Well, Mandrake, which is based on the Debian distro, is a bit more user-friendly. I didn't have any trouble getting it installed, and the Sound Card and Printer worked automatically without any messing around on my part. It took a little doing, but I managed to get StarOffice installed as well (Although the only way I can open it is to actually go to the file manager and find the executable on my hard drive.. Can't figure out how to get the shortcut on the start menu 8p).

The 'net is my real problem. No matter what I do, it seems like it doesn't want to recognize my proxy server. Corel auto-detected it and had it running in a flash, but Corel is dead, unfortunately 8p.

Mandrake is built on Redhat, not Debian. Easiest way to tell is the it uses RPM's, not DEB's for package management.

Actually, my wife a new computer user (never really worked on a computer even Windows before) installed Red Hat 7.2 onto our desktop at home, and she configured it. I then reformatted the hard drive and told her to install, Win 98, she didn't like it because she doesn't know how to "reinstall" all the usb devices, network devices, video card, printers, web cams, and all of the software to run all the devices. After everything was installed it took her 3 hours to install Win 98. When it only took her less than one hour to install Red Hat 7.2 and everything worked after rebooting. I have only been using Linux for 2 months and have already configured my HP Pavillion Laptop with the Trydent CyberbladeXPm. This I don't recomend for beginners, unless you are an accelerated learner. .
I had Windows before that and after Linux My wife doesn't want to go back to that overrated software. Now she is telling all her friends about it and how easy and secure it is at home.
Next I am going to work on getting "grandmas computer" up with Linux. She was over and she liked it better than her Win. WOW and who says it isn't for the average user. Maybe not but why not give it to the beginner user.

Seyon,

Dude...

One important thing is this confusion between the distros and the kernel development. You mentioned RH's or Debian's different driver support. The drivers are in the kernel, and how Deb or RH compiled the kernel before they shipped it to you is entirely different, but if your machine is something on the order of a PII+, you can re-compile it in the time it takes to make coffee. Okay, and maybe microwave a hotdog depending on RAM.

For instance, RH7.0 and Deb 2.3r2 Potato both have 2.2.16 as their base kernel. All the network card drivers, scsi support, modem drivers, most of the sound drivers (exculding alsa), all of that is part of the kernel (or its mountain of modules they pre-compile for you). A good half of kernel development is more or less device support, drivers... And honestly, even though MS is supposed to be the best supported, sometimes it will take a quick and dirty manufacturer, like say Linksys, a month or two to support a new MS OS, meanwhile Donald Becker down at NASA has the new tulip code out the next day.

The biggest problem is that many users believe their hardware isn't supported, and it is, its just that they don't know to cat /proc/pci, look at what the hardware's real name is, search for it on the wealth of all knowledge , and then go... "oh, lets see if I have that module." Then they type 'modprobe essolo1' and poof, their sound works... better then it did in windows.

I guess it all comes down to a seamless GUI and hardware auto-detection to make it to the desktop...

Ah, I gotta go to lunch.

-Cheers

Finegan

As far as being dominant in the Workforce, High end servers are a reality now with IBM / Linux cluster server units. We just got one at work recently for data processing, it has 256 computers, each of them with 2 processors.

These units will dominate over anything Microsoft can possibly offer at this time and they seem to be loosing ground.

The problem as I see it is people are scared to change over even though they know what they are using is not good.

Computer technology as far as the hardware goes will be able to develop more rapidly with linux because of all the possibilities of open source software.

Microsoft likes to force people to make their products ( hardware and software ) work with windows instead of the other way around.


As far as big companies are concerned with Linux I don't know about everybody else but I believe Linux has developed much faster than Windows in the hands of the general public. I would like to see it stay that way, they can't sell Linux to us, we already own it.

Linux is a great OS!! and that's it!
It has the power, a company needs, to do all her work with minimal costs and drawbacks.
The Programs that each distro includes are more than enough to help everyone in their daily job.
The system is stable (as any UNIX system is) and from the point of the simple user it has GUIs to work and never bother for command lines!!!
As for Administrators... Well I have news for you boys and girls out there ... IF you are an admin (or root) AND you don't know your Hardware and system OS well enough THEN
As for home ....
Well ok maybe LINUX don't have games like WINXX does, or it may not support that webcam or the other (which may not be the case I just give an example). But it has the potetial of being a learning ground for the young. I have used 4 different Distro until know (in defferent PCs) and I haven't had any problems.
A!! before I forget LINUX is FREE ... try to find a program like star office for WINXX and tell me if the price is worth all the buggs you will encounter in there (at least at LINUX you get the free!!!)

Linux needs a strong, powerful, easily upgradeable GUI. I hope Ximian works well as the older version was very slow and unstable. The key to get linux accepted on the desktop end is a strong, clean, easy to use GUI. As far as the server end is concerned, it's already the best server out there.

Also, DavidPhillips, most admins don't know anything about Linux and are scared of it. 2 years ago everyone and their dogs were flocking to the exam rooms to get their brain-dumped MCSE's and they were being hired like mad. Now, after the Y2K fiasco, all the punks that don't know what DHCP is are being weeded out. The market is saturated with idiots and this is why people are claiming that there is a tech slump. Funny....I don't have any issues getting contracts........hmmmm...back to the point: This contract I'm on is running NT 4.0. It is the biggest piece of shit (I always thought so), but for the last 3 months I've been learning Linux and it is way superior. This company has major printing problems and severe issues with SQL. I made some recommendations but they fell on deaf ears.

See, I'm just a contractor and the main network guy here is "Windows-boy". He spent $20,000 (yes, twenty thousand) on a frigging firewall after I offered to build one for them for free using Linux and Monmotha's firewall script (One of the best I've used). My mind is boggled.

After they figured up the cost of the nimba virus my company has got to be thinking hard about weather or not microsoft has a good future with the company.

The price tag is around $30,000,000.

Where I work, I have been preaching Linux since I discovered it over a year ago. It is finally starting to get through to these admins here, with help from IBM.

My company is in the middle of restructuring its network and server infrastructure, and they brought IBM in to help. After about 6 months, the data center that once used only Win NT has been transformed into a center running NT and Linux. The Linux servers run distributed apps, web sites, CAD designing and other high powered stuff. The NT boxes run authentication, printing and exchange email services.

On the desktops, they are using both 2K and installing Linux for those employees that would rather use that. I am, of course, on of the latter, and I help others who are trying to learn it.

I find one thing really funny... whenever there is virus out, they send email warnings like most companies. most of the ones I know that use Linux simply laugh at those calling help desk because they got hit. They get to keep working and lead very easy going lives, because they have very little to worry about

I firmly believe that a group of companies should get together and file a class action lawsuit against Microsoft for billions in data loss, network downtime, unnecessary repair costs, and the millions of total man-hours spent on needlessly administering their piece of shit OS.

Dude, relax, calm down, have a cup of coffee. Remember, there's no place like /home, there's no place like /home

I'm going to get shot for that one.

Finegan

You must a really old/obscure sound card adnd graphics card. i am yet to see a gfx card that isnt even partially supported, and considering how cheap you can pick up even a geforce 2 these days, i dont think there is an excuse for not running linux. have a look at your local computer store at the sound blaster vibra 128. it will cost you about 15-20 USD, and is well supported in linux.

To be completely honest. are you sure these things ARENT supported by linux?? maybe they are and you just dont know how to set them up. I used to think some of my hardware wasnt supported by linux, but now it all magically works. Even my USB webcam, LCD monitor, and rather old gravis gamepad all work flawlessly in linux. Have a search on google to make sure they really aint supported.

I have been using computers since 1980 and cut my teeth on the Commodore 64. I am looking forward to installing and tackling RH, but to be honest the number of distro's available is over-whelming. With M$ you get the one flavor of the month, be it 98/ME/2K/XP. For the layman the sheer number of linux distributions can be confusing enough to scare them off. I spent probably close to 12 hours just researching the top distro's (ie: RH, Mandrake, Caldera, Slackware, and Debian) My choice of RH was because I want to be challenged but also have a newbie friendly enviroment to learn. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of social computer users, Windoze will continue to fill their needs nicely and Linux will remain something they've heard of but have no idea what it is. With the continued good work of everyone associated with this board, hopefully those attitudes will change and more people will accept Linux. Dell is now offering it on their home office systems and server set-ups, it's time for more manufacturers to get the hint.


Penguins, the best dressed bird.

I find just the opposite is true regarding drivers. Believe it or not.

We have a Dell with a 930 MHz processor.

All it was being used for was Internet browsing.

The first problem was everybody using it with windows 98 and they trashed the system. Unrepairable reload situation.

When it was reloaded we did not have the video only had 16 colors, the sound did not work, the network card would not work, the cdburner was not working.

I realize with a few hours of downloading drivers (if you can identify all the hardware), and burning them to a cd or zipping them to floppies or somthing it is possible to fix all of this.


Instead of going through all the trouble, knowing that within a week it would be screwed again, since there's no way to protect system files....


I just installed Linux.