Os Wars

[nickspoon]

Your argument about the OS having to be built for the machine ultimately falls apart, though, with Windows XP. XP was built to run on pretty much anything x86. Everything from UMPCs to Desktops, laptops to servers, tablets to HTPCs. It didn't take tweaking the kernal to get it to work. You just popped in the CD and there ya go. It can be done. Microsoft has done it. How did they fuck up Vista so bad, I don't know. But it is possible to get an OS to run on pretty much any device with a similar CPU without having to custom set the kernal for any of them.

Yes, and Linux runs on any x86 device without altering the kernel too. It's no real feat. UMPCs, desktops, laptops and servers are all essentially the same under the hood. Linux actually has far greater portability, although you'd have to do some fiddling to get it to run on your toaster.

XP, on the other hand, would never run on your toaster.

I think I made my point very clear.

 

[norm]

I think I made my point very clear.

indeed

 

[evol]

And here i thought microsoft made an operating system for intel cpus, and that various hardware vendors filled in the gaps for them.
(i learn something new every day)

 

[Nova]

Yes, and Linux runs on any x86 device without altering the kernel too. It's no real feat. UMPCs, desktops, laptops and servers are all essentially the same under the hood. Linux actually has far greater portability, although you'd have to do some fiddling to get it to run on your toaster.

XP, on the other hand, would never run on your toaster.

I think I made my point very clear.

That's unless you'd like wifi on your linux toaster. Then you're screwed.

 

[Orkie]

Unless you have one of many supported chipsets .

 

[lubidog]

I think, in the vernacular of you young uns, GP32rich 'Pawned You Linux Fanboys'

10/10

 

[Squidge]

Linux does seem to have a problem with power management on some toasters however, specially those with NVidia chipsets.

However, I don't see many toasters that run from batteries, so that might be a moot point.

 

[nickspoon]

Linux does seem to have a problem with power management on some toasters however, specially those with NVidia chipsets.

However, I don't see many toasters that run from batteries, so that might be a moot point.

The power problem with Nvidia toasters was fixed recently under 2.6.14-22-toaster. It also prevents the kernel panic which was sometimes caused by trying to shove a bagel in there.

 

[AireTamStorm]

Yeah just like Linux, but with industry support and lots of games and more software and drivers developed for it.

Haha, I call bs on that. Every time I've ever installed -any- version of windows, the first thing you fight with is drivers. Any Linux system- It just gets it all. At most, I'll have to get the nVIDIA drivers (if they aren't provided to me by the package management software). I have two choices, an OS that I have to install drivers for but have no chance in hell of fixing if theres a problem, or, something that gets most of the drivers for me, which I can modify or fix if I need to.

You can also put scalability on the mark there- Damn Small Linux runs in 30MB of RAM, and I know Linux can get even smaller than that. Even counting the few webcams, video chipsets, sound or network hardware that may not have a driver yet for Linux, counting non-x86 hardware (embedded ARM, PPC, SPARC and similar systems) Linux has Windoze owned a hundred to one.

*waits for the usual "nothing but x86 matters" comment to inspire a new flame of war*

 

[Nova]

Unless you have one of many supported chipsets .

"Many" here meaning 3 or so.

 

[nickspoon]

Unless you have one of many supported chipsets .

"Many" here meaning 3 or so.

There are a hundred or so supported out-of-the-box and nearly all the rest can be used through ndiswrapper, which has a GUI interface. It's probably even easier than installing the card on Windows, come to think of it.

I don't even know why I'm still posting here. I'm not going to convince anyone to change their OS and I don't care, and I'm not going to change my OS. In essence this thread was an exercise in getting nowhere. Like a treadmill.

 

[magicman5421]

except for the fact that with a treadmill you actually get something useful.
just read through 3 pages...ugh





btw linux ftw.

 

[Nova]

Looks like I'm gonna have to eat a slice of humble pie here, since I just installed Ubuntu 8.04 on my laptop, and Wifi works with very little incident. Everything's a lot faster, and I've managed to find pretty much all programs to replace the windows counterparts I used, so I'm happy.

The only problem is that my speakers now don't work. What's up with that?

 

[trooper]

The only problem is that my speakers now don't work. What's up with that?

Sorry to state the obvious, But have you plugged them in ?. :rolleyes:

Trooper

 

[Nova]

The only problem is that my speakers now don't work. What's up with that?

Sorry to state the obvious, But have you plugged them in ?. :rolleyes:

Trooper


Haha. No actually, cos they're built into the laptop. Linux recognises they are there, just nothing plays through them. Interestingly, headphones still work.

 

[Sphinxter]

The only problem is that my speakers now don't work. What's up with that?

Sorry to state the obvious, But have you plugged them in ?. :rolleyes:

Trooper


Haha. No actually, cos they're built into the laptop. Linux recognises they are there, just nothing plays through them. Interestingly, headphones still work.

At the shell prompt run 'alsamixer' and see if the volume is turned all the way down, the default.

 

[Yrx]

I've had issues with sound in Linux on both my laptops. But if you have headphones working, you should be able to get it fixed fairly easily. I had to recompile drivers and all kinds of nonsense... And then sound didn't work again when I upgraded the kernel. Ugh.

I like my Microsoft systems. Except Vista. I'm REALLY looking forward to React OS. If they can get it together with some kind of package manager like Kubuntu has, I'll be set. I just can't get used to Linux, and there's a significant difference in software. Considering that most Linux apps are ported to Windows, and virtually NO commercial Windows apps are ported to Linux...

 

[Micket]

Once you see the light and realize that a CLI almost always is alot more efficient, there is really not a big choice anymore.
With that said it should be quite easy to deduce my opinions about all of these operating systems.

 

[KRH]

Haha. No actually, cos they're built into the laptop. Linux recognizes they are there, just nothing plays through them. Interestingly, headphones still work.

Thats Interesting... I share the same problem, except eventually the headphones also stopped working unless I moved the Laptop into a ridicules position. Eventually they stopped working altogether. I just figured it was an electrical failure, or that the contacts were too worn.(The computer being 4 years old)

 

[chad78]

*waits for the usual "nothing but x86 matters" comment to inspire a new flame of war*

Nothing but x86 matters. How many ARM laptops do you know of - BTW, the Pandora is a UMPC, not a laptop? How many PPC Desktops are in production today? Everything other than niche geek toys and tiny handheld devices is x86 based, and with the Atom line of CPUs bringing the x86 down to the sizes needed for cell phones - it will take over there, too.