I am MS free

and have been for months

[littleman]

The only thing I use MS for is Google's toolbar, give me an alternative Google.

I didn't want to change the subject of this thread [webmasterworld.com] from an anti XP thread to a pro Linux, but I have been MS free for over six months now and am getting along just fine.

In fact my productivity is up nicely. I have MySQL, apache, perl, and a bunch of other *nix utilities that most of us use daily on my local box. Development has sped way up because I make and test it all locally. I don't consider myself a hotshot cracker either, I got my first computer in 1997, and stated playing with linux 1.5 years ago.

I am no graphic artist, but I get along with GIMP. I have four good graphical browsers to choose from, but I find myself always using Konqueror, it loads up very fast and handles pdf files nicely. There are a ton of audio players for Linux and Realplayer is also available. There are a dozen ICQ clones, and a couple AIM clones. There are a lot of editors, some terminal based and some that are GUI (I use Nedit most of the time). Staroffice is too much like MS office for me to like, but others love it. If I need to edit an xl doc I use Gnumeric. Many if the applications load up fast, the two big exceptions are StarOffic, and Mozilla.

To me, there are three ways of getting software, paying for it, obtaining it illegally, or getting it for free. I wonder what the ratio is for webmasters who have illegal MS products? (if you have illegal software please don't admit it here :) ) I bet it is a very high percentage. It is very nice to be out of that equation.

There is going to be an enormous cattle call for XP, just remember that you have a viable free (and honest) alternative.

[rcjordan]

What about scanners, printers, CD burners, external drives? Were they a problem to set up?

[littleman]

There is support for cd-rw, zip drives, multiple drives, there is also an ongoing effort [mostang.com] to get various scanners to work with Linux.
There are people getting DVDs to work with Linux:
[linuxvideo.org...]
[opendvd.org...]
Of course there is that whole legal mess over the DVD decoding.

Printers are not a problem.

[toolman]

I've decided to convert to Linux.

In the face of the coming oppression from Redmond I will fight tyranny ferociously and relentlessly. If it means struggling with hardware configurations and learning to speak Penquinese...it is all worth it to be free from the an*l-retentive tentacles of microsoft.

Seems to me that there really is a battle being waged for control of the computing world as we know it. If the DOJ lets them escape we can expect even more oppressive moves from microsoft in the future.

[mivox]

As soon as I can afford a new (Mac) desktop machine, my old Umax clone is being converted to linux-hood. Gotta learn it sooner or later... being able to communicate on-level with web hosting server administrators would be such a boon, instead of feeling like a semi-literate supplicant at the high-priest's altar every time I need something done.

The only MS anything I use at home is Explorer... and that goes out the window when opera finally builds a stable, fully-functional Mac version. At work, I have to use Word to properly communicate with all the NT-generated files, but otherwise... life w/out MS is good.

[Son_House]

I also have thought about using Linux but the one thing that I wonder about is the learning curve. I was at the redhat site a few days ago hoping to find some screen shots or info on how easy or hard the jump might be from windoze. Do most task's have to be done command line or can I point and click?

I think that there are many here that would love to see Linux become mainstream with the home user. But I feel it is a mighty slim chance of that happening until it becomes point and click. I still have to help my mom once in a while with her win98 pc and she has had that for over 2 yrs now.

[littleman]

Son_House, with the new desktops you could get along very well without having to open a terminal window. I really like KDE a lot, but there are a dozen desktop managers to choose from. Gnome is also very popular, but there are also some very good lightweight desktops like Afterstep.

I find myself going back to KDE, because it is very tight. In KDE you could most things with a GUI interface. Not all Linux distributions come with KDE, there is a battle between KDE and Gnome which I think will benefit *nix users in the long run. Anyway, here is a screenshot [cgi-fun.hypermart.net] so you could get a feel for what I am talking about. This is mandrake-linux 7.2 running KDE.

[msgraph]

I'm tired of being MS's lackey too! I'm going to get ready to hop on the linux bandwagon.

except for when I can get my hands on the Xbox ;)

[Son_House]

littleman, Thank you very much for the info and the screenshot. It look's like Linux is much easier to use now a days. I was under the impression that most things had to be done with a terminal window. I'm very happy to hear that is not true. I could see having to do something's with a terminal window but I did want to have to do everything that way. I think I'm going to give this a try within the next few months. The things that m$ is doing with xp has turned me off.

[GWJ]

A VERY OT question but I was curious...

How about games? How does the OS do with them? After a long day at the job and a longer day at the web business I like to unwind and frag away.

Brian

[littleman]

There are a lot of simple 80's style arcade games available free. There are some action games as well, like Quake, and Diablo. You could also run windows only games using wine [linuxgames.com] which is a ms windows emulator [winehq.com]

[agerhart]

>>>>>except for when I can get my hands on the Xbox>>>

I agree that the X Box is cool, but all it is is a sooped up computer.....might as well just get the add ons to your existing computer

[john316]

Has anyone taken BEos for a ride, my understanding is that it will run on a windoze machine with very little hassle and it is free. I would try it, but I have a macintosh and am loathe to purchase a windoze box .

I'm not comfortable with linux, as it seems to come in so many flavors and the documentation associated with it seems way too technical for me to wade through. Maybe Linux needs some decent human readable documentation (plain english, not geek speak).

I am MS free except for IE, it is a good browser, and I would be a fool to design web sites without it.

[agerhart]

I am MS free except for IE, it is a good browser, and I would be a fool to design web sites without it.

I agree entirely

[grnidone]

I've worked a little with BeOS, and I liked it a lot.

I've tried to be MS free for several years: when everyone switched to Win 95, I was running OS/2. Then I moved to Solaris now have a Macintosh, Solaris, and NetBSD.

StarOffice is an excellent, free alternative to MS Word applications. In fact, in Solaris, it will open MS office applications.

-G

<later>And GIMP is an awesome, free graphics software. It does almost everything that photoshop does.</later.

[circuitjump]

I've also made the jump to

!!LINUX !!

And I'm getting along with it pretty well. littleman is right in saying that KDE is probably one of the best GUI for linux. But then again it's all about preference. By the way littleman, what editor are you using in the screenshot you took where your running GIMP and all other sorts of applications? In any event Linux is a great way to go for those that are willing to go the extra mile to stay away from

>> MICROSOFT - EVIL_EMPIRE <<

Now for you GRAPHIX Designers. You still got apple and let me tell you, OS X is no piece of C_ _ _. It's unix based and WOW the GUI kicks A_ _ and you can still run all your Adobe, Macromedia and all sorts of graphix applications on it.

Well, Thats just my two cents.

[littleman]

Congratulations, what distribution are you using? The editor in the screenshot is Nedit [nedit.org]. I am using it constantly, it is very good.

[circuitjump]

I'm using Redhat 7.1 with the new kernel but the kernel that came with 7.1 sucked. So I had to download the kernel and compile it myself. But it's working fine now.

Thanks for the link to Nedit!

;)

[littleman]

I moved the off topic posts to:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[rcjordan]

>use wine

open-source project called WINE will soon try to close the gap by enabling Linux users to run Windows apps without having to install Microsoft's cash cow OS. [wired.com]

You've had a half-dozen threads on going open-source lately, LM. I happened upon this article today.

[mivox]

The only MS anything I use at home is Explorer... and that goes out the window when opera finally builds a stable, fully-functional Mac version.

Well, they've done it, and I switched yesterday. Was so impressed with Opera at work, I brought the installer home for my laptop. IE has been demoted to "site preview tool" status. :)