Linux: simply a novelty?

[EpsDel]

Re: Linux: simply a novelty?

I prefer Kubuntu over XP because I can kill all its processes way faster Alt + SysRq + E
(If you try this, remember to hit Alt + SysRq + B after that, since the system WILL need rebooting)

And I dislike XP because of its registry that gets bloated as time passes.

And Kubuntu feels far more stable and responsive.

And no reboots (except when kernel upgrade)

I like Kubuntu 'cause its easy to handle. But I can bring it to its knees in 2 seconds. 8)
And I can poke with every single part of it.

I'm not a rUser (that's ... regular user). I have a Gentoo background (very useful period).
I like point and click ... but dpkg --configure -a too (gives you a weird feeling of control).

And for the dude that stated xp's console is the same as the linux shell... couldn't disagree more.
I must put up with the cmd at work (the build system requires it). It's so bulky and dumb... so little flexibility. For instance its autocomplete feature sucks big time. It has no history. No 'put to background' feature. (&). It's ... pure ms-dos. Sux.

[EpsDel]

Re: Linux: simply a novelty?

Oh. Did I mention really low file fragmentation on Kubuntu's behalf? Less then 5% when disk is really full I'd estimate.

(I`m sure somebody else posted this before me, but I was waaay to lazy to read all of them prev posts :P)

[jakykong]

Re: Linux: simply a novelty?

Did you mention that you don't have to kill processes that often? Personally, ctrl+alt+delete were practically the only keys i used in windows.

As for the fragmentation, i'm not sure that there really is any 'fragmentation' -- ext3 is a journaling filesystem, which (from my understanding) makes fragmentation a technically obsolete term -- FAT (and the like) filesystems need defragmenting because they stuff everything at the beginning of the drive, leaving no room for clean expansion.
Again, this is from my understanding, I may be incorrect....

In any event, I haven't ever found (or needed) a defrag utility for any of my ext3 drives. Defrag comes by default in windows, and has at least 3 ways to get to it.

[javierrivera]

Re: Linux: simply a novelty?

As for the fragmentation, i'm not sure that there really is any 'fragmentation' -- ext3 is a journaling filesystem, which (from my understanding) makes fragmentation a technically obsolete term

No. AFAIK journalling and fragmentation are different issues. A journalling filesystem is less likely to suffer damage from incorrect shut-down, but it will fragment.

NTFS is a good example of a journalised filesystem that fragments a good deal. On the other side Ext2 is not journalised and have little fragmentation.

Javier.

[finifly]

Re: Linux: simply a novelty?

I don't find Linux to be a novelty at all, in fact the other day I had to install Windows twice on a partition because I was getting a 'Windows - No Disk' error and after reading various posts, I found out that it could be caused by at least 4 different things.

Every day to day thing I do on my computer for the most part can and is done in Linux, specifically Kubuntu. When my friend showed me Vista, I showed him Beryl, and now he wants a Linux distro on his computer. He also showed me the new version of MS Office and I told him about Open Office. Most people are unaware that the .odt file extension for documents is an ISO standard, and not the MS .doc file extension.

The only major problem I've had with Linux is getting Matlab to use the Symbolic Toolbox without encountering a MEX error. So for that reason I have to boot to Windows if I am running Simulink or code that calls the Symbolic Toolbox (which isn't very often). If anybody knows how to fix this, please let me know.

It comes down to people not wanting to change. They see no reason to switch to Linux because they assume that when buying a new computer, Vista/XP comes with the hardware at no charge, and obviously not the case.

My real hopes are that manufacturers of portable media players start integrating Linux kernel connectivity and open their machines up to Ogg-Vorbis. I know there are some out there, or you can hack your machine using Rockbox, but having these media player completely Linux compatible can only help Linux in the future.

[Fintan]

Re: Linux: simply a novelty?

The only major problem I've had with Linux is getting Matlab to use the Symbolic Toolbox without encountering a MEX error. So for that reason I have to boot to Windows if I am running Simulink or code that calls the Symbolic Toolbox (which isn't very often). If anybody knows how to fix this, please let me know.

If you don't need usb try this:

http://www.howtoforge.com/vmware_con..._windows_linux

if you do, try the beta version of vmware WS 6.0.
http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/...E19312B076B433
In my expierience Winxp/vista runs faster and more stable within vmware.

after the testing phase you can still run yourVM in player and the win stuff you need is a click away. So, I guess that makes win a novelty

[jakykong]

Re: Linux: simply a novelty?

As for the fragmentation, i'm not sure that there really is any 'fragmentation' -- ext3 is a journaling filesystem, which (from my understanding) makes fragmentation a technically obsolete term

No. AFAIK journalling and fragmentation are different issues. A journalling filesystem is less likely to suffer damage from incorrect shut-down, but it will fragment.

NTFS is a good example of a journalised filesystem that fragments a good deal. On the other side Ext2 is not journalised and have little fragmentation.

Javier.

Thanks for the correction.
I had the impression that NTFS was basically a security-"enhanced" extension of the older FAT filesystems, and had no journaling capability. I suppose, this idea was born not of solid facts, but from the old adage that "history has a way of repeating itself."

[gibson_explorer]

Re: Linux: simply a novelty?

Hey, how you all doing, I'm brand new to this forum & to Linux too! I thought I'd post here first as the original question is a good one & I thought I'd share my thoughts as a noob.

Up until 2 weeks ago, i was a Windows man 100%, then I had to get into Linux to support a new product at work (Sourcefire). This led me to start looking at at distros & I came across Ubuntu. I had a quick look at it & decided to jump straight in with Feisty Fawn.

4 days in & I'm loving it. I play Warcraft so I need to keep an XP partition to boot into to keep playing as I'm not experienced enough with Linux to start messing with Wine, Cedega etc. but I'm using FF for my main computing stuff (e-mail, web, accounts etc.) and, to be honest, it puts Windows to shame. I've had to re-learn how to do a few things & as a former MCSE I've felt a little bit weird having to start over but everything from the interface to the way everything just 'works' is superb. The only thing I need to do now is reduce my paranoia levels regarding viruses etc. & I'll be fine!

Whether Linux will ever fully replace Windows remains to be seen (and I'm not getting involved in that one!) but it's definitely replaced Windows in my house. At least until the novelty wears off...

[gm04030276]

Re: Linux: simply a novelty?

Not a novelty at all, i love it (and OSX for that matter!)
I have two macs and 3 desktops, 2 desktops don't work, the other is purely a (k)ubuntu box and i'm trying to turn it into some sort of media and streaming server atm.
my smaller (12" PB G4) mac is dual boot linux and OSX 10.3 atm and i only repartitioned the drive from being only linux to dual boot to run a visualiser in iTunes once and have since used it a few other times but i tend to use linux on it. i guess my main reason for using it all the time is to learn, i'm constantly doing something different on it, trying out some new software or getting notions of things i could do and trying to set it up, all to learn because its fun!
My newer intel mac is dual boot OSX and windows . i use OSX 99% of the time because i think its awesome and windows for the odd time i want to game or for using an app called EasyWorship that doesn't have a mac equivalent. I tend to do alot of web design and discovered an app called TextWrangler for mac which (until i recently discovered i could use kate to edit files remotely on an ftp server) was unrivaled between all platforms especially being free but as to what i said in brackets above, i'm now trying to get my mac to boot to linux of an external drive especially as some of the software i have looked at won't work or doesn't work as easially on my PPC machine.

i guess at the moment i'm just exploring what linux can really do, until recently it was just a novelty but i'm trying to make it work for me as a solid OS, i already know i can rely on it and i love (k)ubuntu for its package management, i also recently discovered the ability to login to a remote system which will be useful for me in the near future. its just a really nice OS!

[njsdaredevil]

Re: Linux: simply a novelty?

I'm a windows and mac user (since i'm a graphic/web designer and am deathly affraid of switching to linux tonight since there's no adobe) and I have to agree with the early comment that windows = gamers, mac = graphic art... but that just raised a question and added another eason why i might not switch to linux.

the question is "then what is linux? just web browsing? ease of use?" etc... i mean, that question comes to mind because of the way the others were categorized.

I'm INSANELY affraid of leaving photoshop and dreamweaver (even though I can code my ass off without a WYSIWYG program, and if there's a close-to-dreamweaver one PLEASE LET ME KNOW!) because where I work, the ease of the two programs help in the time-sensitive projects that I see on a daily basis.

GIMP won't necesarily be a challenge to me, just a few hours to familiarize myself with it and see how i can take my adobe mindset and adjust it to linux.

with all that said, I can say that linux is not a novelty... it's definately not a novelty.

Kubuntu alone is making me want to switch over and I KNOW it's not "complete" with everything I'd like to ultimately have... but as long as I can run beryl on it, I'll be good for now

oh did i mention that I WILL BE ASKING QUESTIONS ON A DAILY BASIS?! lol, yes i'm THAT newb to new-school linux

[gm04030276]

Re: Linux: simply a novelty?

theres a package called kdewebdev which is basically dreamweaver. It's actually called Quanta Plus when you install it and it asks for two other programs called Cervisia and Kompare for using cvs servers and for comparing two documents side by side respectively. I personally haven't really got into it that much, i tend just to use pure text editors most of the time but it seems pretty good!

[mythus]

Re: Linux: simply a novelty?

Greetings,

If I may I have a few things I would like to say.

I have been using Windows since 3.0. Up until XP, most of my time with windows was spent in DOS. Then XP came about and all my time was spent with repairs lol. Having been a computer tech for a while now, I have seen many computers come through. Almost all of them were windows systems, a couple where older mac systems. I never encountered a Linux system, though I had done some windows 1 and windows 2, as well as O/S 2. The point is windows breaks, and if the user isn't a trained computer tech, they would have to send their computer to one to have it fixed. And most of the time the fix ends up with a fresh install.

Needless to say I was growing tired of working at work and then working at home. But I doubted that a different OS could make the difference until I saw someone on a tech forums I frequent talk about Ubuntu Linux.

So I did what any curious fool would do. I researched. I spent the next month reading up about linux, and it's many distros. I tried to find as much info as I could, primarily how Linux compared to other operating systems. I was still very learly about changing. So I proceeded to download several different Linux Distro Live CD's I gave Each one a full day to try on the CD. And about two weeks ago I finally made the decision and switched.

I must say, I don't recall ever having this much fun using the computer. And that is just using the computer, not it's programs. I use to dread getting on the computer after work. Especially if the work day consisted a lot of messed up XP and now vista computers... But now I come home and enjoy getting on the computer! I love just figuring out what more I can do! And now I don't have to worry about the latest virus. Hard to believe Linux has only had a handful of virus ever to affect it.. many have tried... and they only effected it until you restarted your computer! Simply amazing.

You would expect this out of an expensive OS. Windows... you would expect that to be a free hobby program.

[LostOverThere]

Re: Linux: simply a novelty?

Actually Linux is for most media production.

(Im a Media student BTW)

Linux is used in movie production because of its incredibly low sound latency and its not a system hog. Allowing more faster and effective video production.

Sound and Music is also done a lot in Linux for the same reason.

[javierrivera]

Re: Linux: simply a novelty?

Yes. We know studios use linux. There should be some great and probably secret custom-made programs used by them.

But there is no mid-range software. The kind of things that small producers or hobbist can use.

Javier.

[LostOverThere]

Re: Linux: simply a novelty?

I'd have to disagree on you on this one.

Graphics programs like Blender and the GIMP are fantastic tools made for everyone.