Topic: Why you should drop Windows

[Grey Ninja]

This thread was originally posted by Procession, and was closed due to the childish actions of myself and others around here.  It is my hope that by recreating this thread, there are no more fights over the subject, but I really do think that the thread had value, and as a result, I am reinstating it, with a quote from the original poster:

Quote
In the vein of "Why you should drop IE...", here is why you should drop Windows and move to Linux or a BSD (such as Apple Darwin, FreeBSD or NetBSD). Why stop at IE? I've been using Linux since 1999 and it has now become excellent for desktop users.

1) Use Windows, support the Xbox
It is common knowledge that the way Microsoft funds the Xbox is through the sales of Office and Windows alone. Out of their 7 (I think) divisions those are the two that are profitable. By contributing money to Microsoft, you're propping up the Gamecube's competition. Remember, loyal Nintendoites, the more money Microsoft has, the more money Nintendo uses to fight them. PlanetGamecube's servers even run on Windows! Sort of ironic, right?

2) Open standards
Windows is closed software, meaning Microsoft don't let anyone play with or use the underlying code. In contrast, open source software can be modified, and sold by anyone, in almost anyway.

3) Stability
Although the odd application may be unstable, the Linux kernel (and the BSD kernels) are very stable. Generally, even when an application crashes, it won't bring the whole system down. No more blue screens (just kernel panics , joking).

4) FREE!
Most Linux (and as AFAIK all BSDs) are completely free to download, legally. Plus there are thousands of fantastic free applications. Including The GIMP (Photoshop replacement), OpenOffice.org (Office suite), Mozilla (Web browser), K3B (CD/DVD Burner, Nero replacement), Rhythmbox (iTunes replacement), Bluefish (superb web design app), Evolution (Outlook replacement) and many, many, many, more - practically all free.

5) Secure
Never get hit by nasty Windows virii again. Even if someone decides to write a bunch a Linux virii, the impact is minimised by the sheer amount of different distributions and that damage should only be restricted to the account you're running, not the whole system.

Anyway, there is some food for thought. Mull it over. You can try Linux wih out even touching your hard drive with a live cd such as Knoppix or Gnoppix. Good distributions for your hard drive if you are a beginner include Fedora Core (formerly Red Hat Linux), Mandrake and Ark Linux, as well as many others.

Some good websites include

http://www.distrowatch.com
http://www.pclinuxonline.com
http://www.gnome.org
http://www.knoppix.net
http://www.linux-mandrake.com
http://www.debian.org
http://www.arklinux.org[/q

I would just like to say that I am currently posting this from my new Mandrake Linux partition.  It's been a hard 4 hours while I figured out my first set of problems, and I would be lying if I said I hadn't seriously thought about reclaiming the space I used on my Linux partition for one of my Fat32 partitions, and just ditching the whole idea.

But I stuck with it, and have started to seriously enjoy Linux for what it is.  I have to say that when I peeked into my new server and programming abilities... I was quite impressed.  I have always loved Visual Studio, but from what little I have seen, kDevelop mops the floor with it.  It's still too early to declare a winner just yet, but I am impressed.

My next projects are finding some decent Radeon drivers, and figuring out how to start installing some more well-featured programs, such as XMMS, MPlayer, a Linux Bittorrent Client, a better File Manager (I hate Konqueror), or some Linux equivalent of Trillian.

But I am actually really enjoying the experience.  It's been a while since I have worked with a Unix command line, so I am pretty much stuck with the graphical stuff, but it still feels like I have more power than I did in Windows.  It also puts me back at the level of computing knowledge I had when I was first learning how to use Windows 95, but that's not really a bad thing.  It's something to do anyway.    (And nowadays there are many more resources online to get the help you need).  

[Pale]

I hate the linux vs. windows debate.  There isn't a debate.  Lets put it simply shall we?

Can I run Maya and Photoshop on Linux?

Can I make a reliable web server/programming base in my apartment with Windows?


Now lets draw a parallel...

Can I play the Final Fantasy series, Sly Cooper, .hack, Kingdom Hearts, and Ico on a Gamecube?

Can I play Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Pokemon on a PS2?

If this were a PS2 vs. Gamecube debate everyone would be flaming like crazy if the mods even allowed it.  Whats the point on debating between windows and linux?

[Grey Ninja]

erm... what debate?  I am merely suggesting trying new things.  I have been a Windows user for so long that Linux seems downright strange to me, (and the font is hard on my eyes), but I am interested in sticking it out and figuring out which I like better.

And to answer your question, yes, Photoshop can be run on Linux from what I hear.  I am not sure about Maya, but I am sure that there are other modelling programs that can be used easily enough.

As for Programming on windows, it's sometimes a little strange, but yes, you can program like you wouldn't believe on Windows.  And about something like 30% of the web is hosted on a Windows OS, including PGC, so it's not like you can't make a server out of it either.

Now can we please NOT have the debate you mentioned?  Both OSes have their place, but you shouldn't outright dismiss one because it's not what you are used to.

[Pale]

The person you quoted was starting a debate....

and let me change my programming/web hosting question to what i meant...

Can I *freely*make a reliable web server/programming base in my apartment with Windows?

Now i know many of us run windows for free.  But I still have aspirations of doing something thats gonna get big, and I really really don't want to have something major to lose by doing something illegal to get it.

[KnowsNothing]

The only reason I would have linux on my pc is so I DON'T have WinME.  I can't get dragon linux to work, and knoppix downloads WAY too slow.  I MUST FIND A SOLUTION.

[Pale]

*edited away cause i was in a pissy mood*

:: Pale hopes no one read that ::

[Grey Ninja]

PaleZer0, I have been an MS user since MS-DOS 5, and I am familiar with all its ins and outs.  Except for the cost of your OS, yes, you can make a find server/programming base out of Windows.  What you are looking for is Apache HTTP Server and Bloodshed Dev-C++.  Both of those are open source, and both are available for Windows.

If you are into doing things legally, then Linux is a good alternative, because I am finding out that a LOT of stuff I did regularly in Windows that I thought I would lose if I went to Linux are available in about the same form over here.

[ThePerm]

like im a graphics guy.....i more or less wish there were operating systems custom modeled for your needs rather then one operatign system that sucks in general.

[KDR_11k]

Perm: What are your needs?

Pale:
>Can I run Maya and Photoshop on Linux?
Let me compare that with "Can I run Soul Calibur 2 and Halo on Gamecube?" since Maya, unlike 3D Studio MAX, has a Linux version available.

[ghostVi]

KN you might want to try Morphix instead of Knoppix, it's Knoppix-based, but fits on a single mini-cd.

[Grey Ninja]

If any Linux gurus could help me with a couple of minor interface problems, it would be appreciated.

1)  I am somewhat used to the UNIX policy regarding the 3rd mouse button, and as a result, using the console wouldn't feel right without the copy and paste function, but I am willing to sacrifice it, as the Windows function of the third mouse button is far more ingrained into my mind.  The problem is mainly that when I highlight text and then try to scroll in a browser window, the browser tries to take me to the site of the text that I highlighted.  I would really like the 3rd mouse button to behave more like a Windows box in this case.

2)  When I load MP3s into XMMS from a Fat32 partition, it opens up a new task in the panel that says XMMS, and shows an hourglass icon.  It goes away after a few seconds, but it's an annoyance that I would rather not have.  Is there any way that I can make it not do this?

Other than those, and my lack of Radeon drivers at the moment (I am using VESA), I am quite happy with Mandrake.

If it helps, I am using KDE, and my browser is Mozilla Firebird:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6b) Gecko/20031214 Firebird/0.7+ (Optimized for Athlon XP SSE by Yek)

[KDR_11k]

r100 or r200? That's important. In any case, you'll need this. Get a graphical FTP program, though, for some reason it's split up into 13 packages.

[Grey Ninja]

Xfree86 actually ships with Mandrake 9.2, and is installed by default.  I recompiled my kernel last night with the Radeon stuff in it, and I was running Tux Racer at like a million fps.  So I do have 3D acceleration now.  :-)  I seem to be having sound problems in MPlayer, but I am sure I can work that out on my own.  The two problems I mentioned above are my biggest concerns at the moment.

But... if you could recommend a good File Manager that works at least somewhat like Windows Explorer, I would be eternally grateful.  I am just really not a fan of Konqueror, and I don't like the idea of using MIME types for deciding what program opens a file, as some of my commonly used files have no MIME types.  (WMV, PSF, SPC, etc.)  I would rather have a browser that judges what to do based on extension only.

[Munky]

Linkux is a very good OS, but there's no way I'd drop Windows for it. Atleast not on my main PC. I do have an old version of Linux installed on my second computer.

[Procession]

Cheers Grey Ninja for starting this back up.

"My next projects are finding some decent Radeon drivers, and figuring out how to start installing some more well-featured programs, such as XMMS, MPlayer, a Linux Bittorrent Client, a better File Manager (I hate Konqueror), or some Linux equivalent of Trillian."

There is a distribution of Bittorrent for Linux, I think it is at the official site - it is console based, although i'm sure you could find some nice frontends if you really wanted them. Trillian (if it is what I think it is!) there are several solutions namely GAIM and Kopete. If you running KDE, most likely want to go with Kopete as it is a KDE app. Konqueror, I believe you may be able to use a split view like Windows Explorer if that is what you want, it is quite customisable so play around with it. There is also XWinCommander which is a 95 Explorer clone, only problem being it's rather ugly (not QT or GTK, Motif I think). Personally I use GNOME and Nautilus, which are pretty good and getting better all the time, but MIME support is pretty dodgy at the moment.

If you're having trouble with MPlayer, try Xine, it's really good and I believe has full support for DVDs now, including menus, so you don't have to have Ogle as well. Also with the XMMS problem, you could always see if it happens with JuK (KDE jukebox) or with Rhythmbox (one of my favorite Linux apps!). Third mouse button? Don't have a clue. Poke around KDE Control Center for starters, then I guess use trusty Google.

Some other decent IDEs BTW are Eclipse and Anjuta, I just use Emacs myself . Personally I think programming is much nicer on Linux/UNIX than Windows, everything seems a little clearer, and better designed.

Resist the urge to delete the partition. TRUST ME, once you know it it is worth it and so much easier to get work done, especially once you've got the command line pretty much mastered. Also, now you've got 3D acceleration going - why not break out the old America's Army, or Enemy Territory
.

PaleZero: You can run Maya and Photoshop on Linux. Maya is native, but Photoshop needs Codeweavers' Crossover plug-in. Or better yet, you could use The GIMP, the 1.3 series of it is amazing, definately up there with Photoshop.

[Grey Ninja]

Thanks for all your advice Procession.    And I assure you that I won't be clearing this partition anytime soon... unless I buy a RAID controller.  I actually just bought a mate to my current hard drive, with the intention of eventually setting up a RAID-0 Array.  So I should have plenty of storage space for a while anyway.  

Well... it certainly does seem that I have my work cut out for me anyway.    That's a good thing, as I need to drink some beer and keep busy, as I am not going to the Lord of the Rings tonight.  

[Procession]

Kernel 2.6 is finally out.

http://www.kernel.org for those interested.

Wear that grin.

[Grey Ninja]

Yep.  I just downloaded it not more than 5 minutes ago.    I'll figure out how to install it tomorrow.  Right now... it's time for anime.  

[Uglydot]

Grey, ATi drivers are easy in mandrake.  The rpm is at www.ati.com.  Get the one that goes with your card.  For non-rpm based distrols it takes about 2 minutes more.  Also, www.linuxquestions.org tends to be a good place.

[Grey Ninja]

Uglydot, I have them installed now.  The problem was that I was missing some libraries it needed, and I needed to go find them.  Once I did, it demanded the kernel source, which I also had to go download.  No biggies, but a pain in the butt.