Next?
“Nerds”? Is your office in a junior high school?
Yes… if you shut it down every night, it will probably run fine for several months.
Let me know when you’re running a web server, file server, database, SSH server, email, IRC, games, web browsers, etc. on the same system for several months without ever shutting it down.
And which “extras” would those be? SuSE comes with 5 gigabytes of software, right out of the box.
Here’s a little tip: Just because you can’t, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
Mr2001:
quote]Yes… if you shut it down every night, it will probably run fine for several months.
Let me know when you’re running a web server, file server, database, SSH server, email, IRC, games, web browsers, etc. on the same system for several months without ever shutting it down.
[/quote]
Just like derleth, you’re full of shit. I live in a house full of computers. Half of them built by me, half of them built by a major manufacturer. All of them run Win2KPro or higher. All of them run 24x7x365 running multiple services and acting as standalone desktop systems. THey get a reboot maybe monthly or bi-monthly, and that’s mainly due to software installs/upgrades, and even then, only due to the software companies’ insistance.
Only one of them crashes, and it’s the fucking HP. And it’s hardware related.
Sam
Rebooting every 2 to 4 weeks is not “24x7x365”.
BTW, you don’t need to reboot Linux to install or upgrade software or drivers, unless you’re replacing the kernel. Let me know when you have a 120 day uptime.
Like I said, it is at the software author’s insistance, not the OS. 9 times out of 10, I ignore the request to reboot because it’s not necessary…been that way since 1999.
If my software NEVER changed, I’d never reboot. I’d also like to point out that the occasional reboot for new software isn’t having to shut down every night.
I have much more than 120 days of uptime, trust me.
Sam
By uptime you mean penis and by days you mean inches. Right ?
How’s about this:
Even though I have this little forgotten box that has been sitting around on my desk, unused but running for about half a year(since the last power outage), I’ll just agree with you guys about having to reboot every night since Bill is Evil and you linux geeks never listen. K?
Sounds good.
Sam
Yep, sure know that feeling! Thanks to the Brave New World of MacOS X, those of us who use Macs get to experience this from time to time ourselves. I love having the power of sendmail but I sure didn’t love trying to configure it. And the first time I set up XFree86 (in the days before Apple’s own X11)? wow…
I’ve got this Novell server that’s been running without a reboot since '89… that help any?
Sorry, but Windows is pretty good. I’m still running 98 and I haven’t had the system freeze on me in over two years. I shut down the system anywhere from weekly to tri-monthly, no schedule just based on moods and never because of performance concerns.
Linux has no appeal to me whatsoever. Who cares if you can run your system forever? I wouldn’t do that whether I had Linux or not. I just want something easy to use, that doesn’t crash on me and has a wide variety of applications available. Windows does all that, which is why when I get a new computer in a year or so it will have the latest Windows program installed on it.
It’s the perfect OS for what I need.
Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie beat you to it: http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/1241/1241156.html
Well, it’s good that Windows doesn’t crash on you. You’re one of the lucky ones.
OTOH, there are thousands of people like me, who aren’t so lucky when it comes to Windows. My XP box tends to get stuck at a blue screen if I leave it unattended for more than a few hours - not the infamous BSOD, but a light blue screen that could be the background for the Welcome screen.
Windows 2000 and XP are the most stable versions of Windows I’ve seen, and in fact I was quite impressed with XP for the first couple months. But since then, I’ve had many crashes and hassles that are unique to Windows. One application locks up, which causes another app to lock up, and so on, and the “End Task” button in Task Manager has no discernable effect. That kind of disobedience simply doesn’t exist in Linux, IME.
I don’t care if your XP box has an uptime of 3 years, is running third party firewall software and an FTP server, a http server, and a telnet server. I don’t care that you have the latest version of Office XP and Photoshop running and your machine never crashes.
For you to run that stuff (legally) on a Windows box, you will invest at least $1000 on software. To run that stuff legally on a Linux box, you need not spend a penny.
That’s the real reason Linux is awesome. It is the perfect choice for a cost-conscious company, but the exact same starting materials are available to any hobbyist out there. Whether your interests are setting up a secure corporate intranet or photoshopping (actually GIMPing) the head of George Bush onto Ron Jeremy’s body, you sacrifice no quality while saving a bundle of money.
What linux needs for desktop suitability is Standards. And I don’t mean the LSB.
Instead of differentiating linux by simply the kernel version, a system should be devised to identify a permutation of core components like kernel 2.4.13 / gcc 3.2 / glibc 6.0 / xfree 3.3…etc
And then software should be released with compatability defined in terms of these permutations. The complementary step here would be for distributions to also be identified in terms of such numbering.
Such a numbering system would be complex to devise, but I think it can be done.
The kernel is just one part (although core) of the OS. It is not the OS. And end-users are not interested in verifying or updating their systems to gcc 3.2 or systools-1.4 (or whatever) These presets as communicated by software vendors and implemented by distributions will go a long way to get the software running out-of-the-box, and which happens to be a major hurdle in linux usability.
You installed your LPAQ to your Windows XP Professional? What? 
So in your world, technology should be a closed system available only to those who know how to program? Average users don’t deserve access to more sophisticated tools than whatever Microsoft decides to put in a box?
While it may work for pseudo-talents who do work for the Web, the GIMP is a piss-poor product for real graphic design work. It’s CMYK support is shoddy and it lacks many of the dazzling new features found in Photoshop 7 and CS. It’s a prosumer toy compared to the professional tool that is Photoshop.
Right, because there are no free software firewalls for Windows. Or FTP servers. There’s no Windows port of Apache or any other free HTTP servers. No free telnet, either. There’s no Windows port of The Gimp or any other free graphics editors that aren’t comparable to Photoshop. And, of course, there’s no port of OpenOffice.org for Windows. :rolleyes:
And even if it were possible to run Office XP and Photoshop under Linux you would still need to buy licences.
I think the ideal combination is Windows 2000 or XP combined with open source applications, which are now generally good enough for most people’s needs. If I want to play games or I need professional grade software like Photoshop, the option to buy them is open to me, and I don’t have to dual boot or jump through the necessary hoops to (sorta, maybe, probably not) get them working under WINE. Best of both worlds.
Actually, I think you’re just unlucky. Nearly everyone I know runs Windows of some sort (except my mom who is a Mac freak), and none of them has ever had their computer crash due to MS software on anywhere near a regular occurrance. Even my dad who is so stubborn he’s using 95 still and would be using DOS if we didn’t force him to switch 7 years ago doesn’t have any problems
Sucks for you. I’ve never even heard of that. And there may be thousands like you, but there are millions like me.
Don’t get me wrong, if you like Linux better then that’s what you should use. But I’ve never had a problem with Windows and I’m willing to pay what they charge for the convenience and ease of use it provides to me. I don’t want to fiddle with my computer, I want it to quickly and easily install and then run the applications I tell it to when I click on an icon. And Windows does it.
If I was really into computers and code, then I’d probably go with Linux. But I’m not.