quote:

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Originally posted by bennythebear:
i was just wondering why do so many people say linux is better than windows? other than it's free, and most of the software that runs on it is free, and from what i hear it's pretty powerful and has several uses. it just seems to me that windows has it's positive side too. it's very very easy to use, and almost everyone makes software for it. but all that software costs a lot too. anywho...you linux people need to be doing the talking, cause i'm ingorant on it...?

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The way that Linux handles partitions make it more stable and quicker in a lot of instances then Windows, it devides the swap, boot and root partitions so that they are not all running alongside eachother.

I use it mainly because of the flexibility that it gives me, and also for ethical reasons. Why don;t you try it out, whats the worst that can happen? You realise it's a lot better then Windows?

--D-SIPL

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If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that suggests you tried

I had kept hearing about open source and read up on it a bit and was impressed. Free software, collaborated on by anyone, open source, wow. The open source community has put together their own versions of some of the most popular applications including word, excel, CD burning software, financial software, image manipulation, instant messaging, and more -- and they are all completely free. Nothing to buy. There are lots of software packages out there for linux.. pretty much anything you have for windows has been developed for linux. I got everything working within linux that I did in windows with the exception of windows-based games. I didn't use windows for quite a while until I began missing the games... I attempted using wine & winex without much success.

I also like linux because nothing is being shoved down my throat. I have the liberty to get what I want without paying a whole bunch. Check out: http://www.linuxiso.org/ for the most popular versions of linux. I have personally tried Mandrake, Redhat, and Suse which are all pretty user friendly. I have also heard Knoppix is nice because it boots directly from the cd, so it is portable. --havent used it though.

Like D-SIPL said, give it a try. For me, I will never buy windows again.

[This message has been edited by gemein (edited February 11, 2004).]

Mandrake is a very entry level distro, i found it resembles windows to much and didn't give me the overall flexibility i needed. I would say go with Slackware, i've been using it for years now, and the 9.1 release is excellent.

I also use Gentoo, that would be way to hard for a linux n00b to install, but is probably my second fave distro.

To say that linux is better as a server is true, but it is increasingly becoming more appealing on the desktop, i use as a desktop pc more then i do a server.

Anyways, make sure you check out the new 2.6 kernel.

--D-SIPL

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If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that suggests you tried

[This message has been edited by bennythebear (edited February 11, 2004).]

I recently got SuSE - it's my favorite. They have FTP servers where you can get bootable CD and floppy images - the installation is over the Internet, though so you have to have broadband - otherwise, you have to pay for a set of CDs.

The only thing really holding Linux back as a desktop OS is that game developers are still making their games Windows-only . Convincing them to switch from DirectX to SDL & OpenGL isn't easy.

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There are only 10 types of people - those who understand binary, and those who don't.
Switch Mayhem now available! Get it here
Codename: Roler - Writing object code and GUI.

quote:

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Originally posted by bennythebear:
i'll prob'ly try out slackware. anybody know where i can buy the install cd's for cheap? i'm not looking for a boxed set. i'd download it, but not on a 56k, i'm too impatient.

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I would definately develop games on Linux if there was a market for it. I mean the christian game market is a small market, so the christian linux gaming market must be miniscule... maybe just me and you

--D-SIPL

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If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that suggests you tried

(a) programming languages.

I do some programming (not a lot though) and I can get far more programming languages easily and freely for linux than I can for windows. Yes, Cygwin/GCC works in windows, and Yes, Python, Perl etc do too, but linux _feels_ like its made for them, rather than them being "hacks", which is how windows feels for me for doing programming. (Nice subjective reason. I don't trust objectivitiy.)

(b) a decent console!

Oh boy. A decent working fast terminal/console system! Windows DOSbox is pretty horrible. I was brought up on DOS (well, on an amiga originally, but after the poor dear died, I mean), and so consoles seem very natural to me. A BASH/linux console, after I got used to using "ls" rather than "dir" began to grow on me a lot. A good analagy is this: imagine you had been brought up playing a two-octave toy-piano. You liked it, and became quite good with it. Someone brought you a new electonic keyboard!! This one had 2 octaves still, but had nasty rubber keys. Urgh. Yeah, it could play some funky sounds, and yeah, it had some built-in tunes, but.. rubber keys?? urgh!!! One day, you found a grand piano in the upper-loft. Wow!!! Once it was tuned, it took some time to get used to it, but BOY, you never wanted to go back to that ol' two octave again! Kind of like that for me and DOS & Bash.

(c) stability

For me, windows has very bad stability. Many crashes, lock ups, etc. I don't actually mind this _soo_ much. I can cope. I expect computers to have many problems. Linux, however, copes a lot better. Sometimes it is erratic. Sometimes I do get bugs and crashes (I have a _very_ annoying one at the moment which locks up the PC when I quit OpenGL programs. I updated the drivers wrong, I think. I'll fix it soon I hope), but on the whole, it seems better. I can install and uninstall KDE, gnome, X, open-office, etc, and still the system remains reliable. On windows, just installing/uninstalling office can make the system go bezerk!

(d) configure stuff just how i want.

I can try out different window managers and setups very easily (gentoo/portage forever!! unless something better comes up.) to get it set up in a way I can work fast and well. I can also set up my web-browser, applications etc easily and fast. On windows, the users aren't properly serporated, and settings would get muddled between them. Applications could only be installed by the admin user, etc. On linux, some apps can only be installed by root, true. Good. But if you don't run as root, it installs them in your home directory. It doesn't install them on the whole system, but incorrectly, as windows did [i]all the time[/b] for me.

(e) no IE! yes! yes! yes!

I hate internet explorer. Horrible horrible browser. If there is a purgatory (fun discussion) then I will be forced to remain there for thousands of years (no, i'm not a very good person) using IE5.5 on a 486.
The browsers here are better. Not good. But better. The plugins are pest and a half to handle for moz/epiphany/etc. Darn things. But at least no poppups, etc. Yes, I know, I could just use firefly on windows. Or opera. But still IE keeps popping up, and interrupting.

(f) faster.

Minor point. but I can tweak my linux system to be a lot faster and more responsive than windows. Actually, just tweaking it to be faster and more responsive than it was before is pretty satisfying. (Bah. I'm a nerd :-( )

(g) free.

big bonus for me, cheapskate that I am. I have actually brought linux software though. I brought a copy of crossover plugin, at a time when I was needing quicktime a lot, and mplayer wasnt (still isn't imho) up to scratch). Much Much free software here too. programming languages, browsers, games, office suites, graphics, etc. Some of which I had had equivalents to before on windows. Pirated, which I didn't feel happy about. I don't like pirating stuff. I feel its wrong. So to use free stuff it much better.

(h) security.

I keep a moderately secure system here. Not as much as I would do on a production system, but fairly secure. And I don't have to worry about crackers/script-kiddies or viruses. (Yes, I know, it is crackable. Yes, I know, there are exploits. Yes, I know, linux isn't virus proof. But they are all much harder, and much less frequent.)

(i) Source available!

Sooo nice. I can tweak things. Fix occasional bugs that I notice (and which I am capable of fixing! (very small number)). But I can also look at things to see how they are done. Something which appeals to the hacker/progammer/home-educated nature in me.

(j) Free Software

This is different to (g). I like the idea of Free Software (note capitals). I can support it, and the various projects though my use, verbal and moral support, occasional bug-fixes, bug-reports, etc.

(k) Non Microsoft/big-corporations

OK, Yes, I probably am being silly. But I do dislike MS, and all the other big corporations like it. Being able to use something not directly affiliated with any of them is nice. and ...

(l) Real human support!

I have been given much help from various people online with linux, and other linux related things. I have made friends with people through it, and am able to help others. I have had many problems, and have (thought IRC, and other places) been able to get help. Even if the help is only RTFM, at least that tells me there is a FM to read.

(m) Un-usual.

OK, so I try to be a non-conformist. Just Cos I'm no good at it is no reason to say I don't try!

(n) Sad..

Its something to do on saturday nights.

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Well, there are many more reasons. But thats enough for now.

Peace,

Dan

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7 days without prayer makes one weak.

I pretty much agree with Madprof on most parts. I wouldn't trade my xterm with DOS, not on my life.

The portage tree with Gentoo is pretty neat, but not to hard to replicate, we wrote a similar feature for TkLinux (a linux distribution i worked on), not sure why not many other distro;s have this.

Anyways if you love tweaking, building pc's and want to know how one really works get Linux. But remember Linux is not an OS... it's a kernel.

--D-SIPL

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If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that suggests you tried

[erects level 10 force field around self and waits...]

Just kidding. I don't know much about it, but I saw a cover disk distributed version the other day called 'Knoppix' I think, which claimed to run completely from the CD, no install required. Probably has some major disadvantages though.
There just isn't the same Games scene on Linux, so if that's your thing (either creating or playing) it would probably be a tad awkward. I have enough trouble dealing with one OS, let alone trying to use both Linux and Windows.
I may switch over though once Win XP becomes the minimum req for mainstream games, as I've sort of sworn that I'd never upgrade to XP(mainly due to the privacy issues it raises).

(1) as it runs off the CD, you don't get settings saved between boots.
(2) much much slower than installed linux.
(3) not as many applications (but still a lot!)

It also has a program on it (hidden, so newbies don't do anything silly) which allows you to install the system onto your harddrive. I have done this for my dads laptop, as he uses linux, wanted debian (which knoppix is based on) but didn't want the palava of installing debian by hand.

Cheers,

MadProf.

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7 days without prayer makes one weak.

quote:

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Originally posted by madprof:
knoppix is pretty cool. I've used it quite a bit. The disadvantages of it are:

(1) as it runs off the CD, you don't get settings saved between boots.
(2) much much slower than installed linux.
(3) not as many applications (but still a [b]lot!)

It also has a program on it (hidden, so newbies don't do anything silly) which allows you to install the system onto your harddrive. I have done this for my dads laptop, as he uses linux, wanted debian (which knoppix is based on) but didn't want the palava of installing debian by hand.

Cheers,

MadProf.

[/B]

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--D-SIPL

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If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that suggests you tried

[This message has been edited by bennythebear (edited February 13, 2004).]

quote:

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Originally posted by bennythebear:
i understand(mostly) that linux is a kernal. so that would make a distro an operating system? that is, with xwindows, gnome and all the other stuff slapped in there...? anyway. i thought about getting a book on the linux kernel, but i figured about 60% or so would be over my head so it would be kind of pointless. that, and i just want to use it, not compile my own version, and make my own distro...my programming skill consists of being able to make a program in vb6 that keeps popping up the same message box via looping . good to impress your non-computer literate friends, but lacking enough to get made fun of by the real programmers(you guys).

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--D-SIPL

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If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that suggests you tried