Operating System

[Spy]

Well I've been using WinXP Home SP2 for a bit and frankly it keeps fucking up left and right. So I'm thinking about switching to Fedora, what do you guys think is the better OS? thoughts? Perferably knowledgable thoughts.

[Loc]

As I've said, XP is just easy to use, I won't pretend to know fa about Linux but I've heard it ain't as "nice" as XP. :D

[Mittens]

Dont get a computer... It will ruin your life...

THERE! I SAID IT! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW YOU OVERESTIMATING FUCKS?! SUCK MY TOES!

*pant, pant pant*
*sigh*

I think ill go pluck an ostrich..
*sings on the way*

I am calling, calling now
Spirits rise and falling
Soboy ostat'sya dol'she

[Kusoyaro]

I actually used to use a mac, then hall9000 died on me. my libux comp is sitting there, unused, cuz i dont know what the hell to do with it. im not a fucking programmer.

im using xp sp1, i hate sp2, fucking balls

[Jiant Flying Panda]

I never heard of red Fadorra so I'm asuming it's a Linux OS correect?

Well if it is then I say go for it if your a hacker. Linux pretty much is a hackers OS.

[setrict]

XP: It's what everything assumes you have anymore.
Linux: If you know what you're doing, you can make it do about 75% of what a windows machine can do + 100% of what a unix machine can do (which is a lot).

If you play games, stick with XP. If you tolerate computers as a means to an end, stick with XP. If you love computers, give Linux a shot.... but you really have to love computers. You can also have both XP and your Linux system of choice installed on the same computer, you just choose which you want.

If you want to testdrive a Linux system without screwing up your XP install, download a cd from knoppix.net. You can live boot a much slower, but pretty much fully functional linux install that runs only from cd/dvd.

Personally I use Gentoo and love it, but I've got a backup 2k machine for Windows stuff (using synergy2 to share mouse/keyboard, love that program.)

[ukimalefu]

I said to myself, I don't want to do this here, this is not the place for this...

But I'll do it anyway:

Best OS: Mac OS X
2nd best: Your choice of Linux

xp, well I can admit that if you have to, you have to.

Games? consoles

[MeneerDijk]

I agree with Setrict, the practival use should be the benchmark.

I have been trying out a couple of linux distribs because i'm really interested in the possibility of having a completely free OS with applications. I haven't decided on wich distrib to use yet, basically because i'm a n00b at linux.

I'd say: if you can do everything with linux you need to and some more: go with linux. but leave a small partition wint XP on it, just in case

[Jay]

As I've said, XP is just easy to use, I won't pretend to know fa about Linux but I've heard it ain't as "nice" as XP. :D

I agree.

10 characters inserted.

[ChronoSphere]

Personally I use Gentoo and love it, but I've got a backup 2k machine for Windows stuff (using synergy2 to share mouse/keyboard, love that program.)

I also have gentoo on the 2.6 kernel running on my server at home, 112 days uptime and counting :P


You're probably going to want to stick with WinXP just for the ease of use, though I recommend trying Linux out, you may just like it :P

[Spy]

I've tried linux before, the only reason I went back to WinXP was because of a game I was playing along with some guildies of mine. But I might alter how things are running sooner or later. Also as far as OS's are concerned I heard it's better to spread them out across multiple hard drives instead of keeping them on one. Hmm... I'll be fun to install if only to see if I can still remember half the OS, so I guess I might as well get rid of my games' partition and use that for it.

[Sardaukar]

I found XP ugly and "user friendly" to the point of being cumbersome. Use Windows 2000 if you want to play games. It's never fucked up on me and it doesn't treat you like you're an educationally sub-normal chimp.

[Spaatz965]

I've setup a dual booting box (two seperate hard drives, with the Linux GRUB boot manager) using SuSE Linux (http://www.novell.com/linux/suse/) and Windows XP. Spent a lot of time looking around at various Linux and BSD distributions, and SuSE seemed to be the easiest for me to get into Linux with, and pretty versitile with the packages you can install from word go.

If you want to just check Linux out, there's a bootable CD/DVD distribution available (Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.net/)). If you'd like to read up on some of the distributions out there (warning, there's a lot so be prepared to be overwhelmed...I know I was), check out DistroWatch.com (http://distrowatch.com/)

Main problem with SuSE is, they don't have ISO's freely available (except for their bootable "live" trial versions). For me to run the install, I downloaded the entire 20GB install point (not neccessary, but a whole lot faster for the actual install) and ran an FTP install from a second PC...alternately, $80 should get you the media at any reputable software retailer (current version is 9.3).

If it weren't for my games, geneology software, and work VPN, I'd probably make the switch completely to SuSE for my home PC. At work, I have an XP box and run most of my lab/data gathering tools off a SuSE box.

No matter what distro you might choose, be sure to be VERY thorough backing up data. Get your bookmarks, your email, etc. Take an hour or so one day, and document every place you can find where you have data. Think out of the box about what data you use...be sure to get it too. Go through the excercise again a couple days later. I'm an IT pro (ie, should know what I'm doing), and the most embarassing thing I've ever done was lose a bunch of my wife's data (including all her email and contacts) :eek: because I'd made some assumptions about where data was and the backups I'd been doing. Formatting a drive makes data recovery very problematic...Key advice, take extra care with your data.

[kawaii]

i use fedora. very user friendly, stable, and yet fun :)
use it if you want to try a unix based OS.
winXP is hmm...not nice. i use XP only for some games that wont run with cedega.

[Sedated]

Linux, like the others have said is only for people who are truly computer enthusiasts. Same goes for operating systems like MenuetOS and SkyOS. I still use Windows XP. Maybe it's all in the way you use it, but I've never had the problems other people report. Please bash on Windows alot, but you can't deny the things that Windows can do, and the amazing compatibility it has.

[Spaatz965]

Interestingly enough...there's a blog entry over at GrokLaw that might give you some additional info about Linux (haven't read it through, but have been following GrokLaw for over a year, and PJ usually puts out first rate material)

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20050812033627671

[JustTooCrazy]

no good games for linux, otherwise i would be using it.