Yeah, most would suggest Ubuntu (myself included). Do yourself a favor though and familiarize yourself with the ubuntu forums. They are a great help for new and old Linux users alike, and should really help you get familiarized with the environment. Make sure you make prominent use of the search feature, chances are your questions have been asked before. Have fun.
I learned to not touch hot stoves without ever touching one. I don't think stoves are childrens first exposure to extreme heat. Now maybe Hot Cocoa or something would demonstrate it in a slightly safer manner.
I can personally testify, that Microsoft corporate level support is far worse than any kind of help I get from Forums and mailing lists. We use Microsoft Dynamics (not my decision trust me, the ones with the money got blind-sided by bigwords and speak of efficiency that never happened) for our billing, and you have to purchase support tickets through Microsoft and then wait for an answer to those support tickets. You don't talk directly to engineers, you talk to people who note the problem, and then convey message down through whatever hierarchy they have. Out of the 3 or so support tickets I've posted, I've always gotten a big fat I don't know in the end after a week or to of back and forth, and waiting. Additionally since we got this through a VAR we usually pass it through them first which takes equally long and yields equally little. OSS free support is a dream in comparison. Additionally, if I can't find somebody that can help I can either: make the change myself, pay for somebody to make a change (yeah it might be expensive, but when its done its done), or ask one of the developers to implement it if its not high priority. Additionally, another piece of industry specific software we use which for the sake of their company (they're a small-medium sized business) shall rename nameless, never gets back with us when we ask for support. And we sell licences for them to other companies. Proprietary software support is a joke. The people that are in the know are too busy to answer, and the support people never know jack-shit!
Linux on anything means you can run any Linux program that fits within memory on it. You can run fuckin' firefox/abiword/gnumeric, full applications not watered down PDcApable software.
As I said before. Microsoft makes good software. Linux is good software. They are both tools, and should be treated as such. It just happens that when you insult a tool made by a lot of the ones using it, you end up insulting a lot of people, and will get a lot of hot headed responses. I apologize on behalf of all geeks who would have genuinely helped you had you seeked help in the appropriate channels. But you insult Linux because you were not familiar with it, not because of any short comings of the operating system itself. Which is not itself a failing of Linux.
XP (Pro at least) is a fine operating system. So is Linux. Just because you've learned to drive a car doesn't mean you know how to drive a tank. If you couldn't get X to load at any resolution then you obviously didn't even try (as in put forth effort). Furthermore, you fail to declare what distro and version of Linux you are using. What are you "learning the computer" or something?
I've heard that argument thousands of times before... only slightly differently. Mr. Patent Engineer how high and mighty are you? Novel??? Even a monkey can be sent to the moon given enough giant shoulders to stand on.
I was with you up until that "real world" statement. Many aspects of the nerd world are far truer realizations of the "real world" than their pop cultured feeding tube counterpart.
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Yeah, most would suggest Ubuntu (myself included). Do yourself a favor though and familiarize yourself with the ubuntu forums. They are a great help for new and old Linux users alike, and should really help you get familiarized with the environment. Make sure you make prominent use of the search feature, chances are your questions have been asked before. Have fun.
So what software do you think actually meets your criteria (preferably FLOSS).
What exactly do you need realtime support for? Are you going to be running Ubuntu on some embedded device or something, or are you a musician?
I learned to not touch hot stoves without ever touching one. I don't think stoves are childrens first exposure to extreme heat. Now maybe Hot Cocoa or something would demonstrate it in a slightly safer manner.
Man if only somebody would patent stupidity.
I also patented the packet switching network capable of transmitting information.
Mine too. Friday the 13ths are awesome. But it sure seems like we don't hardly ever get any weekend birthdays.
I just patented the composition of words used to convey ideas, thoughts or emotions.
I was merely commenting on the fact that blanket generalizations are what cause and sustain this kind of thing to begin with.
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth will leave everybody blind and toothless.
Yeah, and niggers are good at basketball, Jews carry a bag of gold around their neck everywhere they go, and all Germans are Nazis.
I can personally testify, that Microsoft corporate level support is far worse than any kind of help I get from Forums and mailing lists. We use Microsoft Dynamics (not my decision trust me, the ones with the money got blind-sided by bigwords and speak of efficiency that never happened) for our billing, and you have to purchase support tickets through Microsoft and then wait for an answer to those support tickets. You don't talk directly to engineers, you talk to people who note the problem, and then convey message down through whatever hierarchy they have. Out of the 3 or so support tickets I've posted, I've always gotten a big fat I don't know in the end after a week or to of back and forth, and waiting. Additionally since we got this through a VAR we usually pass it through them first which takes equally long and yields equally little. OSS free support is a dream in comparison. Additionally, if I can't find somebody that can help I can either: make the change myself, pay for somebody to make a change (yeah it might be expensive, but when its done its done), or ask one of the developers to implement it if its not high priority. Additionally, another piece of industry specific software we use which for the sake of their company (they're a small-medium sized business) shall rename nameless, never gets back with us when we ask for support. And we sell licences for them to other companies. Proprietary software support is a joke. The people that are in the know are too busy to answer, and the support people never know jack-shit!
Linux on anything means you can run any Linux program that fits within memory on it. You can run fuckin' firefox/abiword/gnumeric, full applications not watered down PDcApable software.
or actually I suppose goatse.cx would be the better candidate now that I think about it.
"forming a dark vortex large enough to engulf two-thirds of the United States" ... tub girl ... 'nuff said. Now on to the insightful posts...
I miss Commodore.
You ever heard of libraries? Sheesh, you should pay the man more if he found a way to increase productivity for next to nothing.
My thoughts exactly. This is a nice 44 yr old man with a wife and little kids. His passing truly is a tragedy.
How about Flaming Fags? Double meanings abound.
As I said before. Microsoft makes good software. Linux is good software. They are both tools, and should be treated as such. It just happens that when you insult a tool made by a lot of the ones using it, you end up insulting a lot of people, and will get a lot of hot headed responses. I apologize on behalf of all geeks who would have genuinely helped you had you seeked help in the appropriate channels. But you insult Linux because you were not familiar with it, not because of any short comings of the operating system itself. Which is not itself a failing of Linux.
XP (Pro at least) is a fine operating system. So is Linux. Just because you've learned to drive a car doesn't mean you know how to drive a tank. If you couldn't get X to load at any resolution then you obviously didn't even try (as in put forth effort). Furthermore, you fail to declare what distro and version of Linux you are using. What are you "learning the computer" or something?
I've heard that argument thousands of times before... only slightly differently. Mr. Patent Engineer how high and mighty are you? Novel??? Even a monkey can be sent to the moon given enough giant shoulders to stand on.
I second this.
I was with you up until that "real world" statement. Many aspects of the nerd world are far truer realizations of the "real world" than their pop cultured feeding tube counterpart.
I was just happy that I finally got to find a real household use for Pyrex :-P.