Have you tried Linux yet?

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: DarkKnight
It's too easy to mess up a linux system. Windows has more safegaurds (IMHO). Plus i find it a lot easier to use. I tried linux, but the system got messed up after installing the drivers. Plus it seems more sluggish than windows.

Windows has more safe gaurds? I suppose that does depend on your point of view, but may I ask what distro (redhat, mandrake, LFS, etc.) of linux that you were using. Of course, Linux is really at its ugliest when you're trying to get some piece of hardware or another to use with it, but may I ask what kind of hardware was this and what was the problem.

And, actually, Linux can be snappier than windows if you use a less bloated window manager. Try using something like IceWM, Blackbox, etc. if your system doesn't like KDE/Gnome.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: rjain

Originally posted by: DaZ
I tried Redhat 8.. it was a fairly simple install procedure. I went through it with fairly default settings.

I wasnt impressed by the fact that it needed 3 of the 5 CDs for a 'default' install. Nore was I pleased about the 200+ sh1tty little games and 400+ screensavers that it installed.. People call XP bloated

There was no reason for me to continue using it. I may consider it for web servers in the future, only because most web stuff is coded, documented, and optimized for linux..

What do any of your complaints have to do with linux?

None of his complaints have anything to do with the Linux kernel, or Linux-based Operating Systems as a whole, but he just feels like ranting and condemning the whole collection of free UNIX-like OSes because of a supposedly bad experience with one individual distribution. FWIW, he could have avoided that hassle if he would have done a few paragraphs' worth of reading, and spent a few minutes customizing his installation.

Originally posted by: DarkKnight
It's too easy to mess up a linux system. Windows has more safegaurds (IMHO). Plus i find it a lot easier to use. I tried linux, but the system got messed up after installing the drivers. Plus it seems more sluggish than windows.

Linux is not "too easy" to mess up, if you RTFM (Read The Fine Manualpages) and follow the guides designed to help new users set up a functional Linux system. If you have followed all the guides and it still doesn't work, chances are you may have found a bug, or some of your hardware just doesn't like to play nice with Linux.

FYI, in some cases Linux has been known to feel a little "sluggish," but these issues have been addressed in the upcoming 2.6 kernel series (the betas of which are already very stable, to the point that I use one daily on my development system).

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: DaZ
I tried Redhat 8.. it was a fairly simple install procedure. I went through it with fairly default settings.

I wasnt impressed by the fact that it needed 3 of the 5 CDs for a 'default' install. Nore was I pleased about the 200+ sh1tty little games and 400+ screensavers that it installed.. People call XP bloated

There was no reason for me to continue using it. I may consider it for web servers in the future, only because most web stuff is coded, documented, and optimized for linux..

When I installed redhat 8 I only used 1 cd. BTW, Linux distros only install what you tell them to install, so if you don't like the games and the screensavers then why did you install them. IMO, the reason that Linux is less "bloated" than windows is because you don't have to have any of the optional stuff running if you don't want to. In the end though, it's your choice, so try to know what you're talking about before you start complaining. Besides, Linux improves rapidly and red hat 8 isn't really on the razor's ege, so why don't you give something like mandrake 9.1 a try and then post an opinion.

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: jliechty
FYI, in some cases Linux has been known to feel a little "sluggish," but these issues have been addressed in the upcoming 2.6 kernel series (the betas of which are already very stable, to the point that I use one daily on my development system).

KDE, Gnome, or something in between are usually set up as the default wm for most user-oriented distros, so I'll hazard the guess that it was their excessive bulk which was taking the snap out of his system. It would be nice if the 2.6 kernel made KDE's slowness more bearable, though....

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Spyro

Originally posted by: jliechty
FYI, in some cases Linux has been known to feel a little "sluggish," but these issues have been addressed in the upcoming 2.6 kernel series (the betas of which are already very stable, to the point that I use one daily on my development system).

KDE, Gnome, or something in between are usually set up as the default wm for most user-oriented distros, so I'll hazard the guess that it was their excessive bulk which was taking the snap out of his system. It would be nice if the 2.6 kernel made KDE's slowness more bearable, though....

The 2.6 scheduler optimizations were mostly supposed to help with specific multimedia issues (from what I can tell), so in this case I'd take a guess that your analysis of the situation is much more likely to be correct than mine. 🙂

 

[Coldfusion]

My primary home machine runs Linux (Redhat 9). I've replaced Windows almost completely (although the wife's machine still uses it).

I was surprised that most of my programs had a free linux equivalent that was just as good or better (not to mention free):

WinAmp: XMMS
AIM: GAIM
Quicken 2002: Gnucash
Photoshop: The GiMP
Internet Explorer: Mozilla, Konqueror, or Galleon
Office: OpenOffice.org

RH9 also came with several other features such as a CD burning program, etc.

Some of the programs fought with me getting them set up (Java support in Mozilla, Xine), but overall it was a fairly easy process. I love the fact that RHN lets me know when there are things out there that are newer than I have as well.

Of course, the downside is the lack of game support.

 

[skyking]

servers: all freebsd
Desktops: win xp pro

No place for that in your poll😉

I have a freebsd firewall/NAT machine also, so my network is very linux dependent.

 

[Nothinman]

I have a freebsd firewall/NAT machine also, so my network is very linux dependent.

FreeBSD != Linux

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I have a freebsd firewall/NAT machine also, so my network is very linux dependent.

FreeBSD != Linux

I 'd like you to go into a dark alleyway with a dead end and a bunch of FreeBSD users and see if you could get away with something like that there, punk! 😛

 

[MedicBob]

Play with it on and off every few months.

Primarily Red Hat.

 

[skyking]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I have a freebsd firewall/NAT machine also, so my network is very linux dependent.

FreeBSD != Linux

OK, so I have not tried linux.
😛

 

[Nothinman]

I 'd like you to go into a dark alleyway with a dead end and a bunch of FreeBSD users and see if you could get away with something like that there, punk!

What? It's true and most of them would probably be more offended if I did equate FreeBSD with Linux.

 

[Daytrader889]

I tried it and I like it but it does not like me, err, well it doesn't like my hardware really.

 

[Matt84]

I used Linux periodically between late 1999 and mid 2002 but this was on and off, where I tried many distros but eventually deleted my Linux partitions and went back to Windows only. This period was mainly for learning Linux and I didn't really use it for anything productive. The distro's I used in this period were:

Red Hat 7.0/1/2
Mandrake 7.2,8.0,9.0
Debian 2.2

When I started University this year, we mostly used Sun Solaris UNIX based systems so to help me familiarise myself with UNIX, I installed Linux back onto my computer. I tried Mandrake 9.0/1 on my new system but neither like the promise hard disk controller I have so I installed Red Hat 8, and then when release upgraded to Red Hat 9. This is the current distribution I am using but I am thinking of changin over to the latest SuSE or Mandrake releases when they come out.

My current system triple boots:
Windows XP - Work, General usage
Windows 98SE - Games only
Red Hat 9 - Uni stuff