New Found Respect for Linux

[Dragoon Knight]

Just thought I'd share a little experience I've had just now with Linux, and how it's made me have a totally refreshed view of it in comparison to Windows.

Up until I bought my Alienware, I had a fairly standard, self-built PC.  Nothing special; AMD 1.7Ghz, 512MB RAM, nVidia GeForce FX5700, 40GB HDD, running a borrowed copy of XP Home (no service packs... stupid Genuine Windows crap...).  Anyhoo, as soon as I got back home to Forres from Uni, said PC became the new family computer (as the old one is crap).

Of course, this means that it had to get buggered up somehow.  And, dutifully enough, it did.  It has somehow become so clogged with viruses, adware, spyware and god knows what else, that I couldn't even boot it up.  And yet, I'm typing this message to you now from that very PC, using a very handy little Knoppix CD that has just impressed me quite a bit.

For those of you unfamiliar with what a Knoppix CD is, think of it as an Operating System on a CD-ROM.  You can literally put this CD into any PC, boot from your optical drive instead of the HDD, and you have a bare-bones Linux operating system running for you.  Totally bypasses Windows (or any other OS you have), but allows you unparalleled access to the HDD and its contents.  For me, this meant that I could get on to this PC and copy all of my old files (a lot of which I want to keep) to my new PC.

Of course, there was the problem of how to do this.  I didn't think for a minute that my 256MB USB Pen-Drive would suffice for somewhere in the region of 2GB of files.  I mean, it's do-able, but hell no.  Then I thought about using CDRs to burn the files and simply move them that way... but alas, I was fresh out of the buggers (used the last one to make the Knoppix CD :P).  I realised, though, that I had plugged in the ethernet cable that connects this PC to the rest of the computers in my house.  Not thinking for a moment that internet would work, I tried opening the Google homepage... and it loaded.

"Hmm...", thought I, "if the internet is working, then surely my hub is, too!".  However, I've always had hassle with trying to get Windows machines to communicate with eachother.  I've never managed to set up a Workgroup and add PCs to the network without about 100 things going wrong and taking half the day to solve them.  You can imagine my surprise, then, when I clicked an icon called 'Samba Network Neighbourhood' and my LAN (imaginatively called 'LAN') popped up.  Flabbergasted, I copied something small from this PC to what was apparently my Alienware's Shared Docs folder (in this case, several pictures of Christina Aguilera in the buff).  Rushing upstairs, I found to my delight that the transfer had worked!  As I type, I'm copying most of the contents of this HDD to my new PC upstairs.

Even when I had my two Windows PCs sitting next to eachother in Edinburgh, with an almost identical setup to what I have now, I could never achieve what I just did tonight almost by accident.  To be quite honest, this experience alone would be enough to make me think about switching.  Despite what anyone might say, Linux simply WORKS.  No buggering about.  It's fantastic.

Sadly, however, Linux's repertoire of games (i.e. games that can be played on a Linux box) is rivalled only by Apple Macs.  For gaming, I'm going to have to stick to Windows.  Some day, I might even set up a dual-boot for my Alienware - I never thought that Linux could be so damned cool.  Anyhoo, I'll stop rambling now, but feel free to comment on this little anecdote if you like. :)

[gryphon]

Nice to hear that SAMBA worked right away.

Although a small note of warning, you are comparing a installed Windows version ( which has been in the hands of family members for to long, God knows what happend :P ) to a Linux version on life-CD. Not really an hounest comparison.

[Dragoon Knight]

Not sure; it was just a 1CD version of Knoppix.  I know it used the KDE Desktop.  Since my OEM XP CD isn't coming for another few days, I may install Kubuntu on the thing, just so it can be used. :)

[Andrew]

Good to hear about linux working. Knoppix was the first real linux I tried (live CD), and I was impressed.

Ubuntu also has live cds that you can play with and not affect your computer.

When it comes to computer illiterate people that install virus and spyware, might be good idea to give them linux if all they need is to browse the internet and do simple stuff.

I'd definitely recommend a dual boot. If you already payed for windows, might as well keep it and use for games etc. I dual boot windows and ubuntu, and play with ubuntu whenever to get used to it.

I was fixing a friends computer yesterday (I hadn't looked at it in over 2 years), and CCleaner found 1gb of crap (and 300 registry entries)! Turns out internet explorer had cache set to 1gb which is rediculous. She also had norton installed (I probably installed it :P) which I got rid of along with dozens of software that she never used. There were at least 20 system tray icons, and I removed most of them so now only 5 or 6.

I installed AVG free and as soon as it was installed it detected a virus. I "healed" the file, rebooted and got blue screen of death, and had to go back to last safe configuration since it would not boot to windows normal. I'm pretty sure there are lots of viruses on it. She used ares and imesh, which are terrible software.

I installed firefox as well, so less spyware/viruses. Then I defragged it which it was badly fragmented with only 40% free disk space. I'd say her computer now runs twice as fast :P

[Dragoon Knight]

Not sure it would be worth dual-booting, since I won't be using that PC a lot, if at all.  I have the original XP discs for my Alienware, and it might be due a complete overhaul sometime soon, so it might be something to consider.

Of course, I could simply dual-boot without reformatting, but there's more chance of things going wrong.  I'd be backing up my files anyway, so I'd probably go ahead and wipe everything and start anew. :)

Or there's my laptop, but I don't think that Acer provide the original XP CD; just a restore disc.  Which isn't great, but meh.  I think I'll just have Linux as a reliable method of accessing my PC, should Windows bugger up somehow.  The idea of being able to do almost anything Windows can, but from one CD-ROM, is impressive enough. :)