Linux: pros/cons, which kind?

[Bob Adkins]

Oh, hear my sad tale. I was playing with Knoppix on my W98 machine, was annoyed
that saved docs were lost on rebooting, configured the disk for linux file
system, and lost my Windows Operating System.
Had to format and reinstall W98, with all the attendant misery that entails.
So beware.

Wow. Sorry to hear that. I know it's too late, but did you try "fdisk /mbr"?

-- Bob

 

[Signpoet]

did you try "fdisk /mbr"?

Never heard of it, and it's too late anyway. I now have a pristine disk and am
slowly putting back all my lovely freeware.

 

[Richard Steven Hack]

Oh, hear my sad tale. I was playing with Knoppix on my W98 machine, was annoyed
that saved docs were lost on rebooting

If you didn't know that Knoppix is a LIVE CD - which means nothing is
saved on the hard drive unless you tell it to - I can imagine you had
problems. You have to have at least some clue as to what you're doing.

, configured the disk for linux file system, and lost my Windows Operating System.

Well, that was to be expected...

 

[Richard Steven Hack]

Currently I use Win98, Office97, FireFox & Thunderbird and I use
dialup. I use it only for personal purposes. I have medium
experience with computers (10+ years as an end-user only).

Linux is infinitely better than Windows 98 and on a par with Windows
XP these days.

All of the software you mention is either on Linux or can be run on
Linux using a (non-free but cheap) product called CrossOver Office
from CodeWeavers. Check it out here
http://www.codeweavers.com/site/products/

Could I adjust to a Linux product fairly easily?

Yes, absolutely no problem as long as you take note of some facts.
See below.

Which kind (distribution) is the friendlinest or the most Windows-like?

The best distros are Mandrake (http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/) and
SUSE (now owned by Novell: http://www.novell.com/linux/suse/). These
can be obtained completely free or in boxed commercial versions. The
distro called Fedora Core (originally Red Hat) tends to be more for
power users and techies.

The most Windows like are Lycoris (http://www.lycoris.com/) and
Xandros (http://www.xandros.com/)
ExtremeTech's review of Xandros as a Windows XP replacement is here:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1738495,00.asp

There's another one called Linspire (which used to be called Lindows
until Microsoft sued them). It's not a bad distro but you have to
subscribe to get software, which is ridiculous since there are tons of
free sources of software.

The Windows-like distros aren't strictly freeware as they are
commercial distros but you can get the Xandros Desktop OS Version 2
Open Circulation Edition here:
http://www.xandros.com/products/home/desktopoc/dsk_oc_download.html
and there is a 45-day evaluation version of Lycoris available.

Are there links that could help me decide?

Here's new guide I just found: Linux Newbie Administrator Guide
http://linux-newbie.sunsite.dk/html/lnag.html

Otherwise, do a Google search for "Linux newbie" - you'll get over 2
million hits. There are tons of sites with introductory material on
Linux.

Is there a newsgroup or forum where this question would be more appropriate?

There's Linux newsgroups for just about all the major distros as well
as general Linux newsgroups. Look at your newsgroup master list and
check out comp.os.linux and alt.os.linux as well as linux.redhat. One
warning: some people in these groups are very helpful to newbies -
others expect you to do some research on your own before asking the
simpler questions and will take you to task for not "Reading the F'ing
Manual" first. But you can usually get your questions answered.

A lot of the newbie Web sites have discussion forums where you can get
questions answered easily, too.

The key to ease of use of Linux is to learn to use the GUI package
management systems - if you want to install software, that is, and you
probably will. The package management systems take care of most of
the problems of installing software that depends on other software you
may not have installed. Since most distros come with tons of software
to begin with, you may not need to install much, but in case you ever
see something you want, it's good to know how to do it. Installing
from source code is usually easy - a three-step command line process -
but the package managers make it as easy as installing Windows
software - in some cases even easier as there is usually no "license"
prompts or "install directory" prompts (as Linux developers generally
know where things should go on a Linux system).

The second key to using Linux is not to expect that it is identical to
Windows. It isn't. However, the GUI is generally so similar that
some playing around will get you running very quickly.

The third key to using Linux is not to try to install the very latest
distro on very old hardware or any distro on the absolute latest
hardware - because the newest stuff may not be supported yet.
Hardware manufacturers usually write drivers for Windows first and
Linux second if at all. This means there is usually a wait for Linux
drivers until the manufacturer releases one or some programmer writes
his own. That said, Linux supports as much or more hardware out of
the box as Windows these days - including digital cameras and USB
devices. And Linux runs on FAR more computer architectures than
Windows ever will. For most people, the latter is not important as
they generally buy an IBM-compatible PC.

Hope this helps.

 

[Fuzzy Logic]

Linux is infinitely better than Windows 98 and on a par with Windows
XP these days.

A couple of quick notes. Better can only be determined by supplying some
criteria. What's best for you may be useless to me and vice versa.

Wether you are running Windows or Linux there are security issues that need
to be addressed. This is a very good site that points out some of the issues
and offers solutions:

http://www.sans.org/top20/

 

[Mike Andrade]

That way when you start finding Linux to
be lacking you can always boot into Windows and get something done.

You got that bass ackwards.

 

[Chaos Master]

I wish I had Signpoet's angel tonight:

Oh, hear my sad tale. I was playing with Knoppix on my W98 machine, was annoyed
that saved docs were lost on rebooting, configured the disk for linux file
system, and lost my Windows Operating System.
Had to format and reinstall W98, with all the attendant misery that entails.
So beware.

You can mount the hard drive C: in Linux as a FAT partition... I did it
by adding a hard disk entry to my /etc/fstab. (I could access my files
successfully with Slackware and Debian)

[]s
--
Chaos Master®, posting from Canoas, Brazil - 29.55° S / 51.11° W / GMT-
2h / 15m


"Now: the 3-bit processor, with instructions:
1. NOP - does nothing, increase PC.
2. HLT - does nothing, doesn't increase PC
3. MMX - enter Pentium(r) emulation mode; increase PC
4. LCK - before MMX: NOP ; after MMX: executes F0 0F C7 C8
5. HCF - Halt and Catch Fire"

 

[Capoot]

[snip] I was thinking about going with Linux [more snips]. I use dialup.
Linda,

Suse, Mandrake, Mephis are Windows like. Try Evilentity for a full featured
Linux that does not try to emulate Windows.

All four of these are easy installs.

You will need a hardware internal modem or an external type.

Here are two services that I have used to buy the "free" versions on CD's
for 1 or 2 dollars per disc.

Every known distribution at $1.99 each CD: http://www.budgetlinuxcds.com

Small selection at $.99 each: http://www.linuxcdrs.com

Rudy

 

[Richard Steven Hack]

A couple of quick notes. Better can only be determined by supplying some
criteria. What's best for you may be useless to me and vice versa.

Start with security, reliability, scalability, quality of code - and
of course cost. One could go on.

Wether you are running Windows or Linux there are security issues that need
to be addressed. This is a very good site that points out some of the issues
and offers solutions:

http://www.sans.org/top20/

I'm familiar with the security concerns of both UNIX-based systems and
Windows. The consensus of people in the security field and those who
have used both systems is: there really isn't a significant comparison
- UNIX-based systems are significantly more secure than Windows out of
the box - and with the right sysadmin can be made much more secure
than Windows. It is possible that the relative difference could be
narrowed somewhat if hackers targeted Linux as much as they do
Windows, but it still would leave Linux more secure than Windows by
some degree.

 

[rhonda]

Some winmodems can be easily configured...

I had one (the onboard modem on my system' motherboard) that was working
with Linux kernels 2.4.xx.

www.linmodems.org

I know it's not a question about freeware - but what motherboard is
that?

 

[Chaos Master]

rhonda stated:

I know it's not a question about freeware - but what motherboard is
that?

It's an (yuck) PC-Chips - built as a system for when my main PC is down,
don't remember the model number. It has HSP onboard modem.


[]s
--
Chaos Master®, posting from Canoas, Brazil - 29.55° S / 51.11° W

"People told me I can't dress like a fairy.
I say, I'm in a rock band and I can do what the hell I want!"
-- Amy Lee

 

[fathom]

I'm planning on buying a new pc (custom built). I was
thinking about going with Linux instead of having Windows
installed. (and use some free office product instead of
microsoft's). My purpose is partly to save money but
mostly to avoid microsoft.

Maybe you should look to a PC vendor who has Linux-ready
systems. That way you won't have unsupported hardware.

www.monarchcomputer.com is an excellent system builder with
Linux experience. You can custom design a system and they will
build, test, and certify it for $45 over the cost of parts.

 

[Mark Carter]

Maybe you should look to a PC vendor who has Linux-ready
systems. That way you won't have unsupported hardware.

www.monarchcomputer.com is an excellent system builder with
Linux experience. You can custom design a system and they will
build, test, and certify it for $45 over the cost of parts.

I had a look at their value system. It includes MS Windows 2000. It
doesn't state whether the parts are Linux-compatible or not. As much as
I dig Linux, I think that the vast majority of people are better off
using Windows. Linux is just too painful for most people. Until we see
most hardware come with Linux-compatible logos on their packaging, using
Linux will most likely be a game that's not worth the candle. There are
so many flavours of Linux, and so many potential complications, I
imagine that manufacturers must find it difficult to write drivers which
will work.

I've been trying to find an ultra-cheap computer for my dad so that he
can connect to the internet. I spotted a system for £289 at Tiny Computers:
http://www.tiny.com/home_pcs.php/13119
It runs Linspire. So, I guess we're seeing the emergence of vendors
selling Linux-driven computers. Don't know how long it will last, though.

There's someone at my company who has an old old computer, which will be
offered to my dad for free. I reckon that I'll be able to install
Feather Linux on it, and get quite good performance from it. The only
costs to me will probably be a new ethernet card, and some cabling.

 

[Richard Steven Hack]

So, I guess we're seeing the emergence of vendors
selling Linux-driven computers. Don't know how long it will last, though.

Both Dell and HP sell PCs - in fact, HP sells a laptop as well - that
come with Linux. I don't think that's going to go away any time soon.
In fact, just the opposite.