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Thread ID: 53588	2005-01-21 13:21:00	Linux... Windows. Questions	Onyks (6908)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
316691	2005-01-22 01:42:00	Perry: Unix is nearly 30 years old and has been running LANs and WANs for well over 20 years . The Ethernet protocol TCP/IP was built on Unix . The Internet was built with Unix . Linux is a "*nix" . It networks "natively" . Windows isn't . It doesn't . Succinct and to the point! (Yes, I did know how it's pronounced . I've been ready to give Win away for quite some time . I've never used IE, nor Outlook . I'm almost at the edge . Eudora & Quicken may be my last stumbling blocks . (Eudora doesn't seem to be available for Linux, but I see that Opera is available for Linux) . Says he, shaking just a little . . . . Perry	Perry (4966)
316692	2005-01-22 02:14:00	Just googled for that, and people have run Quicken on Linux via CodeWeavers CrossOver Office . I have had a look at GnuCash (http://www . gnucash . org), but double-entry accounting twists my brains . It is meant to be the open source equivalent of Quicken et al . I use the last "personal" NZ version that also included GST accounting/reconciliation . I . e . not a business version . I would say Linux is better in a great many ways, but that is my experience . Give it a go - it's (almost) free . If you don't like it, then just delete and go back to Windows . The major impediment for me is the down- time . The pick up and learn new ways time . What inclines me to even consider the change is simple: I'm apprehensive about the future . A crude analogy might elucidate . . . A new car might have air/con . , electric windows, reclinable seats, power steering, etc . , but it's still a car in the sense that it persists with all the things the old car did, in more or less the same way, but with some extra features . The new car has a steering wheel, windscreen, seats, ignition key, etc . , but I don't need to sit a new drivers test to use it . Sure, the power ash tray may be lost on me, but that's because I don't smoke . But with PCs, it's not that way . The changes between one OS version and another are so great that it's almost like going from a trike to a scooter, or a bike to a car . I . e . it's almost a complete change even though the keyboard, monitor etc . , almost remain constants . As the damned things get evermore "feature-rich," the new OS impairs existing users, even if it does "empower" new users – which I doubt . So I get comfortable – stuck in a rut, if you prefer . My PC does everything I want it to with not too much grief . Then the h/ware dies and I find that the old OS doesn't want to work well on new h/ware, designed seemingly for new OS . ("I'm sorry sir" says PC Bill Glod, "but your old driving habits and licence aren't valid for this machine . ") So, with newer hardware machines, I hope to sit comfortably for a few years . But with the pace of PC progress, I'm concerned that when this generation of h/ware dies, the next OS will be so baffling, so (needlessly) different, so enigmatic and possibly so intrusive that I'll be forced to go and get the typewriter out of the attic . Will open source and Linux be a form of insurance against this potential threat? No, I don’t fear change . I started with CP/M, 8 bit at 4Hz . But I don’t want to grapple with change for the sake of change . Perry	Perry (4966)
316693	2005-01-22 02:28:00	I think Linux will be around for a while. In fact, a version installed now probably won't need to be changed. ;) It doesn't need a new version every year. Or even every five years. If you started with CP/M, perhaps you should use the command line in Linux, rather than a GUI. I use GUIs only when I have to. :D You can get the three CDs of Mandrake 10 from DSE (XC4035) for $1 (from only some branches). That's a good distribution. The "Live CD" versions (which just boot and run from a CD) of Knoppix and Morphix are both in one package from DSE. XC4034 is being quit for $1, XC4043 is presumably a later version is $4-95. vinref has the order wrong. Unix existed for quite a while before networks were invented. :D Unix was built because there was a PDP7 with no software sitting idle at Bell labs, and the guys wanted to get a game running on it. :D When it grew to being useful, and was given out to universities, a lot of work was done to improve it. The BSD flavour was developed at University of California (that's why there are a lot of copyright notices in the source code). Bill Joy when a student wrote a lot of the network stuff, designed a workstation to use on a network (the first Sun) and left and formed a company.	Graham L (2)
316694	2005-01-22 10:03:00	I agree, if it works it works, and if you're happy and dont need more then why change? I however prefer to be slightly more cutting edge... ....In saying that, Fedora have a goal of two to three distro releases per year :)	Chilling_Silence (9)
316695	2005-01-23 01:52:00	The cutting edge is very often, with good reason, called the "bleeding" edge.	Graham L (2)
316696	2005-01-23 07:06:00	Thanks to all about linux/win info i think i will dual it :) Although im still not sure as to what OS to use other than winXP. Only reason im using XP at all is im used to it and its somethin to fall back on if i screw everything else up. Thanks folks ___ and yes i realized this was an NZ forum but you guys seemed smart, not to mention the forum is endorsed (right word?) by a mag called pc WORLD - HA! now i notice the sub-title is New Zealand -- umm... oxymoron? -- Oh well ill help when i can with others problems/polls unless you just want my foreign self gone. :p thx again	Onyks (6908)
316697	2005-01-23 23:08:00	Oh well ill help when i can with others problems/polls unless you just want my foreign self gone . thx again . . . . . No national differences are likely to intrude, here, so worry not! I however prefer to be slightly more cutting edge . . . . . . . . What do you mean by that? I think Linux will be around for a while . In fact, a version installed now probably won't need to be changed . It doesn't need a new version every year . Or even every five years . My question wasn't really about Linux . More about Windows and how the OS changes may be so great after the few years of my current h/ware's life expectancy is up, that a new Win PC will be diabolical as a learning curve and I may simply not want that bother . For PC techs & professionals, the changes will be incremental over that same time . For me, the changes will be more like a seismic wave and engulf me . The fundamental dilemma that I see is in just what is an operating system? The profound problems that seem to have become inherent in Windows is that it's trying to be a hybrid of OS & application s/ware . And - given that I'm a user and not a tech - from my side of the keyboard, the OS has suffered severely in the attempt to make it an all things to all PC users . Both in simplicity, stability and reliability . Earlier, there was a comment about which Linux? I found that puzzling . Whey are they varied? I thought the goal was uniformity and simplicity . What am I missing to comprehend that remark correctly? Perry	Perry (4966)
316698	2005-01-24 01:13:00	. . . . . What do you mean by that? Well, lets just say that rather than wait for RPM's to be built, Ive built a whole OS from Source Code . Sometimes Im using a version of my fav IM Program Gaim, before their homepage has even been updated :cool:	Chilling_Silence (9)
316699	2005-01-24 04:08:00	Some interesting coments. Chill there are some very easy to install Deb distros-Xandros and Knoppix- hdd installs for example. Personnally I prefer a Deb installation and I'm no wiz ;). Perry jump in the water's fine. You may even surprise yourself hah? Venref yes its great for recycling those cast offs-I have a similar philosophy as yours re PC purchases lol. XP does not play all my legacy games, thats whats my win98 box is for. No need at all to use XP in this house hol. Don't even miss it, funny ol thing. Onyx give Linux a crack. Whats the worst you can do? Learn something new maybe? Best of luck.	Mark.p (6961)
316700	2005-01-24 04:19:00	and yes i realized this was an NZ forum but you guys seemed smart, not to mention the forum is endorsed (right word?) by a mag called pc WORLD - HA! now i notice the sub-title is New Zealand -- umm . . . oxymoron? -- Oh well ill help when i can with others problems/polls unless you just want my foreign self gone . :p I think that we are all happy to have a USA user, just keep in mind that a lot of prices and shops that we recomend might be a bit different in USA . EG: i dont think you have DSE shops in USA but it is basicly a electronics shop .	robsonde (120)
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