I'm guessing puppy (so yes) if this is the same member over here, comparing Puppy to Xp/Vista/whatever: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/sea...08db11404a1d29

XP is a piece of gold. it can run on a 233mhz with 64mb ram, and run very smoothly with a 1ghz/1gb RAM. My PC cost me about $100 and it came with an XP code. 7 is the exact same as vista more or less, it requires a 2ghz /1gb ram, and decent video card...to run it smoothly you'd need a core 2 duo with 2gb ram and a fast gpu with 256mb vram.

Anyway, puppy linux for example can run on basically any PC out there and it's blazingly fast. BUT can it (or arch) run Flash smoothly? can it run a few games like my favorite warcraft3? Does all of my hardware work after the installation and if not, it is easy to track down and install the drivers?
It's kind of funny to talk to 'NIX users because I've gotten my XP serials for free and most of the program on my XP box are open-source/freeware. for example I use abiword, chrome, foobar, kmplayer, vlcplayer, virtualbox, soulseek etc etc. So their 'it's better because it's free and I'm supporting open-source' arguments are flushed down the crapper.

This thread hasn't made me mad. Many LQ users must be emotionally invested in Linux because they are programmers; nevertheless, some need a thicker skin. As far as I can tell, the era of nerds waging technological holy wars on online message boards is past.

I'm not hot about Fishbox either, but we do what we must to keep our absent friends.

Sadly, this is not the case for me.
I do specialty development and there is alot of legacy tools that are Windows only.
I do not use facebook at all.

Everyone here, including me, are going back and forth on linux this and windows that. I said this a long time ago in another post.

Just use whatever OS gets the job done for you. If you're happy and productive with windows, mac, linux, unix or other then just use that OS.

That is why we have choices.

For me, I'm a die-hard linux user.

@ mattvdh
This is a linux community forum and people will defend their OS just like if anyone of us went to a windows or mac forum and started trolling on their OS.

That's not distro dependent.

But thankfully the Arch repository has some common non-open source packages like Flash (flash-plugin).

I don't know anything about warcraft3 but a windows executable will obviously not run in Linux. It might work with something like WINE, though.

Anyway, if you want Arch, be prepared to do this:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide

Never in the field of human conflict has so much been said by so few about so little (or something like that).

Absolutely. Everything "JUST WORKS" and works every time. The laptop was built for Vista, which worked in it's limited "MS doesn't think you need to switch between 10 different networks, wired and unwired 5 times a day" kinda way. For a little while. The way windows does. And then it crapped out. No network. Nothing changed. Just set it down and removed the ethernet cable. Plugged it back in and it was dead. For no good reason. No obvious error. Just showed nothing was plugged in. That mattered because we were hanging AP's on a water tower which have a CAT5 from the AP at the top of the tower to the switches at the bottom. It was serious and it was the final time MS "JUST DIDN'T WORK ANYMORE".

My honest opinion is that the registry cancer and the general failures that make reinstalling part of routine windows maintenance persist from release to release because it's good for Redmond's bottom line. Failures and slowdowns and whatever else every 12 to 24 months is good for windows because most windows users will never own an OEM disk or know how to create a restore disk. I have customers constantly ready to buy a new computer when all they need is their OS reinstalled. New machine = new license sold. Hell, there is an entire industry made up companies that advertise "make your computer run like new."

So yes Ubuntu kicks Vista's rear hands down, unless maybe your computer is a gaming console. Mine isn't. Myself and others depend on it working EVERY TIME.

yes and thats not really bragging about anything. It's not hard to have something run better than Vista

Ok here goes.
I moved over to linux just over two years ago due to XP failing yet again and for me this was to be the very last time, so I disagree that microsoft have ironed out the problems.

I recently resurrected a flatmode DOS program I wrote in 1997 which used horrid bank switching, I have now managed to get this to work under RAW DOS (VBE) and LINUX (X11 interface) but I have to admit defeat under WINDOWS due to the anal behavior of v86 mode, just read the machine status word in a dos shell, I mean what the hell am I supposed to do with an environment that tells lies ?

You say you have been using windows for most of your life ? well so have I and I still carry the scars... I used to save my documents 30, 40 times a session and onto two different long term storage devices and we all know why we all do this !!!!

I stopped using CUT AND PASTE under windows as it has several times COPIED THE DATA, then deleted the source files, then reported an error writing to the disk, with no trace of the original files.

I now use a windows XP desktop at work with the basic XP install, if it goes wrong it is not a problem as I have not got anything important on it, and as long as do not have more than one task running at the same time in works well.

Linux is not and it never will be an OS for everyone, that is what windows is for.

you say linux has no quality control ? there is QA, the developers always put the needs of the hardware first but always take council from the end users via the forums.

I know nothing about macs, but I know several people who rely on them for their business, the only thing they complain about is cost but then you get what you pay for and MACS are very reliable machines.

Don't get me wrong there are a few things in linux which DOS does better
and I think the kernel should be written in assembly language for optimum performance but as it is it still boots up very quickly, my instinct says there is very little wastage in the code and probably nothing to be gained by converting to assembly.

as far as viruses go they are just an inconvenience, it is more an issue of privacy than data loss, and having executable code embedded in word documents etc was in my mind self inflicted !

linux is just as open to viruses as windows is, but there are just more windows users than linux, also linux is open source and much easier to infect and just as easy to repair.

Microsoft is a powerful and wealthy business, I admire Bill gates for his engineering and programming skills which were needed to port CPM to DOS and at the same time ironing out the CPM bugs, he also took on the mighty IBM and won, that took guts.

For me a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders, and I once again enjoy using my PC and it is all thanks to the debian distro.

I don't hate windows and I don't hate windows users I just love the penguin and the intelligent free thinking kind of people it attracts.


Happy bashing


Graham

Actually, there's more to it than that. If a *nix virus really wanted to do real damage to a system, it would need to gain root access, which (unless the user has chosen a stupidly obvious root password) is hard to do. Sure, a virus could come in and screw up your /home directory for you, but even then, I would like to think that most *nix users are conscious enough of what they're doing that they would avoid executing (or downloading) anything that is untrusted.

I don't mean to start a sub-war here, but neither of those are true statements.

Hi,

It amazes me as to the amount of misinformed information you present. How do you think the PC Industry started? It was because of people who liked to tinker and develop software for a microprocessor with limited memory. Some would be classed as hobbyist but those same people were professionals that desired to implement hardware for their own use. Sure some didn't have a college education, many were self taught but a lot of today's hardware evolved from early ideas that were simply implemented.

Ed Roberts was one of the great pioneers of the microprocessor systems for personal use with his design of the MITS Altair S-100 system. Supposedly Gates & Allen were inspired to develop their first DOS but there is a lot of weakness about that but they did write the First BASIC for the microprocessor system (Altair). Some of the ideas and even core software were challenged and said to be part of others development. I do know that Gates Basic was written and implemented for the Atair that led to further development.

You need to define 'Right' as Gates and company really didn't do things right. Without M$ we would still have developed a OS for a Desktop. But that's a what if.

You really don't understand or know the microprocessor history do you?
The industry was developing from the early 4000 series then to the 8008 with the 8080 following. Then we had the new Z-80 that spun to other chips. But when we got to a 8085 Intel was already starting the newer 8088. We had the wars between Motorola, Intel, Zilog and even little TI. When Tandy designed the TRS-80 based on the Zilog Z-80 that along Jobs and Wozinak's garage puter things were starting to lean towards a desktop. Sure MITS founder Ed Roberts was the first to coin 'personal computer'.

You should look at this timeline to get some insight and specifics.

There's a lot of holes by omission in the above but if your willing to dig then use the above timeline to get the information.

Did you just say Linux is much easier to infect?!?

http://www.linux.com/news/software/a...tivirus-needed