ken wrote: > I use Ubuntu. It's what I'm using now. > > It does NOT live up to the hype. > > No flames, just my experience.
I'd just like to weigh in on the Linux side. There are a few warts but I've been running it since 1991 and can honestly say Ken's experiences are most unusual and distinctly different from mine. I will say that the most difficult part of Linux is installing it over Windows. Since Windows installs don't usually leave any free disk space, it is necessary to compress the Windows partition and create a new one for Linux. This is scary and necessitates a full backup of Windows, just in case. I've never had a problem, however like Ken I did find one system where Linux couldn't find the Windows partition to compress it. I didn't have the time to diagnose the problem, so didn't get Linux installed on that system. As far as "hanging" or "crashing", the vast majority of those problems are a result of hardware problems, primarily memory. Linux uses memory more intensively and will uncover flaky memory where Windows runs along happily. Of course you don't have to install Linux to take it for a test drive. There are live CDs for almost all of the distributions. Because Linux is running from a CD it's not going to be as fast as if it were running from disk so don't mark it down for being slow. Anyway, I use it almost exclusively on the boat. SeaClear works just great. WRT the hardware drivers, sure Linux plays second fiddle to Windows but it's surprising how quickly devices get Linux drivers. While there are a few devices that Linux just doesn't support, the list is small. Jim. _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
