thou you shall never install OS other than XP (because WLAN)

[DeVsh]

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ok guys this is the tale of my frustration

DOWNLOADED knoppix 5.1 and 4.0.2 live cd, guess what i liked it!!!
it just fascinating how you can use the consoles (you don't get a chance in winXP) and installed it!! well god thnks i had 2 partitions so i could sacrifice one for the sake of linux.
well i was well prepared before, i had downloaded all the programs i felt i needed drivers and stuff.

AND GUESS WHAT THAT sucked didn't recognise my 2wire WLAN and it couldn't load any drivers i downloaded for linux (it was something about 20) so i decided to do the nswrap.. something thingiee... so it loaded the windows drivers and guess what......
IT SAID THAT THE HARDWARE AINT CONNECTED and when it comes to compilation.....
OMG i'm sorry i have taken and eaten the apple from the unix tree... and unleashed the knowledge of BAD i mean deleting program entries from registry was nothing compared to that...

so i spent the whole time re-booting between windows and linux and PLEASE TELL ME HOW CAN HALF OF YOU USE LINUX AND SAY ITS BETTER THAN WINDOWS.

to all microsoft staff i'm sorry i didn't appreciate your work:'(:(

and ofcourse all that mess with choosing an OS when i turn on the computer. I tried installing some programs for linux and most of them require compilation and that is briefly explained!!!! When i type make into the console it says it doesn't find the file and stuff...

HOW can you even manage life with linux without buying CROSSOVER when all the apps and drivers are made for WIN

[Ed]

ok guys this is the tale of my frustration

Still no reason to PM me about it. Who else did you PM?

AND GUESS WHAT THAT sucked didn't recognise my 2wire WLAN

Which distro were you using? Knoppix is not good when installed to disk.

PLEASE TELL ME HOW CAN HALF OF YOU USE LINUX AND SAY ITS BETTER THAN WINDOWS.

Let's see:
No serious security concerns
It's faster
It doesn't break
File systems are so much nicer
Lots of really good software included with most distros
Can be tuned to run on older hardware and still carry out modern tasks
Much more customisable
If you don't like one desktop environment/window manager use another
If you don't like one file manager use another
If you don't like one CD burner... etc... you get the picture
Much easier to find where problems are with a system (let's see you do an strace on Windows)
It's free
You can recompile the kernel for different tasks
Most distros have a serious package manager
It's not Vista
It's not Windows ME
You don't have to install the Genuine Windows User Choice Suppression tool to have access to updates
Much more configruable for different locales
It isn't afflicted from Birth with Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, WMP, Paint...

I tried installing some programs for linux and most of them require compilation and that is briefly explained!

Try using your package manager

HOW can you even manage life with linux without buying CROSSOVER when all the apps and drivers are made for WIN

How can you even manage life under Windows when all the good programs and decent drivers run on Linux?

[C.Brutail]

You've just had the most common linux problem:
PEBKAC
Google for it, if you don't know what it means.
Like Ed said, you've chosen the wrong distro. You shoud've used ubuntu/kubuntu at least.

[Shoe]

Unless you're really into the bleeding-edge or have very specific needs, there's almost no reason to have to compile a program from source in Linux anymore. Not for any average user, and especially not a newbie.

[Psychcf]

the only issue I have with linux is modern games. I reboot for that anyway. My windows installation is almost a virgin, so it's nice and speedy.

I agree with everything Ed said above. C.Brutali is right, linux takes getting used to, just like windows or mac would. In some cases you may be overwhelmed with choices, which I think is a good thing. You should be able to choose what works for you. I feel the same about windows and linux.

The only issue I have is the person who evaluates with bias, then bitches about it. Linux is a very good solution for most people who stick with it. If it doesn't work for you, do something about it. Research it. If you can't find a solution, go back to what works for you.

EDIT: besides all that I said before, knoppix isn't a very good desktop distribution. Ubuntu will probably have the drivers bundled with the restricted drivers manager. That's like saying windows ME sucks, therefore all other window products suck. Which has some truth, but for sake of example let's pretend it's still 2005 and vista doesn't exist yet.

[GreEn`mArine]

For me linux never became interesting as some big software companies such as Adobe refuse to have their software done for linux, too. Besides the drivers thing can indeed become an issue when having "special"/"exotic" hardware. Not that I would be afraid of that, as I am a computer scientist and I could figure out how to compile stuff using linux and gcc. But nevertheless it's a lot of effort to get into it (this was already said). Also the "free" aspect isn't as important to me (I could never understand this fanaticism of some people about this "free as in freedom", I know what it means, but they make a huge fuzz about it) and as a student I get Windows for free (as in "not paying money, money matters") as well.

And as I never had experienced serious issues with WinXP, for me there was no reason to permanently switch. Not even just for sake of it to be able to show off with "hey I am using linux" (no offense).

[Ed]

You shoud've used ubuntu/kubuntu at least.

I think this is just making things just a bit too specific and it's not necessarily the right choice. There are better distros. PCLinuxOS is obviously a good choice now having become a good new home for displaced Mandriva and SUSE users as well as complete novices. It also doesn't limit itself to a single CD installer and doesn't feature the colour brown. My main OS is Sabayon which is a good recommendation specifically on this forum as it's the first distro to include Nexuiz as standard.

As I type I'm using Vector 5.9 on a 550MHz Pentium 3 and it's working very well. It's a really good medium weight distro. Would definitely recommend it for hardware of that sort of age and older.

[DeVsh]

isn't it too much to expect from me (i'm a teenager) so you know i might give it another try...

but an os which has problems with loading drivers for wireless network cards sucks, i tried with two belkin and 2wire and they both suck...

My way of using OS is internet_radio, WoW and some 2005 games (some NFS and shooters) and instant-messenging using a program like pidgin (which i fuckinn had to compile and the install notes were brief like shit). Oh yes and i also would like to bridge internet connections for the sake of an XbOX (wireless LAN ---> Internet card---> nerwork cable -----> XBOX) is that possible in linux [actually i know it would be possible for some1 who knows about C++ and memory adressing] and ofcourse i would like to use linux for some scripting of mine. SO WHICH DISTRO IS THE BEST FOR ME????

[SavageX]

Well, I'm a Linux user for years. And yeah, the driver situation for random devices can be pretty frustrating.

Solution: Only buy hardware which is known to work with Linux.

A Mac user wouldn't simply buy hardware covered all with "Designed for Windows" logos either. Learn from Mac users and apply this to your platform of choice. Inform, then buy.

As for software: Either the software available on Linux satisfies your needs or it doesn't. In latter case just consider sticking with Windows.

Inform, then install.

[ai]

It's from individual to individual. At first I had good experience with Windows (back at the 95 and 98 age), but I also were just a lad. As I grew so did the problems with windows for me. And today I'm at the stage that if I would see Bill Gates walking down the street I wouldn't hesitate to kill him. That's how much I hate MS and Windows. I've had TONS of millions of problems with windows, which most of them are pathetic bad design flaws and memory related, even core related.
I will not bring up what kind of problems there were, and yes, many of them occured only because of no knowledge and stupidity. But I studied and learned more about windows and because of that I saw bigger flaws.
I now look to Linux to be my saviour, I know it can do it. Ubuntu is a great distro, also it's newbie friendly. One of course would have to have some knowledge of Linux before switching to it.
But there are other great distros out there, the thing is, what works best for you. It's all individal based.