Right, I see a lot of people talking about Linux being better than windows and windows being crap because its Microsoft and et cetera (stupid flamewar if you ask me, 90% of computer industry can't be wrong in choosing windows ).

My question, what really is Linux (I know its an OS, but what can it do?), whats the advantage of using it for a home user like me (I currently use my PC for games/music/videos/internet mostly), and also why would anybody like me want to use it. (Apart from "its free", because I quite frankly don't care about price for software )

humm you mean "We need to talk KYRO .... whats right with Linux? .... tell me "


OK ....but it will take a while ... let me get some time off and i will post my thoughts .

Linux is not a work station.
Use linux if you have a purpose for linux.
Linux is best for servers. If you want a client machine. You want windows.
Im a big linux nerd. Ill admit it.

Too right,

Client/Workstation Windows 95/98/98SE/ME/NT/2000/XP or Could use Linux if ur a die hard linux fan/nerd/whatever, Linux would need a bit of changing and need to be experienced.

Server Windows NT Server/2000 Server/2003 Server or Linux (any Distro that you like best) most used RedHat

but if you wanted try start learn Linux i would recommond Mandrake as it is farely straight forward and is default set as Workstation and Server in one.

and if ur the luckiest person in the world own a monster pc just get VMWare Workstation/GSX Server or new soon to launch Microsoft Virtual PC or Virtual Server (Was Connectix untill MS bourght the Source Code) and run Multiply OS's at once under Windows Or Linux (with Wine/WineX for windows games/apps)

OR save money and download Knoppix and burn to a cd and its a LiveCD Linux.

PS if u use Virtual Machine ur hardware are made up so i would recommend Windows base OS and a Linux VM so u can play games on Windows but learn and run linux at same time no need to reboot.

SOZ long to try and my help others, so dont SPAM ME! as i ve learnt this on my own the hard way.

EDIT

One more thing you could always run Windows Server 2003 as ur OS to have all the best and latest server stuff and follow the steps at http://www.msfn.org/win2k3/ to convert it/enable the workstation partion of Windows 2003 and get best of all three Client/Workstation/Server question mark ?

Just remember that if we did not have linux then microsoft could charge what ever they want, and we would have to pay it! linux is getting better all the time, it's open source (free!!!) and a work in progress... of course windows me was a work in progress but our little buddies at microsoft found it in there kind little hearts to make us pay for it 4 times (95,98,98se,me) microsoft is scared (and should be scared) because when linux ever evolves into a kick-ass home o/s then microsofts days will be at an end. remember they stole their o/s from apple along time ago and made enough money to run a small country. so dont feel sorry for them when they go under... :beer:

But people have just said Linux required knowledge in PC's, and was mostly good for workstations. So far windows is for people who are computer illiterate (not that its the idiots OS but its certainly aimed at being user-friendly) and more importantly home users

use redhat linux 8 and you will not need to do anything.

i dual boot with xp pro; linux is a very good os, no question. but there is no major advantage over xp; its fun to try out and i keep it there because i like the kde interface and there is everything i need to work with. however if i could be bothered i could just get openoffice for windows, and be rid of linux.

dont listen to the rubbish around the web that its more 'reliable' coz its not. it crashes much more than xp and its near impossible to recover when it does.

if your just bored of windows i recommend you try it. remember tho to get the most out of your video card you have to recompile the kernel; a near impossible task that will make u go crazy :knife:

If you are into games only then windows is the only OS good for it. Period.

Linux does not/may never have drivers for some hardware. Plug play will not work for a lot of hardware. Basically you cannot get a random scanner/tv tuner card from random company and expect it to work(with full features). Many Windows apps cannot be ported to Linux and so ditching windows for linux may be impossible for some.

So choosing to use Linux *may* require you to review your existing hardware/software setup.

Linux is not as easy to use and certain things will be very different or have steep learning curves. Then again many people are totally confused with windows ..what difference would such people notice between a windows and a linux gui ?

For many other things Linux is way ahead of windows. If your running a web server for instance, Linux and other Unix-like operating systems have overwhelming market share. And thats with enough competition around.
Similarly Linux is good for other server purposes like mail, dhcp etc.

Office apps on linux do not match the full feature set of MS office, but I think they do include 95% of features 95% of users *actually* use.

Saying that linux crashes more than XP is a fallacy.
Imagine a regular home user fiddling around with his Ford car... say he fiddles around with his fuel-air ratio/valve timings or even some simple wires... and then he says "hey but that other guys Chevy car dosent break down as often as mine!". But Chevy dosent let you even TOUCH their engine. (imagine its somehow sealed). And Chevy has 90% market share.

Does this mean Chevy is better ? Is it not possible that an expert mechanic will get far better results from fiddling around with the Ford ? Think of it from the mechanics point of view.. he WANTS a car to fiddle with. Why do people overclock? To get something more than stock performance. How does one do that with a completely closed OS ?

Similarly, if you are a computer enthusiast/student/professional, will you not LEARN more from a OS whose source code is free ? Won't car enthusiasts be upset if 90% of regular cars on road have their engine etc "sealed in" ?

I want to learn so I have Linux. I can't escape from games so I have windows. But I hope *someday* games become equally available on Linux so I wont have to use windoesnt.

Again to give a car anology .. would we have seen similar progress in cars if only Ford had been making 90% of regular cars since 1950? Imagine no european company around. Imagine no japanese butt kicking of American cars happening in 70's . Would we have seen the same level of range/features/innovation/prices/etc ?
I think not.
(I've taken the year 1950 because 50 yrs in car industry is probably as long as 10 in computer industry?)
:beer:

Nice :thumbs up: , i couldnt have put it better.

But still i have to speak on this subject .. will do it later.

KYRO.

i dunno y u r such great adversaries of linux coz it does crash; me and about 14 friends decided to put it on our systems to check it out and it does crash for no reason without ANY tweaking in the middle of a browsing session for instance. i have found no instances where i need to mess with it at more than a cosmetic level; i always change the asthetics of any os, to make it unique.

so windows xp cant be tweaked? u can totally change the whole look of the OS, right down to the boot screen, not to count the counteless registry hacks u can do; doing that in mandrake (supposedly easy to use, but i as well as others find it more limitating therefore harder to use than redhat) is still harder.

but the question is do people really want to change things unless its sucks to begin with? please do tell me what is so important that the car mechanic would want to fiddle in the ford unless the ford is shit until the mechanic has his way with it, in which case it just about rivals the chevy. the chevvy can be modded to an extent, perhaps not quite as much, but enough to get more from an already reliable car/os

there are 2 big problems with the office system in linux and that is speed and ease of use, none of which can match office xp. as for features i think that most people need the use of a grammer check, or their letters etc are gna make others laugh at their grasp of the english language

linux itself can be faster, but u have to go for an enhanced version such as gentoo, and setup there is not the best.

u cannot seriously compare the japanese cars to linux, because they offered never before seen features, whereas linux is just a unix like os, so is reinventing the wheel. and linux has bn around for 10 yrs, but how many normal people need it and use it? yes i admit that its good 2 learn etc. u cant flame xp, as its a fully 32 bit os that does exactly what it says on the tin. linux, is a jack of all trades and master of none.

for web servers, sun solaris still rules; unix like yes. but linux always says its not unix and the debate here is linux
office servers; windows server hasa 60% of the maket share
home pcs; windows- easy to use and stable

im not saying linux is bad, its just at the moment for normal people xp has it all. ive had 1 blue screen with this installation and its been going a year. linux has died 3 times this month and i havent used it much, as my only need for it at the mement is the vector graphics app, kdraw.

finally someone who thinks before speaking about linux vs. MS

EXACTLY

and most important thing what all linux user always say .... linux is more stable THAT IS WRONG it depends on the user how stable an OS is ... and here is the problem ... any chobo/noob uses windows ppl. who do not know anything about the PC who think a warning box is a systemcritical error and call a computer service ... all those guys do use windows and how ? how shall windows run stable if the most unstable thing is using it ? thats the difference ... guys who use LINUX do have (in most cases) a clue about what they do and how to do so their OS will run fine

and btw. I totally agree that windows 9x was not stable but since ME which was the step ... now there is XP which is really stable as rock if you have an experienced user in front of the PC .... my XP hasn't crashed since month and more !!! if the PC crashed in windows due high OC this is not Windows fault !!!! .... XP is damn stable fast and most important you can do anything you want with windows without the need to read any manual ... it just works ... if your hard ware isn't too new even after fresh install anything works including printer sound graficscard and what else is in the PC just out of the box without doing anything .... that a driverupgrade will bring in most cases an improvement is for sure ...

@goliath :
I am not comparing/equating Japanese cars to linux per se .. I am talking about the *competetiveness* that the Japanese brought in the car market.

And undoubtedly, if there had been no competetion, the pace of innovation in cars would have been much slower. Ask any car enthusiast about that.
If the tech industry had developed alternative OS's , who's to say that we would not have seen a WinXP like OS from MS in 1995 ? or 1997 ? Remember a year or two is a long time in tech.

I am no car expert, but I know that you can tweak a 100hp car to give more than 150hp... for the same reason why you overclock. Your 2ghz CPU did not suck to begin with, but you still want to overclock/mod.Sayin Win registry allows you to tweak is like saying your car can be tweaked because simply you can paint it another color. Hacking tweaking takes on a whole new level and meaning with linux.

I dont know how you installed Linux and other apps, but even my version of Gaim seems to have spellcheck as well (besides Open office).A lot of apps like Firebird, Gaim OpenOffice seem equally faster on both my machines... which have similar configs.

So yeah I still think that in many cases, if your ENTIRE linux install is crashin, then something is not installed/configuered properly. Of course the sad part of linux is that sometimes you may have to check your hardware for compatibility before you install it. Thats because the manufacturers dont like to make drivers for the Linux market.

As far as office apps/business apps are concerned, thers no need why any company should keep on paying MS big dollar for need less upgrades... when 99% people just want to write documents and send email.

You failed to get my point that many people use linux for philosophical reasons .. for example the fact that MS makes many things illegal on an software that you BOUGHT. (even hardware like Xbox). There is no accountability especially for small and medium companies. Read any MS EULA carefully if you dont believe me (the liability/responsibility part).
You cannot sell your computer to me if it has Windows on it .. you cannot get a (decent) refund if you bought for examlple a Dell and told them you want refund since you will put linux on it.

An OS is an extremely important thing in todays world. Like all the details of a car engine, the internals of an OS should be public ... MS is not the only smart company in the world. The aircraft/car were pioneered in a few countries .. but they were refined and polished throughout the world.

Why should the control of 90+% of the worlds desktops remain in MS control ? An American company ? For example Think of Hindi/Bengali people in India.. MS will not be bothered to make software in those languages because "there is no market". A bengali group was however able to make a Bengali KDE version. If they tried to hack WinXP instead, they would have either got no results or a prison sentence. Similarly think of right to left languages like hebrew, persian etc.

I dont know which country you are from, but I think saying MS is the best *possible* or even "good enough" also means that you believe there are no good companies/programmers in UK, Germany, Brazil, Japan, China, India, Korea etc etc...

whew ! have a great new year ...