I posted this in Chit Chat, cos i mainly considered to discuss the general reasons we got, that makes us hesitant to move to Linux. Pls note this is a discussion. :) It is nothing to do with Linux (Alternative OS Support) as we are talking about the reasons why we are hesitant to go to Linux.

Well i am hesitant to move to linux cos:

1. I am using Dazzle Digital Video Creator - an external video capturing device which is not supported with Linux.
2. As my CDRW is an EIDE and not a SCSI i can't go to all those troubles, to make identify my CDRW as a SCSI to Linux.
3. I am not sure if myu Scanner and Printer would work :unsure:

I hope oneday Linux would support EIDE CDRWs.

Lack of support for many Windows apps I use on a daily basis. If Wine (the windows compatibility layer) and NTFS support was more developed, I would be using Linux in a heartbeat.

Thats the main problem. No support for the OS. Yes several of use would have no problem running it, but why when there is more software floating around for Windows.

There are Open Source equivalents, although I have never used any

Quote:

Originally posted by -McoreD@Nov 8 2002, 12:59 AM 2. As my CDRW is an EIDE and not a SCSI i can't go to all those troubles, to make identify my CDRW as a SCSI to Linux.

You just need to recompile the kernel with a few extra options. If you use a Distro like Mandrake it sets it up automatically for you.

Quote:

Originally posted by -McoreD@Nov 8 2002, 12:59 AM 3. I am not sure if myu Scanner and Printer would work :unsure:

To check for Printer support go to www.linuxprinting.org. Go to this website (/http://www.mostang.com/sane/sane-mfgs.html) for Scanners.

<!--QuoteBegin--McoreD@Nov 8 2002, 12:59 AM
I hope oneday Linux would support EIDE CDRWs.[/quote]
They already do.


EDIT : I was not hesitant at all to switch to Linux. I just went for it and now I find that a lot of the Software that I need apart from games have open source equivilants in Linux.

Games are the main thing for me, although I do run Mandrake 9 on my system along with WindowsXP. Also my email reader Turnpike is not avalible on Linux which is a shame.

I find Linux great for doing my programming, Emacs is brilliant!

That info made me interesting about Linux m8 :)

Yea, cos Linux is open source, we could compile our own drivers in order to work with them.
Wished I knew enough programming to do that :(

Anyway what is Distro?

You don't need to know anything about programming to compile drivers. I manage. :)

<!--QuoteBegin--McoreD@Nov 9 2002, 06:25 AM
Anyway what is Distro?[/quote]
Distro is short for Distribution. Linux is the kernel on its own. Several companies like Red Hat and Mandrake, put the kernel, along with lots of other software together with an installer package, to create a distribution. If you want more information about the distros take a look at www.distrowatch.com.

You are a legend in Linux m8 !

i found my printer listed in supported printers Epson Stylus Color 660 but not yet the scanner Prolink Win-6000. but still all right.

he he now see how i was confused with the word distro.
what you have said was "if you use a distribution like Mandrake, it will automatically do it for you".

i have Mandrake Linux 9 and gonna give it a go :)

thanks again for your valuable posts :)

mods and admins, it looks like this thread is now going to be under Alternative Support :)

craftyc, have you any idea if there is a basic distro out there to download?. I mean if there are is a distro with the kernel and basic XWindow (everything ready to download).

I'm too lazy to find an extra HD to put it on ;)

Mandrake, Red Hat and SuSE are the best choices for newbies. They have a lot of software available on them and are very easy to use. I personally find them a bit bloated and klunky but thats only my opinion.

If you want to jump straight into the deep end I would suggest any source based distro (like Gentoo, LFS (Linux From Scratch), Sorcerer), Debian and Slackware because they give you complete control over your system. However this also means that you have to do a lot by yourself (including the install, maintenance, no hand-holding at all).

I personally use Gentoo but have tried Red Hat and Mandrake.

I hope this helps.

PS here are their respective links: -
Mandrake - /www.linux-mandrake.com
Red Hat - /www.redhat.com
SuSE - /www.suse.com
Gentoo - /www.gentoo.org
LFS - /www.linuxfromscratch.org
Sorcerer - /http://sorcerer.berlios.de/
Debian - /www.debian.org
Slackware - /www.slackware.org

Id recommend Mandrake 9. Easy to setup and use.

Although I did manage to crashe the Java compiler on it. Threw a massive wobbly with legitamate code! Had to boot into Windows to sort out some errors!

I like RED HAT the best myself - Mandrake is to slow for me .. Also if you want to run windows appz on Linux, why not use VMWare and install a Windows os that way, you would have both os's on one system - When you want to run a windows prog, just turn it on and go ;) .. I also found some progs for windows that also have linux counter parts.

Right now though I am seriously thinking about switching to mac, I want to learn OSX 10.2 Jaguar .. It's linux based.

Unless VMWare have updated their program, it was having some teething problems with RedHat 8 and Mandrake 9. Ease of installing apps on Linux is something they need to improve on. RPM packages are good, but when you have to unzip and compile stuff its a pain. For me anyway.

I found Mandrake 9 much better than RH8 to be honest and faster.

Wrong. It's based on OpenBSD (or other Unix), but definately not Linux.

<!--QuoteBegin--Flanderz@Nov 11 2002, 08:58 AM
RPM packages are good, but when you have to unzip and compile stuff its a pain. For me anyway.
[/quote]
Dude how can you say that!? :o Only kidding. :D Wait until you get to RPM dependancy problems, then you're screwed. Debians package manager is supposed to be sweet, but I prefer the slickness of Portage (in Gentoo).