Adventures in Linux

Warning strong geek content

As you may have picked up I'm a tad bit of a computer geek, but just a tad. Be that as it may I've toyed off and on with various operating systems other than the mainstream Windows and Apple varieties. I'd taken a bit of a hiatus from those endeavors in recent years, work was too much like work and the last thing I wanted to do was battle with a machine when I got home. So like many others I fell into a life sublime mediocrity and played within the parameters that good ole Uncle Bill set forth.

No longer.

I've been toying with a couple of various Linux installs on a test machine. Primarily FreeBSD and openSuSE with plans to install Fedora and Solaris later on. Color me impressed, although I'm not really sure what part of the rainbow that comes from.

openSuSE was a quick and easy install, as easy as installing one of the Windows operating systems. With the pre-bundled open source Software you're up and running in a jiffy with all the tools and applications you'll need to get on with your daily routine. Considerably less space is taken up by the operating system and applications leave space for pictures and music (about 4GIG for a majority of the applications available).

FreeBSD was a bit more of a challenge to get up and running. I had to employ some computer geekery and wave the magic chicken bones around a couple of times to get things to my liking. really it isn't something I'd recommend if you're not comfortable, real comfortable, working at a System (DOS Prompt) and editing files.

With either of them I'd recommend the KDE Desktop Environment. Gnome leaves a bit to be desired and least for my tastes. KDE provides users with a Windows like operating environment without the performance degradation we've all come to know and loathe with Windows XP and from the early reports / testing I've seen Vista won't be any better and probably worse.

FreeBSD / openSuSE and KDE have turned an old, as in seven to eight years old Pentium III 733 with 256MB of RAM, machine into a fully functional and powerful workstation. The system boot time is equal to that of my Pentium IV 3.2gig with a GIG of RAM running Windows XP.

Now I wouldn't recommend trashing your current machine and going with Linux if you haven't toyed around with it first. There are some applications and benefits Windows has over Linux (I'm sure some die hard Linux fan will start sending hate mail now, such is life). But if you have an older machine laying around that is too old / slow to run Windows 2000 or XP and want a spare (so the missus isn't always screaming at you that she needs the computer) or you'd like a backup for the kids, I'd recommend giving openSuSE a whirl.