Topic: Why Linux is better.

[mistybear]

http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/

[GillE]

There's nothing geeky about that link!  I'm downloading Ubuntu now... hope my graphics pad and TV card are supported... but if they're not, I'll be able to revert back to XP coz it'll all be on a disk  .  This is exciting and not a little nerve wracking.

Thanks, MB .

Gill

[Simon]

This has almost got me sold on trying the desktop disk, but the bigger picture dictates all sorts of questions.  It does seem that Linux has everything on board, but what about, for example, the hundreds of files I have in Word or Excel formats - will I still be able to open them?  Is it really safe to run Linux online with no additional security software protection?  How easy (possible) would it be to switch completely from Windows to Linux, and still have all the facilities I have in Windows?  There is also the potential cost of replacing all my Windows software with Linux equivalents.  It does seem quite attractive if one were starting from scratch, but I'm going to need a lot of convincing, as an existing Windows user, that it would be viable and worthwhile, attempting to switch entirely to Linux.

Oh, and what's the difference between Ubuntu and Knoppix?  I like the Knoppix pic better!

[Simon]

Well, I took the bull by the horns, and downloaded the Ubuntu Desktop disk, burned it to a CD, took a deep breath and rebooted - only to end up back in Windows.  Obviously I need to alter the BIOS boot sequence, but unfortunately, my current USB keyboard doesn't allow this, as it won't activate until Windows starts, therefore I can't access BIOS until I change keyboards.  The other keyboard is in a box somewhere in the garage, so the phrase which springs to mind at the moment is...   

[GillE]

Well, I downloaded it, booted up, changed the BIOS settings, re-booted...

Some basic questions.

How do I find files on my hard drives?  With Windows Explorer it lists the hard drives, but Nautilus doesn't.
How do I connect to the internet?  Just to make life easy, my ISP is AOL  . (Edit - I've just seen Davy's recent post  . Let's see if that helps . )

If I can get answers to these questions, I'll take another peek at it.

Gill

[Sandra]

From what I understand of Linux (not much at all really), it cant see NTFS, unless you have an application running that I cant remember the name of and is apparently hard to configure.
Even with this it can only read from NTFS and cant write to it.

So you would have to have your files on a partition formatted as FAT 32 to be able to access them fully.

[GillE]

Thanks, Sandra.

That's a heck of an inconvenience, though!

Gill

[Sandra]

Samba is the program that I was thinking of.

http://us1.samba.org/samba/

I came across it by discussing using a Linux based satellite receiver with a HDMI connection for the TV and ethernet for the network thinking I could run all my HD stuff from my PC via ethernet to the satellite reciever.
Someone informed me that networking Linux and Windows was almost impossible without something like that program, even then it wasnt an easy thing to set up, they said.
Later I found out about the NTFS file problem, not sure if there is a way around that other than to always use a FAT 32 partition for files on your hard drive that you want to access from the Linux OS.

Over to Sam for more clarification/advice/suggestions 

[sam]

Networking between windows and linux is find if you use samba, it is readable by windows.. without going into to much info (that I am not to sure about these days). I dont run windows and linux on the same system so I am a bit usnure about using it on both. I have in the past but that was about 5 years ago.

Finding your files, you can do this via the command line or the built in explorer like system. It works the same, but you wont start in the convient C:\ you will start in something like \user\home - and you might not be able to see the windows hard drives without mounting them, tell me what version you are using and I'll see if I can have a play later.

For now I'd get used to running it off CD and then worry about the rest.

AOL - eeww that might be messy, not sure abut that.

[sam]

This has almost got me sold on trying the desktop disk, but the bigger picture dictates all sorts of questions.  It does seem that Linux has everything on board, but what about, for example, the hundreds of files I have in Word or Excel formats - will I still be able to open them?  Is it really safe to run Linux online with no additional security software protection?  How easy (possible) would it be to switch completely from Windows to Linux, and still have all the facilities I have in Windows?  There is also the potential cost of replacing all my Windows software with Linux equivalents.  It does seem quite attractive if one were starting from scratch, but I'm going to need a lot of convincing, as an existing Windows user, that it would be viable and worthwhile, attempting to switch entirely to Linux.

Oh, and what's the difference between Ubuntu and Knoppix?  I like the Knoppix pic better!

Excel and word formats, easy - use open office (or the myriad of other apps), it reads them all without a problem. The only problem comes with publisher files, but I am sure there must be something out there.

Additional security software? well the firewall is hardcoded into linux and you can set it up easily in the control panels normally. Antivirus, linux isnt really a target and it hard to get on to the machine as users are normally more careful. I know of a few antivirus programs though. Antispyware, same - not an issue at all.

Ubuntu and Knoppix are just different distributions of linux - essentially just different groups going about it in a different way, I use Debian linux at Uni and Ubuntu at home. I personally find knoppix a bit annoying. As a windows convert you would probably find SUSE the best to swap to.

I can answer more questions if you have them.. .

[Simon]

To be honest, Sam, as Gill and Sandra pointed out above, the NTFS issue is big enough to put me off anything other than trying it as a desktop toy. 

As I said, for one starting from scratch, or not needing to access existing Windows files, it seems it would be great, but for an established Windows user, the inconvenience of not being able to easily access existing files would be enough for me not to pursue it further at this time.  I fail to see the point of having two operating systems on one PC - this seems to me to be too over complicated for everyday use.

One day, when I build myself another system, or perhaps come across an old PC no longer in use (which may happen soon), I would certainly have no hesitation in investigating Linux further. 

[sam]

fair enough, the ntfs isnt as much of an issue as you would think, I know many people who use both.

If you are interested in going further at all simon, it wouldnt hurt to use on of the bootup cds - this can be used on your normal windows machine and will not mess anything up - turn of the computer and viola windows is back. It would at least give you a feel about linux.

[GillE]

I can't see me messing about with Linux to a great extent each time I use it just to connect to AOL.  Moreover, I'm concerned that the changes I'd need to make might have a permanent effect on my regular XP settings.  I've only glanced through the 'geek-speak', though, so I may be wrong.

More important to me is the need to access NTFS files, my TV card and my graphics pad.  Linux doesn't make these available to me.

It strikes me that Linux is a super system for people who are happy and competent to manipulate their computers, but it just doesn't have the flexibility that an awful lot of users need, especially those with peripherals.  Sorry Sam.

Gill

[Sandra]

Do you think that Linux will be developed to support NTFS anytime in the near future Sam ?

As its open source and there must be thousands of people continueing to develop it I would have thought that it would have been a priority to get it to work across the various platforms.

[sam]

ut NTFS is not the best file system, the linux ones are much better.

I know you can use NTFS through samba though. I doubt it will go too much further but you never know I could easily be wrong.

Remember people develop things they want to use so it is a bit random in development.

There is a reason I still have a windows machine... but in my case to play games.