Dozer posted on May 20 2004 at 02:28 PM said:
Btw, for those who havnt tried linux before (like me
), I just tried Knoppix
(link) and it's an excellent way to try it out. Really want a linux partition now. Managed to download the German version first though, so make sure you save the version with "en" in the download name if you want to English version and "de" if you want the German. B)
Knoppix also comes in handy as a Linux/Windows rescue disc. But it is a good Linux advertisement, to try linux out without installing it. Although you have to take into account that knoppix is running from the cd, and using your memory for a virtual ram disk, so performance wont be super
Linux really isnt as bad as some M$ fanboys like to make it look. Its great. Not something you should instantly switch to from windows. But its very nice to have along side windows, and maybe you might just find yourself spending more time in linux then windows, and then one day you realize you havent been in windows in over a month, and its just taking up space.
(hey it could happen, happened to me!)
Only reason I don't switch to Linux is the missing driver for my pen LCD monitor
I've looked everywhere, nothing could be found.
Damn.
If I physically had that monitor here, I could probably find something to get it running. It is one of those obscure pieces of hardware though. Linux is getting so much better with hardware, hell I remember a couple years ago it wouldnt even support half of my hardware without some major tweeking, and now everything is detected perfectly, installed automatically, and runs like a dream.
And now that more and more companies are making linux drivers (or atleast helping out with all the needed specs and information for others to create drivers), linux hardware support is amazing. Most importantly, and most noteably is nVidia and ATI supporting linux with full driver sets for their hardware. It wasnt too long ago that we didnt have any sort of 3d acceleration what so ever (this was one of the MAJOR reasons for the lack of linux game support). nVidia and ATI are life savers. Linux support is growing so fast now, that when I purchased my motherboard, it came with a driver cd that contained both linux and windows drivers for everything, and even contained a great library of linux software, it was awesome. (never actually used that disc because linux detected and installed all my hardware automatically, but hey its cool to have nonetheless) Some obscure hardware is still unsupported, but its getting there.
You should have seen linux just five years ago, it was a mess, only hardcore people could use it for their primary OS, no acceleration, bad hardware support, spotty software library, ugly installers that failed half the time. (this is the linux that M$ fanboys use for their comparison) But now, all of that has changed, its great now and only getting better, each day new great things happen, more hardware support is added, more software is developed, more game companies choose to make linux versions, more and more major comanpies move over to linux from windows.
Now you can buy full PCs with linux as your OS (usually for $200 less than the same PC with windows!) or download linux for free, install it and have a blast. For about 90% of your software, there are great linux alternatives, but even if you dont want those alternatives, there is Wine & Codeweavers, which lets you run Office XP (and other MS office versions), Excel, Lotus, Dreamweaver (and many other macromedia products), etc...
"Here's a cheap trick to play on an audience - especially one drawn from the business community. Ask them how many use Microsoft software. Virtually every hand in the room will go up. How many use Apple Macs? One or two - at most. How many use Linux? If the audience is drawn from corporate suits, no hands will show. Now comes the punchline: who uses Google? A forest of hands appears. 'Ah,' you say, 'that's very interesting, because it means you're all Linux users.' Stunned looks all round."
The computing engine that powers Google is the largest cluster of Linux servers in the history of the world. 
