Very Computer

My first post to this group, I hope not to offend everyone...

Opinion: If the Bush administration is REALLY concerned about the
destruction of "American values" the countries collective radar screen
would have the Microsoft insignia in the cross hairs instead of the small
band of sleazy camel humping lunatics the president claims pose a the
greatest threat.

Observation: The label for this news group is labelled "Advocacy", but
the content leans very heavily toward hardware/software issues which
leads to to...

Question: Does Linux in its current form work? More specifically, what is
the tweak time to run time ratio?. I'm looking (praying) for a an 'non
Microsoft' OS to 'de-willy' one or both home systems and, understand
Linux to be the only viable contender (Apple doesn't count sine MS owns a
notable slice) however, the pre*ly technical nature of most
threads is a bit worrisome for a 'standard' plug and play centered
endomorph.

_______________________________________________
"I prefer quiet vice to ostentacious virture"
- Albert Einsteine

"uh-oh"
- Gen. George Armstrong Custer
_______________________________________________

The reason is that the Bush Administration loves contributions made by
businesses. Microsoft gives contributions to both sides which ensures
that they have some "leverage".

As well, GWB made his money from business. He didn't make it from Al
Queda ;)

Quote:> Observation: The label for this news group is labelled "Advocacy",
> but the content leans very heavily toward hardware/software issues
> which leads to to...

> Question: Does Linux in its current form work? More specifically,
> what is the tweak time to run time ratio?. I'm looking (praying) for
> a an 'non Microsoft' OS to 'de-willy' one or both home systems and,
> understand Linux to be the only viable contender (Apple doesn't
> count sine MS owns a notable slice) however, the pre*ly
> technical nature of most threads is a bit worrisome for a 'standard'
> plug and play centered endomorph.

I'd personally say on a Major distro, that the tweak:run-time is
probably better than Microsoft's. My reason for saying this is that
there are no extra applications installed with Microsoft Windows.
Linux distributions tend to have all the applications you want on the
installer and it is trivial to install software onto a linux box
while you are installing linux.

Quote:> _______________________________________________
> "I prefer quiet vice to ostentacious virture"
> - Albert Einsteine

> "uh-oh"
> - Gen. George Armstrong Custer
> _______________________________________________

Actually, he LOST a lot of money in business, which is why he had to take up
politics.

Todd

Quote:> I also have a question to add and your post made me think of it again.
> Max OS X is based on the linux kernel is it not?  if it is then why did
> 49% owner MS allow this I'm sure the other 51% were not all in favour...

MS owns 49% of apple?

--
General Protection Fault

  2:00pm  up 5 days, 14:48,  3 users,  load average: 0.05, 0.09, 0.08
Linux nitrogen.ertw.com 2.4.18-17.7.x i586 unknown

All the enemys of the united states, in the past 20 years, are directly
attributable to George H. Bush,

Manuel Noriega
Sadam Hussein
Bin Laden
Al Qada

 From all us in the United States, thank you George Bush, junior and senior.

        im appalled that any person would devalue life so much.
--
Aaron Meyer
RLU# 283393
RLC# 165786

<snip>

Quote:> Question: Does Linux in its current form work? More specifically, what is
> the tweak time to run time ratio?. I'm looking (praying) for a an 'non
> Microsoft' OS to 'de-willy' one or both home systems and, understand
> Linux to be the only viable contender (Apple doesn't count sine MS owns a
> notable slice) however, the pre*ly technical nature of most
> threads is a bit worrisome for a 'standard' plug and play centered
> endomorph.

Tweak- to run-time ratio depends a lot. Most important is your choice
of Linux Distribution, and secondly, what hardware do you run?

If you have any idea what's inside your computers, then it would be
rather easy to check to see if any major problems are known with your
hardware. If no major problems are known, install should be a breeze,
and tweaking should be minimal.

Of course, the amount of *optional* tweaking you can do on a Linux
system is practically infinite, ranging from changing a desktop theme
to actually diving in and doing some programming. That's what you
usually see when a technical thread is going on, with the exception of
obvious trolls.

Good choices for a first distro would be:

1. SuSE. No free download, but an FTP net install instead. The boxed
   set comes with 7 CDs and a DVD full of software, and I'm told the
   manuals are nice. System administration is a bit centered on SuSE's
   own tools, so simple fixes 'edit this config file' from newsgroups
   or websites *might* go awry. OTOH, the tools might be smart enough
   to recognise manual edits. Perhaps a SuSE user can chime in here.

2. Mandrake. Doesn't come with the gigantic amount of software SuSE
   does. Is otherwise well-known for good hardware detection and a
   trouble-free install. The last three major releases however they
   also built a reputation for installing bleeding-edge software. This
   will give you the newest shiniest stuff, with the attendant
   crashes.

3. Red Hat. Although they concentrate on the corporate market at the
   expense of home-users, there distro is known for being a solid
   all-around offering. They have their idiosyncracies, but otherwise
   not a bad distro at all. Perhaps their strength is also their
   damning point: they're all-round, so there is nothing that they
   really excel at. OTOH, if something works, it will usually work
   well on Red Hat.

These are the 3 majors. There are a few minor distros that cater to
the new user (Lycoris, Xandros), but I don't know how good they are.

Mart

--
"It is not funny that a man should be killed,
but it is sometimes funny that he should be killed for so little,
and that his death should be the coin of what we call civilization."
        Raymond Chandler - The Simple Art Of *

"If you choose to utilize the update features within the OS Product or OS
Components, it is necessary to use certain computer system, hardware, and
software information to implement the features. By using these features, you
explicitly authorize Microsoft or its designated agent to access and utilize
the necessary information for updating purposes."

2)  Mac OS X is based on the BSD Kernel.

Quote:> Hi,

> My first post to this group, I hope not to offend everyone...

> Opinion: If the Bush administration is REALLY concerned about the
> destruction of "American values" the countries collective radar screen
> would have the Microsoft insignia in the cross hairs instead of the
> small band of sleazy camel humping lunatics the president claims pose a
> the greatest threat.

> Observation: The label for this news group is labelled "Advocacy", but
> the content leans very heavily toward hardware/software issues which
> leads to to...

> Question: Does Linux in its current form work? More specifically, what
> is the tweak time to run time ratio?. I'm looking (praying) for a an
> 'non Microsoft' OS to 'de-willy' one or both home systems and,
> understand Linux to be the only viable contender (Apple doesn't count
> sine MS owns a notable slice) however, the pre*ly technical
> nature of most threads is a bit worrisome for a 'standard' plug and play
> centered endomorph.

> _______________________________________________ "I prefer quiet vice to
> ostentacious virture" - Albert Einsteine

> "uh-oh"
> - Gen. George Armstrong Custer
> _______________________________________________

--
Keith

"Now is the time for all good men
(and women) to use Linux!"

Charlie