Linux on Dells

andrewb · 26-02-2007, 15:16

Great news for linux and indeed the customer, it means we have a real choice and real alternative to Windows straight out of the box. My next pc will almost certainly be from dell.

http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/9951/53/

entwisi · 26-02-2007, 18:09

why? I mean, the important 'bit' of a PC is the components, to install Linux isn't difficult. If all it needs to get your wedge is to pre-install Linux there have been PC makers doing it for years, how come you haven't bought from them?

chav1 · 26-02-2007, 18:13

dell are now doing a crap OS to match their crap computers then ?

actualy i take that back

since making linux more like windows to use it has improved

entwisi · 26-02-2007, 18:14

don't forget your wine gums mate

chav1 · 26-02-2007, 18:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by entwisi

don't forget your wine gums mate

you are one of the exceptions ian because you actualy understand computers but 90% of linux home users only install it because they think it somehow makes them appear more clever and most of them probably dual boot with windows

i tried linux once upon recomendation from a friend and wiped it within 1 week because basicly its not much good for teh average home user and even watching a simple movie file was a job and a half

yes linux has improved but i still dont think it will ever replace windows , as much as i dont like bill gates his stuff works fine for me

the linux ,windows debate reminds me of teh short lived battle between vhs and the v2000 video players , teh v2000 was better picture , better sound and you could record on both sides of the video cassette like a normal audio tape but the vhs was too well established and the v2000 never picked up in poularity simply because there wasnt the same amount of films available and you couldnt play your old movies on them etc

linux is in teh same boat , i couldnt swap over to linux if i wanted to because all my products work on windows and untill linux make that happen iem staying put

i believe lindows came close but i never realy followed it , has it got better ?

entwisi · 27-02-2007, 07:02

Lindows was always seen as the dirty cousin being neither one thing or another.

Over the last couple of years Linux has made enormous strides in what was always one of its greatest strengths but also its greatest weakness.

Installing software on Windows you get a package that contains EVERYTHING that program needs to run. Installing it puts stuff all over the hard disk, some in the windows directory some elsewhere etc. Whilst this worked to a degree it did mean that you could end up with an older program replacing a shared file with an old version which would break other things you have installed. e.g. at our local church we use Powerpoint, PowerDVD and a specialist church package called Songshow. We have a big issue in that if you try running all three at the same time if you don't start them up in a specific order they all start crashing at random intervals due to different DLLs being loaded into memory being incompatible.

Linux however doesn't do that, a piece of software only ever contains the core software. If it requires a shared library you need to install that as well. This often got us into a thing called dependancy hell as it was sometimes hard to work out what was needed by what and then they also had other dependancies. Now we have some superb package management tools.

In gentoo its called emerge, Mandrivas is urpmi. If I want to install something I just call the main package. e.g. emerge firefox This will work out what firefox needs to run, see what is already installed, get the latest versions of any other packages , download everything automatically and install it. That way you always have the latest versions of shared libraries, you can never overwrite them accidentally and you don't even have to mess about using CD's/DVDs, everything is available from the FTP servers of whatever distro you need. Literally thousands and thousands of pieces of software(99.999% FREE)

One of the things that Bill is worried about is the creep that Linux is making. Windows is used on PCs a few mobiles and pocket PCs. Thats pretty much it. Linux being free, stable, secure and extensible is being used on everything from Mainframes/PCs, servers, Phones, Micorwaves, routers, even MP3 players.Its this creep that will make linux a major player. before you know it there will be more people developing for linux than windows (actually we are already there) and their skills will bring all sorts of new exciting things to market. You like the new areo desktop in Vista? Pah, Linux did it a year or so back. thats just one example

andrewb · 28-02-2007, 10:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by chav1

you are one of the exceptions ian because you actualy understand computers but 90% of linux home users only install it because they think it somehow makes them appear more clever and most of them probably dual boot with windows

Utter rubbish. 100% of people I have got using linux use it because its free, does everything they used on windows and is more secure than windows. Not a single one has installed it to somehow feel superior.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chav1

i tried linux once upon recomendation from a friend and wiped it within 1 week because basicly its not much good for teh average home user and even watching a simple movie file was a job and a half

Which distro did you use? It's incredibly easy to watch videos in all of the distros I have used, you double click the video and it plays. Codecs are even sorted automaticly now in some distros, even ones like xvid which are not automaticly installed if required in windows.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chav1

yes linux has improved but i still dont think it will ever replace windows , as much as i dont like bill gates his stuff works fine for me

Yes and you're paying through your nose for that privilage, where as people who buy pre-installed linux pc's from Dell won't be.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chav1

the linux ,windows debate reminds me of teh short lived battle between vhs and the v2000 video players , teh v2000 was better picture , better sound and you could record on both sides of the video cassette like a normal audio tape but the vhs was too well established and the v2000 never picked up in poularity simply because there wasnt the same amount of films available and you couldnt play your old movies on them etc

linux is in teh same boat , i couldnt swap over to linux if i wanted to because all my products work on windows and untill linux make that happen iem staying put

I don't think you can compare. Linux is different. Its free, and not developed by some company, with a few backers, its got a huge community developing.

edit: I urge you to try Ubuntu, its so simple and straightforward. You can install a program called 'automatix2' which installs windows codecs, etc, at the click of a button. It's 100x easier to do 99.9% of the average users tasks in Ubuntu than in windows i'd say.