Reply to: New to Linux

[VectraMan]

Same for Mac OSX: you're running on top of a unix system, and hopefully not logging in as God, so by default your system is secure as a system should be, unlike Windows.

Of course if something asks you for an administrator password because you are installing something, you have to assure yourself that you really meant to install it: but that's basic competence.

You mean like Vista?

Actually lots of things are locked down like that in XP, it's just that most people set themselves up as a local administrator and circumvent all the security.

No OS will help if the user is determined to download and run a program with super-user priveleges.

[jkoder]

I always thought the 'I use linux so I don't get viruses' argument is like saying 'I gave away all my money so nobody can rob me'

Not really. Linux does more than what I want and if I can only find an app that will run on XP (and not WINE) I have an installation installed as a VM which I leave off-line - I don't use it very often.

[expat]

I always thought the 'I use linux so I don't get viruses' argument is like saying 'I gave away all my money so nobody can rob me'

What's wrong with giving away all your money is that actually you wanted to have money because it is useful to you. What's wrong with giving up Windows is ........

[minestrone]

I always thought the 'I use linux so I don't get viruses' argument is like saying 'I gave away all my money so nobody can rob me'

[expat]

The reason I switched is because of all the viruses and malware of Windows. It's almost impossible for a competent Linux user to get any sort of infection or have to worry about his bank details being stolen due to an infection in the OS.

Same for Mac OSX: you're running on top of a unix system, and hopefully not logging in as God, so by default your system is secure as a system should be, unlike Windows.

Of course if something asks you for an administrator password because you are installing something, you have to assure yourself that you really meant to install it: but that's basic competence.

In passing, it's one of the things I started to notice when I first got my Mac: as I got into it, from time to time I would have to enable something that I wanted. My impression is that by default everything is enabled on Windows, by default everything is available but not enabled on the Mac.

[jkoder]

Linux. Only free if your time is worthless.

It can be frustrating to use at times as I pointed out I have had some trouble with Mint but Fedora is a solid OS and it's tailored for developers. I will be switching back once I have time.

The reason I switched is because of all the viruses and malware of Windows. It's almost impossible for a competent Linux user to get any sort of infection or have to worry about his bank details being stolen due to an infection in the OS.

Linux is definitely on the right track and as the years go by it will make the biggest improvements and become more and more popular IMO.

[expat]

Linux. Only free if your time is worthless.

True. Same is true for Windows: £180 from Amazon, but only if your time is worthless.


I did my research, mostly practical, and finally got a Mac; with great misgivings because I do not buy in to branding and hype. It is a new experience after Windows, but in short it does answer the real requirement, which I had never quite put in so many words until I saw it: I spend almost all my screen time actually doing what I want, and almost none making the damn thing work.


GIMP is an outstanding effort by the developers, and quite workable in latest versions. Also, interesting to see a complex app implemented without MDI. But in the end I have 2 reservations about it:
1. the interface looks like 5 different apps running at the same time. That doesn't suit my thinking: when I am editing an image, the Tools or Layers windows are part of that app, not different windows.
2. it still doesn't work on 16-bit or at least 12-bit images, and if you're coming from film then you really need that. Even on all-digital processing you should be in 12-bit at least.

Photoshop does those and more, and its interface is tuned for professional work, and doesn't waste any screen space. The full product is costly, but you don't need its professional image-creation capabilities (if you do, you're not reading this for info).

So I have ordered Photoshop Elements from Amazon for £50. (For purely photographic manipulation of digital photographs I use Lightzone)

[lilelvis2000]

I've tried using GIMP (and GIMPshop) a few times and every time I ended up wanting to murder whoever designed it.

Latest version much improved.

[Bunk]

GIMP is nice though.

I've tried using GIMP (and GIMPshop) a few times and every time I ended up wanting to murder whoever designed it.

[lilelvis2000]

I don't use Linux as a desktop environment. I can't as all my client's want stuff in MS Office. Very difficult if the platform doesn't support MS Office!
But Linux is superb as a NAS, DNS, Web proxy,RAID, LDAP and even doesn't do a decent job of Domain Controller.

GIMP is nice though. I do like Firefox. CentOS is a superb server platform, Ubuntu is the best desktop equal to Fedora.

Interestingly, some of the best document management systems are Open Source (Alfreso, Knowldege Tree being two superb examples). So there is good stuff out there. Wouldn't write it off.

Must say I've never had a problem using Synaptic to update software.

[TheRefactornator]

...your mileage is likely to vary...

Nice one. I often see this comment in firmware development forums where proper geeks are hacking with open source tools and hardware they shouldn't be hacking and as a collective they're helping each other in their struggle to make progress. Don't get me wrong some clever guys are doing this sort of thing and it's where innovations are made but it's definitely not my interest.

When developing software I like to actually get results, so to me "your mileage is likely to vary" means - something you attempt to code won't work for some inexplicable reason and you will end up wishing you hadn't bothered. Of course if you're the determined type to happily hack into the underlying technology and OS with little or no documentation to find the root cause, this could be right up your street.

[Durbs]

Should work fine, subject to minor code changes to take into account the differences between the two platforms (file path naming conventions etc) and as long as the app isn't dependent upon MS-exclusive things like COM objects.

In reality, your mileage is likely to vary depending upon the Linux distribution in use. That's the thing with Linux, it's never as simple as "application x works on Linux" or "application y doesn't work on Linux" because different distributions put varying amounts of effort into packaging the various applications available.

I may have a play with that then.

As a web server, cant fault the OS but thats the way i see Linux, it fulfils "a" role well. Web server, great, NAS controller, great, desktop OS and productivity platform? Nah.

Another thing that really puts me off is what the OP has stated - which distro? There's millions and as you say, app X will work great on one but not another. This'll be the OS's downfall i reckon.

[chicane]

Does it work though?

Should work fine, subject to minor code changes to take into account the differences between the two platforms (file path naming conventions etc) and as long as the app isn't dependent upon MS-exclusive things like COM objects.

In reality, your mileage is likely to vary depending upon the Linux distribution in use. That's the thing with Linux, it's never as simple as "application x works on Linux" or "application y doesn't work on Linux" because different distributions put varying amounts of effort into packaging the various applications available.

[Durbs]

Here you go:

http://mono-project.com/ASP.NET

Does it work though? Or is it like the old classic asp Chilisoft stuff that worked up to the point when you tried to run anything complicated.

Cant read the site as unhelpfully they've put dark text on a dark background and most of it is invisible in clientco's IE6.

[chicane]

Until Apache can run .NET i cant see the point of Linux.

Here you go:

http://mono-project.com/ASP.NET