Hi there. I'm quite experienced in computers, but I used till last year just windows. From the first time I didn't like it, but here in Slovakia most of my friends and others use just Windows. I decided to try out something better, somthing that would inspire me. I'm using linux for about one month and I'm very happy with it. I just want to know what's your opinion about the advantages and disadvantages of linux contra windows.

there are quite some hundred threads about this in this forums just search but one con is the still bad gaming support and performance but the pros are stability, fast if right configured, well free

The disadvantages, from my point of view, are few and shrinking with each passing day. You'll lose some windows-based games, unless you're willing to spend a ton of time getting them to work with Wine or another emulator. There are other problems, but they're more do to users not wanting to try another--similar--program, not from a Linux problem.

Once you begin to realize that most of these "problems" aren't Linux problems (after all, Linux can read/write windows partitions from the 60's through Reiser, but MS Windows can't read anything but MS partitions?), but MS ego/greed problems, you begin to really appreciate what an open system can do for you, whether it's an entire OS, or simply a couple applications.

In short, there are no major problems with Linux. The problems are MS's.

Are there any sites, where is described, how to optimize linux to get really fast. Can linux be fast as WinXp for example?

Well, since Macromedia does not support anything but flash in Linux, you will not be able to view some live web cams. There are major problems (IMHO) with the fact that the hardware manufacturers have not started providing Linux on their software disks, so altho you may get your printer to work with a generic driver, you cannot print in draft mode, check ink levels and use other utilities that are commonly available in Windows drivers. I wasted 6 envleopes and several pieces of paper before I got openoffice templates set up to print text starting where it should on the page and envelopes with the return address in the right place (and I still cannot use the envelope slot on my HP 970 printer; I have to remove all the paper and put the envelope in "backward" in order to print it). And I have yet to see anything like Drive Image that supports Linux for making system backups. I am using SuSE with Reiserfs file system, and it is not supported by the backup guys. And there is very little software out there yet compared with what is available for Windows. Want to run Photoshop in Linux? Forget it! And installers for Linux software are frequently not available which can be a real problem for newbies like myself.

My hope is that with much of the world switching over to Linux, things will change in time, but the big question is, how long a time?

Karl

thats wrong with crossover office for example all ms office versions as well as all photoshop versions including 6,7 are supportet and can be installed using the simple crossover office installer....

quite a lot is changing out there making a better world for tux

oh and for a faster linux get performance tweaked kernel sources or compile a minimal kernel on your own with only those things included you need

pros? everything...

cons? you start to care less about your windows partition and the next thing you know you've either corrupted it or downloaded a few viruses....

but seriously, once you get used to the way linux installs things, it is not a big deal (it takes time to learn how to click the mouse on the "Next" button fifteen times to install something in windows; it just takes some time to learn to type ./configure, make, make install); and also, when people complain that it takes forever to install something in linux, it is usually because they are sick of compiling from source

in windows, most developers only provide "binaries"; linux is open-source, so you configure your programs the way you want, but if you want binaries, each distro has its own flavor of distributing binaries (precompiled programs) in rpm, tgz format, etc.


as for gaming, there is a plethora of things out there that work natively and in wine (the free version even); it takes a bit of experimenting, but people who hae done it before would be eager to help

i have unreal tournament and never winter nights running natively; then warcraft 3 and expansion, roller coaster tycoon 1 and 2, simcity 3 and 4, command and conquer red alert, and even vice city running under wine; this is not to mention the non-commercial games like frozen bubble

programs like photoshop definitely work in wine as well

*edit: get linux to be as fast as windows? when is windows fast except for the first few bootups on a fresh windows install? over time, windows typically gets slower, even on a well maintained box (defrag weekly, avoid unnecessary installations, operating system and important bootup progs on one partition and all the games and junk on two other partitions); on linux, everything stays almost exactly the same and won't slow down over time, even after installing a load of programs

i think the only thing that is slow is the sys-v init startup that distros use nowadays (the one where something is initialized followed by "yes" during bootup) but that can be cut down; if you want to see speed, try gentoo or better yet, linux from scratch

A nice little feature with Linux - Virtual Consoles - if there's ever an offending program being naughty, simply

ctrl alt F1
login
ps aux
find the program
kill <pid>
ctrl alt F7 to return to the GUI

and everything's fine again........

pros

it's free, virtually no maintenance, virtually no viruses, i could go on here, but, that could get lengthy.

cons

there aren't enough people using it yet to force manufacturers to support it. that, however is changing.
it's not for anyone not willing to do a little learning. what i mean is anyone who sat down in front of a windows box the first time had to do some learning. so anyone not willing to do that again should wait a while, for this too is changing. imo anyone who can install and get a windows box up and running would be able to get a mandrake box up and running relatively painlessly. i've also heard great things about suse, and it's ease of installation.

in summation there are very few cons and too many pro's. it's just my personal opinion.

cons:
I can easily sit here for days exploring the possibilities of Linux, ignoring many important aspects in life.
Good drivers are few, since the people who create them often have to do a lot of guesswork.
It takes a lot more work than most people are willing to do to really become comfortable with Linux.
Newtek still hasn't shown any interest in porting Lightwave to Linux. Same goes for Adobe and Macromedia.
People think I'm a nerd.

pros:
I can easily sit here for days exploring the possibilities of Linux, ignoring many important aspects in life.
With some work, you can make your system behave and look exactly the way you want.
I've never seen a virus or trojan on Linux.
I've never had the system lock or crash so severely that it couldn't be revived without rebooting. ...well, yes I have, but learned afterward that I didn't need to reboot.
I've never had as much fun with an operating system in itself as I have with Linux.
Piles of free software available, both included with Linux and online.
People think i'm a nerd.

I have just recently converted over to linux all of my machines,after using linux in a VmWare sesion on XP for a long time (evil).. and i havnt found many cons at all,

CrossOver Office is Great, slow sometimes, but runs most of the Apps i need,

it is great, IHMO

Some things do annoy me, the lack of Linux Ports of the Applications i like to use, but then there is most often a Linux Equiv of the app that is open source and is much better

Enjoy !

Great, its great to read the opinions of other linux fans. Keep going.
PS: i mostly like on linux, that it can be configured so variously, and you have many choices how to create your own linux!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Linux is [mod edit]amazingly[mod edit] flexible. You can configure it the way exactly as you want. The only con in linux is its ease of use and the support (as said, not a Linux problem: a MS problem).

You're kidding, right???

XPee is a CPU bandwidth Hog. Fast?!?!? It's a dog. Depending on what distro you are using and what you have installed, Linux is tons faster.

Perhaps you are referring to IE or Word speed of start-up?!?!?! To accomplish that, M$ pre-loads portions of the code of those programs into memory. It IS possible to accomplish the same thing in Linux... I've just never found it useful.

Also, you can reduce the number of running services down to the essential ones to speed things up.

Once again, you can also compile a custom kernel to reduce the amount of program code being loaded upon boot, as well as set your system up to boot in parallel. Linux, by default, loads program code in serial to prevent problems and for security reasons.

Additionally, you don't need to run a virus scanner in Linux, freeing up CPU bandwidth, and Linux firewalling is generally faster.

Just a little question


about this quote doesent dd do this kinda thing ??