SuSE isn't perfect, either. But for my usage patterns, it is at least as perfect as Windows, same level of configuration hassels, but no maintenance hassels. Once you get it running, its fine. My desktop been running for 3 years, through 2 motherboard upgrades, and 3 hard drive upgrades. No reinstalls.
Feel free to e-mail me at moornblade at gmail dot com if you want any configuration advice before you do the install
I STILL haven't gotten my wireless or ethernet to work on either of the 2 linux OSs that I tried to install on my bright shiny brand new laptop.
I find this very difficult to believe. Ndiswrapper will run your Windows XP driver on Linux, and comes standard with most modern Linuxes.
Please list your Laptop manufacturer, or network chipset driver, or network card model, or some kind of identification information. I've had no problems using ndiswrapper with a wide variety of chipsets, including ornery models like Broadcom 802.11g stuff and other varieties of 100/125 Mbps 802.11g+ stuff.
I find that you would have problems with your wired ethernet shocking. I've installed literally dozens of linux installs, on various POS hardware, and I've never met an ethernet card that didn't work out of box. This is with modern SuSE (9.2+). I'd love to hear some information about this card/chipset/manufacturer that's giving you problems.
As far as drivers go... I call shinanigans on you! I'll agree with you to the point that Windows might not install the correct drivers for my hardware during the installation. But in my experience neither has Linux. I can't count the number of times I've gone through the following process on Linux:
1. Drop to a command-line to find system information about my hardware. 2. Download the driver from my functional Windows machine onto my thumb drive. 3. Plug in my thumb drive on the Linux machine and find that its not functional. 4. Download drivers for my thumb drive to a floppy and repeat most of this process... 5. Compile drivers. 6. Install drivers. 7. Tweak some files in/etc to make drivers work.
Hmmm... When was the last time you tried Linux? I presume you say this because you didn't have functional networking drivers.
If your talking wirless, either ndiswrapper (in the Standard SuSE install) will run your WinXP drivers, or Linuxant's Driverloader will run WinXP drivers (all ACX cards now have OEM driverloader support! This means ANYTHING with a TI chipset. Hurrah!)
If your talking wired, I'm shocked. I do a fair number of Linux installs, and I've not seen a single wired ethernet driver that hasn't been supported out of box.
The only place I can see you really having problems is sound card drivers, and even then Linux has fairly broad support out of box. You will find the occasional piece of ancient and not-widely-used hardware thats not supported, but again, among all the OEM crap-boxes I'v done installs, and salvaged motherboards, it been years since I've found a sound card that didn't work out-of-box.
Webcams are FAR iffer. I'd suggest buy a Linux compatible webcam.
The linux driver situation has gotten MUCH MUCH better in the last 2 years. Whether this is because of more people dedicating time, or more companies supplying documentation is unclear to me. But the situation is radically improved.
downloading weird libraries just to get my laptop operational for simple tasks as: browsing web, listening to mp3s and watching videos IMO is way too much to ask
Sorry about the second post.
SuSE Stuff
1. Browsing web. Konqueror and Firefox come standard. Java, Flash, Acrobat and Realplayer are configured correctly out of box. 2. Listening to MP3s. Due to licensing limitations, you have to download some libraries. This is done automatically on your first system update. The install prompts you to do an update before the final step. 3. Watching Videos. Some videos will play out of box. Restricted (semi-legal) codecs are not avaliable. You can get these by adding the famous 'Packman' YaST repository, either to APT or to YaST. Or you can download the RPMs yourself. It'll replace the xine-lib, and download w32codecs, and that gives you all kinds of goodies, including quicktime support. 4. Watching DVDs. This is decidedly not legal. You can buy a Linux DVD player, install MPlayer (which you have to download from countries with a different Intellectual Propety regime), or you can run the convienient libdvdcss script, avaliable from the Packman (packman.links2linux.org) site. This script is a one step script that will automatically download, compile, and install the libdvdcss script, which will allow all the software on your system to read encrypted dvds. Conveniently, this will allow you to use k9copy or similar utilities to do DVD9-to-5 transcoding. k9copy will appear in your package manager once you add the packman repository.
Keep in mind this stuff isn't simple on Windows, either. Codecs can be a HUGE pain, and DVD playback software must be purchased. You can purchase Linux DVD playback software too, but I feel that libdvdcss is a better solution (generic, allows all your software to play dvds).
Try SuSE. SuSE is designed around the 'it just works' philosophy.
Their rather controlling YaST utility makes sure stuff like Wireless and Sound works properly. I had similar 'now it works', 'now it doesn't' under Ubuntu, when I was testing it out, and I have no explanation as to why that occurred.
Unless a serious problem is encountered (esoteric hard disk controller, serious hardware failure) all you really need to do is hit 'next, next, next'.
You'll get FireFox, Flash, Java, OpenOffice.org, Thunderbird, and a full KDE setup. You'll get an automatically resized NTFS or FAT32 partition, a swap partition the size of your system ram, and the rest of the space dedicated to ReiserFS, without using the partitioning tool. You can also use the beginners partitioning tool, where the only question it asks you is 'How much free space do you want on your Windows partition'. You'll get every wired ethernet driver you'd ever need, many wireless drivers, and ndiswrapper, out of box. This means if you've got your Windows XP wireless driver, you'll have a working wireless adapter You'll get every possible X server driver you can think of, except the binary-only ones. Both of these (ATI or Nvidia) can be installed on your first system update. You'll get a 2D only driver till these are installed. No sound card drivers needed, either. SB Live, SB Audigy, Turtle Beach whatever, intel anything. All builtin. Same with most TV cards.
The SuSE 10 menus are also well setup. 'Internet'. 'Office' 'Multimedia' 'Graphics'.
It makes far more sense to me than Start->All Programs->Adobe->Acrobat Pro, or Start->All Programs->Macromedia->Flash I don't understand the Vendor based menu configuration. I do understand category based.
And to say that XP has more driver support out of box is ludicrious. Most modern ethernet adapters, even motherboard integrated ones are NOT supported on the XP cd.
Straight up opinion? Ditch all the other distributions, and go for the latest OpenSuSE.
If you are the cutting edge type, go for SLICK OpenSuSE, which is a one-cd install, utilizing all the latest tricks I talked about.
Klik:// is still experimental software. You can use it on the regular OpenSuSE, but SLICK (and experimental version of OpenSuSE) has it out of the box.
I haven't used another linux distribution ('cept Knoppix as a rescue disk for Windows) in years. I think SuSE hits all the targets. Debian is more free, Gentoo is more, uhh, optimized(?), Fedora has better geek cred, and Mandrake is supposedly more userfriendly, but I think SuSE (especially with the new OpenSuSE setup) hits these targets best.
Boxed set retail SuSE also comes with fantastic manuals, easily readily by computer novices. My parents refer to them when they want to burn a CD, or edit a photo.
I try to stay informed about other Linuxes. Every once in a while I'll install one in a virtual machine. But don't get me wrong; I'm a SuSE hack. SuSE got me off Windows 2000, and I've been a full-time linux user ever since.
A large part of it was the working Java/Flash and properly configured hardware out-of-box, including Nvidia binary drivers. SuSE is a polished, professional, well-maintained distribution that stays near the cutting edge, while nodding its hat towards 'proprietary' solutions (Java, Flash, Nvidia drivers, Acrobat, and other non-GPL non-BSD stuff). Give it a whirl, you won't be disappointed.
Thing is, I have no way to resolve the problems on Windows, without a wipe/reboot. The thing comes with recovery disks. No 'repair' option. I don't have any other Window's cds in the house.
I booted Knoppix, and copied all her data off. Don't know what else to do, as I doubt the lawschool's testing application runs in Linux (it does run on OS X, but that's neither here nor there).
Both spybot/MS anti-spyware (Windows defeneder, is it?) reported no problems as recently as the day before the crash. Antivir (www.freeav.com) was set to update daily, no problems in the scan a few days before the crash.
She was running as a 'user' account, and doesn't install any software; the IT guys at the school did that. I don't think she got any spyware through firefox, but I grant that its possible.
I don't mean to complain, but I have no idea what she should have done differently. She did 'everything' correctly, and the first time this happened, HP blamed it on software problems, and both the law school and HP claimed the laptop has no hardware issues. Perhaps there's a hardware failure now; maybe something intermittent that didn't turn up on their first checkup, or whatever they did. Everything seemed to work properly in Knoppix *shrug*. I did get a message that I should run chkdsk on the NTFS partition, however, since I cannot boot into XP, and I don't have a CD that will do a rescue, there's no way for me to do that. I don't own any other XP systems, so I don't have the usual library of OEM pirated XP disks most people seem to have.
I'll grant you that most Windows systems are not BSOD happy as they used to be. However, I've never seen my Linux boxes crash without a serious hardware failure, and I've never seen my OS X boxes crash without a serious hardware failure; while I've most definitely seen XP boxes crash, under warranty, properly maintained (as far as I know). I do know that myself, my other sister, my father, and my mother, all who run powerbooks, have never had to reinstall. My powerbook is going on 3 years.
I feel bad for my sis, as her computing habits are really rather plain. No installing drivers, Windows automatic updates on, all her software installed by the law school's IT department on an approved laptop, and defrag/antivirus/antispyware run on a regular basis and only using Firefox/web e-mail clients. She's a really conservative user, and all she wants is a working laptop for law school. No gaming, no P2P, no warez, nothing. She even bought the 3 year extended warranty in addition to the school's standard IT support.
Perhaps I should try an OEM Windows install? I'm considering downloading some pirated version of Windows, simply because she DOES indeed have a valid Windows license, but no install disks, just those stupid HP restore disks that come with volumes and volumes of random "I Love HP apps".
How about doing a review from the perspective of someone who has never used a computer before - then lets see which one is easier to use (hint: the answer will be Windows XP by a massive margin).
Does this include the install process, or are you comparing pre-installed XP versus DIY Linux?
If a novice was forced to install both, I'd bet $100 that they'd get Linux installed properly first. A Linux install comes with most necessary drivers/software that you'll need. A novice Windows user would _never_ find the drivers needed for even an OEM system, like a Sony or HP, where all the drivers are centralized on one site, let alone searching out the drivers from each manufacturer. Linux installs are much easier than XP installs.
Usage? Are you talking about Gentoo versus XP? I'd suggest pre-installed SuSE versus pre-installed XP.
SuSE? Comes with manuals, both electronic and dead tree. SuSE? Comes with all productivie software, documented in the manuals! Need to write a text document? Look up "word processing" in the SuSE manual. It'll tell you what app to use, show screenshots of the app, and give you a basic rundown of its usage, with pointers to a section in the electronic help system that will give you indepth support and tutorials, as well as e-mail/phone support.
What will XP do if you look up "Word Processing" in that 15 page piece of shit 'starter guide' it comes with?
The only place that XP is at all easier is finding software for it. Linux software is easier to install (RPM are very convienient, klik:// is even easier, and the GUI package managers are drop dead easy, especially Mandriva's URPMI GUI and SuSE's YaST GUI), and easier to remove. Linux systems require no habitual maintenance. You don't have to worry about anti-virus or anti-spyware, and even if you did worry about it, you could simply install the anti-virus software that comes with your distribution, using the distributions own package manager. Don't believe me? SuSE's YaST has "ClamAV", as well as several other anti-virus packages included.
If you can show me Windows software that installs as easily as this: http://amavis-ng.klik.atekon.de/ , I'll be mighty impressed. And commercial vendors are picking it up, too. For example, klik://nero will install the latest version of Nero Burning Rom on your Linux system, and run it. From one file. One click install->run. No setting, no fuss, no random files draped all over your system.
The only place linux still really lags behind is game avaliablility. Between alsa, SDL, and OpenGL, there's a pretty comprehensive gaming environment on linux, but its taking manufacturers some time to get caught up. iD and Epic are doing pretty well, and Transgaming's doing some neat things with DirectX9 Wine, but gaming on Linux just isn't all that there yet, even though I do manage to keep myself enterained.
It disappoints me that I can't play whatever games I want, but I keep myself busy with Secondlife, EVE Online, World of Warcraft, Doom 3, the Unreal series, Civilization IV, and various other distractions.
You obviously don't support Windows systems for laymen.
In every instance that I've replaced someone's Windows-only system with a dual-boot Windows/Linux install, they've thanked me.
My sister has a new(ish) HP Laptop. It's 3 months old.
All the software on it is administered by her law school. No unauthorized software, automatically updated anti-virus and anti-spyware. I've peaked around at it a few times, and everything seemed to be in order.
When travelling in Europe last month, I watched her system randomly, WITHOUT ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER, blue screen and reboot. After the first reboot, it would blue screen->reboot as soon as the starting windows XP logo came up.
This is with everything in perfect order, all updates installed, using Firefox to browse the web. She's going to have the laptop reformated at the school's IT department. This is the second time since she bought it. The first time, we suspected some kind of hardware failure, but both the school and HP have run diagnostics on it.
Similar experiences have happened to my neighbors, and my friends. I would be absolutely *shocked* if something like this happened to my linux desktops, or my OS X laptop.
And laypeople have no problem with Linux. My parents use it. My grandparents use it. My neighbors have a dual boot, mainly used in Linux.
Not having to maintain your System makes up for a great deal of the aggreviation of learning a new desktop environment.
EDGE GPRS is similar, as long as you use a Class 10 device.
EVDO is 'the real deal'. 1xRTT doesn't really get you much past dial-up speeds, and the latency (although not as high as EDGE GPRS) is significantly higher.
Also, Verizon charges $60 (with a voice plan) for unlimited data (tethered to laptop), and I don't think Sprint has an all you can eat data plan.
The varience in call reception quality between various cell phone manufacturers is amazing.
In my experience, it has been something like this, but there will be additional varience based on the model:
Nokia>Samsung>Motorola>Kyocera>Sony Ericisson
Certain phones are better than others. The high-end Nokia phones (avaliable from places like myworldphone.com) like the business seires smart phones are particularly good phones. My Nokia 3650 experienced fairly few call drops, and only in certain areas with poor coverage (I'm on T-mobile USA, and I've experienced drops in certain 'black holes' on the freeway, and near one shopping mall).
My Motorola V330 gets random drops in areas of high signal, and my Sony Ericssion 610 was an evil brick that dropped at least 30% of my calls.
There are great mobile deals to be had in the U.S., but they require you to shop around, and they require you to sign contracts.
My current deal?
I just signed up with T-mobile for a Motorola V330. The phone was free, and they paid me a $100 sign-up bonus (Amazon.com). I'm on a $45.99 a month contract, with 1500 minutes included, nights/weekends free, and T-mobile to T-mobile free.
I pay an addition $19.99 for unlimited EDGE Gprs service. My monthly bill comes to about $70.00, which I feel is pretty good for the number of minutes, and the unlimited internet access. I use approximately 2000 minutes a month, with heavy emphasis on nights and mobile-to-mobile. I use ~40 megs per month of date transfer.
For me, that averages about.025 USD per minute, and.000488037109 USD per kilobyte. Both of these are substantially cheaper than any plan I've found in Europe (just got back for a 2 month Europe trip, visted France, UK, Netherlands, and Spain).
It's all about usage patterns. In Europe, you'll pay substantially less than an average American if you control your usage. In the U.S., you'll pay an incredible rate if you have a very high consumption level.
Where Europe generally shines is on the high-end services. The only 3G option we have here at the moment is EVDO, which is fairly expensive, and requires you to sign with Verizon, whom I hate. Given the European pricing structures, however, and government backed loans to the mobile operators, it makes financial sense for them to offer these services, while American operates attempt to make as much money off their existing equipment as possible.
The nice thing about this from our perspective is that we tend to get better tested systems when they finally do release them. Every EVDO subscriber I've talked to has been pretty thrilled, if mainly because the system was well worked over in Japan and S. Korea before it came over here.
I imagine that T-Mobile's European experiments with 3G will enable them to build a fantastic system over here when they get round to it.
The crappy part is the obvious part; Europeans (and S.E. Asians) get better equipment substantially faster, and have a wider diversity of phones avaliable.
Again, this makes sense; the American consumer expects their phone to be free, so we aren't gonna get the best phones, we're going to get the bottom of the barrel. I'm not particularly happy with my V330, but I didn't have a Nokia option avaliable with Bluetooth, EDGE, and a moderately okay camera. Someday, I will; and then I'll be paying less per minute and KByte than the average European phone customer. But I've got to wait longer:(
P.S. Oh, wanna tip for being able to transfer your American phones from carrier to carrier? At least with GSM?
Calll your carrier before you cancel. Tell them you are going to travel to Europe, and you want your phone SIM-unlocked for a Pay-as-You-Go plan for Europe. You'll read them your IMEI number, and they'll e-mail you within 48 hours the SIM unlock code. I've successfully done this with Cingular and T-mobile. If they give you any trouble, tell them your friend with whom you are travelling with did the same thing last week.
Correction. VMware, or QEMU, or any other Linux virtualization environment WILL be vulnerable, but only for the image. It won't break the confines of the virutalized environment.
WINE may or may not be vulnerable. I'm betting that Wine's incomplete WMF support will render it unable to correctly implement this crap. If you notice billions of Wine processes spawned on your system, however, you're infected. Luckily, it'll be restrained into your Wine environment, not your general linux environment.
Wine's goal is to implement the Windows API bug-for-bug, with security work arounds as necessary. For the most part, most security vulnerability rely upon bugs in Windows that simply don't work the same way on Wine; often, esoteric tricks just break in different ways on WINE and Windows. Buffer overruns rarely work the same way. Poorly implemented security models, however, _may_ break in the same way; it'll depend on Wine's WMF implementation here, so I have no idea.
But I suspect it won't work, mainly because this kind of rarely used functionality generally doesn't get implemented in Wine until some app really needs it.
It's not restricted to unpatched Windows 98. It affects fully patched Windows XP SP2 running fully updated anti-virus.
Use Windows, and you'll Get Infected.
A firewall will protect you sometimes. Safe browsing will protect you other times. But in the end, something will get you. WMF, or a buffer overflow in IE, a spoofing vulnerability involving Windows Update, a Windows only Firefox bug.
But then comes the deal-breaker for me.. I need to develop something in the latest version of Java and/or C#.NET (properly), and then knock up some gorgeous images in the latest version of a top graphics package for a site (hosted on my Linux server btw) followed by a Flash game and a couple of viral banners, turn off for a bit a destroy some friends on Battlefield 2.. I need Windows cos I can't get all the best software for anything else. I might get somewhere with the graphics package on a Mac but not have it run at a decent pace for the _right price_.
1. Java on Linux is no problem, especially if you like Eclipse. 2. C#.NET is more of a problem, Mono is not a straight forward thing. It's good; very good, actually. But not straight forware. However, QEMU with the accelerator module gives you ~20-30% of a performance loss over non-virutalized Windows. Run XP in a virtualized QEMU. Don't do anything but your C# work here. Keep a backup of your image, so if you get infected, it takes you all of 2 minutes to restore to clean, without a reboot. This is very nice, and as computers get more and more powerful, is ideal. 3. For graphics, either use GIMP (mediocre), or Photoshop 7, CS, or CS 2 under Crossover Office (or Wine). Photoshop 7 is fully supported. CS and CS 2 are close. Usable, but I'd make constant backups. The Macromedia suite works well too, as I understand. Or, you can rely upon a separate QEMU image. This is nice, because one image cannot corrupt the other, and since you'll be keeping all your data on the Linux partition anyways, the images won't get that big. For non-professional work, GIMP is great; the main problem with GIMP is working with other people. If you're just banging out JPEGs for your own usage, it works out okay. Professional work generally requires the Adobe stuff; thats why I own Creative Suite, anyways. 4. Flash games, banners? Works perfectly under any SuSE distribution after 8. If you install crossover office, you can have the Windows version of flash, which gives you 100% compatibility. Macromedia's Linux version of flash is more like 99%, same as the OS X version. 5. Battlefield 2? www.transgaming.com Transgaming's Cedega runs Battlefield 2 well now.
From my perspective, my Mac is substantially closer to an appliance than a Windows box. I'm far less aware of the maintenance tasks.
From my parent's perspectives, their Linux box is effectively an appliance. All software comes from the distribution's mirrors, signed and secure. No maintenance, no fuss, just point, click, and go.
My Mac does not regularly break down, no matter how badly I tend to abuse it. I do not believe my parents fundamentally COULD break their Linux box, without doing physical damage. I do not believe they could loose more than 1 days worth of documents, because that's how often they get backups.
That's far closer to an "appliance" than the average Windows box.
A good example of this is the British guy who recently won a court case against a spammer, thereby setting a legal precedent (as reported on Slashdot yesterday). He managed what platoons of highly paid IT experts and IT lawyers totally failed to do. No one seemed to have asked why the finest minds of our time, blah blah, were unable to find $20 to fund a suit in the UK small claims court. This may work for domestic spammers. The only effect it will have is to drive spamming overseas.
Even if you can sue someone internationally, its really, really expensive.
Even if the true cost is a fraction of that quoted, this is still a serious matter since it is replicated in every country where there is a worthwhile IT presence. Since the IT industry seems unwilling or unable to reform itself, perhaps governments should step in with a special tax on large IT outfits in order to fund the fighting of computer crime and a severe crackdown on ISPs who happily tolerate bot farms or software houses who knock out software full of holes. Bot/zombie farms, in particular, are the oxygen of online criminals since without them their job is a lot harder. It is almost incredible that so little has been done to choke them off. The IT industry does reform itself. We've got competition in the industry.
Companies that do not want to be vulnerable to infection do not select Microsoft as a vendor. It's really that simple.
Companies that have migrated to Linux, or OS X, or Solaris, or whatever do not experience these security problems, or experience them on a much, much smaller scale.
1. WAAS plus proper GPS equipment can be as good as Galileo, note that the article claims 10-35cms, not 1 cm accuracy. That's 6+ GPS satellites and WAAS levels of accuracy. Galileo satelites may start out better than GPS, but keep in mind that both constellations require (will require) constant replacement. GPS (and Galileo) will receive constant improvements, but higher accuracy is more a problem of physics (atmospheric interference) and computing power on your device (that 10 year old ARM chip in your handheld GPS can only do so much).
2. The U.S. government has sworn off Selective Avaliability. At the same time, the U.S. government has developed ability to do regional jaming of GPS. *shrug* This is a concern, but a marginal one; I doubt that they'll be turning off GPS signals over London, Paris, or New York anytime soon. Not without having grounded all the planes first.
Having said that:
Galileo is another "GPS-like" system that will be avaliable for FREE. The U.S. government will not have to spend a DIME on it, but we'll have TWICE as many positioning satellites avaliable for our use.
Uhh... Sweetness? Free-stuff? Be happy?
The real advantage will be dual-band receivers that are able to use the signals from both systems. In areas where you can only get 2-3 GPS satellites, you'll get 2-3 of each, which may (or may not) be enough to get you 10> or even 1> meter accuracy.
How, exactly, is this NOT in an American's interest?
And we don't have to pay for it?
Ummm... Groovey?
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth!
Redundant, complimentary systems that don't cost us anything more are a godsend. I'm thrilled that Europe is doing this, and everyone not in Europe should be thrilled as well.
The Europeans should be thrilled, but they are permitted a (very slight) grumble at the cost, similar to the grumbles we (Americans) made when the GPS system was developed. Europe is providing a service to the entire global by putting up this system.
Would people complain the same way if Europe (or the U.S.) developed a world-wide free WiFi system?
That's an article from last year, but still; satellites are failing at a rate of 1-2 a year, but thats how many we launch; there's no need to launch anymore.
The real advantage of having a second "GPS" (Galileo) system is dual band receivers. Twice as many satellites=better redundancy, and better accuracy.
Use both! You can bet your asses that U.S. military equipment will be designed to take advantage of both if at all possible; GPS primarily, but any and all secondary singles that may be avaliable.
I'm thrilled about Galileo; the more global positioning data/signals out there, the better. Glonass, Galileo, GPS; keep 'em coming!
Slashdot Mirror
SuSE isn't perfect, either. But for my usage patterns, it is at least as perfect as Windows, same level of configuration hassels, but no maintenance hassels. Once you get it running, its fine. My desktop been running for 3 years, through 2 motherboard upgrades, and 3 hard drive upgrades. No reinstalls.
Feel free to e-mail me at moornblade at gmail dot com if you want any configuration advice before you do the install
I STILL haven't gotten my wireless or ethernet to work on either of the 2 linux OSs that I tried to install on my bright shiny brand new laptop.
I find this very difficult to believe. Ndiswrapper will run your Windows XP driver on Linux, and comes standard with most modern Linuxes.
Please list your Laptop manufacturer, or network chipset driver, or network card model, or some kind of identification information. I've had no problems using ndiswrapper with a wide variety of chipsets, including ornery models like Broadcom 802.11g stuff and other varieties of 100/125 Mbps 802.11g+ stuff.
I find that you would have problems with your wired ethernet shocking. I've installed literally dozens of linux installs, on various POS hardware, and I've never met an ethernet card that didn't work out of box. This is with modern SuSE (9.2+). I'd love to hear some information about this card/chipset/manufacturer that's giving you problems.
As far as drivers go... I call shinanigans on you! I'll agree with you to the point that Windows might not install the correct drivers for my hardware during the installation. But in my experience neither has Linux. I can't count the number of times I've gone through the following process on Linux:
/etc to make drivers work.
1. Drop to a command-line to find system information about my hardware.
2. Download the driver from my functional Windows machine onto my thumb drive.
3. Plug in my thumb drive on the Linux machine and find that its not functional.
4. Download drivers for my thumb drive to a floppy and repeat most of this process...
5. Compile drivers.
6. Install drivers.
7. Tweak some files in
Hmmm... When was the last time you tried Linux? I presume you say this because you didn't have functional networking drivers.
If your talking wirless, either ndiswrapper (in the Standard SuSE install) will run your WinXP drivers, or Linuxant's Driverloader will run WinXP drivers (all ACX cards now have OEM driverloader support! This means ANYTHING with a TI chipset. Hurrah!)
If your talking wired, I'm shocked. I do a fair number of Linux installs, and I've not seen a single wired ethernet driver that hasn't been supported out of box.
The only place I can see you really having problems is sound card drivers, and even then Linux has fairly broad support out of box. You will find the occasional piece of ancient and not-widely-used hardware thats not supported, but again, among all the OEM crap-boxes I'v done installs, and salvaged motherboards, it been years since I've found a sound card that didn't work out-of-box.
Webcams are FAR iffer. I'd suggest buy a Linux compatible webcam.
The linux driver situation has gotten MUCH MUCH better in the last 2 years. Whether this is because of more people dedicating time, or more companies supplying documentation is unclear to me. But the situation is radically improved.
downloading weird libraries just to get my laptop operational for simple tasks as: browsing web, listening to mp3s and watching videos IMO is way too much to ask
Sorry about the second post.
SuSE Stuff
1. Browsing web. Konqueror and Firefox come standard. Java, Flash, Acrobat and Realplayer are configured correctly out of box.
2. Listening to MP3s. Due to licensing limitations, you have to download some libraries. This is done automatically on your first system update. The install prompts you to do an update before the final step.
3. Watching Videos. Some videos will play out of box. Restricted (semi-legal) codecs are not avaliable. You can get these by adding the famous 'Packman' YaST repository, either to APT or to YaST. Or you can download the RPMs yourself. It'll replace the xine-lib, and download w32codecs, and that gives you all kinds of goodies, including quicktime support.
4. Watching DVDs. This is decidedly not legal. You can buy a Linux DVD player, install MPlayer (which you have to download from countries with a different Intellectual Propety regime), or you can run the convienient libdvdcss script, avaliable from the Packman (packman.links2linux.org) site. This script is a one step script that will automatically download, compile, and install the libdvdcss script, which will allow all the software on your system to read encrypted dvds. Conveniently, this will allow you to use k9copy or similar utilities to do DVD9-to-5 transcoding. k9copy will appear in your package manager once you add the packman repository.
Keep in mind this stuff isn't simple on Windows, either. Codecs can be a HUGE pain, and DVD playback software must be purchased. You can purchase Linux DVD playback software too, but I feel that libdvdcss is a better solution (generic, allows all your software to play dvds).
Try SuSE. SuSE is designed around the 'it just works' philosophy.
Their rather controlling YaST utility makes sure stuff like Wireless and Sound works properly. I had similar 'now it works', 'now it doesn't' under Ubuntu, when I was testing it out, and I have no explanation as to why that occurred.
Try SuSE 10.
Unless a serious problem is encountered (esoteric hard disk controller, serious hardware failure) all you really need to do is hit 'next, next, next'.
You'll get FireFox, Flash, Java, OpenOffice.org, Thunderbird, and a full KDE setup.
You'll get an automatically resized NTFS or FAT32 partition, a swap partition the size of your system ram, and the rest of the space dedicated to ReiserFS, without using the partitioning tool. You can also use the beginners partitioning tool, where the only question it asks you is 'How much free space do you want on your Windows partition'.
You'll get every wired ethernet driver you'd ever need, many wireless drivers, and ndiswrapper, out of box. This means if you've got your Windows XP wireless driver, you'll have a working wireless adapter
You'll get every possible X server driver you can think of, except the binary-only ones. Both of these (ATI or Nvidia) can be installed on your first system update. You'll get a 2D only driver till these are installed.
No sound card drivers needed, either. SB Live, SB Audigy, Turtle Beach whatever, intel anything. All builtin. Same with most TV cards.
The SuSE 10 menus are also well setup. 'Internet'. 'Office' 'Multimedia' 'Graphics'.
It makes far more sense to me than Start->All Programs->Adobe->Acrobat Pro, or Start->All Programs->Macromedia->Flash
I don't understand the Vendor based menu configuration. I do understand category based.
And to say that XP has more driver support out of box is ludicrious. Most modern ethernet adapters, even motherboard integrated ones are NOT supported on the XP cd.
SuSE doesn't have a partition screen.
It resizes your Windows partition, creates a swap the size of system ram, and the rest of the space goes to a root partition.
You can, of course, hit the "Expert" button at the bottom of the screen.
Chicagoland retailers are slowly picking up OEM Linux.
Microcenter, and Fry's both sell Linux pre-installs. I believe some of the local CompUSA are doing it on the custom built boxes they sell.
That's just me trying not to be biased :)
Straight up opinion? Ditch all the other distributions, and go for the latest OpenSuSE.
If you are the cutting edge type, go for SLICK OpenSuSE, which is a one-cd install, utilizing all the latest tricks I talked about.
Klik:// is still experimental software. You can use it on the regular OpenSuSE, but SLICK (and experimental version of OpenSuSE) has it out of the box.
I haven't used another linux distribution ('cept Knoppix as a rescue disk for Windows) in years. I think SuSE hits all the targets. Debian is more free, Gentoo is more, uhh, optimized(?), Fedora has better geek cred, and Mandrake is supposedly more userfriendly, but I think SuSE (especially with the new OpenSuSE setup) hits these targets best.
Boxed set retail SuSE also comes with fantastic manuals, easily readily by computer novices. My parents refer to them when they want to burn a CD, or edit a photo.
I try to stay informed about other Linuxes. Every once in a while I'll install one in a virtual machine. But don't get me wrong; I'm a SuSE hack. SuSE got me off Windows 2000, and I've been a full-time linux user ever since.
A large part of it was the working Java/Flash and properly configured hardware out-of-box, including Nvidia binary drivers. SuSE is a polished, professional, well-maintained distribution that stays near the cutting edge, while nodding its hat towards 'proprietary' solutions (Java, Flash, Nvidia drivers, Acrobat, and other non-GPL non-BSD stuff). Give it a whirl, you won't be disappointed.
Thing is, I have no way to resolve the problems on Windows, without a wipe/reboot. The thing comes with recovery disks. No 'repair' option. I don't have any other Window's cds in the house.
I booted Knoppix, and copied all her data off. Don't know what else to do, as I doubt the lawschool's testing application runs in Linux (it does run on OS X, but that's neither here nor there).
Both spybot/MS anti-spyware (Windows defeneder, is it?) reported no problems as recently as the day before the crash. Antivir (www.freeav.com) was set to update daily, no problems in the scan a few days before the crash.
She was running as a 'user' account, and doesn't install any software; the IT guys at the school did that. I don't think she got any spyware through firefox, but I grant that its possible.
I don't mean to complain, but I have no idea what she should have done differently. She did 'everything' correctly, and the first time this happened, HP blamed it on software problems, and both the law school and HP claimed the laptop has no hardware issues. Perhaps there's a hardware failure now; maybe something intermittent that didn't turn up on their first checkup, or whatever they did. Everything seemed to work properly in Knoppix *shrug*. I did get a message that I should run chkdsk on the NTFS partition, however, since I cannot boot into XP, and I don't have a CD that will do a rescue, there's no way for me to do that. I don't own any other XP systems, so I don't have the usual library of OEM pirated XP disks most people seem to have.
I'll grant you that most Windows systems are not BSOD happy as they used to be. However, I've never seen my Linux boxes crash without a serious hardware failure, and I've never seen my OS X boxes crash without a serious hardware failure; while I've most definitely seen XP boxes crash, under warranty, properly maintained (as far as I know). I do know that myself, my other sister, my father, and my mother, all who run powerbooks, have never had to reinstall. My powerbook is going on 3 years.
I feel bad for my sis, as her computing habits are really rather plain. No installing drivers, Windows automatic updates on, all her software installed by the law school's IT department on an approved laptop, and defrag/antivirus/antispyware run on a regular basis and only using Firefox/web e-mail clients. She's a really conservative user, and all she wants is a working laptop for law school. No gaming, no P2P, no warez, nothing. She even bought the 3 year extended warranty in addition to the school's standard IT support.
Perhaps I should try an OEM Windows install? I'm considering downloading some pirated version of Windows, simply because she DOES indeed have a valid Windows license, but no install disks, just those stupid HP restore disks that come with volumes and volumes of random "I Love HP apps".
How about doing a review from the perspective of someone who has never used a computer before - then lets see which one is easier to use (hint: the answer will be Windows XP by a massive margin).
Does this include the install process, or are you comparing pre-installed XP versus DIY Linux?
If a novice was forced to install both, I'd bet $100 that they'd get Linux installed properly first. A Linux install comes with most necessary drivers/software that you'll need. A novice Windows user would _never_ find the drivers needed for even an OEM system, like a Sony or HP, where all the drivers are centralized on one site, let alone searching out the drivers from each manufacturer. Linux installs are much easier than XP installs.
Usage? Are you talking about Gentoo versus XP? I'd suggest pre-installed SuSE versus pre-installed XP.
SuSE? Comes with manuals, both electronic and dead tree.
SuSE? Comes with all productivie software, documented in the manuals! Need to write a text document? Look up "word processing" in the SuSE manual. It'll tell you what app to use, show screenshots of the app, and give you a basic rundown of its usage, with pointers to a section in the electronic help system that will give you indepth support and tutorials, as well as e-mail/phone support.
What will XP do if you look up "Word Processing" in that 15 page piece of shit 'starter guide' it comes with?
The only place that XP is at all easier is finding software for it. Linux software is easier to install (RPM are very convienient, klik:// is even easier, and the GUI package managers are drop dead easy, especially Mandriva's URPMI GUI and SuSE's YaST GUI), and easier to remove. Linux systems require no habitual maintenance. You don't have to worry about anti-virus or anti-spyware, and even if you did worry about it, you could simply install the anti-virus software that comes with your distribution, using the distributions own package manager. Don't believe me? SuSE's YaST has "ClamAV", as well as several other anti-virus packages included.
If you can show me Windows software that installs as easily as this: http://amavis-ng.klik.atekon.de/ , I'll be mighty impressed. And commercial vendors are picking it up, too. For example, klik://nero will install the latest version of Nero Burning Rom on your Linux system, and run it. From one file. One click install->run. No setting, no fuss, no random files draped all over your system.
The only place linux still really lags behind is game avaliablility. Between alsa, SDL, and OpenGL, there's a pretty comprehensive gaming environment on linux, but its taking manufacturers some time to get caught up. iD and Epic are doing pretty well, and Transgaming's doing some neat things with DirectX9 Wine, but gaming on Linux just isn't all that there yet, even though I do manage to keep myself enterained.
It disappoints me that I can't play whatever games I want, but I keep myself busy with Secondlife, EVE Online, World of Warcraft, Doom 3, the Unreal series, Civilization IV, and various other distractions.
You obviously don't support Windows systems for laymen.
In every instance that I've replaced someone's Windows-only system with a dual-boot Windows/Linux install, they've thanked me.
My sister has a new(ish) HP Laptop. It's 3 months old.
All the software on it is administered by her law school. No unauthorized software, automatically updated anti-virus and anti-spyware. I've peaked around at it a few times, and everything seemed to be in order.
When travelling in Europe last month, I watched her system randomly, WITHOUT ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER, blue screen and reboot. After the first reboot, it would blue screen->reboot as soon as the starting windows XP logo came up.
This is with everything in perfect order, all updates installed, using Firefox to browse the web. She's going to have the laptop reformated at the school's IT department. This is the second time since she bought it. The first time, we suspected some kind of hardware failure, but both the school and HP have run diagnostics on it.
Similar experiences have happened to my neighbors, and my friends. I would be absolutely *shocked* if something like this happened to my linux desktops, or my OS X laptop.
And laypeople have no problem with Linux. My parents use it. My grandparents use it. My neighbors have a dual boot, mainly used in Linux.
Not having to maintain your System makes up for a great deal of the aggreviation of learning a new desktop environment.
No Offense, but 1xRTT is pretty crappy ;-)
EDGE GPRS is similar, as long as you use a Class 10 device.
EVDO is 'the real deal'. 1xRTT doesn't really get you much past dial-up speeds, and the latency (although not as high as EDGE GPRS) is significantly higher.
Also, Verizon charges $60 (with a voice plan) for unlimited data (tethered to laptop), and I don't think Sprint has an all you can eat data plan.
Get a better phone.
The varience in call reception quality between various cell phone manufacturers is amazing.
In my experience, it has been something like this, but there will be additional varience based on the model:
Nokia>Samsung>Motorola>Kyocera>Sony Ericisson
Certain phones are better than others. The high-end Nokia phones (avaliable from places like myworldphone.com) like the business seires smart phones are particularly good phones. My Nokia 3650 experienced fairly few call drops, and only in certain areas with poor coverage (I'm on T-mobile USA, and I've experienced drops in certain 'black holes' on the freeway, and near one shopping mall).
My Motorola V330 gets random drops in areas of high signal, and my Sony Ericssion 610 was an evil brick that dropped at least 30% of my calls.
Shop around.
.025 USD per minute, and .000488037109 USD per kilobyte. Both of these are substantially cheaper than any plan I've found in Europe (just got back for a 2 month Europe trip, visted France, UK, Netherlands, and Spain).
:(
There are great mobile deals to be had in the U.S., but they require you to shop around, and they require you to sign contracts.
My current deal?
I just signed up with T-mobile for a Motorola V330. The phone was free, and they paid me a $100 sign-up bonus (Amazon.com). I'm on a $45.99 a month contract, with 1500 minutes included, nights/weekends free, and T-mobile to T-mobile free.
I pay an addition $19.99 for unlimited EDGE Gprs service. My monthly bill comes to about $70.00, which I feel is pretty good for the number of minutes, and the unlimited internet access. I use approximately 2000 minutes a month, with heavy emphasis on nights and mobile-to-mobile. I use ~40 megs per month of date transfer.
For me, that averages about
It's all about usage patterns. In Europe, you'll pay substantially less than an average American if you control your usage. In the U.S., you'll pay an incredible rate if you have a very high consumption level.
Where Europe generally shines is on the high-end services. The only 3G option we have here at the moment is EVDO, which is fairly expensive, and requires you to sign with Verizon, whom I hate. Given the European pricing structures, however, and government backed loans to the mobile operators, it makes financial sense for them to offer these services, while American operates attempt to make as much money off their existing equipment as possible.
The nice thing about this from our perspective is that we tend to get better tested systems when they finally do release them. Every EVDO subscriber I've talked to has been pretty thrilled, if mainly because the system was well worked over in Japan and S. Korea before it came over here.
I imagine that T-Mobile's European experiments with 3G will enable them to build a fantastic system over here when they get round to it.
The crappy part is the obvious part; Europeans (and S.E. Asians) get better equipment substantially faster, and have a wider diversity of phones avaliable.
Again, this makes sense; the American consumer expects their phone to be free, so we aren't gonna get the best phones, we're going to get the bottom of the barrel. I'm not particularly happy with my V330, but I didn't have a Nokia option avaliable with Bluetooth, EDGE, and a moderately okay camera. Someday, I will; and then I'll be paying less per minute and KByte than the average European phone customer. But I've got to wait longer
P.S. Oh, wanna tip for being able to transfer your American phones from carrier to carrier? At least with GSM?
Calll your carrier before you cancel. Tell them you are going to travel to Europe, and you want your phone SIM-unlocked for a Pay-as-You-Go plan for Europe. You'll read them your IMEI number, and they'll e-mail you within 48 hours the SIM unlock code. I've successfully done this with Cingular and T-mobile. If they give you any trouble, tell them your friend with whom you are travelling with did the same thing last week.
Correction. VMware, or QEMU, or any other Linux virtualization environment WILL be vulnerable, but only for the image. It won't break the confines of the virutalized environment.
WINE may or may not be vulnerable. I'm betting that Wine's incomplete WMF support will render it unable to correctly implement this crap. If you notice billions of Wine processes spawned on your system, however, you're infected. Luckily, it'll be restrained into your Wine environment, not your general linux environment.
Wine's goal is to implement the Windows API bug-for-bug, with security work arounds as necessary. For the most part, most security vulnerability rely upon bugs in Windows that simply don't work the same way on Wine; often, esoteric tricks just break in different ways on WINE and Windows. Buffer overruns rarely work the same way. Poorly implemented security models, however, _may_ break in the same way; it'll depend on Wine's WMF implementation here, so I have no idea.
But I suspect it won't work, mainly because this kind of rarely used functionality generally doesn't get implemented in Wine until some app really needs it.
The former will only cause problems on Windows, correct?
KDE/QT's WMF support isn't vulnerable. Does GNOME have WMF support?
No, but laughing their asses off at the misfortune of others when you warned them..... 5 years in advance?
That seems reasonable to me.
Fuck up once, blame someone else.
Fuck up three times, blame someone else.
Once you've fucked up dozens and dozens of time, its your own damn fault. Pay some attention. Take some responsibility.
I'll say it again.
Use Windows. Get Infected.
It's not restricted to unpatched Windows 98. It affects fully patched Windows XP SP2 running fully updated anti-virus.
Use Windows, and you'll Get Infected.
A firewall will protect you sometimes. Safe browsing will protect you other times. But in the end, something will get you. WMF, or a buffer overflow in IE, a spoofing vulnerability involving Windows Update, a Windows only Firefox bug.
use Windows. Get Infected. Period.
Both GDI32.DLL and the WMF DLL run with Administrator privlidges, apparently. User accounts won't stop it.
I believe LUA accounts do stop it, however, they aren't an option on XP.
Want a hand switching?
.NET (properly), and then knock up some gorgeous images in the latest version of a top graphics package for a site (hosted on my Linux server btw) followed by a Flash game and a couple of viral banners, turn off for a bit a destroy some friends on Battlefield 2.. I need Windows cos I can't get all the best software for anything else. I might get somewhere with the graphics package on a Mac but not have it run at a decent pace for the _right price_.
.NET is more of a problem, Mono is not a straight forward thing. It's good; very good, actually. But not straight forware. However, QEMU with the accelerator module gives you ~20-30% of a performance loss over non-virutalized Windows. Run XP in a virtualized QEMU. Don't do anything but your C# work here. Keep a backup of your image, so if you get infected, it takes you all of 2 minutes to restore to clean, without a reboot. This is very nice, and as computers get more and more powerful, is ideal.
But then comes the deal-breaker for me.. I need to develop something in the latest version of Java and/or C#
1. Java on Linux is no problem, especially if you like Eclipse.
2. C#
3. For graphics, either use GIMP (mediocre), or Photoshop 7, CS, or CS 2 under Crossover Office (or Wine). Photoshop 7 is fully supported. CS and CS 2 are close. Usable, but I'd make constant backups. The Macromedia suite works well too, as I understand. Or, you can rely upon a separate QEMU image. This is nice, because one image cannot corrupt the other, and since you'll be keeping all your data on the Linux partition anyways, the images won't get that big. For non-professional work, GIMP is great; the main problem with GIMP is working with other people. If you're just banging out JPEGs for your own usage, it works out okay. Professional work generally requires the Adobe stuff; thats why I own Creative Suite, anyways.
4. Flash games, banners? Works perfectly under any SuSE distribution after 8. If you install crossover office, you can have the Windows version of flash, which gives you 100% compatibility. Macromedia's Linux version of flash is more like 99%, same as the OS X version.
5. Battlefield 2? www.transgaming.com Transgaming's Cedega runs Battlefield 2 well now.
From my perspective, my Mac is substantially closer to an appliance than a Windows box. I'm far less aware of the maintenance tasks.
From my parent's perspectives, their Linux box is effectively an appliance. All software comes from the distribution's mirrors, signed and secure. No maintenance, no fuss, just point, click, and go.
My Mac does not regularly break down, no matter how badly I tend to abuse it. I do not believe my parents fundamentally COULD break their Linux box, without doing physical damage. I do not believe they could loose more than 1 days worth of documents, because that's how often they get backups.
That's far closer to an "appliance" than the average Windows box.
A good example of this is the British guy who recently won a court case against a spammer, thereby setting a legal precedent (as reported on Slashdot yesterday). He managed what platoons of highly paid IT experts and IT lawyers totally failed to do. No one seemed to have asked why the finest minds of our time, blah blah, were unable to find $20 to fund a suit in the UK small claims court.
This may work for domestic spammers. The only effect it will have is to drive spamming overseas.
Even if you can sue someone internationally, its really, really expensive.
Even if the true cost is a fraction of that quoted, this is still a serious matter since it is replicated in every country where there is a worthwhile IT presence. Since the IT industry seems unwilling or unable to reform itself, perhaps governments should step in with a special tax on large IT outfits in order to fund the fighting of computer crime and a severe crackdown on ISPs who happily tolerate bot farms or software houses who knock out software full of holes. Bot/zombie farms, in particular, are the oxygen of online criminals since without them their job is a lot harder. It is almost incredible that so little has been done to choke them off.
The IT industry does reform itself. We've got competition in the industry.
Companies that do not want to be vulnerable to infection do not select Microsoft as a vendor. It's really that simple.
Companies that have migrated to Linux, or OS X, or Solaris, or whatever do not experience these security problems, or experience them on a much, much smaller scale.
Caveat: I'm an American, and a avowed capitalist.
Some points:
1. WAAS plus proper GPS equipment can be as good as Galileo, note that the article claims 10-35cms, not 1 cm accuracy. That's 6+ GPS satellites and WAAS levels of accuracy. Galileo satelites may start out better than GPS, but keep in mind that both constellations require (will require) constant replacement. GPS (and Galileo) will receive constant improvements, but higher accuracy is more a problem of physics (atmospheric interference) and computing power on your device (that 10 year old ARM chip in your handheld GPS can only do so much).
2. The U.S. government has sworn off Selective Avaliability. At the same time, the U.S. government has developed ability to do regional jaming of GPS. *shrug* This is a concern, but a marginal one; I doubt that they'll be turning off GPS signals over London, Paris, or New York anytime soon. Not without having grounded all the planes first.
Having said that:
Galileo is another "GPS-like" system that will be avaliable for FREE. The U.S. government will not have to spend a DIME on it, but we'll have TWICE as many positioning satellites avaliable for our use.
Uhh... Sweetness? Free-stuff? Be happy?
The real advantage will be dual-band receivers that are able to use the signals from both systems. In areas where you can only get 2-3 GPS satellites, you'll get 2-3 of each, which may (or may not) be enough to get you 10> or even 1> meter accuracy.
How, exactly, is this NOT in an American's interest?
And we don't have to pay for it?
Ummm... Groovey?
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth!
Redundant, complimentary systems that don't cost us anything more are a godsend. I'm thrilled that Europe is doing this, and everyone not in Europe should be thrilled as well.
The Europeans should be thrilled, but they are permitted a (very slight) grumble at the cost, similar to the grumbles we (Americans) made when the GPS system was developed. Europe is providing a service to the entire global by putting up this system.
Would people complain the same way if Europe (or the U.S.) developed a world-wide free WiFi system?
I think not.
AFAIK, the satellites aren't failing, its really kind of a myth:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/d308/
That's an article from last year, but still; satellites are failing at a rate of 1-2 a year, but thats how many we launch; there's no need to launch anymore.
The real advantage of having a second "GPS" (Galileo) system is dual band receivers. Twice as many satellites=better redundancy, and better accuracy.
Use both! You can bet your asses that U.S. military equipment will be designed to take advantage of both if at all possible; GPS primarily, but any and all secondary singles that may be avaliable.
I'm thrilled about Galileo; the more global positioning data/signals out there, the better. Glonass, Galileo, GPS; keep 'em coming!