Linux

[pixel]

I am not planning on moving to a FreeOS (I'm currently on XP Pro), but I've just been wondering about them, because I would like to try some out. (There's no price better than free. )

I have mainly been wondering about the ones here: http://www.freeos.com/download.php

Does anyone know which ones have the best features and consume the least PC power?

In particular I have been looking at Linux. What is probably the best distribution of Linux? Is it Red Hat or some other?

Also if anyone has tried any free OSs, did they work with all your programs/hardware? What is the security like on any free OS anyone has tried also?

As I already said I am not planning on moving to a free OS, I would just like to gather information based on users opinions of any free OS.

I will also probably not reply to this post because I am just wanting other users opinions.

Thanks in advance.

[sterno]

Does anyone know which ones have the best features and consume the least PC power?

A lot of what's on that list is either still an unfinished work-in-progress or simply not well suited as a general-purpose OS. The best candidates for a complete system are probably Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, and QNX. Solaris needs a little more power than the others, and FreeBSD is probably a little better on a PC desktop than OpenBSD and NetBSD. QNX is kind of specialized as a real-time system or a development platform for embedded systems running QNX, but it's still usable as a general-purpose OS.

In particular I have been looking at Linux. What is probably the best distribution of Linux? Is it Red Hat or some other?

The "best" distribution is a hotly-debated point. There is no "best", there isn't a huge difference from one to another but everybody has a preference. Different distributions often have a slightly different focus. Red Hat is common, especially since it's very friendly to new users.

Also if anyone has tried any free OSs, did they work with all your programs/hardware? What is the security like on any free OS anyone has tried also?

They don't run Windows software (not natively, there are emulators but I have had no need for them). The overwhelming majority of programs you use on a UNIX desktop are free. Some types of software are more readily available for Windows, others are more advanced on the UNIX side.

They usually don't support the latest and greatest hardware. However, the PC hardware I have in my home right now is actually better-supported in Linux than in Windows 2000 because I have some older hardware. Companies tend to drop support for older hardware in new versions of Windows. Linux and BSD usually don't drop hardware support unless there is a good reason (their drivers aren't written by hardware vendors).

The most important security tool in any OS is a smart user, but bugs exist in any complex software. In the Windows world you tend to have a lot of major problems for at least two or three years after a release, and patches for minor problems every week. In the Linux/BSD world major holes are pretty rare, though minor problems are fairly common because a UNIX-like system has a lot of application software that isn't a standard part of a Windows system. Most vendors take responsibility for supplying patches for those programs as well as the core system.

My main desktop machines have been running Linux, Solaris, or OpenBSD for over 6 years. The only time I use my Windows PC is for games and video encoding.

[Solarjetman]

A large chunk of people would recommend either Redhat or Mandrake Linux. I have seen very few recommend any others for the inexperienced.

[The village idiot]

FreeBSD is the core OS of Apple's OSX. You might want to use that. It supports many USB2 and firewire devices. Get the freeBSD v5.X and try it.

[gmatov]

Oneotheroption is to DL SuSe Linux 8.1, a single disk image file, burn from the image, set your 'puter to boot from CD.

It will install minimal files to the machine and run from the disk.

That way you don't have to partition and format for the linux directories.

It will give you somewhat of the linux experience, and if you don't like it, just pitch the disk.

The evaluation CD is a free DL, and the other distros are anywhere from 3 to 8 CDs full. Their DLs are free of charge, also.

www.suse.com

Cheers,

George

[Faustus]

I suck at linux but I've installed it a few times, the less painful setups were from Mandrake and Suse.

[pixel]

I know I said I probably wouldn't reply, but that defeats the purpose of a forum.

Thanks for everyones time and opinions.

So far it seems most people who have given there opinions tip FreeBSD, Mandrake Linux, RedHat Linux, or Suse Linux.

Thanks also to gmatov for his suggestion of using a suse disk to run the OS from. I'll definitely try that as it seems the least work and I'll just take an image of windows in case I want to go back.

I'll try and get an old hard disk and have a mess about with that.

Another few questions (as if my first ones weren't enough ):

Does the OS have the drivers included for hardware?

Can I only use programs created for that OS (in other words, no windows programs)? (If not, is there anywhere to find the free programs like media players, word processors etc for the OSs?)

Will my capture software for my video card work, or will I have to use a windows emulator in one of the freeOSs?

Thanks again to anyone who replies.

[pixel]

I have been checking out some Linux versions (actually, I just went to the Linux website) and have found some promising versions that I might try.

For testing at the moment I may try (I am only on 56K so it has to be floppy sized d/loads till I can download them off broadband):

hal91 Floppy Linux (doesn't look any good),
LOAF (Linux on a floppy),
Monkey Linux,
Morphix,
Pocket Linux.

For testing from a broadband d/load:
Demo Linux,
Devil-Linux,
SuSE Linux on a disc.

If I choose to use Linux:
Icepack Linux,
Linux Mandrake,
Peanut Linux,
RedHat Linux,
SuSE Linux.

These are just versions that look promising at the moment. If anyone has anything to add about these versions it would be appreciated.

At the moment I can only d/load the floppy-sized Linux distros.

[Faustus]

I'm by NO means an expert, but the last version I used much (Suse) came with media players web browser, email programs. All the simple applications you'd need for day to day use, all preinstalled.

[pixel]

Thank you flaystus. Thats good to know.

Right now I will try one of the floppy based systems because the others are too big for me to d/load at the moment on my 56K.

[alchemistresearch]

56k? Ouch! Check out PCW magazine. They regularly feature the latest version of Mandrake every month or so on their cover disc. September 2003 had Redhat 9 on it.

Or you could ask one of the friendly souls on here to burn you a copy for the cost of the discs and postage

[pixel]

56k? Ouch! Check out PCW magazine. They regularly feature the latest version of Mandrake every month or so on their cover disc. September 2003 had Redhat 9 on it.

Or you could ask one of the friendly souls on here to burn you a copy for the cost of the discs and postage

Thanks for your concern, but I know someone who has broadband, and I have access to it, but just not at the moment. I am only trying to download trials anyway.

Thanks for the info on the magazine too.

[sterno]

A standard Linux or FreeBSD install typically includes drivers for a huge amount of hardware. Video capture depends entirely on how well-supported your card is, some cards have almost no support and others have pretty good support. If your card isn't supported you probably won't be able to run capture software in an emulator because the emulator won't have direct access to the hardware.

If you're running Linux you need to run Linux software. If you're running FreeBSD you need FreeBSD software. If you absolutely have to you can run some Windows software through an emulator. Most current full Linux distributions include some media players, but you probably won't find them on a floppy-based system and you will only find a few popular ones on CD-based systems. FreeBSD will probably only put that kind of thing in their ports/packages system, so you'd have to install them after installing the base system. OpenOffice is a popular office app, it's almost identical to MS Office. There are actually much better tools for document creation but people seem to be stuck on these word processor toys.

Knoppix is a very popular run-from-CD Linux system. It has pretty good automatic hardware setup. But Knoppix is really a single-user setup, it's different from a normal installation in a lot of ways.

[The village idiot]

If you're running Linux you need to run Linux software. If you're running FreeBSD you need FreeBSD software.

That's not completely true. freeBSD has a linux emulator that can be installed with the normal install routines. I haven't used it, but I know it is there. Also you can take the BSD ports collection and compile it to linux. That's why they both run many of the same things.

It's really too bad that BeOS didn't catch on. It actually worked well, and was easy to understand. And it was cheap... $50USD for the OS, BSD ports collection, and a big fat book!

[gmatov]

Pixel,

If your friend is going to DL Linux for you, you won't be downloading trials, the full version is free to DL, 3, 6 or 8 CDs full.

Generally, it really is a free system, when you go to the store to buy a distro, you are really paying for the pressed disks and the support, not for the OS.

The OS is under the GNU license, and free software license.

Cheers,

George

[sterno]

That's not completely true. freeBSD has a linux emulator that can be installed with the normal install routines. I haven't used it, but I know it is there. Also you can take the BSD ports collection and compile it to linux. That's why they both run many of the same things.

I wasn't really going to go in to that stuff, this sounds like somebody who would be starting out with nothing but precompiled, packaged binaries. By the time people start compiling from source they've usually picked up the basics of binaries vs. source code.

All the BSDs have basic binary compatibility support for Linux and the other BSDs, as well as a few other systems. People used to use similar software to run SCO binaries in Linux, way back when some companies still used Unixware. It's not exactly emulation, it's more like a translation layer - most UNIX-like systems do the same things but in different ways, and the compatibility mainly handles hooking them together.

[pixel]

Pixel,

If your friend is going to DL Linux for you, you won't be downloading trials, the full version is free to DL, 3, 6 or 8 CDs full.

Generally, it really is a free system, when you go to the store to buy a distro, you are really paying for the pressed disks and the support, not for the OS.

The OS is under the GNU license, and free software license.

Cheers,

George

Sorry, I know they are free, I meant for me to try them out.

I might just look into a simple floppy based Linux because it seems to much hassle to try running a Linux system and do video editing, so I could just try a floppy or likewise based Linux specialised for using the Internet.

At the moment my PC takes over 1min to load from the logon screen and I don't have that much software running from startup (spystoppers, antivirus etc.). Hopefully once I have upgraded my PC it will be faster, but I thought at the moment, instead of having 2 seperate installs of windows with the second one being a minimalist for when I am wanting on the internet, I could just try a free OS, specialised for using the internet.

This was all really just researching whether or not it was useful to go to a free OS and it is definitely something worth trying out, especially the ones specially optimised for certain features.

Thanks to everyone for their help, all your effort is greatly appreciated.