Using Linux?

How many of you guys/gals out there are using Linux on your machines? Either exclusively or in dual/multi boot situations.

Personally, I have just put Mandrake 9.1 back on my system (experimenting with others for a while). There is some serious myths going on about Linux being hard to configure hardware and the like.

I admit, if you have new (like real new) hardware then it will be near impossible to get your system running up to snuff. Otherwise, it's a breeze.

I just set this up last night... let's compare Linux to Wincrap shall we?

I have Mandrake 9.1 on 3 CDs

Window$ on 1 CD
Modem driver disk
video card driver disk
mainboard driver disk
network card driver disk
driver disk for my keyboard
driver disk for my mouse
disk for CD burning software
(total 8 disks for windows install)

Window$ will automatically force me to take over the whole disk (won't detect a disk partition with Linux already on it) to place window$ on it.

Linux will allow me to format in any manner I want including on the free space of a wincrap partition.

Windows gives me options to install or not install programs.

So does Linux.

Once install is complete window$ reboots the system and asks for product keys, passwords, info on locale settings, etc. Then I have to begin the hardware detection process which takes a long time, by the way. Once wincrap knows what I have it then wants me to tell it to install the drivers (kinda weird it doesn't just do it).. usually have to manually tell window$ where to go because it doesn't seem very intuitive at all. Then it reboots again. Then I get to log into windows and start throwing all the other driver disks in. I place in the mainboard disk, graphics card, etc. Rebooting all the while after almost each and every thing I do. So the registry can begin it's bloating. Then finally I'm done! Wincrap is in! Oh wait, now I have to install all those programs I like to use (office suites, cd burning and the like). After another batch of reboots my system is ready. Somewhere in the vicinity of an hour or more has now passed.

Once Linux is installed it asks me for my passwords, locale settings and detects my hardware... surprisingly, this takes about a minute or less. I then can configure it how I like. I set my screen resolution to what I like (I can also test it before I move on), tell it to start my LAN at boot, etc. I then get the option to configure my bootloader (nothing is needed but personal preference: do you want linux or window$ to be default) then I can download updates of software if I chose (I don't) and I am done.

Take the third disk out and reboot to linux. It asks me how I want my desktop to look and starts it. Finished! Took about 40 minutes.

Note: This Mandrake 9.1 detected my Radeon 9000 Pro AGP graphics card, my flat panel monitor (as plug and play) and my network card all during the install. It also set up my keyboard and mouse with generic drivers. The only thing that does not work is my modem. When I use my cable modem and router it automatically detects and configures them whereas wincrap would require couple more disks to do so.

In conclusion: Window$, 8 (or more) disks to get running and a lot of me having to do things. Linux 3 disks, hardly any configuring but cannot use my modem. If I used cable, again, this would not be a problem.

Linux also comes with far more programs than I could even use... firewalls, server apps, games, office suites, game development suites, html editors, qcad (compatable with autocad), gimp (paint to the 10th power), cd burning programs, music recording programs (fairly limited), mp3 players, movie players, Mozilla (much better than IE), mail clients, dos emulator, messenger services, man the list is huge!

Sorry, I went on a tangent!

Anyway, what ya got and what ya use it for? I use mine for everything but playing window$ games (obviously) and surfing the net, for now....

 

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You don't use linux for surfing the net?
I'm using linux from a livecd, since the file allocation table on my hard drive is corrupt and there's stuff I want to recover. It loads up in under a minute, detects my hardware (except for my soundcard which I added in myself). My computer is just under two months old. The linux CD is older, lol.

 

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I've got FreeBSD both on my home and work desktops and Gentoo Linux on my laptop.

I also have windows on my home computer but I never have a reason to use it since I've pretty much stopped playing games.

 

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What does Linux look like?

 

I use linux mandrake 10 official edition. it's a lot better thant 9.1 (or the buggy 9.2)
it used to be a dual boot, but my ntfs filesystem got ermmm corrupted, so it's single boot now.
--
here, I took a screenshot. Linux Mandrake 10 Official, KDE 3.2 desktop environment

http://piparmetra.net/outer_realms/images/nix_screen.jpg

 

as for gaming in Linux see->
http://www.transgaming.com/

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Not until I get a cable connection again... I don't have a dial up modem that works with Linux right now.

 

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I've tried Slackware, Red Hat, Mandrake, and even FreeBSD. But by far the fastest, most stable and easiest Linux/BSD OS to run is gentoo. It may take a bit of time at first to get setup, but if you're impatient, linux isn't for you in the first place. Once you get it going you'll never turn to anything else. I rely so much on the emerge functionality built into gentoo that without it I would go brain dead.

Also, I could not possibly go without telling everyone how it (800 mhz, 32 meg vid, 768 SDram) seems to run at the same pace as my winXP box (2.6 ghz, 128 meg vid, 512 dual channel ram). Last month I had it on a 30day uptime, and the only reason it went down was the power failed for 3 HOURS (dumbass lightning storm)!

I run my game servers on it, MSN, browse the net (firefox of course), have my web server, mysql server, php server. The only thing I couldn't get going was webmail (stupid IMAP server software).

 

Most Free unix clones have some sort of ports management system like emerge. apt-get, up2date, or simply "make install" from the proper directory on any of the *BSD platforms.

My FreeBSD work desktop is upto 80 days, and would be over 200 if a couple of idiots using my desk while I was away hadn't unplugged it so they could use their laptops. I had plenty of free electrical sockets but those dimwits had to unplug the computer, now I have it hooked upto a UPS I keep under my desk and the sucker isn't going down for anyone.

www.qmailrocks.com

 

*Another linux user here*

My distro of choice is Slackware. I love the install-pkg function, swaret, but most all, I love how it always seems to run faster than near identical software installations of different distro's. Especially bloated ones like mandrake (no offense avatar

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.)

At the moment, I've been playing with a new Knoppix hd-install, which is nice, but no where near Slack.

BTW, If you need to run windows apps, try crossover office. Its much better than transgaming IMO


testify,
how long did it take you to compile gentoo? I have the discs, but end up shying away all the time..

 

Well true, but as far as I know emerge is the only one that handles dependencies when installing certain packages (and is free of errors with dependencies not included in the package tree).

I did a Stage 1 install of gentoo, which takes the longest but allows for maximum customization and tweeking (I did not need this install, I just did the more extensive install for fun). The Stage 3 install will be the shortest install, but it also allows for less customization in your settings (although they claim their settings are quite good). Still I am quite confident that the Stage 3 install takes longer then the Mandrake install, and will probably take around 3 hours to complete. If you have this time to spare the documentation for the installation is tremendous and quite easy to follow. It could very easily be the greatest technical documentation on the planet, and, if it happens to fail you the group on their irc channel is VERY helpful.

*EDIT* I forgot to mention. Gentoo is now the second most popular Linux distro in 2004 (just behind Debian, I think all the Debian fans had a script going to get their count higher because there is no way that many people use Debain).

 

Munich votes for Linux: http://news.com.com/2100-1016-1010740.html?tag=nl

 

no offence taken indeed . I regard myself as linux newbie, because I'm regurally using it only since mid april (though I had tried it previously).
I don't think I'm ready for Slackware or Gentoo yet

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edit-- looking at Gentoo homepage... looks cool

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The "make install" routine on *BSD has never caused any dependency problems for me and the ports tree is well maintained in most cases. FreeBSD also has a portsupgrade utility that brings all your installed ports up to date, sortof like emerge system on gentoo, only more extensive.

That said, Gentoo is by far my favorite desktop OS.

 

hey, i use fedora core 1 with the KDE, iv been using it for about 3 days and have had it one for about 3 days with no errors or 'blue screen of death' type occurences, i know windows inside out and from just 3 days of using linix i find it much better. Everything has a personal touch to it rather than a corporate side right down to the fact the my GAIM spell checker understands Micro$$$oft as a corretly spelled word! i think taht sciforums should have an entire linux section as most of the computer section is about windows.

 

well, transgaming is for games

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for apps it's either CrossOver or Win4Lin
for other new ones in the field -> Wine is a free windows 9x emulator
though it's not so good as the apps for $$$

 

the "make install" routing on BSD actually configures and installs dependencies required for your target package?

 

As for office--try a clone/substitute, like OpenOffice. The Vector Linux forum has a page somewhere with a link to a page detailing the equivalencies.

I use RedHat 9.0 on my own PC dualbooted with Windows 95, 7.3 on my parents PC dualbooted with Windows 98, and Vector Linux on a low end (ergo unimportant) computer at school. Firefox has made the school computer just as usable as a Windows box, except for the Novell printing...

Sevenblu,
www.linspire.com has screenshots of Linxpire (formerly Lindows). Go to iBiblio's distro page and you can get to practically every distro's homepage. There are just about as many looks to Linux as there are to WinAmp.

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It installs the dependencies, but you'll have to configure them as you go along (if configuration is required) via selection windows. *BSD doesn't have the make.conf/use flags for quick configuration like gentoo. But that doesn't usually present any kind problems because most of the time no non-autodetectable precompilation configuration is required, and when it is, I'm usually sitting in front of the computer doing something else anyway.