Linux

[kimpossible]

I'm still using Win2000 and all the MS apps but I'm thinking of going cold turkey Linux and using a conversion for all my Win based games. Anyone else?

[Ayers]

and using a conversion for all my Win based games.
A conversion? Emulating windows through Linux?

What sparked the desire for change. Sure 2000 and XP aren't the most stable or most secure, but they are conveniant and compatible with most of the things you want to do... games, hardware compatibility, email, word processing, etc. Just curious...

[kimpossible]

my bad. the software is only to run Win on top of Linux. for apps. not games.

[Hito]

The guy who started napster is working on a version of linux that will run win applications.

Lindows (http://www.lindows.com/)

Here is a story from Wired about it
http://www.wired.com/news/linux/0,1411,47888,00.html

[kimpossible]

hey, thx. need to pass this onto Mr. HH.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by Hito@Sep 9 2002, 11:34 PM
The guy who started napster is working on a version of linux that will run win applications.

Lindows (http://www.lindows.com/)

Here is a story from Wired about it
http://www.wired.com/news/linux/0,1411,47888,00.html
hey that makes perfect sense. the strength of windows has always been windows-compatible apps. eliminate the need to run windows for win apps and you've got a huge market.

[Hito]

That is why Micro$oft tried to sue them :D

[ren28]

I like native... no hacks. The flexibility of Windoze without going through hoops makes it worth keeping.

[Craig]

I used to run only Linux on both my home and work computers a few years ago (1999-2000). I have no trouble using the Linux apps and typically prefer them. There really isn't any "need-to-have" application for me on Windows.

However there are always minor issues to an all Linux environment. If you are doing things like jobhunting you need to err on the side of caution with your native MS Word resume and using IE to send it out.

[DaBestSpooner]

why dont yah go apple?

besides costing an arm and a leg, and having to pay for service releases.

as stable as XP pro, but not as stable as any linix distro, popular apps, a handful of the recent best games.

has most of your basic unix tools like vi, even though they try to hide the command line

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by DaBestSpooner@Sep 30 2002, 10:35 AM
why dont yah go apple?

besides costing an arm and a leg, and having to pay for service releases.

as stable as XP pro, but not as stable as any linix distro, popular apps, a handful of the recent best games.

has most of your basic unix tools like vi, even though they try to hide the command line
that's true. they also have a microsoft approved (and i think jointly developed) program to run microsoft applications.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

HH: if you do anything in (Chinese, Japanese, other non-Latin-character-set) besides read web pages (and I mean only READ only WEB PAGES, not write emails, post messages to bulletin boards, read non-HTML documents, etc.), I can't recommend any flavor of unix for ya. having had to deal with the absolute pain in the ass of producing and editing chinese postscript documents under solaris, i know I'm not ready to make the jump away from windows.

from what I've heard, linux support for double-byte character sets is in around the same stage as it is in solaris ... massive headaches, starting from the filenames and spiraling on downwards. too many common tools which have issues with double-byte character sets and think the upper bytes of unicode characters are end-of-file marks and stuff like that. most string manipulation functions have never even heard of unicode. reading a Chinese RTF or postscript document requires a lot of coaxing and probably a few dirty hacks, depending on your local environment. PDF or MS Word, are usually hopeless. there's probably other issues I've never run into also, such as with shockwave.

[FClubPrez]

I recommend you dual boot instead of deleting windows and installing a fresh copy of Linux. The reason for this is because many programs don't run correctly under Linux even with the correct shells. However, Linux DOES have programs that are compatible with office programs on windows. If you're new to Linux, I'd recommend Mandrake, as it is much easier to use than any other build.