Hurray, I finally did it, after years of thinking (though I onced programmed under UNIX and had a MINIX grandpa installed on my ATARI in the 80s), I got myself Suse Linux, intalled it on an old Notebook and … it works without any problem. Am using Windows here in Office now, but at home I will migrate. Yeah, keep the big box with Windows as 2nd OS for gaming. But otherwise I have enough of unstable blue screen generating Windows.
No need to be afraid of installation hassle, just get a CD and get going!
Linux is painless,
it brings on (not so many) changes…
use lots of funky software to clean windows registry and maintain your system
isnt that enough of a difference?
i dont see any difference when i use linux. i use the same softwares as the ones i could use in xp. i use wine for the ones that dont have a linux version. but at the end, i spend more time actually using my computer, not repairing it…
use lots of funky software to clean windows registry and maintain your system
isnt that enough of a difference?
I don’t see any difference when I use linux. I use the same softwares as the ones I could use in xp. I use wine for the ones that dont have a linux version. but at the end, i spend more time actually using my computer, not repairing it…[/quote]
The fundamental difference is that in Linux, you can find out what’s going on. I don’t necessarily mean source code … I mean process lists (running programs), network connections, configuration files, startup scripts, and generally everything your computer is doing.
Okay, so things often work in obscure, complicated ways, but with a little research you can change and control anything you like.
Compare that to Windows, where the user is like a tiny rowboat tossed around on a huge ocean of god-knows-what.
Another big difference is the overwhelmingly huge amount of (totally free) software it gives you. There’s usually much more stuff provided with a distribution than Windows has, and if you need (say) a CD burner, it’s often as simple as “apt-cache search cd burn”, choose one you like from the list of 30 or so, and “sudo apt-get install mp3burn” (or whatever).
Admittedly I still have Windows installed too to play WoW, but for the record Linux can in fact run it via emulation
I’ve been using Linux for seven years and have mostly forgotten that Windows exists. However, recently I became aware of another good reason to switch to Linux when a Windows-using friend of mine asked for my help. He wanted to back up all his data files (something he hasn’t done for a couple of years - that’s bad).
I told him it’s easy, just copy your “home directory” over to an external USB hard disk. He asked me “what home directory”, and that’s when it hit me - Windows scatters your user data all over the hard disk. There is no home directory. If you do email in Eudora (as he does), then you’ve got data in c:\program_files\eudora\mail (or something like that) and maybe the address book is in c:\program_files\address, all mixed up the Eudora’s program files which are in the same folder. Your Photoshop files are in c:\program_files\photoshop or d:\photoshop or wherever else you stuck them. Configuration files can be anywhere.
In Linux, all user is data is in /home, along with hidden configuration files. If there is more than one user, you will have a directory like /home/robert and /home/roberts_girlfriend, and so on, but you just copy /home and you’ve got all the data backed up using a single command or mouse-click.
As for that Windows-using friend of mine, he finally wound up copying over the entire drives c: and d: because he couldn’t figure out anyway to separate his data from his programs. God help him if he actually has to restore any data back to the original hard disk (he will wind up overwriting all his program files with old ones).
[quote=“Brendon”]
Admittedly I still have Windows installed too to play WoW, but for the record Linux can in fact run it via emulation [/quote]
The abbreviation WINE stands for “WINE is not an emulator”. It is only a technical detail, but should be mentioned, since people do think of emulators execution speed as being much slower than natively running applications. Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X and Unix. It directly executes the Windows API calls issued by a windows program and a lot of games do work fine with it. There are specialized implementations of Wine, that are optimized for gaming.
I installed SUSE 10.1 on my PC and Laptop. It was really easy to set up on my PC, but I had to play around to get some of my hardware to work on my laptop. Some of the functions and hardware still dont work correctly. However, as stated in a previous post, I like the fact that i dont have to install a load of 3rd party apps to keep my system in shape, like spyware, virus scanning, disk defrag, registry editors etc… Or even full featured CD/DVD burning software. Open Office does everything I need it to do for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. My MP3’s and other sounds work much better than in Windows. The video players are great once you get the right codecs and packages. Amarok is great for MP3’s. Also Gnome or KDE are awesome in the eye candy department. KDE is super customizeable. I work at a high school and use my laptop on the overhead projector quite often. My students really dig my Compiz/GLX 3D cube desktop with wobbly and transparent windows etc… Language support is good too. My girlfriend can log into a completely Chinese desktop, log out, and I can log into my English desktop. Linux is just getting better and better every update.
[quote=“Dog’s_Breakfast”]I’ve been using Linux for seven years and have mostly forgotten that Windows exists. However, recently I became aware of another good reason to switch to Linux when a Windows-using friend of mine asked for my help. He wanted to back up all his data files (something he hasn’t done for a couple of years - that’s bad).
I told him it’s easy, just copy your “home directory” over to an external USB hard disk. He asked me “what home directory”, and that’s when it hit me - Windows scatters your user data all over the hard disk. There is no home directory. If you do email in Eudora (as he does), then you’ve got data in c:\program_files\eudora\mail (or something like that) and maybe the address book is in c:\program_files\address, all mixed up the Eudora’s program files which are in the same folder. Your Photoshop files are in c:\program_files\photoshop or d:\photoshop or wherever else you stuck them. Configuration files can be anywhere.
In Linux, all user is data is in /home, along with hidden configuration files. If there is more than one user, you will have a directory like /home/robert and /home/roberts_girlfriend, and so on, but you just copy /home and you’ve got all the data backed up using a single command or mouse-click.
As for that Windows-using friend of mine, he finally wound up copying over the entire drives c: and d: because he couldn’t figure out anyway to separate his data from his programs. God help him if he actually has to restore any data back to the original hard disk (he will wind up overwriting all his program files with old ones).
cheers,
DB[/quote]
I guess people just need to be a bit more methodical with storing and backing up their data. The way I do it is partitioning my HD into 2 segments, reserved 15GB for C: for the OS, apps and personal files in the directory Doc’s and settings. D: gets the rest of the remaining space left on the drive for storing Media files or games.
Next thing I do is just making a ghost image of my C: drive and Im done. The great thing about this method is that some apps I use is shareware with usually a 30 day trail period with full functionality, after 30 days it just takes 15 mins to put the back-up back and install it the apps again. Who needs cracks (for this to work you need to not install the shareware apps in the initial back-up config). It also weeds out the things you only install and use once and never again
[quote=“MC”]
Next thing I do is just making a ghost image of my C: drive and Im done. The great thing about this method is that some apps I use is shareware with usually a 30 day trail period with full functionality, after 30 days it just takes 15 mins to put the back-up back and install it the apps again. Who needs cracks (for this to work you need to not install the shareware apps in the initial back-up config). It also weeds out the things you only install and use once and never again [/quote]
You’re making a point that indicates yet another advantage of Linux. We don’t have to trick the expiration date of shareware, or crack anything. It’s all freeware, operating system and the apps.
[quote=“Brendon”]The fundamental difference is that in Linux, you can find out what’s going on. I don’t necessarily mean source code … I mean process lists (running programs), network connections, configuration files, startup scripts, and generally everything your computer is doing.
Okay, so things often work in obscure, complicated ways, but with a little research you can change and control anything you like.
Compare that to Windows, where the user is like a tiny rowboat tossed around on a huge ocean of god-knows-what.[/quote]
That’s a bunch of BS. There is no fundamental difference in this department. You can find all you want about processes, network connectoins, configuration files, startup scripts, and everything your computer is doing in Windows. With “a little bit of research” you can also control Windows just the same with scripting hosts and group policy. How do you think network administrators manage large clusters of Windows machines? It’s true that most Windows users aren’t the type to hack around that much, so if you randomly pick a Windows user, she won’t know about a hack, or if you randomly search for a Windows hack, chances are you might not find it immediately, but that’s very different from not being able to do it. It’s the familiarity that counts. For users who have the time and energy, it shouldn’t really matter which they use, they will have fun with it; for users who aren’t familiar with computers or who don’t care, Linux is a pain in the ass and a waste of time.
Now there is a fundamental difference, and the only real one: cost.
[quote=“Dog’s_Breakfast”]I’ve been using Linux for seven years and have mostly forgotten that Windows exists. However, recently I became aware of another good reason to switch to Linux when a Windows-using friend of mine asked for my help. He wanted to back up all his data files (something he hasn’t done for a couple of years - that’s bad).
I told him it’s easy, just copy your “home directory” over to an external USB hard disk. He asked me “what home directory”, and that’s when it hit me - Windows scatters your user data all over the hard disk. There is no home directory. If you do email in Eudora (as he does), then you’ve got data in c:\program_files\eudora\mail (or something like that) and maybe the address book is in c:\program_files\address, all mixed up the Eudora’s program files which are in the same folder. Your Photoshop files are in c:\program_files\photoshop or d:\photoshop or wherever else you stuck them. Configuration files can be anywhere.
In Linux, all user is data is in /home, along with hidden configuration files. If there is more than one user, you will have a directory like /home/robert and /home/roberts_girlfriend, and so on, but you just copy /home and you’ve got all the data backed up using a single command or mouse-click.
As for that Windows-using friend of mine, he finally wound up copying over the entire drives c: and d: because he couldn’t figure out anyway to separate his data from his programs. God help him if he actually has to restore any data back to the original hard disk (he will wind up overwriting all his program files with old ones).
cheers,
DB[/quote]
That’s BS, too. You can most surely keep all your data and configuration in your home folder on Windows. If you choose to, or you are especially careless, you can dump your files all over the drive in Windows as well as Linux. In fact, in Windows at least there is an implicit standard for where things go nowadays. In Linux, everyone makes his own rules about where to install programs. Some people like /usr/bin, others like /usr/local/bin, some stuff go into /var some configs are in /etc, some in your $home/.whateverprog, it’s just a big mess.
[quote=“Dog’s_Breakfast”][quote=“MC”]
Next thing I do is just making a ghost image of my C: drive and Im done. The great thing about this method is that some apps I use is shareware with usually a 30 day trail period with full functionality, after 30 days it just takes 15 mins to put the back-up back and install it the apps again. Who needs cracks (for this to work you need to not install the shareware apps in the initial back-up config). It also weeds out the things you only install and use once and never again [/quote]
You’re making a point that indicates yet another advantage of Linux. We don’t have to trick the expiration date of shareware, or crack anything. It’s all freeware, operating system and the apps.[/quote]
Well, I guess this is just a matter of point of view. Of course you’ll have freeware alternatives for some apps on the linux platform but not all shareware apps have their freeware counterparts (or are equal in funtionality).
The main reason for me why I haven’t given Linux a try yet is because I haven’t felt the need to (or you could just call me lazy). Security is the main arguement I’ve been hearing for migrating to Linux but that has never been an issue for me. I don’t go around surfing on some shadey porn sites, clicking ‘yes’ on every pop up I encounter or open any mail attachments from people who I don’t know. The only time I lost some data was when an HD died on me and using a different OS won’t prevent that from happening.
I don’t think Linux is is that much safer than windows in a relative sense as in the number of securtiy holes but due to the open source nature of Linux they are a bit more responsive in fixing it. Then again you also have alot more people looking for security holes on the windows platform than Linux simply because of the fact there are alot more systems to victimize. There’s also the fact that the more tech savvy people are more likely to give Linux a try, people who know what they are doing, which gives the Linux community alot more ‘apt’ people opposed to the gross of the mindless windows ‘yes’ clicking drones.
I am aware it’s like a vicious circle but the bottom line is that main problem is the user and not (entirely) the system. This was just my point of view on this matter and Im not trying to say the one is better than the other, they both have their merits.
Err… anyway to Bob_honest: Viel spaß with you Linux experience (and lets hope Linux isn’t the cause of his absence as TainanCowboy is suggesting)
Forgive me as I am a LINUX virgin, but I thought installing LINUX was a big hassle due to driver issues and hardware compatibility problems? What about opening EXCEL and DOC files and other microsoft format programs. Will I have to learn whole new software again? What about Microsoft Outlook? Hmm…I suppose I could learn to use other software for email and doc files. There must be hardware issues. I can’t just choose whatever Mobo and graphic card I want can I? I use to build my own PCs from scratch, but I don’t any more. Is it possible to get someone to deal with all of the headaches of getting it to setup? I can’t believe it was that easy. Really, there must be a lot of software that won’t run and there is no replacement?
(for this to work you need to not install the shareware apps in the initial back-up config). It also weeds out the things you only install and use once and never again 