Re: I've thought better of Linux

cstacy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Christopher C. Stacy) writes:
> I have been running Debian Sarge on my totally generic
> machine [...]

> RedHat (Fedora) and Knoppix do come up on his machine.
> So he's running Knoppix, [...]

There are distributions for which some hand assembly is required, and
there are distributions designed to be booted on certified hardware
plug-and-play. RedHat, Knoppix, SuSE, etc, are delivered with big
kernels containing modules for all the device drivers, and with
hardware auto-detection and auto-configuration tools. Of course, the
first step is to check that your hardware is certified to work with
these distributions, otherwise you're back to case 1, and here happily
you have the freedom to do the hand assembly (while with proprietary
OSes, you don't).

> For a desktop, I would always recommend Macintosh.
> (I wish I was using MacOS X, myself...)

I wish I could use MacOSX on my AMD CPU. I guess no hand assembly
allowed here will prevent me to do that...


Anyway, you can choose between:

Linux ($2) + generic hardware ($300) + hand assembly (priceless) = $302
MS-Windows-XP ($189.99) + Dell hardware (3000-XP=$247.01) = $462
MacOSX ($129) + Apple hardware (eMac-MacOSX=$670) = $799

Of couse, the Linux option is more difficult to price, either you
consider the hand assembly is worth you something, because you're
learning something, or because you've got the freedom to configure it
like you want, or because of the pleasure you get from twiddling bits,
in which case the priceless value is negative and a linux system comes
out even cheaper, or you don't and you rather hire a Linux technician
to install the system on your computer, and you get an invoice of
between $50 and $500, depending on the compatibility of the hardware
with Linux drivers and technician competence and price, so it may or
may not be cost effective.


There's also another consideration if you want to be precise: the
priceless hand assembly, if you do it yourself or have a friend do it
without invoicing won't involve taxes. In the other cases the state
takes the occasion to rob you. So still more freedom by using Linux!


--
__Pascal Bourguignon__ http://www.informatimago.com/

In a World without Walls and Fences,
who needs Windows and Gates?
.

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