Linux

[Max Powerz]

Why is it supposed to be so complecated? Like i've never seen any pics of it, whats the OS look like?

[da chicken]

The two most common desktops are GNOME:
http://vhost.dulug.duke.edu/~louie/screenshots/2.2/

And KDE:
http://www.kde.org/screenshots/index.php

Those are UI enhacements and toolkits used with XFree86 (http://www.xfree86.org/), which is an OSS version of X (http://www.x.org/), the GUI used for Unix.

Linux is complicated because nobody directs the entire thing. Everything gets to a "working" point, and then gets dropped. User interface is sparse at best, and user-friendly is never applied to Linux. IMX, it is just as buggy as Windows is (for different reasons), but you can keep the OS very slim, running just the kernel (Linux itself), a console shell, and any services you want. What Linux does, it does well, but it is difficult to get through the interface to get it to do what you want. There's no standard for organization, just guidelines that everyone usually follows (usually). Linux is also much easier to break if you don't know what you're doing.

I recommed mastering Windows before starting Linux. Linux is a whole lot of research into what to do, rather than just doing things and known the software won't make stupid mistakes (which is how Windows is). Windows sacrifices user control to make it support more software than any one system has a right to. Linux, administered properly, is stable as Gibraltar, extremely efficient, and fairly secure (more than Windows, but still has vulnerabilities).

If you want to try it out, try the live-eval version of SuSE Linux (/pub/suse/i386/live-eval-8.2). It's a bootable CD that is an OS in it's own right. Limited in scope, but good to see what it can do.

[Vlad902]

Actually rather then a bootable SuSE I'd recommend Knoppix, It's init scripts are amazing at configuring everything, when I need to check what is and isn't configured on a box I just pop it in and see what does and doesn't work :)

And yes, Master Windows then Linux, although it's comparing apples to oranges it will easier...


EDIT: The OS looks something like this "Core-dump# " A third party applications will look like the pictures above.

[Philipp]

The latest Knoppix ISO image is available here:
ftp://csociety-ftp.ecn.purdue.edu/pub/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V3.2-2003-07-26-EN.iso (700MB)

[da chicken]

Originally posted by Vlad902
EDIT: The OS looks something like this "Core-dump# " A third party applications will look like the pictures above.

Well, technically everything but the kernel is a third-party app. :)

[Major Attitude]

It looks like Windows with bad graphics and harder to use and understand. Most distros offer screenshots. Heres my more detailed thoughts from a few months ago:

http://66.98.158.200/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15060

Currently, I dont really run any Linux, it aint ready for primetime still, but is a good alternative if you have time to learn it and no money for XP.

[Vlad902]

Or need for more technical uses, and bad graphics? Only if you don't configure it well...

[goldfish]

Linux seems to be good for web servers if you cant afford a HP-UX server or somthing, i mean im going to have a web-server of my own running RedHat at some point in the future, when i get some more ram for this beast, im not sure how it all works but i can configure Apache and php easy-ish enough.

Currently im learning the jist of linux things with a dual boot, but unfortunatley, its quite tricky!