Linux is one of my favorite OS out there. It seems to have none of the problemes that windows have. Liux is free and I really like that free always equals good. But sometimes when I coldboot I takes forever to finally run .

I tried using it too, but I got so many programs in that only run in windows and even while using stuff which make it possible for running windows applications in Linux , The performance was not good enough. So, I am now sticking with Linux. However, there are many features in Linux that are quite impressive and beat Windows. Eg. You can do anything in Linux, You can modify it in whatever way you wantt to suit you... this is not the case with windows. hehe..

Linux does have it's own problems, but the developers are very active and are always improving it. It may not be the most user-friendly operating system, but they are striving for that and still trying to maintain security. You would find you have to do a lot more to get something running in Linux than you would in Windows, but it's all for security sake and a lot of people say it makes Linux look bad having extra clicks/commands to do.

The startup process of Linux could take a while if you're running a lot of services, there are some people who are running services that they don't require, if you stop some of the services you have running, you will increase the startup time.

How about posting what distribution you guys run?

I'm currently running Fedora Core 2 with kernel 2.6.7-1.494.2.2smp, don't worry about the smp (Symmetric Multiprocessing) part on the end it's only for people who run more than one processor.

There is a newer kernel out 2.6.8-1.521 for Fedora Core 2 that I have installed but continued getting Segmentation faults for some of my 3D games that I play due to the Nvidia drivers not working correctly with that kernel.

I chose to go with Fedora Core 2 as I had been a long time user of Red Hat since Version 6 and upgraded with every new version, Fedora is on the bleeding edge of development when it comes to Linux, they like to be ahead of all the other distributions and it quite possibly has the highest number of users (including Red Hat)

A book I recommend for anyone using Linux, from novice to guru (for the guru's it'll be a handy reference) is Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification by John Schitka and Jason W. Eckert. This will famaliarise you with Linux Operating Systems and by reading this book, you would have better understaind of the operating system.

When I switched over to Linux, I wanted to make sure I had the same or equivalent programs that I would frequently use on Windows. Some of the programs that were on the CD for Fedora Core 2 were good enough for some of the replacements.

These included alternatives for:

MSN Messenger, which I use aMSN version 0.93 found here at aMSN site. This is pretty much a slightly cut down version of MSN Messenger. Chatting, emoticons, file sharing, fonts, blocking/ignore, user status, checking hotmail emails, as well as having the ability to tell you which users you have on your list, that have deleted you from their contacts list. There's future plans of having it support more of MSN's features like games, voice chat and webcam.

Yahoo Chat, which I use ZINC 1.1pre5 (zinc is not curfloo/curphoo), it's only a console-based version that doesn't have all the fancy eye candy, just coloured text to help identify users, messages, etc. No webcam or voice chat features, does include some spam protection. It might not be suited for everyone.

There's also Gyach-E version 1.0.5 (Gyach Enhanced) which is like a clone of Yahoo Messenger, it's chat supports webcam and voice and most of Yahoo's features, including emoticons.

What programs do you use?


Cheers, MC

Have you heard of GAIM. It is one thing that can connect to MSN, Yahoo, IRC, ICQ, AIM and one more thing that I cant remember. And it is cool, compatible. Also has a windows version. Quite advanced and fast. Unlike Trillian, it does not have limitations. I have seen that many specific tasks like filesharing are not working properlyin trillian.

Yes, I have heard of GAIM but haven't given it a thorough test, so can't quite give any information on it, I know it's a multi-protocol chat client, I currently have gaim-0.82-0.FC2, I try to keep my machine updated all the time so this would be the latest version on my Fedora Core 2 box. On opening it, it can connect to AIM/ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, GroupWise, IRC, Jabber, MSN, Napster, Yahoo, Zephyr so it's quite a handy chat client, saves you the trouble of having so many different chat clients installed when you can just use one that does it all. More on gaim can be found here.


Cheers, MC

yes, linux does have it's own problems
i only use it on the server, for myself i used to work on m$ windows. then i can contact with other users of our group freely

Windows is more problematic simply because the operating system is not open source, meaning only Microsoft can look at and correct its own mistakes.

The laptops my college gives out to its students runs on Fedora Core. Well, both Linux Fedora Core and Windows XP Professional are on each laptop.

I currently have RedHat installed but don't use it very often because I do most of my work in Windows. Also had problems making LILO work, with RH installed on hdb + a whole lot of complicating issues which makes me have to boot with a diskette.

Oh and I use GAIM. Prefer it to Trillian because somehow it seems "cleaner".

The only versions of Linux that I've heard of are RedHat, SuSe, and Fedora Core. I've never used any of them, though.

I think the average Windows user would have a difficult time getting used to Linux, let alone choosing which version of Linux is most suitable for them.

So you have never used linux, but have already decided that its too hard to bother with....

some1 surgested Gaim... forget it... KOPETE ! it comes with KDE as part of Kde-Network ackage, and supports nifty things like auto translation, encrypted messages and file sending.

some1 also mentioned that there are many programs that only run in windows....
think about it,,, there are far far more programs that only run in every operating system there is.. (except windows)

there is a Linux program to coever every windows need.. ive not booted windows in years (except to fix it for my family when it breakes)