Linux or Windows

Justin Horne said:

Door number 3: Macintosh OS X. don't listen to the rumors, it's great...

Go to www.apple.com/switch and http://www.apple.com/macosx/ to find out more. It truly is great... Apple just released the new iMac, which should do almost anything you want, and it is absolutely amazing:
http://www.apple.com/imac/


Good luck in whatever you choose. I used XP for quite some time, used a friends mac laptop at school, never went back.

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I wouldn't mind trying Mac OSX is only they made it for the X86 and allowed it to dual boot with Windows...

That would be nice for many, i suppose. However, Microsoft makes Virtual PC, which is a full version of windows tha runs on Mac OS X... Interestingly, I think (!!) it's cheaper than the real windows install...

I like windows better. I tried linux but couldn't get it to work right.

Better at What ?

Games: Windows
Network Development: Linux


Id Vote Nither/Both, but there is no option for that

pgp_protector said:

Better at What ?

Games: Windows
Network Development: Linux


Id Vote Nither/Both, but there is no option for that

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Linux you can do some really fun things for instance I could actually listen to teh data flow from my harddrive, Modem, and even my CPU, I simply places a command in linus to direct the data to the sound card and I was listening to it, kinda wierd but you can't do that on windows...

Thing is Linux give teh user more control this can be good and bad for instance you NEVER use IRC when your logged in as root, thre ason is that can be exploited, however with Windows you can be administrator all you want...

Truth be told I actually found it to be fun to compile programs on my computer, I could watch the thing configure itself then I was compiled and install it, I even used a trick in linux to make my dad's shared folder appear as tho it was a part of my harrdrive, and was able to copy all the files over without (visibly) transmitting the files through the network it was just like I was copying the files to another part of the harddrive execpt this was slower

Linux is better in my opinion, because of all this control and fun feature windows altho windows can compete I don't think it's up there yet, I am actually using WIndows simply because of compatibility needs...

AAAA the famous question. I see this question on just about any forum i go on. but i'm gonna answer anyway.

I'm a programmer php/mysql
Linux is by far the more stable secure server platform, i've had a box stay up for more than a 100 days. And thats just me, i've herd of months upoon months without linux servers ever getting reboot.

For desktop i prefer windows becuase it is easier to configure and quite frankly i need my games.

Server = linux
Desktop = windows

Microsoft should stay out of the server market and linux should stay out of the desktop market.

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Linux for me. I'm using Mandrake Linux 10 on my desktop and Slackware Linux 10 on my laptop.

This is really a question for a more experienced computer user forum - like say Geek Culture Forums, or Experts Exchange. Here you will find most people will say Windows is better, since the majority of Computer users find they do not have the time, patience or stickability Linux requires to really appreciate just how much better it really is.

You cannot seriously say there is no support for Linux unless you buy it. No, you don't buy Linux. You either buy a CD-ROM set, which is manufactured, or you buy dedicated support. However, all the upgrades, bug-fixes, support forums, developer communities - they're free.

You will find that Microsoft, intentionally or unintentionally, have crippled their OS with a lot of features that attempt to be helpful to the user and clever, but end up causing crashes, poor performance, and incompatibility issues.
I'm not saying Linux is perfect - far from it. In my opinion, KDE is just as much an abomination as the Windows API is, since it tries to be very clever and helpful, but has very poor documentation, frequent crashes and a plethora of mini applications that do everything, but do it all badly. I am looking forward to getting GNOME 2.8, which looks promising.

The best thing about Linux is the free software ethic it is frequently based on. There are exceptions to this, and even Linus himself did not have this in mind, but the GNU Free Software Foundation and the almost religious teachings of people like Richard Stallman have made this a very good ethically based project.

Being politically correct, we call countries "developing countries", and we should call Linux a developing OS in order to not imply it is trash. There is an awful lot of fantastic work going into software for Linux, and mostly from volunteers. This is an infinitely greater achievement than Windows will ever be.

Microsoft have gained a monopoly over the OS market by exploiting users to make them upgrade both their hardware and software, by releasing easy to use but severely under-developed software, and also try to force people to use patented formats to store their files (e.g. wmv, mp3). The users have embraced this since it is comfortable and they want to conform (pm me if you want a long essay on how I detest the media, society and conformity).

Linux is actually quite easy to learn due to the masses of information people have written, unlike the limited documentation in Windows, on the Microsoft website and in "Windows for Dummies". I would be very happy to help anyone here, though my knowledge is not boundless.

I really must stop myself from giving you reams of information about what the truth is about Linux. I can't even remember what I first intended to say.

A common phrase found on these topics in forums is:
Linux is really bad (replace with any rude word if thou art of that persuasion).
Windows is even worse than that.

Wow, an intelligent life form. We must assimilate you...

innodonni said:

I am looking forward to getting GNOME 2.8, which looks promising.

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I is out
http://www.gnome.org/start/2.8/

MY favorite quotes abot *nix

*nix is user friendly, it's just picky about it's friends

*nix is extremely simple, it just takes a genius to understand it's simplicity

I'd say almost anything is better than Windows.

I wish I could say neither Linux or Windows is better, but I've never tried Linux. However, I can say Windows is a big disappointment. I recommend Mac OS X!

I read this article today, and thought to myself: "Boy, this really sounds like a good summary of the issues in that CF OS poll". So I thought I'd share:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5401661.html
If you don't agree, please just ignore it.

Amanda-Soo said:

I'd say almost anything is better than Windows.

I wish I could say neither Linux or Windows is better, but I've never tried Linux. However, I can say Windows is a big disappointment. I recommend Mac OS X!

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the thing that is going for Mac OS X is that it's based on Freebsd if I'm not mistaken... I haven't used the flavor of unix, but if it's anything like Linux I can say that it's a good start to build an OS on...

Personally I like the Linux OS. It is a robust and flexible environment, much more so than Windows which, instead of making it more flexible, Microsoft is making it less. Unix for example, has a built in script language which, if you know how to use it, runs rings around Windows. It has built in compilers for your own custom programs. It has a way to do everything in the internet, and is not a limited version on the ftp, or other environment altering interfaces. I can easily reconfigure Linux to include new software, hardware. Linux allows me to control everything in the system myself. Windows runs dozens of programs by itself, it does things in the background that you have no idea what it is doing, and then when your system hangs, it makes you wait for it to do that annoying scan.

Windows is for the person who simply wants to be a user, and has no desire to really understand their computer system and environment. It is hard to do many things in Windows. One such thing is to make a simple copy of everything in a directory, that has a certain extension. There are 3 ways but they take much more time that to simply type 'cp *.dat $home/backup'. Further, the Windows environment often tells you it is doing something, or disabling something, but when you begin to check it out MS didn't disable, but simply rerouted so you don't see.

Linux has remained exactly standard for more than a decade, while Windows changes with every release. Making it necessary to relearn some things in each release. I run WIN98, WIN me, WIN2000, WIN XP, LINUX, and UNIX. As a user, Linux screams even on a slow computer (250 mhz) while my 1.4ghz Pentium, doesn't even keep up with its XP environment.

I guess the question of Linux vs Windows is really, are you happy to click a mouse all of the time and never really know what is happening, or would you rather have control over your computer yourself.

I noted some comments above that seem to say Linux can't run Windows programs. There is at least 1 and I think several windows and dos emulator in Linux. These are compatible with almost all Windows programs.

OK... I've been interested for some time, just haven't taken the leap to commit. Have dual booted w98 & w2k in the past, now I run 2k exclusively on my pc and XP on the family puter. Don't want to format the drives, re-install 2k, along with programs (yuck!!!)... can Linux dual boot w/2k pre installed, or do you have to preconfigure a partition first ? I've heard of Knoppix, run from a CD, if you go that route, what about anti-virus precautions ?

Suppose this would be best done with a spare puter devoted to Linux, don't have one at this time unfortunately. Where do you begin ?

rdale04,

{quote} OK... I've been interested for some time, just haven't taken the leap to commit. Have dual booted w98 & w2k in the past, now I run 2k exclusively on my pc and XP on the family puter. Don't want to format the drives, re-install 2k, along with programs (yuck!!!)... can Linux dual boot w/2k pre installed, or do you have to preconfigure a partition first ?Actually depends upon version of Linux. There is a version that runs inside of windows it you like. It is possible with slackware, to image a partition using the built in fdisk function on slackware. I son't recall what that is. I personally use "Partition Magic'. I've heard of Knoppix, run from a CD, if you go that route, what about anti-virus precautions ? Viruses are really minimal in Linux. I have only heard of 1 successful one and that was easily detected. However, you should be able to obtain AV from Norton, McAfee, or some other.

Suppose this would be best done with a spare puter devoted to Linux, don't have one at this time unfortunately. Where do you begin ?Well I began with a dual boot environment in Minix, which was a really early version of what became Linux. If you are really interested in Linux, take a look at my home page. It is in my profile and is my professional site. There is so much Unix/Linux out on the net to read over. [/QUOTE]

I noted some comments above that seem to say Linux can't run Windows programs. There is at least 1 and I think several windows and dos emulator in Linux. These are compatible with almost all Windows programs.

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Wine runs some programs, but not many properly as yet. It is still alpha released software.
Wine-X, Cedega or Trans-gaming provides Direct-X support with Wine, and isn't too bad, but I couldn't get it to work, since I use Debian, and it uses an RPM package format, and my alien package didn't work very well.
Dosemu sounds good, but of course that's just DOS.
You could always run BOCHS or some other PC Emulator to run Windows apps, but that isn't strictly "Windows emulation".

It's amazing that anything works, since this is all free, and was made by volunteers.