LINUX vs. WINDOWS??

[countchocula54]

ok my hard drive crashed and i lost everything...so for the time being my dad installed linux and we're running it off a cd...all i can do is surf the web for now he's working on getting us a new hard drive...but who owns linux and is it better than windows?...or just as good??

[xsiled]

totally depends on what your doing.

other wise you might as well stick with windows and learn how to secure your system. its not at all hard, you just have to do the right things.

[countchocula54]

yeah i heard...not sure if its true...but i heard that linux would be better for video editing and graphic stuff...and i knew it was alittle more secure than windows....thanks for the info man

[Bluestrike_2]

Ok, I am going to be the first to admit it. I'm biased. Sure, I own 2 windows machines, but I prefer my Mac. I have used quite a few versions of Linux, and find it a lot better than Windows. It's all up to you.

Oh yea, Linux is a TON more secure. With Windows, as you patch one hole, another one comes up and takes it's place.
Exhibit A: Sasser
Exhibit B: All the viruses
Exhibit C: Worms
Exhibit D: Ahh heck, you get the idead...

[Dryden]

Are you by any chance running Knoppix off a CD? Personally, I love Linux, and would encourage you to give it a serious look. However, the learning curve can be pretty steep, and if you only have one PC or one harddrive, you would probably be best off reinstalling Windows, then running Linux off of something like a Knoppix CD until you get comfortable enough to make it a permanent switch.

Another alternative is to install Linux for good and then run windows through emulated hardware via VMware when necessary.

http://www.vmware.com/

I think the best spot to get a feel for Linux multimedia apps (e.g. video, audio, photo editing) would be

http://www.linuxartist.com/

[fire1811]

windows is where its at

[WickeDKlowN]

but who owns linux and is it better than windows?...or just as good??

Nobody actually "owns" linux. It's open source and there are tons of different Distros bade by different people/companies. My Personal Fav's are Slackware, SuSE & MAndrake. Debian is cool too, as are the BSD'd like FreeBSD.

It depends on what you do on weather it is better or as good as Windows. It is much more secure, and stable but there arn't as many commercial apps for it. And there arn't many good games, although I think I heard UT 2K4 works on it and Quake III has a linux version.

[dwab3000]

read my sig firsti belive its in there still...

but i suggest, if you know people who are great with programming, try to get them to take what windows was (so its windows based) and make it practicly designed around you

[painTech]

unless you have debian andyou use apt get, voila, owned.

[Dryden]

Thread Jack!

BTW, if anyone is interested, I've got several copies of the Red Hat Linux 7.3 Bible here. I used to teach Linux workshops and was sent hundreds of Linux related books by my company for review. Just looking at my bookshelf now, I know I've got at least four copies of the RH Linux 7.3 Bible with the 3 CD set included. They're 1000+ page books and weigh a few pounds, so shipping will probably be in the neighborhood of $10.

The cover price on these is $49.99. I know they're out of date, but if anyone wants one and can cover reimbursing me shipping, I'd be happy giving them away to AOers. It'd be a shame to just throw them away. They're in "well traveled" condition ... I had to lug these things around the country for my seminars, so they've got a 100,000 miles on them.

They're excellent books for Linux noobs, and a good bit of the material would still be relevent if you download the Fedora Core ISOs and install from those instead.