Solid State Notebooks, Also Linux

Marty_J

I do agree that Linux does have a steeper learning curve than Windows, but I totally disagree that it's only for "hard-core techies". There are primary school children out there who use it, and the $100 laptop for children in developing countries uses Linux, so it's not like you have to have a degree from MIT.

And I use "all that CLI nonsense" in OS X all the time; it is a very powerful tool, and I found it much easier to grasp having spent some time using it in Linux to begin with.

With many great free distros out there, I think anyone who is mildly curious owes it to themselves to check Linux out.

asininity

Originally Posted by Conor
Riight. So they've managed to fix power management which doesn't work, the hard drive power cycle count bug and also got fully functional wifi that works just as easily as it does in Windows? Managed to get sound in Flash video on websites when your distribution uses PulseAudio?

This argument always comes out, firstly linux is made by a lot of people doing it for fun, not only that but they have to reverse engineer all the new hardware that comes out because the hardware manufactures wont help out, if it wasn't for the hardware manufactures writing the drivers for windows windows wouldn't work at all.

Support is getting better all the time as hardware manufacturers start to come round and help out.

And you know what your right, windows never has a problem with anything does it, it never tells people that have bought a legit copy of xp/vista they have a pirate copy, never has driver issues (cough vista cough), it works 100% of the time and has not problems at all.

Fact is for netbooks linux is by far the best choice.

Want to access shares over a Windows network? No problem.Simply modify every Windows user account on every Windows PC in your network to have a password. Click on the Network Sharing in Mandrivas Control Center to find it does nothing at all. Enable it in Ubuntu then find nobody can access anything until you spend half an hour trawling the forums to find you need to do smbpasswd -a for each Windows user that requires access using their username and password they log into Windows with then find it doesn't work still because linux is case sensetive and you have or have not capitalised the user name.

On a windows network I think its probably the best thing you can do, that is password protecting your shares. If your argument is that linux thinks security is important then I agree.

And just because you don't yet understand how its done doesn't mean it rubbish, it just means you've done something wrong.

And I'd rather trawl forums than ring up customer support on premium rate numbers, not only are the forums free but it gets sorted out not ignored by customer services.

And then when you upgrade say Ubuntu 7.10 to 8.04, find that a lot of the stuff that did work, such as wifi, no longer does because they've changed something which broke it.

Ever try upgrading from xp to vista?? Guess what not only did most of the software not work, neither does most of the hardware. Then ideally m$ would like to end support for xp so you not only have to use vista but you have to buy a new computer to do so.

Mate if you don't like linux don't use it, simple, only difference is that having used linux and finding its not for you it costs you nothing unlike the alternative.

I've always found it weird that people will !!!!! and moan about how bad something that is free is and yet will accept the same issues in something they've paid a lot of money for. Why is it people expect a lot more from something thats completely free than something they pay for??

geordie458

Yet another thread gets hijacked by the Linux/Windows "which is best?" debaters. Can you have your p1$$ing contest somewhere else?

asininity

Like where?

[Deleted User]

asininity wrote: »

This argument always comes out, firstly linux is made by a lot of people doing it for fun

I think you're a bit off the mark on that one, there's huge commercial backings for Linux. Don't forget, they charge through the nose for support for corporate environments

geordie458

asininity, you seem like an intelligent individual, i'm sure you will find somewhere.

mustrum_ridcully

amcluesent wrote: »

>For someone who has only ever used Windows is it best to avoid Linux?<

Yes. Linux appeals to hard-core techies 'cos they're sticking it to 'the man' (Bill Gates) but the learning curve is steep and nothing 'just works' it all requires hacking obscure /etc/init files. If you think a T-shirt with 'There's no place like 127.0.0.1' is hilarious, then you're ready for Linux.

What rubbish! When I last reinstalled XP I had to dig out the driver disks for the following: wifi card, freeview card, printer, graphics card, my camera, motherboard drivers, some AMD dual core patch for XP... Even as a geek I find this a pain :mad: and un-user-friendly.

Linux if it is preinstalled (like windows) will come preconfigured with all drivers installed and will work just fine and is nothing to be scared of. If you just browse the web and check emails then firefox and thunderbird will do the job, if you need to do a bit of word processing then openoffice will work as well as word.

asininity

@be_alright

I was talking about the community projects for home users etc obviously if its you're full time job damn right they should charge, notice though its only for the support. Also notice that M$ are now trying to do this, charging for a subscription on the software, as well as charging you for the software in the first place.

@geordie458

I'm not actually trying to argue with anyone just trying to not let people be put off buying a netbook with linux on it. On these devices linux works better than anything M$ has, maybe the new windows 7 with be more scalable but I doubt it.

[Deleted User]

asininity wrote: »

@be_alright

I was talking about the community projects for home users etc obviously if its you're full time job damn right they should charge, notice though its only for the support. Also notice that M$ are now trying to do this, charging for a subscription on the software, as well as charging you for the software in the first place.

MS have been offering software subscriptions for years, it's nothing new.

asininity

They're thinking about doing with home users and commercial users of their office software, you pay for the software (less than what you currently pay for it) then you pay a subscription charge each year as well.