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Wow. Linux Is Awesome

Onyx

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Onyx Newbie

Onyx

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I'm so amazed. I'm posting from an ancient computer running Knoppix from the CD and it's faster than my nearly new desktop.

It's an old (really old) desktop I kept around for my kids to use - didnt really want to spend cash on a new one for them when they really didn't need it to surf and the few things they use it for. This old thing was running win98 on a 2 gig hard drive. It messed up and the 98 disk was damaged so thought I'd try a linux install.

I experimented years ago with it on an old laptop and couldn't get it to do things properly. These newer Linux packages are awesome though.

I couldn't get any fancier ones like Ubuntu to install (need more hard drive space) but could run them from the live CD fine. I learned a lot so far and still have a mountain of new terms to learn but am enjoying the process immensely - found I can't burn a CD at high speed and expect it to work for insallation, went through a bunch of different flavors of Linux but so far Knoppix and DamnSmallLinux are working great.

My kids are so happy - they have their surfing back. I can run internet radio without the thing locking up like it did with 98. Everything WORKS so well even just running from the live CD.

The only one I could find that fit on that little hard drive was Zenwalk but I can't get it to connect to the net. The others connected right away. Once I get a cheap hard drive and pop it in I plan to install some version of Linux on here so I can get more things installed and stuff can be saved to the hard drive.

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Onyx Newbie

Onyx

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YES, told you so.

Though some installs require a bit more configuration than others, Knoppix and DSL are great.

Though OBSD is still better, but you REALLY need to know what you're doing to use it.

Yep, I definitely don't have the knowledge to play with anything too much (yet).

I'm fascinated with it though.

What size harddrive do you have/need?

The poor old dinosaur has a 2 gig hard drive :) Most everything I tried to install needs at least 3 to 5 just to install and I read needs a bit more if one really wants to have it run well.

I found a few really cheap ones on Amazon so I'll probably pick a couple from there to experiment with.

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Onyx Newbie

Onyx

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not for nothin', but that's actually not bad - my spare machine is running windows 95 on a PII @233Mhz, (i think) with a 750 *MEG* hard drive!! :shock:

Yeah, actually it wasn't that long ago that 2 gigs was a lot.

I was actually a bit surprised most distros didn't install on that. If I knew a little more about Linux and didn't use the ones that have everything already set up, I'm sure it would have been enough room.

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Troy Spiral Contributor

Troy Spiral (13)

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Its better in the same general sense that Betamax was better than VHS and the Sega Master System was better than the NES.

The core tech is better (read "faster quality" for most users), but all the frills and such that are available for PCs (and macs for that matter) just don't exist for Linux at least not yet. In many cases its impossible to compare Linux to a PC as many of the same things don't even exist on Linux so there's no way to make a comparison in many cases.

If you have your specific needs covered, and have no interest in adding any additional functionality, (and don't mind lots of setup headaches at times) its "better". But for most users, who want slap-your-head easy along with massive "choice" Linux is far behind either mac or PC.

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angusfergus Newbie

angusfergus

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I can run internet radio without the thing locking up like it did with 98.

As far as Windows is concerned, I would bet you probably should have been running 95 on that machine rather than 98. Not suprised you were able to find a small-footprint Linux that would work though, but I wonder about what kind of compromises were made as far as 'out of the box' functionality.

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