On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 10:25:27 -0400, thunder
wrote:

On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 11:51:11 +0000, Shortwave Sportfishing wrote:


I don't know about your personal coding skills, but in my experience, the
Linux experience is very similar to the early DOS days only there is a
more extensive set of commands.

These days it can be, but it doesn't need to be. Most mainline
distributions can have you up and running as easy or easier than a Windows
install. You can use Linux fully GUI, but you have the option to use the
command line.

I'll tell you the honest truth. I burned out writing long algorithms,
proofing same, diagnosing same plus my regular job back in the
original days when I was involved in some rather heavy theoretical
physics and mathematics. I worked closely with some hyper-brainacs
from high power physics labs around the world and frankly, I'm not
interested in rewriting an operating system to suit me which is what
would happen if I got a hold of open source software. :)

Personally, if you are wanting to experiment, put it on a separate machine
and learn it first before deploying it - that seems to be the way a of of
successful Linux deployments for personal computers seems to go.

The easiest way these days, is a Live CD. You can run Linux of the CD,
without ever having to install onto your hard drive. No muss, no fuss,
albeit slower due to having to decompress.

I know - believe me, I've looked at it more than once. The problem is
that I'm obsessive about these things (which can be a positive trait
in the scientific world), but it's taken me 10 years to decompress
from that environment and just enjoy my computational machinery.

If you are doing this to be away from MS, think it through first. With
Linux you are on your own.

Not really, there is a tremendous amount of support out there. With
Linux, you may not have a support desk to call, but you do have quite a
few newsgroups. I have found Linux to be quite well documented online. I
have never run into a problem that couldn't be solved with a little onlne
reading.

Linux really had come a long way. If you liked it then, you might want to
give it another try. A couple of live CDs:

http://www.pclinuxonline.com/pclos/

http://www.novell.com/products/linux...nux/index.html

~~ gets out a crucifix and waves it at the monitor ~~

BACK - BACK SPAWN OF THE DEVIL - BACK I SAY!!!! :)