Which OS do you prefer and why?

Myself I prefer Windows, mainly because I have very little experience using anything else.

I'm running Vista because it's more compatible with my other PC's

 

Linux - the desktop experience is clean and fast and easily customizable.

 

I'm running windows XP on my A1. So i guess i prefer it. more app support. better support with my other pcs. i just generally prefer it.

boot time isnt great at the moment though. i think im getting ~ 1minute 5 seconds
what boot times to other people have?

 

Prefer Win/XP at the monet simply because I have a lots of apps that I can't easily run in Linux (yes I know about Wine but it doesn't seem to work properly for a lot of applications). Also, support for drivers in Linux seems to be relatively poor.

The other problem I have had with Linux is that a lot of features are hidden behind an arcane command line interface that makes it difficult to get everything set up properly.

However if I can sort out these problems I will move over. I already have Ubuntu running on a dual boot on my desktop and will probably also set up Ubuntu on my One (which I prefer to my experiences so far with Linpus).

 

are u serious? 1 minute 5 seconds???

I'm getting about 25 seconds!

 

i get about a minute too. I only have 1Gb RAM, but that's just because a screw in my MoBo is stuck and broken -_- The last screw...stuck for life...

 

well i'm running a 150 vlite'd vista w/ 1.5gb of ram, maybe that makes a difference

 

Linux, but then why wouldn't I? It's free, it's as capable as Windows (if not more), I can customise the applications at the code level and did I mention not having to pay lots of £££s for licenses?

For the AA1 it boots faster, the battery lasts longer, you can use an SSD and still get more disk space (including applications) than you do with Windows.

Personally I've found that most people who cling to Windows do so because they are technically competent users who have used it for so long that they don't want to start again. Anyone who has never really dug around in the bowels of Windows, who doesn't know what the registry is and doesn't care, can adapt to linux very easily, sometimes without even noticing the change. I've helped lots of OAPs, families etc over to linux.

There are linux equivalents 99% of Windows applications, for some there are 5 applications which do the same job, the mistake a lot of users make is looking for the same application rather than investigating the alternatives. Yes, Gimp isn't perfect although it has improved lately, but there are other drawing apps on Linux from the excellent SVG Inkscape, to Pixel. If needed then Wine doesn't do a bad job of emulation and most applications run faster under Wine than they do natively in Windows. Games which can be made to run under linux usually achieve more fps, but I'll conceed, that even with Cedega the situation for games isn't great - best to invest in a Console instead.

One more thing, if the last time you tried linux was more than 6-12 months ago, then grab the latest versions of a distro and try again. Linux is evolving and improving at an incredible rate.

 

Don't tell M$ but my OS was free as well lol

As for your reasoning yeah I'd say you're sot on mate, I'm a pretty advanced windows user and have my current set up streamlined for my needs and hobbies but am interested in Linux due to the xbox and PS3 linux installs, is fedora worth installing? I have a setup dis here that a friend gave me a few weeks ago

 

I'm not sure Fedora is where I'd recommend most people start, it's not a bad distro but there are others which win recognition for being more friendly for first timers. The top two, full featured, distros are probably Mandriva and Ubuntu (Kubuntu). Personally I think Mandriva is superior to Ubuntu but expressing any form of opinion is likely to bring out fanboys for a host of different distros, there is a cult like status around Ubuntu, Gentoo etc. Mandriva is free, but they also sell a version which includes non-free applications and video codecs etc. Mandriva has the best GUI configuration and installation tools of any linux distro I've tried, most things tend to work 'out of the box'.

I'd recommend staying clear of Gentoo - it's geek only territory which only helps to prolong the image of linux as an OS where you need to recompile applications and kernels. If you should ever become comfortable with linux and want to tweak endlessly for 100ms of speed here and 1fps there, then Gentoo might be what you turn to but it's no place for the newbie.

 

I'm running a dualboot on my A150. Got Vista an Ubuntu installed.. but I'm mainly using Vista because it's just more fun to work with .... it's not that i don't like Linux but.. well.. why use a chair if you can have a couch .. and more battery ;-).

It's also no fun to recompile all the drivers after every update etc. etc. ...

 

It's a loaded question of course.

Not very many people take enough time to get used to Linpus before they wipe and install something they are more familiar with. So its not really going to get a fair shake.

I am sticking with the default install. It does everything I need, since I dont need it to do all that much. It's light, fast, and clean. It's fun, in a challenging sort of way.

The problem is it is totally reliant on Acer for updates and patches. If Acer at some point caves in to Microsoft and throws Linpus under the bus you are left completely screwed. The Acer website is supposed to have an updates section where you could download new software, they have never got around to implementing. That has me rather worried, to be honest.

Hey hum, if that happens I suppose there will always be Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

 

I vote for linux. I've grown up with microsoft. Starting with the family DOS machine and Dot matrix printer. Then our beloved 3.1 with SOLITAIRE!! Then 95,98,98SE,Millenium(worst pos ever), 2000, xp. It's like the school bully, every year he got bigger, stronger, slower, and less friendly. The only thing I can't do so far in linux is watch netflix movies online and play shockwave games, because they only support IE, and IE4linux sucks. The greatest thing about linux is the tech support from the community. I've had thousands of random, unexplainable, and extremely frustrating problems in windows, and customer support treats you like your 6. "Now make sure the computer is on. Is the cord plugged in? Do you see the green start button? I have no clue whats wrong, but thank you for calling microsoft support!" Oh yeah, and linux is LEGALLY free. And there's like a million flavors, you could spend an eternity trying them all out.

 

Vista for browsing or general use.
Funny thing is that I've been a Vista hater until now that I found vlite.
I can easily get 3 hours from my 3 cell battery using the fan hack program and wifi off. 2 1/2 hrs browsing with wifi.
For serious stuff I still use Ubuntu and/or XP.

 

Yes very serious beaker.
Running Xp home as it was from the CD rom with all the AA1 xp drivers with as little at start up as possible. and i get 1 minute 5 seconds ish.
I'm currently on 1GB of ram.

I wasnt really sure about nlited XP because i couldnt find much info on this forum about people installing it except for one person who said it was as slow as hell.

Can someone give me some tips because im not really enjoying the 1 minute boot up time.

 

As long as it can run Firefox and Thunderbird, I don't really care too much about OSes.

So, I am running XP Home + OS X + Ubuntu, set to boot to OS X by default.

Hong.

 

rjm had an interesting insight into Linpus, that folks aren't giving it a fair amount of time. I'm in that camp; played with it for a couple of hours before wiping the 'disk' and installing Ubuntu. I wonder how many of the Linux ONes are being bought by non-technical folks who are using them just to surf and read email...I'm guessing not a lot, that the majority are being snapped up by Linux fans who finally see a decent $300 platform to run their favorite flavor on.

Perry

 

I'm going to try fedora tonight, I'll give it a while as I don't use much space on the hdd anyway

I'm still wondering to my self though 'why bother?' lol

 

At the moment i'm still running linpus, did the advanced desktop thing, made some tweaks and it's fine for surfing, chat and mail... the things i bought it for. Yeah it's got limitations, but I'm learning about linux so it's not that big a problem for now. In october both mandriva and ubuntu have a release that's supposed to support the A1, so i'll probably switch to one of those sooner or later.

btw, i to grew up using windows but after experiencing vista on my gf's laptop i decided that's not the way to go. I still run XP on my desktop, but im getting tired of having to validate my install or whatever every time is swap some hardware...plus it's not 100% legit since i got it on a student license and i'm not in college anymore

So hell, maybe ill even switch my desktop to linux at some point... :evil: for now i enjoy messing about on my A1 (while having a working computer on standby)

 

I'm using Xubuntu. It is Ubuntu with xfce instead of gnome as a window manager, which runs very well on limited hardware. It still has a decent boot time, gives me full functionality, and boots up using very little RAM, so it is perfect for me.