I just re-discovered why I love Linux

[frag79]

I've been using linux for around five years, the first year was dual booting and trying different distros, then I made the full switch to Linux. Now I'm running Debian Testing, and it's been a while since I've tried anything new or even visited this site. I've simply been using my computer for everyday tasks and running the occasional upgrade with apt.

However about a month ago, I offered to fix a coworkers computer for extra money. Her problem is that Internet Explorer was hijacked and she had multiple other viruses, I think she had a total of 24 viruses in all. She had already taken it to a computer shop and thought they had fixed it but they hadn't, so the told her to bring it back in and they would reinstall windows. That's when she asked me if I would do it.

After installing her HP system restore disk, Her AMD Athlon XP Processor which I believe was around 2GHz with 256Mb of RAM took three minutes to boot windows! When I clicked the My Computer Icon it would sometimes take more than 30 seconds for the window to load. Now I realize that this is also partially HP's fault for having so many programs start at boot, but give me a break! My Linux system is a Pentium 2 450MHZ with 128MB RAM and it blows this computer away as far as speed.After disabling most of the startup programs, I then started to disable startup services, which were also numerous. Now the computer runs much faster but still not as fast as my system. Another thing I had forgotten about is that it takes much longer to do anything in windows than linux.

And people think I'm insane when I say that once you learn Linux, it's easier than windows....If only they knew.

[Arjay]

I dual boot XP/Linux on my laptop and over the past month or so i have been using linux constantly with fluxbox. The past few days however i have had to use XP and noticed how long it takes for things to start up, and most of all, how much work the hard drive does, constantly. In Linux my laptop just sits there quiet as a mouse, but with windows it seems be working more, even though i defrag, scan for spyware and viruses regularly.

Know what really bugs me? When you click the start button and choose programs and it takes forever for either the menu to appear or for the focus to go onto where you are actually pointing the mouse.

Anyway i just wanted to say how frustrating it can be and sometimes i am close to just kicking the whole machine out of the window.

Cheers

[Uranus]

I can't really say anything other than: I agree :)
I started off with windows on this laptop (which I bought with the soul purpose of installing and learning linux) but failed booting my Slackware CD (which was wrongly burnt, but I didn't know at that momen) so I started poking around in bootup configuration files. At some moment I'd corrupted my boot.ini file, and I decided I'd reinstall windows, since linux wouldn't work yet.
But damnit! The windows install didn't work at all (no network, no sleep mode, no access to program files - last one's fixable, didn't know at that moment), but enough to continue reading my bash scripting guide and at the same moment researching how to fix my linux cd's.
I then installed gentoo, and everything worked and way faster than windows did!
Now that was about 6 or 7 months ago and in the meantime I've had the same trouble (except for the linux part) with my brother's computer - who now gladly runs gentoo with kde :)
Sam

[Rinias]

Speed's great in Linux, but I think you'll notice that if you configure your Windows well (which is definitely NOT something that most people can do- it takes someone who knows computers just like it would with Linux...) then it flies as well. It's hard to really find the differences when the two are configured by the same person (this is assuming you use KDE or GNOME and not Flux, cause there's no parallel in Windows... Maybe 3.11 on a 2GHz would be the same?? :D)

The real difference is made in the first post: you can put Linux on an _old_ computer and it still runs. And this Linux is the same thing that will run a huge Beowulf cluster, a desktop, a server, or a mobile phone... That's the amazing part! You just have to know how to set it up!

My pride came from installing Slackware 10 on a 90MHz machine (1.2GB disk, 16Mb RAM)- the same distro that burns on my 1.4GHz!!! Albeit the machine doesn't run fast: but it runs!!!

[gehidore]

I swear I have seen this same topic once already, A search failed to show it so it's safe for now. :rolleyes:

[Rinias]

Originally posted by gehidore
I swear I have seen this same topic once already, A search failed to show it so it's safe for now. :rolleyes:

Icthy trigger finger?? Feelin' the need to frag some posts?! That's why we have UT4L!! ;)

[jymbo]

My latest joy from Linux (and I've been using Linux since the Windows 98 days) came in the form of Slackware's Zipslack. You see, my wife got this new laptop for us to travel with on business overseas in a couple of days. Ofcourse, it's a Dell with XP Pro, yada yada yada...not my first choice. It's also got a crippled user account, which renders the thing absolutely useless to me (hey, I'm a power user), seeing that I will be unable to install my OpenVPN tun driver ("You do not have sufficient access rights to install blah blah blah...you know the drill).

Now I could very easily go in and blank-out the Administator password and create an un-hindered account for myslef, but that would look bad when the wife brings the laptop back to the cube farm to be re-docked. I could also re-partition and install Linux on the side, but the last time I did that on a Dell of this same model, PMagic toasted the FAT table. That was not fun, nor funny. The last thing I needed was a repeat of that rediculous experience.

LiveCD appeared to be the only solution, but LiveCDs are slower than crap, and once you shut down, you lose all your stuff. This won't work. Then I remembered my USB 2.0 Archos mp3 player with 20GB notebook HD. I could install Zipslack on the mp3 player, mount it as an external USB hard drive, then run Linux off of it. It would be way faster than liveCD, and I'd be able to install tons of stuff, have plenty of removable disk storage, and do anything I wanted without ever touching the Dell hard drive. Brilliant!

So I did the minimal install of Zipslack on my mp3 player, booted it connected to the Dell laptop, installed X and all my apps, my OpenVPN driver, connected to my home OpenVPN server, and now I'm in business.

[Chess007]

My first introduction to linux was a few years ago when a friend told me about it. Knoppix was what I used first and it bailed me out (win had a virus).

I found that linux at runtime level 5 (gui) was not hard to use at all.

I was back on the net in minutes.

I think that linux is easier for the new user than Windows.

-no spyware!

Average joe buys a computer (with windows as the OS) and goes online. No firewall, no antivirus. Within a matter of hours average joes computer has lots of spyware, malware, ect.

-better security

Just about every other week Windows has a security issue.

People complain about Linux not detecting their hardware (sound card, video card ect) However, that would be much easier to deal with than having to figure out how to remove some type of spyware on Windows. Sometimes it gets to the point where the only viable option is to format the hd and install windows again. Then hunt down drivers for the hardware...

Yes i still run Windows. Linux and gaming don't go together too well. :)

[EnigmaOne]

Originally posted by Rinias
Speed's great in Linux, but I think you'll notice that if you configure your Windows well (which is definitely NOT something that most people can do- it takes someone who knows computers just like it would with Linux...) then it flies as well.
Yeah, the registry hacks, shutting down services, getting rid of the microsoft strip-mall advertising bits and pieces, putting swap on the secondary IDE channel....but the most glorious gains are achieved by ripping IE completely out of the OS.

Even then, it still doesn't take much tuning to make Linux blow the doors off windoze on the same hardware.

My skin still crawls everytime I'm forced to touch a windoze box...YEESH!

[CoffeeMan]

Gentoo Linux (kernel-2.6.9) on my Athlon XP 1.2ghz (512mb ram) boots faster than my friend's Pentium 4 3.2ghz! (1gb ram) runnning windows XP (SP2).

[gehidore]

Boot shmoot IMO, my box takes quite some time to boot because I have pci scsi cards that take their sweet time POSTing, then the one takes it's sweet time when the module loads...

I think what really counts is how fast your apps launch (and run).

[EnigmaOne]

Yeah...that pretty much describes a couple of my servers, here.

AHA-2940W/UW's POST just about as fast as slugs dash across a frozen pond; which is why I never shut 'em down--ever.

Once they're up and going, though, execution speed is the shiznit!!!

[CoffeeMan]

Boot shmoot IMO, my box takes quite some time to boot because I have pci scsi cards that take their sweet time POSTing, then the one takes it's sweet time when the module loads... This is an excellent point, because you could leave it on, and it has everything to do with the kernel + modules + init scripts = good call.

[Tjoh311]

On my machine at work, I'm forced to run Win98se, but I have done some reg tweaks, and it does run surprisingly well on a 133 w/64 MB ram. However, I run alot of opensource software for picture and webpage creation, because it seems to be a little more thought out in the code department. It runs smooth, and snappy and seems to do the same stuff that something like Macromedia Fireworks can do without the bloat.
At home tho, we're a linux family all the way. Every machine that I have (except one is under 250 Mhz). No BSODs, malware. Just consistent reliable operation.

[Hellion]

I started out with win 3.11 and of course did the natural evolution into 95/98/me/2000/ and finally xp. (okay..you can all stop going into convulsions now..I wont mention them anymore). Several years back a friend got me into slackware 7.1 Of course work kept me in the other OS worlds. While most of my friends are jumping up and down at the thought of the next crap OS release from Redmond, Wash. I'm very happy and content with my linux box, that doesn't require serial numbers, registration, phone calls for new numbers when I have to format and reinstall, much less saving up 300+ bucks for a full release version.
Now days..I look forward to the next release of Slackware knowing that its going to be not only better, But It's proof that the Linux world will never go away and I hope that keeps Billy boy up late at night :D

[psi42]

Originally posted by Chess007

People complain about Linux not detecting their hardware (sound card, video card ect)

I don't know where they come up with that. I installed win 2000 for someone and, guess what, it detected the Intel e100 NIC, but didn't have a driver for it. I had to go digging in boxes to find the CD with the driver on it just to get the thing online. What's up with that?

With my trusty slackware box, I just start up hotplug, and what do you know, sound and network just start working. :)

~psi42