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What Differentiates Linux from Windows?
tail.man sent in a Linux Insider piece about the difference between Linux and Windows. Quoting the synopsis "So, what's really the difference between a Unix variant like Linux and any Windows OS? It's that Microsoft reacts to marketing pressure to make design decisions favoring running a few processes faster but then finds itself forced first to layer in backward compatibility and then to engage in a patch-and-kludge upgrade process until the code becomes so bloated, slow and unreliable that wholesale replacement is again called for."
...also wrote The Unix Guide to Defenestration, which is an executive-level discussion of making a data center profitable.
He's been a Linux advocate for quite a while...
The Army reading list
yea! The only drivers I ever have to install are the nvidia video drivers linux. For the most part has all my drivers and the only reason for the nvidia drivers is so I can have gl support, otherwise I could just use it out of the box without the installation of drivers.
It's still in development, but you can boot it and run some programs on it already.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
I have found that most older hardware is in fact supported. Donated hardware is likely to have drivers out there for it. Depending on the manufacturer's attitude and device popularity, a Linux driver usually appears within two to six months after new hardware appears.
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let's see...since the source code is available, it's a buttload more portable; hell, they even have it for embedded systems, PPC's, Dec's, Sparcs, etc. (not just x86's).
.Net for linux, since that's the only reason I'm still using Windows along with Linux (need it for my classes; though I tried to convince them that Open Watcom and GCC is a much better way for learning C/C++ programming).
Bug fixes are out faster and bugs are found faster and dealt with unlike Microsoft (e.g. that vulnerability that Microsoft sat on for months before word got out, etc.). Another example, though is old, is the old port 139 vulnerability (Ping of Death). The fix for linux was out within hours while Microsoft took days (if not more).
And with KDE, WINE, etc. Linux is getting some of the benefits (the GUI) of Windows without the baggage and the disadvantages.
It's too bad there's no version of Visual Studio
Also if you expect us to believe that after 4 months the machine can't run IE and this is a windows problem, ummm...your on crack, none of us would put up with windows if it completely failed after just a few months. Some of these office machines here at work, are used every day, and are 2 years old, running XP, with end users, lol, and they really are still doing just fine.
Of course I regularly run updates, and my virus scanner updates hourly and runs nightly, but you should do that with any PC.
Anonymous Cowards - Oh God, How I hate you
Okay. I'll list the problems with my W2K workstations/servers I had this week.
.dll is missing, the other works fine. Regsvring the .dll solves the problem. This happened once this week.
Outlook constantly freezes, for no apparent reason. It requires ending the task. Users get confused by this and call me to come fix it. That wastes my time. I'm sure it's a very simple problem, but I'll never be able to figure it out.
One of my user's computer's randomlly stops accepting keyboard input. It works fine booted from Knoppix, so I can only assume it is something windows is doing. I'm sure a reformat would fix it, but we don't have time... and it only pauses for a few seconds.
One of my user's desktop locks up when somebody prints to their shared printer. It pauses for about 25 seconds, appears totally frozen, but then goes again in a few seconds.
On one of our IIS servers, Explorer.exe has ceased working. You can double click on My Computer, and Explorer says "Unknown or invalid argument." This makes absolutly no sense. We do all our file work from cmd.exe on it now. It's very odd. Sure a reboot would fix it.
Our SQL server ranomlly fails to authenticate people with Windows authentication (single sign on). Nothing we can do here, we just accept it as a given that people's VB programs will randomlly crash.
Our Exchange server "pauses" every now and then. Can't place it. Everybody in the office's outlook just "stops" for a few seconds. The network is fine, i've got a ping running constantly from an affected system to the server, and it never falters. During the failure, Exchange is using 100% of both CPUs. There is no indication about what it is doing... and it doesn't show any abnormal IO usage (hard drive). The system itself responds just fine, except it's a bit slow because of the lack of CPU.
We set up a network deployment of Windows, using RIS. It distributes automated windows installs to our workstations. We can run it on two identical computers, begin installing software in the exact same order... specifically the VB runtime, MDAC. One then fails to launch our VB programs saying a
Starting VB6 starts a reinstall of Outlook 2000.
Outlook 2000 randomlly switches to Internet Mode from Workgroup mode. This requires an administrator to log into the system and switch it back. This is annoying as hell.
IE freezes. User's do not understand this, nomatter how hard I try. THey'll be browsing a web site, and it'll simple stop. THey get confused, and come ask me (help desk). This wastes my time and theirs. I believe this could have something to do with Outlook freezing since it uses IE. But really, what can I do?
That was just stuff I'd experienced THIS WEEK, with a user base of 30 people. We do not do anything "funny". We install Windows, all of the drivers are part of the standard install. We install our software. This is "normal".
We have up to date patches for every peice of software. Users do not have Administrator access. We have symantec av. We NEVER get viruses, because we filter them at the email server, just like you... I've been running Linux on my desktop for about 2 years now, and i'll admit, I have my share of problems. But fix it once, and it never comes back. I run Debian sid though, so I keep getting new problems from new pre-beta software... but I continue to visualize a stable Linux office. A problem happens? You fix it. But it never comes back! I'd be bored.
This is why I dislike Windows? You pay 200 dollars for it, and get what amounts to crap software. You pay $0 for Unix stuff, and get software that although not perfect, is definatly better than Windows. That MAKES ME MAD.
We are currently working on setting up automated linux installs, and a base, nicely configured desktop for our users. Admitidly there are a lot of technical details to figure out. But imagine how easy it will be to manage?
Try Gentoo. Once it is installed (say, up to stage3), it is easy to use. It works great: emerge kde, emerge apache, etc - no problem. It may take a little (or a lot of) time but with the 2.6 kernel on an AMD64, I do not notice any problem with speed. If your system slows down, use kvm to continue working. (In my case, my other computer is a 164 Alpha). Even on slower computers, it works well (once stage1 is done).