Moving to Linux

[AdamW]

I've decided that it has been far too long since I played about with Linux, so I thought I would ask a few questions of people here. Now, seeing as 99% of people use Windows I expect responses will be thin on the ground, so don't feel bad! Anyway, I am moving over to Mandrake 10.0 in about half an hour, so hopefully I will be reading any responses on that.

1) Who here uses Linux?
2) What antivirus software do you use, do you recommend it?
3) What firewall do you use, do you recommend that too?

Well, it had to be done. My friends were already suspecting I was a geek when they discovered I own a binary clock and beerglasses emblazoned with "#include beer.h", I suppose this is me coming out of the server cupboard

 

[AdamW]

Well, that was pretty uneventful: I completed a full installation including partition the hard disc, setting up my network and getting a few packages installed in 1 hour...

Anyone who wants to try Linux, so far Mandrake seems pretty decent to me.

 

[AdamW]

I take it all back.

Faster? No.

More stable? My a**e

Less cluttered and bloated? Don't make me laugh!

MS may bundle all of their own software with their OS, but Mandrake Linux has no less than 3 web browsers with it. None of which work properly with the Flash plug-in.

And very few of the programmes supplied WITH the OS actually work. They don't even warn you "I've crashed". They just disappear. Where did the so**ing thing go? Tux knows.

I will stick it out for a day or two, if it doesn't buck it's ideas up then I am going to give it a big XP-shaped slap.

Smug f***ing penguin.

 

[Igorian]

I was going to post a count down 10, 9, 8 etc to see how far it got until you got fed up with it!

 

[AdamW]

Right, well I am now back in the comforting bubbliness of XP.

I'm sorry Billy G, I never meant to hurt you, I didn't mean to make you cry. I didn't want to hurt you, I'm just a Windows guy.

This is great, a PC that boots up well within a minute (instead of the several minutes of Linux).

A PC that doesn't crash every 10 minutes.

A PC that apologises if it can't open a program for some reason, instead of just making the bu**er disappear and feigning ignorance.

A PC that has an intuitive and logical file system (I know UNIX file systems have their advantages, but only when you are developing, not trying to figure out where the heck that file you just downloaded is saved to)

A PC where I don't have to hack about with source code to make it work. I debug at day, I play at night.

I seriously believe that Linux is a conspiracy. People are always saying it is stable, reliable, secure, fast. I didn't get to test the security (I guess the only way you can test that is when you get script-kiddied!) but on all other counts it was as stable as a one-legged horse, as reliable as a chocolate teapot and as fast as a slug crawling backwards, upside down.

 

[AdamW]

One last thing:

One of the touted benefits of Linux is that it can be installed into a space smaller than a gnat's chuff. According to the Mandrake installation process, a "truly minimal installation" is 65mb (if I recall).

However, in order to perform an installation that results in an OS comparitive to Windows (i.e. not a bare text-based shell!) the installation size was 2.3GB.

How big is my Windows installation? 1.2GB. Pretty much half the size. Who's the bloatware now?

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Haven't probed this area for a long time!!!

I tried Linux on an spare machine once Red Hat 6.1 (i think?) after being told yeh, you can run Linux on a 486 etc. Some years ago I hasten to add!

Oh dear... After finally sussing out how to name the various partitions (some clues would have been nice ) Managed to install and it was awfull - on a machine that ran 98 reasonably well, it just sat there with the hard disc permanently lit chattering away to itself, couldn't cope with an application aswell!

I reckon the biggest advantage of any Linux derivative is that you are less likely to subjected to Windows aimed attack!

Just struck me as a poor windows clone, cheap tho.

Anyone remember OS2 Warp??

 

[pipme]

'...... Anyone remember OS2 Warp?'

Certainly do, used OS/2 in a dual-boot set-up from mid-90's, it was the required software platform for a particular Eng. component measuring machine.
OS/2, in my case, was a more stable platform than Windows, but of course lacked the software base of the M$ product. ... Seems to have died a death !
Could always, if desperate, switch off incorrectly at the main switch, then reboot without the problem of incorrectly closed files etc etc

Anyone pre Win 3 ? Memories of Dos ... 'PCTools' utilities and recovering data from apparently knackered floppy discs !! etc.

P

 

[Igorian]

I'm currently working on a project developed in a language called CSP. The development environment still runs on OS/2. If you have to do a switch off/on, it takes an age to do them scandisks

I'm not only pre Win 3, but also pre PC. I was first let loose on some Olivetti thing in 1979. You had to program the damn thing in Hex (And NO, it didn't have valves!)

So who has/had a ZX80, Oric or MSX? Remember the ZX81 with the velcro attached memory packs. One slight movement and that program you were trying to load for the last 45 minutes would just disappear!

 

[pipme]

Well before me !!

I came in around '84 with Commodore business m/c 32 K !!!! running M$ basic. This ran an automated, robot fed, multi-probe gauge, taking component measurements via 32 transducers, then 'fairly aligning' the results, giving single line print result plus screened table, stats, part number peening, plus handling part through 3 nest positions to a conveyor belt all in 20 secs ...... the prog was compiled from M$ basic into m/c code, stored on single 5.25 floppy in a twin floppy setup (2nd floppy for stats), no hard drive .... actually ran like a dream !
Cost £700 for alteration to basic prog then compilation by gauge supplier.

Have home BBC micro 32k, stored in the loft, complete with original tape drive, mono monitor, Three excellent BBC books, the thick, ring bound ones, User guide, Programming in BBC basic and Assembly programming for the BBC Micro .... Enjoyed using BBC basic, fun days !!
But not the core job.
It is not much help with the haymaking here abouts .... Ploughman's and pint of cider shandy is good tho' !
P

 

[Igorian]

Yeah, I liked the beeb. In fact, before the Internet was cheap enuff to use from home, I used to run a bulletin board using one. We've come a long way from those 300/300 baud & 1200/75 viewdata days!

You can get a fairly good BBC emulator for the PC and all the ROM images. Plays Elite just like the original (Bit of a gameohlic me)

 

[AdamW]

300 baud modem? Pah! Ancient! I cut my BBS teeth on a 2400 baud, high-tech or what!

My first computer was back in 1984 or 1985, my parents bought a Commodore Vic-20 for me and my brother. I learned my first BASIC on that at the age of 4, the classic "10 PRINT "HELLO", 20 GOTO 10". Of course some variants require "GO TO", others require "GOTO", some do either. Anyway, the Vic-20 actually had the same processor as the Apple 2, the Commodore 6502 microprocessor (little known fact )

I then went on to bigger and more powerful machines. The Z-80 processored Spectrum +2 (Amstrad owned the rights by then).

At Uni I learned C++ and Assembler, and I now know Visual Basic too (so I know when I should be running away from it!).

So, my first computer had 3.5kbytes of RAM, my current one has about 150,000 times this much. The storage on an audio cassette is about 500kbytes, my current computer has about 400,000 times as much. Amazing growth.

But, as they say, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step (long walk!). The Vic-20 was revolutionary, it made my family the first I knew with their own proper computer (plenty of people with a Pong-type thing already). And it was a great start.

 

[2scoops0406]

Wasn't the BBC B powered by a 6502 processor, or was this a different 6502?

For what its worth (nothing) this is my history.

Original ZX Spectrum 16K - later upgraded to 48K
BBC model B
RML (Research Machines limited)
Honeywell Multics (Unix variant)
DEC PDP-11 teletype bootstrap.
DEC MicroVAX 2000
PC - OS/2 v1.1 - 4.0 (Merlin) C/C++ assember
Windoze NT 4.0 - 2003 and XP Visual C/C++, MASM, VB (yuk! yuk! yuk!)
pSeries AIX 4.2 Java, J2EE, EJB, Websphere, and Chordiant.

That's it, probably dates me quite nicely, failing that I think I'm old enough now to qualify for carbon dating.

 

[Igorian]

Yeah, good old 6502, also used as a processor in washing machines I believe.

We used to have a PDP11/34 when I worked for Rutherford Laboratory. As well as it's scientific use, we used to play dungeon and Adventure (The Zork trilogy on other platforms). We also had an early version of moon lander, which worked with a light pen, where you had to land the module next to McDonalds on the moon (sad really, but fun then). We also had access to a Cray, front-ended by a VAX (11/750 I think)

 

[AdamW]

You had a DEC MicroVAX as a home computer, or a work one?

Just counting my home computers my legacy runs as:

Commodore Vic-20
Sinclair Spectrum +2 (but Amstrad owned the rights by then)
8086-based PC (with a 30mb hard-drive!)
Commodore Amiga 500 (well, 'twas my brother's but he let me use it)
Commodore CDTV (yes, someone actually bought one! The Commodore Dynamic Total Vision, wonderful machine, the first CD-ROM home computer)
A lend of my bro's Amiga 1200 (with a 200mb hard-disk, massive!)
Pentium II 450MHz (when it was the fastest Pentium out there, I believe it was pre-Xeon)
Athlon XP+2200 (my current baby, originally intended to be silent but I skimped on the PSU and haven't got round to buying a quiet one!)

I have also used various other VAX and UNIX machines as part of my studies and work. I was also forced to use the abysmal Archimedes range of computers at school as the head of IT didn't seem to understand they were, well, rubbish. Plus I was more than a little upset at the fact they stole the Amiga model numbers (A500, A2000, A4000 etc.), due to the fact you can't copyright numbers.

Unfortunately Cray have somewhat lost their mettle over the last few years. The Met office have just replaced their pair of Crays with a single NEC now, and of course the most powerful computer is currently an NEC in Japan (the Earth Sciences thingamajig)