Linux vs Windows?

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

A good site tofind Open Source Alternatives

http://www.osalt.com/

[ffirman]

What a lovely offer. I will be bringing my mothers old clunker PC up here when I can summon the strength to go and pack stuff up, and might just take you up on it then. Thank you.

I also can give you some pointers if you get stuck. I have gotten my Dad onto Linux and also a friend here in West Auckland, who just uses her pc for facebook, and photos of her kids.

And it would give me a good excuse to go for a ride



Fran

[Urano]

Yeah - had everything open and ran it out of memory while seeing what Photoshop can do with the 3D modeling that now comes included.

that is not a system crash.

actually is one of the coolest thing you could do with a mac.
take a mac.
open the "application" folder.
select all the application icons.
double click.

the system will knee down, thirsty of ram, will crawl for minutes swapping on the hd.
but, if you'll have a little patience, it will survive, and everything will (slowly) work just fine...
in the worst case it would freeze the GUI (never seen, though) but the OS is still working.

a crash is when you see that grey multilingual screen with a on/off symbol on it.
in 8 years of mac i've seen it on the internet only, so i know it exists...


now, repeat the said experiment with a win pc.
please keep children at distance and place behind a fireproof barrier before trying...

[ckai]

Apart from all the geeks that get all excited over lines of code every day, is there any "normal [sic], average, everyday, have no idea what a command line is" people using a linux system???

Now, now, don't anyone be taking offense. I get excited about the odd piece of code as well but I'm no "hard-core" junkie.

What I'm asking is, has any geek here given a linux loaded PC to there computer-illiterate parents/mistress/grandparents and let them go at it with only very minor instructions?

I've never used linux so I'm just interested. I've used PC's most of my life but I'm sorry to say I'm GAY and really started enjoying using computers since we changed to macs.

But that's off topic. The bottom line is, could a computer newbie use linux? If the shit hit the fan could they fix it themselves (not hardware issues) or could they be talked through something that would solve the problem on the phone within 5 mins?

PC's are not too bad for this. I'm sorry to say in my personal experience, I have never seen a more perfect OS for newbies than Mac. This is after switching 4 complete "what's this arrow thing on the screen" beginners to them.

I am open to be proved otherwise and this is only my experiences. I'd love to have a play with linux (in fact may load it onto USB to have a play on the PC) but it seems to be expert based (like others have mentioned).

[Urano]

could a computer newbie use linux?

yes he could.
http://www.comune.modena.it/
the whole municipality computer system is on linux (red hat, i think...) and all the administration's office pcs are running linux.
i don't know how's going down there, but here there is no one as "newbie" as a public administration's clerk.
they start it up, click on the "everyday" icon on the desktop pretending to work, go to the coffee machine, switch it down at 6 pm.
they don't even know what actually is an "os".

i remember my pilot union pcs were running on linux too.
so. it's possible.

I have never seen a more perfect OS for newbies than Mac

i completely agree.

[Big Dave]

that is not a system crash.

actually is one of the coolest thing you could do with a mac.
tak

If you have to manually hold the power button down - it's a crash. The rest is detail. In this case the finder would not change applications and was locked up.

Yours and my idea of what is cool are also way different. :-)

My idea is a cheque for artwork sold.

[ffirman]

Yes I have.

I have it installed for my father, thou he is fairly computer literate, thou I still get some very interesting questions from him.

And I have for a friend of us. And she is really not a computer person at all. She uses it to play games on facebook, add photos there from her camera, which she connects to the computer via usb.

For her I installed Ubuntu, which I upgraded for her remotely.

She can scan, and print with her brother printer, thou I did setup the scanner software for her.. It actually was easier to do than I expected. I am quite impressed with the support the Brother have for linux. So much so we bought a brother printer as well, and their network printer can scan and print over the network to linux sweet.

Now and then I have to answer questions for her, but I have found them less of an issue than when she was running Windows XP. Most of the questions have actually been caused by her hiding things in her browser.. She is using sometimes, firefox, and other times Chrome.

For her photos she is using f-spot, which has an export directly to facebook, and allows her to tag and sort them.

For any word processing, she is using Openoffice, which her daughter has used for doing her CV etc.

I believe in using the tool that fits for the job, and for myself I found it easier to use Linux, but my wife likes her Windows 7. My kids use a mixture of Linux or XP, depending on if they want to play games.

Most of the time thou they play games via the PS3, or xbox 360.

Hope that helps out.

Fran

Apart from all the geeks that get all excited over lines of code every day, is there any "normal [sic], average, everyday, have no idea what a command line is" people using a linux system???

Now, now, don't anyone be taking offense. I get excited about the odd piece of code as well but I'm no "hard-core" junkie.

What I'm asking is, has any geek here given a linux loaded PC to there computer-illiterate parents/mistress/grandparents and let them go at it with only very minor instructions?

I've never used linux so I'm just interested. I've used PC's most of my life but I'm sorry to say I'm GAY and really started enjoying using computers since we changed to macs.

But that's off topic. The bottom line is, could a computer newbie use linux? If the shit hit the fan could they fix it themselves (not hardware issues) or could they be talked through something that would solve the problem on the phone within 5 mins?

PC's are not too bad for this. I'm sorry to say in my personal experience, I have never seen a more perfect OS for newbies than Mac. This is after switching 4 complete "what's this arrow thing on the screen" beginners to them.

I am open to be proved otherwise and this is only my experiences. I'd love to have a play with linux (in fact may load it onto USB to have a play on the PC) but it seems to be expert based (like others have mentioned).

[scracha]

Yeah, it's been around for about 50 years, but it's certainly not slow. It's the fastest and most stable modern OS I've ever used. Even after I've installed lots of third party software on it, it still doesn't become really slow like Windows.

Christ I've never undrestood technology fanboys. I guess you're using an Android phone too? Horses for courses, I just want shit that works and I don't have to fuck about with. Better things to do with my life. I've got a notebook running Suse and a debian file server here. I use linux all the time for fixing/diagnosing these Evil Windoze machines you seem to hate. I used to develop software for arrays of Shark DSP's and PowerPC's running VXWorks. I therefore put it to you that I vaguely know what the fuck I'm talking about. Read my post. I never said Linux was slow, I said the Ubuntu distro was slow.

Software choice...yes, I want to run the OS that over 90% of developers target. Windows 7 may or may not have nicked stuff from Apple and Unix...I personally don't give a fuck, it works and is easy to use. Windows 7 is VERY good. Shit it has its problems and I wish they'd drop their registry database but I guess that would break most legacy apps but I digress. Sales would indicate that most of the world agrees with me. OS-X is also very good. Get over it.

But that's off topic. The bottom line is, could a computer newbie use linux? If the shit hit the fan could they fix it themselves (not hardware issues) or could they be talked through something that would solve the problem on the phone within 5 mins?

Yes, they could use it. Assuming their choice of distro picks up most of their drivers. If shit hits the fan, no, most users can not fix it in 5 minutes. And yes, it DOES BREAK like any other OS. Phone support...for a free OS...nope. There are commercial versions of Linux but most of the fanboys seem to hate paying for anything. A lot of the Linux forums are full of not so friendly and discouraging smart arses too.


Original poster asking about doing IT support with Linux. Umm...it's not so much an operating system as a way of life After using it for 10 years you'll have probably only skimmed the surface of it. Best get the "linux for dummies book", start fanging around with a distro and find a kind linux-hippy who you can call in case of emergencies. Worst case scenario you get found out after gaining a lot of new skills

[cowboyz]

bckground.. I am a closet geek.. been one for years. yes I do know how pcs work and yes.. I am very very lazy


right... Linux. waste of frikken time.. Get it if you have loads of time on your hands and want to surf the internet reading through bundles of docs to get the smallest thing to work. Oh.. and the only response you will get from the open source community is RTFM!

Windows however, comes with most pcs. The cost of it doesnt really come into it unless you want to upgrade to the next level of windows and then chances are your hardware will suck on it anyhow. I stay with windows because

a> its popular
b> it does the job.

I muck around with Linux from time to time when I feeling all geeky. I setup a media centre on a old pc which worked good until I figured out you can buy a very compact media centre from dse for $80 which does everything for you and is the size of a pack of ciggys.

all in all.. stick with windows or buy a shitload of aspirin.

[Big Dave]

Christ I've never undrestood technology fanboys.

The kid is a pretty good gee-up merchant though. Crosses the line with the swastikas, but we dish out a few gangster slaps and he's back for more.

Like I thought Ural motorcycles were a pretty safe, soft target, till my publisher bought one.

[Urano]

If you have to manually hold the power button down - it's a crash. The rest is detail.

if you open all the openable and expect to use the computer just 15 seconds after the click, the problem is between the keyboard and...

the right question now is: did you "really" had to hold down the power button, or there was another option you didn't considered?

In this case the finder would not change applications and was locked up.

the day you begin to use linux you'll see clearly the difference between a gui lock up and a os crash.
the worst thing to do often is restart x11 or xorg...

The cost of it doesnt really come into it unless you want to upgrade to the next level of windows and then chances are your hardware will suck on it anyhow. I stay with windows because

a> its popular
b> it does the job.

the european community approved a document saying that you have the right to have back the price of windows license, if it comes preloaded on the machine and you already have a copy or you don't want to use it...

a) bad reason
b) good reason. if it's enough for you, there's really no reason to get headache on useless problems. i'd only hope people choose after having collected information, not being stuck on what the retailer give them... (i'm not so sure of this sentence: is it understandable?)

[cowboyz]

think of it like this then.

I go buy a Vtwin. It does the job. Good bike. But someone else has a inline 4. Id really like an IL4 so I run round trying to attach another 2 cyclinders to it to try and make it work just like an IL4.. when really .. it was just fine the way it was.


bit obsure but Linux being a Vtwin and windows being an IL4

my point it.. your never gonna get Linux to do things as easierly as modern version of windows. There has been buckets and buckets of paid delevopment going into windows to make sure the dumbest people in the world can use it!

[Okey Dokey]

Cheers to everyone who contributed to this thread. Interesting stuff.

[Urano]

There has been buckets and buckets of paid delevopment going into windows to make sure the dumbest people in the world can use it!

...and, considering the buckets and buckets of money spent by people on pc technicians, support, time spent on reformatting the hd, yelling at the monitor, bangin the head on the keyboard...

they've failed miserably...

[Big Dave]

the day you begin to use linux you'll see clearly the difference between a gui lock up and a os crash.

You assume I would care.

>>
the right question now is: did you "really" had to hold down the power button, or there was another option you didn't considered?<<

more than 10 hours of nearly every day using a variety of operating systems for more than 20 years.

10 years contracting to a mac store as an onsite software tech and apps trainer.

10 years as an art director and production manager to various publishing houses.

I know where the power button is :-)

It didn't have enough RAM for what I was asking it to do and malfunctioned. No further questions M'lord.

Appears it needs 8gb to deal with these in photoshop:
http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_d..._product=72517

and run other apps at the same time. Notably inDesign, which although not evidenced running CS5 in 10.6.2 so much, has always been a memory vandal.