LINUX OS

[cptwright 1]

any one here use linux? just curious, its one thing ive heard about a bit in school, and was wondering if anyone knew much about it. such as how is it, can you still use windows software with it, and so on? ive been thinking about playing with it, if its worth it to get away from mr gates. :blink:

[Captain Bolivar 0]

BECAUSE IT CAME WITH MY COMPUTER. AND THAT WAS BECAUSE OF THE MICROSOFT MONOPOLY. AND THAT WAS BECAUSE OF BILL GATES!

[fredbroca 0]

XP Because it came with my computer.

[cptwright 1]

yeah ive got XP home as well because it came with my computer.

[Goose 0]

Stardate:213808.9

 

 

ME cause like every one else it came with my cpu.I wont upgrade to XP cause too many bugs.I still have a copy of windows 98 that if ME dies i will use it cause IMO 98 is the most stable.

 

I have been thinking of looking into Linux.I have heard good thing about it

[Yellow_Dragon 0]

XP.

I like it just fine,and haven't experienced very many problems.Nothing big,anyway.

[SoCalTom 0]

I'm running Windows 98SE and XP, and SuSE Linux. I have, also, run Windows ME at one time, but it crashed so often, I had to reload 98SE.

 

On this machine, I'm running XP; but it has bugs that I don't like. That's why I have a Linux machine standing by.

 

Unlike Windows, Linux makes one think of what they want the machine to do, and configure it to do it.

 

Incidently, Microsoft has just introduced a new version/upgrade of Office. I'm not going to spend the $200 for it. I just got Free Office BSD (originally written for Linux) and it does a lot more than M$ Office, and it'll now run on a Windows machine. Why spend money when you don't have to?

[Mike 5]

XP..It's what came loaded onto this computer..I've only had this computer for 6 months maybe..Seems to work good for what I need it for..

[master_q 0]

I have Win XP & Redhat Linux on my computer (it has a dual boot to handle multipliable operating systems on one computer)

 

 

Master Q

StarTrek_Master_Q@yahoo.com

[cptwright 1]

FIRST master q, by dual boot, do you mean two harddrives, or partitioned hard drive so you can boot from one or the other, if not what do you mean, also if you or socaltom could tell me a little more about linux, i would truly appreciate it. im thinking of toying with it if for nothing else a little learning exercise. can you play windows games in it, and does it work mostly like windows or what?

[nik 0]

I use Linux as well. At work, I need to do some pretty intense data analysis on data sets pushing 1Tb, and there is nothing out there that will work in a Windows environment. Linux is extremely versatile and powerful. It has the stigma of

being non-intiutive, but with many of the "X" environments, it's no longer really a problem. It's also extremely stable. In fact, the place I work uses Linux systems excusively for it's data acquisition becuase we need 20 high-speed servers tranferring huge amounts of data 24 hours a day every day. (By the way, it was invented by a guy named Linus in Finland.)

 

Currently, I'm using a dual boot maching with XP (a very

expensive virus) in one partition and the Knoppix distribution in another.

Dual boot means what it sounds like - the user is able to boot one of two operating systems. (A few people I know have triple boot or more, for some reason or other.) It's typically accomplished by "partitioning" the hard drive(s) - meaning that one

creates logical (or even physical) divisions in the drive so that the computer

essentially sees two distinct areas, but it can be accomplished with less orthodox methods.

I used to partition my drives the "old fashioned" way - "by hand" with fdisk or something similar. However, I just got ahold of Partition Magic 7.0, and partitioned a drive, and installed the Knoppix distribution in about 40 minutes (most of that time

spent twiddling my thumbs while the drives spun). There's some preferences involved in partitioning drives, so you can discuss those.

The nice thing about Linux is that it is usually free. Also, nearly all the software used in a Linux environment is free. You can get Windows emulators to run Windows stuff on Linux, and many Linux users would respond with "Why would you want to do that?"

You might want to check the huge volume on information on the web, and maybe

even download a distribution. Many distributions can be booted from a floppy or

CD-ROM, so you don't really risk anything by trying it out without installing it. Which

distribution you use is personal preference.

I would recommend the following websites to learn about Linux:

Linux Website

GNU website for Linux/Unix documentation

Sourceforge = One of the MANY websites

where one can download FREE Linux software.

[master_q 0]

FIRST master q, by dual boot, do you mean two harddrives, or partitioned hard drive so you can boot from one or the other, if not what do you mean, also if you or socaltom could tell me a little more about linux, i would truly appreciate it. im thinking of toying with it if for nothing else a little learning exercise. can you play windows games in it, and does it work mostly like windows or what?

I only have one master HD. I don't have a slave HD (secondary HD). I run both operating systems on one HD. So I had to partition my HD. I actually have three partitions - 1 for Linux and 2 for XP.

 

I'm trying to open Partition Magic (7.0) right now, but it is giving me an error message. I'll have to try figure that out. (It is always something!) . . . . . .

The best way to partition is with Partition Magic. You can do it the old way, but there are several limitations to doing it the old way. If you wanted to partition your HD to install Linux, then if I were you I would buy Partition Magic 7.0.

 

I don't use Linux for games, but there are software programs that can make window software compatible with Linux. You'll have to check that out.

 

These days I rarely use Linux, but it is a good OS to learn and sometimes it is fun to use.

 

 

Master Q

StarTrek_Master_Q@yahoo.com

[removed 0]

98. Because it was free and I didn't think, so didn't buy a Mac. The next computer I buy will be a Mac G5 running Mac OS X Panther.

[SoCalTom 0]

FIRST master q, by dual boot, do you mean two harddrives, or partitioned hard drive so you can boot from one or the other, if not what do you mean, also if you or socaltom could tell me a little more about linux, i would truly appreciate it. im thinking of toying with it if for nothing else a little learning exercise. can you play windows games in it, and does it work mostly like windows or what?

Linux is an operating system all of its own. Comparing Linux to Windows is like comparing apples to oranges. Linux isn't for the first time user, as everything must be configured. Windows is simple to use for the first time user. It's just point and click. You have to tell Linux what to do; but that is being made easier now.

 

As for machines, I replaced my 13 gig hard drive in my Compaq (Windows 98SE), with an 80 gig hard drive. Then, using Partition Magic, I partitioned the hard drive to accomodate Windows and Linux. It's interesting to note that Windows uses more hard drive space than Linux; but Linux is running three times as many apps as Windows. Sitting next to my Windows/Linux machine is my Windows XP machine, an eMachine with a 40 gig hard drive. Both machines are of the desktop variety, and are controlled by a KVM switch. This allows me to use one keyboard, mouse and monitor for both machines. I, also, have a Toshiba laptop (XP) running in the system. All machines are connected to the Internet through a Linksys router, to the DSL modem. (One of these days, Verizon is going to upgrade their system and we'll get a boost to 1.5 gigs.)

 

One other interesting comparison is processing speed. My Compaq (98SE/Linux) has a 750 meg Athlon; whereas my eMachine (XP) machine has a 2 gig Pentium. In side-by-side speed tests, Linux vs XP, Linux wins, although it is running on a slower machine.

 

For applications (programs), you can buy Windows programs at almost any store. Linux apps must be downloaded; however, they are (for the most part) freeware. Star Office (Linux) is 10 times better than M$ Office; but the price of M$ Office is $200, while Star Office is freeware, since it is open source.

 

There are games for Linux based machines; but you won't find Grand Theft Auto - New Vice City for it. (At least, not now.)

 

Before going out and getting Linux, get a few books on the subject. They're available at most libraries. Study up on it; then, if you think you can handle Linux, go for it. There are plenty of Linux distros available, all for free downloads.

 

You, also, might try www.linux.org for more information.

[ddillard 2]

I use XP. I feel that it is a very user friendly format and works well with most of the programs that I use. It is also a good format for networking and is easy to set up a home network.

 

As for Lynux I have never used it so I cannot speak on it that much.

[Tri-Woo-Ox 0]

I have xp cos it cost me £5 and i have 2k, red hat, suse and mandrake pc's

[Makurosu 0]

XP, currently. Mainly because of the stability, though I should look into that after the worm. :angry:

 

I've had various flavors of Linux on my PC off and on. Windows has been my primary OS because I game, but Linux has become pretty good for gaming in the last couple of years. Plus there's so much open source software, like programming compilers and helpful editors. I haven't tried WineX, but that seems pretty cool if it would work. It'd be awesome to play DirectX games under Linux.

 

I'll probably throw Red Hat on again soon, and have a dual boot OS. Either that, or get one of the machines that our school occasionally gives away and throw Linux on that.

[nik 0]

In the past, I've used RedHat almost exclusively, but recently bought a new computer and switched to the Knoppix distribution. It's an extremely nice, well-packaged

distribution. I think Knoppix could really give Winblows a run for its money. One can

download the boot image (free, of course) and boot and run off of the CD-ROM. Of course, if one likes, one can easily configure for HD boot and running, which I did in

about 20 minutes. The nice things about this distribution are that it has auto-hardware

detection capabilities (something that's sort of been a sore spot for Linux in the past),

as well as a boatload of software (in a KDE environment) like KOffice - Linux's

stable answer to MSOffice, utilities up the wazoo, games, StarOffice, install wizards,

etc.

 

SoCalTom is right, too. Linux beats XP any day in terms of speed.

 

Currently, I've got XP installed on an NTFS partition (for those in my house who

swing that way), and Linux on an ext2 partition. The majority of my disk space

is maintained as a FAT32 partition, so it is accessible by XP and Linux. That's sort of

nice if I need to share files between the two operating systems or it just makes a

big repository accessible by both systems. The only thing that worries me is

the security involved with running XP. Linux is pretty immune to virus and worm

attacks, but if someone is using XP, a virus might get in that way. If I'm lucky, it migh just blow out the XP partition, but I'm also worried about the FAT32 partition.

[cptwright 1]

WOW i guess i've got a lot more to learn. but i should be into OS's soon at school. so that should help. plus i just put in another hard drive a very small one as to it was free, to try to play with linux on, and see how i like it. since ive started this computer repair course, and learned more about puters, ive really just been into playing, and playing. its kinda nice to know what your playing with.

[trekzone 0]

XP home....came with the comp.

[Tal 0]

I use me because i can not be bothered to spend another 100 on £ on upgrading.

 

I have always wanted to try LINUX but have never got round to it.

 

 

:lol: