Not Necessarily. Newbies may think it's fun either because it is different and they (the Newbies) are curious about it. I started hearing about Linux back around 2001 on TechTV show "Screen Savers" (d*** G4). I first tried it in 2004 with Mandrake 9 and I have used a variety of distros since. I currently use OpenSuse 10.3, though not for writing this post though (I'm typing this on Vista).
To me, it's fun to try different systems because I may run into such systems someday. I'd like to try OSX, but Apple won't allow it, and downloading an ISO file just wouldn't be practical on dial-up.
I graduated from a Catholic High school (Pacelli) here in Wisconsin back in 1996, and they also taught evolution in its biology classes. It was done in a way that reflects Catholic teaching, but it was taught. The fact that the Kansas Board was working to insert ID into the curriculum shows that the Biblical literalists are not confined to the Deep South.
Not all Vista users hate it. I have used it for almost a year and I have no problems with it, nor have I had to reinstall it yet. When I do use it, I have Aero glass turned on w/o problems. Then again, I got my machine new with Vista pre-installed, so the problems others have had haven't shown up. The specs:
Core 2 Duo E6400 @ 2.13 GHz 2 GB RAM 256MB ATI Radeon X1600 Pro 250GB SATA HD split between Vista and Linux (OpenSuse) Using dial-up for Internet access
I am not a troll or a fanboy, but I am just giving my opinion of Vista so far.
So you're saying that if a distro carries proprietary code installed either by default or via the repositories, then it isn't Linux. AFAIK, Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Mandriva all use a Linux kernel. Therefore, they are Linux distributions. Some, like Mandriva's One LiveCD, may carry the proprietary drivers for NVidia and ATI graphics cards in the install, but they are still Linux-based OSes.
Another reason I see is that many people, especially here in the US, still have good ol' dial-up for Internet access. Therefore it takes a looooong time to download an.iso and burn it to disc. Where I live, I am in a broadband no-man's-land between Solarus in Wisconsin Rapids and Charter in Stevens Point: and neither want to come into my neighborhood. When I went to get OpenSuse 10.3 that I am typing this on, I went to download the.iso from school as I was going to MSTC at the time. The first time I got Linux, I bought Suse 9.3 Professional from Plover, WI, Best Buy back in 2005. I had dial-up (and still do) and didn't want to wait God-knows-how-long to download. I installed it (after a few attempts) and the driver for the Nvidia card in the Dell at the time, and it worked well.
I have used other distros before, including Mandrake/Mandriva, Fedora, Ubuntu, and PCLinuxOS, but I seem to come back to (Open)Suse. It behaves well with my modem for both internet access and Yast software management and updates. The only trouble is that the Xgl won work on the ATI X1600 PRO card. I'm still working on getting it to work though.
The various distros should advertise their Linux OS's. Give plenty of exposure to Linux and what it can do for the average PC user. The hardware support is good. The applications are there. There is plenty of good eye candy to go around. Today's Linux distros have good installers and application management tools. All I see it needs is plenty of exposure, not just word-of-mouth, but on TV and non-geek Internet sites.
I am typing this in Vista (yes, I know, not cool), but I have used plenty of Linux distributions for a few years. My first exposure to Linux was seeing it used on an old show on TechTV before G4 fouled it up("Screen Savers" I believe). I have tried Mandrake/Mandriva, Fedora, (Open)Suse, PCLinuxOS, and (K)Ubuntu. I've settled with OpenSuse 10.3 with KDE on my dual-boot system. I like how it works well with dial-up, and its Online Update is great. The only problem is that neither XGL nor AIGLX will work well with my ATI Radeon X1600 PCI-E card. I'd appreciate it if someone knew of a good workaround for this.
Agreed! I have been using Vista on this machine since last March. Granted it has a C2D E6400, 2GB of dual-channel RAM, ATI X1600, and a modem (yes, a USR HW modem). So far, I've had no problems. Aero works and looks good. I have only one gadget running (allowing me to monitor both cores and the memory). UAC only pops up when I use CCleaner to clean up the system or EasyBCD for configuring dual-boot with Linux (I have OpenSUSE 10.3 on this PC also).
As for Linux, I have one problem with it. Compiz will not work well with the ATI card. Does anybody know of any tricks offhand or a site to visit to find somw good workaround for Compiuz to work. Other than that, Linux works well.
I posted as AC because I'm new to posting to Slashdot's forums.
I bought my Micro Express system back in March 2007 preloaded with Vista. My last PC was a 5-year old Dell with 256 MB of RDRAM. It would have cost me more to max out the RAM than to get a whole new machine. I have Home Premium installed. I thought that Ultimate was too much for me, and I apparently made a good choice because of the Extras (or lack thereof). I checked all the apps I use (AVG Free, Firefox 2, Spybot) for compatibility, and they haven't had any problems. I haven't had to deal with DRM with the music I have. I made sure DRM was off before ripping my discs so I could play them with Amarok in Linux. UAC hasn't been much of a nuissance for me now that I have used Vista for less than a year. It comes up as often as the root password prompt in Linux.
Am I recommending Vista to anybody? No, I'm just telling of my experience with Vista thus far. Things may change in the future, especially with SP1 coming soon. So far I have been lucky with my system, others not so much. IF you don't want Vista, that is OK. It "just works" for me. I'll agree that there is no "groupthink" as I've read posts from people of all types here on Slashdot. People can come to the same conclusion, but come to that conclusion in different ways.
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At least you may now have a choice what to get with your OS X.
Not Necessarily. Newbies may think it's fun either because it is different and they (the Newbies) are curious about it. I started hearing about Linux back around 2001 on TechTV show "Screen Savers" (d*** G4). I first tried it in 2004 with Mandrake 9 and I have used a variety of distros since. I currently use OpenSuse 10.3, though not for writing this post though (I'm typing this on Vista).
To me, it's fun to try different systems because I may run into such systems someday. I'd like to try OSX, but Apple won't allow it, and downloading an ISO file just wouldn't be practical on dial-up.
I graduated from a Catholic High school (Pacelli) here in Wisconsin back in 1996, and they also taught evolution in its biology classes. It was done in a way that reflects Catholic teaching, but it was taught.
The fact that the Kansas Board was working to insert ID into the curriculum shows that the Biblical literalists are not confined to the Deep South.
Not all Vista users hate it. I have used it for almost a year and I have no problems with it, nor have I had to reinstall it yet. When I do use it, I have Aero glass turned on w/o problems. Then again, I got my machine new with Vista pre-installed, so the problems others have had haven't shown up. The specs:
Core 2 Duo E6400 @ 2.13 GHz
2 GB RAM
256MB ATI Radeon X1600 Pro
250GB SATA HD split between Vista and Linux (OpenSuse)
Using dial-up for Internet access
I am not a troll or a fanboy, but I am just giving my opinion of Vista so far.
So you're saying that if a distro carries proprietary code installed either by default or via the repositories, then it isn't Linux. AFAIK, Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Mandriva all use a Linux kernel. Therefore, they are Linux distributions. Some, like Mandriva's One LiveCD, may carry the proprietary drivers for NVidia and ATI graphics cards in the install, but they are still Linux-based OSes.
Another reason I see is that many people, especially here in the US, still have good ol' dial-up for Internet access. Therefore it takes a looooong time to download an .iso and burn it to disc. Where I live, I am in a broadband no-man's-land between Solarus in Wisconsin Rapids and Charter in Stevens Point: and neither want to come into my neighborhood. When I went to get OpenSuse 10.3 that I am typing this on, I went to download the .iso from school as I was going to MSTC at the time. The first time I got Linux, I bought Suse 9.3 Professional from Plover, WI, Best Buy back in 2005. I had dial-up (and still do) and didn't want to wait God-knows-how-long to download. I installed it (after a few attempts) and the driver for the Nvidia card in the Dell at the time, and it worked well.
I have used other distros before, including Mandrake/Mandriva, Fedora, Ubuntu, and PCLinuxOS, but I seem to come back to (Open)Suse. It behaves well with my modem for both internet access and Yast software management and updates. The only trouble is that the Xgl won work on the ATI X1600 PRO card. I'm still working on getting it to work though.
The various distros should advertise their Linux OS's. Give plenty of exposure to Linux and what it can do for the average PC user. The hardware support is good. The applications are there. There is plenty of good eye candy to go around. Today's Linux distros have good installers and application management tools. All I see it needs is plenty of exposure, not just word-of-mouth, but on TV and non-geek Internet sites.
I am typing this in Vista (yes, I know, not cool), but I have used plenty of Linux distributions for a few years. My first exposure to Linux was seeing it used on an old show on TechTV before G4 fouled it up("Screen Savers" I believe). I have tried Mandrake/Mandriva, Fedora, (Open)Suse, PCLinuxOS, and (K)Ubuntu. I've settled with OpenSuse 10.3 with KDE on my dual-boot system. I like how it works well with dial-up, and its Online Update is great. The only problem is that neither XGL nor AIGLX will work well with my ATI Radeon X1600 PCI-E card. I'd appreciate it if someone knew of a good workaround for this.
Thanks
BJS
Agreed! I have been using Vista on this machine since last March. Granted it has a C2D E6400, 2GB of dual-channel RAM, ATI X1600, and a modem (yes, a USR HW modem). So far, I've had no problems. Aero works and looks good. I have only one gadget running (allowing me to monitor both cores and the memory). UAC only pops up when I use CCleaner to clean up the system or EasyBCD for configuring dual-boot with Linux (I have OpenSUSE 10.3 on this PC also).
As for Linux, I have one problem with it. Compiz will not work well with the ATI card. Does anybody know of any tricks offhand or a site to visit to find somw good workaround for Compiuz to work. Other than that, Linux works well.
I posted as AC because I'm new to posting to Slashdot's forums.
I bought my Micro Express system back in March 2007 preloaded with Vista. My last PC was a 5-year old Dell with 256 MB of RDRAM. It would have cost me more to max out the RAM than to get a whole new machine.
I have Home Premium installed. I thought that Ultimate was too much for me, and I apparently made a good choice because of the Extras (or lack thereof).
I checked all the apps I use (AVG Free, Firefox 2, Spybot) for compatibility, and they haven't had any problems.
I haven't had to deal with DRM with the music I have. I made sure DRM was off before ripping my discs so I could play them with Amarok in Linux.
UAC hasn't been much of a nuissance for me now that I have used Vista for less than a year. It comes up as often as the root password prompt in Linux.
Am I recommending Vista to anybody? No, I'm just telling of my experience with Vista thus far. Things may change in the future, especially with SP1 coming soon. So far I have been lucky with my system, others not so much. IF you don't want Vista, that is OK. It "just works" for me.
I'll agree that there is no "groupthink" as I've read posts from people of all types here on Slashdot. People can come to the same conclusion, but come to that conclusion in different ways.
B. J. S.