Posted on 02/25/2006 7:09:32 PM PST by Halfmanhalfamazing
Is Dell is on its way to becoming the first tier-one PC vendor to offer a mainstream business Linux desktop to US customers? It's starting to look that way.
In the recent past, Dell has toyed with shipping a Linux-powered PC to the US market. But, when push came to shove, the results -- a Dimension E510n PC shipped with an empty hard drive, a copy of the obscure, open-source FreeDOS operating system and no support if you did install Linux -- were less then impressive.
It's a different story for so-called workstations priced nearly as cheaply as desktops. Dell has started advertising a trio of affordable workstations with RHEL WS 4 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux workstation 4) preinstalled.
The problem with the Linux community is one of communication, there is no solid source out there saying 'This is the on for new people' and 'stay away from this distro its a pain'..
Updating Fedora: Click on a red icon that does the update... Whats so hard about that?
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
So I'm willing to set up Linux as a section OS to experiment,
This is where the typical Linux-curious person runs off of the rails. Dual-booting is reasonably easy for persons used to fooling around with disk partitions and boot sectors. For everyone else it's a disaster waiting to happen. Ask yourself this...would you be willing to install both WinME and WinXP on your machine? On separate partitions? Using different file systems? Do you have a backup strategy? To tape or CD or DVD? Do you test your backups?
If the answer to any of those questions is no, then don't do it. If you want to use Linux, use it the way it was meant to be used, the way that all OSes are meant to be used. Install it on a separate machine.
They are cheap, especially since Linux has considerably less resource requirements than a typical Windows PC. A P3 with 128MB of RAM and a 20GB hard drive is more than enough. Bump it up to a half-gig of RAM and install a decent video card and it will scream. Here's an eBay link to a system which would work just fine for $30.
You can pick up a KVM switch (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) on eBay for a dozen bucks. Then you can switch back and forth.
As for slowly migrating, download a copy of OpenOffice.org for your Windows box. Stop using MS Office and use OO.org there. Once you are comfy using that, the switch to Linux is much more palatable.
And don't pick a distro of Linux made for servers or designed for the advanced Linux user. Yes, RedHat, SuSE, and Fedora, I'm talking to you. I recommend Kubuntu.
You can even download a Live CD and test your system or just experiment with the OS. This will boot an entire OS from a CD without touching your existing system. It will run rather slowly on a 128MB system though as it uses a RAM drive to store transient data.
If you have a choice, go with an nVidia or Matrox card over an ATI. ATI has spotty support for Linux while box Matrox and nVidia fully support most recent versions.
Some of your cut-rate peripherals may not work. A lot of cheap devices offload processing to the computer's CPU via a Windows-only driver. To add insult to injury, the exact way that this driver works is then kept secret. BTW, these same peripherals may not work under XP either, especially if the manufacturer is a fly-by-night operation.
Cheap modems, printers and multi-function devices are the worst culprits. Generally, USB devices work fine. Network cards and external modems work fine. Mice, keyboards, monitors, graphics tablets, PalmPilots, joysticks and SCSI devices work fine.
But just to be sure, download the Live CD and test out your system.
I appreciate your suggestions; I will download openoffice ASAP and start the transition.
I doubt I will be able to line up another computer where I am right now, however, so Linux may have to wait until that arrives, given the suggestion that partitioning might not be so hot an idea. I'm comfortable with it. But I don't really want to make waves with the wife on the computer (it's a replacement for a crashed HP--did I mention HP sucks?). She's been without reliable stateside communication for a little while and is only now getting re-used to having an internet connection again full-time, and dealing with partitioning would rock her world, I think.
don't think i tried that i have used Mandrake and Red Hat(older version) and you had to install the updates some weird way, with rpm's or something its been a long time since i have messed with linux like a few years maybe it has gotten better.
YEP, and they is another reason that i gave up on linux is because i build my own computers and tryied to install linux on one of my newer builds and couldn't find drivers, why use an OS if you can use all the hardware you have invested money in. I had an ALL-in-wonder and at the time they didnt have any
drivers for the tv part, maybe they do now i dont know havent looked into it, but i bet when new stuff comes out, linux is the last to get a driver.
i wasn't talking about updating a program how about the comand for updating the kernal or whatever. I had Mandrake 7 I believe and tried to update it to 7.1 it wasn't fun especially
with limited knowledge of linux, i bought the distro so i had all the documentation just gave up on it because it wasnt worth the time and linux didn't have driver support for my hardware for most of my
"i bet when new stuff comes out, linux is the last to get a driver."
Well, I won't necessarily agree with you there, because I think more manufacturers are building with Linux in mind. But I really, really don't like worrying about installing all that piecemeal. I hate the idea that I'll suddenly realize I missed that PCMCIA card or that the third memory slot isn't reading. I know WinME sucks, but it runs, and I can't lose a shitty computer for an inoperable one when my wife really, really likes getting her email. 8)
like i said i haven't mes with linux in about 2-3 years and driver situation back then was horrible, have things changed? maybe.
VMWare offers a free product called VMWare Server, you can download it and run Linux on a virtual machene. In addition there is QEMU (http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/) which is another free product that does the same thing. VMWare is easier to use. If you really wanted to give Linux a shot use this, not disk partitioning needed no dual booting.
Heh.... Hey it's not for everybody.
The difference really doesn'tgo as far as many think.
Besides, who is kevin rollins? Sorry, it didn't jump out at me.
Dell isn't socialist, the socialists are those that are constantly trying to ram free software like Linux down our throats. According to the socialists linked below, Dell made it almost impossible for them to buy a Linux system from them.
http://mozillaquest.com/Linux04/Dell-Linux_Story-01.html
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20040918105850387
"Stephen Wanless: You (and your friend) must be trying to purchase a client (desktop/laptop) product with Linux. While we offer Linux on all of our server range (Dell PowerEdge servers) we don't offer Linux as a factory installed option on our clients with the exception of the Dell Precision line of Workstations."
"For customers looking for a desktop without a Microsoft OS installed we offer the 'N' series of products. I believe you can install Linux on those without affecting the warranty."
"Generally, the third party manufacturers provide warranty and support for their products sold through the Dell S&P channel. (However, Dell does offer optional services and support for S&P products.) As Steve notes, Dell Precision workstations are currently the only client product line that we offer with Linux pre-installed (Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS), based on customer demand."
"Going through the "home" menuing, the salesperson reached on 9 January 2004 said a user installing Linux does not void the hardware warranty. Apparently as Carmen said at the end of December, they got with their sales team to make sure they have the right information -- at least as to user installation of Linux and other software not voiding the hardware warranty."
Basically Dell has always sold server side Linux and always allowed you to install Linux without voiding a warranty. The authors of this article had pretty unreasonable expectations of Dell given that Dell is a private business and have every right to piss on a pengo daily. The whole thing amounts to some sales people who were not well trained and some guys thinking Dell has a responsibility to provide a product they do not see a market demand for. And you bought it hook line and sinker as a conspiracy by dell. Ive personally found dells to be some of the most Linux friendly PC's there are as far as driver support goes.
#apt-get update
#apt-get dist-upgrade
Presto! Entire OS, kernel and all upgraded to current.
The GUIs allow this too.
You say Linux doesn't support your hardware. Either:
1) You were installing a version of Linux from 3 years ago
2) You have really oddball hardware, like milling machine interfaces
3) You have really cheap hardware (manufacturers of cut-rate hardware like to use the CPU of your computer rather than build a real device. Typically this happens most with modems and cheap printers. Note that XP doesn't support many of the same devices.)
or
4) You are not being truthful.
To which I will reply:
1) Use a recent version. You can even download a Live CD to test all of your hardware without touching your existing system.
2) Hire an expert to get your oddball (and likely very expensive) hardware running. It's a one time expense and you will own the resulting fix.
3) Buy decent hardware. Saving $10 on a printer is silly. Likewise, saving $10 on a modem is too.
4) Quit it.
3 years ago did they have any drivers for the All-in-wonder? Also, had problems finding via drivers. my printer, and cable modem all had problems, I now have DSL and dont know if that will work or not it probably will but dont have the time to waste messing with it. Windows works
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.