Slightly off topic, but slightly not.

Is there any way to run Visual Studio.net through Wine or something? Based on what I do right now, I could completely ditch windows if it weren't for being forced to use vs.net for a class. Any ideas?

You can skip reading all thee above it's simply a server based os but not limited to.. If you are a simpleton you will never understand linux and why its heads above windows untill you need something real done and im not talking playing mp3's

; pluses
1. linux IS free.
2. linux IS faster
3. linux does NOT get slower with flow of time (as windows does usualy)
4. many copabilities in developing (such as networking, programming etc.

; minuses
1. luck of hardware
2. luck of computing skill (more advanced)
3. some people don't even know that there are some more OSes than just win.

point 2 above in the minus section is not a minus though for any computer user that has used computers prior to windows 3.1 because we all had to at least learn IBM-DOS or MS-DOS/ heck even the C-64 had command line tasks to learn. Learning Linux is no harder and indeed i think is easier than DoS ever was or could be. I remember learning BASIC in grade school and some foretran and Pascal today's "Introduction to Computers" type courses are little more than "this is the power button, this is a mouse and this is windows xp oooo ahhh"

Windows is bloated; ton of crap I don't want or need. Windows is limited to Explorer unless you decided to get Aston shell or something. Linux doesn't cost 300.00+; that's ridiculous for Windows full install. More flexibility and freedom is available with linux. When do you hear about anyone in Windows compiling their own kernel?!? I prefer the linux community.

Windows is/was too easy to master. I found myself bored to death with it. I hate wizards and applets. I was introduced to a whole new world when I tried Linux for the first time; it's heaven for a geek.

Bottom line: Stable, secure, flexible, and it's open source.

Much of what is said here is just opinion, but I think this is one cold hard fact we can all agree on.

This is going to be an obvious indication of my newbieness.

I have seen this twice now in this thread. Perhaps it was you that mentioned it before. I have been messing with Linux now for about two years. Not done anything really serious with it until recently. Built a machine and installed Mandrake 9.0 to use as my web server hosting my own domain. I had some troubles getting the whole thing going but nothing that a whole lot of reading did not fix.

Anyway, a person can recompile the kernel to get it to work better on the specific machine it is running on?

I have noticed this topic a couple of other times in this thread and I think we are missing the obvious. Does your case/mobo support the OS shutting it down? Is it an AT or ATX system? I do not think that any old AT systems supported this feature.

I currently have an old AT style case and Mobo running Win95 and it does not shut down automatically either. I have several ATX cases/mobos, running WinXP and Linux and they all shut down fine when you select 'shutdown'.

I have been using Windows since 1992 or so, and Linux since 1995(6,7) or so. I use a Slackware distro with Gnome 2.2 for everything: email, browsing, documents, chat, etc. I keep a Win2K machine for development, because I'm a Windoze developer, gaming and for my wife, who doesn't like Linux. I guess there really isn't anything in particular in terms of overall functionality that Linux offers which Windoze does not. They are both OS's and will run your system. There are some very distinct differences however:

-Linux is much faster
-Linux is FREE
-WE own Linux, the users, not a corporation
-You can make it look like anything YOU want
-Linux can be more difficult to configure than Windoze, for the uninitiated
-Some hardware support is still behind Windoze

-Windoze is big bucks
-Windoze is inefficient with respect to hardware utilization (in comparison) and requires more horespower than Linux
-Windoze "breaks" more often and slows down over time
-Very little cusomization - you get what Bill wants you to.
-In addition to paying for the OS, you must pay large sums of $ for the software to be productive

For me, Linuz does everything I need except for the things I mentioned before. That may change over time. Linux rocks!



Paul

lets face it, windows makes it pretty and easy, linux has controll, proper control, its stable for a start. and as far as the future is concerned windows is simply not a multiuser operating system (even NT) and the days of the old grey box that number crunched are gone, we're part of an connected and monitored world. linux provides the next level which most computer users don't even know about.

[QUOTE]Anyway, a person can recompile the kernel to get it to work better on the specific machine it is running on? /QUOTE]

Yes. That's part of why compileing the kernel is important. Mandrake, like other pro distros have pre-compiled kernels that like windows are made for the least common denominator - max compatibility instead of max performance.

Recompileing the kernel lets you set it for your exact CPU and other driver features some that you have "always on" and some that you have it load via "modules".

Why use Linux instead of Windows?

I'm am a freshly picked newbiw. I'm having a rough start, but I won't quit. There is one simple reason.

I want to use Linux instead of Windows because Linux is NOT Windows.

.j0rg3

Hang in there, help is available! This is a great board, and if you use Gnome, gnomesupport.org is awsome also. Long live Linux...

Paul

Coz linux rulez, dude

I think this gives an end (in a nut shell) to the debate. If you understand what it says, you are linux guy. If you dont understand, you are a windoze guy.