Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - [permaculture] Re: Linux software

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: David Neeley <dbneeley@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] Re: Linux software
  • Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:19:19 -0600

Bart,

With respect, your information about Linux is, I think, rather dated.

Installation on the top distributions is now *less* painful than
Windows installation in most cases. Specifically, both Knoppix and
SuSE (which I have recently installed on various machines) are
incredibly easy to install nearly everywhere.

> I don't think I would recommend Linux for someone who just wants to do
> normal PC tasks, such as wordprocessing, spreadsheets, email, and web
> design.

Office tasks such as word processing, spreadsheets, and such are both
simple and very easy to do on a Linux machine today...with better
performance and fewer crashes than on a Windows box.

Email is better on Linux, I think, with much less in the way of virus
and security problems to deal with...and, the Internet performance is
far faster.

Web design I might agree with you, especially if someone is an
accomplished and enthusiastic Dreamweaver user. For those who are not,
though, a very good case can be made for web authoring on Linux as
well.

> In my case, I bought RedHat Linux but never installed it on our home PC
> since Windows 2000 is pretty good and for technical reasons, installing
> Linux would be complicated in my situation. If I had a spare PC and space
> to put it, I would probably install Linux on it, since I like the Linux
> working environment so much.

Anyone with an extra gig or two of hard disk space should be able to
install Linux in a dual-boot configuration rather easily using any of
a number of current distributions. I would agree that Red Hat would
not be my first choice, however, for ease of installation has never
been used much in the same sentence as "Red Hat."

> 2. It's a wonderful way to learn about computers and computer science.
> You're working close to the flywheels and cogs, so it's easier to see how
> things work.

This is true *if you wish it*...but the majority of new users in Linux
today stick with the GUI interface and rarely get very close to the
internals.

> 3. The UNIX/Linux working environment is very appealing to a certain nerdy
> mindset. You can customize your tools and exercise control over the machine
> to a degreee that is not possible in Windows.

Very true. Very liberating, also...you can make your machine look the
way *you* want to.

> 4. The operating system is much more stable than Microsoft, whose Windows
> mutates every few years (Win 95, to NT, to 2000, to XP). Also, there are
> fewer viruses and attacks on Linux.

To be fair, Linux "mutates" very frequently. As with Windows, though,
many people don't upgrade it just to upgrade it; there are many
systems running happily that have never been down for three years or
more.

> 5. With Linux, one can make use of old PCs that are not powerful enough to
> run the latest version of Windows.

True. However, the "latest and greatest" versions of Linux with the
most complex graphical environments also can consume many machine
resources...but with Linux, you have a huge range of choice.

> 6. You get out of Microsoft's clutches and can save money on software. The
> money saved can be substantial with large number of users. (For just a few
> people, I don't think it's that big a deal, considering the learning curve.)

Depends. For a single user with a very small budget, Linux can be a
total Godsend. Consider Suse Professional, for instance...it *ships*
with about 3,500 applications included. Thus, the $90 you spend on the
OS and substantial printed docs may well be the last money you need to
spend on software or documentation.

>
> > Is another OS
> > going to require a major learning curve and a huge amount of time
> > reloading all my software?
>
> Yes.

Not necessarily. In fact, there are products such as "Cross-Over
Office" that will allow people to run Microsoft Office and other
popular Windows apps directly on Linux--with more performance than
they'd run on Windows on the same hardware and with fewer crashes!

>
> 2. Getting Linux installed and configured on a PC is not trivial. I see
> that PCs are now being sold with Linux already installed -- a step forward.
> Also, RedHat and other distributions of Linux make the process MUCH easier
> than it used to be.

Today, many of the Linux distributions often ARE quite trivial to
install. Again, you are somewhat behind the times.

David




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page