Differences between version 9 and predecessor to the previous major change of LinuxIsNotWindows.
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| Newer page: | version 9 | Last edited on Monday, June 1, 2009 2:28:47 pm | by LawrenceDoliveiro | Revert |
| Older page: | version 8 | Last edited on Monday, June 1, 2009 2:21:04 pm | by LawrenceDoliveiro | Revert |
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
[SelectingADistribution] notes that a number of LinuxDistribution~s that exist only as "desktop Linux" do nothing but try to be [Windows]. As soon as you get past this mentality and realise that you are not locked down into simply trying to ape [Windows], you'll get much further with [Linux]. That's what makes [MacOSX] so successful, too. Important differences between [Linux] and [Windows]:
+* Experienced Windows users are accustomed to having to hunt around various vendor websites to find hardware drivers, add-on utilities, additional applications etc. With most Linux distributions, all this will be found in your standard repositories, and accessed via your distro’s standard PackageManagement tools. It is possible to add on software from other sources (e.g. build from source code), but this is not recommended until you have obtained some experience with Linux.
* Linux is built on the CommandLine and the UnixWay. If you can do something in a graphical program, chances there is a scriptable text mode way of doing the same thing, probably using the same library.
* You should never have to reboot unless you're replacing your [Kernel] or shutting down the machine to change hardware. If your hardware supports HotPlug, you can even switch hardware with a running system, un/load the relevant [Kernel] [Module]s, and keep going as if nothing ever happened. Try that on [Windows].
* No [Registry|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Registry]. As per the FileSystemHierarchy, system configuration files are kept in <tt>/etc</tt>, with separate directories and files for separate subsystems. Per-user configs are kept in the users’ home directories, so they won’t be wiped on an OS upgrade. Most config files are plain-text files, and can be managed with standard text editors and file-manipulation utilities. For instance, it’s easy to backup and restore a set of config files, and use the diff(1) utility to see exactly what’s been changed.
* Software won't just stop working [for no apparent reason|WindowsRot], requiring a reinstall.
