Linux on the Desktop

schford

So well I have just been playing and installed Linux on my desktop CENTOS.

I did it as the server does it and I need ot play around with it a bit more, but I totaly can not believe how much it has come on since I used it in work about 8 years ago.

The installation was super slick, it did not even need extra drivers for my RAID array like Windows does - look and feel are very impressive!

Anyone else played with it on the desktop or got any tips?

Thanks

Stuart

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AndyC

Hi

I use Linux every now and again, keep coming back to it to see if it is any better, but it still has a long way to go before I would switch permanently. I have a Suse 10 machine here in the office at the moment which is about the best I have seen so far.

If you use you PC for anything but the most generic office tasks then it isn't really up to it. I like to plug in my camera via USB, plug in my video by firewire, use different memory sticks and external firewire hard drives and play a few games occasionally.

Linux just isn't there yet, or at least not in a form which makes it easy to 'plug and play'

Andy

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schford

Not got that far with it yet - but it did recognise my plantronics hedset which I use for Skype!

Will keep on playing - I did a duel boot any way :-)

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JonnyB

I have been using linux since the beggining in the ealy 90s, and i have released several distributions myself, mainly for univercity works, smaller specific distros. And it is the best OS to go for, abit messy in the beggining but much better than Microsofts...

/Jonny

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AD_ward9

Good on you! Which Linux did you go for?

We used to have a lot of Windows stuff, but servers kept going down so started to install Linux and life has never been smoother, except for when Microsoft then rang us as we were not buying so much stuff from them any more.

Evgene Kaslov (i-evkoz@microsoft.com) rang us. He said he was our "Personal Microsoft Manager" and "I can either solve problems for you or create problems for you" and then referred to him being able to organise a police visit to check on licensing. He was really beligerant, and when he learnt that some of our servers are Sun Solaris, and Debian, he said "So you have some nasty warmongering linuxoids working with you".

In fact we were completely legal on MS, having 20 licences for terminal services, 100 W2K licences, 50 Win XP licences, MSDN subscription ($3k per annum for a developers licence), 100 MS Office licences, MS Project etc. Not a big customer, but not one office either.

After his call, which we logged, we decided to remove MS entirely because we were so annoyed by his attitude. Best thing we ever did!

Now we are almost MS free. All our servers are Debian or Sun Solaris based. Solaris 10 is brilliant system, available free, complete with Open Office etc so you never need to touch a MS system again. Both Debian and Solaris have been super reliable, which is a lot more than could be said for any NT or Win2003 Server we had. We have 40 servers and about 80 machines hanging off them.

Linux is much faster, a lot more reliable than MS, and it is free.

The only Linux version I would not recommend is Knoppix (once installed, it is very hard to change to a normal Linux), but there is a Bantu which does the same thing and seems fine.

Cheers,
Alex

dan@scuba-training.net

Yeah, get a Mac with OS-X

fr0sty8

For ease of use SuSe is the best way to go. their support when needed is very good (after all Novell now owns Suse). Other good dists are Redhat (cough cough), OpenSuse, Fedora, Ubuntu, Gentoo, and Knoppix. Gentoo and Knoppix are somewhat more advanced with Slackware being the most finicky. A recommendation for a good distro is package use (ie .deb or .rpm). Rpm has come a long way and is very easy to use and most all mainstream distros use it (Suse, Redhat, Mandriva and all the free version associated with them, even CentOS which is an offset to Redhat). I've worked with various distros over the years and presently utilize Redhat WS/AS and SuSe for grid cluster environments for Boston College (specifically for Biochemistry utilization).

Most of all have fun!!!

MaxMekker

I use Ubuntu, and don't miss MS any more.

RH

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PCDiver

It's been a while since I've been in a good Windows vs. Linux debate. . The question is ... do we really want to?? Naaaaah, let's stick to rebreathers and diving. Much more interesting.

steevke

I have uses Knoppix when my windows computer refused to boot - has been handy a couple of times to salvage work on a disk drive windows refuses to recognise (and can be accessed withKnoppix without a problem.

Steven