The purpose of this essay is not to bad mouth Windows or Mac, but to dispel some of the mystery surrounding the linux and unix operating systems, and to convey my personal experiances with it. Linux is an open source (read free) operating system that comes in many different versions called (distributions).
When I first started out on computers I was introduced by a mac guru friend of mine who gave me his old Mac power pc (64 megs ram). It took me a little while to get the hang of it but pretty soon (despite the sloooow speed) I was transformed from a technophobe to an initiate of the computer. It also didn’t take long to burn the computer out trying to push it beyond it’s limits. I remember that distinct grinding sound as the poor little mac tried desperately to boot for one last time, before emitting a little puff of smoke followed by a burning smell. It was a sad day, but I was ready to move onward and upward, to try things that I just couldn’t do with that machine.
The next machine I was lucky to borrow was an old pentium 2 pc (128 megs of ram/Win98). As an artist/musician I had seen the potential for self promotion/marketing and the benefits of things like epks(electronic press kit). Mp3.com was just starting and I saw that getting in on the scene in the early stages was a definite advantage, before millions more caught on your band was lost in the sea of contenders. Another great site was Napster which offered the opportunity to get back most of the obscure music I had bought over and over on cd and vinyl over the years. Searching for info on obscure movies and bands suddenly became a dream. Movies that I had read briefly read about in vague reviews were now ready to view in pix and full synopsis. I learned Photoshop for editing my photos after scanning them, as well as how to ftp(file transfer protocol), how to make my own band’s music into mp3s. By the time I had to give back the machine I borrowed, I had managed to custom build my own p3 pc from various bits and pieces and good deals from some excellent computer shops.
The online world was not all peaches and cream though. There were viruses, trojans, hackers, and many malicious scripts, and Windows itself seemed to be put out full of security holes, then fixed or patched much later after the multitude of Windows users comps had already been compromised. As well the Windows updates seemed to lock many users out of their own comp after installing Service Pack 2.
After a very close friend’s brand new hard drive was rendered unusable by the Windows update we decided enough is enough! I had read a little about Linux/Unix operating system, so I started digging (searching had become a specialty of mine). Looking for a user friendly version of linux that would not require knowledge of compiling or command line operation. Here is the result of my quest for a new OS.
1. Xandros Version 3.0 Open Circulation Edition – This is what we are currently running with minimal headaches and very few problems. The best for us so far no need to change although we run dual boot with Win98se for some apps which have no linux alternative.
We have had to reinstall once but it was quite painless. Xandros picked up on just about everything plugged into it and ran it no problem. I had a drawing tablet specifically for Windows that had never worked and Xandros brought it to life immediately. For the average user Xandros is an easy and safe way to be online.
2. Linspire looks good but there is no free version although $50.00 is a reasonable price and you get access to click and run which is an easy way to install applications from a virtual warehouse.similiar to Xandros’ Networks
There are literally hundreds of flavours of Linux and I will add more as I go.(my fingers are getting tired.
