[plug] Linux V Windows

[John Breen]

		What about STABILITY?  Linux is inherently more stable than
Windows, be it 3.1, 95, 98, NT3, NT4 or 2000.  (At least in my experience.)
200 hours' uptime on my Linux box without any tweaking, to 40 on my Windows
box with some major tweaks to get it to last that long really says
something...

		Cheers,


		John

		John Breen
		Programmer
		United Construction Pty Ltd

		(08) 9499-0472
		0413-462-818
		john.breen at unitedconstruction.com.au




				-----Original Message-----
				From:	Rick  (VK6EP)
[SMTP:rickd at iinet.net.au]
				Sent:	Saturday, 10 July 1999 16:01
				To:	plug at linux.org.au
				Subject:	[plug] Linux V Windows

			The advantages and disadvantages of Linux versus
Windows, according to
			those who have used both. 

			These are some snippets I have lifted from various
news groups. I have
			tried to fix some of the spelling and grammatical
errors, but probably not
			all. I've added the comments in square brackets and
have deliberately left
			out the addresses of the originators.

			--------------------------

			Advantages:

			Multi-user:
			If you've only used Windows, this wont mean a lot
yet, think of files only
			YOU can use or read or *delete*, at the same time as
someone else is using
			your PC, (say a friend on the internet).

			Remote use, see above also:
			Plus you could, If I created a user "account" run
programs on MY PC, here
			and NOW, from your PC where ever you are. My PC
would take input from
			yours, and send you the screen, while running the
program *here*, and using
			my comps resources.

			Learning:
			Linux is a learning experience, and you *will* learn
more than you ever
			could with MSwindows. TONS of docs and howtos,.

			Free: you only pay for the media, so if your poor,
you have access to 10's
			of thousands of dollars, (equiv. MSWin) of software.
Such as compilers,
			cad, document processing, networking, file
utilities, its simply too much
			to keep up with now, and has been for years.


			Disadvantages:
			All the above, if you don't like learning, or wont.
[Or don't have the time]


			----------------------

			What software are you running on Win98? If you have
MS-Office, then you're
			going to be hard pushed to find a better package for
the types of things it
			does (arguably, but it is a great package).

			If you're running games, then you're not going to
get much enjoyment out of
			Linux.

			Linux really comes into it's own in networking (web
servers, mail servers,
			shared file systems) and programming (C++, C, Perl,
Tcl/Tk, etc). For these
			things, particularly servers and programming, you
have to fork out MONEY
			for software on Win98 that is usually worse than
what you get on Linux, and
			offers less user support.

			Of course, Linux has many uses, as does Win98, but
for some of them (e.g.
			games, netsurfing); you're better off sticking with
Win98 because of the
			much broader support and availability of features.

			------------------------------

			Advantages:

			It makes better use of your hardware. It is much
more stable. It comes with
			piles of networking tools out-of-the-box. It
includes a vast array of
			development tools. You will never need to defragment
your Linux partition.
			It runs fine on hardware which '98 wouldn't even
look at. It is multi-user
			and multitasks very smoothly. I am forever
astonished at how *bad* '95 or
			even '98 are on grunty machines with 128 MB of ram.
Linux flies on such
			machines (and doesn't thrash when running a
screen-saver). There is plenty
			of good open source and zero-cost software out there
for Linux.

			Also, it is legally free :-) 

			Disadvantages:

			If you are used to '98, it is very *very* different.
You will need to do a
			lot of work learning the system. Installation and
configuration is a bit
			more complex to the uninitiated. Hardware support is
less comprehensive
			than '98 (e.g. the current stable kernel doesn't
support USB - though the
			unstable development kernel does). There are fewer
games and flashy
			commercial programs available, but in general there
are good free
			replacements for most of the things you will need.

			The disadvantages are modest - you can overcome most
of them if you buy a
			good Linux book and read the documentation *before*
touching the CD.

			You can keep both 98 and Linux on the machine, so
you get the best of both
			worlds. 

			--------------------------

			[WARNING- before installing Linux, make sure it will
support your hardware.
			Linux does not support a lot of the latest hardware,
'out of the box'.
			Patches are usually available soon enough, but you
will need to learn where
			to find them and how to install them.]

			[To every view you/I have, there will be at least
one alternate view.]




			Cheers
			Rick

			E=Mail    - rickd at iinet.net.au
			Home Page -
http://opera.iinet.net.au/~rickd/index.html