[thechat] Can you survive on Linux alone?

isaac isaac at members.evolt.org
Mon Jun 4 18:56:26 CDT 2001



> This is for all the Linux people out there. I have just about had it with
> windows and in particular Microsucks. I am seriously thinking of

which version of windows is frustrating you?

i had good experiences with win98, but can see why people would hate it (on
my parents computer, it was pretty average (realplayer and icq didn't help
that - bastard apps!). there can also be some frustrating issues with winNT
(ie, no usb), but i had excellent experiences with that (ie, no crashes for
9ish months. it'd only get rebooted/turned off if there was a power
failure).

win2k however is what i now run at home, work, and on my parents machine. on
3 machines in 3 or 4 months, i've had one crash (at work playing quake3). i
haven't read of anything in winxp that would make me go for it. i can
understand reports of win2k being the last upgrade for many people (although
i don't doubt that microsoft will find a way of getting people to upgrade
anyway).

if you haven't tried win2k, i'd give it a go. (if you can, avoid
realplayer - i don't think it helps stability for any machine.)

that said, if you haven't tried linux (and you have a spare computer - i
know people who've had their primary workstations offline for a week trying
to get dualbooting happening, or linux working at all), try that as well.
can't hurt to check it out and learn some new stuff. if you have a
linux-happy friend who can help you set it up and show you some tricks, that
will definitely help.

 i had bad experiences with my linux attempt - somehow redhat corrupted the
password file, and it got to the point where whenever i tried to login, it'd
say "you don't exist! go away!" (no shit - that's the error message -
helpful, eh?).

> and age running a home computer on Linux and Linux alone or do I need to
> look at some form of dual boot idea with my computer? (You can dual boot
> windows 98SE, windows 2k, and Red Hat can't you?) Are there truly enough

dan *is* mr linux-happy, and even he finds a place for windows. i'd suggest
that you dual-boot, or preferably play around on a spare computer until you
get to know things. depending on your needs, you may find that linux can do
everything you need.

> programs out there for the Linux os to make it viable to run only that at
> home or am I crazy for even thinking this?

as others have said - many apps exist.

ignore dan's raving about gimp filters - the more hardcore you are, the less
(3rd party, anyway) filters you use. ;)

(i only tried the gimp for about 2 minutes (not very fair, i know), but it
certainly has enough features to keep you happy.)


isaac

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