Computer Geeks arise!! I need help !!

[RivrGuide]

What about Billy?

Since when did Steve Jobs replace Bill Gates as the eternal whipping boy for all frustrations corporate?

 

[TheBubba]

I would like to replace WinXP with it instead of running a two-boot environment. I believe you can also run Linux from a stand-alone drive (USB?) ... but what's the point???

Yes, you can. You can also run Linux from a DVD. I'll see if I can find out where you can get the image from if you want to play around with a simple GUI base Linux dist. just to try it on for size.

 

[Brett327]

For big multi-media manipulation, Mac all the way.

I hear this all the time and think it's a myth born out of the fact that many "artist" types consider themselves non-conformists, so they got Macs to be different, thus a defacto standard in their niche. I'm open to evidence to the contrary, of course, but I'd like to see someone show me exactly what makes Mac better for media? I've used PC based hard disk recording in my music studio for 10+ years (Cakewalk/Sonic Foundry/Cubase products) and video editing (Adobe and Vegas) recently as well. I find the PC software platforms more than adequate in that regard. As a side note, I was watching the '04 Fighter Fling video recently and was impressed at the production values. It looks like they had some professional post-production assistance on that - any inside scoop?

Brett

 

[Steve Wilkins]

I'm open to evidence to the contrary, of course, but I'd like to see someone show me exactly what makes Mac better for media? I've used PC based hard disk recording in my music studio for 10+ years (Cakewalk/Sonic Foundry/Cubase products) and video editing (Adobe and Vegas) recently as well.

Please tell me you don't sing. I can't bear the image.

 

[Fly Navy]

I'm no linux expert by any means, but it's primarily an OS for extreme geeks and computer experimenters that doesn't really lend itself to use by the general public.

Mmm that's been changing over the years. I've run multiple computers simultaneously since 2001 and I've always run Linux on one machine. I run a web server, FTP server, SSH server, etc, and Linux naturally lends itself to that. It's also great if you want to get into development (programming), or just general screwing around with your computer. Linux really lends itself to investigating how your computer works and tweaking it.

Lately there is a big push to get Linux more mainstream. The problem is, it's not centralized. There are so many distrobutions, but the big ones (Red Hat) are really trying to make it mainstream.

While I'm sure there are nifty GUIs and emulators, there's essentially no software written for it that is of much use to most of us.

Plenty of GUIs, in fact, a shit ton. You have more desktop manager options in Linux to fill your hearts desire. You can even make Linux look exactly like Windows or Mac. It's much more versatile thank Windows or Mac any day in that respect.

As far as software, lots of stuff has come out. OpenOffice is a great product that is a near copy of MS Office. Corel and some other big companies have written software for Linux. You're right though, in general, the big programs may not be available, at least not in a form you immediately recognize. Most Linux stuff is open source, which is good as there are a million programs to do a million things... but bad because there are a lot of poorly written programs as well.

Let's face it, the old debate about stability of the Windows OS compared to Mac has been largely rendered OBE since the more stable NT/XP kernel. Windows is by no means perfect, but it's the standard - embrace conformity. I wouldn't recommend deviating from Windows unless you have an extremely esoteric computing requirement, or are interested in experimental computing for its own sake.

Brett

The NT/XP kernel is pretty good. Windows XP is definitely the best OS that MS has ever released.

The good thing about Linux is, say you have a shitty older computer, maybe a Pentium 100, or a 486... well Windows XP doesn't run on them, but Linux DOES. I used to run a server that was a 150 MHZ Pentium with 32 MB RAM... it ran like a dream because I was running Linux. Fast and efficient. Windows can't say that.

 

[phrogpilot73]

Personally, as soon as I can get a driver for my Lexmark x1100 multifunction printer, my dekstop is going 100% Linux. Why? More stable as a file/print/web server than my current set-up.