The Linux Experiment, Day 3

[crokett]

I worked with the Linux desktop all day yesterday at work and didn't miss a a beat. There was a dustup with my 3270 emulator and my call management SW but that was some weird password problem. I did have to use the Windows machine for one critical app today but I got a virtual Windows box installed and after the 4GB RAM upgrade next Monday I will put the app on.

Next step next week is to install Linux (probably Kubuntu) on a laptop and shake down the wireless, phone home SW, etc. I am thinking Kubuntu mostly to see if I like KDE or Gnome better. No, I am not trying to start a war here.

[radhak]

K all the way,
and death to the Gnomites ....!!!

[sd]

It's pretty easy to have both KDE and Gnome available. Just install Ubuntu and then install the kubuntu-desktop package. You could probably do it the other way, too--install Kubuntu and then the ubuntu-desktop package.

[smorris]

We have a few Linux machines around, for heavy lifting we use FreeBSD. I know they have an X window process on them but I'm one of those command line guys who thinks windows on a server is the road to the wussy darkside.

For desktop apps I use native X, never did find KDE or Gnome to be useful.

[Alex Franke]

K all the way,
and death to the Gnomites ....!!!

that's it -- [pushes gRed button] -- here come the gMissiles!

[dbhost]

FWIW, my desktop at home is Linux, has been since '97. Windows 95 ticked me off, I started fooling around With Red Hat, and just kept going...

Gnome or KDE doesn't really matter. I am currently running CentOS 5 with the default Gnome desktop... I have used KDE for years. I guess I am just used to using computer desktops. They all pretty much do the same stuff...

To the poster that says he uses native X... X is the server, not the desktop environment. How do you use native X? Do you mean like Blackbox, or maybe AfterStep, fvwm or what? Probably means something like CDE... What a nasty desktop that was... Of course our Sun guys just love that one...

[sparkeyjames]

I have been using linux since about 1998. Started with SUSE then went to Redhat and finally wound up with Slackware 7.2 and have been using Slackware since 2001. The reason I switched from Redhat was that it was very easy to customize Slackwares startup scripts. Slackware also has a fairly small install footprint compared to other linux distributions. I have been a KDE user since verion 1.1 or 1.2 can't remember which. Never did like Gnome. What finally made me do a total switch to linux for everyday use was a particularly nasty session of virus removal on a windows 98 box that got me quite angry. I still keep a Windows system but it only runs games and does my taxes.

I have even built servers from the Slackware distro. One of my server builds currently has an uptime of 202 days. Before that I had one with a version 2.2 kernel go 300+ days of uptime but had to reboot it because of a memory leak in one of the apps that was running *cough PHP cough*. They all get mighty close to the nine nines uptime target.


Jim

[crokett]

My first attempt to use Linux was 10 years ago when I was trying to set up a linux-based firewall for my cable modem. I was using an old 486 and it took 45 minutes each time to compile rules changes into the kernel. I messed with it for 4 months but could never get it to forward traffic. Since then I've messed with it off and on and even played with FreeBSD a bit but always found something Linux couldn't do that I needed. A couple years ago my test team found a bug in the Reiser and ext3 journal file systems - there was a memory leak in the journal and it would eventually hang the machine if the file system were busy enough. We found it doing some stress testing on the iSCSI card we were getting ready to ship. We were allowed to ship only after we proved the same test failed on fibre channel, SCSI and even IDE controllers.

[jackellis]

I use Windows for work but I've fooled with Linux in the past. Even built a firewall on a Linux box but running a firewall on a desktop or desk side machine is pretty expensive (electricity).

When I replace this laptop with a new one, I'm gonna wipe it clean and install a Linux distro on it so house guests have a machine they can use to check mail or surf without bringing in viruses or having to use our personal machines.

[smorris]

dbhost, you're correct I run fvwm on the desktop anything more is just window dressing. I tried CDE for a while but it looked too much like Solaris and that's just wrong.