A little more than 2 years ago, I made a switch away from Mac OS X to Ubuntu Linux. Since then, I have used Ubuntu Linux about 98% of the time on my personal and work computers. I still have to support Windows on some computers at work, I kept my Macbook (which rarely got turned on), I kept Windows XP in a virtual machine (which I need about once a month) and of course all my friends and family still call me with Windows and Mac problems.
Today, I want to revisit the article I wrote 2 years ago about 10 things I missed when switching from OS X to Ubuntu. There have been 5 major Ubuntu upgrades since I wrote my original article, have things changed that much? Do I still miss the things I missed back then? Let’s look at each point again, and see how things have changed.
1. Dashboard 
– No longer missed
When I first switched to Ubuntu, I really missed the OS X Dashboard feature. Most of all, I missed being able to open the Dashboard and quickly check the weather, see the calendar, and check the time in multiple time zones. I tried many different widget systems on Ubuntu, but found them all clumsy and unusable. Perhaps there are some out there now that are great, I don’t know, because I don’t even want a Dashboard any more!
At some point, Gnome added the weather and multiple time zones to the standard clock panel widget. This allows me to always see the full date, time, and weather conditions in the top-right corner of my desktop. If I click on the date, I’m presented with a calendar, events from Evolution or Google Galendar, and the time and weather conditions in any city that I’ve added to my list. This is far more convenient than pushing F12 all the time on the Mac and waiting for the Dashboard to appear. Of course, the dashboard can do much more than this, but for my needs, Gnome panel widgets do everything I want.
2. Quicksilver 
– No longer missed
I still love Quicksilver on the Mac for quickly launching apps and doing repetitive tasks. I can’t use OS X without Quicksilver because digging through the Finder to launch something like the Activity Monitor drives me nuts.
Since I wrote my original article, we’ve seen the major improvements in Gnome Do. It’s now a great replacement for Quicksilver. The thing I find most interesting, however, is that I almost never find myself using Gnome Do. I think this is because it’s so much easier to launch programs from the Applications menu or the Gnome Panel that I simply do not need another application launcher for Ubuntu.
3. Adium 
– No longer missed
I still think that Adium is one of the best chat clients I’ve ever used. It’s functional, beautiful and the best chat client on OS X. But I no longer miss Adium when using Ubuntu. Not long after I wrote my first article, GAIM was renamed to Pidgin and along with the renaming came a load of improvements, including a much better looking interface. Today’s Pidgin and Adium aren’t really that different form each other, they look different, but act basically the same. Unfortunately, Ubuntu no longer includes Pidgin by default, but it’s super easy to install.
4. Professional Graphics Software 
– Still very much missed!
The lack of professional grade graphics software for Linux is still a huge problem. I’m even more convinced of this today than I was 2 years ago. I actually forced myself to use only Ubuntu and open source graphics programs when working on 2 major projects. Did I succeed, yes! … but the process was extremely painful.
First, there was the pain of learning GIMP. From a technical point of view, the GIMP might be just fine, but from an end user point of view, it’s simply horrible. I was able to make it work, and I was able to complete my work, but the end result left me feeling disgruntled and I feel that my projects suffered as well. I used other programs too, such as Inkscape, and generally found them acceptable, but I still kept wishing that I had access to Adobe Fireworks or Photoshop.
5. TextMate 
– No longer missed
Vim: The Free Man’s TextMate
I still spend a lot of time working in a text editor. I got hooked on using TextMate for my web and Ruby on Rails work. It seems like all the cool Rails developers use TextMate exclusively, but we’re starting to see a shift from that. I see more and more people talking about using Vim for their coding projects.
Thanks to this great article, I discovered that I could do almost everything I want right in Vim and a Terminal window. I now have a set of Vim configuration files that I can use on any system (even on Mac and Windows) that have everything set up just how I want it. I love it and I’d never go back to TextMate!
6. Dictionary 
– Still missed
Mac OS has a great built-in dictionary application. I used to find myself using it all the time. It has high quality entries are from the Oxford American Dictionary.
On Ubuntu, there is a dictionary application installed by default, but it can only look up words in free dictionaries (results and quality vary). This means that you must be online to look up a word, which can be a real bummer.
I’ve also played around with other dictionary programs like StarDict. Unfortunately, I found them rather unusable and they generally don’t “just work.” I personally think that a high-quality dictionary program for Ubuntu is needed. I’d even be willing to pay for something, especially if it can give me multi-language translations.
7. Quicktime 
– No longer missed
When I was first moving to Ubuntu, playing media files was a really big problem. The codecs and players that were available at the time were very unreliable, they often crashed, didn’t work properly and sometimes didn’t work at all. I found this extremely annoying. It was also difficult to install the necessary codecs.
All this has changed now. Playing media files on Ubuntu is a breeze. The media player will automatically find and install any needed codecs, and it plays just about any file you throw at it. In fact, I can’t remember the last time that a media file didn’t “just work” in Ubuntu. The Linux community and the Ubuntu team have done a superb job of making media files work – way to go guys!
8. Bluetooth Support and Syncing 
– No longer missed
Much like the situation with media files, Ubuntu 7.04 did not do a good job with Bluetooth. The latest versions of Ubuntu, however, are pretty good at working with Bluetooth devices. It’s now trivial to connect a Bluetooth enabled phone to your computer, transfer files, etc. There may still be some ways to make Bluetooth better on Ubuntu, but I can’t think of any, it just works now, and I think that’s great!
9. System-wide spell checking – Still would be nice, but not missed
I can’t say that I miss this feature on a daily basis, but it still would be nice to have.
Mac OS X has system-wide spell checking for all Cocoa based apps. This means you can have just about everything you type into your Mac spell checked. This unified system means that you only have to train one dictionary with your new words.
Of course there is spell checking in almost every Ubuntu application, but each one has its own system. You need to train the dictionaries for each app and get used to each system’s little quirks. Hopefully, someone out there is working on a system-wide spell checking framework for Linux.
10. Smart Trackpad – Still would be nice, but not missed
When making the switch to Ubuntu, the trackpad settings (from 7.04) really drove me nuts. I had all kinds of problems with the trackpad not being shut off when typing, and missed some of the fancy trackpad features in OS X. In general, I don’t like using trackpads and prefer using a mouse, but when using a trackpad on Ubuntu, I can say for sure that things have gotten better. Things have also changed in the OS X world of trackpads (multi touch, etc). I still consider Linux to be behind Apple in trackpad technology, but I don’t miss any of those features any more.
Conclusion
I have to say that over the last couple of years, I’ve really come to love Ubuntu. Until recently, I rarely felt the need to go back to Windows or OS X (I’ll tell you more about that in another blog post). I’ve been generally pleased with each new release of Ubuntu and enjoy seeing the incremental improvements. Ubuntu has come an unbelievable way since I first tried it almost 5 years ago. I think the future is bright for Ubuntu and Linux in general … but there’s still a long way to go!
What are some things that you miss from Windows or Mac when you’re using Ubuntu? Share your ideas in the comments below!
Hey! Just thought I would let you know of a couple dictionary programs for Ubuntu. One is called Artha and it allows you to highlight a word and press CTRL+ALT+W and it will lookup the word and show the definition in a notification window. There is also another one called Goldendict as well.
Also in the mouse options there is an option to use two fingers with your trackpad but it only works with certain touchpads.
Actually, there is a system-wide spell-checking framework built in to Linux. The problem is that several cross-platform applications that are popular on Linux, including Vim, which you mentioned you use, have their own spell checkers. This includes Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice.org. Being cross-platform, they cannot rely on a system spell checker being present on every system supported. On Ubuntu, aspell is the default spell checker. If you see spell checking features in applications that run primarily on Linux, they are taking advantage of the system spell checker. Gedit is one example. But, if you were accustomed to using these applications on OS X or Windows, the same problem exists with them on those platforms.
“I tried many different widget systems on Ubuntu, but found them all clumsy and unusable.”
Strange … Desklets works great for me.
1. The most annoying is I can’t tile windows like in Windows: right click on task bar and select Tile Windows Horizontally and Tile Windows Vertically.
2. I can drag and drop shortcut to Start | Programs | Startup menu in Windows and application starts on booting.
3. Installing new version of application when it arrives. For example Firefox 3.6 got released I just downloaded Firefox from web page on Windows. I know I can do the same for Ubuntu, but correct way is to include it from software source. It is quite a challenge to find correct/working fine PPA and include it in software list. This should be way more easy. The same for OpenOffice 3.2. Adding new software when it is released should be more simple.
4. Sound system. I have an old computer that was working fine in Windows, but I can’t managed to make sound work on Ubuntu. I have read dozen of step-by-step tutorials how to check what is wrong, but was unable to solve the problem. So what is needed is one good diagnostic tool or even better make sound system “just-work”. On Windows I just download audio driver and install.
5. Sometimes there is need to install some Windows application in Ubuntu, I don’t talk about Office tools, but some mini tool/program that is not available in Ubuntu and contacting developer and get response that he/she will not port the application to Linux because of lack of time/interest/knowledge/technology it is made in, so I can get a nightmare using Wine, never ending loops of installing additional software that is required to my little program to work. In the end there are many times I just don’t bother anymore and just use Windows for that purpose. Wine should become easier to use. It should tell you what kind of software is required to install or something like that.
6. On Windows installing programs is one way (not the best one but it is working): download and install. On Ubuntu there are tens of application to do the job: Ubuntu Software Center, Synaptic, apt-get, aptitude etc. There is also multiple ways of cleaning like: Computer Janitor (badly designed and dangerous to use – can easily remove needed application), other tools I have written in install, then apt-get autoclean, apt-get autoremove and also using BleachBit application to really clean up. I think Ubuntu needs one powerful application for install and remove/cleans.
Here is the instruction on installing Photoshop CS4 for Ubuntu: http://www.junauza.com/2010/02/how-to-install-adobe-photoshop-on.html
The instruction is for the Windows version of Adobe though, of course.
I configure my Gimp interface to look similar to Photoshop. You have to tweak all the little settings to make it usable, such as turning off “Layer Boundary”.
Good OCR programs are missing from Linux, I have to install ones using wine. That is the major thing for me, other then that it is all good & Linux has been my only operating system since 2004.
According to the Wikipedia article on the GIMP, there are plans to make the GIMP into a single-window interface program. Hopefully this will bring the GIMP closer to the usability levels of Photoshop. That said, I’m personally more used to the GIMP than I am Photoshop, since I can’t afford the latter. LOL
I have dumped windows for Ubuntu. (BSD and security problems, plus built in spy-ware etc).
The two things I really miss?
Simple install for programs. (If included in the ‘approved applications… not a problem)
The utter miasma of ‘how to load’ tar, bz. wxyz and other who gives a… which don’t work since the (second problem) the documentation is incorrectly written.
Documentation has been the worst problem. When seeking or reading the answers in the help forums, I find almost NO ONE in the forums reads the question asked and tries to answer THAT question… They answer with statements that only answer what they would rather have had the question to be. I gave up on the Ubuntu help pages…
The other is worse. The documentation standards for Linux and Ubuntu are abysmal.
Geeks and Nerds (I am one of them with a sometimes slight difference) do not generally know how to reduce instructions the least common level for clarity. most never write for anyone but themselves to read. They know all the things in their head, and since they know what is in their heads, they never include those steps in their instructions. Or, if mentioned, you get statements like… “Use the frimfram steps here.”…
Usually what I am trying to find are the “friggin’ frimfram procedures” in the first place!!!! Does anyone include it? NO…
Too much is assumed to be known by everyone, when only the few super-geeks involved in the specific problem all know the procedure… but, not the ones the instructions are supposed to be written for (the ones seeking the information.}
This problem carries through to 99% (slight exaggeration) of instructions. (99.9% of explanations in the forums… and I don’t think I am exaggerating by much … I could be off by a small decimal of the fractions)
There are a few really good documentation experts in Ubuntu. There are a few programmers with systems not on the approved Ubuntu load lists that actually write descent instructions for loading their software. The problem is, they are so much of the exception to the general rules, that for those that do not already know the frimfram steps that they went to the instructions for, discouragement follows, and follows and follows.
The problem is hardly getting better…
Slow improvement, is not what I call getting better.
One last note, and this is not just Ubuntu or Linux… But so many software packages are only written for 32 bit stone age systems… and the doubly frimfram set-ups to load them are only insult to injury.
Adobe, for one, has ‘partnered’ with Ubuntu on their stuff… with only buried ways of loading their ’still’ 32-bit software (64 bit is now in Alpha… if you can find the secrets to loading it.) It does have troubles loading correctly often enough to cause a slight irritation… (as in wrong architure not i386 type messages…)
(I do use Ubuntu Tweak, Ultamatix and Quickstart to get around some of these problems…)
I switched from Windows Vista to Ubuntu about a year ago now…
What I miss:
Being able to easily install just about any game.
What I don’t miss:
EVERYTHING else. I really love Ubuntu and you couldn’t pay me enough to every switch back to Windows or switch to using a Mac OS.
> I actually forced myself to use only Ubuntu and open source graphics programs when working on 2 major projects.
I think it’s unfair to cripple Linux in this way and then say it is the fault of Linux/Ubuntu. Fact is, Photoshop is available and one of the great things about Linux is that it can still run many Windows apps via Wine such as Photoshop. What are you testing here, Ubuntu or the open source community? If you limited yourself to only using open source on OSX then this would be a fair comparison, but it not the way you did it and is quite misleading. Just FYI
Gerry,
I can see your point about Photoshop. I guess I was trying to use Ubuntu and native Linux apps only. There still is not a native version of Photoshop or Fireworks for Linux (which there is for Windows and OS X). You’re right, the Mac doesn’t come with Photoshop, so it’s a bit unfair to compare them this way. You can, however, buy a licensed and fully supported version of the Adobe graphics programs for a Mac, something that you can’t do for Linux. This is a huge problem that needs to be solved (one way or another).
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I have never used the Mac and I keep getting people telling me to use the Mac.
The myths and bias against Linux (including Ubuntu of course) is so strong that even the top IT member of staff in our organization says Linux is ok for servers but miserable on the desktop. I’m pretty sure that he hasn’t given Linux or any of the other distros a chance in recent times and have not yet to this day despite my suggesting he try.
About six month ago I switched from Ubuntu to OSX (well, I bought a MBPro) and I don’t really miss anything from Ubuntu.
the old rang said: “(64 bit is now in Alpha… if you can find the secrets to loading it.)”
It may be alpha, but works great. Just unpack it, and put the resulting libflashplayer.so file into /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins or ~/.mozilla/plugins is that really so hard? Anyone in the forums can tell you that “secret”. Plus, it even says how on the adobe site.
I am using Ubuntu on an old computer – everything is all right. I never saw a mac. Does anyone a spare mac to donate? Thank you.
I think you haven’t tried stardict. It’s way better than mac dictionary.
I use stardict at work all the time. It’s a nice program, it’s the definitions that stink.
UBUNTU + ADOBE PRODUCTS = perfect OSworld
http://bigbrovar.aoizora.org/index.php/2010/02/27/a-for-artha-the-awesome-offline-dictionary-for-linux/
What about OS X’s Spotlight and related commandline utilities like mdfind? Really useful. The Gnome file finder GUI is pretty nice, but it doesn’t have the metadata support that Spotlight does.
I miss my anti-virus program in Windows….
try linux mint for that