India Broadband Forum

matrix

Hi friends,

Many including me suffered a lot because of crash, virus, trojan, malware, etc., etc. At last, I decided to move to linux as my OS (no windows) though my OS at home is linux, at office it is windows. Company is suffering a lot cos of lack of awareness of employees. They open any mail without any precaution, allow anything, though a firewall installed, they allow everything when the interactive firewall prompts. I am totally shame to write this as my system never got affected in-spite of this as I made all the necessary precaution. But the network bcome very slow and I was affected too because of others fault.

I have installed Mandriva Spring 2009.1 x86 64 and almost achieved all the necessary to perform my daily activities. Only few things is not achieved as the same is available only under windows and there is no open source alternative.

I am planning to have a system (windows) with vpn so that for the time being those tasks which cannot be carried out in linux because of their software dependencies on windows can be done.

Will post my success story when successfully implemented.

Only disappointment is we are very few in this forum using linux again not as the primary OS, though I am not expecting anybody's help from here, it is a worrying factor that people are not thinking about any alternative even after suffering a lot.

Will post my success story when achieved.

EDIT : The encouraging thing is there are so many alternatives in linux (open source) for the daily needs, mind it I have to use so many utilities to achieve my daily work as I am a IT executive.

harishsyndrome

Good Idea

Even i planned to

But one thing stopping from doing that

Gaming!!

how long i can use Wine!!

ShAdOwCoN

I use xp as my secondary OS .... no plans on upgrading to Vista or 7 as i have migrated successfully to Ubuntu most of my tasks

I think theres nothing wrong in dual booting xp to use that rare windows software you need

matrix

Thanks for the advice, Initially I was thinking of using virtualbox to have that particular windows software. But then decided against that as it is a waste of resource as there need to be fixed memory to be allocated also unnecesserily other default software will be installed with the guest windows OS, one extra ip also required though a single NIC is shared between the host and guest OS.

I have successfully installed that particular windows software using wine and is working fine now after doing some tweaking with the windows registry (which wine provides). I tried crossover before wine, though it is wrapper application of wine not able to succeed with my requirement.

The good thing is my management wants to deploy linux on more desktops. But only concern is training other colleagues on linux as I will not get enough time to perform my daily activities and this will become as an extra burden.

johnson

Hi Matrix,
Ha, that's what happens when you make a gud suggestion to the management - they make you implement it! Any way, it is nice to see a company taking this kind of initiative. I wish more Indian companies change over to alternate OS's, especially linux. Greater user base would mean better utilities, drivers etc. Of course, it might also mean a few more virii targetting linux....

matrix

Basically *nix OS are designed with all the necessary security feature right from the begining. You are well aware off that the system folders cannot accessed by normal users. All the data is stored in the home folder in normal case. In case of any infection simply the user can be dropped and created again unlike in windows where you may sometime required to reformat and install the OS and all other software. See the article in the link below:

Note to new Linux users: No antivirus needed

johnson

Yes, Matrix, I'm aware of the inherent security features of linux. In fact, the article in your link was one of the encouragements for my 'conversion'. Now I find it's not only the freedom from infection, but the sheer stability of the system (I have fedora-8 in my office & fc9 at home) and the predictable behaviour too. Of course, I struggled for a few weeks initially to get everything going (mp3's and movies etc) but enjoyed the learning process. I still have XP which I need once in a while at office. Even use MSDOS programs under dosbox. Dos programs run better in linux/dosbox than in XP!

Have one question though: does wine pose a danger of executing a virus?

matrix

As far my understanding is concerned, there is no such possibility. As you are aware wine cannot be executed as root, the main reason for this is security. Wine will not affect any linux system folder. Everything is contained in the users home (Fake windows folders).

johnson

I mount the partition containing Windows with fstab on boot, which means C-drive can be written into. Do you still think this is OK?

matrix

See the mount point will be different as per your wish. Most of the virus, malware, etc. look for the system folder mostly c: as there is no drive concept in *nix, these cannot infect the mounted drive.

linusr

As desktop/laptop ages, its love for linux increases.

I prefer to use Ubuntu, but linux nvidia sucks. worst performance & stuck with vista.
Generally, its the laptops with graphic cards hates linux.

Swifty

i have linux OS
but not in PC in phone!!!!!!!!

mickey

Linux looks more complicated for me,..for home users (& specially the gamers like me) wont see linux for this..

matrix

Yes, I very much agree, Linux is not for gamers. It is suitable for all other use except games.

Luke Skywalker

Has anyone tried Cedege it is running nearly all the major games nowadays.

Currently many full time linuxgamer are using it.

matrix

As I am not a game enthusiast I didn't try that though I know gamers are using this in linux.

nucleuskore

Been using Linux for a LONG time
I am not a gamer though

abena

hi there..I am thinking of using Linux and discard XP..but i need to hear some feedback from linux users..I am not into playing games online..so guess got no problem with it..I am looking forward on any updates that you will post in here about your plan on having a system with vpn and the likes..

matthew

hey matrix....that is a good idea i think..let me know or post it here whatever the results of your tasks..i am a linux user too...and I am satisfied with it..

matrix

Hi, thanks, it is long back, I didn't look back. It is a pleasant environment. No problems so far. Very secure indeed, don't think windows can provide such a secure environment in its life time.

But feel very bad about the computer/internet penetration in our country. Recently visited my native place and found there is no awareness at all about the benifits of using computers/internet. Though most are educated, prefer to settle in townships and don't bother about improving anything there.

In my capacity I have some advice to almost everybody I met, regarding the benefits.