Hi again, well... multiuser does not hurt if you use it singleuser. Even newer Windows got the point that it is good not to use Word or Outlook as root. Again, you can work as root all the time if you want to. Some distros give you the possibility to log you in as <favourite user> at bootup and without password. You can use something less funky than Gnome/KDE (e.g. fvwm2) to save time. Finally, you can try one of those Linuxes (e.g. Knoppix) that run entirely from CD-ROM (plus a RAMDISK). You can hit the power button at any time with them. Would be possible to tweak a normal Linux to have most mounts readonly to get a similar effect.
My trouble with DOS is that I got used to being able to run more than one app at a time. So I use DOS windows in Linux, not plain DOS, unless I have to. And for surfing / mailing, I use plain Linux, no DOS apps, of course. MS DOS came from CP/M and Unix, but first, all advanced features like multiuser and even subdirectories got stripped. Some came back. Multiuser did never come back in DOS, but in some Windows versions. Nobody forces you to compile your whole day away with Linux, you can just as well stick with the many 100s of apps that are on the CD in precompiled and mostly even preconfigured packages. The thing is that Linux allows you to make things run that are not packaged for you. With Windows, you would first have to buy all kinds of compilers (or use open source ones, of course), same for MS DOS. By the way, many Linux people at comdex do think that Linux has all you need for the desktop, not only for servers. And it had most of it for years. What do you miss in Linux what DOS has? Sure, there are lots of Windows programs, some of which have no native Linux version (so you need to run them in Win), but are there actually some DOS programs still around that lack a Linux counterpart? The thing that I like about DOS is that everything is direct and simple. Nothing prevents it from crashing, but when it does, it reboots in seconds. You can easily patch the kernel at runtime, and some drivers make a habit out of that. You can access all hardware directly. You can run it with less than 1 MB RAM and do not even need a 386 (32bit) or 486DX (with floating point) CPU, so it is nice for very old hardware and embedded systems. Given a few 100 MB of harddisk and 16 MB of RAM, I usually prefer Linux (running Linux on 4/8/12 MB RAM is very hard!). But even on my system, I sometimes boot plain DOS. Because some of my old games want that direct hardware access. And because full PC simulations like Bochs or VMware are far too slow on my oldish PC. Eric ---------- list options/archives/etc.: http://www.topica.com/lists/fd-dev unsubscribe: send blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bz8Rv5.bbRv4l.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
