# Linux vs. Windows, the gloves are off!!



## GBay (Apr 23, 2004)

Well here goes, I've never personally used Linux but I've heard nothing but great things about it. The problem is that the number of reviews could be counted on one hand.....half missing. I was wondering what everyone else thought of this operating system and what version they may have used. Also is it worth partitioning my HD to learn how to use this OS. :up:


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## brendandonhu (Jul 8, 2002)

No need to partition your system, try it out with a live CD distro such as Knoppix or MandrakeMove. I am using MandrakeLinux right now on my laptop. It looks good, there is plenty of software, all my hardware is supported (although I had some trouble getting my wireless connection working). Linux is definitely a nice OS 

BTW if you search, there have been plenty of holy wars over Windows vs. Linux.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

In addition to the good advice from *brendandonhu*, there is also DragonLinux to consider. It is a full Linux distro that can be installed from Windows without partitioning your drive. But it does require a FAT32 installation location. There is also a "lite" version available for download that runs about 50-60 megs. Do a search and you'll find it easily at SourceForge.

But there is no substitute for Knoppix to get the flavor of Linux without making any major changes to your system. It runs from CD (As XP can, being the first OS from MS that will run from a read-only partition. XP also will run without a hard drive from a bootable CD in a predefined environment.), so you boot into it and only need write access to some drive to save changes that obviously can't be saved to the CD. If you can set aside a small area of your drive for a swap file for Knoppix, all the better.

Having a Knoppix CD handy is also usefull for repairing XP. Knoppix can mount NTFS drives and you will have full read/write access within the Knoppix GUI for making repairs or salvaging files.

But I'll keep my XP, thank you. The kernel is compiled already .


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## GBay (Apr 23, 2004)

Great, thanks a lot guys, just the kind of advice I needed. I guess any technical problems i'll take over to the proper thread. I love this site, so many people with knowledge I would not have acsess to under normal circumstances. Thanks a lot guys, I think it's time to change my experience from not quite intermediate to full fledged beginner.....sometimes when your around people who know nothing about computers you can look like an expert but get around the experts and you look like a beginner.  Have a great night.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Linux humor, on the other hand, is an acquired taste. (If this link doesn't open directly in your browser, right-click and "Save Target As..." to download the swf file to your desktop. Then open IE, click File, Open, and navigate to the download. Or, download this player for swf files: http://www.browsertools.net/SWF-Opener/index.shtml ).

http://users.adelphia.net/~abraxas/dl/SwitchLinux.swf

It will take a couple minutes to load on dialup.


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## Ol Sarge (Jul 21, 2002)

Have used Mandrake and Linspire (Lindows, before MS sued their butts off), and the best thing I can say about them is that the CDs take up very little space in the trash can.


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## Ol Sarge (Jul 21, 2002)

Before all the Penguin people circle the wagons and prepare the poison darts, this is only MY personal opinion.


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## Stoner (Oct 26, 2002)

Hi Ol Sarge 

Well, to each their own, what ever the hell that means 
The price is right and you get what you pay for 
I like the CD boot roms. I prefer Slax.
But the hardware support is poor. Printers and scanners aren't recognised easily and the 'drivers' can sometimes be destructive.
I use Slax for curiosity and emergency. 
But My HP printer burnt out the black ink cartridge while trying to configure it under Slax. Could be coincidence, or not.
With Mandrake 9.2, the scanner resolution with the supplied app is not very useful. Sane was recommended. Sane carries a warning that certain versions may be destructive to Epson scanners . Guess what I have 
Linux seems to be a very stable OS, but the distros seem to lack what the average computer user needs....friendliness.
I think this will change in time.
I do think Linux is worth watching and learning.
I do like Slax for surfing the internet.
The fonts in Konquerer are more readable under Slax than in the Knoppix distro.
The Knoppix 3.4 version does seem quicker on my p2 450 Dell than previous versions of Knoppix.
But I still Like Slax the most  as a boot CD.
I'm going to install Mandrake 10 soon to see how it responds. 

Well, that's all from me, posting from Win 98se, still my favorite _


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## Ol Sarge (Jul 21, 2002)

Hi Stoner. You're sure right about the "unfriendly" part. In time, most of the hardware incompatibilities will be worked out...maybe. Meanwhile, it IS fun playing with something different as long as you have Windows to fall back on.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

*Stoner:*
How much different from 3.3 is 3.4? I'm on dialup for now and though I downloaded 3.3, I don't want to bother with 3.4 unless you really think there is a tremendous lot of improvements. It took me long enough just to d/l Dragon.

Never heard of Slax, but I'll look into it.

Over all, Linux is fun to play with and you can learn something. But the incompatibilities will remain so long as people keep taking the code and modifying it to their own ends. No one is in charge and there is chaos. It is even a mistake to talk about Linux as though it were an operating system---it is literally 100's of operating systems. I have one distro that runs off a floppy.

But it works great on washing machines and toasters .


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## Stoner (Oct 26, 2002)

Elvandil said:


> *Stoner:*
> How much different from 3.3 is 3.4? I'm on dialup for now and though I downloaded 3.3, I don't want to bother with 3.4 unless you really think there is a tremendous lot of improvements. It took me long enough just to d/l Dragon.
> 
> Never heard of Slax, but I'll look into it.
> ...


Hi Elvandil 

A big 'If' to your first question.
Since you're on dial up and d/l ing is a hassle, I probably wouldn't bother with 3.4
With 3.4 you do have the option to boot either the 2.4 or 2.6 kernnal.
 I couldn't tell the difference.
But 3.4 does seem to load the apps a little quicker from the CD than 3.3

However, neither my printer nor scanner worked in either 
The scanner wasn't even recognized as hardware 
Personally, using Open Office from a boot CD is a waste of time. Too long to load off the CD. The 3.4 Knoppix does it quicker, but still slow.
And Gimp2 won't even load on my p2 450.
And then, you should ask yourself, if the printer doesn't work, the scanner isn't recognized, and a graphics app won't run , why even bother with trying to run an office suite off a CD?
Of course, if your hardware works with Knoppix--great, But I'm not buying more hardware to suit a Linux distro 

I prefer Slax because it is a much smaller download and is no less useful to me than Knoppix. Surfing the internet, Konquerer is much more responsive and with better fonts in the Slax distro.
Slax is less than a 200 MB download, so it is a bit easier to d/l on a dialup connection.
Tomas Matejicek is responsible for Slax(used to be called Slackware Live) and seems to update it much more often than Knoppix is updated.

You can get Slax here:
http://slax.linux-live.org/

Jack


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Thanks for the info. Slax it is!


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## gotrootdude (Feb 19, 2003)

I have used Red-Hat, Mandrake, Lycoris, Suse, and Lindows. Mandrake impressed me by it's ability to configure cups and sane to work with my proprietary HP stuff, but was kinda slow. Lindows impressed me by it being the only linux distro to configure my off brand TV-tuner cards correctly (also Apt-get works). Suse impressed me with speed and configurability. Red-Hat impressed me by being the easiest to get to work in a office enviroment with some POS software I was testing. 

Each distro has it's drawbacks and it's strong points. If you try a distro and aren't happy with it's performance/compatability, don't give up, just try a different distro. 

You asked if it was worthwhile to have a partition set aside for linux. If you have the space, the answer is yes. Working with linux will allow you to increase your knowledge of how operating systems work by leaps and bounds. Before you know it, you'll be useing the "make" command and compiling on your own. If your working in a network inviroment, you'll learn more about permissions and useing chmod. You'll find the extra knowledge transfers over to useing windows. You'll also get used to having multiple desktops, unix style focus follows mouse, and other advantages the linux desktop has over standard windows.


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## dr.dos (May 27, 2004)

Why no mention of Morphix linux?
this has worked well on a lot of hardware I tried.
Good for someone just getting started with linux.


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## Guest (Jun 19, 2004)

Linux has always intrigued me and I like the good things I hear about it.

I still have a Amiga 4000 I used and use for video editing... cartoon animation and 3D rendering and animation. It's operating system is based on Unix. Witch from what I've heard is similar to Linux. And even though this particular Amiga 4000 was never made for the amount of memory I have in it (256MB)... it has never... I'll say it again... NEVER crashed on me. Never locked up... no blue screen.

I guess my problem is my experience with the (now formally known as) Lindows.
I couldn't get around it to save my life.
I'm lost in any Linux environment.

I think Lindows was an attempt to get Windows users more comfortable with Linux. I was still lost in it.

So... for my 2 cents... Linux is going to have a big problem competing in the home market.
It may be allot more stable and reliable than Windows...
But it's so foreign that many people are going to find it too overwhelming to do just about anything in the Linux environment.

For what it's worth.


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## shadowcat (Oct 19, 2003)

I've tried Mandrake, Knoppix, SuSE, Morphix, Overclockix, Mepis and Gentoo (very l-o-o-ng install time, but worth it to learn the command line  ).

I'm currently using Xandros OCE and I like it so far. It's the only one that I've used that recognized the HP printer on the network connected to a WinXP computer. I'm not a big KDE fan, but I find it acceptable and not terribly bloated as an OS. Just my two cents


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## twotugs (May 14, 2003)

Foamer said:


> I still have a Amiga 4000 I used and use for video editing... cartoon animation and 3D rendering and animation.


Somewhere in my mom's basement is my old Commodore 64. Every so often I debate digging it out and bringing it home, but all I'd do with it is play Archon, or print my name down the TV screen (10 ? " ", 20 goto 10). 

Just to chime in, I've installed Lindows 3.0 (boo), Red Hat 8 & 9 (nice, but no more support), Slackware 9.0 (couldn't configure ethernet card, so no internet), Mandrake 9.2 (updated after install, and it crippled KDE), Knoppix 3.3 (still installed), and Xandros OS 2 OCE (the system would freeze up every 20 seconds or so). If I were to suggest any of them, it would be Knoppix, as a live CD. No muss, no fuss. If it proves worthy, it can be installed and updated; if not, give it to someone else to try (I've burned half a dozen copies for friends). Of course, Knoppix isn't the only one:

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

Gentoo will be next for me, although I'm interested to hear more about Elvandil's allusion to a live XP!


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## Guest (Jun 22, 2004)

twotugs said:


> Somewhere in my mom's basement is my old Commodore 64. Every so often I debate digging it out and bringing it home, but all I'd do with it is play Archon, or print my name down the TV screen (10 ? " ", 20 goto 10).
> 
> Just to chime in, I've installed Lindows 3.0 (boo), Red Hat 8 & 9 (nice, but no more support), Slackware 9.0 (couldn't configure ethernet card, so no internet), Mandrake 9.2 (updated after install, and it crippled KDE), Knoppix 3.3 (still installed), and Xandros OS 2 OCE (the system would freeze up every 20 seconds or so). If I were to suggest any of them, it would be Knoppix, as a live CD. No muss, no fuss. If it proves worthy, it can be installed and updated; if not, give it to someone else to try (I've burned half a dozen copies for friends). Of course, Knoppix isn't the only one:
> 
> ...


I just happen to have a C64 myself too. I have hundreds of games (Witch happens to be about all it was good for.)
Although... I got good at basic and learned to make up menu load programs for these games.

Note: Trick to get back to starting screen...
Type : SYS64738


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## GBay (Apr 23, 2004)

Could someone post a direct lynk to download knoppix, I found a few spots but seems to run into problems downloading it, thanks.


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## oblivious69 (Jun 11, 2004)

GBay said:


> Could someone post a direct lynk to download knoppix, I found a few spots but seems to run into problems downloading it, thanks.


check the site below for sites you download it from:

http://www.knoppix.net/get.php


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

Ive always been a windows guy. My first was windows 3.1, then 95, 98, 2000, and XP. Recently ive started looking at the old computer we have around the house. One is a PC AT, another is even older, a straight IBM PC. Ive got about 10 minutes of experiance with a macIIsi, since the only compatable hardware we have for it(externaly) is a monochrome Radius monitor and a one-button mouse. Recently though, i picked up an old compaq deskpro 5120 that i once used with win 98. Since we have tons of old 1.2 or 1.5 gig hard drives, i decided to try out one of our two copies of linux. I would have used Red Hat 5(or whatever version), but couldnt find the CD. The other copy was Caldera OpenLinux 2.2, so i grabbed that and tried it. The installation was easy enough, but after installation it took a few tries to get it to work. The distro came with lots of extras. Tons of software, including wordperfect(something), and staroffice 5. It also has the KDE desktop 1.1. Pretty darn usable for me, then agaiin im pretty computer experianced, but thats all windows. Still, its better than the command line type. The non use of drive letters gets confusing for me, and im having trouble getting a network/internet hooked up. It's also weird that it accepts rpm's instead of exe's. 

Sofar it hasnt actually slowed down on me, as windows does...but it has frozen on me, 3 times yesterday. This laptop with 98 hasnt frozen once today, although it does like to(then again, thats not exactly freezing). Probably something to do with the fact that its an old compaq, older than the OS really.


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## anthony04 (Jun 23, 2004)

i read your article and is linux easy to learn because i plan on taking a course in the fall... also where did u download and install in your laptop


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## GBay (Apr 23, 2004)

Thanks Oblivious.


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## websurfer (Jun 24, 2002)

I dual boot Red Hat 9 and Windows. I love Red HAt for my everyday things and for for development, but needless to say there are software compatibilies between the two, so I'm forced to use Windows for some things. I've never had any trouble with Red Hat. I used to run Mandrake, until I got a new motherboard and Madrake didn't support it.

I wouldn't switch 100% to Linux, not until there is more software for it, althoguh I have gone 50%, and that amount is increasing 

Now if only I could find a good mp3 player for it...


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## aolsux (Apr 28, 2004)

Dude, I've been telling you this repreatedly, *install Wine*


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

For those who want to experiment, try installing your OS as a virtual machine. VMware supports innumerable operating systems and you can run Linux as a VM in Windows or Windows as a VM in Linux. The VM operates just like an installed OS, uses its own memory locations leaving the rest for the host OS, and can even crash without affecting the host operating system.

No drive partitioning necessary since it runs from a folder in the host OS and it is a good way to practice configuring a network, for example, between 2 (or more) operating systems running simultaneously on the same machine.

Put your virtual OS in full screen and you can't even tell it is not an installed OS. Good for testing apps in different environments, too.

http://www.vmware.com/products/desktop/ws_features.html


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