Desktop Linux, Are penguins in your future?

Red Hat Linux announced it will be marketing a desktop version of Red Hat Linux. This is a reversal for them since a few months ago they started pushing Red Hat Enterprise and stopped with Red Hat Personal and Professional.

I would love to quit using Microsoft products altogether. How about you?

I currently use Linux for my home system.

I use linux for the CelticRadio.net webserver and the database server. I tried, foolishly, to use Microsoft IIS webserver and I nearly had a heart attack. The darn thing would bomb out all the time and it was super slow.

Having experimented with some of the desktop apps included with Redhat 9.0, I would say that linux can only get better. I think eventually Microsoft will need to worry about linux. It is stable, secure and fast. If the open source guru's can make it a little easier for the common desktop users and get native support for video cards then I think it will start gaining in the percentage of users desktops.

One big thing that could push linux into the forefront would be better gaming support. Games would run silky smooth on a linux machine.

I have such a hodge podge. At home, since that's where I do a lot of graphic arts, I have my windows supped up machine with 1 gig memory and a 120gig hd, at work I have a piece of compaq laptop that I do my admin and general work from remotely to my UNIX machines (3) running Solaris 9, and then right beside me in my cube is my baby! ReHat Linux box that I do some web development on... my php box... although I am going overkill and running a webserver from a SUN ultra 60... but hey MORE POWER!!

More work needs to be done on supporting wireless network cards. I loaded RH 9 on my laptop and it doesn't even see the card. SuSE doesn't see it, either. I had to reload my machine, so the Linux partition got wiped out (was dual booting XP and Linux) I haven't tried it in a while. Maybe the drivers are out there now.

I've used Linux (RedHat 8.0) on my family PC since Jan. '03. The only complaint is from my youngest stepson, who can't run some of his games. Since he has a playstation, he doesn't miss them much. The system is stable and does everything the family needs, such as email, web, IM, etc.

I currently work for a Linux consultancy specializing in VoIP and VPN. We use Linux and Open Source software almost exclusively. My work PC (where I'm typing this from ) is running Mandrake 9.1. I also have a another PC with Mandrake 10.0 installed. It's great. I won't say that I don't occasionally have problems, but they're minor compared to Windoze.

No blue screen, no virus problems, no reason to run Microsoft.

LFS 4.0+ on my main box, Windows 2k is installed for gaming, but rarely gets loaded. And since UT and Quake run in Linux, and that's most of what I've gotten into game wise recently, all the less reason. I would like to experiment though, with more 3d modellers. I'm surprised more of those don't seem to be avaliable for Linux. I used Blender for my first practical experiment. It works, but am I just missing something or does it not have the power of Maya or Lightwave? Wouldn't surprise me if the power wasn't there, all things considered.

I agree though, Although I use Linux for my workstations and my server, and I wouldn't go back, I am not yet convinced that it's ready for average Joe's desktop. When package A, needs B, needs C, etc.... As for configuration, there are some nifty tools for that:

linuxconf
netconf
Xconfigurator

It has come a long way toward the desktop user platform since I've been using it, and I believe that it would be perfect for work environments where a tech admins the box but average Joes are the actual users. It can be made to look enough like Windows for them to be comfortable, it's different enough so they don't know how to install software, and you're not running the virus magnet of Outlook/Windows, so all though you still don't want users opening strange mails, it's not as likely to be as big an issue of they do.

IMHO, however, if you're running a server with a GUI, then unless it's an application server or something, you need to be shot. (the tarballs for X windows aren't even present on Rhiannon)

WOW! Linux sounds great! is there a website that I can check this out?
Hubby is a die hard MS user and I hate it.

tsargent62,

You need to look at a configuration program called iwconfig. The best method is to look up the wireless howto and go from there. Unlike XP Linux requires you to make a consious decission to install wireless. The howto should help get everything working.

Angel:
google for RedHat or Mandrake
also, the Linux Documentation Project www.ldp.org
I mention those distros because they seem to be the most popular for beginners, new to the Operating system. Other popular packages to check out are Debian, and Slackware. they aren't quite as dressed up and pretty as RH and Mandrake, but still pretty good from what I've heard.

You should be able to find .iso images of any of these online that you can legally download, burn to a CD, and install from.

SuSE is pretty decent for beginners as well. It's very easy to install and configure. Doesn't run well on my laptop, though. Couldn't get the screen resolution quite right.

Can anyone suggest any open source antivirus products for Linux? I'm of the opinion that with Linux spreading in use that viruses will start popping up. I'd like to be able to protect myself before this starts happening.

Welcome to the "I hate MS" club! You're in good company. There's a very easy way to check out Linux. One of the nifty features is: you can run it from the CD-ROM drive without installing it on your hard drive! Go to http://slax.linux-live.org and download the .iso which is an image of the operating system. Burn it to a CD. Please note that a normal drag and drop will not work with a .iso file. If you're using Nero or Easy CD Creator, they will have instructions in the help files to tell you how to do it properly. Once you have the image burned to a CD, put the CD in the drive and reboot your computer. It _should_ read the image from the CD and boot into Linux. I say should, because not all computers look for a CD when booting. If your computer boots into Windows anyway, you'll need to change the BIOS, which is beyond the scope of this message. Most of the time, it'll work just fine. It doesn't install anything on your hard drive and you can reboot your computer without the CD to get back into Windows. Some more websites to look at are:

linux.org
distrowatch.com
mandrake.com
redhat.com

Good luck and have fun.