[Synopsis]

Originally Posted by StillwaterTownie

Linux as in Ubuntu absolutely sucks. It is highly user unfriendly. Upon installaton I was totally clueless as to how you install the drivers. I quickly abandoned it and wiped it off and happily went back to windows XP. Unless you're prepared to take a lot of time learning how to run it, I would strongly urge anyone from installing anything like Linux. You will, indeed be sorry.

I'm not sorry, I'm loving it! But I'm not running Ubuntu.

[TheComputerGuy]

Originally Posted by StillwaterTownie

Linux as in Ubuntu absolutely sucks. It is highly user unfriendly. Upon installaton I was totally clueless as to how you install the drivers. I quickly abandoned it and wiped it off and happily went back to windows XP. Unless you're prepared to take a lot of time learning how to run it, I would strongly urge anyone from installing anything like Linux. You will, indeed be sorry.

I agree, Ubuntu is not as great as their PR would suggest.
The REAL problem is that the standard version uses the Gnome Desktop environment. It's not very intuitive and it has too many limitations.

Before you swear off Linux, give PC Linux OS a try.
You'll find it to be very powerful, VERY user-friendly and prettier than Windows.

PCLinuxOS

It's as easy as XP.

Synopsis had the same problems as you did in the past,
but it appears that he's loving his PCLOS.

Next time you feel adventurous, give it a shot.

[Synopsis]

PC LINUXOS is just as easy, if not more so, than Windoze and ST, my computer is running about 5 times faster. Everything I click on is instant. The Internet connection is even speedier. If you do feel adventurous, I highly recommend PC Linux.

[karibear]

I started life in computers with an Apple IIc and Appleworks, and I don't even want to think about how much I paid for it! Then I got a job where WordPerfect 5.0 was the program of choice, so I went from Apple to PC. A year later we got Windows 3.11, and life was sooo much easier! Then upward and onward to PCs with CD/ROMs and ZIP drives, and Windows 98. I uses 98se on my own computer until a year ago when I got it rebuilt for the last time - all that's left of the original is a 100mg zip drive and files that had been copied to a hard drive, which is now a data-only drive. Now I have XP Home Edition, and it works fine.

The problems I've had haven't had anything to do with the OS but new and 'improved' versions of programs that I was perfectly happy with. I used Netscape Navigator from V.2 up to Communicator 6.something, then suddenly with the newer version there was no mail client. Welcome Outlook Express, goodbye hundreds of email addy's. Since Netscape was no longer doing what I wanted, I switched to MSIE. The worst of all was losing WordPerfect. As far as I'm concerned, 6.1 was the ultimate - it had built-in macros for just about everything, converted text from just about any other word processing program, and was extremely easy to use. But when my hard drive crashed, it munched a couple .dll files and the program wouldn't open. I got WP 7, which worked for awhile, then suddenly I had to uninstall and reinstall it every other time I wanted to use it. I called Corel and was told they didn't provide tech support for any but the latest versions, so sorry, but we'll be happy to sell you a v.12. I got a WP 11, which is nice, but doesn't have any of the macros I want. Nothing in life is perfect, right? So I got a MS Office 2002, hoping it would do the things that WP 11 didn't. It doesn't. It doesn't even convert files from WP to MS Word - it just says 'insert disk' and enable this or that, but the enabling option isn't on the program disk. So I can no longer make business cards, calendars, use any of the scads of graphics that I had scanned in...

I wish that once a company has a perfectly good product, they wouldn't mess around and screw it up.

Oh, and that old Apple IIc? A couple years after I quit using it, it was stored in a room where a pipe burst and was utterly soaked. It just sat and dried out, and 10 years later, when we packed to leave Alaska, I plugged it in and turned it on. It worked perfectly. It was useless, of course, but it still worked perfectly.

[Synopsis]

WordPerfect form Corel was the top of the heap; far more powerful than MS Word and you could convert any file with that. I wish they had stuck around, or at least become the dominant word processor/desktop publishing client for the industry. I hate Word, it sucks. I am liking this openoffice.org writer though. It reminds me a lot of WordPerfect.

[_redbird_]

Originally Posted by Synopsis

PC LINUXOS is just as easy, if not more so, than Windoze and ST, my computer is running about 5 times faster. Everything I click on is instant. The Internet connection is even speedier. If you do feel adventurous, I highly recommend PC Linux.

Just curious what is your connections speed? You must have broadband. At work I love the T1 lines.

[Synopsis]

I'm running on a 5 meg cable connection redbird. Typically, my speed runs about 4.6 meg, which is pretty good. Windoze Vista even slowed my connection speed down, or Firefox (my web browser) was just too slow to respond on Windoze. I am so happy with this OS. If you want to give "new life" to your computer, do yourself a favor and download and install PC Linux 2007. I don't recommend running a dual boot system; simply wipe out your hard drive and install PC Linux as the only OS on the computer.

I'm serious, it's like my computer is on crack or something; everything is lightening fast. Don't get gnome, get version 2007.

PCLinuxOS

Of course, you'll need to back up all your files if you wish to transfer any to the new OS platform.

[karibear]

Originally Posted by Synopsis

WordPerfect form Corel was the top of the heap; far more powerful than MS Word and you could convert any file with that. I wish they had stuck around, or at least become the dominant word processor/desktop publishing client for the industry. I hate Word, it sucks. I am liking this openoffice.org writer though. It reminds me a lot of WordPerfect.

WP 5.2 was the ultimate in file conversion. 6.1 eliminated some of the ones that were no longer being used, like WordStar, but it still did everything it needed to. I had a version of Openoffice that my techie friend got for me about 5 years ago, but it was rather pitiful compared to what I'd been used to - I suppose they've upgraded too, but I can't download anything large. I have such a slow dialup that even graphics in emails can stall my system, though that's improved with XP. That's one thing I am really looking forward to in OK - being able to get a wireless connection. I'm about 9 miles outside the area Clearwire covers, and it takes someone running into and knocking down a phone pole to get new equipment installed by the phone company! It's taken 6 years, but we've finally gone from 14.0k to a speedy 26.4.

[TheComputerGuy]

Hi karibear,

If you still need to convert your WP files to MS,
Open Office might do the trick for you.

[karibear]

Originally Posted by TheComputerGuy

Hi karibear,

If you still need to convert your WP files to MS,
Open Office might do the trick for you.

It's the other way around. I hoped to use MS as a back up in case my WP crashed again. I have - I was going to say hundreds, but it's probably more like thousands - of WP files. And unless openoffice has substantially improved over the past 4 or 5 years, it does great with MS files but doesn't recognize WP files. On top of that, I can't download any programs until I move to where I can use wireless, broadband, or dsl. With the pokey dialup I have, I can't even download a driver for my scanner - and the post office has managed to lose the driver on CD not once, but twice.