I downloaded the Knoppix for testing purposes.

Now I have used this for couple hours and I must admit that this is rather neat 'little' Linux.

It detected all required (video card, sound card, nic, etc.) hardware and creating PPPOE/ADSL connection was easy IMHO, better than in Windows, I did not need install anything drivers from ISP CD, I just needed input username and password.

Perhaps after purchasing new HDD, I'll try to install this to it...

My score: 5/5.

This message was sent from Knoppix Live Linux on CD, version 3.8.1.

linux, linux, linux....in the end, most people look and see how easy it is. But, in reality, linux is much harder to understand then mere winblows.....

If you just want a GUI to point and click your way through, then Linux is just as easy to install and run as Windows in my experience. The thing is, Linux can be configured to be far more, but requires one to learn the proper commands to make it so.

I just bought a Dell Diminsion 3000 and Fedora Core 2 found and configured all its hardware except the winmodem. That's no problem since I'm using broadband anyway.

The main thing I like about Linux over Windows is, you don't have to purchase and install all kinds of software to get your box up to snuff. All the apps you mostly need are already right there on the install CD's and don't cost a thing.

Once it's up and running and configured the way you want, it will run forever without breaking. No Norton and McAffee. No trojans, malware, miningware or spyware nor worms to constantly do battle with.

With Linux, I can spend my time getting work done without forever worrying about getting infected the way I once did with Windows.

Just working on my sister's boyfriend's Mom's (whew!) Dell 8100. Spysweeper found 22346 spyware hits and traces. Registry is corrupt and can't recover. Beagle virus and trogan hits. Looks like a lomg haul to recover the data on the hard drive and do a re-install...and since it's a Dell...I hope they have the recovery disks!

that is hilarious
i also d/l'ed knoppix for "testing" a couple months ago.

then said the same thing. "i think i'll buy another hd and start testing"
i tested so many different distos and reinstalled so many times that i could hear that harddrive panting.
i settled on mandrake for home and gentoo for work and cad stuff.
i installed open office 2 so i could have a database and crossover for quicken, photoshop and acrobat. (didnt have time to get into wine) now i use linux 99.9% of the time and i pitch it to my (small) clients who need to modernize but cant afford all microsoft.

it was fun too

Originally posted by jerry atrik:




Yeah, I'm currently downloading Red Hat. Perhaps after that, I'll download SUSE.


Yep.

Originally posted by Wilhelmus:
I've tried all the big distros as well as a good number of the Live CD's too. SuSE 9.1 Professional cost me around $90.00 at CompUSA although you can do an FTP install of SuSE Personal at no charge. In my mind, SuSE is the very best distro to begin using if you've never used Linux and migrating from Windows. It has a lot of easy to understand and very intuitive utilities to get you going.

In the live CD catagory, Knoppix of course is the most popular Debian based version, but in my mind, Mepis is tops. Again, it has a lot of easy utilities to get you going, and with Debian's apt-get package utility with the Synaptic front end, downloading and installing any of thousands of programs is mind numbingly simple.

Originally posted by Dapper Dan:

Latest SUSE I have used was 8.1 Pro. Agreed, it was easy to understand and setup. After the HD where it was installed, brutally died, I moved back to Windows. It was old HD anyway...


I'll have to try that Mepis some day. I am currently playing with Red Hat 8.

Things done:
* Backups, backups...
* NTFS support installed.
* MPEG Layer 3 installed.

Things not done:
* Checked that Windows installation still works...

This message was sent from Red Hat Linux 8.0. (Psyche) Kernel 2.4.18-14. on an i686 (I did not download this, found old CDs ).

i installed a couple fedora ditros. my complaints were that it wouldnt mount ntfs without some trickery and it didnt do very well with my dual xeons or the quadro.
mandriva and gentoo did ok in that department but i still had to roll my own kernel to fix some minor problems with hyperthreading and smp

Well, the last linux I tried was mandrake. Not bad, far easier than getting soraris or HPux to work. Note, the last time I used Solaris and HPux was in 1999. Actually, Solaris was 1999 and HPux was back in 1997.

I have RH 6 on an old HP box just for fun. The difference between it and FC 3 is just unbelievable! FC 3 make RH 6 look like something from the stone age, but it was just five years ago!

According to my RedHat v6 .ISO's RH6 came out in April 20,1999.

That's more like 6 years!

IIRC, Windows 2000 went RTM in Dec 1999?

15. of Dec. 1999.

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=30

Nice link! Just as well MS never stayed with XENIX OS and poisoned the *nix flavour!!

Just for the record I am running Fedora Core 3 - seems to run pretty good. One day I might just attempt a dual boot with XP on the same RAID array! For the moment, its living on a hitachi disk with my wonderful dual booting procedure of enabling and disabling the RAID (boots off RAID/XP when enabled and Primary IDE/FC3 when disabled)

Im a complete nix n00b however I have learnt the basics - just need the time to keep on going.

You know, if it wasn't for the gaming aspect I'd ditch XP forever. I am very impressed with FC3

Originally posted by ScinteX:

I installed Fedora Core 3 on this weekend.

And now I think I'll stick with this for while...


Same here.

For gaming, I'll try to install and run Diablo 2.
On Linuxcompatible.org (http://www.linuxcompatible.org/thread31964-1.html) there were good thread about how to get it running using Wine http://www.winehq.org/.

I got Cedega from TransGaming. Runs most games pretty well. I am (sadly) addicted to C&C Renegade. It runs ok, but being a directx game my PC has fun coverting all the DirectX into OpenGL... frame rates arent fantastic right now but it's probably down to my default installation (both in FC3 and Cedega)- I'm running an overclocked P4@3.2Ghz, with a 9800XT and Raptor RAID array....

I'd recommend a visit to TransGaming. Once I have it sorted completely XP will die and I will be extremely satisified. The linux gaming world seems to be growing, even the folks over at gamespy havent said no to a port just yet- thier response is something like "if we get enough interest..."

Its all good.

Well if your really into Gaming then you'll always need a dual-boot. Cedega is pretty good but it's not even close to perfect. I've recently added Linux to my compatibility list and so far DosBox\ScummVm are the only programs that are "perfect" (but slow for DosBox) between XP/Linux. Cedega still has quite a ways to go before someone switchs permanently to Linux. With that said if all of your games work in Cedega and your not worried about the latest games then yeah you can easily switch to Linux withour worrying about using XP. That's my goal too. Hopefully my compatibility data can help out Transgaming.

thats good news! You are right- its not perfect however running Renegade is easy because (as you hint at) its an old game. I'm dual booting at the moment for the likes of more intensive games such as Doom 3 and even Joint Ops.

Speaking of Cedega I recently got BattleZone 2 working....it didn't work until I patched it and the Menu movie doesn't play but it works! WOOHOOO!!!

/Way to go for offtopicness.

i am using crossover "for quicken and adobe products" works pretty good for games too