Favorite OS?
- Thread starter David Lindon
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The thing about windows is it's got a bunch of idiots going I GOT A VIRUS/SPYWARE/SOME RANDOM PROBLEM HELP. 5 million people post new threads instead of read a previously posted one.
PC World called linux "The best secret untold" also, people who say you can't game on linux don't know what their talking about.
athlon64fx if you think debian is hard, try gentoo. it'll make debian look like a windows installation.
PC World called linux "The best secret untold" also, people who say you can't game on linux don't know what their talking about.
athlon64fx if you think debian is hard, try gentoo. it'll make debian look like a windows installation.
athlon64fx
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heheh yah I tried gentoo but it had compling errors and lots of ther issues with my system
Re: Linux?
GNU/Linux is Free Software, which is different from "free" as in "without cost."
Free Software recognize four freedoms for you and everyone:
- you can run the software
You already have this right, you don't have to pay for the right to run Free Software, that's why it is also without cost.
- you can study how the software works
That is why you need access to the source code.
- you can share the software
Since everyone else also has the right to use it, you have the right to share it with anyone you like.
- you can improve the software and share your modifications
If you have access to the source code, you may want to improve the software, and you should be allowed to share your improvements with others as well.
You can read more about what Free Software means here:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
You can get a number of GNU/Linux distributions, and you usually install them from a bootable CD, although there are other ways.
You can install both, this is called "dual-boot" and you'll have to set it up so you can pick which OS you want to run when the computer boots.
Computergen said:
GNU/Linux is Free Software, which is different from "free" as in "without cost."
Free Software recognize four freedoms for you and everyone:
- you can run the software
You already have this right, you don't have to pay for the right to run Free Software, that's why it is also without cost.
- you can study how the software works
That is why you need access to the source code.
- you can share the software
Since everyone else also has the right to use it, you have the right to share it with anyone you like.
- you can improve the software and share your modifications
If you have access to the source code, you may want to improve the software, and you should be allowed to share your improvements with others as well.
You can read more about what Free Software means here:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
You can get a number of GNU/Linux distributions, and you usually install them from a bootable CD, although there are other ways.
You can install both, this is called "dual-boot" and you'll have to set it up so you can pick which OS you want to run when the computer boots.
Lord Kalthorn
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Does nobody else see that Dual-Booting is just a non-naked form of Whoring yourself out?
Choose one for goodness sake! (Not directed at Inimino who we know only uses Linux just at the general mass (of people who use Computers often for fun, not of the Public) who think Linux is cool and so they use it to say they use it, but still use Windows).
Its not right I tells you!
And even some for PHP - how many for ASP.NET?
That leaves only the Freedom to run the Software; which Closed Source Software provides the ability to do.
Choose one for goodness sake! (Not directed at Inimino who we know only uses Linux
just at the general mass (of people who use Computers often for fun, not of the Public) who think Linux is cool and so they use it to say they use it, but still use Windows).Its not right I tells you!
Not that I care about phpBB - but how many not lodged in the problems of PHP in general are there for vBulletin? The obviously more powerful and generally considered superior Closed-Source alternative.FX said:
And even some for PHP - how many for ASP.NET?
The Four Freedoms of You and Everyone is a euphemism for people who want to make their theories heard. Its a way of making the simpler people who aim for the knowledge of the people who devised this phrase go for their software instead of Technically Superior Software (Technical being my euphemism for things like spectrum, mass, coding and vision). These Freedoms are worthless; because two of the things on your Four Freedoms few enough people can do. Freedoms are things everybody can do regardless of ability or knowledge or disembowelment. The third of these is Plagiary - the distribution of somebody's work without their consent or regards.Inimino said:
That leaves only the Freedom to run the Software; which Closed Source Software provides the ability to do.
There's nothing wrong with dual-booting OSes, speaking from a practical point of view. But of course its kinda unethical to dual-boot. It's like holding two jobs cos each has some benefits that the other doesn't. Its best to stick to one OS. Either Windows, OSX or GNU/Linux.
It is not unethical to hold two jobs, and it is not even close to unethical to dual-boot. That is a misuse of the word "unethical".
There are, however, reasons why it is nice to have only one OS per computer, and to have at least two desktops and a laptop, all within 5 minutes' reach of wherever you work.
Among other things, when you are trying to install Gentoo, you can search the Web using your Apple Powerbook (running OS X) while you are doing it.
The next week, when your Windows machine has a few spyware-adware-virus-trojan-worm problems too many, you can use your Gentoo box to get actual work done while you wait for Windows to reformat and reinstall.
When the same Windows computer has the same problem yet again two months later, you can use your Powerbook again to surf the Web while you replace Windows once and for all, with Debian GNU/Linux.
You can also keep a copy of your important files on each machine you own, and use open-source software to mirror important files between your different systems automatically and transparently. That way, when your Linux workstation is hit by a freak power spike and you lose most of your hardware (this happened to me recently), you can keep right on working on your FreeBSD machine (which also happened).
When you dual-boot, you can't use one OS when the other is running, and you can't seamlessly copy your data from one OS to the other. You have to deal with a dual-boot-capable boot loader, you have to deal with the brain-damaged Microsoft Windows installers, boot loaders, and partitioning tools from which make it intentionally difficult to install more than one OS, and you have to deal with data that you can't get to, like data on your Windows XP partition that Linux can read but not write, or data on your Linux partition that no version of Windows has ever been able to read or write at all.
You also might have to deal with all the dual-boot guides and how-tos, online and on numerous Linux sites, a lot of it written by Mandrake or Gentoo or Slackware users, many of whom barely got it working themselves, and almost none of whom are professional writers (who mostly don't use Linux) or professional programmers (who mostly would not take the time to rewrite their own cryptic notes in a form any non-programmer could understand) or serious Linux users (who wouldn't be dual-booting in the first place).
By the way, LK: I will be responding to your post soon, I actually began composing my response before, in my text editor, and had almost finished, but a much more important conversation with a friend and client in Southeast Asia intervened.
There are, however, reasons why it is nice to have only one OS per computer, and to have at least two desktops and a laptop, all within 5 minutes' reach of wherever you work.
Among other things, when you are trying to install Gentoo, you can search the Web using your Apple Powerbook (running OS X) while you are doing it.
The next week, when your Windows machine has a few spyware-adware-virus-trojan-worm problems too many, you can use your Gentoo box to get actual work done while you wait for Windows to reformat and reinstall.
When the same Windows computer has the same problem yet again two months later, you can use your Powerbook again to surf the Web while you replace Windows once and for all, with Debian GNU/Linux.
You can also keep a copy of your important files on each machine you own, and use open-source software to mirror important files between your different systems automatically and transparently. That way, when your Linux workstation is hit by a freak power spike and you lose most of your hardware (this happened to me recently), you can keep right on working on your FreeBSD machine (which also happened).
When you dual-boot, you can't use one OS when the other is running, and you can't seamlessly copy your data from one OS to the other. You have to deal with a dual-boot-capable boot loader, you have to deal with the brain-damaged Microsoft Windows installers, boot loaders, and partitioning tools from which make it intentionally difficult to install more than one OS, and you have to deal with data that you can't get to, like data on your Windows XP partition that Linux can read but not write, or data on your Linux partition that no version of Windows has ever been able to read or write at all.
You also might have to deal with all the dual-boot guides and how-tos, online and on numerous Linux sites, a lot of it written by Mandrake or Gentoo or Slackware users, many of whom barely got it working themselves, and almost none of whom are professional writers (who mostly don't use Linux) or professional programmers (who mostly would not take the time to rewrite their own cryptic notes in a form any non-programmer could understand) or serious Linux users (who wouldn't be dual-booting in the first place).
By the way, LK: I will be responding to your post soon, I actually began composing my response before, in my text editor, and had almost finished, but a much more important conversation with a friend and client in Southeast Asia intervened.
Lord Kalthorn
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Lol; I await it vibrantly
Wait no longer, young jedi.
I don't have Windows installed on any of my systems, but I do run a variety of operating systems and user interfaces including FreeBSD, GNU on Linux, GNU on Darwin, and the Mac OS X native GUI interface on Darwin.
Some people need to have Windows around, perhaps because someone else in the family uses it, or because they have programs that only run on it, or hardware that only it has drivers for, or they just don't know enough about other operating systems yet to realize that alternatives can do everything they need.
Other people want to have Windows around because they like to play computer games and some games only run on Windows.
It's best to use one computer for Linux and one for Windows if you need both, but not everyone has that option.
In my last post I wrote about how nice it is when you have at least two computers and at least one laptop.
If you only have one computer you can use, dual-booting gives you the option of trying Linux without completely wiping your Windows installation, and for many people that is the best option.
I'm not a huge fan of phpBB or of PHP.
As for .NET, I have reason to believe it will be considered obsolete rather soon, so I have no interest in it.
Just because open-source development is better by nature doesn't mean that all open-source software is better.
For people without the ability and willingness to learn PHP programming or hire a programmer, phpBB has little benefit over vBulletin.
The choice of a programming language for a particular project is complex, and it is impossible to reduce these decisions to a simple statement like "Language X is better than language Y".
Any statement as simple as that on such a complex issue will be wrong in more contexts than it will be right.
Your statement makes little sense to me.
It's possible that you just don't understand the freedoms under discussion, and it's possible that you don't understand the word "euphemism". I can't tell which.
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:euphemism
This leads me to think it's the meaning of the word "euphemism" that you don't quite understand, because it doesn't make much sense here either.
Maybe what you are trying to say is that people use the idea of these freedoms to trick people into using inferior software.
I won't respond to that, because you still haven't stated yourself clearly enough for me to respond to anything.
In some countries, few people can read.
Is the freedom to own books therefore worthless in those countries?
Again, I won't respond to the content until you can state it clearly.
"Freedom" has a range of meanings, as you can easily see:
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:freedom
"Disembowelment" has a specific and well-defined meaning:
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:disembowelment
I can't tell if you don't know what "disembowelment" means or if you actually meant to say that, but the sentence is gibberish to me.
If you can write something that isn't gibberish to me, I'll be able respond to what you meant rather than the way in which you wrote it.
In English, the word is "plagiarism", and it seems that you have a close-to-correct idea of what that word means, but apparently you still should consult a definition before using it in a sentence:
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:plagiarism
You'll learn that a key part of the idea of plagiarism is taking someone else's work and passing it off as your own.
This has nothing to do with Free Software, which is just one of several reasons why the idea of plagiarism is totally irrelevant in this discussion.
This freedom, the freedom to run the software, seems so simple and obvious.
One would almost wonder why it needs to be said.
Here's why:
Closed-source software companies do not recognize your freedom to run software.
This leads to an interesting distinction between two possible answers to a simple question:
Question:
Is my installation of application X legal?
Answer, when application X is Free Software:
"Yes, it is."
Answer, when application X is not Free Software:
"
Whether your installation is legal depends on the requirements of the software license granted you buy your application vendor, or possibly by a VAR or other third party.
First, you have to understand the terms of the license itself which either grant or fail to grant legal rights to run the software.
You have to accept largely fictitious and poorly-defined meanings of terms like "copy" and "installation" and "software product" and keep these meanings in mind throughout the rest of the investigation.
If your license is conditional, e.g. on the purchase of hardware, on inclusion within a software bundle, on an ongoing service contract, or on any other condition, you must verify that those conditions pertain at any given time before making any judgment of the legality or illegality of your use of the installation of said software at said time.
(Your use of your installation installation may be legal at some time, and illegal at another time.)
The legality of your installation depends on the laws of your country.
When you are traveling, the laws which apply are not always clear.
If you want to be sure that using your copy of application X is legal, you must gather facts, create a body of supporting evidence, understand the laws and the license(s) which may apply in your jurisdiction and the relevant time frame, and then apply your understanding to the facts to determine whether your installation is legal.
If you want to be sure, and the situation is non-trivial, you have to get a lawyer involved.
"
So, that's a very abbreviated version of the proprietary, closed, non-Free Software answer to the question: "Is my installation of application X legal?"
Pick any Free Software you like, such as GNU Emacs (a text editor) or Mozilla Firefox (a browser).
You want to know if you can legally use it, if the author gives you permission to run it?
The Free Software answer is short and to the point: "Yes".
The other answer is long, complicated, and can only be summarized by saying "ask a very expensive lawyer if you need to know".
This is why we actually have people talking about "software licensing compliance audits" with a straight face and why businesses spend a lot of money on very expensive lawyers, license compliance audits, and other costs ancillary to the licensing of proprietary software.
Lord Kalthorn said:Does nobody else see that Dual-Booting is just a non-naked form of Whoring yourself out?
Choose one for goodness sake! (Not directed at Inimino who we know only uses Linux
Its not right I tells you!
I don't have Windows installed on any of my systems, but I do run a variety of operating systems and user interfaces including FreeBSD, GNU on Linux, GNU on Darwin, and the Mac OS X native GUI interface on Darwin.
Some people need to have Windows around, perhaps because someone else in the family uses it, or because they have programs that only run on it, or hardware that only it has drivers for, or they just don't know enough about other operating systems yet to realize that alternatives can do everything they need.
Other people want to have Windows around because they like to play computer games and some games only run on Windows.
It's best to use one computer for Linux and one for Windows if you need both, but not everyone has that option.
In my last post I wrote about how nice it is when you have at least two computers and at least one laptop.
If you only have one computer you can use, dual-booting gives you the option of trying Linux without completely wiping your Windows installation, and for many people that is the best option.
I'm not a huge fan of phpBB or of PHP.
As for .NET, I have reason to believe it will be considered obsolete rather soon, so I have no interest in it.
Just because open-source development is better by nature doesn't mean that all open-source software is better.
For people without the ability and willingness to learn PHP programming or hire a programmer, phpBB has little benefit over vBulletin.
The choice of a programming language for a particular project is complex, and it is impossible to reduce these decisions to a simple statement like "Language X is better than language Y".
Any statement as simple as that on such a complex issue will be wrong in more contexts than it will be right.
Your statement makes little sense to me.
It's possible that you just don't understand the freedoms under discussion, and it's possible that you don't understand the word "euphemism". I can't tell which.
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:euphemism
This leads me to think it's the meaning of the word "euphemism" that you don't quite understand, because it doesn't make much sense here either.
Maybe what you are trying to say is that people use the idea of these freedoms to trick people into using inferior software.
I won't respond to that, because you still haven't stated yourself clearly enough for me to respond to anything.
In some countries, few people can read.
Is the freedom to own books therefore worthless in those countries?
Again, I won't respond to the content until you can state it clearly.
"Freedom" has a range of meanings, as you can easily see:
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:freedom
"Disembowelment" has a specific and well-defined meaning:
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:disembowelment
I can't tell if you don't know what "disembowelment" means or if you actually meant to say that, but the sentence is gibberish to me.
If you can write something that isn't gibberish to me, I'll be able respond to what you meant rather than the way in which you wrote it.
In English, the word is "plagiarism", and it seems that you have a close-to-correct idea of what that word means, but apparently you still should consult a definition before using it in a sentence:
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:plagiarism
You'll learn that a key part of the idea of plagiarism is taking someone else's work and passing it off as your own.
This has nothing to do with Free Software, which is just one of several reasons why the idea of plagiarism is totally irrelevant in this discussion.
This freedom, the freedom to run the software, seems so simple and obvious.
One would almost wonder why it needs to be said.
Here's why:
Closed-source software companies do not recognize your freedom to run software.
This leads to an interesting distinction between two possible answers to a simple question:
Question:
Is my installation of application X legal?
Answer, when application X is Free Software:
"Yes, it is."
Answer, when application X is not Free Software:
"
Whether your installation is legal depends on the requirements of the software license granted you buy your application vendor, or possibly by a VAR or other third party.
First, you have to understand the terms of the license itself which either grant or fail to grant legal rights to run the software.
You have to accept largely fictitious and poorly-defined meanings of terms like "copy" and "installation" and "software product" and keep these meanings in mind throughout the rest of the investigation.
If your license is conditional, e.g. on the purchase of hardware, on inclusion within a software bundle, on an ongoing service contract, or on any other condition, you must verify that those conditions pertain at any given time before making any judgment of the legality or illegality of your use of the installation of said software at said time.
(Your use of your installation installation may be legal at some time, and illegal at another time.)
The legality of your installation depends on the laws of your country.
When you are traveling, the laws which apply are not always clear.
If you want to be sure that using your copy of application X is legal, you must gather facts, create a body of supporting evidence, understand the laws and the license(s) which may apply in your jurisdiction and the relevant time frame, and then apply your understanding to the facts to determine whether your installation is legal.
If you want to be sure, and the situation is non-trivial, you have to get a lawyer involved.
"
So, that's a very abbreviated version of the proprietary, closed, non-Free Software answer to the question: "Is my installation of application X legal?"
Pick any Free Software you like, such as GNU Emacs (a text editor) or Mozilla Firefox (a browser).
You want to know if you can legally use it, if the author gives you permission to run it?
The Free Software answer is short and to the point: "Yes".
The other answer is long, complicated, and can only be summarized by saying "ask a very expensive lawyer if you need to know".
This is why we actually have people talking about "software licensing compliance audits" with a straight face and why businesses spend a lot of money on very expensive lawyers, license compliance audits, and other costs ancillary to the licensing of proprietary software.
athlon64fx
Golden Master
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woah all i haveta say
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