POLL: Who has used Linux on the

[Bodo]

Desktop, and what do you think of it?

I'm using Linux since 15 months, and I kicked off Windows completely then to force me to deal with the new system.
That wasn't easy all the time, as I was used to Macintosh and Windows before; but it was easier than to get used to Windows, when I started dealing with computers.

I'm now doing all things private on my Linux box, uni stuff on Macintosh and Work stuff on Win2k; however the software I'm using at work, Pro/Engineer, has been ported to Linux in their latest Wildfire release. I've also noticed that Alias Wavefront offers a Linux version with their Maya package.

Hardware vendors start supporting Linux - HP, IBM, SGI, SUN, etc.
Will Linux be the high-end workstation o/s in future? I'm going to set up a test environment for Pro/E on Linux at work to see if it's eligible for 150+ corporate users.

Who has dealt with Linux or plans to do so then?

[sparks]

I have dabbled with Linx (Redhat & Mandrake), but have a Mac at home (Max OSX is BSD Unix based) so not really doing anything much with Linux anymore (I also work with unix alot of the time, although not as a desktop). Things are improving for Linux as a M$ alternative, and OSX shows you *can* make Unix easy for a non techie.

I believe some companies have already replaced M$ with Linux as a company standard.

Linux is still not viable for 'joe blogs' home user though

Sparks



>> Edited by sparks on Thursday 6th March 13:21

[jvaughan]

I have linux (redhat) installed at home. its brilliant. it takes some getting used to. I have been using linux / unix fo rthe last 5 years at home, and have a linux partition on my company laptop too. its very useful for situations where Windows security can be compromised ... linux just keeps going ... and going .... and going.

[Agent006]

I had a play around with Mandrake a few years ago. Didn't really like it.

It wasn't until i decided it was about time that i learnt to 'speak Mac' that i realised why i didn't like it. I didn't know how to use it. My ego tells me that i know windows inside out and back to front, so i automatically dislike anything that i can't use.

Do linux boxes integrate into an NT netowrk (as in can you see them in the computer list)?

[Deester]

I am using Redhat 7.2. Its great, you don't have the same system problems like having to reboot all the time and anytime you make a system change.

You can run a program called Samba on your linux machine as an interface to NetBios the MS protocol so that you can see other machines on your current windows network.

Linux although evolved a lot in the last few years is still difficult to grasp if you do not have a lot of knowledge about computers. If you are keen and want to learn a bit about computers and get reliability in return then I suggest giving it a go.

For windows specific tasks you can do what I am doing now and run VMware and install a virtual windows on your Linux machine. I am currently running winXP in a window on my Redhat 7.2 machine.

Deester...

[t1grm]

I think Linux is still a helluva long way from replacing windows as a desk top operating system for the average user. I'm not a techie but I do work in the IT industry and can usually dig myself out of most MS holes I have dug myself into on my PC. However I put redhat 7.2 on a partition on my lap top together with star office (supposed rival to MS office) to see what all the fuss was about and I can't get a bl**dy thing to work. The OS installed fine but it just hands when I try to start star office and as far as getting peripherals configured - forget it. I spent four days trying to get the ppp connection working and to be honest all of the documentation may as well have been in Greek. I think it's still something to the techies/enthusiasts/specialist applications and is a long way from replacing windows IMHO.

[tuffer]

I run Suse 8 at home as well as W2k, you can also install M$ Office on top of Suse so that can be usefull if you need to keep the windows functionality. Best bit about Linux is all the hacking tools

[rpguk]

t1grm said: I spent four days trying to get the ppp connection working and to be honest all of the documentation may as well have been in Greek. I think it's still something to the techies/enthusiasts/specialist applications and is a long way from replacing windows IMHO.

Well that seems to be the problem, its not so much the software but the back up for it.

Whereas with windows if you have a problem most people know someone who can help them out of the problem or can look in a book/mag/website for "normal people" such as computer active, and have it resolved easily enough in a short period, if you mess up in linux the chances are you won't know anyone else who can help you and searching the internet only shows up geek speak.

Its a bit of a chicken/egg problem, theres not the same shared knowledge (amongst normal people) of linux as there is windows, and there won't be until linux gets to be as big as windows which won't happen until theres the shared knowledge....

As far as staroffice goes, I use it at work (I have better things to spend my budget on then MS products!) its not that bad as long as you don't want to use databases, and it reads word documents near perfectly

(BTW I to answer the thread question - finally - I use both)

>> Edited by rpguk on Thursday 6th March 14:56