Ive been dabbling with a new distribution of PCLinux. Its very good, and is about the closest thing to a windows clone out there, making the learning curve very very easy. Its available in 3 "live cd" versions, the Big Daddy having all the bells and whistles, Jr being somewhat stripped down version and the MiniMi being bare bones, and allows you to build your own version by adding the programs and components you only want..then burning it back to cd.
All versions have the easy capability of installing to your hard drive as well.
JR and MiniMi ran well on a 250 mhz laptop with 32 megs of ram and a
486 with 32 megs, though running off the CD was a bit slow on the 486. Ive not yet done a HD install on the 486
If you want to try linux, the live cd of PC Linux may be fun and easy.
formatting link
This is a rather nice implimentation of a Mandriva Linux and at this point in time... I am recommending it.
A note..the MiniMi version has great hardware detection (as they all do) but some of the drivers for the less well known wifi dongles and so forth are not on the CD, but are downloadable from the included Synaptic Package manager
Browsing the net has shown universal good to great reviews.
I have to admit, as a veteran Linux developer (user, programmer, sysadmin, and salesman), I prefer Kororaa, Knoppix, or Slax for desktop live CDs, and Ubuntu/Kubuntu, Gentoo, or Vector linux for desktop installation. If you're new to linux, I'd go with Ubuntu- its the most Linux you can get for free, and has HUGE forums that deal with almost every concievable newbie question. Kororaa is easily the best looking, probably better looking than Macs, and is backed by the Gentoo Portage system- probably the best way to get and install source on the planet. Slax and Knoppix are the old standby's of the LiveCD's- Knoppix has better support for wierd hardware, and Slax is better looking and fits on a business card cd. Get Vector Linux if you want to run it on an old system- I run a full GUI on a Pentium Pro (180mhz) computer I have, and use it for real work every day.
Bottom line though- anything's better than windows, you can try it without ever touching your hard drive, and its free- there is absolutely no harm in giving it a try.
As for what it has to do with metalworking, it is a LOT easier to write code to control hardware for linux than it is for windows- and CNC, robotics, and automation counts. GCC
Well, I have been on this NG almost since it started, and was once one of the most prolific posters. We all use computers to communicate with each other, and we have been sharing information about them since the beginning.
I suppose that's a matter of opinion- OS/2 does not pull many of the DRM-related stunts that XP and Vista do, which I consider far more despicable than the simple limited capabilities of OS/2, and Mac OS X is basically BSD with the Aqua interface, so is still POSIX compliant, and a great step up from Windows, especially now that they're moving away from PPC-only. So I would say that since OS/2 was not designed to fill a desktop role, its comparing apples and oranges, and where they do compare I would rather work closer to the machine than have it tattle on me, and for Mac OS X, if you like linux the only thing you can really quibble about is open for debate even between linux distros. I suppose if we want to be extraordinarily anal retentive we could construe my phrase "anything" to imply that being ripped apart by a herd of rabid badgers would be preferable to using Windows, but being realistic, there isn't another major desktop OS that, IMO (I'm not a humble man), has so many serious problems, yet brings so little to the table. if you'd like to debate my reasons we can do that, but having seen both sides of the issue (something many windows partisans have not) I have come down firmly on the side of linux in most cases because in most cases Linux is the better tool to use- less buggy, more secure, and way, way cheaper, with more plentiful and powerful development tools and greater versatility under the same roof. GCC
I had this pointed out to me earlier, and should clarify: OS/2 was originally designed as a desktop OS, but by the time OS/2 warp was being released, it had basically been overhauled to provide more support for the kiosk-type applications that IBM's b2b customers were demanding, and has been used far more as a kiosk and business OS than a PC desktop OS, and its APIs and program selection reflect that. Sorry for the confusion. GCC
Ive installed Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu and several other Ubuntu based distros. And didnt much care for them. In fact..I like Simply Mepis..installed Simply Mepis 6.10..which is based on Ubuntu..and reinstalled 3.5.4 after 2 days of usage. It ran slowly on EVERY box I put it on, loading time took forever, the big blank desktop was really wierd..and it was hard to put applications ON the desktop.
It may be a nice distro if you are more familiar with Linux than an utter newbie..and you have plenty of horsepower under the hood along with a lot of Ram, but many here do not, and in fact..many here are likely to drag out that old 450-800 mhz machine..or as I do..my fastest machine is a 800 mhz. Most Linux requires that a person is somewhat familar with how linux handles things. And anyone wanting to try is likely to be far more familiar with some type of Windows. And many basic things are NOT intuitive in Linux, when changing over from a Windows box.
An example is mounting a drive. Windows makes no mention of this. Linux depends on you knowing what it means. Personally..Im quite familiar with Dos..and all versions of Windows, to the point of being comfortable editing the registry.
I fumble f***ed around with 10 differnt versions of Linux, and was largely confused. Id load..or try to load a distro on a box..and get lost in administration and security functions. Changing config files with text editors just to get a CD-Rom to work, blah blah blah.
Up until just recently..Linux was NOT plug and play. Steep learning curve for a Windows user. I finally had to buy a book, and sit down for a couple weeks and try to puzzle it all out.
Once I figured out that Linux had little or no user similarity to Windows..and started learning the basic operation, ..things started falling into place. Slowly. One had to learn the basic foundational building blocks before one could understand how it worked..and make it work for you. Samba? Lilo? Lisa? Daemon? /bin/usr ?There is a very long list of things that are counter intuitive if you are a Windows user going over to linux. Setting up a modem, or a scsi drive, or networking, or getting a wifi dongle to work has always been a coin toss with Linux until recently. And even today with a lot of hardware.
In fact..it may be easier for a NON windows user to learn Linux, than a seasoned, serious, hard core Windows user.
Hence I dabble with many distros. I rather LIKE PCLinux for its similarity to Windows. The authors spent considerable time makeing it intuitive for a Windows user, and for its very very trouble free setup and configuration. I just finished downloading the Big Daddy version and booting the Live CD version and puttering around with it. It even found and set up two differnt winmodems that I stuck in to see if it would, in response to a posters question. Will it do all? Probably not.
It found my WUSB11 usb wifi device. But it wont do anything with it. Nor will Simply Mepis, any of the Ubuntu distros/versions, Mandriva etc etc. Windows..found it, loaded the drivers immediately and I was online in less than 2 minutes, connected to an access point. In fact..thats what Im using as I type. And have been for about 6 months. At the homestead..I use a modem and dialup. And even that was touch and go for most versions of Linux until recently.
Shrug..as I said..PCLinux may be a good entry distro for someone to try. Particularly a Windows user.
Im hardly the person to say which is "the best". Im still fumbling my way around in Linux.
Gunner
Rule #35 "That which does not kill you, has made a huge tactical error"
A couple weeks ago someone on this group was talking about simply mepis so I ordered a cd from some guy in Pennsylvania via his ebay store. about 3 bx with postage. Still have gotten it and Im positive I paid. Who was that guy? My link to his ebay store is lost. Thanks
I paid via paypal for 3 distros on a Thursday night, had em on my desk by Monday. The dude was FAST.
Gunner
Political Correctness
A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
I had that exact problem with Ubuntu 5.10 on a 450mhz desktop, nothing special about it..plain white bread box.
Im in the middle at the moment, of doing a PCLinux "BigDaddy" full install on my test box. Ill advise when done.
Gunner
Political Correctness
A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
Okay, so I'm late and catching up, but Gunner wrote on Sat, 18 Nov 2006 08:50:43 GMT in rec.crafts.metalworking :
Hmmm, I'm a big Windows user, but not all that familiar with what's going on behind the glass.
OTOH, I am a bit aware of how UNIX works, and have Minix around here somewhere. Now there's an OS: could put it all on a floppy disc. No apps, but you did have a basic Unix system on a PC - AT actually.)
I tried several versions of Ubuntu without much success. I have recently been using Knoppix (the live CD version). It installs in about 3 minutes on a computer with 1gig of memory and a 650 MHz CPU. I picked up a couple of tutorials on the internet. It hooked up to the internet through a wireless lan card without any help from me. I was impressed.
As we speak (so to speak) I am downloading PCLinux. If this thread last long enough I will give my thoughts on a comparison of these two.
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