Does Linux have an Amiga feel?

[psxphill]

Yea. Amiga OS is definitely more like Windows.
It's not always a good thing, since stuff like torrent software or unpackers are easier to get for Linux and are already included with most distros, while Windows/AmigaOS are pretty barebones and leave you with a sense of not knowing what to do.

If you don't know what you're doing then I can't imagine there is any difference between finding utorrent online and installing it than finding where a torrent client is pre-installed on Linux.
 
The only difference is that you have to be more careful when installing Windows software so you don't install hidden extras. If Linux had any meaningful user base then people would be bundling crapware on that too.
 
Linux is ok if you like a challenge & want to "be different".

[psxphill]

and dispense with the constant need for virus protection.

You need virus protection on Linux, there just isn't any.
 
When someone can be bothered to target you then you'll be stuffed.

[psxphill]

Have you ever actually looked inside Windows/MacOSX development? Plenty of 3rd party Windows applications ask for Net 2.0 when Net 4.5 is already installed.

Up until version 3 microsoft kept versions separate so they didn't have to worry about backward compatibility. I believe you can force the app to run on the latest version though, there is a good chance there will be issues though.
 
There are more complaints that they stopped doing this when they got to version 3 than there are about having to install multiple versions.

[psxphill]

At least Linux has a decent terminal, which is more than you can say for Windows. And you can always fall back on old fashioned text mode if your X install breaks.

Windows has a better shell than Linux.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_PowerShell
 

I love linux, runs most windows progs fine, amiga programs with uae fine, dos programs with dosbox fine... And of course any linux app.

Windows has better compatibility with Windows software and can also run any Linux app. http://www.colinux.org/
All with industry wide driver support.

[psxphill]

Why? If you want an OS for an OSs sake than Linux is great, but you might as well use Amiga OS 3.9 in that case. If you want an OS to actually do stuff, you know productive stuff like video editing and music production you're looking at Mac or Windows. Then it's just a preference on the way you do stuff. I like to right click.

Just in case there is some Linux software that you need to run, that hasn't been ported to Windows. I'm not saying I have a need for it, just that you can.
 

But for $30 i upgraded an old XP Tablet PC laptop to Windows 8 and it wipes the floor with previous Ubuntu 9.10 in terms of performance, installation time and 100% working hardware and a gazillion quality software options that a double click of the Install icon will achieve.

And Windows 8.1 preview is currently free, in case anyone wants to try it on their hardware.

[psxphill]

You can get object oriented shells for Unix-y OS's too. Nobody tends to use them because they are generally way too verbose to be worth it compared to the standard shells, so "better" is definitively debatable.
 
Notice how PowerShell syntax has gradually moved towards the brevity of Unix/Linux shells over time..

It's irrelevant whether they are unpopular on Unix-y OS or whether you think they are also taking features from Unixy shells.
 
To me it sounds like Microsoft are the first to produce a shell that has the best bits from all the different shells out there and are pushing to make it the default shell on windows. How is that not a good thing?
 

"I'd love to be able to use a more Amiga-ish OS as my main OS, but before that can happen, either AROS or AmigaOS would need to take a lot *more* stuff from Unix/Linux, or more Amiga-like features would need to be ported to Linux; there's no way I'd be able to go give up all the things I've come to expect in an OS after using Linux."

The irony is that Windows is that OS.

[psxphill]

Eww.. No, it really isn't. Whenever I have to use a Windows box, I am quickly reminded at how much I detest it and feel tied up and limited by the OS instead of empowered by what functionality it makes available to me, and you can still see the heritage of the abominations that were earlier versions of Windows. They can't make Windows into what I described without ripping out large parts of what makes it Windows.

install mingw + msys, no ripping required.
 

Windows aimed for that explicitly in the first case, so things that came so naturally to Linux with its Unix roots, such as the multi-user network based environment, in Windows seems kind of tacked on as an afterthought. Which of course it is.

Windows NT was a new OS written from scratch with multi user networking, started in 1989 and released in 1993. It was never tacked onto anything. The Security in Windows and Active Directory is way better than anything designed for Linux.

[psxphill]

It seems some people are unable to accept that the views and preferences of others are just as valid as their own and resort to insults and threatening behaviour.
 
The word for such people is 'bully' and bullies by their very nature are pathetic cowards.

Yeah, I'm fed up with the Linux bullies.