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Any one want to comment, I am really considering the switch to Linux. But like most have been a Micro prisoner for about 10 years. Apple prior to that but hardly remember it. Anyways, any comment about why I should would be cool also what do you all recommend, RedHat? Or one of the other. I am very computer lit and I am sure will grasp anthing but would like to have the most but the easiest. Hope this makes sense, And thank you. :lol:
i use redhat, its easy - up2date will update you painlessly(mostly) and rpm's are easier then source for alot of things
everyone has their own, it's all how much you want ease over control (redhat is easier, less control)
Well, when you think about it, it's not really possible to make you not being in control of your linux system, since you are in control of your linux system almost per definition. And there we have one of the reasons for you to switch. If you are as computer literate as you claim, it's possible to do just about anything with a linux system without going through too much trouble. I mean, you could do anything with Windows as well, but it would be easier writing your very own OS.
Three major advantages with an open source linux system are
A. Unless you're using nVidia's graphics drivers (which aren't open source) or doing kernel development, it _doesn't_ crash. It just doesn't.
B. Everything (like in Everything; free your mind: Everything) is configurable.
C. If something actually does crash or causes you other problems, you can _always_ debug it.
(A note for advantage A: It's the system that doesn't crash. There are still less-well written applications, but you'll still find that most of them work better than their Windows counterparts)
And I'd recommend RedHat 8.0 to start out with. It configures almost anything automatically, unless you're using a DSL connection with a USB modem, or a dial-up connection with a winmodem. Then you can continue from there to explore the system. It's easy to find your way around the interface you begin with, and you can gradually explore what's beneath it.
your mostly right Dolda, i just meant things like rpm's and what not -- people like wassy would argue that rpm's lock you into upgrading stuff to satisfy dependencies - not that you cant compile from source when you want to, it just sort of breaks things to have an apache rpm installed, and then compile your own elsewhere
Yeah, you're right. The RPM system isn't too good (not that I have experience with anything else, though), but I'd say it suffices.
If I compile my own apache, I first remove the RPM one.
same here - except what if that module supports 50 others, -nodeps and all, but then you are breaking things
Hmmm... there might be something to what you say... =)
Is there any better option out there? I've heard good things said about debian's apt system, but I can't say I know anything about it.
same thing, i was going to try debian one of these days - i finally dcided to do it, when i replaced a machine as work i was goign to do it, except for it's the one i posted about with SSL errors that I believe is a hardware problem - so i dont' want to do that -- and i dont want to try it on my laptop either..
so im back to saying someday ;-)
Komputersman: One thing you need to remember is linux is all about learning. You _will_ have to read the man pages. That is all it comes down to. This takes time, it takes time to make it work exactly the way you want it. But once it does work exactly the way you want it it continues to work exactly that way till you tell it to stop. There is very very little instability in linux, as they said. I ran LFS (that is everything from source, everything set up how I wanted it) for like 2 years before I needed to reinstall (everything started getting messy, and it was crashing due to my motherboard and hard drive getting old). So I reinstalled, and updated my computer. I have 10 days of uptime now (power went out), and had about 20 days before that. The only program that _ever_ crashes on me is gaim (AOL instant messenger client), and that is because I am running the super-new super-unstable version.
In short linux is better in the long run for most things, but if you are doing highly graphics intensive things in an environment you need to be productive in, then it might be better to stay where you are. Like if you are working out of your home doing flash animation with macromedia for a living, and want to switch everything to linux, that would be a bad idea (both businesswise and sanitywise). If you are using the computer to play on the internet, mess around with solitaire, listen to mp3s, and do fun crap like that, linux is probably the way to go. It is cheaper, and more reliable.
Also, if you ever want to run your own servers (FTP, SSH, DNS, HTTP as I am), it's practically built in (meaning shipped with most distro's). RedHat especially. Plus, most applications/daemons have great man pages or decent GUI helper appz to guide you in configuring them. As far as my longest run, I think I was up for 25 days while running all these servers, GAIM, XMMS, SETI, watching movies, etc. Show me 1, and I mean 1, Windoze box that would do all that without crashing. I used to have to restart my Win2K once a week b/c it would get all freaky on me. Anyway, I digress.
RedHat's easy and fairly well supported, through RedHat.com and assorted forums.
Also, you can see a listing (and minor write-ups) on most major distributions at: http://www.linuxiso.org/.
Good Luck!!!
Tithefug