Might be moving to Linux

[NuclearFusi0n]

Originally posted by: apac
Do you get off worshipping your ego? I know firsthand that a gentoo install is NOT what a first time linux user should try. Know why? 'Cause it's what I started with.

I also started with Gentoo. Well actually, I had used Red Hat and Mandrake a few years ago, but I learned diddly squat from them and didn't actually keep them around longer than a day or two, so I don't really count them. I recommend Gentoo if you learn by doing. There's not many better distros around for gaining fast experience. For a one month period, I would just struggle with Gentoo on my computer since I really didn't need it for any productive purposes. I really just kept my computer around to play music on and browse the internet, and anything else I did in Gentoo was a "bonus". I learned tons, and eventually it became as easy to use and administer as Windows. I actually find Windows a lot more limiting and painful than linux now. Window management is Windows is pathetically shoddy, ironically enough. The apps are closed-source, expensive, and don't offer much, if anything over their open-source counterparts, for the most part. Games are the only thing holding back linux from widespread consumer adoption over the next few years, in my opinion.

 

[Hyperblaze]

Originally posted by: silverpig
That's the thing... It IS ports. Ports for linux. That's how linux evolves. .tar.gz was made "easier" (arguably) by binary rpms. They're improved upon by packager managers like urpmi. They're further improved upon by apt-get and portage.

Dude, please do not called .tar.gz and .rpm files ports

The only true ports type distros are (other then bsd) gentoo and debian

 

[brunswickite]

Originally posted by: DougK62

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Don't blame windows because you suck at using it.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Brutuskend
Remember to be SAFE out there!

Whoa, that's a big sperm...

 

[SagaLore]

Okay, to defend my XP'ertise... I am well versed in spyware defense and cleaning. It is one of my primary tasks. Perhaps my rant was a little strong not so much because of my own computers, but because I support 450+ other computers that users whom are spyware magnets. I'm cleaning something up every week, and there is a new variant that I can't figure out how to clean, it is frustrating me.

And yes in my rant yesterday, I'm blaming XP for spyware but it really is the Internet Explorer. I shouldn't have lumped them together. I would love to use an alternative to IE at work but too much relies on it at this time - we have discussed it as a possibility in the near future.

As far as my home computer, I did get spyware once but because I was testing out Kazaa, which won't run with out it. I effectively removed it when I was done, no problem. The reason my home computer died was because of an overheating video card and a fauly power supply. So it wasn't fair of me to lump XP into that either.

But my work computer... yea Spyware killed me. I keep up on critical patches for the company, I handle our web proxy, our antivirus, personal firewall, etc. But because of troubleshooting and product evaluations, I have a proxy exception for my machine, and sometimes my AV is disabled or not installed, and I look through suspicious sites in our proxy reports - and recently, apprently my IE still had an exploit and BOOM I was infected - no prompts or anything. And it was this same spyware that is showing up on other machines, that I'm having trouble finding a solution to (none of the mainstream spyware cleaners can detect it). A few weeks ago I had to reformat because my machine was becoming unusable.

So that's my story... my biggest gripe, is not that I personally have a problem with spyware, but that I have to go through all this effort just to keep it off my machine and everyone elses. For $250 a license, this OS shouldn't have this problem (again I'm lumping in IE, but IE is part of the OS now...)

Okay carry on with your Linux arguments.

 

[Hyperblaze]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
Okay, to defend my XP'ertise... I am well versed in spyware defense and cleaning. It is one of my primary tasks. Perhaps my rant was a little strong not so much because of my own computers, but because I support 450+ other computers that users whom are spyware magnets. I'm cleaning something up every week, and there is a new variant that I can't figure out how to clean, it is frustrating me.

And yes in my rant yesterday, I'm blaming XP for spyware but it really is the Internet Explorer. I shouldn't have lumped them together. I would love to use an alternative to IE at work but too much relies on it at this time - we have discussed it as a possibility in the near future.

As far as my home computer, I did get spyware once but because I was testing out Kazaa, which won't run with out it. I effectively removed it when I was done, no problem. The reason my home computer died was because of an overheating video card and a fauly power supply. So it wasn't fair of me to lump XP into that either.

But my work computer... yea Spyware killed me. I keep up on critical patches for the company, I handle our web proxy, our antivirus, personal firewall, etc. But because of troubleshooting and product evaluations, I have a proxy exception for my machine, and sometimes my AV is disabled or not installed, and I look through suspicious sites in our proxy reports - and recently, apprently my IE still had an exploit and BOOM I was infected - no prompts or anything. And it was this same spyware that is showing up on other machines, that I'm having trouble finding a solution to (none of the mainstream spyware cleaners can detect it). A few weeks ago I had to reformat because my machine was becoming unusable.

So that's my story... my biggest gripe, is not that I personally have a problem with spyware, but that I have to go through all this effort just to keep it off my machine and everyone elses. For $250 a license, this OS shouldn't have this problem (again I'm lumping in IE, but IE is part of the OS now...)

Okay carry on with your Linux arguments.

Shouldn't? I completely agree. Then again, we are talking about Microsoft here.

Not to say that Linux doesn't have bugs in the code. No software is perfect. However, the main difference is that for Linux, millions of coders around the world check for bugs, while, for microsoft products, can't be more then a few thounsands (at a big max).

Such is one of the difference between closed-sourced and open-source software.

Each OS out there has a target audience. However, there are more and more OS out there which are starting to cover more needs for the users.

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: Jero

Originally posted by: silverpig
That's the thing... It IS ports. Ports for linux. That's how linux evolves. .tar.gz was made "easier" (arguably) by binary rpms. They're improved upon by packager managers like urpmi. They're further improved upon by apt-get and portage.

Dude, please do not called .tar.gz and .rpm files ports

The only true ports type distros are (other then bsd) gentoo and debian

I know that. I was comparing the various ways over time that you installed something with linux.

First it was source, then rpms, then rpm package managers... apt-get and portage have improved on the "download the .tar.gz file, tar -zxvf, cd, ./configure, make, make_install"

 

[cquark]

Originally posted by: edmicman
How in the world are you guys getting spyware and junk? Don't knowingly install/download any software that contains it. Don't click on links you don't trust. Don't let your kid sisters IM everyone in their jr high class. I've been running XP for over a year and installed/uninstalled tons of different things, and its still as rock solid and clean as it was in the beginning. I run an AV program, but thats just in case something messes up along the way. There are no IE errors, no random popups, nothing. What the heck are you guys doing?!?

The problem is that unpatched security holes exist in IE. Some have been there for years, some just appeared last week. Even if you don't download any spyware or click on any stupid OK links, you can still get infected.
http://www.safecenter.net/UMBRELLAWEBV4/ie_unpatched/