Hey dude, you're getting Linux on that Dell!
 

Open-source, like caffeine, is a beautiful thing. Now if only I can manage to get SH4 to run on it.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/...rce=rss_news50

What they do not mention is the excessive bloater-ware that it will encompass. Just install something like Fedora....

Does that really matter anymore? I don't think so.

I don't even know what the hell Linux even is.:damn:

I see... So the only problem seems to be getting certain games and programs to work with it?

Well, like any OS, apps have to be written for it. Insofar as gaming in Linux is concerned; drivers have been a challenge in the past, though gaming on Linux as a whole is gaining steam.

Gaming and internet access (MSN, Yahoo, etc) are stopping Linux from becoming more mainstream.

Not even in the slightest. I run MSN + I can do Yahoo, AIM, you name it on Linux. Driver issues from the past also have been solved for about 7 years now. If you are talking for ISP, then that is a different story. I don't know anyone that uses MSN as an ISP or Yahoo either for that matter, so I doubt that has much affect in this situation. I doubt MSN even has that many clients.

This thread does show the general lack of knowledged about the platform however. I do find that angle interesting.

-S

PS. Most games can be made to run as well with DX support. ALmost all OpenGL games run fine natively too. SH3 probably would run if you want to tweak it.

Around here most people have MSN, Yahoo, or Comcast so I would think they are pretty common. MSN is the number two ISP provider.
Interesting you didn't know that. :)

Could be because of the reasons I stated. And by that I mean those ISP's promote Linux as supported which none of them do.
Who makes games for Linux? Not many and I mean games for Linux not useing Wine or some VMware.

I use Ubuntu and XP parallel on the same machine. Most proggies work quite OK actually. For me the biggest step was to learn all new file extensions and how to open them on Linux, it'll blow your socks off!

[BRAG]
I attend the same college as Linux "creator" Linus Thorvalds, and my chemistry teacher actually taught him back in the 80s!
[/BRAG]

Strange - they don't even rate in the top 22(MSN that is):

http://www.isp-planet.com/research/rankings/usa.html

Also, you can get any game to run with Cedega. If you want to remove MS from your life without going to MAC, it is quite possible with Linux

Setup of Linux is even more simple now that installing Windows XP.

-S

My bad. They used to be #2 but have now switched from ISP to portal service which makes sense with their business model.

Until Linux becomes point and click and heavily advertises it, it will not become mainstream. Yes I have played with Linux. I've played with Red Hat 6, Mandrake 7 and Suse 7 and 8. I don't run it anymore because my games take up all available space and yes I know desktops have improved since then. Also what hurts it is that there are too many different flavors. In this case choice hurts because Janet and Jack User wouldn't know what to get.
I'm not even arguing the points of Linux. The people that use Linux today are your computer savvy males that make a conscious choice to drop MS because MS is MS and thats all. They aren't switching for ease of service.
SBC/AT&T is Yahoo. #3.

Well with AT&T you do not need to run some flakey software app to connect. MSN however = bad. Not sure why people would use that??!!!

I'm not arguing with you on the reasons people do or do not use Linux though, but I think it is point and click enough now for the mainstream person. You can do everything system related now without ever looking at a command box if that is what you want. KDE couple with Firefox. Thunderbird or even kmail for an email app. OpenOffice 2.0 for a office suite. A ton a user programmed games. You even get the native installers from anything made by Id or even the UT series. Use Wine or cedega to run all your windows based games if that is what you desire.

You are right though - it is still a niche market for Linux - people that want to tweak their systems are the core users. Some things do take some tweaking still, but as an office based system, I think it is ready to go mainstream. I thought about making Linux the default desktop on every machine at work, and probably already would if I wasn't an MS partner and the fact that they shovel their latest desktops to me for free.

-S

China actually uses linux as it's official operating system.