Should I get Linux?

[Scrooge2]

what are the differences between the different linuxes? Testmonials?

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: notfred
No, you shouldn't get it. You'll install it. Realize that you can't get either your hardware or software to work in it, spend 4 hours trying to install something that should be simple like a video card driver or a mp3 player, and then you'll need to actually get something done in windows so you'll boot back into windows. You'll do this three or four more times while linux remains interesting, simply because of the challendge of ttrying to make it work right, but each time you'll need to use Word, or Photoshop, or play a game, or something and you'll be forced to reboot back into windows for actual functionality. After doing this for a few days, you'll jsut always boot into windows by default, and all linux will be doing is taking up space on your harddrive and forcing you to press an extra key to start windows every time you boot.

Quite true. Linux is not a game. Linux is a tool. People, including myself have used it in a variety of fashions, and eventually, those that are looking for "fun" get rid of it or lose interest.

My adivice is to approach it as a tool, and use it IF you need it. You need a fast simple and secure webserver or fileserver? ..BAM! Linux. You need a sever enviroment that will scale like crazy with a bunch of underpowered nodes? BAM! linux. You need a nice non-.NET devel enviroment? BAM! Linux?

You need something to type and surf the web? Stay with what you have, whatever it may be. For the sake of saying "i use/have linux and I am cool," it is simply not worth it.

Hell, it is reasonable to compare installing linux to installing windows 2000 advanced server/datacenter on a home PC. It CAN and MAY be EXTREMELY useful, but for web surfing, checking email, and playing games? And don;t give me that "linux can play games jsut as well" crap. I have used it, I have seen how well it runs games. Only problem is you have to know a LOT to tweak them just right...way more tweaking than in windows for basic gameplay, and a LOT more for optimal performance. Hopefully you get the picture....Linux is a very effective and free tool.....

....but do yourself a favor and don't use a jackhammer if all you need to do is put up a picture frame....

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: notfred
No, you shouldn't get it. You'll install it. Realize that you can't get either your hardware or software to work in it, spend 4 hours trying to install something that should be simple like a video card driver or a mp3 player, and then you'll need to actually get something done in windows so you'll boot back into windows. You'll do this three or four more times while linux remains interesting, simply because of the challendge of ttrying to make it work right, but each time you'll need to use Word, or Photoshop, or play a game, or something and you'll be forced to reboot back into windows for actual functionality. After doing this for a few days, you'll jsut always boot into windows by default, and all linux will be doing is taking up space on your harddrive and forcing you to press an extra key to start windows every time you boot.

Quite true. Linux is not a game. Linux is a tool. People, including myself have used it in a variety of fashions, and eventually, those that are looking for "fun" get rid of it or lose interest.

My adivice is to approach it as a tool, and use it IF you need it. You need a fast simple and secure webserver or fileserver? ..BAM! Linux. You need a sever enviroment that will scale like crazy with a bunch of underpowered nodes? BAM! linux. You need a nice non-.NET devel enviroment? BAM! Linux?

You need something to type and surf the web? Stay with what you have, whatever it may be. For the sake of saying "i use/have linux and I am cool," it is simply not worth it.

Hell, it is reasonable to compare installing linux to installing windows 2000 advanced server/datacenter on a home PC. It CAN and MAY be EXTREMELY useful, but for web surfing, checking email, and playing games? And don;t give me that "linux can play games jsut as well" crap. I have used it, I have seen how well it runs games. Only problem is you have to know a LOT to tweak them just right...way more tweaking than in windows for basic gameplay, and a LOT more for optimal performance. Hopefully you get the picture....Linux is a very effective and free tool.....

....but do yourself a favor and don't use a jackhammer if all you need to do is put up a picture frame....

+5 Insightful

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: Scrooge2
A lot of people rave about being devout linux users and I always wondered what the hype was about. Now that I got a big hard drive should I install Linux with Windows? What have i got to gain?

Well it sure is stable. Of course its stable if you can't make anything run on it or do anything with it. Windows is fairly stable if you install it and do nothing else.

What have you got to gain? 1337ness

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: homestarmy

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: Scrooge2
A lot of people rave about being devout linux users and I always wondered what the hype was about. Now that I got a big hard drive should I install Linux with Windows? What have i got to gain?

defintely try it! its worth while just to see what all the hubub is about. then you can decide how cool or sh!tty it is.

Well it sure is stable. Of course its stable if you can't make anything run on it or do anything with it. Windows is fairly stable if you install it and do nothing else.

the NT kernel is definitely a step up from 98, but it's still nowhere near unix in terms of stability. look at average top uptimes on the net and try to find windows on the list.

Not to mention that windows has a hack of a multiuser mode which spawns a huge load of security issues

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Scrooge2
what are the differences between the different linuxes? Testmonials?

Gentoo is very slick, but it has a very steep knowledge curve as it is more CLI-oriented from the start. It is the not best or the worst, but has impressed many including myself. I have yet to try install and run Debian though, but I have heard nothing but great thigns about it. ( i have "used" it but I haven't gone thorugh the entire install and usage process)

Suse, from what I've seen, is the simplest and easiest to use as they have done quite a bit of work on it such as making the YaST configurations etc that allow for easy configuration.

Mandrake is supposed to be more of the "multimedia" showoff. I haven't used it since 9, but from what I have read, it is a nice choice for starters.

Fedora is is basically Redhat from whatI gather. As for redhat(last one I used was 9), it is nice and simple, but flawed in that although it looks simple to use (which is many times the demographic that tries it), quite a few commands require a bit of experience. This is not at all problematic for experienced users, but novices will use it, get bored, and get rid of it.

Basically, use mandrake or suse if you don't like reading and just want to mess around. Use Redhat if you want a slick interface but are willing to read a bit on how to use it and what you need to add to it to do what it is you need it to do. If you are willing to do A LOT OF READING, try gentoo. You will by no means be an expert after installign it, but you will be quite familiar with fundamentals such as partitioning, kernel compiling and CLI navigation, which are generally applicable in most Linux OS's. If you HAVE TIME, PATIENCE, and ARE WILLING TO READ AND SEARCH THE WEB A HELL OF A LOT, then try debian. It's INSTALLATION documentation is no where near as well-written and centralized as gentoo's, but it is out there, and packages are as documented as they are for any other OS (it varies).


Basically for fun: suse, mandrake

For a beginner without windows experience wishing to learn a little yet have a functioning linux desktop: Redhat/ suse/mandrake

for a beginner willing to sit down and learn but not in imediate need of a functioning desktop: gentoo, debian

for a beginner that has a world of time on his hands: gentoo, debian

For an expert at windows interested in linux:

1.install suse/mandrake
2. delete it
3. install redhat
4. delete it
5. install gentoo/debian
6. have fun

 

[Scarpozzi]

Originally posted by: Scrooge2
what are the differences between the different linuxes? Testmonials?

Linux distributions are basically comprised of the same kernel and different programs. Red Hat/Fedora has somewhere around 1500 programs that comes with it... SuSE has 3400.... You don't really need that many programs, but it's good to have choices.

I suggest SuSE, but be sure to get 9. Some of the features in 8 reminded me of Red Hat 7.3....

For those interested in migrating data between Windows and Linux PCs, check out Novell's iFolder project. I haven't tested the Linux version for a while, but it should be getting better by now.

www.ifolder.com

 

[Ranger X]

Originally posted by: Scrooge2
So who do you recommend me getting the penguin from?

RedHat, Mandrake, SuSE, Gentoo, etc ... they're all good.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Ranger X

Originally posted by: Scrooge2
So who do you recommend me getting the penguin from?

RedHat, Mandrake, SuSE, Gentoo, etc ... they're all good.

BAsically, they are all different types of "modifiable" hammers

You have your carpentry, your jack, your mallets,etc..that you can put "stickers" all over and make to your liking.....

Read up at each distro's website first, because like i sated, trying to put up a picture frame using a jack hammer might not be the best way to start

 

[ghostman]

Originally posted by: notfred
No, you shouldn't get it. You'll install it. Realize that you can't get either your hardware or software to work in it, spend 4 hours trying to install something that should be simple like a video card driver or a mp3 player, and then you'll need to actually get something done in windows so you'll boot back into windows. You'll do this three or four more times while linux remains interesting, simply because of the challendge of ttrying to make it work right, but each time you'll need to use Word, or Photoshop, or play a game, or something and you'll be forced to reboot back into windows for actual functionality. After doing this for a few days, you'll jsut always boot into windows by default, and all linux will be doing is taking up space on your harddrive and forcing you to press an extra key to start windows every time you boot.

I'm going to have to agree with this to a large extent. I'm a big Linux fan, but I've seen this happen before. If you're not really tech-oriented (programmer, IT guy, etc.) or big with number crunching, then I would guess you'll be back with Windows in a few weeks. Try Knoppix's LiveCD to get a feel for it.

Actually, one thing I noticed: If you claim "Macs suck" but can't give any definitive reasons why Mac OS X is so much worse than Windows, then you probably won't like Linux. Not that Linux is very much like Mac OS X, but that you're too used to Windows and will think anything that doesn't behave like it would under Windows is bad.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: halik
<snip>
+5 Insightful

Agreed :beer: Goose.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

I tried running both BSD/Linux on my laptop hoping that I wouldnt have to deal with MS' security issues.
However, getting my video card/NIC to work correctly under linux is a challenge in itself. I've administered BSD/Linux boxes for a little over 3 years now and each time I tell myself I would make the switch, I would run into little issues that never work out. I end up reverting back to XP, but my any web/mail server I install, I run BSD.

It's better for me to run BSd/Linux on older equipment where I dont need to run KDE/Gnome

 

[tranceport]

Originally posted by: notfred
No, you shouldn't get it. You'll install it. Realize that you can't get either your hardware or software to work in it, spend 4 hours trying to install something that should be simple like a video card driver or a mp3 player, and then you'll need to actually get something done in windows so you'll boot back into windows. You'll do this three or four more times while linux remains interesting, simply because of the challendge of ttrying to make it work right, but each time you'll need to use Word, or Photoshop, or play a game, or something and you'll be forced to reboot back into windows for actual functionality. After doing this for a few days, you'll jsut always boot into windows by default, and all linux will be doing is taking up space on your harddrive and forcing you to press an extra key to start windows every time you boot.

For most people.... This nails it.

Hell.. I've even been know to do this..

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: halik
<snip>
+5 Insightful

Agreed :beer: Goose.

Ah shucks...you people are making me blush:sun:

 

[sillymofo]

I choose the Matrix.