The kids are all right with Linux

[Clone of 501]

Too bad my school has winblows i love linux

[BigE4u]

Originally Posted by unclutchable

kids could honestly care less what operating system they're on

That in itself is like asuming bears dont crap in the woods, very dangerous thinking. Kids nowadays know exactly what they are putting their grubby little hands on.

[gamer11200]

Originally Posted by AntiNazi

Because you can't use the internet or an office suite on anything except windows xp.

What? You can use Firefox for internet and OpenOffice for office suite

[Clone of 501]

Originally Posted by gamer11200

What? You can use Firefox for internet and OpenOffice for office suite

Yeah Linux has swiftfox which makes firefox a lot better and there's openoffice and there was another one too. Linux also has opera too.

[gamer11200]

Originally Posted by Clone of 501

Yeah Linux has swiftfox which makes firefox a lot better and there's openoffice and there was another one too. Linux also has opera too.

One thing I hate about linux is that you can't play PC games like Unreal natively. Also, you don't get out-of-the-box support for some video formats.

[UNIXgod]

alternative firefoxes are built with optimized c flags sent directly to the compiler and built specifically for your machine when you compile... and yes it's faster. Let's not forget the wine project for those who really think they have no choices outside of the M$ eco-system

[gamer11200]

Originally Posted by UNIXgod

alternative firefoxes are built with optimized c flags sent directly to the compiler and built specifically for your machine when you compile... and yes it's faster. Let's not forget the wine project for those who really think they have no choices outside of the M$ eco-system

Wine is great

[BigE4u]

Originally Posted by gamer11200

Wine is great

Goes great with cheese...

[unclutchable]

Originally Posted by BigE4u

That in itself is like asuming bears dont crap in the woods, very dangerous thinking. Kids nowadays know exactly what they are putting their grubby little hands on.

Really? I was unaware that 7 year olds actually gave two ****s what operating system they were using.

Please.

Additional Comment:

Originally Posted by AntiNazi

Because you can't use the internet or an office suite on anything except windows xp.

I hope that's not what you gathered from my post.

It's possible to do as many things on a Linux based system just as you would on a Windows based one. I personally run Ubuntu on a separate hard drive. I run OOo on ALL of my machines as well, so don't think I'm biased about anything here.

Linux wouldn't work in a high school. Lots of kids spend years learning how to use Windows, and a switch to Linux would be catastrophic. It would make things harder on the school. And it's not just because there would be a bunch of ******s complaining on how much harder it is to use, but because there are classes designed solely around using Windows.

I don't know what you had at your high school, but mine has quite a few keyboarding classes and business classes, as well as a few Microsoft Cert classes. In all of them you learn to use the Office suite, but mainly Word/Excel/Access/PowerPoint. Those classes are there to prepare you for the business world, which is mainly a Microsoft dominated world.

What would you teach them with Linux? How to use OpenOffice effectively in the Windows-based work environment?

[BigE4u]

Originally Posted by unclutchable

Really? I was unaware that 7 year olds actually gave two ****s what operating system they were using

I dont know what world you think your living in... but its changed quite a bit since you were 7yrs old.

[unclutchable]

Originally Posted by BigE4u

I dont know what world you think your living in... but its changed quite a bit since you were 7yrs old.

I've got about 25 first cousins on my mom's side. Many of them are aged 5-10 years old.

None of them know what operating system they're on. All they know is how it turns on, and how to press the little fox icon and then type in "hannahmontana.com". It really doesn't matter to them. To kids my age, it does.

I think most everyone here can agree with me.

[AntiNazi]

Originally Posted by gamer11200

What? You can use Firefox for internet and OpenOffice for office suite

LOL

Originally Posted by unclutchable

I don't know what you had at your high school, but mine has quite a few keyboarding classes and business classes, as well as a few Microsoft Cert classes. In all of them you learn to use the Office suite, but mainly Word/Excel/Access/PowerPoint. Those classes are there to prepare you for the business world, which is mainly a Microsoft dominated world.

What would you teach them with Linux? How to use OpenOffice effectively in the Windows-based work environment?

I had networking classes, programming classes, keyboarding, and web design. All of which could easily have been done on linux just the same as windows xp/2000. 90+% of any office suite skills are fully transferable to the next office suite. Oh, and we had a multimedia class in the Mac lab. I understand your point, I just reject it. If they can't transfer the skills, they don't really have them.

[UNIXgod]

Agreed. Teach them concepts not software.

The whole point of the whole gnu philosophy is about freedom of choice and having absolute control over the system without restrictions. It amazes me how many people are scared of that.

Also I betcha these kids learn their way around the command line faster with less resistance than any of the windows bigots hanging out on this thread could.

The fact is this is an age old debate. Spanning well over 20 years now. Linux has been stable for awhile now and is built around emulating technology that spans well before microsoft borrowed from it's predecessors.

[Ghost742]

Originally Posted by gamer11200

Tech sure has changed in 10 years. I remembered back in 98, playing a video or mp3 using a computer was near non-existant

and i remember overclocking my first rig with the jumpers on the mobo,
i think it was a 500mhz k8 and 128mb of ram i had.
my favorite game was deadly tied and the mechwarrior titanium collection lol.

things change quick. dont know how i feel about schools implementing linux, i have never in my life used it,( osx, dos , and windows) that about it

[Nagoshi]

Originally Posted by unclutchable

I've got about 25 first cousins on my mom's side. Many of them are aged 5-10 years old.

None of them know what operating system they're on. All they know is how it turns on, and how to press the little fox icon and then type in "hannahmontana.com". It really doesn't matter to them. To kids my age, it does.

I think most everyone here can agree with me.

I understand you there, my girlfriend's brother and lil sisters (theyre 5, ranging from 14 to 4 years old) probably wouldnt notice what's the operating system on their computer. All they want is their game's icon on the desktop.

But then, we can't pklay games natively, so no Linux for them :P

[ythe1300]

Originally Posted by AntiNazi

I had networking classes, programming classes, keyboarding, and web design. All of which could easily have been done on linux just the same as windows xp/2000. 90+% of any office suite skills are fully transferable to the next office suite. Oh, and we had a multimedia class in the Mac lab. I understand your point, I just reject it. If they can't transfer the skills, they don't really have them.

I agree, people learn how to use programs not how to code / design. I couldn't fathom why everyone freaked out when I walked into my C+ class with my iBook, you can't program on that, those are only for......

This whole thing is silly, kids can and will learn how to manipulate the GUI very quickly, as for not being able to play video games, doesn't that make it more work minded, wouldn't more companies / schools want that?

Look how far Linux has come Gnome is to me the easiest to navigate GUI. I grew up on DOS / Win , Win 9X, 2000 and XP (Vista... but only because of My Blu-Ray drive still a little ****ed off about this....) I now have 2 macs 2 windows boxes and a Ubuntu 8.04 machine, and the ones that do the most work are my Ubuntu and Macs, all I do with the PC is to play games and watch movies..... so to me Windows is the toy.

[Orac]

windows the toy, i always keep the special things in life as a toy. iwas tryin to learn about linux, but for some reason ubunti wont run on virtual box on my current rig. i will see what else i can find

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Of course, Linux can do web browsing and multimedia tasks (MPlayer FTW) just as well as winblows. However, that's about where it ends.

Don't get me wrong, i like Linux. However for some reason all the machines i tried to run it on have hit issues after issues after issues. ALSA was horribly unstable on my laptop, the Trident video drivers sucked *** (as if they weren't bad enough in 'doze), battery life was a lot worse even after getting some power saving utilities to install, and the list may go on.

The only machine it would run properly on was an old Compaq P1-233, 128MB RAM, 2MB Cirrus Logic onboard, 10Mbit LAN onboard, Avance ALS4000 PCI sound, running Puppy Linux. Too bad the poor P1 was too weak to really do anything... I got by with it for a while when my main PC was broken, but it was pretty painful. Well, at least it was stable.

And Wine... Wine's a joke. It fails at running even the simplest programs and games i tried, and at what it somehow runs it's heaps slower than 'doze. Unfortunately Vista isn't far from that either...

My point is that Linux isn't ready for mainstream yet. They need some standardization - there are a lot of sound systems for Linux and none work properly in all configurations. ALSA would be the choice for me as a standard. Also they need to get compatibility with major windows apps and "casual" games, since that's pretty much all that the office user runs.

With the compatibility issues that Vista has, Wine could become a better alternative for legacy software. They just need to get their act together.

[gamer11200]

Originally Posted by Th3_uN1Qu3

And Wine... Wine's a joke. It fails at running even the simplest programs and games i tried, and at what it somehow runs it's heaps slower than 'doze. Unfortunately Vista isn't far from that either...

Oh. I thought that I was the only one that had problems with Wine. I tried playing RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 using my rig and it was like I was playing it on a 200mhz pentium...PAINFULLY SLOW!

Vista is better as long as you have 2GB of ram and a dual core processor.

[UNIXgod]

Originally Posted by Th3_uN1Qu3

Of course, Linux can do web browsing and multimedia tasks (MPlayer FTW) just as well as winblows. However, that's about where it ends.

Don't get me wrong, i like Linux. However for some reason all the machines i tried to run it on have hit issues after issues after issues. ALSA was horribly unstable on my laptop, the Trident video drivers sucked *** (as if they weren't bad enough in 'doze), battery life was a lot worse even after getting some power saving utilities to install, and the list may go on.

The only machine it would run properly on was an old Compaq P1-233, 128MB RAM, 2MB Cirrus Logic onboard, 10Mbit LAN onboard, Avance ALS4000 PCI sound, running Puppy Linux. Too bad the poor P1 was too weak to really do anything... I got by with it for a while when my main PC was broken, but it was pretty painful. Well, at least it was stable.

And Wine... Wine's a joke. It fails at running even the simplest programs and games i tried, and at what it somehow runs it's heaps slower than 'doze. Unfortunately Vista isn't far from that either...

My point is that Linux isn't ready for mainstream yet. They need some standardization - there are a lot of sound systems for Linux and none work properly in all configurations. ALSA would be the choice for me as a standard. Also they need to get compatibility with major windows apps and "casual" games, since that's pretty much all that the office user runs.

With the compatibility issues that Vista has, Wine could become a better alternative for legacy software. They just need to get their act together.

ALSA has many problems. It's not cross-platform for one.