to all the devices on a network and waits to hear back. Any other devices running Bonjour programs (including all Macs and Linux boses) then send back a reply to let them know they exist, and devices can automatically configure themselves to talk to each other.

Because Bonjour is really just a network discovery protocol, it can be used in all sorts of applications. The most popular use for it right now is to find shared music on your network. If you're running iTunes on your Mac or Windows computer (iTines is Bonjour enabled), you can select Share My Music. Anyone using a Linux computer on that network will see your music listed in its own music program and they can listen to your tunes.

Bonjour is also popular in the world of instant messaging, as it allows people to from ad hoc communication networks. For example, if you're attending a conference that has an open Wi-Fi connection, you could jump on board and see a list of other people at the conference who are connected to the network. You can then start a chat session - either instant messaging, or voice and video chat - over the internal network.

Using the Linux program iFolder, you can share your files across the network with other people that Bonjour has discovered. Because iFolder works by letting people share a folder on you computer as if it were local, it means that if you or they make any changes to the files in that folder, the changes will be replicated to other people sharing that folder automatically - which is perfect for work-group networking.

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netstrider

Beefy security

When Windows XP was launched in October 2001, Microsoft promised users "increased dependability, usability, security features and communications". In august 2004 Microsoft released "Windows XP Service Pack 2 with advanced Security Technologies". This promised to deliver "the latest security updates and innovations from Microsoft", "strong default security" and "new proactive protection features".

Despite the marketing onslaught, many users still seem to suffer from massive amounts of spyware, adware and viruses, forcing them to purchase protection from the likes of McAfee and symante. So, while here on LXF we like the idea of dual-core CPUs because it means we can allocate a core to SETI@Home, some of our Windows magazine compatriots want dual-core machines just so they can allocate a core to their virus checker.

Microsoft has said that "Windows Vista includes compelling security features that make it even more secure than earlier Windows client operating systems". After the promises they made for XP, it's no surprise that this is starting to sound like a broken record to some people, but this time, Microsoft is introducing the "innovations" of user account control and filesystem encryption.

It's behind you!

Many Windows Xp machines allow any lpgged-in user to install or remove software, or delete files from the hard disk. With Vista, only the administrator user will be able to do those things, and other user are only able to run programs and work with their own files. This sounds like a great idea - so great in fact that Linux has been using it since it was a twinkle in Linus's eye. Yes, indeed: Vista is to have a Unix/Linux-style of user security, which should finally make Windows machines a bit more secure.

The Vista filesystem encryption, named BitLocker, is also hardly new, as Linux has supported volume encryption for years. IF you want to try it out now, you can follow our step-by-step tutorial in LXF80, or just tick the right box when you install your distro - it really is that easy.

In a further leap forward for user security, Vista introduces a firewall for Windows users. Wasn't there a firewall in Windows XP? Well, yes and no: XP had a firewall, but it only filtered incoming traffic. If you had an XP vulnerability that could be attacked remotely, the firewall would stop hackers from exploiting it. But it didn't stop outbound traffic - spyware and other backdoors could still call home without you knowing any better. Windows is finally getting a proper firewall that blocks all unusual traffic.

Of course, Linux has had an industrial-strength firewall for years now, so you'd be forgiven a sense of disbelief that Windows users have lived without it for so long.

Hasta la Vista?

One thing we haven't discussed here is price. With Vista set for launch in January 2007, millions of people who got new computers for Christmas will suddently find themselves having to buy a boxed copy of Windows, probably for the first time. Most people get Windows pre-installed on their computer, and thus never actually see how large the 'Windows tax' is. But this time, users will actually have to fork over their money for the upgrade (estimates range from ₤100 to ₤200) - at which point cost might start to be a concern. But even if Vista came out at an astonishingly low price, could it really compete with the modern Linux desktop? Many of the new features of vista are available on LInux right now, often performing faster (Beagle), looking better (Xgl) or working smarter (Bonjour). What's more, we can expect to see all-new releases of SUSE, Fedora and Ubuntu by the time Vista comes out, bringing with them even more new features.

It's pretty clear: people who have cticised the Linux desktop in the past need to take a fresh look in the light of Vista's new features, because Linux is already light years ahead. The problem Linux has now is just down to marketing: Linux has all the features and ease of use required for a top-end desktop system, it's just that we existing Linux users - all take those features for granted.

Thanks to the increasing size of the Linux desktop market, we're absolutely sure that Vista will be the last Windows to be released into such a large market share. THe next Windows release - which will presumable be unleased around 2012 - will have to fight hard to avoid being the last.

LET'S NOT FORGET

There are many old features in Linux that are only now getting counterparts in Vista. Tabbed browsing in Internet Explorer? Use Firefox. Vector-based rendering for your GUIs? Gnome had that a year ago, with Cairo. Automatic OS updates? Old news - Linux has had that for over five years.

Of course, there are many features of Linux that Vista doesn't have: a filesystem that defrags itself automatically rather than requiring user intervention (this still surprises newbies); virus-proof email clients; built-in virtualisation; a choice of desktop environments: and, of course, hundreds of gigabytes of free software programs that come together in our distros.

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Linux Format Article Ends.

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theLinuxPeasant

Thanks, very informative! I'll show that to some friends who really need to refresh their ideas about their OS.

stubbe

still, windows are dominant, simply because supported by the major softwares. Unless Linux can solve this matter, windows are still the dominant, and most casual linux user still force to use dual boot solutions to use their favorite programs. Yeah sure, so alternatives are out there, but not many people have the time (or perhaps urge) to train themselves with alien softwares. Let alone the first time they move to Linux, they already confronted with hundreds of distros to choose. Wrong choice and they'll said "this linux thing sucks". Not every people have the time to choose one by one.

For enthusiast and special group, Linux sure does great, but for those casual end users, they still would say linux sucks.

Distros derivatives are those which makes me become more and more pesimistic about linux domination in the future. Why not distro developers join forces to combine all the good things and flavors and created one huge standard so that software developers don't get confused?

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bigtomrodney

Linux Format has alway shad great articles. I used to buy it religiously, it was actually how I got my first distro. I only stopped when I got broadband as I could get all the news and distros I wanted faster.

Pretty good article, though under networking I'm surprised they didn't mention Network Manager. That's great for plug and play networking.

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burntfuse

I totally agree with the article, I find it pretty funny looking at all Microsoft's marketing hype - "It's a new way to use your computer! New and innovative features! Everything will be easier and clearer than before!", of course not mentioning that most of the new features come from Linux or OS X.

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felipe1982

BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL! Thanks for typing this up barehanded. Very useful, like other posters, I'm going to mass-e-mail this to everyone I know still on wind[bl]ows.

ps - i don't think its copyright infrigment if you put the authors name on it somewhere! Plus perhaps the page number, and issue number, and perhaps a linky to the magazine's website. I don't know, I just think it subscribes to "fair use policies", n'est pas?

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netstrider

No problem, reading this through again, I notice alot of spelling mistakes but hey I was typing fast and not looking at the screen I think I'll post this at my blog too.

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mahlerfan

Vista hasn't even been released yet, that doesn't seem fair to say haha linux has won yet. Wait until it's released...

... and then declare linux the winner.

burntfuse

The status has been RTM (Released To Manufacturers) since sometime in November according to the Wikipedia article, so AFAIK that should be the final version.

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