What Is So Good About Linux?

Linux is a nice operating system for several groups of people. I should say that I decided not to read the posts here, though I read and agree with 'creaky's.

If you wait for the latest video game, tweaked for speed on its OS, Windows is for you. If you already have lots of expensive hardware that uses proprietary protocols, Windows is for you.

My pre-school granddaughter likes Debian Linux it because it runs beautifully on a 1995 laptop I found in a dumpster. There are two organizations of professional who write amazing, free educational games for children of her age. She loves the daisy flower on the GNOME desktop. Her laptop runs desktop publishing, GIMP, &c on its 8 GB. It taught her chess.

Students who want to learn about computing have the source code to the operating system and to all the software. It is usually written in C or C++. There are texts on the OS, which they can tune; and they can modify the applications or desktop & recompile.

Laptop users whose OS upgrades have slowed to a crawl or are obsolete can substitute Linux and have a fully functional, fast operating system that won't age so quickly. Nice for Mac users.

People who have never used a computer before or who haven't much money will find Linux does all other OSes do, and it and its 15,000 or so applications are free, trivial to find, install, & remove (which is not so for Macs). It prints. It writes DVDs. Its maintenance is fully automated.

People who strongly believe in Richard Stallman's philosophy and international standards will want no other.

Scientists need to write free software need Linux for their final release, which need be free & run on most hardware.

Computer consultants who need to repair a variety of operating system. Linux can repair and de-louse many filesystems. It boots from a USB flash drive.

Computer professionals, who want to modify software to suit their needs, will find GNU/Linux an optimal choice.

Large corporations, who wish to have their IT Department modify even the OS for their needs will find GNU/Linux a godsend. They used to lease (for more than my salary) parts of the source code for individual applications, or even have to hire another company's programmers to modify it for them!

Your Problems

First, computer companies had to modify Windows to work with their laptops. You may need to modify Linux, which is easy and laid out in websites pointed to by your Linux supplier. I have no explanation why your download speeds are slow; they shouldn't be. Ask on your Linux's forum, or write the person who wrote the download software (DHCP or PPP) you use. That's one thing nice about Linux.

Unix is far older than Microsoft, and though it has been modified to communicate well with standard protocols and read & write standard formats, proprietary companies such as Microsoft do their best to throw a wrench into all of this.

It is to the advantage of Microsoft and those makers of cameras & peripheral devices that are contractually obliged to it (Sony & Nikon, apparently) to make Mac's & Linux's life as miserable as possible. NetFlix streaming is probably not possible.

Buy equivalent brands & services that use ISO & other standard protocols and thus support Linux. The Apple store gives you an idea of who these companies are: when a piece of hardware says it 'supports' Mac or Linux, this support can be very minimal compared with the controls it offers Windows.

I purchase only devices that speak standard protocols (over which anything can be done), and have never had a problem. Because Linux can read & write files in standard formats in most any filesystem, you can place it and alternative applications on a USB flash drive, then boot from it, and use a seldom-used application, uneconomical to buy, to modify your file.

 

I purchase only devices that speak standard protocols (over which anything can be done), and have never had a problem. Because Linux can read & write files in standard formats in most any filesystem, you can place it and alternative applications on a USB flash drive, then boot from it, and use a seldom-used application, uneconomical to buy, to modify your file.

Right on!!.. that's the way to go. proprietary hardware and software is bad for everybody.. and closed standards lead to built in redundancy.. as M$ users find out at the expense of their wallets time and time again. What would you rather do.. spend 10 minutes looking for a solution or buying YET ANOTHER no new features added updated office bloat (sorry suite) just to open a damn email?
Some prat sent me a docx file.. they got it back with an added virus..

 

Let's play nicely, children. (You keep a supply of malware?) Docx is an ISO/IEC 29500 standard, named 'Open Office XML format'.

It is used for more document types than just word processors, and is the required format in many government's offices.

Remember, word processors produce, essentially, computer programs: text & instructions on how to print it. XML is such a powerful yet simple computing language, most any Microsoft document can be written in a single XML-based language.

Although Microsoft writes .docx files and helps maintain the format, it must pain them greatly. It's based upon XML, is a text file, and it has replaced the binary .doc as MS Office's default and replaced .odt as Open Office's default. Kudos to Microsoft, which must be squirming. My OpenOffice.org 2.0 doesn't read .docx, but I understand 3.0 will. In the meanwhile, I use an external converter.

When a consultant, I always insisted clients use text formats (use XyWrite). Many times, I was called to save a crucial letter; because the pieces were in text, I used a text editor to easily find fragments and piece them together. Sun's .odt is text, based upon XML; and Apple's RTF is text, based upon TeX.

No word processors satisfy the typographically literate, but Linux's free font editor (FontForge) used with a desktop publisher (Scribus) comes close.

Mac users without OpenOffice.org still occasionally send me MS spreadsheets or databases as attachments that they received. Both my Debian Linux & my MacOSX computers automatically extract the attachment, spreadsheet.docx.zip for example, & store in a folder, run a malware check on it, and (if safe) then open it (using an external converter if necessary). I then export them in the CSV format that all applications read, and mail them back. Soon, I may be converting all to .docx.zip.

Show sympathy for your friends, who had Microsoft thrust upon them.

 

Java is a brilliant concept. I keep close attention to security, but I'm unaware that Java was a serious security issue (though there have been security flaws in its implementations.) Given what it does (run a program using your computer's processor), its security is amazingly good. (Perhaps you're confusing it with JavaScript.)

Scientists can write books with variable graphs and motion pictures in place of photos; and allow users to enter their data into a web page and run it on a supercomputer, then download it for their computer if they like what they see. It doesn't matter what hardware or software they run. Brilliant.

Microsoft's initial malware problem was caused by writing their operating system to actually run adware and spyware, for companies that paid Microsoft. These operating systems were built for malware. Vista and more recent, I assume, have eliminated this. I know nothing of recent versions.

Apple sells hardware. Apple initially had problems, providing no backup device (before the iPod), but it has slowly added so many security enhancements that the beginning user is safest with a Mac. (Apple has modified the VM & method of starting daemons to increase security.) Linux users need to write firewall rules, install an NIDS, and otherwise harden Linux's security.

Probably because Apple sells hardware, its automatic updates bloat the OS until you need to buy a new computer, unlike Linux. The laptops are bleeding edge technology, with both ball-array soldering & flat-surface technology. The two of these have caused many laptops to break their solder joints after about two years of use. The keys pop off easily and are nearly impossible to replace. These are the only problems I've noticed.

Neverthless, the custom combination of hardware & software has allowed Macs to be an illustration of state-of-the-art computing. I think their elegance & creativity are incomparable.

I've noticed, however, that free software initially written for Linux runs more slowly & takes much more resources on a Mac. It flies on Linux. However, I can't recommend a Linux for a beginner unless it comes with at least an easy-to-use firewall.

 

Sorry, I forgot to say that many people (including me) are placing a Linux on their otherwise disposable G3 Macs. I particularly enjoy object-oriented interfaces, and GNOME's, which I use, is excellent. My granddaughter loves her Debian computer with a Daisy on its desktop. (I hardened the security for her.)

My next project will be to examine all the desktops (though I expect to use GNUstep) for the degree to which they are object oriented; that is, can I link a word processor or printer to a folder and have that folder memorize its last settings? (Undisplayable files - starting with a period - hold much information in each Linux folder.)

 

yup.. I don't only collect malware.......

I got a M$ formatted docx thing.. oo wouldn't handle it.. said it was corrupt. eventually after a lot of searching about I found a command line converter that at least made it readable.

this is the true face of M$ .. take a standard and change it in closed proprietary ways so it will only open on their office 2009 thing..

A lot of us long time free software people are getting less and less keen on gnome.. nasty mono dependencies which are dangerous but not in the way people might expect...

http://boycottnovell.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

 

You'll understand if I comment without having examined the website below.

It should be readable with a text editor; but if you found a 'converter' that worked, perhaps it was an earlier version. Many organization objected that readers of the final version of .docx wouldn't read the earlier versions, which had been released!

Yes. In its early day, MS modified its OS to cause competing applications to fail. Consequently its breakup. Later, the application division wrote & read standard formats & protocols with an 'accidental' but in the implementation. Programmers who wanted their software to work with MS had to program the 'bugs' in, creating, in essence, a proprietary format free, written by someone else. Standard formats start out as products of hardware companies or consortiums of them. Microsoft participated in DOCX, so I thought it might have a contractual obligation to not 'err' as above. Perhaps I was wrong.

My pre-school granddaughter says she's experienced no problems; but she uses the 'Synaptic Package Manager' only. Hers is not for 'Flash' or 'Quicktime', for the newer versions require faster video.

GNOME

http://boycottnovell.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page[/quote]

 

As I was about to write, before GNOME spontaneously posted my draft...

GNOME has given me no problems, and I love its frills. Any details on what you're referring to? Is the problem the conversion & installation of an application of a different flavor? My GNOME menu has a section with applications written for the 'Motif' interface: it works fine. Occasionally I have to add applications to the menu manually. No problems with its libraries. (The board games Backgammon & Go are beautiful, along with a solitaire game with Mah Jongg tiles.

I'm looking for the ideal OOUI desktop. OS/2's was elegant, and MacOSX is very refresing; but I'd like one that stores, in each folder, configuration files for the applications that wrote the data stored there. Links aren't really recommended, but it would be nice if photos in the 'Photography' folder would print automatically to a photo printer, and letters in the 'Letters' folder print to a B&W printer with letter paper in it. That sort of thing. Any suggestions are recommended.

Oh, mine is an older version of Debian Linux.