SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Pastimes : Computer Learning

 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  
To: thecow who wrote (36694)9/11/2003 7:47:44 AM
From: Elsewhere  Read Replies (1) of 110626
 
They may not be the best alternatives available but using each is optional.

Fortunately. Thanks for the Firebird tip, BTW, it's much faster than Mozilla.

I plan on trying Linux at some point but isn't there a learning curve?

Yes, but it can be spread, it isn't worse than keeping up with new virus definition files and firewall tweakings :-) Personally I find it more of an effort to deal with modern hardware. Many manufacturers of peripheral devices only produce proprietary drivers and release them for Windows, it often takes months or years until Linux catches up. I had a good Linux environment on my old desktop PC but when I switched to a notebook in December I stayed with the pre-installed XP. Only in August I've started to work on a dual-boot environment again. I am still dealing with some hardware issues and experiment with the latest 2.6 beta kernel to get ACPI running which is important to access notebook features like energy management, LCD configuration, sleep states. There's also an external FireWire hard disk waiting to be connected.

I suggest the easiest way to give it a try is to download CD evaluation versions. In past month I have tried two of them:

Knoppix
knoppix.net

SuSE Linux for i386 Live-Eval
suse.com
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/live-eval-8.2/SuSE-8.2-LiveEval-i386-Int-RC2.iso

You just download the ISO image (broadband recommended, about 600 MB each), burn it to CD and boot from it. Both variants are good at hardware detection and boot right into a desktop environment. If a router is available for DHCP then getting online is a matter of a couple of minutes.
Report TOU ViolationShare This Post
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext