LINUX

[AntNE00]

Anyone Here Running Linux?

[Thanol]

I'm using Kubuntu right now.

[AntNE00]

Im trying to maybe get into running linux i hear mixed reviews about it. Now i know kubuntu is derived from Linux but is there any difference?

[Daniel-Z]

Originally Posted by AntNE00

Im trying to maybe get into running linux i hear mixed reviews about it. Now i know kubuntu is derived from Linux but is there any difference?

There are many many different distributions of Linux.

Fedora Core
Slackware
Mandrake

Just to name a few.

LINUX ROCKS! Its the most stable OS I have ever seen aside from Unix.

Unix and Linux are pretty much the same except Linux is FREE and Unix you need to pay for.

Believe me you wont be making a mistake going with Linux

[AntNE00]

Awesome, that pumps me up i cant wait to start this

[Daniel-Z]

Originally Posted by AntNE00

Awesome, that pumps me up i cant wait to start this

Have fun I absolutely LOVE linux

[dcole07]

I use Fedora Core 5... it's the best! It's never been easier to install software and use programs for my web server! Alot of people complain about the time it takes to download and install but if you consider driving to best buy or some store (or ordering it online or over the phone) and the time it takes to install it's not that bad..

people also call it unstable but I've never seen anything (hello people have you seen Windows?!?!?!)

my parents don't like it because it's too easy.. Then spent 5 hours trying to get something to work on window and I took it and plug it into FC5 and it was working 10 secs later without me doing anything, but no.. they were like "Nope, stop.. doesn't work like that. Things are ment to be challanging!"

[Daniel-Z]

Originally Posted by dcole07

I use Fedora Core 5... it's the best! It's never been easier to install software and use programs for my web server! Alot of people complain about the time it takes to download and install but if you consider driving to best buy or some store (or ordering it online or over the phone) and the time it takes to install it's not that bad..

people also call it unstable but I've never seen anything (hello people have you seen Windows?!?!?!)

my parents don't like it because it's too easy.. Then spent 5 hours trying to get something to work on window and I took it and plug it into FC5 and it was working 10 secs later without me doing anything, but no.. they were like "Nope, stop.. doesn't work like that. Things are ment to be challanging!"

Mwahahahahahah that's HILARIOUS Dcole07

[AntNE00]

wow that was drastic

[Thanol]

@AntNE00 Yes, in a lot of cases, Linux is way easier to deal with than Windows, ex my wireless adapter was plug in play. But that's not always the case a lot of things weren't made with Linux in mind. Some printers (Lexmark/Dell inkjets in particular) and loads of wireless adapters require a lot of work in order to get them to work with Linux. So for people who aren't skilled technically, Linux can be a pain. So pretty much from now on, you should always buy computer related things that are well supported by Linux.

Also if you're going to use Linux, you're going to become very familiar with the terminal. If you're like me and not that familiar with the commands and whatnot, then the terminal is going to be very time consuming, since finding out what command to use to get something to work takes forever. Also a fair number of instuctions for how to do certian things are either outdated or unapplicable to different versions of Linux. So far with my laptop running Kubuntu 6.06 LTS (it runs on Linux kernal 2.6.15) I have had the following issues:

• I have had issues installing Firefox, because I'm apparently missing a C compiler (even thought gcc is installed); I've given up and am happily using Konqueror.
• I had to create a profile folder for my non-existant copy of Mozilla just so that I could install Flash 7. I was partially trying to install Firefox, just so that I could install Flash.
• Adept Package manager screws up a lot, since it won't fix a lot of dependency problems. (I have to use apt-get to find out what package is missing, find and download it (sometimes I used debian packages), and then install it through the terminal)
• I had to edit my Xorg.conf file to fix an issue with my laptop's built-in video card, where I had to boot it once shutdown then reboot it to get to the login screen. This was a pain, because I didn't know you had to use kdesu kate in order to edit that file, until much later.
• I had to install an additional package to get MP3's to play. MP3s, for christsake! Xine

Everything else was okay, and right now it's running smoothly with only one minor problem left: After the laptop goes through the shutdown processes, I have to manually press the On/Off button to cut power.

Just to be fair, things that were easy using Kubuntu:

• Installation was a breeze
• Peripherals were well supported, sans the printer.
• My wireless PCMCIA card was plug an play. I had a Atheros 5212 chip inside, which has native Linux drivers.
• Runs fine now.
• Fairly fast
• Java, WINE, and flash all installed easily.
• Everything that came preinstalled works well.

Oh one last comment, for the most part it was kind of nice I figured out how to get things to work. Almost fun.

Er, I lied, one final thing. I <3 my laptop running Kubuntu. It's easy and simple to use now that the kinks are ironed out. I just hate the fact that it took a few weeks to finish them off.

[Leon]

I dual boot Ubuntu and WinXP Pro

[SVB]

I run Redhat 8 on one of my machines.
Dont know why.
Everything it can do, my Windows machine can do more.

I had to install an additional package to get MP3's to play. MP3s, for christsake! Xine

Aye I had to do that too with Redhat. It still didn't work, took forever to get set up properly.
And it wouldnt support my modem either.

[Daniel-Z]

Things in the linux community have progressed alot since RedHat 8

Fedora Core 5 is the most up to date version of RedHat and man it ROCKS!

You see there are about 300,000 developers working on linux daily. Linux is an open source product this means that things get patched and fixed constantly and very quickly being as anyone can get their hands on a copy of the source code and modify or add to the code. The source code comes with each and every distro of linux.

When it comes to Windows. Microsoft releases a version of windows and the source code is not available to the general public. This means there are about 40 million lines of code and the only time MS finds out about a bug is when a hacker exploits it.

ASP has killed windows. Browser Hacks and Hijacks Spy ware etc all a product of MS releasing a shitless coding language that they gave WAY too much power to and about windows being GARBAGE.

Dont get me wrong I use windows on about 3 out of the ten machines I have but thats simply due to industry standard. Linux can do everything Windows does and is WAY WAY more stable.

Try having an uptime of a year with a windows BOX I dare ya. Until Hydro went out for longer than my UPS devices would power the network I had an uptime of 377 days!

Thats OVER a year without a reboot!!

Impossible with windows!

[tyman1180]

not quite iv went 4 years without having to whipe my windows and im running xp sp2 i dont really want to get into linux yet because im not big on knowing command's and different things sounds a little complicated to me yet

[Daniel-Z]

Originally Posted by tyman1180

not quite iv went 4 years without having to whipe my windows and im running xp sp2 i dont really want to get into linux yet because im not big on knowing command's and different things sounds a little complicated to me yet

When I said uptime of 377 days I didnt mean 377 days without formating and re-installing. I meant 377 days without having to reboot the machine! Try doing that with windows

I guess we will see what kind of stability Windows Vista will offer however, at 15 gig for the install alone I find it hard to believe that they focused on stability I think the focused more so on visual candy

[littleFella]

Originally Posted by tyman1180

not quite iv went 4 years without having to whipe my windows and im running xp sp2 i dont really want to get into linux yet because im not big on knowing command's and different things sounds a little complicated to me yet

It all depends what you use your PC for. If you use it as a server, need to automate a bunch if tasks etc then Windows or Linix you need to get into some form of command line/scripting. If you are just a user, do some web stuff, listen to music, watch videos and do some ofice stuff then there is no difference between the ease of use between Windows and Linux. In such cases Linux wins hands down.

My 17 year old daughter, who is NOT a computer geek by any stretch of imagination, has been using exclusively Linux for the last 8 years. When Windows XP came out I asked if the wanted that on her PC. She declined saying that she doesn't want to reboot and fight with viruses all the time like all the other kids in her class.

[Zap]

Originally Posted by Daniel-Z

Try having an uptime of a year with a windows BOX I dare ya. Until Hydro went out for longer than my UPS devices would power the network I had an uptime of 377 days!

Thats OVER a year without a reboot!!

Impossible with windows!

You can go for a year or more without rebooting Windows too, Daniel.
It's rare, because circumstances don't usually warrant it. But, it's not impossible.
It really depends a lot on how you treat your Windows box.
If you're going to install all kinds of crap on it, then, yes, it's going to be troublesome for you.
I have 2 Windows XP systems that have been running (without reinstall) for almost 2 years and almost 4 years, respectively. Windows is not as bad as you might think.

[Mrblogs]

One word.. GENTOO

[Richie_Ni]

I ran Ubuntu about 2 months ago,but it's hard to control for me so i switched to windows

[littleFella]

Originally Posted by Mrblogs

One word.. GENTOO

Are you sure Gentoo would be a good idea to a Linux newbie?