one PC on GNU/Linux, one px on Win-XP
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| mcinsand Dec 05, 2005 9:01 AM EDT |
Between poor performance, reliability, and windows compatability, I was thoroughly dissatisfied with Windows XP quickly on our new PC. Windows XP-home would not network with the Windows 98 PC, and XP-Pro didn't seem to be worth the extra $200. That PC still needs rebooting 1-3 times a day to restore internet access. Last year, I put Fedora-2 on the old 466 MHz Celeron Windows 98 computer, and it hasn't touched Windows, since. That computer was not rebooted over the course of a year on Linux and FreeBSD, and it was faster than the XP computer (even after de-spywaring, defragging). When the XP PC had trouble, I put Linux on it for a while, which really helped debug some hardware issues. Unfortunately, Cedega can't handle Sims-2, and Linux doesn't yet handle our printer. So, I upgraded my Linux PC and let the family stay with XP. |
| tuxchick Dec 05, 2005 9:25 AM EDT |
I keep a batch of Windows boxen around for testing, since each one is retarded in a different way, like configuring networking, and (lack of) hardware support. The lack of hardware support is quite irritating, and probably deliberate- win2k broke a lot of hardware, and winxp even breaks stuff that worked on win2k. I absolutely hate the condescension of windoze- "if you dare view your system files, you could like really bork your machine!! are you sure you want to see them??" This on an XP box that makes you set up unprivileged user accounts during installation, then doesn't tell you about the secret administrator account with no password. Brilliant. And ordinary users can't do much, but any random bit of malware has free reign. I have one win98 box for gaming. I love Myst and Riven and Quake and Doom. (Not very adventurous, I know.) Linux has been my main workstation since 1999 or so. It's nice to just get work done, instead of fighting with the dern thing. |
| Abe Dec 05, 2005 10:18 AM EDT |
"and Linux doesn't yet handle our printer" mcinsand, If you specify the printer manufacturer and model, someone might have a solution. |
| jdixon Dec 05, 2005 10:50 AM EDT |
My main machine has been Windows free since 1998. My wife just converted her primary machine to Linux a few months ago. We both have a Windows machines we keep around strictly for games and the random website which is IE only. |
| mcinsand Dec 05, 2005 11:21 AM EDT |
To Abe, Thanks for pointing out my nonspecificity on the printer... a Canon Multipass 730. Not a big issue, though, since I don't care about printing to paper, and Sims 2 still won't play under Linux. I know about Turboprint. However, kids are attached to Sims 2, and I like the way the game makes them think. As for games and me, xpilot and nethack are all I need. stan |
| jimf Dec 05, 2005 12:17 PM EDT |
I have a version of W2K on this box which I haven't booted in 6 months. Only laziness prevents me from removing it. And, I have my old PII 300 dual that, again with W2K, I still use for testing on, for people I haven't yet converted to Linux. All the rest is now Debian Linux 24-7, and, some other boot options for whatever other Distros I happen to be reviewing. |
| jdixon Dec 05, 2005 12:54 PM EDT |
The person at: http://www.plaintivemewling.com/articles/21 says he was able to get the MP730 printing using another Canon driver. Maybe you should contact him and see what he used? I thought Sims2 was supported under Cedega? Maybe that was a special version you had to purchase from them though. |
| AndyCooll Dec 05, 2005 1:02 PM EDT |
I think my experience will be like many. I'm running 3 Linux pc's (plus a couple of old laptops that I'm experimenting trying to get a Linux distro on) and 1 WinXP . That WinXP I keep because of a game I like to play. Once I became aware of Linux I fell in love with it, especially the FSF/Open Source/GPL philosophy! Everything I use a pc for has a Linux equivalent. I keep the WinXP for one reason, to run a particular game I love (Football Manager) Even Cedega cannot currently get this game to run properly. If it wasn't for that I would probably do away with Windows completely. Have been using Ubuntu for just the last six months, but I'm finding I'm using the XP pc less and less :-) |
| AndyCooll Dec 05, 2005 1:10 PM EDT |
"...and the random website which is IE only". Used to find this with some websites myself. However, recently found that Firefox has an extension called "IE Tab". If you place it on your navigation bar it can toggle the page you are viewing between Firefox and IE. Was a great blessing. I only used IE for logging on to my bank (which hadn't kept up with Firefox 1.5), now don't need IE at all. |
| jimf Dec 05, 2005 1:18 PM EDT |
Andy, I use Opera and I rarely find those sites any more. I think that most people have gotten the message, and, both Firefox and Opera deal with them better. Even my bank, which 'says' it will only work with IE, now functions with Opera. |
| AnonymousCoward Jan 01, 2006 8:42 PM EDT |
jimf: the space weather place is one. The Flash detection is broken for everything except MSIE, so you can get the home page, and that's it. Ironically enough, I have an MSIE with a broken Flash plugin, and that quite happily navigates the site. *: I have three desktops, one laptop and one server running Linux, another laptop dual-booting Linux and XP for customer suppert (and to remind me of how much XP sucks: amongst other things such as a flock of design defects, the wireless is not reliable in XP and is rock-solid in Linux); my sister-in-law has one server and one workstation on Linux, one laptop on XP. The laptop runs Linux perfectly (suspends 'n' all) but she keeps it for kids' games and for a couple of graphics programs that only have MS-Windows implementations, anbd can't be bothered (yet: I'm waiting for the first virus) with dual-booting it. |
| jimf Jan 02, 2006 1:20 AM EDT |
are you talking about SpaceWeather.com? I get that fine :) |
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