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Best operating system ???????

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25 replies

by tobaron1

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

I am getting a bit fed-up with windows operating systems. Win98 > 2000 > XP and Vista Ultimate - too many problems to discuss! Can anyone tell me whether Linux systems are any better ie. do they suffer 'freeze'? are they compatible with available soft/hard-ware, and what about e-mail and modems? (Broadband) If I did decide to migrate to Linux would it pay me to install on a partition or install a second hard-drive.
Any constructive advice would be welcome.
Ron. (75+ years.)

25 replies

by tintoman

I must say that I am not familiar with Linux myself but one thing I can say with confidence is that if you really are that fed up with all the Microsoft products you meantion, you are unlikely to fair any better with others, I might venture to suggest though that a MAC with OSX might be more user friendly for you

by tobaron1

Many thanks for comment tintoman, I must confess I had not considered a MAC/OSX It will be on my list.
Ron.

by boxfiddler

The advent of Vista has caused me to begin exploring other options. For me, as the expense of Mac is not in my budget, I am exploring Linux.

My experience with several versions of Linux has been excellent. I have 'played' in Fedora, Ubuntu 7.10, and Mint. I have installed Ubuntu to my primary desktop (which I built myself 3 or so years ago) and will keep it. I started with Fedora on an older HP Pavilion laptop. I moved recently from Fedora to Mint on it. All 3 install easily to my existing hardware. All 3 automatically identified and installed my hardware. I had no configuration problems.

I did not care for Fedora - it seemed 'clunky' to me and seems more difficult to use in relation to proprietary formats.
I am quite happy with Ubuntu 7.10. As yet my only problem with Ubuntu involves watching and hearing youtube videos. I can't get sound because the available flash plugin needs some work (or so my research tells me). The only other thing that bugs me re: Ubuntu is related to my having to learn a new way of doing things. As yet I can find no way beyond using the command line to get all the buttons on my 5 button Intellimouse working properly. And the keyboard configuration options for my specialty keyboard don't make a lot of sense to me as yet. So none of the specialty buttons on my keyboard are configured yet.
If you don't want to be bothered downloading and burning your own install disks, below is a link to OS Disc. Also, Distrowatch is a good place to go for info re: the various distributions and what is included in those packages.

http://www.osdisc.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi/index.html

http://distrowatch.com/

I have been using OpenOffice for about 3 years now and it is as much as I need for what I do. It is compatible with MS Office document file formats, and can be configured to save in those formats. I work back and forth between MS Office and OpenOffice with ease. Thunderbird is my mail client of choice, though Outlook it ain't (and neither is Evolution). I use Firefox and Epiphany for web browsers and have no issues.

I have been experimenting with a virtual machine on Ubuntu using Virtual Box which is part of the Ubuntu package. XP is up and running in that virtual machine, but due to motherboard and ram issues I cannot do what I need to do with it. Not a Linux issue.

All in all, if you are fed up with MS, give Linux a shot. No real probs here at all.

edit to add: latecomer to the PC scene and 50+ in age.

edit again to add: As rahouseholder has noted below, try out a few Live CD's. Most Linux offerings now come as both LiveCD's and install CD's. I began my migration by exploring Linux using Live CD's.

edit yet again to add: OpenOffice came with Fedora, Mint and Ubuntu.

by tobaron1

Hello boxfiddler, Thank you for your reply.
I do have a spare hard-drive, so I will fit and try different Linux installations,it will be an interesting project.
We all know that computer programmes take years to develop at terrific cost to their producers,but why, if linux programmes are so cheap,(or Free!) are MS.products so expensive and why do not retailers offer Linux products as an alternative? especially if more stable and secure, perhaps then Microsoft might reduce their price! (Perhaps not)
Cheers For Your Help.
Ron.

by boxfiddler

Linux has been developed over the course of many years by mostly volunteer developers, each of whom contributed his/her code to the distribution of choice. That is one reason why there are so freaking many distributions. Little to nothing is centrally organized and the whole Linux community evolved from what was initially an experimental gui for Unix.

Licensing terms are quite opposite from MS licensing terms. The whole development and computing paradigm is different. Below are a couple of links that offer more complete information.

MS is in it for the moolah, and it shows. Bully tactics now appear to be the rule of thumb. WGA, DRM - the customer is now the bad guy but MS will take that dirty bad guy money anyway. Bah! :D

http://www.gnu.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License

Hope this helps. And remember, Live CD is a wonderful thing! Just boot from CD, Linux loads to RAM and you can explore like nuts without ever installing.

by rahouseholder

As tintoman said, that is a very open ended question. What is best for me may not be best for you. I suggest you try one of the Live CD versions before installing it on you PC. For web surfing, e-mail, and office applications, Linux is my preferred OS. Unfortunately, I play a few games that do not have Linux versions available so I must keep Windows on my PC.
I have found both Ubuntu and Xandros easy to install and use. Be sure to read the documentation for any distribution you decide to try to make sure it is compatible with your particular hardware. The only problems I have had compatibility wise is with some wireless network cards. Everything else worked without a hitch.

by tobaron1

Hello rahouseholder,
Valuable info and advice
Thanks a lot.
Ron.

by deity_chooch

I have tried several different distributions -- in fact, I have a box full of CDs ranging from Windows and Mac OSs to different GNU/Linux and BSD distributions -- and still find GNU/Linux to be my favorite OS. I use a distribution called CRUX, but I do not recommend it to beginning users as it requires a command line install which includes compiling your own kernel.

I do agree with boxfiddler on Fedora. Being the testing ground for RHEL, Fedora is massively bloated and has some major issues right out of the box. Ubuntu, on the other hand, is a good solid distribution that is tailored for exactly your situation: people who want to try GNU/Linux because they're fed up with paying out the behind for OSs with issues. This isn't to say that GNU/Linux does not have issues, but as long as you stick to a main distribution you should be fine. There is a very nice community involved with GNU/Linux and if you ever need help, just reach out to them and most of them should be able to give you enough information to resolve your problem.

by tobaron1

Hi, Thanks for your reply,without doubt I will install a Linux programme (on my second hard-drive)and give it a test run. From what I have read to-date, Linux is an operating system running closely parallel to Windows in quality/efficiency but at little or no cost to the end user.
Ron.

by boxfiddler

so here goes.
ie. do they suffer 'freeze'? I have experienced no 'freeze' with any of the 3 distros I have used.

are they compatible with available hard-ware As far as I can tell, yes though I can't speak to the latest and greatest in hardware. Using a Live CD will help you determine whether or not your hardware will be recognized and usable.

are they compatible with available software You will not be able to use Windows specific software on Linux without first configuring a virtual machine.

and what about e-mail not sure what you mean by this. I have no email problems outside of the fact that I am partial to Outlook and the email clients that come with Ubuntu aren't Outlook. They do however suffice.

and what about modems? (Broadband) I had no problem whatsoever with broadband connection run through router. Ubuntu (the other 2 as well) identified and configured my NIC and I was surfing immediately. Again, trying things out via Live CD will let you know whether or not your hardware is a problem.

If I did decide to migrate to Linux would it pay me to install on a partition or install a second hard-drive. The answer to that is rather subjective and defined by your computing needs. I have installed to my primary drive in all 3 cases, and until going 'permanent' on my desktop made no plans to employ a 2nd hard drive for Linux. The only reason I need XP around in some form or another is that I require Windows apps for work and I work from home a lot.

Okee-dokee. Hope this helps.

by tobaron1

Great help boxfiddler!! I can't wait to get started.
Thank you all again.
A Happy and Peaceful 2008.
Ron.

by the scummy one

While it freezes less and to a degree, Linux can freeze (hang). I have caused both SUSE and PCLinuxOS to freeze.. Well, sort of.
Applications freeze, but unless you know the proper commands, you need to reboot. Fortunately, it has always been apps that froze for me, and a tiny bit of digging got me to kill the offending program.
The program used was Cedega in Outlook 03, would hang it everytime when trying to add or create a .pst file. However, this is an app made for Windows.

I have experienced several other apps that froze as well, but the OS was always able to recover after the program was killed.

by boxfiddler

You get a thumb for causing apps to freeze! Teach me, teach me! :D

by Former member

It really depends on your needs and ability.

Windows does not just work as Ubunto does not just work as OS X does not just work. Despite all the propaganda, they work because someone has figured out how to make them work.

There is not an OS out that I have tested or worked with that I have not crashed some how. I do things to OS's that no sane person does. If you think a Windows update is hell, think twice about a Linux update. Linux has dependency problems (sort of like the DLL hell) that make you pull your hair out and start on your wifes. Linux has some security issues that have not been addressed in 7 years and despite what people will tell you, they are exploited everyday.

Linux is not very easy to configure, though out of the box it does well if you install all the software you need at the same time. Newer sound, graphics, and wireless cards can be a big problem. While there are work arounds, for a newbie they can be a real hassle. If you do a laptop install, you might have to accept, at least until someone figures it out, some hardware not working. Only as an example, it took five years for the open source community to reverse engineer NTFS enough to write a reliable read/write module for Linux. That driver is called fuse-3g.

For OS X, I am unable to accurately give information about it because I do not work with them everyday and because my primary experience is building Hackintoshes.

by tobaron1

Thank you for your reply,
I fully accept that operating systems are extremely complex and there is perhaps - at this time,no fool proof/ideal solution to my concerns. In the end I may have to tolerate a 'Windows' system until someone discovers the 'Grail' to a safe, uncomplicated programme that meets my exact requirements. However, I do intend to give Linux a test run. (It's the kid in me!)
Best wishes and thank you again.
Ron.

by ccbasubas

imho there no such thing as a perfect OS it is up to you on how you are going to use it or with it, both windows and linux OS has its own pros and cons, well i cant say linux don't freeze, as to with the windows OSes the down factor of windows is its price, its security (virus,malware,etc..), well you can install linux into your available partition for as long as the required size of the OS will avail without any a centavo spent 'coz linux OS are free to download.

by tobaron1

I agree, they all appear to have their pros & cons - however I wish more retailers would offer Linux as an alternative to xp vista etc. and pass the savings on to the consumer, then as more & more people used this alternative system a clearer picture would emerge.
Thank you for your contribution.
Ron.

by thumbsup2

That's not how it works.

First, MS sells the OS to the OEM's (Original Equipment Manufacturers, ie: Dell, Gateway, HP, etc...) at a considerable discount far below what the OEM charges the customer for it, so there's not all that much cost involved with putting Win?? on a new system. THEN, other manufacturers pay the OEM to put on their trial-ware products at no cost to the OEM and effectively reducing the cost to the OEM below what the hardware actually costs them. So, they can sell the systems at what is actually a considerable mark-up above their cost and make quite a bit of money on them. This practice is what we endearingly refer to as "crap-ware bloat".

Now, if the OEM puts one of the Linux distros on the system instead of Windows, the OEM looses all the fluff money paid to them from the "other" software makers that would normally pay to put their trial-ware on it because it won't run on Linux. The OEM is left with having to put less than their standard mark-up on the system just to be able to sell it to the customer at the same price as what a Win?? system would be sold. The bottom line is that OEM makes less money on the system.

So, it's a catch-22 situation until the software makers start offering versions of their product that will work on Linux, which they can in turn pay the OEM to put the trial version on the systems.

While begging the OEM's to offer Linux will help because they can pass on information about the level of demand from their customers to the software makers, the place we should all be concentrating on is the software makers themselves. Until they realize their products are being avoided because they only come in one "flavor", the market for them won't change.

by tig2

I decided to get off of the Windows merry-go-round and bought a Mac. For my purpose, it is the best choice. I have also played with some Linux. I like PCLinuxOS best because it gave me an environment that I am used to along with the Unix-like under-pinnings.

My best advice is to try a variety of Linuxes as "Live" boots to determine what will best suit you. Start here: http://www.linux.org/ and keep up with the hunt. Also check out Jack Wallen's blog and Chad Perrin's blog. Jack's is all things Linux while Chad's is about security. Both great resources.

End of the day, the best OS is determined by YOU. Do some discovery and you will find what suits you best.

Good Luck!

by tobaron1

Many Thanks for your info. and advice which I shall certainly follow through.
Ron.

by tobaron1

Thank you to all who contributed very useful information detailing their own experiences.
This topic now closed.
Happy 2008 to you all.

by the scummy one

I didnt realize it! I would have thought the thumb(s) would go your way. After all, I only posted a small bit.

Ok, teaching...
In SUSE, use RPM to install something. Then use YAST to update it. Watch what happens when the app opens :^0

by boxfiddler

Fedora acted that way once or twice under just those circumstances. Clam gave me fits...

This discussion is closed to new replies.