Re: FN-FORUM: Microcock / Linux / Ramblings of a fat man

date posted 20th August 2003 17:41

On Wed, 20 Aug 2003, Dan Norcott wrote:

> During a recent conversation with Andy about the annoying nature of XP's
> draconian licensing policies, I started wondering about Linux. I've used it
> quite a bit through SSH, to muck about with web servers and stuff, but
> haven't really any experience of it as a desktop environment.
>
> Spoke to a geekier chum, who used various linux GUIs for a year, and his
> general feelings were that they're not quite there yet, but it was about a
> year ago he made the switch back to windows. How many of you actually use
> linux as a development environment - through GNOME or whatever - and do you
> like it?

Yup, I've been using Linux as my normal desktop at home since 1995, and
professionally in Microsoft-centric corporate networks since 1997. I happen
to use GNOME, but only to start lots of terminal windows and for the task
bar. ;-)

> It is stable?

Better than Windows ever has been for me. Probably the only gotcha is to buy
the hardware to suit the OS (as it used to be done) rather than the other
way around.

> Is there a reasonably easy to configure setup that delivers functionality
> comparable to windows without the whole 'pay bill' scenario, or hours of
> tedious configuration?

I reckon RH8 pretty much hits the spot. It gets the hardware detection
90-100% correct and complete (given compatible hardware) and most things are
setup sanely. Red Hat also include a large number of friendly config tools
that can usually fully administer things like printing and networking, or at
the very least get you 90% of the way there.

> Are there big lists of things that you can and can't do?

Play random Windows games, run *any* /specific/ Windows application (though
WINE seems to meet lots of folks' needs, and VMware works well too - but is
expensive), drive cheap n' nasty modems and printers (which have most of the
intelligence in the driver software). In exchange there's lots I can do
under Linux that simply isn't possible under Windows (at least, without
buying lots of expensive software - probably 50-100K+).

If I'm honest, perhaps the biggest problem is cross-editing Microsoft Office
documents. OpenOffice is very close to perfect, but if you're editing and
sending files back and forth, the formatting can get a bit skew-iff. Of
course the way this /should/ be done is to edit plain text, then format at
the final stage, but it seems no-one does this anymore - everyone thinks
they're a layout designer. ;-)

It suits my needs. If it didn't I wouldn't use it.

The question is, "what do *you* need to do?"

> Bit of a broad question, I know, but if anyone has any thoughts, my brain
> could do with a bit of filling up.
>
> Ta,
> Dan.

Best Regards,
Alex.
--
Alex Butcher Brainbench MVP for Internet Security: www.brainbench.com
Bristol, UK Need reliable and secure network systems?
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