Linux Linux why Linux??

**Waldo2k2** · 12-13-2003

you're preachin to the choir d00der

**Kinasz** · 12-16-2003

i think there will always be a place for windoze, although certainly not with the market share they have now.

I work in at Dick Smith Electronic and in my experience a lot of our computer customers have trouble even with windoze. I doubt theyd ever be able to work their way around a *nix file structure. Without their c: and d: theyre lost, if they even understand that much.

My wife picke up linux because she had no other choice, i'm not spending 300 bucks on windows. I think it will become the OS of the intermediate to advanced and windows will become like mac

**afreedboy** · 12-17-2003

I found Red Hat Pro 9 is about $190 and SuSe 9 is about $80.

That means Red Hat is better than SuSe??

Which Linux should I choose???

**Kinasz** · 12-17-2003

well i bought redhat 9 for au$30 at the newsagent, or you can get it for free with i think last months linux journal. Those soughts of mags have linux versions with almost every issue.

Or if you are really tight, you can download the iso's from www.redhat.com

All distros are different, not necessarily better or worse than each other. Suse has good NTFS support and ships with Mp3 support out of the box, redhat doesnt. Also keep in mind that redhat 9 is the last version of RH to be released. All new versions will be RH Enterprise (expensive ).

If you go with a common used distro eg: RH, Suse, Mandrake, Fedora; you should be ok.

**ober** · 12-17-2003

Originally posted by afreedboy
I found Red Hat Pro 9 is about $190 and SuSe 9 is about $80.

That means Red Hat is better than SuSe??

Which Linux should I choose???

Just because one costs more doesn't mean it's better. That's just poor logic.

>>My wife picke up linux because she had no other choice, i'm not spending 300 bucks on windows. I think it will become the OS of the intermediate to advanced and windows will become like mac

*snicker*... RIGHT. Linux will have to come a LONG way before that will EVER happen. Most people do not want to learn a new way of computing just so they can send email and shop online. Would you give your grandma linux?

..............

I didn't think so.

**afreedboy** · 12-17-2003

Suse has good NTFS support and ships with Mp3 support out of the box,

So if I choose Suse, i can see my winxp partition and i can listen mp3 rite?
And suse also support FAT?? Can I use partition Magic to create Linux partition for Suse?? BootMagic is going to work with Linux?? Sorry for asking too much. I am quite stupid

**-=SoKrA=-** · 12-17-2003

No recent distros have problems with FAT, the problem is with NTFS, reading is no problem, but the new (2.6) kernel can only modify files, not resize or create any AFAIK. The 2.4 kernel can only read it. At least the last versions.
You should have no problem listening to your .mp3 collection.
You can use PM to create a partition for Linux, but it's probably better if you use the partition tool (almost) every distro has in the instalation.
I have no experience with BootMagic, although when you install Linux, you'll probably be given an option to install LILO or GRUB, thesea are boot managers that work well with Win and Linux, so you should have no problem with them.

**Waldo2k2** · 12-17-2003

PS:
get LiLO

**Kinasz** · 12-18-2003

*snicker*... RIGHT. Linux will have to come a LONG way before that will EVER happen. Most people do not want to learn a new way of computing just so they can send email and shop online. Would you give your grandma linux?

Is your grandma an intermediate to advanced user. The only thing hard about linux is the different filesystem layout. Since MS insists on hiding the filesystem from the consumer anyway perhaps it wont be a problem in the future.

ALSO a lot of schools are adopting linux as the OS of choice and a lot of governments as well. If kids use it at school and adults use it at work why cant they use it at home.

Maybe it was just to hard for you?

**ober** · 12-18-2003

No, it was not too hard for me. I have Mandrake dual-booted on my machine at home.

All I'm saying is, why would someone want to switch to an OS where you have to do so many things manually and learn a bunch of commands when they can have an OS that updates automatically, does things for you, and lives for the point and click!? I have yet to see a version of Linux that comes with as many drivers pre-installed as XP. Why spend my precious time setting up devices in Linux when I can plug in a cable and have the OS do it for me? When they make it do that, then maybe I'll drop the dual-boot and switch.

OH, and then there's that whole gaming problem....

**FillYourBrain** · 12-18-2003

and it isn't just initial configuration. Everything is point and click on windows. That's easy for a beginner to learn. Try explaining to granny that she has to download a tar from Macromedia, expand it, and do a "make" on it to install flash. With Windows and IE it just prompts you Yes or No to installing it.

**Kinasz** · 12-20-2003

Using RH9 with kde 3 there really isnt a lot you need to do manually. Thanx to rpms and all the software that comes bundled its not that hard. Its like switching from mac to MS. Sure there is heaps of manual stuff you can learn, but you can also avoid it completely and still get by.

Sure there is the gaming issue, hopefully that will eventually be resolved but otherwise i can see linux taking off in a big way.

Why do you keep referring to your grannies. Mine is a begginner, i would point her to mac or MS, but i guess if your grannies are intermediate to advanced then maybe they could handle linux.

**Fountain** · 12-20-2003

Originally posted by afreedboy
I found Red Hat Pro 9 is about $190 and SuSe 9 is about $80.

That means Red Hat is better than SuSe??

Which Linux should I choose???

Whoa! So thats more than XP then? So why buy something that doesnt work with much stuff? Get the ISO yes, but pay that much????

**afreedboy** · 12-21-2003

Originally posted by Fountain
Whoa! So thats more than XP then?

I mean that price is for box set. It includes not only just os, but also a lot of useful applications like Office, Photo Editing and etc.

**-=SoKrA=-** · 12-21-2003

Originally posted by afreedboy
I mean that price is for box set. It includes not only just os, but also a lot of useful applications like Office, Photo Editing and etc.

Which most if not all can be acquired for nothing.
The only (main really) thing distro makers do is make sure there are no missing dependencies (OK, some also add their stuff to kernel).
AFAIK RH is aimed mainly at enterprises, so a home user might not use all of the features it offers.
Since you're starting with GNU/Linux I would recommend just getting some ISO images, as they also come with a lot of software. When you're more advanced, decide on a distro. You should try different distros, some of them have nice features you might really like or dislike.