What's it like being a newbie?

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just want to help put M$h*t in its place and promote the use of a VASTLY superior OS.

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superior in what way ? I have spent over a month on configuring this and it is still no where near XP in terms of user friendliness.

I experienced more 'hanging' than XP, fonts on X looks uglier than XP, I tried one of the games and found no way of quiting it(including issuing kill at a prompt).

So in what way is Linux superior to XP ? I would still continue to venture only because I want to see how much I can get from a completely free installation, comparing with XP.

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Originally Posted by garyng

superior in what way ? I have spent over a month on configuring this and it is still no where near XP in terms of user friendliness.

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Security, Stability, Standards Compliance, Portability and you'll still be configuring a year from now.

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I experienced more 'hanging' than XP, fonts on X looks uglier than XP, I tried one of the games and found no way of quiting it(including issuing kill at a prompt).

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As opposed to the doz forced re-boot you are running a mixture of testing, unstable and experimental software you do realize that don't you and fonts are a multi-million dollar industry and those people don't exactly give them away.

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So in what way is Linux superior to XP ?

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You actually have people that care about the work they put out and will fix it or someone else will there's no sitting around pretending that you working on "Trustworthy Computing" it's already there built in by default or trying to figure out how you are going to screw your customers out of more money or ram some bunch of proprietary junk down your throat so they can lock data into microsoft formats and continue to screw you forever.

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I would still continue to venture only because I want to see how much I can get from a completely free installation, comparing with XP.

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Good luck with your venture.

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Originally Posted by garyng

superior in what way ? I have spent over a month on configuring this and it is still no where near XP in terms of user friendliness.

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Exactly garyng! M$ doesn't think you're smart enough to make your own decisions so they have made them for you and there is nothing you can do about it. Linux freaks people out because it is SO configurable. It doesn't attempt to tell you what kind of OS you can and cannot have.

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I experienced more 'hanging' than XP,

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My machine never hangs but maybe that's because it's older and Linux loves old hardware.

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fonts on X looks uglier than XP,

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Again, M$ may be pretty on the outside..... BTW- I have some great looking fonts on my desktop (when I use it).

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I tried one of the games and found no way of quiting it(including issuing kill at a prompt).

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Yeah that Bubble Puzze game does that to me all of the time too. Open a term, become root (or sudo)
top
k
<enter PID to kill>
h
That'll kill it. I know it isn't as easy as just closing the window but I don't know anything about writing software.

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So in what way is Linux superior to XP ? .

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Our local school district just spent $360,000 on licensing for M$- that doesn't buy ANYTHING but the right to use software. BAH! Think about what our kids could have w/ Linux, & old recycled pc's for $360,000. You are right on one thing, to gather a following things must be easy but let's not forget who made it seem like all you need do is plug it in and turn it on. That as we all know, no matter the OS is FAR from the truth. How about intuitiveness (is that even a word?)? In M$ you click 'Start' to stop, you get worthless error messages that only tell you that something is wrong not how to fix it. Have you ever solved a real problem w/ the M$ troubleshooter? Give me a break! All it ever did was run me through the obvious that anyone w/ a year's experience on pc's would have and then it would say "We're sorry but the troubleshooter cannot fix your problem." Cmon garyng- don't tell me you have never seen that.

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I would still continue to venture only because I want to see how much I can get from a completely free installation, comparing with XP

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Well, I don't use M$ at all for anything ever. (well OK here at work I do but that's not my choice). Linux is more than capable of doing anything and everything. And don't give me that crap "I want to see what I can get from a free OS"- you love Linux already, you're hooked and you know it! :D Nobody would post as much as you have otherwise. I have seen some very good posts by you in fact. You've figured alot of it out already. Me, I'm still learning Linux, always will be I think.

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Linux is more than capable of doing anything and everything. And don't give me that crap "I want to see what I can get from a free OS"- you love Linux already, you're hooked and you know it!

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Depends on what side of me we are talking about :)

I have some idea about what I want to see in the PCs down the road which cannot be met by Microsoft stuff and I am attempting to do it through linux. This is the hobby side of me who played with GEM, Smalltalk, OS/2.

However, I am typing this on XP because I still need a reliable environment to do my other stuff and I maintain my view that for average person, XP is a better OS than linux because Microsoft(as evil as it is) has ironed out a lot of minor details for a typical desktop, especialy the usability side. Not that many people is interested in tweaking an OS. But Linux can be a viable alternative as it is getting better and better and the gap(in terms of user friendliness) between it and Windows is closing fast.

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Originally Posted by garyng

I have some idea about what I want to see in the PCs down the road which cannot be met by Microsoft stuff and I am attempting to do it through linux.

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Ah just imagine.....a BIOS that can boot the entire system, browse the web, install software and several other things. Terrabyte hdd's, one bus for ALL connections, stuff that hangs off your head and in front of your eyes and LINUX for everyone! Of course we don't want the competition to die (just M$). A little competition is healthy, helps maintain an even keel.

Here's a little article I found about which is the faster install; XP, 2k or Redhat. You may draw your own conclusions from there.

i am completely new to Linux and have begun to step by step move towards it.

And knoppix has been a huge step in this. Just the ease of installing it from a single cd and exploring the desktop that soon came up...i am hooked.

right now, i just want to thank all the great folks who have made this possible-...All the GNU/linux people and the free software people...and the developer of Knoppix too...for this great OS..

very soon i am going to move to the next step and make a permanent installation.

i will use knoppix all the time (i think) as soon as i can find a way to get online :( my modem is not working. it's a little pain restarting and tring something that does not work and restarting and signing back on line to look for a new way to do it....


i will restart again and see if it works... wish me luck LOL

What can I say about Knoppix that hasn't already been said. Basically I stumbled accross Knoppix after I tried about 30 other GNU/Linux builds and variations, and YES, a newbie installing Debian is quite scary and frustrating (it was the 3rd one I tried). But it also made me learn lots real fast, I come from a Macintosh enviroment, but it's funny because we hear of all these "GNU/Linux switchers" to OS X. OS X made me switch to GNU/Linux, I got tired of Apple's fake rhetoric about free and open source software. It is NOT in their or Adobe's best interest to see The Gimp suceed. Right now the two GNU/Linux variations I am running are Mandrake 9.1 PPC on an iMac and Knoppic 3.2 on an old i686 I got for free. Why am I rambling? who knows, I am just glad to be involved in the GNU/Linux community and have never had such support before, everyone has helped me willingly. It is my goal to produce the next book (I work for a publishing Company) 100% on a GNU/Linux enviroment.
Everyone points at Microsoft but Apple is as much part of the problem too.

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Originally Posted by Rono64

Everyone points at Microsoft but Apple is as much part of the problem too.

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I agree. Recently I acquired an old UMAX ppc. I've never had an interst in Macs previously and I'm still not interested in their OS. I am glad to see them switch to NIX but open source is a swear word in Macland it seems.

ive tried a number of linux distro's and then went on to freebsd which was quite good exept all the partitioning was getting a bit annoying as i was dual booting with xp untill i tried knoppix, it installed every thing straight away and was running in under 2 min's from getting the cd burnt :>

Great stuff and quite a user friendly distro...