Something that happened with windows xp "pro"

[nintendo]

When I was using windows xp pro today at school there was an error message when there was a long assignment and there was some of the others in my class that lost all of their assignment, luckily it happened to someone before me and I saved my assignment, we werent even typing with microsoft word. The computer I have to use at home is Win. 98 and thats more stable the XP Pro.

Nobody at school knows anything about computer, if I knew the school was getting new computers I would have told them to get linux. I will also use the topic to ask what is better, Linux or Apple computers, and what is the best version of Linux?

[ September 08, 2003: Message edited by: nintendo ]

[ September 08, 2003: Message edited by: nintendo ]

[Laukev7]

This is my opinion, but I say that Macs are hands down the best.

[suselinux]

Depends on who you ask really, your going to get alot of different answers in here.  At the moment though Linux and Mac are going through a bit of convergent evolution, with OSX using Darwin,and Linux becoming more and more desktop friendly, they may one day meet.

At the moment you can look at it two ways:

Mac is better learning curve, because you need to make less configuration choices, and the filesystem is designed to look more familiar, plus you can use some of the programs you already have on windows (office [BLAH], Photoshop, etc)

But you need to buy awhole new computer, that will cost you about 1 1/2 or 2 times as much as a new PC of the same qualifications.

Linux on the other hand will take you a little longer to learn, or no time at all depending on the type of Linux you choose.  The programs are available, either the same program, or a substitute(ie Openoffice for MS Office), the best part is you can use your PC, or you can use that MAC you might have bought anyway, Linux works on both, as well as many other platforms.  It's also Open Source, so if you choose a distro like Mandrake or Redhat you can download the entire OS for free, that also means that most of the programs are free as well, No $400 for MS office just open Openoffice after installing Manfrake or Redhat after installing, they both come with OpenOffice.

I recomend SuSE Linux Desktop

[ September 08, 2003: Message edited by: suselinux ]

[M51DPS]

Different operating systems suit different people. Spend some time trying them all out.

[phrostyboi]

linux is the better one for the sake of compatability, specially floppy drives, linux can read and write to windoze formatted floppies whereas you run into problems with using MAC floppies on windoze and vice versa

linux uses regular PC's so compatability is good, plus PC's hardware isn't proprietary so its cheaper generally, also linux or UNIX will run on almost anything oldish

[Refalm]

When buying a new computer, it's also advisable to look at what hardware are best for Linux.

For example:

SVGA: GeForce (because they have official Linux drivers that work very good, and ATi's drivers suck)

Motherboard: nForce chipset (also official drivers, Intel and VIA provide non for Linux)

Soundcard: Creative SB (only known soundcard that supports eviromental 3D audio in Linux)

Hard-disk: some IDE, not SCSI  

CD/DVD(-burner): anything but Philips, and something not complicated

The rest: Many hardware vendors don't support Linux. So the main criteria is that if you have a choice between hardware, try something non-complicated if you're not sure.

[jasonlane]

quote:Originally posted by phrostyboi:
linux is the better one for the sake of compatability, specially floppy drives, linux can read and write to windoze formatted floppies whereas you run into problems with using MAC floppies on windoze and vice versa

linux uses regular PC's so compatability is good, plus PC's hardware isn't proprietary so its cheaper generally, also linux or UNIX will run on almost anything oldish

Floppies?!?!? I used a floppy for the first time in 2 years a couple of days ago and that was to sort out a XPEEEEE Virii problem.

Floppies does anyone still use them????

For a school environment I'd say the Mac (OS X) would be better, you can still learn any Command line stuff if need be  and have the advantage of a OS with a short learning curve.

If you're studying computer science I'd say use both.

Hurrah! my 500th post  

[ September 11, 2003: Message edited by: Zardoz ]

[mobrien_12]

I use floppies.

[M51DPS]

Sometimes I use floppies to transfer small files, but more often I use a 100MB Zip Drive or my LAN. Can't Macs format floppies for pcs and read them?

[jasonlane]

quote:Originally posted by M51DPS:
Sometimes I use floppies to transfer small files, but more often I use a 100MB Zip Drive or my LAN. Can't Macs format floppies for pcs and read them?

Mac (OS 9) can format floppies for use on a Wintel box, I don't know about OS X, I'd be very surprised if it couldn't.


 

quote:Originally posted by M. O'Brien:
I  use floppies.

Yup I guess they are exceedingly useful things, floppies. If Mac's had them (I nearly always work on Mac these days) I'd use them more.

I recant my position  

[ September 11, 2003: Message edited by: Zardoz ]

[Faust]

Office and Photoshop run on Gnu/Linux too thankyou very much.  The main (only?) advantage Mac OSX has over Gnu/Linux is that it's designed to be user friendly.  In a school environment that could be useful.  Oh and the best version of Linux is 2.4.22.