Linux fans? Had a windows filled night of fun...

[Cy]

Id just thought Id share a story of my computer journey last night. When I first got my desktop it was a display at the store with windows vista. After 5 minutes I couldn't take it any more so I had my friend install XP. After 30 days I couldnt get a usable registration so it locked up:x. I installed a crappy linux distro called PClinux OS. It stunk but it let me go online, get music, play some emulators and stuff so I didnt mind it too much. Well my friend said he had trimmed up XP and got it working without a registration code for me so again we spend awhile installing it and getting all the drivers. He leaves and I start trying to download firewalls and anti-virus, all the digital condoms windows requires. Well after maybe 2 hours online I get a nasty virus and it almost disables the comp:x. My solution...

Went on the other comp, downloaded Ubuntu, burned, installed and after maybe 1hr I had everything updated and running. No messing with service packs, chip drivers or all that crap. Just recognises everything and works. Im not computer inclined but I gotta say its alot easier to use then I thought and finding compatible stuff for Ubuntu has been ALOT easier then the crappy distro I had before.

[lxskllr]

PClinuxOS is a pretty good distro. It all depends on what you like though. My favorite is still Ubuntu, and I've used it on and off since v5.10. You may also like Mint. It's basically just a reworked Ubuntu, using all the same repositories. I prefer Ubuntu, but there's many Mint fans out there. A liveCD would be an easy way to try it.

All that said, my favorite O/S is still Vista for my desktop machine. I use Ubuntu on my secondary rigs, but I've had Vista since release. Started with 32bit, then switched to 64bit 10mos later.

[Ainkor]

I skipped right over vista and went right to windows 7. I have been using it for about 5 months and it is rock solid, even the betas.

If you can get it, it is worth it.

I run it on:

A netbook (Eeepc, 1000h)

My wifes oldish AMD 64 laptop

My core 2 duo laptop

My sons old Dell laptop

My daughters old athlon 1.4

Works like a charm on all of them!

[lxskllr]

I prefer Vista. They're just about the same thing to me, and some of the changes they made, I don't really care for. I'm running it in a VM, and I installed it on my daughter's desktop. I also preordered Win7 for my daughter. I had Ubuntu on her desktop, but it was an unstable mess. Her MB has some incompatibilities with the Linux 2.6x kernel, and it would frequently crash.

[heppycat]

At home i run Kubuntu 8.04 64 on my workstation and Gentoo on my server. Firewall is http://www.ipcop.org I highly suggest it.

At work sadly I have to use Windows on my workstation and laptop (Win 7 RC right now and pretty sweet). The servers that I maintain are some old Fedora boxes that I've been phasing out and the ones that I have built are Gentoo with an exception of my prod web server which is running Ubuntu Server 9.04.

For someone looking for an OS that works, Ubuntu is the way to go. I prefer KDE over Gnome but whatever. If anyone is interested in learning how linux actually works, Gentoo is the shit.

[Jason]

I prefer Vista.

Quoted, due to the fact that I've honestly never heard anyone ever say that. :lol:

J/K....seriously though, Vista was an overblown mess in my opinion. Microsoft knows this as well, which is why they are quietly letting it go away after their failed last-ditch marketing to get people to buy it.

I had Ubuntu running on dual boot with XP Pro, but I got rid of it on my last reformat because I just didn't use it enough. It ran stable on my machine and looked fairly good, but it was taking up too much space with all of the packages I had installed.

[heppycat]

i havent dual booted since i got a second computer. My workstation works and is stable. I'll mess around with other systems. Mainly the ones at work

I did try Vista when it came out. Got a couple licenses for Vista Business at work and I put one on my laptop. 15 days into the 30 day 'activation grace period,' the box decided the license had expired and i was left with a brick.

Vista sucks.

[daruckis]

i guess i dont understand what everyone hates about vista.

[lxskllr]

i guess i dont understand what everyone hates about vista.

I used it off and on since RC1, then full time since release. My biggest problem is the folder view settings changing. It's a mild nuisance, but not that big of a deal. It's my favorite MS O/S so far.

[MasterGuns]

I've yet to have a problem with vista. Mac guys don't ever believe me.
It got over marketed into making people think they were getting something totally different than previous windows versions. That's where things fell apart.
I'm cool with it though, we get along just fine.

[zmanzero]

this thread got me to bone up and download ubuntu. got it burned to the install disc and found this - http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/linuxonmac.shtml

i have an imac 24" intel, so i think i'll give the linux a shot after i read up a little more on this. i've fried my installation before and i'm incredibly paranoid about trashing stuff. really paranoid. :shock:

[lxskllr]

A virtual machine's a nice way to try out different O/Ss without risk to your current setup. They're also good if you have some legacy apps you just can't do without. It's much quicker than dual booting, and you don't have to screw with the (sometimes dangerous)process of repartitioning your HD.

[sundog]

I routinely install various Linux distros on a couple of spare computers here, just to check them out. Call it a hobby. I've used just about everything from Damned Small Linux up to openSUSE. I've even played with FreeBSD.

Kubuntu is very nice. I've used it for quite some time on one of the systems. Very stable and easy to use.

For absolute drop-dead simplicity it's hard to beat SimplyMEPIS. I think it's probably the best for those who need something that will recognize the hardware they have and get up and running with no problems. It's even easy to set up for wireless.

A good way to check out a distro is with a live cd. It lets you play with the operating system without installing anything on your hard drive.
List of LiveCDs

[heppycat]

My favorite 'feature' of linux is the partition mounting scheme. my /home partition lives on a 4x120gb raid 5 array. I can reinstall all I want and my docs and settings stay the same

[sundog]

You can do that in Windoze, too, but it's not as easy as in Linux.

For Windoze I usually set up a small partition for the swap file, a large one for data, and a fair sized one for the os and programs.