Re: Help me choose
From: ray (ray_at_zianet.com)
Date: 01/31/05
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Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 09:27:25 -0700
On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 06:42:30 +0100, I.C. Koets wrote:
> Alea iacta est; in the same way I was forced to abandon DOS, I am now forced
> to abandon W98se. My new computers hardware is no longer compatible with the
> old OS. Now I have to choose a new OS, and so far everyones' opinions are
> running counter to each other. I have a few choices, all have their own
> disadvantages:
>
> I could go with:
>
> * Windows XP. It is the current standard, so drivers and program
> compatibility shouldn't be a problem. My new machine should run it easily.
> Running with the masses makes a lot of things quite a bit easier.
> However: I tried it some time ago, and I wasn't impressed by the amount of
> overhead running. I knew how to strip 98 down to its bare minimum, but XP
> proved very resistant to such measures, and after it sat on my machine,
> smugly unperturbable, without me being able to stick my hands in the
> workings, I wiped it off. Not only that, but I have loads of DOS, W3.11 and
> W98 programs that I want to be able to run, and that didn't go smoothly at
> all. Also I got the distinct impression that XP is as open to hackers as a
> drunk whore is to sailors. If I go with XP, I'd have to find ways to get
> past these issues.
I've avoided XP due to MS's insane activation policies.
>
> * Windows 2000. Not standard, but still supported, perhaps not for long.
> Stable, businesslike.
> However: I never tried it, so I have cold feet. I heard its DOS support was
> even worse than XP's, which would disqualify it. I also heard it doesn't do
> games very well, and even though I don't game a lot, that doesn't sound
> nice. Furthermore, I have been warned that W2k is 'difficult', although I
> don't know if I'd mind that.
It is true that the MS software available has serious security flaws.
'Experts' estimate that an MS box can be on the internet about 10 minutes
before it is seriously compromised. My assessment - MS is fine as long as
you keep it off the internet.
>
> * Some flavour of Linux. Finally free from Redmonds' shackles, open source
> software by the shipload, often for free. Great choice in different
> flavours, active community.
> However: I tried SuSe 8.2, and it really annoyed me. Buggy, complex, help
> system was useless for a novice like me [if it didn't crash on me!], I never
> got any work done on it. The only thing I ever got to work was OpenOffice.
> Hurrah. The Linux newsgroups, forums etc. weren't very helpful at all. Half
> of the scarce answers I got were of the order "That's weird. Never heard of
> it doing that before." and the other half was "RTFM". So I'm sceptical. I've
> seen other peoples' systems running well, but I don't feel like having to
> become as involved in Linux as them in order to get it to run. Knoppix
> impressed me, when I saw it on a friends box, but I am wary. Not only would
> I have to know that it has good emulators for my old software, but I'd also
> have to choose a distro, which is not trivial for a newbie like me. And then
> there is the problem that my job requires me to work with certain standard
> programs, which might not have a Linux edition...
SuSE 8.2 is about two years old now - the Linux offerings improve with
each release. I suggest you try some of the 'live CDs' before you make any
decision. Knoppix is the king of the hill. Live CDs will boot and run
from CD without any installation - most of them do an excellent job of
hardware detection and setup.
The state of software is also much improved. If OpenOffice has a problem
with complex formatting of a MS Word doc, then AbiWord will probably
handle it. For me, the OO presentation software is much easier to use than
PowerPoint - and files are compatible. Gnucash does everything I needed
from Quicken - it will not export QIF files, though.
>
>
>
>
> So here I am, stuck without enough knowledge to make an educated
> decision. I just need to get my machine running, being able to run DOS,
> Win 3.11 and W98 applications (mostly CAD, Algebra software, MatLab,
> FEA, graph generators, office apps, other miscellaneous engineering and
> scientific software), but also a few games, some video and audio, and
> web browsing as well as a bit of data pumping on P2P networks. That's
> about it.
>
> Advise me, please!
If you need to run old MS apps, I suggest you do it from an MS product -
it will work better than the MS emulators that run on Linux. Maybe you
should think about a dual boot scenario - MS for running your MS software
and staying off the internet, and Linux for communication with the world.
Please see www.distrowatch.com www.yolinux.com and www.tldp.org.
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