LINUX OP Good or bad?

cornedbeef · Aug 21, 2007, 06:34 AM

Hi, I have been looking at the Linux OP and am wondering whether to give it a try. As I only use the pc for basic photograpy, info from the web, ebay etc would this be a good move. The only other thing is would my kids still be able to use their all important MSN?
I have had enough of windows xp playing up and would just like to start from scratch with a new OP. Any views on if this is a wise move or not?
Thanks Richard.

melondrift · Jun 28, 2008, 10:05 PM

You are quite correct Scott. My apologies for possibly expecting too much of Microsoft. My point of view remains, though, and the reason is, not all of us are able to constantly buy the newest and hottest hardware with which to run Microsoft's latest powerhungry software. My computer might just barely be able to boot Win XP (which they've tried to drop support for a couple of times now, being thwarted by investors: even so, I wouldn't expect support for it much longer), but I would never be able to put enough memory on my machine to even cover the 1Gig requirement just to be able to boot Vista, not to mention the large amount of memory needed for running any other software on it. In short, to go with Microsoft (leaving aside all the negatives for doing so) I would have to buy a brand new machine (dual core w/ 2Gig Ram minimum for semi-stable running, quad core w/ 4Gig Ram to reduce crashing) which for me would be a rather large investment. Naaa, if I had a machine like that, I'd still stay with Linux and save all that horsepower for running software instead of just feeding the OS.

melondrift · Jun 29, 2008, 07:15 PM

Y'all have been most gracious in listening to my bantering, and I thank you for that. I'm just another sucker who's still kicking himself in the rear for having wasted so much time and energy on a particular type of software when the alternative is free and oh so much better for me to use. I'll stop listing reasons for leaving Microsoft now ( including a plethera of instances that currently have Bill Gates and his company in some very serious legal boiling oil ), and I'll not mention of the previous comment on cars ( sensibly keeping lid on another can of worms ), and also wish you guys the best of luck in whatever path you choose. 8-) Enjoy life. Why fight with your computer if you don't have to. Ending with my opinion, "Linux OP" in my opinion is very good, and again, yes, you can use MSN Messenger protocol with Linux just without video as of yet (this will change as Linux developers are able to write more code for the program). Linux is free, and the central groups do not release unstable software unless you really want it.

melondrift · Jun 29, 2008, 08:27 PM

Shropshire Beef!! I've found a program that is cross OS compatible ( means it can be used on windows, linux, and any other OS that is able to use some form of current C+ language. It's called "Pidgin Messenger" and can be found easily with a google search. another cross platform program is "Tux Paint" ( designed for youth 3 years plus ) which also uses C+ programming. The Tux Paint program we've been using on both linux and windows computers for some time now with no problems from either. I will be installing Pidgin on my brothers computer with Ubuntu Linux on it ( their Windows crashed for the last time and his wife got tired of asking me for help ( recap, mine is 550MHz - his is 1800MHz which means more than three times the processing power, mine was as fast as his when he had windows, now he has Linux and can feel the speed!!)). I will let you know how the Pidgin project goes. My bad, am so excited that I forgot to say what Pidgin does, it erases the need to have a bunch of different unsafe advertisement owned messenger programs installed by combining the messaging protocol of many different services into one program. From what I've read, you can even be logged into several different messenger services at the same time. I.E. chatting to one person on MSN line while talking to another on Yahoo Chat line. AWESOME!!!

retsoksirhc · Jun 30, 2008, 06:19 AM

I've heard of pidgin, but I prefer the browser based Meebo at meebo.com
No download necessary for that one.



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