Linux or Windows

Taking a baby step here... I'm on Knoppix, running from a CD right now. Gotta say, it's pretty cool !!!

OK, now I'm really interested...

rdale04 said:

Taking a baby step here... I'm on Knoppix, running from a CD right now. Gotta say, it's pretty cool !!!

OK, now I'm really interested...

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More power to you friend. Be careful when doing the drive partition and all will be fine. BTW, if your running XP you may wish to think twice on any dual boot features. Word is, that XP is very unfriendly toward sharing a machine.

FreeBSD was missing... the grandfather of Linux in a manner of speaking. Nothing against Linux, but BSD is just that much more stable, secure, etc. I like their development philosophy too.

Windows is good for gaming at this stage... I dual-boot my PC at home. WinXP Pro and FreeBSD 5.2.1...

I'd have to agree with freebsd, Unfortuantly i havnt had time to actually learn it or use it.

however it is a more core unix plat form thus more stable. Again, i think it is good for servers but not the desktop. I can see how linux desktops are great for movies, thus development as i've used for it several times, as a student i find my self without alot of time to command line stuff for installs and what not.

Raithlin said:

FreeBSD was missing... the grandfather of Linux in a manner of speaking. Nothing against Linux, but BSD is just that much more stable, secure, etc. I like their development philosophy too.

Windows is good for gaming at this stage... I dual-boot my PC at home. WinXP Pro and FreeBSD 5.2.1...

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I think if you research you'll find that MINIX is the grandfather, while the daddy would be FreeBSD. Just a note to keep us 'honest'.

If you are dual booting XP and FreeBSD, I would like details on how you managed it. I've been looking at this for a few months off and on, so any light you have on this would be greatly appreciated.

i hate m$...with a deep burning passion for not leaving us gamers/movie watchers/music listeners/skin lovers/irc freaks/theme'rs (taskbar and more)/cd/dvd rippers/emulation software users/cd burners/old people who dont have good memory for console commands/WHATEVER for screwing us over with but one choice....m$ itself.

lindows/linux are just too hard to learn for most people...and i dont mean 'most teenage/younger ppl' i mean people from just using the computer for the first time to so old it takes 20 mins to get from across the room to seated at the computer.

m$ window$ makes it simple to learn/use. if linux could do all that and you could teach any age, and virtually any person, i'd GLADLY go for linux.

in short: this is like the presidential election, both parties stink...and the third party, lindows's voice isn't even heard much.

but eh, what do i know...i'm just a 19 year old kid posting on some forums late at night....

jangnim said:

I think if you research you'll find that MINIX is the grandfather, while the daddy would be FreeBSD. Just a note to keep us 'honest'.

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Good point.

jangnim said:

If you are dual booting XP and FreeBSD, I would like details on how you managed it. I've been looking at this for a few months off and on, so any light you have on this would be greatly appreciated.

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I installed XP on a vanilla system, then installed BSD, and chose to use the BSD Boot manager. I have also successfully used BootMagic before.

As a preface to the rest of you, please forgive my pro-linux rant. This is a hot subject in the computer industry even today.

weeeeeee said:

i hate m$...with a deep burning passion for not leaving us gamers/movie watchers/music listeners/skin lovers/irc freaks/theme'rs (taskbar and more)/cd/dvd rippers/emulation software users/cd burners/old people who dont have good memory for console commands/WHATEVER for screwing us over with but one choice....m$ itself.

lindows/linux are just too hard to learn for most people...and i dont mean 'most teenage/younger ppl' i mean people from just using the computer for the first time to so old it takes 20 mins to get from across the room to seated at the computer.

m$ window$ makes it simple to learn/use. if linux could do all that and you could teach any age, and virtually any person, i'd GLADLY go for linux.

in short: this is like the presidential election, both parties stink...and the third party, lindows's voice isn't even heard much.

but eh, what do i know...i'm just a 19 year old kid posting on some forums late at night....

Click to expand...

Install the X-window environment to your linux box. Works similar to MS Windows. Using the wine emulator, or with a third party install, you can even use MS-Win. In reality there are very few really old folks using computers much.

I'm 49+ and I can use Unix. It makes me question what you really know. You seem to be into "hacking" from your language, but your statements point toward a lack of knowledge.

You say the learning curve is too long for linux, okay you have that point. However, I learned the basics of unix in 3 days, and actually was using the product full bore in 3 months. It is simply so configurable.

If you hate MS so very much, buy a MAC. Interface is similar and MS doesn't own it. Has the ability to do most stuff you do in WIN, even emulates WIN.

In point of fact, guess where the idea for MS-WIN came from. They took it from the xerox -os. MS wouldn't know an original idea if it slapped them in the face. All they do is take others ideas and make them theirs, what lamers. If they can't buy it they simply reinvent it.

You say you have no choices, but this is the very thing that has put MS where it is. If you would take the time to learn it, and find out what you are bashing instead of listening to somebody else, you would find linux to be much more stable, much better as an OS, with many less privacy invasions. WIN has backdoors to track your activities, and many other "features" put there specifically to hog up your harddrive. Gates made a deal with virtually every PC manufacturer that Windows would be installed. He makes money on every computer sale. If you don't want that, you have to make a change. If everyone became aware of the junk they do, it wouldn't take long to replace WIN.

gamers - statistically, PC games are on the way out. Game consoles are much better for the games, graphics and speed are both much improved.

movie watchers - MAC and linux both have movie viewers available.

music listeners - Ipod and Apple are commonly available. If you mean CDs, you can play music in linux too.

skin lovers - you can customize X-window to be whatever you want.

irc freaks - freaking of any kind is a form of hacking. irc is a linux/unix command. If you use any of the available exploeres, you can do this in linux.

theme'rs (taskbar and more) - again, you can customize X-window

cd/dvd rippers - should not be legal. if you want it, buy it. stealing it is a shameful thing.

emulation software users - I'm not sure what you are in need of emulating. If you mean to play your gameboy games or whatever, okay this is one I don't think linux does yet. However, if you are looking to emulate other OS's this could be accomplished in linux, however it is really not efficient. If you want terminal emulation, there are several telnets available in linux.

cd burners - linux supports some of these

The reality is that MS had made it easy for you to become their slave. They market, linux doesn't. They force others to sell their product inside of a PC package. Linux is there if you want alternatives. They make money on every single PC sale. Linux is free to download, or you may purchase the CDs. Windows cost a hundred dollars or more, Linux cds cost about $30. MS locks people into there product, by forcing the software vendors into very tightly controlled agreements. Usually they won't let you market to other platforms, at least for a while. So if you want MS, go for it, but the real alternative is out there, and much more stable than WIN. You can start Linux up and leave it run. WIN needs to be rebooted every few days or it becomes unstable.

Now don't get me wrong here. I am entering this on a Windows box( I too am a slave to MS). Linux has its limitations. However, for the person who wants speed, stability, and control, Linux is the tool. Windows is constantly accessing your harddrive. What is it doing? Who knows! Linux only does what you tell it to do. No guessing there.

Hi,

I've got 2 boxes to play with at the moment, both recently purchased.

I thought I'd try Linux and bought myself a second user pentium 3 box which I put Mandrake 10 on. Cost about £100 once I'd added some bits (CD burner mainly).

My mother has a new pentium 4 laptop running Windows XP pro. Cost just (only just) under £1000.

I'm not fully familar with either system yet (my previous was Win 95) but here's my impression as a new (non-technical) user of both:

They seem equally capable, though the Linux box appears slightly faster (despite the older processor and less memory) Both have certain things (not the same) that I haven't got to work yet. I don't find the Linux system much more difficult to use (I'm using KDE, though I've also tried GNOME).

I find OpenOffice very similar to my old MSOffice97 , though perhaps not as good as the new MSOffice. I do transfer files to work (MS Office) and it usually works if I remember to save in an MS format.

Windows XP is slightly better than Mandrake LInux 10, but it's certainly not 10X better. Linux does all I want and as I get more familar with it I keep finding new advantages. I think I'll be sticking with Linux.

The only worry I do have is that the things I can't get to work on the Linux are security related. The built-in firewall didn't seem to do anything, so I've downloaded "firestarter" which seems to work, it records hits anyway. I've got F-prot antivirus installed, but I can't seem to get that to do anything. I know I don't need Anti-Virus much on Linux, but I'm expecting that to change as the platform becomes more popular. The Windows system has McAfee, which seems to work but costs.

Yours in Christ,

Roy

Linux i think,

I like Lindows (Linspire) better than Windows after playing around
with a Lindows bootable CD, it looks better is easy and more logical.
They have all apps i must have, when they do a photo manip Linux app with
4 color CMYK I'll dump WinXP,
for games i don't use PC, Xbox games look better
FF

I voted for ~> Microsoft Windows



*Because I am not familier with Linux at all. I use Windows XP.


Blessings, \o/

KristiAnn
MsGuidedAngel

jangnim said:

More power to you friend. Be careful when doing the drive partition and all will be fine. BTW, if your running XP you may wish to think twice on any dual boot features. Word is, that XP is very unfriendly toward sharing a machine.

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Hi jangnim,
Before installing SuSE 9.1, I dug around a little. Changing the hard drive access in the BIOS from "Auto" to "Large" solves most of the problems. By default mine was set to Auto, easy fix. Also installed it to it's own drive that I pre-partitioned for the swap drive.

Later this week, or by the weekend I "have" to install it on the family XP machine by popular demand, everyone loves it. When it's on, I'll let ya know how it went, as there is only one hard drive on it.

Ya might find some more info here :
http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/index.php?showtopic=6902



-------->>> Edit <<<-----------

Had time to install SuSE on the family XP machine tonight afterall. It now dual boots without a hitch. If you only have one hard drive, as with the family comp, defrag in windows first. Make sure that check the bios first, then pop in the install CD, select/and or modify your partition sizes, then let it go. You can even get patches and updates during the install process if you want, or no.

gotta like it...

Just a note for you MS-Office fans. I downloaded and am using an Office like program from OPENOFFICE.ORG. It works great and beats the 250 plus dollars for MS Office Pro.

You can get versions that run on Win/nn (any windows) plus other OS including linux. The best part is, IT'S FREE, just like Linux.

weeeeeee said:

i hate m$...with a deep burning passion for not leaving us gamers/movie watchers/music listeners/skin lovers/irc freaks/theme'rs (taskbar and more)/cd/dvd rippers/emulation software users/cd burners/old people who dont have good memory for console commands/WHATEVER for screwing us over with but one choice....m$ itself.

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Sorry, there are more choices then microsoft, you also have Linux (Multiple versions), and Mac OS

Would you expect Microsoft to offer Multiple Operating Systems ?, that dont make business sense, We make equipment at my job, Only 1 Version, if the customer wants to do somthing that We dont support, We can either offer them the support, or let them go elseware.

weeeeeee said:

lindows/linux are just too hard to learn for most people...and i dont mean 'most teenage/younger ppl' i mean people from just using the computer for the first time to so old it takes 20 mins to get from across the room to seated at the computer.

Click to expand...

Using Linux is just a easy as windows, Setting it up may be harder, but even that is easy now, Insert CD, and let the installer run itself.

jangnim said:

snip..

gamers - statistically, PC games are on the way out. Game consoles are much better for the games, graphics and speed are both much improved.

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Except for MMPORGS, consoles have a long way to go for that.

jangnim said:

cd/dvd rippers - should not be legal. if you want it, buy it. stealing it is a shameful thing.

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Why ? I Rip my music & Movies that I Buy, That's why I have a Portable MP3 Player, so I dont half to take 100's of CD with me when I want to listen to my music / audio bookx

Movies: I like to convert my Disney Movies to AVI so my child can watch them on her system without nuking / loosing the DVD's


Now I also use Linux for multiple things, and have no problem with most of what you stated, except for the quoted sections above.

Ripping Music / Movies should not be Illegal, but Offering them To Others without the Copyright owners permission already IS illegal

I voted for Windows because I haven't used Linux. However, Linux is something i want to mess around with one of this days when I find the time.

I use Win XP cause its compatible with everything.
I was also brought up on Win Products

ScarsThatSave said:

I use Win XP cause its compatible with everything.
I was also brought up on Win Products

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This is the very thing that locks us in to Microsoft Products. It is as it was so why change? Yet to let this alone give Microsoft a very unfair advantage in the market place, which in turn gives them a very sound monopoly on this sector of the industry which finally, allows them to charge whatever they like for their products. They don't have to change anything, but can change whatever they like and the public is stuck. Good Grief People..... WAKE UP!!!!!!!!

I vote osx becuase i have faith that one day they will port it over to pc systems. The day that happens will be the day of a new os revolution.

I'm not going to vote in this particular poll, because I believe both operating systems are horrible.

Linux: Fragmented and buggy. Hardly usable in my opinion, though I'm stuck with Sveasoft (and thus their Linux implementation) on my WRT54G for the time being. I've given Linux a try in the past, and I won't make that mistake again until it actually shows some signs of maturing.

Windows: "Compatible" with everything, but also tends to be slow, buggy, and all around awful. This is the operating system that I make money by fixing