It depends what your "business grade" is. Server Operating systems are tools to do tasks and run business software. Most "internet" software is written for Linux first *nix, *bsd later. Its become that way because it has the largest deployment base, the largest user base, the most varied user base of all the *nix and *nix like systems (bsd, osx). It tends to be much easier as a developer to focus on the largest user base, then when users come looking for support on other operating systems there is enough momentum to support it.Originally Posted by incisor
linux still has a long way to go to get to the usability of the mainstream OS's but it definitely is a lot more user friendly than it used to be.
mint and ubuntu are both great for home users with limited needs, a sense of adventure and the patience to play with it..
still prefer debian myself if i have to play in *nix
solaris or freebsd for business grade stuff.
but my old laptop with snow leopard flogs them all and has for years
surely it's gotta die one day so i can shout myself a new one
It has not always been that way, If we go back to the 1990's Solaris was the premier UNIX (Solaris was actually originally BSD based and changed to SysV (UNIX) around the early 90s) and FreeBSD was king of the open source crowd. FreeBSD fragmented [1] massively towards the end of the 4.x -> 5.0 streams, some key developers left the community to work exclusively for Apple [1]. It's multi-core and filesystem reliability was absolutely shocking in early 5.x releases and was only marked -STABLE in 5.3. The poor multi-threaded performance and the new dual core CPU's put a large dent into the FreeBSD community as many users jumped platforms to Linux. With many large organisations backing the project (Linux) it has grown in stability and performance.
As with any OS you need to pick your hardware to match your software, there are always fly by night organisations selling cheap fab crap out of China which is unreliable and has poor or no driver support. This is a key point on Linux desktop adoption. So many "consumer grade" computing systems have shocking driver support and that shows up on Linux, FreeBSD et al.
Disclaimer: I've been using Linux as my primary desktop operating system since 2003. I have been at various times a contributor to projects including MySQL, Slackware, Ubuntu, FreeBSD and Squid. I have developed software since the early 1990s on Linux, Free and NetBSD, SunOS, Solaris, OSX. In that time all my Linux desktop systems have been full intel hardware to avoid driver pain-in-the-arse. Having said thta my work supplied system is a recent macbook pro. While OSX has some nice features it's a poor substitute to Linux as a dev environment. The simple reason is there are all sorts of edge case bugs that arise in OSX that I don't see on Linux (different threading implementations, schedulers, c libs, compilers, the list goes on and on and on). Again the entire tool chain for open source software is generally developed with Linux first all the rest second.. and it shows.
I should also point out that I don't play music or do any photo/video editing on Linux. It's my toolbox that I work in KDE, Browser (Chromium, Firefox) Editor, Shell, Compilers etc. I've occasionally looked over the fence at GNOME/Unity and cringe.
The key point is that there is the right tool for particular people's jobs. There is no such thing as one size fits all in life, and computing. This thread has also gone WAYYYYY off Topic.
Last edited by stewie110; 16th June 2016 at 05:48 PM. Reason: add comment regarding off-topic
ForumSage
SupporterIt is on topic in one respect because some of the problems that some people have with their computer's performance could be solved by ditching Windows and installing Linux. It might have solved the original problem.
As you say, it isn't for everyone, but I believe that a huge percentage of the people who would benefit most from it are people who have never heard of Linux.
1973 Series III LWB 1983 - 2006
1998 300 Tdi Defender Trayback 2006 - often fitted with a Trayon slide-on camper.
I cant agree more strongly. Windows is good, but it is also a pain in the butt and there is always a new problem that is going to need a new expensive program to fix, not so with Linux. A lot of people need to ask what they actually use their computer for. 90 odd perecent of people just surf the net, youtube, facebook, forums, play music and watch vids and maybe do accounts too. Linux does all this and a lot more trouble free. Oh and for free. If you are a gamer, maybe other options are better, but otherwise I think a lotof peoples problems with computers could be solved by ditching windows, so this is very on topic.
Chris
Original question.. How to backup Windows so that the system can be upgraded to 64bit... Current thread/topic conversation is about Linux..
The threads topic has evolved. But it IS still off the topic of the thread defined by the subject and the original post/question.
I agree with both your points. I am a massive Linux fan etc.. right tool etc etc..
SysAdmin (Owner)
I made my first pc $ selling a program i spent 2 years writing for an atari 8bit before i ran a multi-line bbs on that hardware using spartados etc.
i have been playing linux since the days of yggdrasil and was a debian consultant for many a year before moving into bsd and freebsd. i was a real fan until it became clear that it had some very serious limitations in the real world espcially when it came to trying to make a living after i was forced to give away my trade.
no only was it my desktop of choice but i also ran many of my servers etc on it when i was an isp.
aulro.com started out on debian on a pc under my desk at home, progressed to freebsd and has run on solaris ever since. so long in fact i have forgotten more than i remember about many bits of it.
having been a pc consultant since the late 80's (i got over programming early on) and having seen the evolution of the pc environment at the coal face, shall we say, the linux user experience for the average joe, just hasn't been that flash.
sure it has surges in popularity but never to the point that it has been a serious contender in the pc market place as many manufactures have found out first hand.
i tried numerous times over the years to get people to try linux and out of the hundreds i have introduced to it, there is less than a handful still persisting with it i believe.
it's more of an enthusiasts os more than something you can point a pc dummy at and get them to persist with.. the ease and popularity of windows or mac os always lures them away one way or another.
come to think of it, i think my most successful linux convert would be old dave the original owner of the neurum creek bush retreat....
the one thing i always noticed tho is that it always had a very high proportion of zealots in it's userbase, which will help perpetuate the dream...
i used to cop so much crap from windows guys when i pushed linux etc, they would have a big smile and an even bigger told you so on their dials now....
sadly the pc market and user base is shrinking at an alarming rate so it will be interesting to see where the next few years takes us...
2007 Discovery 3 SE7 TDV6 2.7
2012 SZ Territory TX 2.7 TDCi
"Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it." -- a warning from Adolf Hitler
"If you don't have a sense of humour, you probably don't have any sense at all!" -- a wise observation by someone else
'If everyone colludes in believing that war is the norm, nobody will recognize the imperative of peace." -- Anne Deveson
“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” - Pericles
"We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” – Ayn Rand
"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts." Marcus Aurelius
Yes but it is related, the question my car is loosing oil where do I put oil in. One answer is fix the reason you are loosing oil. Not wanting to go off topic, but if someone is having windows issues, fixing them is one solution , trying another operation system is another, both are valid answers. I got fed up with just this type of problem with Windows and it is why I tried Linux again. Anyone who has Windows big issues I would advise to install Linux side by side and try it for a while. Many would be surprised IMO. My point is why try fix something that is broken (home use anyway), if it is not doing what you want try something else it is even free.
Chris
TopicToaster
SubscriberI'm not bothered with where the conversation is heading, as it's all good reading.
My problem still persists after all the advice above (bar the 'Boot Parameters to Configure DEP and PAE' fix- I'll get to that on the weekend)... but really appreciate all the help so far!
-Mitch
'El Burro' 2012 Defender 90.
Mitch, I cant help with Widows, but try loading Linux side by side on your computer. How to do is online. If you dont like it you loose nothing and all is back to normal, if it works for you reinstal and wipe windows.
What do you do on your computer?
Chris
SysAdmin (Owner)
if it is still slow try doing the cleanup procedure i have listed in the computer area.
if it is still slow after that run something like Victoria HDD test
after it loads select the hdd to test, go to the test tab and click start and let it run it's course.
it will tell you how many slow sectors and or bad sectors you have
another reason for the slowdown can be power, make sure your power supply is putting out over 12v and 5v on the different rails with a multi meter. they are DC voltages on the output side of the power supply.
2007 Discovery 3 SE7 TDV6 2.7
2012 SZ Territory TX 2.7 TDCi
"Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it." -- a warning from Adolf Hitler
"If you don't have a sense of humour, you probably don't have any sense at all!" -- a wise observation by someone else
'If everyone colludes in believing that war is the norm, nobody will recognize the imperative of peace." -- Anne Deveson
“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” - Pericles
"We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” – Ayn Rand
"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts." Marcus Aurelius
TopicToaster
SubscriberHi Chris, thanks for the suggestion. I've dual booted windows / linux in the past, but well out of practice these days.
Mainly I just browse the internet, a bit of social media, internet shopping... the usual.
-Mitch
'El Burro' 2012 Defender 90.
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