The Old Tin Shed

Well after the last couple of posts about Linux and Windows, I now stand corrected.  I have found an alternative package that as a desktop ticks 99% of the buttons. Although technically not Linux but Unix, Desktop BSD rocks.  Had avoided using it because it was desktop orientated and because it wasn't supported by the software vendor.  Out of frustration today I decided to download it and see if it truly lived up to the hype of a windows alternative. Well I have had it installed for a couple hours now, and have found it amazingly simple to use and get used to.  It has some pretty cool desktop abilities that blow windows into the weeds.  Multi-desktop, and some cool visual aids make it a pleasant place to be. A lot of distro's don't quite get the video resolution thing right but they have with this. The install manager for software is great, easy to use and it lets you download packages with ease. Everything worked straight out of the box, no updating eve...

Wow, is all I can say.  The software is finally installed and working, some 11 emails to tech support and struggling to get my head around why things were not working.  If linux has one fault when it comes to these things its that it is very complicated.  Each step in the process showed up because something had not been thought about in the previous step, so we were lurching from one error to another. Most of this can be countered however with a more comprehensive how to for the install of the vendor software.  Things like make sure you have all the updates installed, make sure you set your static IP in advance of any install, make sure you disable SElinux and the correct way to do that.  I have learnt about iptables and how to work those and firewall exceptions that are actually separate.  All in all have accumulated a large amount of data on how linux workings are different to windows. As per the last post if you have no desire to ever go to...

Now I dont know if i should be complaining about linux or the proprietary software I am trying to install on it. Have been through every major distro, but is seems the later the version of the software the more unlikely it is to install with no issues.   For example I can install the software on version 5.6 of CentOS no worries but try to use version 6 and it crashes out with the mysql install.  The proprietary software installs its own version of all the needed MYSQL, and has major issues with the way that works on the newer distro's.  I can only assume that, that is the reason for my issues. Lots of people ask if Linux is a real alternative to windows.  The answer is both yes and no. Windows out of the box is ready to install apps and runs full multimedia devices no issues at all.  Its primary issues are based around the fact that it is realitvely insecure and you need lots of extra software to make it do what you want it to.  For exanple to ...