Re: Operating Systems

[skip@taygeta.com (Skip Carter)]

In article <Pine.GSO.3.96.970727192759.20777A-100000@sky.net>, John Howard <jhoward@sky.net> writes:
|> On Tue, 22 Jul 1997, Robert D. Yexley wrote:
|> > Looking for some objective opinions.  I am a new programmer and am going
|> > to be doing it for a living and will be buying a new computer soon.  I
|> > am trying to find out what will be the best and most practical operating
|> > system to run on a home computer that will be used for programming a
|> > lot.  I have heard very good things about Windows NT, but dont know much
|> > about it.  Are there any good books that could help me with this?  Can
|> > somebody help me with what would be best for these purposes?  Thanks for
|> > the help.
|> 
|> I am letting these chips fly and fall wherever. <grin>
|> 
|> A comical paraphrase from the Unix Haters Handbook site: "Linux is free if 
|> your time is worthless." Otherwise opt for a commercialized operating 
|> system that has proven itself reliable and that will not suddenly
                                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

	My experience with Linux is that it is EXTREMELY reliable.
	All my current Linux machines have uptimes that are measure in MONTHS.
	In contrast I have seen NT systems sitting idle in a corner, running  nothing
	but their internal system stuff, crash after running on the order of 1 DAY.

	Another cost consideration is the minimum hardware requirements to run
	a practical system.  Linux is considerably less demanding (it won't be the
	fastest machine around, but you can run Linux with  a 386 with as little
               as 4MB of RAM -- the first machine that I installed Linux on was exactly
               that).
	

|> disappear to force you to upgrade your computer systems. (Some 
                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
		It seems to me that MS OS's do this all the time
 (OS/2 which you recommended, does not have this same fault of course).
Even if Linux disappeared, I wouldn't be at a loss since I have the source code to
all of it and can maintain it myself if necessary.

|>I recommend OS/2 Warp 4 with built-in WIN-OS2 support for Microsoft
|>Windows v3.1 programs. WIN-OS2 is provably more reliable than MS Windows
|>v3.1. And OS/2 can coexist with many other PC operating systems such as 

	This is the real key.  The amount of commercial software out there
that is available for Linux is a growing, but small amount.  If you have such applications
that you need to run, then that requirement can pretty much dictate your choice
for you.

	
-- 
 Everett (Skip) Carter        Phone:  408-641-0645 FAX: 408-641-0647
 Taygeta Scientific Inc.      INTERNET: skip@taygeta.com
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