is linux any good ?

[dan.76]

does anyone have any experience with linux that they could share with me. i an thinking of using to get away from windows but dont know much about linux at all.

[flappist]

Short answer, yes excellent.
Long answer. What do you want to do with it? If you wish to play computer games then it is not much use or if you are very computer illiterate then it can be a bit trying but if you want to set up solid reliable and logicly configurable workstation then it is definiely worth a look.

[dan.76]

i have another pc to put it on and would mostly use it for web browsing it is an intel 1.1 ghz with 20gb hdd and wanted to do a dual boot thingo.also has a 32mb video card. not wanting to use linux for anything in particular just want something better than windows and need a push in the right direction.

[holmsy]

is good for a bit of a play around and learn. but sometimes just isnt practical. other times it is much more practical. so it all depends how good you are with learning new things and what you want to do.

[jimmy_c]

Linux is not practical for gaming unless your an UBER nerd the support isnt there.

linux / unix is good if you want a robust system that is resiliant and will run for years and years.

Good for servers, research, data crunching, hacking (LOL), mission critical applications. *BSD, SUN OS, Debian are some good Unix type operating systems.

search google for some more friendly type Linux distros. Fedora, gentoo, Mandrivia. etc.etc

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Linux is a very stable os. Heaps of driver support out on the web for 98/me/xp hardware running under linux (all free too - and alot of the drivers are better than windows drivers imo) , no registry like windows / brilliant imo. If you ever used an Amiga and know how the directory/file system stucture works on them , then you will have no problems using linux.
For the user more used to a windows based platform , you can run linux in Gnome mode making it easier for a microsoft user to use.

One of the best os's for getting the most speed out of your pc , as the os uses bugger all system recourses to run. gl

[the_scotsman]

You need something better than Windows....what is it about Windows you don't like?

Another alternative may be Mac? Linux isn't bad..but if you aren't used to it, or very computer literate, you'll struggle to get it going good...

[bathurst77]

I have Pcs and Macs here. I have currently various machines running NT, 2000, 2003, XP and vista. I also have a couple of linux boxes. Cripes I even had Os/2 many years ago. My first PC ran Dos 2. something.. Ha i remember the "Dos 5.Ohh-No" discussions (it wasnt very good) Ive used most O/S since then.

Linux is good if you are a techie and like to "tinker under the hood" and spend time working out how to install drivers etc. it is very stable once you get it up and running. Many common programs of course dont run under linux, but often there are other alternatives.

Its good for servers firewalls etc, and for learning on, I wouldnt recommend it for a users main desktop PC, unless that person is a real nerd/guru.

Linux, like Macs, attract a hardcore of fanatics, who believe Bill Gates is the devil and M-Soft are the source of all evil, and must be destroyed. These people will tell you to convert your grannies PC to linux at once. They can be a bit fanatical.

For most users Win-XP is the best choice. Unless you own a mac of course....

[atec77]

Originally Posted by dan.76

does anyone have any experience with linux that they could share with me. i an thinking of using to get away from windows but dont know much about linux at all.

SImply mepis is excellent ( I use most of the distro's including solaris) download and try it as you can boot the cd for experience , dual boot for a while if you want until comfortable and then unless you play really hard core games drop winblows , its possible to run most winbows games if you are experienced
Good luck

[underthunder]

I chose linux over windows because of the stability and options. You can make it whatever you want it to be. One word, Ubuntu.

[bathurst77]

Thats the other thing about Linux.
Distros.
When you do decide to "see the light" and install Linux, you have to pic a distro. ("Distributions" - different versions of Linux, made by different people).
The Distros are all slightly different to each other, tho they are mostly compatable.
SOme linux apps wont run on some distros and some tasks are achieved in totally different ways on different distros.

THe arguments over which distro is the best and which Distros sux are almost as vicious maybe more then the arguments over how evil and crap etc windows is.

That said, I love Linux, but I am a tinkerer, and can happily spend hours or days working something out on a pc, and i only use it on "my other PC" not my "main ones".

[dan.76]

maybe better isnt the right word , different might be more suitable.
just looking for a change i suppose

[AU-Hog]

Originally Posted by EAIIFalconS

I chose linux over windows because of the stability and options. You can make it whatever you want it to be. One word, Ubuntu.

Yes, I agree with this one. Download the Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) boot CD and try it on your PC. It won't overwrite anything on your HDD and it will give you a bit of an idea how it all works, looks and feels.
If you decide you like it you can then chose to install it on the PC. I've done it on a couple of old PCs (P3 700) and it works well. The Edubuntu version looks and works good too, especially for younger people, and it can run all the programs the normal version runs.

[AussieJason]

Haven't used it in ages, but Linux is good. My previous PC was a dual boot Windows/Linux setup, and I used Linux almost as often as Windows.

I preferred OpenLinux to Red Hat and the others in those days, but have no idea about the versions around now.

[pertuan]

Whether or not Linux is good depends on what you want to use it for. Thats just like any application/system. Its good if you use it for what it was designed for.

I find Linux is good for learning to program on since most compilers/script interpreters are free and/or built into it already. Its good for learning about network settings. Its good for data processing (ie. pure number crunching processing). Also good for a whole bunch of other stuff that slips my mind right now.

If you want the Window Manager environment to resemble Windows for ease of transition, I recommend KDE. Check it out at (http://www.kde.org).

Also... there is only one distribution worth using. SlackWare Linux! hehehe http://www.slackware.com :P

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by dan.76

does anyone have any experience with linux that they could share with me. i an thinking of using to get away from windows but dont know much about linux at all.

Probably not a good time to be answering this question... err.

Today I tried installing Ubuntu and Kbuntu. Had to remove every USB device to actually get it to boot the install disk, then grub was unable to install a boot loader and was getting error 17 after install.

Suse 10.1 and 10.2. Would boot the DVD but would come back after it loaded the kernel to tell me it couldn't find the DVD. Put the iso on a USB key, and tried to install off it, caused a kernel panic.

Debian, CentOS, Mandriva all couldn't find DVD after booting off it.

Fedora Core, installed! But, no network driver. Could recognise a USB key, found the network driver, but do you think I could get the $#&#@* to compile?! NO!

The only distro that worked on this machine was Knoppix, but it's a live DVD.. and if you really want to check Linux out, that's where I would start. You can boot the OS off the DVD and run with it as if it had booted off your hard drive.

My machine is a C2D in a P5B board with a jmicron controller and a Realtek onboard nic. I was doomed to begin with after investigating why none of these OS's would work. Bad combo apparently, lots of tears being shed trying to stick Linux on similar machines.

Gave up, decided I'd put Ubuntu on my 2nd machine (that currently runs Vista). Get it installed, can't install NVidia's driver with Gnome running, can't dump X without it being a risk and a PITA, install a repositories version. Start to configure the desktop (which isn't running at my LCD's native res mind you and the fonts are so small I can't read them until I up the dot pitch) and HANG. Reboot, HANG. Boot XP CD, run fixmbr to trash grub and...

I GIVE UP!

If I want to frig with Linux from now on I'll do it within the comfort of VMware running on a windows machine. As much as running Windows can be a drag, you can install it the majority of the time on any combination of machines without having to spend half a day researching grub commands and other obscure workarounds.

Before you get lost in the rant, seriously, download Knoppix. Boot it, it's fully functional, will likely support most of your hardware and you can have a play around in it. If you like it, you can join the frustrated when you trash your drive and can't get Linux installed without doing 1000 google searches, if you don't, you've saved a lot of your hair. :P

[GTpilot]

Not Knowing how to do things correctly in Linux is what scares/turns most people away. If you are interested in using it I suggest you go do a course on it, even those cheapie short courses most universities offer that run one or two nights per weeek. Having a good base knowledge of the OS is worth its weight in gold when you really want to use it.

Many of the "windows" techs at work have brought me machines they have spent hrs trying to get running because they have decied to have a "play" with Linux. usually I have it going for them in a matter of minutes, because as I said, I know what to do the first time.

Linux is great for servers, fast, secure and does not require a re-boot at least once per month. As far as the desktop environment goes for business use it is also great. Most business users wont go much further than email, word processing, spreadsheet and the occaisional desktop publishing. Most Linux distros will do this out of the box saving 1000's of dollars when you are talking multiple machines.

Cheapskates with no REAL idea about network security use it for firewalls!!!!

[mik]

is it true linux does not suffer from viruses??........anyone

[GTpilot]

Yes it doe's but they are nowhere near as common as they are on Windows. Virus writers are aiming for major impact. As Windows users far outweigh Linux users. they are mostly written to effect the windows platform..

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by jgb

Not Knowing how to do things correctly in Linux is what scares/turns most people away. If you are interested in using it I suggest you go do a course on it, even those cheapie short courses most universities offer that run one or two nights per weeek. Having a good base knowledge of the OS is worth its weight in gold when you really want to use it.

It doesn't teach you the quirky crap or obscure workarounds you need to employ half the time to get things working.

For instance, to get one distro to not lock up completely on trying to *install* off a DVD, I had to set my controller to a mode I'd never heard of before, add all sorts of combinations of commands that 500 different people recommended, yet only one of them worked, jump on one foot, rub my belly and pat my head while praying to the nerd god to deliver me into bondage. Obviously I didn't pray enough as it installed, loaded the boot loader to 2 disks (when I said stick grub on /dev/sdd1 that didn't mean also stick it on /dev/hde1!!!!!) and could never boot off it. Known problem, sorry no fix.

Linux can be half decent on the right hardware and I've generally run a parallel version on most of my PC's in the past but there's very few things that I prefer running on my linux partition over my Windows partition and I'm far from being a Windows fanboy. Many things I loathe about Windows, but the ease of installing software/drivers without having to worry about dependencies, repositories that don't hold up to date dependencies, quirks in compilers that require you add a switch if you're running a certain version, tear my hair out...!

VMWare on FC6, yeah it works fine! Try to compile, error. Woops, you need to replace a library file with this one, here's the link. Oops, link has been removed, try this one. Oh, got it. No, that's an old one, that will cause your machine to probably lock up after you compile and start the services. Here's another link. 3 hours later I finally get it compiled. The result of that was my machine now seemed to not know how to read xorg.conf as everytime I booted into Gnome, the resolution would be set to something random (sometimes a refresh rate my monitor doesn't support).

Today I'm off to a site to try and complete an install of a product we sell which mines emails off an exchange server. Runs a cutdown version of RH4 apart from the mail miner which runs 2003.

modprobe usb-storage
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb

Bzzzt. Need to specify filesystem type. Ok.

mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb

Bzzzt. Bad superblock, unable to mount.

Geez, are you sure? Been using this stick for a year without a single problem. Can even mount it on a linux PC at home with no problems, it's mounted right this very second!

Closed system with no way of pumping this file through the network and no CDROM installed. Had to go buy 4 brand new different brand USB sticks just so I can stick a 2k licence key file on this linux box. Spent 3 hours so far on this problem on Friday, local linux nerds have dug up several articles for workarounds but so far none work, probably spend a few more hours on it this morning and prepping the other sticks right now.

Linux does have its advantages but the amount of times I've had to research something in order to do something mundane on a Linux box has literally wasted hours of my life! Once upon a time I wouldn't have minded fiddling with it and going through the whole experience but I'm getting older and crustier now and I would have expected that Linux would have addressed a lot of these nagging issues, but it doesn't, it just generates more when new hardware is released.

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by mik

is it true linux does not suffer from viruses??........anyone

There are some out there but not that many.

An analogy, you know many girls, one's superhot and she has a 3 big BIG brothers who will beat the snot out of you if you even look at her wrong. You know a dozen other girls, pretty plain only have other pretty plain sisters and they all think you're a spunk.

You can waste all your time trying to bag the superhot one or go the easy route and have a crack at the rest of the herd and you know you won't be lonely tonight.

The MS desktop market, forgetabout it.. it dwarfs the linux desktop market. You can write a virus that will easily propogate across those desktops due to more exploits, volume and the stupidity of a lot of the userbase or you can write one for linux, less exploits, a fraction of the userbase and generally cluey users.

The ease of use of Windows is also its downfall when it comes to security. Send a binary file to some moron's inbox and there's a good chance they'll probably run it and it'll likely work on the majority of Windows boxes. Send a binary file to a linux user's inbox, even if they're stupid enough to try and run it, there's a pretty good chance that it won't even be able to execute. Send them the source and any special libraries, if they have a compiler installed, they compile it then run it, then they're in trouble. :P

[BlueRaven]

Introduction

I have been doing the same thing for two months or so. I am running a dedicated Ubuntu 6.10 Distro on a Pentium 1.6ghz, 512mb RAM 40gig HDD, with Crossover Office plugged in so I can run Photoshop 7, Dreamweaver (I honestly don't use it much), Flash 8 Professional and Internet Explorer (for compatibility reasons)! Apart from that, I use Linux software for all my other needs.

The Good Parts
- It is incredibly configurable. My Ubuntu looks almost nothing like the original. If you can see it, you can change it... plus if you have some grunt, you can use funky 3D managers like Compiz and Beryl.

- Some programs are better than Windows counterparts. I think Gaim is better than MSN Messenger (Which, btw, you can get running through Wine or Crossover if you really want to).

- Software Package manager is fantastic. Downloading and installing a common application is easier than Windows. 1 button downloads and installs it for you.

- Ubuntu Forum. The Ubuntu forum is a godsend. It will answer almost any question you have.

- You can use it for my purpose, as a general graphic design/web computer, as well as light entertainment and basic internet useage. So far it does almost everything I could want it to do.... with some exceptions..

The bad stuff

- Driver support for Graphics cards is a bit funny. Linux supports almost everything, but you do get some weird stories like the ones above about it running in the wrong resolution or doing strange things. Most of the time there is a fix for that, but it will involve a lot of tweaking.

- Wireless. Wireless can still be a nuisance and if you use WPA encryption, you will need to download a program for it.

- When you follow guides and install codecs for Movies, Music and programs that your missing - things will go wrong. It won't make sense at first. You'll download hundreds of megs of extra software, when you want one application but it requires 50megs of other applications to be installed first. Eventually this will stop happening, but it will throw you at first. You need to be able to stop the desire to throw the computer out the window.

- Duel screens. Depending on your Graphic cards, duel screens may not work quite the way you want.

- Commandline / Config files. When your changing system settings or driver settings, most of it is editing files or using the commandline. Get used to it and you will be able to type things like "sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf" sooner than you think..

The end result
In my case, I couldn't be happier. Linux is a very cool environment to use and when everything working well, its not an issue. Things may not work right from time to time, but after a while you won't stress out about it anymore as you'll have an idea about things. The forums are great, because others will know the answers. Security is great and seeing that I used Firefox and Gaim on Windows anyway - most of the time I use it in exactly the same way.

I like an OS than I can mould to the way I want, rather than an OS that forces me to do things one way.

[atec77]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

Thats the other thing about Linux.
Distros.
When you do decide to "see the light" and install Linux, you have to pic a distro. ("Distributions" - different versions of Linux, made by different people).
The Distros are all slightly different to each other, tho they are mostly compatable.
SOme linux apps wont run on some distros and some tasks are achieved in totally different ways on different distros.

THe arguments over which distro is the best and which Distros sux are almost as vicious maybe more then the arguments over how evil and crap etc windows is.

That said, I love Linux, but I am a tinkerer, and can happily spend hours or days working something out on a pc, and i only use it on "my other PC" not my "main ones".

The choice is in fact the kernel , bsd , debian or the one linus developed , the distros make it easier but kernel is everything ( and real nix like solaris)

[underthunder]

Originally Posted by BlueRaven

Introduction

I have been doing the same thing for two months or so. I am running a dedicated Ubuntu 6.10 Distro on a Pentium 1.6ghz, 512mb RAM 40gig HDD, with Crossover Office plugged in so I can run Photoshop 7, Dreamweaver (I honestly don't use it much), Flash 8 Professional and Internet Explorer (for compatibility reasons)! Apart from that, I use Linux software for all my other needs.

The Good Parts
- It is incredibly configurable. My Ubuntu looks almost nothing like the original. If you can see it, you can change it... plus if you have some grunt, you can use funky 3D managers like Compiz and Beryl.

- Some programs are better than Windows counterparts. I think Gaim is better than MSN Messenger (Which, btw, you can get running through Wine or Crossover if you really want to).

- Software Package manager is fantastic. Downloading and installing a common application is easier than Windows. 1 button downloads and installs it for you.

- Ubuntu Forum. The Ubuntu forum is a godsend. It will answer almost any question you have.

- You can use it for my purpose, as a general graphic design/web computer, as well as light entertainment and basic internet useage. So far it does almost everything I could want it to do.... with some exceptions..

The bad stuff

- Driver support for Graphics cards is a bit funny. Linux supports almost everything, but you do get some weird stories like the ones above about it running in the wrong resolution or doing strange things. Most of the time there is a fix for that, but it will involve a lot of tweaking.

- Wireless. Wireless can still be a nuisance and if you use WPA encryption, you will need to download a program for it.

- When you follow guides and install codecs for Movies, Music and programs that your missing - things will go wrong. It won't make sense at first. You'll download hundreds of megs of extra software, when you want one application but it requires 50megs of other applications to be installed first. Eventually this will stop happening, but it will throw you at first. You need to be able to stop the desire to throw the computer out the window.

- Duel screens. Depending on your Graphic cards, duel screens may not work quite the way you want.

- Commandline / Config files. When your changing system settings or driver settings, most of it is editing files or using the commandline. Get used to it and you will be able to type things like "sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf" sooner than you think..

The end result
In my case, I couldn't be happier. Linux is a very cool environment to use and when everything working well, its not an issue. Things may not work right from time to time, but after a while you won't stress out about it anymore as you'll have an idea about things. The forums are great, because others will know the answers. Security is great and seeing that I used Firefox and Gaim on Windows anyway - most of the time I use it in exactly the same way.

I like an OS than I can mould to the way I want, rather than an OS that forces me to do things one way.

This is the post to read. This describes linux perfectly, very good job BlueRaven. And lmao @

- When you follow guides and install codecs for Movies, Music and programs that your missing - things will go wrong. It won't make sense at first. You'll download hundreds of megs of extra software, when you want one application but it requires 50megs of other applications to be installed first. Eventually this will stop happening, but it will throw you at first. You need to be able to stop the desire to throw the computer out the window.

That is such a ***** hahaha. sudo apt-get -i 37864786344applicationstoinstallonebish!

[GTpilot]

Originally Posted by Rodp

It doesn't teach you the quirky crap or obscure workarounds you need to employ half the time to get things working.

For instance, to get one distro to not lock up completely on trying to *install* off a DVD, I had to set my controller to a mode I'd never heard of before, add all sorts of combinations of commands that 500 different people recommended, yet only one of them worked, jump on one foot, rub my belly and pat my head while praying to the nerd god to deliver me into bondage. Obviously I didn't pray enough as it installed, loaded the boot loader to 2 disks (when I said stick grub on /dev/sdd1 that didn't mean also stick it on /dev/hde1!!!!!) and could never boot off it. Known problem, sorry no fix.

Linux can be half decent on the right hardware and I've generally run a parallel version on most of my PC's in the past but there's very few things that I prefer running on my linux partition over my Windows partition and I'm far from being a Windows fanboy. Many things I loathe about Windows, but the ease of installing software/drivers without having to worry about dependencies, repositories that don't hold up to date dependencies, quirks in compilers that require you add a switch if you're running a certain version, tear my hair out...!

VMWare on FC6, yeah it works fine! Try to compile, error. Woops, you need to replace a library file with this one, here's the link. Oops, link has been removed, try this one. Oh, got it. No, that's an old one, that will cause your machine to probably lock up after you compile and start the services. Here's another link. 3 hours later I finally get it compiled. The result of that was my machine now seemed to not know how to read xorg.conf as everytime I booted into Gnome, the resolution would be set to something random (sometimes a refresh rate my monitor doesn't support).

Today I'm off to a site to try and complete an install of a product we sell which mines emails off an exchange server. Runs a cutdown version of RH4 apart from the mail miner which runs 2003.

modprobe usb-storage
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb

Bzzzt. Need to specify filesystem type. Ok.

mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb

Bzzzt. Bad superblock, unable to mount.

Geez, are you sure? Been using this stick for a year without a single problem. Can even mount it on a linux PC at home with no problems, it's mounted right this very second!

Closed system with no way of pumping this file through the network and no CDROM installed. Had to go buy 4 brand new different brand USB sticks just so I can stick a 2k licence key file on this linux box. Spent 3 hours so far on this problem on Friday, local linux nerds have dug up several articles for workarounds but so far none work, probably spend a few more hours on it this morning and prepping the other sticks right now.

Linux does have its advantages but the amount of times I've had to research something in order to do something mundane on a Linux box has literally wasted hours of my life! Once upon a time I wouldn't have minded fiddling with it and going through the whole experience but I'm getting older and crustier now and I would have expected that Linux would have addressed a lot of these nagging issues, but it doesn't, it just generates more when new hardware is released.

^^^^^^^ A perfect example of my original point.

VMWare comes with an install script. install could not be easier, never had a problem using it. Have done it 100's of times on various platforms. FC6 should not be used in business environment. why not use Xen, far better than VMware. trust me I manage over 4000 virtual servers on various platforms and host OS's What were you trying to complie??


modprobe-usbstorage on RH4, Why do you need to run this??
also
try running fdisk -l or fdisk /dev/sda

to give you file system type. my tip is USB on that box, not your memory stick, not the OS.

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by jgb

^^^^^^^ A perfect example of my original point.

VMWare comes with an install script. install could not be easier, never had a problem using it. Have done it 100's of times on various platforms. FC6 should not be used in business environment. why not use Xen, far better than VMware. trust me I manage over 4000 virtual servers on various platforms and host OS's What were you trying to complie??


modprobe-usbstorage on RH4, Why do you need to run this??
also
try running fdisk -l or fdisk /dev/sda

to give you file system type. my tip is USB on that box, not your memory stick, not the OS.

My home PC isn't a business environment. Your original point seemed to be that Windows techs have no clue when it comes to Linux. Go right ahead, compile VMWare on FC6 with the install script, see how far you get. I'll guarantee it won't work. I run VMWare because I have a number of VMWare servers that I can transfer disk images across to when I need to.

Without running modprobe usb-storage, you don't even have a chance of seeing the USB stick on the server I was working on. I tried without it, didn't work. Used another USB stick yesterday and was able to complete my install, it didn't like the first stick, don't know why.

[S3SR]

linux is good but if its just ANY linux forget it theres too many and not enough time.

some releases are worse than windows like redhat...LOLs

best thing no viruses but who cares anyways
and unmatched security, uses less resources, MUCH more stable and some of the best software ever released is on a linux box before the windows one.

stick with a dual boot if you plan on playing games or using some software that may not work on linux, or theres a few installers that install windows stuff for linux, and theres also windows emulators

if you have time an patients go gentoo and compile your own code
otherwise ubuntu or fedora core seems to among the best ive ever used.


unless your gonna use linux properly theres no real need to change from windows to linux, if you cant resist download ubuntu and have a look at it

[DirtyHarry]

Originally Posted by dan.76

does anyone have any experience with linux that they could share with me. i an thinking of using to get away from windows but dont know much about linux at all.

If you actually have to ask this question then Linux is probably not for you.

[flappist]

Originally Posted by FALCONSR

linux is good but if its just ANY linux forget it theres too many and not enough time.

some releases are worse than windows like redhat...LOLs

best thing no viruses but who cares anyways
and unmatched security, uses less resources, MUCH more stable and some of the best software ever released is on a linux box before the windows one.

stick with a dual boot if you plan on playing games or using some software that may not work on linux, or theres a few installers that install windows stuff for linux, and theres also windows emulators

if you have time an patients go gentoo and compile your own code
otherwise ubuntu or fedora core seems to among the best ive ever used.


unless your gonna use linux properly theres no real need to change from windows to linux, if you cant resist download ubuntu and have a look at it

What is wrong with RedHat?

[dan.76]

dirty harry , you gotta start somewhere,

the different points of view in this thread have been great

thanks everyone , lots of checking things out to do .

cheers dan