Desktop Faceoff: Fedora vs. Vista

[JMaguire]

Writer Bruce Byfield compares the two desktop operating systems here:

"Desktop Faceoff: Fedora vs. Vista"

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/ent...le.php/3694206

What's your take? Do you prefer one over the other?

[ua549]

There are a few errors in the article such as Vista being the first Windows OS to have file permissions. Windows file permissions have been around since the introduction of the NTFS file system in 1992, 15 years ago. That is a BIG oversight.

For the desktop I prefer Vista because of MS Office applications and a few others. There is no counterpart to those applications in the *nix world. There are bits and pieces with compatibility options for older versions of MS Office. Open Office is one such package that provides only partial compatibility. That makes collaboration and interoperability issues I can do without. Finally, there are many websites I am required to use such as bank, brokerage and business websites that limit access to Internet Explorer exclusively. The Firefox plug ins to use the IE rendering engine don't work for these sites. I've tried. It is a website security issue to allow open source software to connect.

The bottom line is that Microsoft desktop products are a standard used throughout the USA.

[JMaguire]

to the Super Moderator-

The article has been corrected to take out the reference to "Vista being the first Windows OS to have file permissions" as per the author's request.

[gallant]

I am using Fedora quite from the start, I got my first intro. with fedora core 2 and since then, I am following the Fedora(7 now). Earlier I was using a desktop computer and Fedora was a preferrable choice for me. But in the beginning of 2007 I got an HP pavillion dv6000 series (to be exact dv6059) laptop, since then Fedora (specifically 7) frequently disappointed me. On my lappy Windows vista is always my first choice due to its stability, office apps. and some other apps(voip calling software that offer cheap calling to my home country). Fedora 7 is horrible on my lappy, it frequently freezes, if i try to change the system time within fedora, it simply hangs and no solution other than taking the lappy battery out works. There used to be a good keyboard shortcut(CTRL+ALT+ESC) to kill any nonresponsive process in Genome but it's no more there(I don't know why). On restart/shutdown, it again hangs during time synchronization. Suspend doesn't work properly. In a nut shell, fedora 7 is a total mess for my laptop as compared to windows Vista. Vista is much more stable on my laptop than fedora.
IMHO, Fedora 7 is just an alpha version linux for laptops. It's productivity for desktops might not be questionable but it sure is for laptops.

[neonlights1111]

From what I have read about laptop and fedora 7 is that there is a problem with the GO chipset. unfortunatly there was a lot of shortcuts made on getting the newer chipset out and its caused some problems.

But its not a Operating system issue, its a hardware issue. Linux is not flexable with bad hardware like windows is. I beleive there is a patch for the GO chipset out.

[gallant]

frequent freezes, pesky mouse pointer, lack of shortcuts are just killers fo me... can u elaborate the GO chipset stuff and it's patch?

At that time some googling pointed to update the bios that i did... but it didn't provide the required results.... frequent freezes pesky touchpad nd stuff alike r still dere....

After that time, I never gave a serious shot to the issues in F7.

[JPnyc]

I tried to follow some instructions that claimed you can run 6 and 7 together but it wasn't successful. I returned my pc to a previous restore point (i always create one before installing anything) and never tried it again.

[neonlights1111]

The issue is likely related to the driver supporting your nvidia “go” chipset (new feature: 'nouveau') or to the monitor parameters (automatic detection and parameterization is a also new feature)

Try first to boot in run level 3 in order to verify that the issue is due to the nvidia support.

When grub starts, press any key you want to make the menu appear then press the e key to enter in edit mode.

Using the arrows, position the spot at the end of the line beginning by kernel and add 3 (the number).

Validate by enter and boot.

If the run level 3 does properly start, the issue deals with the nvidia support. Type the following commands:
$ su -
$ password:
# setup
-> Xorg to parameter
# init 5 -> to try to launch the graphic environment


1. type setup and go through some menu options to disable SELinux
2. in the XWindows configuration change the driver to vesa
3. start run level 5 from a terminal type -/sbin/init 5
4. This will give you 800x600 resolutions. login and enable livan-devel repo
5. yum -y update from a terminal
6. yum install kmod-nvidia

Also I found issues with selinux and your specific laptop as well. During the install disabled it as well.

Here is a great guide for fedora 7 setup.
A problem I have seen for most people is that they add freshrpm and other European repositories with US repositories. This is a bad thing. If you can get a fresh install and do this setup, with new kernel and kmod-nvidia your problems should be fixed.
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-f7.html



Let me know if this fix's it,

I am always happy to help.

[neonlights1111]

to run 6 and 7 on the same machine I would install xen and VM the 2nd install.

Whenever I try a new distro or release I install it on a spare old test box.

I really enjoy Fedora. I had problems with 6 more then anything. It took sound blaster a while to get support for my Live card. But its all working now and I am extremely happy.

remember, YUM is your friend. Just not mix the respoitories (US and European dont play well)

[JPnyc]

I've often considered switching to some alternative operating system, but I use my computer for business as well as pleasure, and so many of the programs that I depend upon don't have what I consider to be a suitable alternative in a non-Windows environment. I keep saying that I'm going to take an old box and convert it to Linux, but so far I haven't managed to muster the impetus.