Linux: Pros & Cons of OS Switching From MS

[yourdadonapogostick]

I hate MS. I already scrapped IE and am considering changing my OS from MS to Linux. What are the pros and cons to changing to Linux?

 

[Townsend]

I hate MS. I already scrapped IE and am considering changing my OS from MS to Linux. What are the pros and cons to changing to Linux?

It's free, and really good experience since linux is posix - from what I understand but I could be wrong. That means if you work somewhere that uses UNIX you will have some useful experience.

Besides that, it offers a lot of computing power and it has the vi editor. I fell in love with the vi editor the first time I ever used it. It's actually the main reasons I will always have linux on my puter...

Another plus is the documentation that comes with a linux distro...way better than MS products.

Security through obscurity, although it is becoming less true everyday.

I can't think of anything else but there is a lot more. I am sure you will get an ear full.

Good Luck

 

[yourdadonapogostick]

what is the vi editor? does it come with every distribution? which distribution do you use?

 

[Townsend]

what is the vi editor? does it come with every distribution? which distribution do you use?

vi editor is just an editor for writing programs but I really like it.

I am pretty sure that it comes in just about every distro, I use fedora core 4...

 

[Anttech]

Pros: stable, no viruses, good tools networking/systems, free, open sourced, open standards implemented
Cons: more difficult to use, not as many applications..

Basically an experienced user can make *nix do everything and more than Windows, take the plunge, it will be an experience anyway...

I was using FC3 (actually still admin a bunch of red hat servers) but I just started using Ubuntu at home, debian style... quite ok, and would recommend either the red hat arch or Debian arch distos

 

[yourdadonapogostick]

my friend is giving me his knoppix discs, is that a good distro?

 

[Anttech]

live cd will give you a sample of linux.. try it... I use Konopix offen for fixing wrecked windowz pcs

 

[Anttech]

http://distrowatch.com/

will give u a better idea of the distros.. if u have dsl or some other highBW internet u can download some of them...

Download Ubuntu and remember

"Ubuntu is an age-old African term for humaneness - for caring, sharing and being
in harmony with all of creation."

 

[yourdadonapogostick]

what is a good browser for Linux. i currently use Firefox.

 

[Nylex]

You can have problems getting hardware to work under Linux too, since quite a few manufacturers don't write drivers for Linux (correct me if I'm wrong).

vi doesn't have to be used solely for writing programs, you can use it for anything you just need a text editor for.

Edit: you can use Firefox on Linux, too.

 

[dduardo]

Knoppix is a good starting place. Just boot from the cd and go. No need to install anything on the hard drive. Knoppix is going to have the KDE desktop environment. The interface should look pretty familiar. Here are some screenshots of kde:

http://www.kde.org/screenshots/kde340shots.php

 

[Townsend]

vi doesn't have to be used solely for writing programs, you can use it for anything you just need a text editor for.

Right, I guess I should have put commonly used for writing programs. Although, as you said, it can be used as a regular text editor.

 

[klusener]

I just started reading up on the vi editor. I gave up after a few days :(. I have to motivate myself to start learning it again.

 

[dduardo]

Vi is nice because of all the keyboard shortcuts and the ability to do regex and other stuff to single or multiple files at the same time. VI is difinately not for those really used to only using the mouse.

 

[yourdadonapogostick]

when you say text editor, what do you mean? like a wordprossessor?

 

[Nylex]

when you say text editor, what do you mean? like a wordprossessor?

No, more like Notepad.

 

[yourdadonapogostick]

isn't notepad a wordprocessor(be it very weak)?

 

[Anttech]

wow all this dissusion about VI...

 

[Emieno]

I have never spent any course in literature or rhetorics, so please...donot inject me with a voice or tone after this post of mine, please be plain, understandable, and above all, straightforward...

As far as i know notepad and vi are for different environment uses, the purpose of choosing an OS for use is not mainly on the topic of text editors. That little piece of software will never last long either, things evolve and develop over time. I like both of them for copy and paste, text processing, and saving my notes and informative posts by people like those by Moonbear in biology forum to later re-read and learn more.
Notepad in windows is provoked faster and consumes less memories than vi does in Linux, since it is 'simple', and maybe because it is a... notepad with not so many a functions implemented at all.

I like Linux because Linux is truly has beautiful an interface than does Windows, I don't have much time to be around with Linux, but still i highly recommend Linux for use after all.

 

[futb0l]

Pros:
- You wouldn't have to worry about spyware, viruses.
- It is fast, and reliable, especially if you're running a server.
- Some distros have a really good community.
- There are many more that I can't think of right now...

Cons:
- It's sometimes difficult to get used to Linux (using the terminal especially), I recommend using a debian GUI based distro to start with like Ubuntu, MEPIS, etc
- Top class applications like Photoshop are not available in Linux.
- The variety of software available is limited.

Check out Distrowatch.com

 

[dduardo]

"What Is Vim?

Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. It is an improved version of the vi editor distributed with most UNIX systems.

Vim is often called a "programmer's editor," and so useful for programming that many consider it an entire IDE. It's not just for programmers, though. Vim is perfect for all kinds of text editing, from composing email to editing configuration files."

"What Vim Is Not?

Vim isn't an editor designed to hold its users' hands. It is a tool, the use of which must be learned.

Vim isn't a word processor. Although it can display text with various forms of highlighting and formatting, it isn't there to provide WYSIWYG editing of typeset documents. (It is great for editing TeX, though.) "

Source: http://www.vim.org/about.php

 

[Nylex]

Vim isn't Emacs either .