What's Linux?
bothered
Manchester UK
OK, I know it's an os but I'm totally ignorant of it. I notice more and more people seem to be using it so thought I'd find out a bit more.
Which version to use? Whats the differance? Will it run EVERYTHING XP will? Where do you get it and how much?
Could anyone give me a start point please?
bothered.
ps, is it any good?
Which version to use? Whats the differance? Will it run EVERYTHING XP will? Where do you get it and how much?
Could anyone give me a start point please?
bothered.
ps, is it any good?
0
Comments
http://www.linuxbeginner.org/index.php
http://linuxiso.org/
What are peoples experiances with Linux?
bothered.
It's been said that hardcore Windows users have a tougher time switching to Linux, and I tend to agree with that. I'm waiting for the next big releases of Linux (Mandrake 10, RH9) before I try again.
It's generally considered that, for new users, Mandrake is the quickest and easist distro to play with.
{install Linux;}
else{echo 'dont even think about it';};[/PHP]
Thats pretty much it. If you have the time and or inclination to do it then you will be fine, but just jumping in expecting it to work off the bat is jst not going to happen regardless (though it did for my laptop for some some reason).
If you learn it enough to do some advanced stuff with it then it pays off well, but it takes time and lots of annoying experiences.
I find it perfectly useable as a desktop system. Don't say it is too complicated because that is the idea. If you remove that then it becomes a basic and locked down OS like Windows.
It IS harder to use, but that is why it is better.
No, it won't run ANY of your Windows XP software, you will have to get Linux versions of the software if it even exists, otherwise you need to find alternate software.
Caffine: What issues were you having with the Directory structures? It seems pretty stright forward to me....
NS
Thanks again.
bothered.
There is nothing inexpensive in the way of customizable accounting software for it unless you know w3c XML. For most else, there are several or many programs. For Office, if you want to run Office 2002 you can run Crossover Office or Xandros (but those you pay for). WordPerfect Office does not run the latest kernels and development has been abandoned (in Linux totally, and in Windows, well Corel is looking very actively to Venture Capital firms for an influx of dev revenue while they have very good support and they also have economical software compared to the alternatives right now and that software is mostly mature and very good).
So, as a Widnows user facing Linux I dual booted and then got a HD bay and tray pair and stuck Linux on one HD, and Windows on another. My core reason for running linux was security and the ability to NOT run 78,000 varieties of Viruses, Worms, and Trojans.
I do virus scan, and the virus scanning that I use is from GeCAD. GECAD software was so good Microsoft bought the virus scanning technology from GeCAD, and GeCAD made it part of the sale that they be able to continue to support their customers with virus definitions, and newer Linux versions. They also sell email server software, their customers get virus alerts that soemtimes hit the US before the viruses do, and they are VERY good. I virus scan because accomplished virus writers encrypt their virus packages and those packages can go with a forwarded email if the attachment is forwarded.
I run RH 9.0 and Mandrake 9.1 and am looking at BSDs (Free and Open). My Mandrake folds, gets big amounts of large WUs because when it is not running surfing stuff it gets only 99% of processor time and the kernel has typically only 512 MB free of active DDR SDRAM to let the folding stuff use what it needs or wants. I typically get 30-55 point units and about 2\3 are gromacs stuff. I do not fold for a team that competes for points, I simply fold. So, since Short Media came up I only got a bit over 2K as this box is a slower P4 box and I run whatever comes. I am on comcast, and run Linux on Comcast and get better download rates from Linux than from windows. When Comcast merged with AT&T broadband things started to improve some, I got rates of megs a second on downloads of dense ISO files that come out to about 1.5-1.8 MB per second throughput. I keep my email in Linux. For normal Windows use I use:
Widnows 98SE inside Win4Lin 5.0 and that is running in KDE. Windows, a quite legal install, runs within a shell environment that actually runs most things. I can run Windows Media Player, Opera 7, Netscape 7, and other things.
One of the most popular servers for the web right now is Apache, it runs on BSD and Linux.
So, depends on your needs adn time to explore a new O\S and desire to see the details of how an O\S works. If what you have ain't broke, I woudld not just jump into 10-20 foot waters of information, but I would gradually take some time and learn Unix and Linux. I do not say that it is a total replacement, and it is deliberately different, but thers are many looks to it. I will let Prime speak to the BSD crowd and only butt in if I KNOW soemthing well.
Linux uses some BSD commands and syntax, they are cousins. Linux is Unix that is different in thta soem BSD stuff can be easily ported to Linux, and has been and vice versa. It is hard and illegal to port Windows stuff to Linux so it bahaves, the Linux devs hate buffer overflows and actively discuss coding and thus it looks sometimes like there are many holes when in fact code patches are often applied to working code like Microsft provided the Blaster patch as a Network core function patch (but networking was Linux's Metier, it startd as a SERVER O\S and gradually bifrucated in form to move to the desktop. I can read and write Word docs in OpenOffice.org on which development is NOT being dropped, and do so better than WordPerfectOffice can and faster.
I have two boxes right now, one folks about 95% of the tiem and the other has a widnwos that is offline and gets no email or system files that have not been scanned stuck on it from the online box. On my offline box I have 98SE and perfectly good 98SE compatible programs. Oh, I own an XP HD that is legally registered, but patch it more often than use it, and learn how to patch for support which makes me money when users have problems with XP.
2\3 of the new users who come from the Windows users group like KDE best, and KDE likes lots of RAM. I run a GIG in my online box, and 512 MB on my Barton 2500 98SE box-- the drivers run on both fine, though I did run a check on hardware. Linux has come a long way in a few years (most recent ones) into becoming a desktop O\S, but Linux will never be keystroke to keystroke like Windows or vice versa unless Microsoft morphs Widnwos core into Linux more like. Expect some stuff like that from Microsoft, they are under economic pressure to charge less.
Right now win4Lin can run Me and back through 95 if you have a legal O\S CD still from then (Original best, or a Microsoft OEM and not a Computer Builder companies recovery CD). It rocks,my 98SE can run weeks at a time without problems within Win4Lin and Linux takes care of teh file system cuz Win4Lin works EXT3 and makes Widnwos think it is freely using several gig of the HD as FAT32.
Let's just say I am in transisiton and do a bit of webdev that I could not have afforded the software to do on Windows. I spent $50.00 for the linux software to do webdev (it is product by TheKompany that has reasonably extensive helps and can link to CDS that come with O'Reilly webdev lkangauge books as the indexing has been been integrated into help (folks took their favorite O'Reilly CDs and topic indexed into tham with XML and HTML and gave them to the folks that wrote the program, and it gets good reviews amongst linux users. I can hook it to browsers for viewing. Oh, it has a Windows version also that works almost as well as the Linux version and is a far cry from Macromedia's HomeSite software. I do not at this point need Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, I am learning to code directly and use browsers to check and validators also before uploading.
Another thing you should know is that gaming is not as strong as in Windows (Linux, after all, was not meant to be used to play games on.) Driver support among the video card makers is weaker in Linux than Windows. Also, Linux does not have Direct X, which nearly every game uses. The future is looking brighter though. OpenGL 2.0 seems to finally be doing something, which would mean a better API for Linux, and probably more games being written for OpenGL. Also, more and more games are being ported to Linux, and as the OS grows into a desktop OS there should be better drivers support.
As somebody mentioned, the filesystem is different in Linux. There are no C or D drives. There is a Root directory (or /) which everything falls under. All hard drives, partitions, CD-ROMS, Floppys, anything that is a drive, will be a folder somewhere under the Root directory (usually in a folder called 'mnt'.) It is not really worse than Windows, its just that it takes time to get use to since you have spent years using Windows.
I have been using Linux on and (mostly) off for about 2 years. I tend to install it, use it alot for about a month, than get distracted and start using Windows again (shiny metal object
I have been using Linux on and (mostly) off for about 2 years. I tend to install it, use it alot for about a month, than get distracted and start using Windows again (shiny metal object .) "
My experience mirrors this.
BTW ltps is for booting diskless node from across a lan
NS
making linux from scratch is definitely not for the timid though, and i would never suggest someone new to linux to even attempt to install it.
some distros are making nice strides in aiming linux for the desktop, and imo it's coming along. OOo, gaim, xchat, firebird are just a few apps that can make a converted windows user feel at home. i think the main thing that keeps linux off the desktop is that a lot of people are afraid to try it. it's really not that painful, and kde sucks btw. gnome is pretty badass. and yeah the guis can be a bit errrr... sluggish... but oh well. anyways, just my $00.02