Community Newsletter: Q&A: 2/9/07 Is the Linux operating system for me?
- 2/9/07 5:00 PM
Viruses found in Linux (Mepis)
by gagit811 - 2/9/07 9:19 AM In reply to: 2/9/07 Is the Linux operating system for me? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Recently I installed Liunx and I really like it, but according to everything I've read, Linux does not have virus problems. My experience has been different. I installed Linux Mepis on one of my network computers and soon after it got infected with a few viruses. Mepis did come with an antivirus program (klamav) and it got rid of them, but I had them come back and klamav got rid of them again. Since I don't have much experience with Linux I really don't understand why I got them. Just tought you should know.
NOTE: Linux never reported virus problems, it was one of my networked Windows computer's antivirus that reported them the first time.
are you sure? show us the report.
by clsgis - 2/10/07 11:08 AM In reply to: Viruses found in Linux (Mepis) by gagit811"I installed Linux Mepis on one of my network computers and soon after it got infected with a few viruses. ...but I had them come back and klamav got rid of them again."
That's pretty hard to believe. As I understand it, Klamav is a graphical user interface for controlling the virus-scanning filter program Clam Antivirus. (http://www.clamav.net/) Clamav is usually used to analyze email messages, including attachments. It's usually integrated with a message transfer and delivery agent such as Postfix or Sendmail, to protect the mailboxes of MS-Windows users from MS-Windows malware. Web hosting places may use it to detect outbound email worms from a compromised PHP or CGI web application. You can use it to scan a Linux system, even have it scan files before "opening" them, but I've never heard of anybody finding anything that way. It's much more common to use Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSes) such as Tripwire to detect changes to files that shouldn't change.
Occam's Razor tells us to choose the simplest explanation. Engineering "horse sense" tells us an implausible report is *probably* garbled or incomplete: inquire further. The principles of Asking Smart Questions (see earlier reply) say you should report what you *see*, not what you *think it might mean*.
Since you "don't have much experience with Linux ... really don't understand..." I wonder exactly what you really *saw*. Did clamav on a brand new Mepis actually detect a rare and delicate Linux virus? How did it get there? What file was it attached to? Did clamav just detect routine malware email traffic from some compromised MS-Windows host? (If it's sitting in Sendmail's queue, clamav will see it.) Were you running a web server with one of those PHP packages (Squirrel Mail, Joomla, phpBB...) with poor security histories? Did somebody prank you with a "social engineering attack" like the one the "I Love You 'virus'" uses?
Linux on PDA
by srteja - 2/9/07 2:38 PM In reply to: 2/9/07 Is the Linux operating system for me? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Lee,
Though I am not an avid Linux user. I have tasted and tested all the flavors and I don't seem to have a major problem with any one of them either in terms of installation or usability, however the buck stops with the PC. I would love to do the same with Linux on a PDA which somehow does not seem have the same fan base. Do you see a major push in this direction in the near future?
Ravi Seethamraju
Ubuntu works great, and the live cd is free
by bobtubnj - 2/9/07 10:11 PM In reply to: 2/9/07 Is the Linux operating system for me? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have been using Ubuntu for the last few months, as a dual boot config, with winxp. It works very well, has a nice graphical interface. About the only gripe I have is using it for viewing DVD movies and other multimedia stuff. You have to download all the codecs manually, using the "Universe" repository. It takes awhile and you have to read all the instructions very carefully. Once you get used to Ubuntu, and get all the codecs loaded up, it is as slick as winxp. The nice thing is that you don't have to go thru all that "genuine windows (dis)advantage" nonsense all the time!! 
Bob B, Houston, Texas
proprietary CODECs
by clsgis - 2/10/07 11:29 AM In reply to: Ubuntu works great, and the live cd is free by bobtubnjThings changed in 1995. Before '95, message and file formats had to be open to become popular on the Internet. Anybody's email could be read by any email program. Anybody could write a program to display Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) pictures. Any web browser could render any web page.
Suddenly, in 1995, a software empire based on secret file formats spent a billion dollars "embracing and extending the Internet." (Half of that was advertising money.) One of its main objectives was to break the Internet community's aversion to secret file formats. It bundled a Web browser in its OS distribution that used HTML features that didn't work in the already established browsers, forcing Web authors to choose between developing for the "embraced and extended Internet" and the free and open one.
Other secret format companies piled on. Real Networks introduced a secret format for streaming audio, and destroyed the much more efficient multicasting multimedia infrastructure (google MBONE) we were using before that. Since '95, most new formats have been secret or proprietary or both. Macromedia/Adobe "Flash" is proprietary. And so are all the commonly used coder-decoders (CODECs) used to make "MP3" files. The empire's "Embrace and Extend" strategy worked. New Internet users didn't know or care whether they were using proprietary message formats.
That's why you have to go through a rigmarole to find "free" CODECs. They're not free ("free as in freedom"), and free software distributions can't include them. There *are* truly free CODECs, but Hollywood doesn't like them and consumers don't know any better, so you'll only find them being used for free-as-in-freedom content such as KPFA.org or the Grateful Dead archives.
to Linux or not to Linux?
by THECARETAKER - 2/10/07 5:59 AM In reply to: 2/9/07 Is the Linux operating system for me? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Good day,
I just read your reply on CNET and consider myself novice on the computor. But I just had to let you know that I understood what you were talking about. I will be trying your recommendations.
Thank-you very much.
Linux can run Windows Programs too
by Tetrasoft - 2/10/07 8:38 AM In reply to: 2/9/07 Is the Linux operating system for me? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I moved to linux a while ago and never looked back. I still run all my old windows programs under linux. I came across a program called wine(www.winehq.com) that can run all windows programs if configured correctly although most dont need special configuration. Mainly microsoft programs need special configuration.
A few things...
by jatos - 2/10/07 4:41 PM In reply to: 2/9/07 Is the Linux operating system for me? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
First of all. you mentioned that Ubuntu is the unstable branch of Debian, not entirely true. Edgy, the latest current release is to a large extent the testing branch of Debian, effectively half between unstable and stable.
The version just below Edgy, Breezy is the LTS, or long term support. in other words the one aimed largely at business users and those who want the most stable version of Ubuntu thats not obsolete.
Also, I noticed Linspire, I did review a couple of the latest version about year ago for a computer site, I have to say whilst it does some advantages, it has more disadvantages, in particular, the software it came was *really* out of date, and not particuarly stable.
Also it should be noted, the linux x-server (the core of the graphics basically) is distincly slower than that of Windows.
Apart from that, I really like Ubuntu, and see the post I am replying for more of the good points. They are plenty. BTW, Ubuntu and debian make it really easy to get and install software.
Jamie
slow x-server usually means no "acceleration"
by clsgis - 2/14/07 8:17 PM In reply to: A few things... by jatos"Also it should be noted, the linux x-server (the core of the graphics basically) is distincly slower than that of Windows."
The XFree86 and X.org servers I've used are as fast as the "graphics processing unit" (GPU, aka drawing engine) on the video card or motherboard. They keep up with office work on anything faster than a 233 MHz pentium 2. Large windows scroll smoothly, large screens of text render instantly, the Flash and MP3/4 players work smoothly. Maybe they're noticeably slow with transparent menus or something. And I don't use openGL so I can't comment on 3D games or those silly "3D" virtual desktops that MSFT is now getting around to imitating.
If you load the wrong graphics driver into X, it won't recognize the drawing engine. In that case, it falls back into "dumb" frame buffer mode, also known (wrongly) as SVGA mode, where the host CPU does all the drawing itself. That can be tolerable with a modern CPU and AGPx8 card, but it's not the instant performance you'd expect. With a slow CPU and a 33 MHz PCI bus video chip, it can be downright annoying. Text in a terminal window scrolls in a visible wave, not all at once. This can happen if your system doesn't have a driver for your GPU, or the hardware detection screws up at install time, or you change video cards without reconfiguring X.
If you didn't get about the same performance in X that you get in MS-Windows, that's probably what went wrong. Look for a file called Xorg.0.log. Could be in /var/log/. Look in there for lines beginning with (WW) or (EE) that suggest your graphics chip wasn't detected.
Another thing you can try is running X using the graphics driver in the kernel. You'll see this in your boot configuration as "frame buffer mode" and there will be a kernel module to load corresponding to your graphics chip. Try it both ways. If your chip is well supported, this won't make much difference. But some chips have an X.org driver but no kernel driver, and some the opposite.
linux suse
by rattus130 - 2/11/07 1:51 AM In reply to: 2/9/07 Is the Linux operating system for me? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
this is my first reply so excuse the way it is worded. 1stly I ve just gone away from windows and am using suse 10.2 and I love it so far, put it this way I will not be using windows again, just read every thing and its pritty straight foward
Linux can do more
by MayRobertson - 2/11/07 1:59 AM In reply to: 2/9/07 Is the Linux operating system for me? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Ok, firstly if you use the Knoppix live CD as your first Linux experience it will put you off...especialy if it is on a laptop as Knoppix has very bad wireless support, and it isnt the fastest, I would recommend Mepis Live CD for a first timer. If you realy do plan to convert or migrate to Linux then I cant recommend SuSE Linux enough...its stable, constantly updated and fast becoming one of the big names in the Linux world and unlike other distos it worked with the wireless in my laptop instantly (well almost...hat to tell it not to use the wired as default)
Many people say (like the person who made the answer for this) that Linux is mainly for email, surfing and sharing stuff...well theyre kinda right...if you know what you are doing and have the patience, the major Linux distros can do everything windows can and sometimes faster! that includes games (OH MY GOD!) if you a prepared to do some thurough Googling then you can find tutorials on how to play games and run windows apps on your faviourite Linux distro using frograms such as "wine" for running .exe files and normal programs and a nifty program called Cedega which will allow you to run almost any game like Battlefield 2, World Of Warcraft and many more. Wine is also capable of running these but it isnt as good nor as compatible. Wine is a free program (like most things in the Linux world) and Cedega requires a membership with a company called TransGaming which requires a small fee.
Linux being made by people for people it doesnt have a lot of the permissions to include various applications with the initial install (this varies with the distribution) to play specific media files or read or open other files so it may take a bit of Googling to find them but they are out there (Google is your friend) and even if you cant get a program that plays or reads the file in linux then just get a windows version and run the program with wine (which is getting more and more compatible all the time)
One of the greratest bonuses with linux that everyone loves and I'm sure everyone has mentioned is that most newer Linux distros come with OpenOffice as part of the install which is a free eqwuvilent of Microsoft Office (Yay)
Right now I am in the middle of converting to using SuSE linux (after trialing numerous Live CD's of other distros) as my primary operating system and keeping XP or Vista (probably Vista...didnt waste my money on it for nothing) as a secondary OS for the few things that Linux cant quite do yet.
One thing to remember about Linux though is to be prepared for numerous small (but automated) downloads as Linux is always being made better and improved. It may be daunting at first to get used to but just remember, 1 its free (for the most of it) and 2 if someone has the will, there will always be a way with Linux
Yes, along side your current operating systems.
by ogolla - 2/12/07 6:11 AM In reply to: 2/9/07 Is the Linux operating system for me? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
In most cases when you purchase a new personal laptop, a Windows-XP operating system is already installed (oem). Or if you are considering changing to Linux on an existing computer, then you already have Windows-XP. And as of service pack 2 it does the update maintenace by itself. How secure your personal laptop will be is depends partly on your security software and how you set it up. In both cases you CAN have Linux for free, BUT you will already have paid for Windows-XP.
Wheather Windows-XP or Linux, what you do on a daily basis to produce work that you can share with others are the results of the specific applications running on that operating system. If it is just emails, text documents, images and spreadsheets then you can run firefox and open office among others on either operating system. If it is just for a good user experience, a newer look and feel, then there is even a third option. Flyakite OSX makes Windows 98,2000 and XP look and feel like Apples OSX operating system. With todays capacities on hard drives there is enough room for Windows-XP, Linux Ubuntu, and Flyakite OSX on a single computer. And you can use them like you use your shoes. What you put on now depends on where you intend to go. Commute to work, Jog in the park, or ride a horse.
Dell's (and others') pratices for cheap PCs
by verdyp - 2/15/07 1:55 PM In reply to: 2/9/07 Is the Linux operating system for me? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Quote: "There's one place open-source falls down, and that's running the very *cheapest* modems, printers, and cameras. If you've still got that ink-jet printer or all-in-one that came "free" with your mail-order Dell, chances are you'd have to replace it with a better model that has Linux device drivers."
When will the providers of cheap PCs stop paying the expensive OEM Windows licence bunlded in their product, and start paying a very small fraction of this ost to make compatible drivers for Linux for their cheap devices?
I can day that this development cost will be small because it will be shared between all PC manufacturers and supported by a large community if it is open-sourced. MAny manufacturers that already need to invest lot of time to develop Windows compatible drivers would seriously gain by making the device specifications public and by making at a least basic drivers that do work on their hardware.
The community would take then the realy for all what concerns the driver updates, optimizations, security fixes, integration, added funtionalities (for example some hardware capabilities not used immediately in the basic drivers), or simpler code (for example when a significant part of the driver should better be eliminated in favor of a better generic implementation with compatibily with newer APIs and application software libraries).
Dell certainly has excellent skilled developers that would like to work on Linux drivers instead of always having to fix their existing Windows drivers (or stop fixing them and making their customers unhappy).
Manufacturers that do participate to the open-source community with their published interfaces and specifications and their participation to the maintenane of linuc drivers in a community do not loose; in fact they demonstrate to the public that they repect them because they give them a long term support option for the hardware they are making. Such involvement favors the rapid adoption of standards and best practices between all participants to the community.
For now, I don't see Dell as a good partner. Other companies are much better in this game: IBM, Apple and Oracle notably. But we are still waiting for other major manufacturers and solution providers: Cisco, Nokia, HP (with former Digital and Gateway), Creative Labs (which is now in big troubles due to its continued proprietary politics which makes it now even out of the Windows market!).
Note that manufaturers that participate to Linux development are not cutting their feet for the support of Windows; even Microsoft benefits from open specifications, and Microsoft will support all devices supported by Linux. Making open specifications is always a winning solutions, this means that manufaturers wil not fall in the categories of makers of incompatible solutions for Windows (look at how many manufacturers have fallen out of market only because of a new API that could not be adapted to the unsupported proprietary hardwares! This has already created lots of damages in the industry, with products suddenly made deprecated and sold in emergency at ridiculous prices and very low profits, like those graphics card makers that are now incompatible with Vista!)
Seriously, what the Vista reveals, one again, is that proprietary solutions and their makers have placed themselves in a very risky position of being suddenly piut out of marketability.
So we urge now nVidia and ATI to join the open-source community, because their OEM manufacturers and suppliers are now in high troubles as they can't easily make themselves the necessary adaptation to keep the intrinsic value of the hardware for which they have payed an expensive OEM licence.
BIOS makers should also join this process: we need the participation of Phoenix, and more involvement by AMD and Intel, so that they participate too in the development of the GNU CC suite: this is really needed by suppliers of server solutions that need Linux. Probably, Sun and IBM could be more decisive there, to pressure Intel and AMD to give better support to open-source communities (at least Linux, but it could be any open-sourced OS like BSD, because those communities have strong links together with common developers).
Please, it only takes a little common sense
by bigbillyt - 2/15/07 7:45 PM In reply to: Dell's (and others') pratices for cheap PCs by verdypI hate it that I have to be a Windows "fan boy" but lets look at the practical reality of the situation.
1. Linux - wonderful operating system, very robust and extensible, BUT, clearly for geeks only! Look at the posts, "stable", "unstable", this distribution vs. that, "run multiple computers and keep a Windows system any way", etc. What nonsense. All that "open source" ends up doing is inviting a lot of smart people to tweak everything until there is no chance for any kind of standardiztion. Does anybody remember "too many cooks....."? Wait, I have to go recompile my kernel, I just added some new cookies and a box of USB ports! Oh crud, now my widgets won't load to give my porno RSS feed updates!
2. Windows XP or Vista (eventually) will give you a great multi-purpose system right out of the box with clearly the best software and hardware comptability.
3. Apple, Mac OS X - Now this realy makes me madder than a nest of hornets. Let's briefly review the history and tactics of these so called inovators. First, for years they kept all their hardware and software proprietary and expensive, often better, but still gauging the consumer under the auspices of "quality control" (think Betamax video format). Now they run a version of Linux (of which most versions are FREE) on standard Intel / AMD x86 based hardware BUT, you can only get that version of their OS when you pay them for their OVERPRICED standard hardware. If I want to buy their spiffy OS X and install it myself it has to be on an existing MAC I want to upgrade. THEY CAN KEEP IT!!! Oh, and by the way, they still don't have anywhere near the number of choices for sotware and games that is available for Windows XP etc. PLUS, now, after years of gauging consumers for their IPods and Itunes music MONOPOLY the Europeans are finally sticking it to them for that rip-off business practice. SO, Mr. Super I'm a fat milionaire genius Steve Jobs comes along to say, OOPS maybe we were wrong sticking it to consumers with media rights ripp off, burn your AAC3 music to disc and rip back to MP3 madness!! HA! NOW YOU TELL US! HOW GOOD OF YOU! GUESS WHAT, APPLE? YOU HAVE NEVER, EVER GOT A DIME OUTTA ME!! SO THERE! Oh, and you smarty pants snotty graphic artist, photo, video manipulating Adobe fan boys can go have some kind of wine tasting air sniffin' Apple computer love-in somewhere else!! If you can get there in your, most likely, broken down VW Jetta.
"LIVE" CDs might NOT be so live, after all
by Claptrap - 9/7/07 12:56 PM In reply to: 2/9/07 Is the Linux operating system for me? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
After having reformatted my son's computer and re-installed all his programs and backed-up data, I decided to play a joke on him and popped a Lindows live CD into his drive when he came to collect it but the joke was on me - Lindows had corrupted the Windows installation so badly, that the only way was to start all over again from format. Only Lindows was still causing problems and to even formatting wasn't so easy..
It is not just games that cannot be found in linux, at least if you want something really powerful - Gimp gives very good results but with many more steps and effort compared to Photoshop; you cannot find some features in Gimp at all. However, it is more than suitable for the average home user.
I have tried Suse 9 and Ubuntu for a few hours and once installed, both were nice to use, with some other useful and fun programs thrown in with both and Open Office 2 with Ubuntu. However, some included screen savers caused the machine to crash (not just in one machine). Also, I couldn't get more than half way with Ubuntu installation into my Pentium 2 that would take Windows 98, so it isn't suitable for old machines (being too resource hungry, I guess). Installation might be painless for some that understand about more than the average user but some questions, aimed to make the experience more user-friendly, did baffled me during set-up and I had to guess their meaning. I tried a few weekends and several visits to user forums to get Ubuntu running but in the end even the forum users suggested I'd give up: they suggested either get a newer machine (not working P4 in the skips yet) or download a puppy or damn small linux - these would work with even older machines but without the niceties of GUI. When I get rich and can afford a second machine powerful enough to take GUI linux, I might give it another go but I keep ALL disks well away from my *working* Windows machine. Just in case.
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