On Wed, 12 Nov 2008, Dan Richardson wrote:

Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:32:40 -0800
From: Dan Richardson
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.homebrew
Subject: Article about a portable PC that runs on 12v?

On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:24:01 +0000, Bob wrote:

can't understand the reluctance of the Americans to use Linux. There has
been no real reason to use Windows for a long time (unless you want to play
games, but a PS3 is best for that). Over here in Europe, Linux uptake
continues rapidly - as each new Windows virus or worm hits, ever more people
and businesses migrate.

Maybe it is because it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to
find necessary hardware drivers. Especially, if you have some of the
latest equipment models. I have found Linux to be more useful on older
computers as one is much more likely to find the necessary drivers.

For example have recently added a new HP all-in-one laser printer that
includes a scanner and FAX. I have it installed on a dual boot
(Linux/Windows XP) system. While I'm able to print with the Linux
system good luck trying to get the scanner and FAX working. That's
just one example. I have a litany of them.

I spent a couple of years evaluating Linux here and decided to go back to
Windows. I really really wanted Linux to work, but in the end stayed with
Windows (98 second edition was best). Here are some of my issues;

1. Hardware compatibility is a major problem, and gets worse the later the
distro. Best distros for my hardware were Red hat 5.2 and 6.2, and I could
install those distros on any and all of my hardwares (about two dozen
boxes), Later distros did not have drivers for earlier CDROM drives where
your only other option is boot-from-CDROM, but if your bios does not have
that, then you are dead. I have had a lot of experience with installations
of Linux that crash before the installation is completed. If you want
Linux, start with a shop or company that will sell you all the hardware
knowing that that hardware will support the OS. Yes, i spent years on the
linux newsgroups reading posts of all kinds of people having all kinds of
problems. The multi-boot loaders also have bugs (lilo, grub, etc.) and the
books don't tell you what to do if it screws up your box. Also, its a
hardware compatibility problem. I had boxes where everything worked fine.
Other boxes where the install crashed, the boot manager screwed up, or
something else didn't work. YMMV.

2. I like iomega zip disks (100 MB) and the books say the only way Linux
can support zip disks is by re-compiling the kernel and I was not about to
do that.

3. Especially the later distros: they all need more ram than Windows to
work (250 mb, minimum).

4. If you are serious, you need to configure your Linux firewall and the
books say if you don't do it right, you're worse off than running without
a firewall. I ran Linux for over a year, but got hacked within two months.
With Zone Alarm, you just put it into Windows and you get a lot of
protection for no work.

5. Unless you have a high spec box (I didn't), all of the aps run slower
than Windows. This is because Linux is really multiprocess unlike Windows
which is multitasking (via time slicing). This is also true for OS/2 which
I also spent a lot of time with.

I bought version 8 of Ubuntu a few weeks ago. they cleaned up a lot, but
after the install, I got the printer to work fine, but Ubuntu could not
find my modem (yes its a _regualar_ modem and that modem worked with
everything else) and I don't have any other kind of internet access here
besides dialup (unless I want to get one of the satellite dish deals,
adding up a ton of fees and a two year contract and the legal disclaimers
say they don't guarantee anything). So, I'll give MS credit for an OS that
really does install on all of my hardware, and always finds all of my
peripherals.

One nice thing about Ubuntu is that you can boot up totally off the CDROM
and see if it ends up with the gui and you can run the aps without
problems. Boot up from the CDROM takes (on my 800 mHz box) about 5-8
minutes. Ap launch is also quite slow, but will work. It absolutely will
not boot up on less than 250 mb of ram.

Microsoft has become the ultimate robber-barron with its "activation" and
I bought one legal copy of XP which I will run as long as I can but if
internet web browsing makes any further advances, I'll consider an Apple
Mac before I give Bill Gates & Thugs any more money.

The other problem is whether Apple supplies distibution disks with their
computers (in case you need to re-install the OS because of, for example,
a corrupted or hacked OS install). And, if you think OS-X is immune to
hacking, then just google on "hack OS-X" and get 30,000 hits. Might be
resistant to MS viruses, but there is a lot of other malicious code out
there that is bad for your box.

Oh, yes, shut off as many of the services as you can or when you re-boot,
it may crash (particularly the earlier distros) and make your box unusable
without another install from scratch (unless you know how to fix what got
screwed up). You could also ruin your RH 5.2 install if you did a shutdown
and forgot to unmount a CDROM drive. Happend to me three times.

Regards,
Danny