Use OpenOffice? Micro$oft can sue you!

[Stephonovich]

I hate you tell you this, but by using Linxu, you're not being unique. Much more so than the general populus, but Linux users is still in the millions. Still, a much better alternative, and congratulations for having the guts to step out and say "I want something better".

Another main problem is the classic something for nothing. People today have become so jaded, they can't accept the fact that anything free is good. This is one the primary reasons freeipods.com (I'm not recommending it, Jude; please don't ban me

) had so much trouble convincing people it wasn't a scam. The very idea that you could get such a valuable object for free is insane, and indeed, backwards to today's society. They had to get featured in Wired and CNN before people started taking them seriously. You'll note now they mention their media coverage very prominently on their main page. But anyway, I digress. This also is applicable to Linux. It being 100% free, people automatically assume it's an amatuer hack job that can't be any good. After all, the more you pay for something, the better it is, right? And besides, they've always used Microsoft (or Apple, to some degree, but I find Mac users to generally be more open minded than Windows. Perhaps because the Mac OS is based on Unix), so why should they switch now?

I definitely agree with you, though. Linux offers you more freedom, flexibility, and power than Windows ever could. Especially when you start getting into distros like Gentoo or Debian. Or if you're really brave, LFS. (Linux From Scratch... Google it) I personally recommend you stick with a distro for at least a month of fairly regular useage before giving it up as no good. Most of 'em have subtle or not so subtle differences that have a bit of a learning curve, so get used to them before switching. But definitely try others. When you're comfortable with Linux, try Gentoo. I can almost guarantee you, you won't go back.

 

[Welly Wu]

Fair enough.

I'll start my 1 month moonlight period with Linux Fedora Code. In the meantime, I should check back with both Mr. Chris Hoff and Mr. Dan Wright about my mods. I might sneak in that Linux installation next week to kill my wait time and anticipation.

 

[Welly Wu]

Oh yeah, you'll never guess how good the music sounds on what I'm listening to right now.

 

[acs236]

First of all, who cares if Microsoft Office is better? The crux of this thread is that it's wrong for Microsoft to sue users of Open Office based on some trumped up IP right. I assume Adobe could sue for all third-party programs that access or create PDF files, but they do not.

Second, my real problem with Microsoft is the general way that Windows operates. For example, if I upgrade to a new computer, there is no effective way of migrating my configuration. Even if I back up my windows drive completely, it won't work effectively because the registry is clogged with entries specific to my old computer. It's the most frustrating thing about computer use as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Welly Wu]

I didn't even think of it like that but I guess it's true. Learn something every day.

 

[Stephonovich]

Well, judging by your sig, I'd say really, really good

Or is this something new?

Anyway, enjoy Linux. Download 3rd party stuff, join some mailing lists, try out things you wouldn't normally try. That's the beauty of Linux; it's so expandable. Viva la Revolucion!

 

[Welly Wu]

Nah. I still haven't gotten my ModWright Pioneer Elite DV-59AVi or BP.Jr II Ultra with Signature Upgrades and Model L-9 AC cord.

I'm just listening to Coldplay on a Panasonic SL-SX430 PCDP and Sennheiser PX100. And it sounds good to my ears...the music that is.

Does this make me some sort of revolutionary?

 

[Stephonovich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by acs236 Second, my real problem with Microsoft is the general way that Windows operates. For example, if I upgrade to a new computer, there is no effective way of migrating my configuration. Even if I back up my windows drive completely, it won't work effectively because the registry is clogged with entries specific to my old computer. It's the most frustrating thing about computer use as far as I'm concerned.

I quite agree. With Windows, the only thing you can really do is backup all your data to a drive and dump it back on after a re-install. But as for apps, games, or anything of the sort, forget it; you're re-installing 'em from scratch. I had to RMA a mobo, for instance, due to a majorly blown trace that caused smoke to billow forth. Now, unless they send me back the exact same mobo (highly unlikely, since the mobo was almost 2 years old, and hasn't been produced for at least a year), I'm going to have to do a complete Windows re-install. Now, normally, I'd have to back up my approximately 40GB of music (mostly FLAC rips of albums I own), various pieces of software and updates and the like to an external disk, and then move it back. However, thanks to a handy utlility known as Hiren's Boot CD, I'll be able to just partition off an appropiate size chunk of my 120 gigger, format it NTFS, dump 'em into there, format the rest of the drive, move everything back, and then delete the partition when I'm done. Thank God for 3rd party apps.

In contrast to this, with Linux, the worst you'll have to do is re-compile your kernel if you have it compiled for a certain CPU architecture, and you change. Big whoopee. During this time, you can simply run off a generic x86 kernel and have full system functionality, even while compiling your new one. Now if that ain't multi tasking, I don't know what is.

EDIT: Methinks the main reason the music sounds so good is the happiness I assume you're feeling over all this Linux talk. I had the same thing happen last night when I found an absolute motherload of software for my PDA. I popped Tool's Lateralus into a Sony CDP-C215 --> CMoy --> HD 280s, and was in a complete state of bliss. It's not a bad system to start, but the overwhelming joy and sense of completeness I was feeling was the icing on the cake.

Oh, and as for the revolutionary bit, I was referring to you becoming a Linux user. Slowly but surely, we're taking over...

 

[Welly Wu]

You know Steponovich, that's kind of true. I hardly ever listen to music without being on my PC (usually on Head-Fi) doing something. I don't play games with my life. It's just sit, surf, and productivity. The thing is, my fascination with Linux is growing. My experience with Windows leaves an icky feeling all over my tongue.

The scary part is that the music can sound so good while I'm installing Linux and then I do something stupid and then I got to rely on the music not to get me to pull out my hair. But, I don't think Fedora Code is all that bad for starters and I got a competent author with a down to earth book as a guide.

Tomorrow or next week, I will be revisiting Head-Fi from the Linux perspective.

The more I listen to the Sennheiser PX100s, the more they sound right to my ears.

 

[Stephonovich]

A friend (well, he's 30 something, but an advisor to the Nebraska 4-H Technology Team, and I consider him a friend... anyway...) highly recommended Fedora Core as a distro. I've used Redhat, and while there's nothing wrong with it, I don't really think there's anything that makes it stand out, either. It's excellent for business users, as it doesn't really have many distractions in it, it's stable, and offers most anything you'd need. Fedora Core expands on that, but is geared more towards the home user, and is a bit more friendly. And congrats on the book; they're always good to have. As I've mentioned, Gentoo relies on some of the world's best user forums for support, as well as their 100+ (130 or so, I think...) page installation manual, that's available online, or for printing if you feel so inclined. It's really very difficult to do anything wrong while installing Gentoo, thanks to those two.

I don't necessarily have an 'icky feeling' while using Windows, but that's also because I've been without Linux for quite some time now

I'll still have it around for my gaming, as I can't live without games. I have grown rather tired of shared installations on one computer, though. My plan for college is to build a top of the line gaming system loaded only with Windows, and a mid range system (my XP 2000+ w/ 512MB RAM wouldn't be bad) loaded solely with Linux, on which I'll do surfing, IM, word processing, and basically everything else. Hopefully that way I'll avoid system crashes for the most part, won't have to reboot back and forth, and I'll also have the benefit of being able to hand pick components for the boxes that are designed to work well with their respective OS's.

 

[Welly Wu]

Good luck to you!

Why don't you build just one ultra high end PC? Why two machines?

 

[Stephonovich]

As I said, I'm tired of having to deal with dual booting. Even with seperate hard drives, it can be a bugger. Besides, I like the flexibility of a system for each OS. I can tailor it to be designed fully for the particular application. For instance, I'm going to build an expanded home network here as soon as I get a job, and use a PII 266 w/ 128MB RAM as the Internet gateway/firewall and network router. It's either going to be running Gentoo or OpenBSD; not sure yet. It's going to have to bridge Gigabit ethernet and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi together. Good luck getting Windows to do that anywhere near effectively, and for free...

 

[wallijonn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spaceman I have better things to do than to dick around with all that Linux crap. When and if Linux can provide me with an OS that can be installed and run without weeks of configuring/re-configuring then maybe I'll give them a shot.

Obviously Linux is not for you. [As a matter of fact a lot of Linux purists are upset that Linux is going the way of Windows. They're the hardcore command prompt sort of guys, the type of guys who can rip an .mp3 through the command line and who hate GUIs. Why? Because they feel that they can use all the horsepower all at once instead of going through a GUI which takes up resources]. Nothing wrong with that. But such a person has absolutely no right to complain that WXPP costs $300, MSOffice is $400 or Outlook2003 is $100. And how can you complain when installing an SP causes a crash with a Promise controller? Or that it doesn't install flawlessly into a SATA RAID?

Now that HDTV is here expect an Internet appliance to come out which will let you surf the web and write and read emails through your TV set. You're watching the Superbowl and a screen comes up saying "You've got mail". Eventually it'll look just like an XBox or PS2.

BTW, if you truly want a Linux that "can provide me with an OS that can be installed and run without weeks of configuring/re-configuring then maybe I'll give them a shot," the closest thing now is SUSE. It feels more like a Mac though. You have to right click the CDRom or floppy and say "eject"; just like you can with Windows but which no one does.

If however you are used to WXPHome where you are always using an account with admin privs, forget it.

WXP can BSOD - it does it regularly with some USB type devices.

So, who's got DEP enabled on their WXP SP2 machines?

 

[wallijonn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephonovich As I said, I'm tired of having to deal with dual booting. Even with seperate hard drives, it can be a bugger. Besides, I like the flexibility of a system for each OS.

In a pinch you can disconnect the built in HD, install a new one as master, install Linux, change the jumper to slave and connect both HDs. Then just go into your BIOS and set it to boot from HD0 or HD1. Kind of like installing WXP on an extrernal USB2.0 HD and going through the BIOS to tell it to boot from the external HD.

I take it that you do not regularly upgrade your computer? With all my upgrades I have given away 5 PCs away in the past to family members.

Once Longhorn comes out in 2006 everyone will be upgrading.

 

[gsferrari]

I have inside information that Longhorn will be pretty much unusable without 1GB of RAM (minimum).

Thats more than what one of my linux installations currently occupies.

No thank you Microsoft - you can keep your grubby software OFF my previous HDD space (as a laptop user I am even more defensive about HDD space because it is limited and it is expensive!!)

Mirosoft - watch this birdie

For me it has been settled :Windows for games, Linux for everything else.

I have been using linux the entire day (After my happy happy wireless success story yesterday).

Cheers!