Another Linux Distribution

As I mentioned yesterday, I was looking for another Linux distribution to recommend to my Windows-centric friends and relations. I found it in PCLinuxOS.

PCLinuxOS (or PCLOS, as its aficionados generally call it) is built upon Mandrake 9.2 (and I apologize in advance to all you propeller-heads out there, but that’s about as technical as I’m gonna get. For the nitty-gritty, see the PCLOS homepage at http://www.pclinuxos.com/news.php Sorry, but I’m trying to gear this towards beginners).

As with most major distributions these days, you download the ISO image and burn it to CD. Once that’s done, leave the CD in its drive and reboot your computer. This way your computer will boot to the LiveCD that you just created. The idea behind the LiveCD is that you can load it up an have a chance to play with Linux and the programs with—without having to install it on your hard drive. That way if you decide it’s not for you, simply remove the LiveCD and reboot your computer. Your original Windows installation hasn’t been touched, and no files have been created on or removed from your system.

But if you decide you like it and want to use it, you still have a few options. You can simply continue running the LiveCD (which is pretty silly, because you won’t be able to save any work you create), you can install PCLOS and tell it to use your entire hard drive, or—and this is what I recommend for Linux beginners—you can install PCLOS as a dual-boot system. In plain English, this means you tell the installation program to only use some, not all, of your hard drive. Once you’ve installed it, whenever you boot your computer you’re given a choice to either use it as a Windows or a Linux system.

Dual-boot is also what I recommend if you have a lot of money invested in high-end Windows programs. While The GIMP is a very powerful graphics and photo-editing program, Adobe Photoshop still has it beat.

But why would anyone even consider Linux? Well, aside from the safety issues—for all practical purposes Linux is virus-free—it’s a great operating system for extending the life of older computers. Windows Vista is about to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting world, and a lot of users are going to be very disappointed when they learn that their 2-year-old or older computers won’t run it—the hardware’s simply not up to it.

Linux, on the other hand, will run on just about anything with a 386 processor or better. (Again, in plain English, this means that if you have a machine that’s still running, say, Windows 3.1, you can pretty much rest assured that it can handle PCLOS—and probably with better performance than you’re getting from Windows.

So if you’re considering Linux—either as an alternative to Windows, as a way of extending he life of an older computer, or because you just want to see what the fuss is all about—you can’t go wrong with PCLinuxOS.

Windows vs. Linux

If you spend any time on the Internet, and if you’re interested in computers, you’ll frequently come across the “Windows vs. Linux” debate (or, as is more commonly the case, arguments and hostilities). I’ve been using Windows since version 3.1 and Linux and/or Unix for almost 10 years, so I think I’m a little qualified to add my two cents’ worth.

At the risk of being labeled a heretic by both camps (although it is true, sadly, that the Linux/Unix camp is more likely to react that way), I’m going to say that neither is either better nor worse, any more than a Ford is better than a Chevy, and that arguing about operating systems is about as productive (and silly) as arguing about cars. Each has its strengths and each has its weaknesses.

I also apologize in advance to the more technically-inclined members of the forum for stating my views in plain English, without resorting to a lot of technobabble. This blog really isn’t aimed at you, anyway.

The biggest thing Windows has going against it is its poor security. It has inherited its DNA, if you will, from MS-DOS, which in turn got it from CP/M, neither of which were meant to be anything more than single-user operating systems. In other words, if you had a computer and kept important files on it, anybody else could sit down at your computer and access those files. While it’s true that improvements have been made over the years, the Windows kernel —the core components of the operating system—is still, essentially, a single-user design.

Another thing Windows has going against it is its very success. The very ubiquity of Windows—powering as it does some 90+% of personal computers—makes it worth the time and effort one has to invest to attack it.

Linux/Unix, on the other hand, were designed from the ground up to be multi-user, multi-tasking operating systems. In plain English, this means that controls and safeguards were built in to the kernel to provide user and data security. This design feature alone makes either of these operating systems—while not completely secure—far more secure than Windows. This, coupled with the fact that very few Linux/Unix systems are in use by home users, makes either system a less desirable target for miscreants.

One of Windows’ greatest strengths, on the other hand, is the fact that it was designed, as was the Macintosh, to make computers easier to use by the average user. In this, it has succeeded admirably.

One of the biggest criticisms of Linux/Unix in general and Linux in particular is this: “It’s a hobbyist’s operating system. It was never intended to be used by the masses.” Well, I’ve got some shocking news for you: neither were microcomputers in the first place! They were originally designed, built and used by hobbyists. (For more on this, see Freiberger and Swaine’s excellent Fire in the Valley, an account of the beginnings of Silicon Valley and the personal computer.)

But over time, thanks largely to the use of subversive tactics by hobbyists, microcomputers have become an indispensable part of the American business landscape. And they have been extremely successful at home, too.

I’m not going to claim that the same thing is going to happen with Linux. But neither will I accept the argument that Linux won’t succeed because it’s “for hobbyists.”

And given the endless cycle of critical patches and updates for Windows, largely to fix problems that never should have been there in the first place, and the need for third-party security solutions such as firewall, anti-virus and ad-blocking software, an increasingly larger segment home users is looking towards Linux.

I wonder how many loyal, dedicated Windows fans are aware that when the long-heralded, long-delayed Vista is finally released, it won’t run on the majority of home machines? That’s right, folks—your trusty computer that is perfectly fine with 95, ME or even XP will in likelihood choke on Vista. Your system doesn’t have the hardware resources Vista demands.

On the other hand, I’ve had no problem running Linux on an old 386 laptop—one that could barely handle Windows 95.

Microsoft’s approach to software design has always been to throw more hardware at it. “Memory’s cheap; we don’t need to optimize our code.” “Hard drives are huge–who cares if the operating system takes up 2 gigabytes?”

Yes, it’s true: hardware is cheap these days. Memory is cheap–by itself. Hard drives are cheap–by themselves. But 1 Gb of RAM plus a new hard drive plus paying someone to install them properly all add up.

And that’s not even to mention the cost of purchasing Windows:

Vista Home Basic: $199.00 Upgrade: $99.00
Vista Home Premium: $239.00 Upgrade: $159.00
Vista Business: $299.00 Upgrade: $199.00
Vista Ultimate: $399.00 Upgrade $259.00

Linux purchasing price? Oh, you can buy it, if you like. But most people just download it from the Internet. No charge that way. If you do buy it, you’re not really buying Linux; Linux is free. What you’re paying for is technical support.

And there’s nothing wrong with paying for technical support. But you can also get high-quality free technical support from the Linux online community.

Minimum Vista configuration: 800-MHz processor, 512 Mb RAM. 40 Gb hard drive, with 15 Gb available. DVD drive.

Vista Premium configuration: 1 GHz processor, 1 Gb RAM. Hard drive & DVD drive are the same. But your machine must also be Windows Aero-capable, and have 128Mb RAM on your graphics card.

And system hardware for Linux? Processor: Intel: Pentium 1-4 or Xeon; AMD: Duron, Athlon, Athlon XP, Athlon MP, Athlon 64, Sempron or Opteron. Speed is not crucial.

RAM? 256 MB minimum (512 MB recommended).

Drive space: 500 MB of disk space (800 MB to 2 GB often required when including a basic set of applications)

If you’ve got the hardware, Vista may be what you’re looking for. But if not, or if you’ve got an older system lying around the house or office that you’re not using, you might want to take a serious look at Linux.

So what do I use?

Both, actually. My Compaq Presario laptop runs the Windows XP it came with. My Toshiba Satellite laptop runs PCLinuxOS (PCLOS). I used to use Ubuntu on the Toshiba, but wanted to see if there was a distribution that might be a little more friendly to folks considering a move from Windows. I found it in PCLOS, a halfway-house for Windows

And why? Because I like learning new stuff. Because there is some software that, while available for Linux, isn’t quite as good as the same thing for Windows. And vice versa. I have a few Linux programs that are far superior to their Windows counterparts. I use the better tool for the task at hand.

I feel more secure with Linux when I’m online. And I don’t have a window popping up every week or so telling me that I’ve got to upgrade my system.

But Windows Live Writer beats anything Linux has for blogging. Photoshop is still better than the Gimp. But Open Office does (almost) everything MS Office will do, plus it will output to Adobe PDF format.

To be fair, Open Office is also available for Windows. But Quanta+ isn’t, and it will do anything MS FrontPage will do, and it’s free.

Free vs. Open Source

A lot of confusion has grown up around “free software” and “open source software.” Is there a difference? There’s a huge difference.

“Free software” generally means “free” as in “free beer.” That is, it’s yours for the asking. No charge. Gratis. But it often comes with restrictions on how you may use it. You can’t sell it. You can’t include it on a CD of free software and charge for the CD.

“Open source software” also means “free,” but free as in “freedom.” Not only is the program free, but the source code—the program instructions themselves—are also available for free. Have a program that you think is pretty neat, but could be improved? Are you a programmer? Then download the source code and make your improvements. With one catch: if you make changes and distribute those changes, you must include your own source code as well. You generally can’t sell Open Source software depending on the license it’s released under), but if you put it on a CD with other programs–or all by itself–you can generally charge a reasonable amount for the CD and postage.

Tomorrow: Software Availability and Installation

Detente

I bought my first computer in 1981, a few months before IBM launched its PC. My Kaypro ran the CP/M operating system. It served me well for a couple of years before I moved to a MS-DOS machine.

My third PC came with Windows 3.1, and that lasted me for a few more years. Then I moved to Windows 95, which was followed (at my job) by Windows NT and Windows 2000.

My next two systems—both of them laptops—came with Windows XP. With this incarnation, I finally started to think that Microsoft had finally got it right.

Somewhere along the line I started to experiment with Linux. I had an older Toshiba laptop I had bought second-hand, and it came with a copy of Windows 3.1. Upgrading was out of the question—it simply didn’t have the resources. So I decided to install Linux on it.

The only distribution I could find in stores was Red Hat. O, I could have downloaded Slackware, but my iternet connection in those days was slow dialup, and it would have taken days. So I shelled out the $35 or so and bought Red Hat, took it home, installed it, and played with it for a bit.

It was still more of a techie’s operating system, and I didn’t have the time or energy to fool around with. So I put Linux on the shelf for a few years.

Then in July of 2005, I decided to test the waters to check the state of Linux again. This time I had newer hardware and a DSL connection. My wife had just left me, so I had a lot of time on my hands. Enough time to spend a lot of time on the Internet researching Linux, reading reviews of various distributions. I also bought several Linux magazines, since these came with free CDs of various distributions.

I tried several of the major flavors, but none of them worked on either of my two machines. Oh, they worked sort of, but one of them didn’t detect my modem (not Linux’s fault—it was a Winmodem), another didn’t work with my network card. I even downloaded several flavors of BSD Unix, but none of them worked, either.

Then I came across Ubuntu Linux. I had never heard of it, but I figured I had nothing to lose. So I downloaded the ISO image, burned it to CD, and installed it on my Toshiba Satellite laptop.

Success! It worked perfectly. Detected all of my hardware—even my Hewlett-Packard 1315 All-in-One printer/copier/scanner! I used it for a couple of weeks, but wasn’t really happy with Gnome, the GUI Ubuntu uses. So I went back online and downloaded Kubuntu, which is Ubuntu with KDE instead of Gnome.

I liked it so well, that I used it for almost a year and a half. I even installed it on my Compaq Presario laptop. No problem there, either. I was then, and still am, very pleased with Kubuntu.

But I’m the computer tech support guy for friends and family, and several of them had expressed an interest in possibly moving to Linux. They asked me for recommendations.

Although I had no problems with Ubuntu/Kubuntu, I decided to see if perhaps there weren’t an even better distribution specifically geared towards Windows users.

Once more it was back to the Internet, where I found an article entitled “PCLinuxOS – perfect halfway house.”

But more on that tomorrow…

So What’s It All About, Anyway?

I used to post my Linux Journal here. I kept it up for a while, then completely forgot about it. Then I got a new toy for Christmas—a Microsoft LifeCam. It’s a nifty gadget, but it doesn’t work under Linux.

I played with the camera for a while, then went online to see what information I might be able to find about it. I found quite a lot, actually. And one of the links Google turned up was Windows Live Writer.

Live Writer is Microsoft’s contribution to offline blogging. Using it, I can create & edit my blog entries to my heart’s content, then upload them to my blog.

Adding pictures is easy. And unlike some other similar tools, LiveWriter uploads the pictures automatically.

Writer is a great client for Windows Live Spaces but also works with other weblogs including Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress, and many others.

Writer supports RSD (Really Simple Discoverability), the Metaweblog API, and the Movable Type API.

In fact, I used LiveWriter to create this entry.

But let’s get back to the camera for a bit. The reason my dad sent it to me is that he lives in Pennsylvania and I live in California. Before we got together in Seattle last September for my daughter’s wedding, we hadn’t seen each other for almost 3 years. That’s too long. So now we can have video chats whenever we like, thanks to its built-in microphone.

 

The LifeCam is, first and foremost, a web cam, designed to work with Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger, which is the replacement for Microsoft Instant Messenger. But the camera will also take snapshots, record audio clips, and record video clips (although at 1.3 megapixels, it won’t be replacing my 8-megapixel Canon). Once you’ve snapped a picture, the camera software can upload it to your blog on Windows Live Spaces, or launch your email program in compose mode and attach the picture to the message. All you have to do is address it and send it.

So I’ve got several blogs I’m using to test LiveWriter. There’s this one, obviously, but there’s also the one I have at Windows Live Spaces. I’m also going to play with it on the blog on my web site. That blog is still Not Ready For Prime Time, but I’ll post a link here when it is.

STILL TO COME: How I’ve made peace between Windows and Linux.