My Experience With Linux

LOL.. that second bit was for Contra

anyway, I dont hate it. read on to find out what my opinion is for Linux.

Ok, as you know I haven't really installed it on my computer per se, I installed it on VPC so I really can't complain about the speed. But still, it is surprisingly acceptable - bearable.

Moving on.. Linux (Mandrake to be precise) was a swift install, even on VPC. It took only 25 minutes , even for a hefty 3-CD OS+Software. Thats pretty impressive. Installation was smooth as butter, altho I encountered a few problems (remember my 3-4 page thread? ) but all the problems were actually because of my own stupidity.

After I created my own user and set all the settings and stuff, I got really excited when it first logged into Gnome (2.2). Boy was I shocked. In all honesty, I used to think Linux was a piece of crap in terms of elegance, but boy did it change my mind. I really love the Linux themes, whatever other people think. Its not exactly Aqua material but it has a beauty of its own.

Moving on. Perhaps its the advantage of Mandrake, but configuring the system was MUCH easier than Windows for me, which I have been using since 3.1. Everything is where its supposed to be. Anything I wanted to configure, I 'knew' where the prefs pane was.

Moving on. I love the skinning in Gnome. I can skin the various elements of the GUI seperately and I really liked that. eg, I can have a different skin for the toolbar, another for the icon, yet another for the titlebar. I really liked the flexibility.

I also heard that fonts are crap on Linuces. However, again maybe its just in Mandrake, I had a whole list of fonts and I liked the font smoothin more that that of XP, which is crap IMO.

All in all, I think having easily tested it out on VPC, I have made up my mind to make it the default OS on my 4th PC (three in my room, one downstairs ).

I can't imagine why anyone would stick to Windows on a PC. Ok, other than the games.. But the 'feel' of Linux was enough to make me make the resolution to be a Linux loyalist from thence.

Of course it doesnt beat OS X tho...

Hear that Contra?

#25706

hey welcome to being a linux lover

I think what you said about it having a beauty of its own was perfect, its not aqua, but thank god its not luna

As for the fonts in mandrake, i think they are the best on any computer i've seen, the problem i have is that they're no consistently brilliant. For instance when i'm typing in here the fonts look ugly and un anti-aliased.

But when i've pressed "addreply" my words suddenely look beautiful.

Has anyone else had this problem/know a fix?

fissy

ps. mandrake, good choice

#25719

yup I'm glad I went with Mandrake. I heard it was the easiest, and so far it is.

Very simple indeed.

By the way, where the hell are Contra and Bo? I was expecting to see their replies here..

#25721

Its good to know youve become a switcher. If you learn to embrace config editing, and other manual things, you will see the beauty in their simplicity (like a mac )

Remember, you can copy over your TTF fonts from a windows machine, so do that if you want some nice fonts. Or you can get the free, high quality (mmmm...antialiasing) Vera fonts: http://www.gnome.org/fonts/ .

Now that I think about it, its no surprise you like GNOME taha (so do i by the way), GNOME is all about minimalism, and thats OS X as well. The OS should transparantly aid you, and not get in your way or distract you.

And once you get the feel of Linux a little, you can switch to a light WM (like fluxbox), and experience true speed. But on VPC, id dought youd notice.

If you think 25 minutes is fast, Mandrake installed in 7 minutes on my system.

Try downloading some source (dont become an RPM slave) on freshmeat.net and compiling it. You'll learn a lot and get some good (free) programs.

Have you gotten your internet working in Linux? Because if you get apt4rpm, you can solve dependancy hell (which you will start to get w/ RPMs). Apt is that wonderful Debian program (its the only reason to use Debian, frankly), and they have an RPM version.

Also, maybe you should consider running Linux on your Mac natively. Mandrake has a PPC Version, and Yellow Dog is the (3rd party) PPC port of Red Hat. Yellow Dog seems to be the big PPC distro, because they added all these GUI effects to take advantage of Macs.

Prepare for a long learning process, but learn to enjoy it, I know I do.

PS. If your fonts look crappy, make sure you have antialiasing enabled, its not by default. Its in a different place for each WM/DE.

#25739

yeah the latest mandrake is available in ppc format, i'm not sure if it could resize your HFS+ partitions though

#25740

25 minutes on VPC was amazing compared to the 1 hour+ for XP. 7 minutes??? damn...

anyway, I agree that Gnome is very minimalistic and out of your way, and yet when you need it, it is tjere for you right in front of you.

Also, I didnt have to configure anything. My internet was all set up and ready to go.

I wanted to install YDL, but it said I have to have a partition and I would have to re-install OS X, which I wasn't ready to do. So I'll just install Mandrake on my other PC ... I ain't sacrificing OS X for Linux, no matter how much I love it

And what took you so long to reply? I thought you'd be the first to do so...

#25741

Dinner...

Im sure you can find a program to resize your partition. You said that you use UFS, right? You can probobly resize that using GNU Parted, or better yet, run Linux right from that partition (since its UNIX anyway).

Ill do a little googling for you. Its much better to run Linux natively.

#25747

Sorry, edit buttons gone (something must be done about this):

http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/9.1/91ppc.php3 , you can run OS X NATIVELY in Picture-in-Picture (they call it M.O.L.). That is AWESOME. This probobly means that you can run Linux from a UFS partition, so that could be a choice for you. And since you already know a little of Mandrake, it shouldnt be hard for you to switch.

Check it out.

#25748

actually I use HFS+ and it doesnt use : it uses /

I searched for an entire day, and finally I came to the comclusion that I can't install Linux on my mac witout having to re-install OS X..

Also, you're right, MOL runs OS X natively, but again to install Linux in the first place, I'll have to sacrifice all the apps and docs I have..

#25750

i saw that too, sounds good

i'm having problems...

I tried to get those vera fonts.

install them with mandrake's drakfont, but they don't appear in gnome's font menu thingy.

This is the same thing that happened with half my windows fonts.

I want lucida grande :cries:

Also, i got the impression that "fontconfig" would solve all my problems.

so i followed the instructions and installed it.

so where is it? how do i run this wonder program?

any help anyone could give would be appreciated

fissy

#25751

Im so proud of you Taha.. sniff.. tear.. lol im glad you like it!

now did you say you actually managed to physically install it on the harddrive or just VPC tests?

but im glad you like it! and yea.. i need windows for games!

talk to you soon

-bolero

#25753

Try just putting those fonts in your font folder. Then updating your Font database (possibly in drakfont,dont know, dont use Mandrake).

Heres an easy solution: http://www.fwb.com/html/partition_toolkit.html , its $25, I hope you can afford that.

It will resize HFS+ non destructively. It needs to be run in OS9 though (probobly for conflict reasons), so I hope you have that installed.

#25761

hehhh.. I'll try to find a crack for it

#25766

Taha why not just use X11 and Gnome on your Mac OS X?

#25770

Because thats not linux, your not getting any of the advantages of Linux. Your just running GNOME.

#25771

How couldnt you? Your running Darwin, which is recompilable. You can compile \ recompile anything opensource, run Linux programs, etc. Maybe the speed is different, but iunno. If anything, teach me Contra!

#25773

ARE YOU SAYING I CAN HAVE GNOME WITHOUT RUNNING LINUX on my mac????

#25776

Yes, you can run UNIX apps natively in OS X. But you made my point for me. OS X uses DARWIN, and you cant change the kernel, so you cant use Linux (which is only a kernel by the way).

The only Unix thing OS X uses is the kernel, it doesnt use any other GNU tools, so to get a real workable Unix system, youd be doing months of work. Its really not worth it, and your not getting Linux in the end anyway.

And I dont think you can recompile the Darwin kernel w/o screwing up your system. Unlike Linux, the kernel is heavily integrated into the GUI, so if one changes, the other will have no idea whats going on.

#25778

yes! download x11 and get the gnome2 source from a CVS. it will work just like on linux. I prefer KDE tho.. Its alot faster

#25779

Actually, you can not just download ANY linux program and use it in OSX. They have to have made a version of their program compiled for Darwin/X11, or it has to be portable enough to be used (the programmer would tell you). Remember, this is native, so it actually uses the kernel/system. Unlike Cygwin for Windows, which emulates Linux, so it can use ANY linux software. But you pay the price of speed/stability.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/x11/ by the way

Tell me how it is, ive never tried it (no mac )

#25781

ok hold on there for a minute...

You're telling me I can actually have the Gnome GUI on my mac just by installing X11??

#25786

YES. Once you have X11, check this site out: http://fink.sourceforge.net/ , Its an inside-OSX Distro of Debian, and debian has GNOME in it, so maybe thats your solution.

#25787

Taha yeah you'll have both the Mac OS X gui with dock and finder and sh##, and when you click on the X11 icon on your dock, it'l turn to gnome, and back again.. ya know what i mean? =)

#25791

this cannot be... the answer cannot be so simple..

#25794

taha you seem suprised =) , why dont you give it a try?

#25796