I think you can with some of the 'buntu's (edubuntu almost definitely 'cause it's made for kids/as an educational OS).

Actually, that's kind of my peeve-all this discussion about linux as if it's a monolith. There are a whole bunch of distros (wiki's list), some of which are useful for certain situations, but not so much for others. (How many people use knoppix for their desktop?) I had to make a bootable kubuntu usb for an install job, but I'd be using a knoppix derivative if I actually wanted usb linux. For a media center, there's one of the mythTV distros. The great thing about linux is that there are all sorts, so you can almost pick one that's just right for a specific task. I kind of want to poll people on which linux they use.

@story645

The problem is most users who grew up on windoze expect a '1 size fits all' OS.... which causes most to try just one distro before giving up. Linux's modular nature has always been a double-edged sword.

The casual user's mental capacity (myself included) has gone down to simian levels over the years and many have developed a phobia for command lines. During the ms/dr-dos days everyone could remember at least a few commands.

Knoppix?.... Yeah, I think it's hardware detection is one of the best. Ubuntu/Debian have caught up, though.

Poll people?.... good luck, considering the thousands of distros out there. I currently use Debian / Ubuntu / Vector / Puppy / Arch / Leopard(OSX). Many more in the past.

Plan 9?.... They're the AT&T guys who gave us UTF-8, rite? Not sure.... I'm probably not nerdy enough.

Linux/BSD, although superior in many aspects, still faces an uphill battle. One solution would be manufacturers compiling thier own version for their own hardware... like Apple. Eg: Sony could compile its own version of Debian or Fedora to be 100% compatible with it's Vaio notebooks. But this would introduce it's own set of problems like Sony starting to charge for it coming with restricted drivers and such and also loading it with bloatware.... once again, a double-edge sword.

The other problem is PR.... u need money to market.... and until a smaller distro like LinuxMint can afford to pay a Hollywood star or AV idol to do a TV commercial using they're OS on a trendy slim carbon-titanium laptop, the casual user market will always gravitate to the evil empire.



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~Point & Squirt~

Of course, Linux isn't a monolith... But the overall evolution of the whole follows each other relatively closely (since it's open source, so new features from one distro could be easily ported to another if needs be)
But you are right, some distros are much more user friendly than others. Although I have yet to spend a day without opening the command prompt, but that's just me... I also spend half of my day on command prompts on Windows...
I just find it easier to do your stuff from the terminal on Linux...
And more importantly... I really just added that line because I wanted to appear as neutral as possible and so I had to give a con or two to Linux no?

Oh, and if you're going to make a USB bootable, I'd suggest SLAX. It's pretty cool, and very customizable.

@gan17, it's true, most users, including me, don't really feel like worrying about which distro to use. So I only ever try one once a few friends suggest it to me, or if I'm forced to work with for some reason. I would never really bother to search in over 300 different one and try to compare them on my own, unless I really had to.

And I really don't like your idea about manufacturers following Apple's example... having hardware bound software is something pretty terrible IMO...

@Stealth

I never said anything about being hardware bound. It would just be a current distro (Ubuntu for example) compiled/optimized to work on a given manufacturer's hardware in order to offer maximum compatibility.... A step beyond what Dell are doing in America/Europe..... kinda like what Fujitsu does for their enterprise laptops (Knoppix) in certain Asian countries or what VIA intends to do with it's OpenBook (gOS). It would still be Linux and you'd still have access to all compatible repositories and all the open source goodies.

Just an idea, though....

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~Point & Squirt~

What I've been seeing from the opensource crowd is a push towards open drivers, which is about as far as you can get from software bound hardware (which is kind of the same thing as hardware bound software in this respect.)


One of my biggest semi-peeves in linux got adopted in Vista (the whole user permissions/sudo). I understand the point of never running as the super user from a security/maintenance/stability/good user point of view, but it can get incredibly annoying to have to type things in every four seconds just to install or compile almost anything.

Hmm, I'll check out slax, though I really should go with whichever distro has player built in. Robots-a field where the MS toys are great for getting newbies involved 'cause things tend to just work and talk to everything they're supposed to, but linux distros are better for fine grained control (assuming you can even get them to work-which is why newbies probably shouldn't start out with linux.)

Who cares about security? lol... I always run from root...

Well I wouldn't know about "player", never had to deal with it. But making new modules for SLAX isn't supposed to be that hard. And installing extra modules to it is quite simple too.
Well the real point of SLAX is modularity, if you're going to need only one kind of setup all the time, I'm sure you might find something better for your specific needs.

@gan17, my bad, I misunderstood what you where saying. But even then as you said, it's a dangerous road there...
And I doubt it would make that much difference if they are optimized or not for the hardware. But what would make a difference is them being shipped with the hardware. That's where Windows is eating all of it's market shares.

Well guys, instead of focusing on Linux here, this thread is kinda supposed to be about all forms of OS's right?
Anyone tried solaris? Never did, but seems interesting.

If your refering to the just released version Open Solaris .... I have it on ISO cd.... but haven't had the time to try it yet.
From what I've read online, it shows a lot of promise as a desktop OS but it's still too young and lacks polish. Lot's of complaints regarding hardware support and installation lockups. minimum 512ram required to run it in gnome...yikes!

Actually, when it comes to hardware support and 'auto-detection' no FOSS distro I've used has ever got everything working automatically. Always had to configure card readers, wireless chipsets... Ubuntu/Xubuntu 8.04 came close, but didn't auto my laptops default resolution (yes,I'm picky).... The only exception was PC-BSD... which rocks, BTW.

and Stealth, with regards to my previous post, I meant optimized and included/shipped.


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~Point & Squirt~

Check these small videos out.

Youtube Vid 1

Youtube Vid 2

Computers are like air-conditioners. They're useless when you open windows ~ Linus Torvalds



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~Point & Squirt~

Aw! BOO!!
All hail the great Microsoft Windows.

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Life, what would it be without so much wrongs and rights?


Star Trek XI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZiR-NETDr0

Actually, it looks like Spore's gonna be coming out for OS X too http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(game). Now if we can just get studios to cross-develop for Linux too....

also,

Awesome. Just...awesome.

I use PC. Although this annoying cousin of mine keeps pestering for me to get Mac, but I don't feel like changing it. PC is good enough for me, and I don't see anything wrong with using PC either.

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♪MONSTARR~ will eat all your cookies and steal your bishies~♪ Φ_Φ

THREAD REVIVAL!

I recently got a Mac book but have to say they both have their downfalls and their triuumphs.

Macs are for retards. Period. Mac does everything for you my friend, EVERYTHING.
To uninstall a program I just click and drag the picture of the app to the trash can. Done.
It's nice because everything is so uncomplicated but sometimes I just want to go into the specific files myself and I can't. This is why Macs are unbreakable because no one can really mess with them. It's like it wears ten layers of coats and PCs are naked.

I miss my PC.
I miss the sims and Microsoft frontpage and all the other website apps.


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And you've discovered one of Apple's little secrets. Mac users are just as knowledgeable or even less so about their own computers than most everyone else. My friend said it best " Macs are for people who hate computers"

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Sarcasm just doesn't work over the internet.

PC's. i do graphic design and i do use mac frequently but man can they be annoying. for art and design I'd say mac but for everything else PC's are better.

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http://westsiders2.deviantart.com/