LONG... Re: non ms operating system users

[Linux Idiot <esoteric@atlnet.com>]

Doug Jenkins wrote:
> 
> Sorry if this topic has already been covered but I'm new the the list.
> 
> Several of you have mentioned that you use linux or os/2 rather than win95 or any other ms operating system. I'd really like to know how you function. What apps do you run or do you simply play with the opsys? If you use standard apps (corel or ms office or any component of them, programming languages, databases, web development, etc.), how recent are the versions? Are they developed specifically for your opsys? Do you have a 2nd machine or dual boot machine that you secretly run win95 on and use to browse,
> develop, word process, etc.? I have always been curious about running alternative operating systems but didn't ever believe I could function well on them. This is a sincere inquiry. I mean no insult to anyone. Thanks for any feedback.

Okay, you asked for it... :)

Well I use Linux quite a bit.  My basic set up is my personal machine
that has a dual-boot of Linux and Win95.  I never use Win95, my wife
does.  She's a school teacher and does banners and such.  On my work
machine (HP Omnibook 5700) I have a dual boot of Linux and NT. 
Currently, I spend about 50% of my time in NT there and 50% in Linux. 
I'm moving more and more to Linux.  There are some apps that I've not
found for Linux that I have to use on NT.  One is a corporate voucher
program, the other is PC anywhere.  I've recently found a package for
linux that appears to be a replacement for PC anywhere, and I'm
currently writing my own package to replace the voucher program. Both
Real Audio and Adobe Acrobat reader is available for Linux and I use
them both.  I print in color to my Canon BJC600 printer and have a zip
drive and an ls120 drive attached to my personal box that I use for
backup and archive.  I share my printer between my two machines (work
and personal) and have a scsi Syjet drive attached to my work laptop and
it is accessible via both Linux and NT. By the way, Linux can read and
write to dos and fat partitions.  You can format floppies for
dos/windows as well.  I've got an ISDN line connected to my work laptop
via a docking station.  I've recently located a Linux driver for my USR
ISDN card, so I hope to get that working as well.  On my personal home
machine, I've got a USR 56k v.90 external fax modem as well as a amquest
k56flex speakerphone/voice/fax modem.  I've just installed the amquest,
but hope to soon have it answering my phone.  I've recieved faxes via
both of these modems under Linux.  I've also used my modem to permit me
to dial in from out of town to my personal machine, start up my network
so I could then telnet to my machine.  I have a dedicated IP for my
machine and have in the past run a web server from it.  I'm in the
process of setting up diald which will again enable me to run my web
server.

I make my living running a small team of web developers.  I work from
home, so I have a lot of latitude with my work environment.  We are
responsible for a small segment of the HR AT&T Intranet.  From a
development perspective, I write perl, html and JavaScript using vi. 
For a word processor I use Applixware, which can import word documents. 
I've been known to write documents using the troff and tbl Unix text
processors as well.
Prior to this assignment, I was doing C development.  I worked from home
quite often, therefore I would develop here as well, using the gcc
compiler.

I use Netscape professional to browse Intranet/Internet, email and
newsgroups.  I use Gimp to create web images, and giftool and giftrans
to work do transparency and animated gifs.

I don't do a lot of games, but I do play quake, doom, solitaire, xbill
and xtetris on occasion. There are countless other games available for
Linux, but I've just not spent the time to pursue them.

What do I need windows for? :)

> 
> Doug Jenkins
> doug@royal.net
> programmer/analyst
> provo, ut

-- 
Until later: Geoffrey		esoteric@atlnet.com

NT is secure.... as long as you don't remove the shrink wrap.
Want to speed up your NT box real cheap?  Replace NT with Linux...