Linux

[trickfred]

While one might find it funny to have a stab at the OS's, most of those hits are Windows XP, which everyone here who runs XP will agree it is very stable. You have to do something stupid to mess it up, which you can also do with any linux distro

NeoThermic

I get the occasional blue screen, but it's almost always due to video issues, mainly conflicting codecs, buggy codecs, screwed up playback of wonky formats like Real (using Real Alternative - don't rewind too much or use slo-mo or you're boned! YMMV) etc... on my machine, and the wife's. WinXP handles them poorly. I've read somewhere in a review that Vista has tried, and has been mostly successful, in fixing those problems and handling them much more gracefully.

Other than that, I'm fairly happy with XP, just wish they had not taken so damn long to get to this point.

[Dave2]

Did a recent update fuck up FF and Thunderbird for you? It did for me and my dad.

I dunno, I've not booted into native Win32 for ages; I literally only have it for playing the odd game that this machine can actually handle. My VMware XP Pro and 2000 installs still have Firefox working fine though. This particular issue was whereby installing a driver from WinUpdate would cause a BSOD on boot.

[shinygerbil]

a BSOD on boot.

You say that like it's a bad thing

[Serathii]

BSOD on boot means that WindowsXP has successfully installed AOL software.

[xander]

Look on the bright side: if it BSODs on boot, that means it cannot be infected by virii.

xander

[Babylon5]

Quiet you, you Mac user.

[shinygerbil]

Occasionally I pity Mac users though. They get patronised so much by the big, white, fluffy OS

[Babylon5]

Hey, I was born and raised on Win95, it's almost too late for me to change even to Linux. But I would like to.

[xander]

Hey, I was born and raised on Win95, it's almost too late for me to change even to Linux. But I would like to.

Man, I was raised on MS BASIC on a KayPro. It wasn't until 1990 that I got a machine with any color other than green...

xander

[shinygerbil]

An Atari 800XL for me. Then my dad got an Atari ST. Oh, the sheer unadulterated power...

I found a website a few years ago where people were using Atari STs with 33k modems for their internet...

[timonator]

actually on linux you need to first open up the console.
to idiot users this is the most scary thing to do.
idiot users will then shutdown the computer and call MS tech support

then youll have to call su like this:

su

and then it asks for a password. even if the idiot user knows his root password he wouldnt accidentally type his root password there.
then there is the thing with no stars or anything showing up on the password prompts in most linux console apps i know, including su
the idiot user will hold ctrl-alt-del until the system reboots (dunno if that works? dont wanna check, tho) or hold the power key and run off to get new batteries.

if the idiot user then does cd / and rm * it will go
"rm: removing directory '/bin' is not possible: it is a directory
rm: removing directory 'boot' is not possible: it is a directory
(if you got a regular file in /)
rm: delete regular file '...'?"
and so on

if the idiot user then manages to read through the manpage for rm and finds out that the argument r makes rm remove directories as well and the argument f makes it not ask any more i am going to congratulate him for his ultimate unidiotness.

deleting all stuff in C:\Windows\System32\ is actually easyer, since the idiot user (and most normal users as well) always run the admiistrator account...

/rant

ah and btw: i use gentoo and i really enjoy the ease of installing and updating stuff (even tho it can take quite long sometimes). however, the installation is not as graphical as the ones ubuntu, suse, red hat and all the likes offer. so its really not recommendable for users who just want to try linux or first time users, you need a bunch of curiousity and will to learn when installing gentoo

[shinygerbil]

Oh come on, give me some artistic license.

First of all, it's easier to get to a console in Linux than in Windows. Most users can at least navigate menus.

I know you'd have to use rm -rf, but it didn't have the same ring to it in my original post. Plus, I used a '#' for the prompt rather than '$', implying a root user. Believe me, I had written out the full commands, previewed it, and it looked naff, so I shortened it. And, on my system I have:

Code: Select all

alias rm='rm -rf'

Tha last time I tried to delete the contents of System32, it worked splendidly, but when I refreshed they all came back. It would be a pretty basic precaution that wouldn't be hard to implement, even in Windows - there are such things as file attributes, since Win95 and probably earlier. Everyone starts out as an idiot user.

/defence

I'd like to try Gentoo, but debs are just so easy. Me love apt-get.

[timonator]

wow, thats like... OMG you could hurt yourself!

Code: Select all

alias rm="rm -i"

ffs, wear protection :/

sorry that i didn't see the root prompt (late, tired, blah)

but still: root is the user that is made for the 'i can do EVERYTHING' work... windows won't let even the administrator delete important and vital files (such as outlook express)

and btw: why should a normal user get to the conclusion that he wants to run rm -rf /?

[shinygerbil]

A normal user wouldn't.

Although I guess a malicious person might. We can all get grumpy sometimes, and a quick rm -rf / will just make all that anger go away (on someone else's machine of course!)

And I hardly ever use rm anyway. I just used it a few times in succession, got annoyed with having to write the extra bits, so I saved myself a few seconds...

[Serathii]

lol, just tell a Windows user to go to the back of their computer, and switch "115V" to "220V" while their computer is booting for more speed.

They'll do it. And there goes the power supply.