Master Index of Archived Threads


Anyone use Linux??

KC Sep 23 2005 12:23 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Sep 23 2005 01:37 PM

I brought home a zapped computer from work that I'm going to format the drive on and start over from scratch. The problem with free computers is that by the time you put the cards in you want, and get a good operating system (the legal way, which is all I do these days) it could easily become a money pit and you could just call Dell and get a new one. I went to CompUSA this morning and Win XP Pro (non-upgrade) is freaking $300 plus tax! I've messed around over the years with Red Hat versions of Linux using different dual-boot solutions. I liked it, but always found myself a little challenged being so much more Windows literate. Anyway, I ended up buying suse linux (a Novell product) for a little more than half of what the current Red Hat download would have cost. It comes with everything you could need on a desktop for starters; two desktops, extensive network stuff, internet and email, office software, graphics and multimedia programs, bluetooth and blackberry support, antivirusspamfirewall, a couple of database programs, development tools, and then another 1000 applications that are on cd's to check out. Sounds too good to be true. Anyone have any input?

SwitchHitter Sep 23 2005 01:34 PM

We run Debian here on all of our computers except one, which has W2K Server and which is used for playing games and playing games. I've never owned a Windows computer--I went from DOS + DesqView to OS/2 to Debian Linux. Which is why I don't have any serious Windows software to run and only one Windows box in the house. There really are lots of applications out there.

A Boy Named Seo Sep 23 2005 01:51 PM

I haven't run SuSE on a server since 6.4 and ditched it for RedHat and I've never looked back. On my home machines, I've only played with the graphical desktop a few times and even though each release of each distro (RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake) seemed to get less clunky and a bit more intuitive (RedHat 9's looks a lot like Windows), I've always kept XP on my desktop and laptop for the apps I need Windows for. I haven't run OpenOfffice in a couple of years and found it clunky, too. It's got to be a lot better now. It looks really good anyway. I tried a couple of Windows emulators to run Windows apps (Like Wine) and it just wasn't stable enough. Maybe they've made great strides, but I haven't tried again. I'm sure you'll have all the good server stuff (BIND, Apache, Samba, etc.) if you want to play. The multimedia stuff looks a lot nicer than it used to, definitely. At least when CNN is reporting that Windows users worldwide are getting pummelled by some worm that exploited the vulnerability in the Windows run-time who-and-what, you can laugh and know you're safe. There's not many virus writers for Linux platforms. w00t! or something...

KC Sep 23 2005 01:53 PM

Wow, I forgot about OS2, I used to mess around with that a lot too. I've always had a couple of operating systems on most of my computers, this is my first time just abandoning Windows completely. (posted before reading JG's post)

Edgy DC Sep 23 2005 02:02 PM

Great to have JiGgy back. What database and spreadsheet apps come with it, Kase?

KC Sep 23 2005 02:14 PM

Openoffice.org 2.something (which is a beta still, I think) and Derby, MySQL 4.1.9 and PostgreSQL 8.0. I mean you can get all this stuff for free, I think, but it's time consuming. The thought of $100 install and everything all set-up for you is pretty intriguing to me. The only thing you have to do is point to email servers and you're up and running. I better shut up until I do it, not that I'm stupidstitious or anything.

KC Sep 24 2005 01:40 PM

I'm not going to lie and say it was a piece of cake, but I'm posting from Linux 9.3 and saved about $240! Screw you, Bill.

A Boy Named Seo Sep 24 2005 04:58 PM

¡Viva la revoluccion! Nice, work. I'm curious to hear about some of the features and their ease-of-use (or unease), once you start messing with it more. I've got a junker I need to do something with...