[pdot]

I'm just curious about the advantages. I dabbled with Suse Linux a while back and sure it ran things faster, but that's b/c there was little or no user friendly interface. Except for techies, it doesn't seem anywhere as useful as Windows (gasp) let alone any MacOS.

[ringo]

My interest is really on the development side. Linux is entirely open source, allowing quite a bit of experimentation for people (like me) who want to play around in root without the risk of screwing up theit OSx installation.

*nix is pretty much a standard for web servers in many instances. Lots of companies run Apache on Linux to serve content rather then spend all their time patching the many security holes in Microsoft products.

Plus, by installing linux on a separate partition, you can choose which OS to boot at startup, allowing you to enjoy Aqua or code in a linux environment, whatever.

Note, this is just my opinion. I'm still preparing to install linux on my mac. You may not have a need for linux, not everyone does.

Cheers,
Ringo




[ 10-21-2001: Message edited by: ringo ]

Originally posted by pdot:
<STRONG>I'm just curious about the advantages. I dabbled with Suse Linux a while back and sure it ran things faster, but that's b/c there was little or no user friendly interface. Except for techies, it doesn't seem anywhere as useful as Windows (gasp) let alone any MacOS.</STRONG>

[ryochiji]

For all it's worth, a little story of the one time I installed Linux on a Mac...

I used to work for a small ISP in Tokyo as a web developer. For the most part, our servers consisted of old PCs running Linux, and when we needed a new server, we would go to the "junk yard" and pull out a machine, patch it up, and install Linux.

One time, I went to the junk yard, and to my surprise, found a PowerMac 8100. With the addition of a personal PPC604e 180MHz daughter card, it became the fastest machine around (compared to Pentium 133's, that is) so I decided to install LinuxPPC 2000.

To make a long story short, it worked, but it wasn't very pretty. LinuxPPC 2000 was based on RedHat 6.1, but all of our other servers were running 6.2 or 7.1 (or some other distro entirely, or other flavor of UNIX). We couldn't find the latest packages for some of the software we needed, which became a nuisance.

Anyway, why would anyone instsall Linux? Well, it isn't Windows, and it also is a better server OS than Widnows NT and runs fine on old machines. It's a flavor of UNIX with lots of support around, with good support for most hardware configurations out there.

As for my self, I sold my Linux machine after MacOS X came out...

(Sorry 'bout the stupid story...it's a slow Saturday okay?)

[vsurfer]

If u'd like to c some screenshots of a commercial distro check this url:
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/fscreenshots.php3

Couple of nice ones in there with transparent terminals and all that jazz.

Then go to SuSE
http://www.suse.com/us/products/suse...ppc/index.html

and check the 1000 apps that come with their distro. Probably 875 you won't use, but then maybe someone will. maybe I will.
http://www.suse.com/en/products/suse...ges/index.html

I like possibilities - it's a myers-briggs thing. If i had more time, i'd d/l the stuff from Mandrake and compile it myself but, I think i'll start with the SuSE CD's first. The price is right.

Another reason. Well if I really couldn't afford, or didn't want to afford MS office but I sought that kind of software, there's Sun's StarOffice which I think comes packaged with the SuSE Distro. Or KOffice, etc.
Then there's the Gimp for graphics manipulation if you wish. Of course you could do that on Xfree86, but some of those Linux desktops do have a certain charm.

Why else - development, curiosity, variety, and it's looking better all the time. And best reason of all: because my mac CAN do it.

[yukon]

personally, I wanted it as a bridge to the PC side. just a simple recompile, and you run pc programs. just wish they would recompile tribes2 for ppc.