On Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:23:31 -0400, clipka wrote:

> Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>> Maybe you should try a distro that's been developed and released in the
>> last 5 years.
> 
> I'm pretty sure someone experienced with tinkering around with Linux
> sees these things differently, and possibly even rightly so.
> 
> But what I've seen so far, with a modern distro (Debian Etch... well,
> Lenny is out now, but I guess Etch will still qualify as modern), is
> that it has improved somewhat, but switching from Windows to Linux is
> probably still a full-time job...

Nope, not at all.  Depends on what you do, of course, but no, it's not a 
full-time job.

>> Yeah, Vista is a dream.....if you like nightmares.
> 
> .... and so is probably switching from Windows XP to Windows Vista, for
> that matter.

I've got a coworker who gave me her Vista PC and specifically asked that 
Linux be installed on it.  She's in her late 50's and had enough of Vista.

>> Comparatively, on my openSUSE 11.0 boxes, I drop to a console and
>> enter:
>>
>> zypper up -t package
>>
>> And the system is *current*.
> 
> Well, that's probably true for all the open source software coming with
> it, but suppose you have a few commercial apps? I bet they won't respond
> to "zypper up -t package". (And does "zypper up -t package" pull the
> latest POV beta? I bet neither ;))

It would if there was a repository for povray and I was subscribed to 
it. ;-)

> BTW, in XP, to get the OS *itself* up to date, I don't even hit a few
> keys to start it. I just klick an "accept" button when it starts
> automatically.

<shudder>  I never use automatic updates, not even on Linux boxes.  I 
prefer to know what's being installed and in control of when it's being 
installed.

Jim

Post a reply to this message