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This is just the sort of thing that got me started looking into Linux last year. It's been about six months now and I still haven't got Linux fully working on my old Pentium I, but I'm sure I'll be able to iron out all the installation glitches pretty soon. It's also running quite nicely on my old 486.

I'm going to be buying a new computer this spring and I'm not going to buy M$ operating system for it. I'm just going to put a 2 GB partition on the hard drive and install Win95 again to give me some compatibility with old dos programs that I use a lot. The rest of the space will be for Linux.

This prying into your computer by M$ is only the first salvo in a long war that Bill Gates intends to win. IMO his eventual goal is to be receiving a yearly rent check from every computer user in the world for the continuing use of their computer. He won't be receiving a check from me, that's for sure.

Check out Linux. You can get a CD for $5 on Ebay (or download it for free if you have a fast connection). It takes some work and lots of reading, so don't expect it to fire up and run just right the first day. But I think you'll find it worth it in the future.

IMO his eventual goal is to be receiving a yearly rent check from every computer user in the world for the continuing use of their computer.

Not just your opinion. Licensing 6.0 is moving that direction already.

Except for a VMWare copy of Win2K on my laptop, I am Microsoft free. I run RedHat Linux on two desktops and one laptop, FreeBSD on my x86 servers, OpenBSD on my Sparc servers and security devices and NetBSD on everything else.

To date, the only thing that requires me to use Windows at all is a VB/Access app at one of my customer sites. Office, including Visio, work well under Codeweavers Wine.

It's been about six months now and I still haven't got Linux fully working on my old Pentium I, but I'm sure I'll be able to iron out all the installation glitches pretty soon.

I like Linux and use Redhat 8 on one of my machines at home but this sentence sums up why Linux is still mostly used by computer geeks: it's hard to configure. Every release gets much, much better but I still wouldn't recommend Linux to the average home user.

When it gets to be that it fires up right away is when people will start using it. I have too many other things to spend my time on then to fidle with an OS, when Windows XP does everything I ask of it.

I'll be glad to switch if and when it gets as easy as windows with all the applications I need.

Re: "It takes some work and lots of reading, so don't expect it to fire up and run just right the first day. But I think you'll find it worth it in the future." 12 posted on 02/26/2003 11:22 AM CST by Siegfried

Funny, you should say that. I just this afternoon pulled a Windows XP hard drive and replaced it with a brand new 40GB Maxtor. I used my just arrived 3 disk set of Mandrake 9.0 and installed it in less than thirty minutes. I am still trying to configure it, but it is up and running and everything (Mozilla browser and email) seems to work. In fact I am using it now while listening to Quinn with the XMMS player.

Yes, I have a way to go to learn it and to use it to its advantages, but as of now my total experience with Linux is less than five hours. It may become my default OS.

Eat your heart out Bush2000!