Test drive the alternatives before picking new OS
By DWIGHT SILVERMAN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
Whenever I write about Windows security issues, fans of other operating systems come out of the woodwork to praise their favorites as safer choices.
Indeed, Microsoft's OS has more than its share of holes, flaws and bugs that allow writers of malicious code to bedevil it. Evildoers are attracted to Windows largely because its victims are legion, with an estimated 95 percent of all PCs running some version of it.
Those who feel besieged by this onslaught may wonder if there's a benefit to switching operating systems.
Most Windows users ask about Linux, the open-source OS. (Linux can run on any machine that runs Windows. Switching to Apple's Macintosh OS requires buying all-new hardware.)
Blowing away an existing setup and replacing it with something completely different is a daunting task for most users. But there's a simple, relatively painless way to test drive Linux, the Unix-like operating system that can be had for a song — and even free.
There are dozens of variants of Linux — known as distributions or "distros"— that can be loaded and run from what's called a "live CD," without installing anything on your hard drive.
How they behave once they're running varies, but the process of creating the boot CD is the same.
• First, download a copy of the software from the developer's Web site. These are usually made available in CD image file — a snapshot of how the software appears on a compact disc, designated with a .ISO file extension. This is usually a very large file, up to 700 megabytes.
• You'll need a program that can burn an ISO file to a CD. Chances are, if you have a CD burner on your PC, it has software that can do this. If not, popular titles such as Ahead Software's Nero 6 and Roxio's Easy Media Creator 7 will do the trick. A free ISO-burning program for Windows XP systems is at isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm.
• Place the burned CD into the main CD drive and restart the machine. If your PC is designed to boot from a CD, it should launch Linux. If not, you will need to go into the startup settings and change the order of the drives the computer scans for an operating system. Read the manual for your PC or motherboard to find out how to do this.
What happens once the operating system loads depends on the version. Linux is an open-source program, which means that developers can grab its basic components, tinker with it, and produce their own distro.
How the Linux distro you choose looks and behaves depends on several factors, not the least of which is the desktop. There are several different desktops used with Linux, and two of the most popular are KDE and Gnome. They both are structured similarly to Windows, complete with the equivalent of a Start menu and a taskbar with buttons representing running programs. I found both Gnome and KDE pleasant and relatively easy to use.
I tried about a half-dozen different live CDs. Most come with a slew of free programs, including Web browsers, e-mail software, instant messaging clients, games, music and video players and even office productivity suites with powerful word processors, spreadsheets and presentation managers.
All this software is free and fully functional if it loads.
However, getting Linux to run glitch-free out of the box can yield mixed results. As much as Linux zealots like to crow about the wonders of their OS, it simply is not as friendly to get running as Windows.
Each version I tried had some problem that required troubleshooting, often at an advanced level.
With most of them, Linux would not automatically see the other computers on my network. On another, I couldn't adjust my computer's screen resolution. Another wouldn't work with the generic sound card in my test system. And one, PCLinux, never made it to the desktop, fighting with my graphics card until it gave up and dumped me to the Linux command line. Ugh.
There was one major exception: LinspireLive!, a CD-based version of Linspire, which I wrote about earlier this year (see www.chron.com/linspire). It saw my Windows network, worked with my sound card and let me change screen resolutions. Within a few minutes of launching 4.5, the latest version, I was playing MP3 files across my network, getting e-mail and surfing the Web.
You can pay $19.95 for a regular download of LinspireLive! at www.linspire.com. Or, use the BitTorrent peer-to-peer network to get it for free at www.linspire.com/mmp2plive.
Other live CDs that I liked:
• MandrakeMove 9.2 — www.mandrakelinux.com/en/ftp.php3. This distro can save settings to a USB-based memory drive and is relatively friendly. There's a newer version, 10.0, that's commercial software, and available at www.mandrakesoft.com/products/move.
• Knoppix — www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html. One of the most popular Linux live CDs, it has excellent hardware detection, but isn't as friendly to newbies as Linspire or Mandrake.
• Gnoppix — www.gnoppix.org. Similar to Knoppix, but it uses the Gnome desktop.
• SUSE Linux Live-Eval 9.1 — www.suse.com/us/private/download/ftp/live_eval_int.html. This very friendly distro from Novell couldn't see my PC's sound card, but worked fine in other computers.
For a list of dozens of live Linux CDs, try www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php and distrowatch.com.
HoustonChronicle.com - Computing
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
Whenever I write about Windows security issues, fans of other operating systems come out of the woodwork to praise their favorites as safer choices.
Indeed, Microsoft's OS has more than its share of holes, flaws and bugs that allow writers of malicious code to bedevil it. Evildoers are attracted to Windows largely because its victims are legion, with an estimated 95 percent of all PCs running some version of it.
Those who feel besieged by this onslaught may wonder if there's a benefit to switching operating systems.
Most Windows users ask about Linux, the open-source OS. (Linux can run on any machine that runs Windows. Switching to Apple's Macintosh OS requires buying all-new hardware.)
Blowing away an existing setup and replacing it with something completely different is a daunting task for most users. But there's a simple, relatively painless way to test drive Linux, the Unix-like operating system that can be had for a song — and even free.
There are dozens of variants of Linux — known as distributions or "distros"— that can be loaded and run from what's called a "live CD," without installing anything on your hard drive.
How they behave once they're running varies, but the process of creating the boot CD is the same.
• First, download a copy of the software from the developer's Web site. These are usually made available in CD image file — a snapshot of how the software appears on a compact disc, designated with a .ISO file extension. This is usually a very large file, up to 700 megabytes.
• You'll need a program that can burn an ISO file to a CD. Chances are, if you have a CD burner on your PC, it has software that can do this. If not, popular titles such as Ahead Software's Nero 6 and Roxio's Easy Media Creator 7 will do the trick. A free ISO-burning program for Windows XP systems is at isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm.
• Place the burned CD into the main CD drive and restart the machine. If your PC is designed to boot from a CD, it should launch Linux. If not, you will need to go into the startup settings and change the order of the drives the computer scans for an operating system. Read the manual for your PC or motherboard to find out how to do this.
What happens once the operating system loads depends on the version. Linux is an open-source program, which means that developers can grab its basic components, tinker with it, and produce their own distro.
How the Linux distro you choose looks and behaves depends on several factors, not the least of which is the desktop. There are several different desktops used with Linux, and two of the most popular are KDE and Gnome. They both are structured similarly to Windows, complete with the equivalent of a Start menu and a taskbar with buttons representing running programs. I found both Gnome and KDE pleasant and relatively easy to use.
I tried about a half-dozen different live CDs. Most come with a slew of free programs, including Web browsers, e-mail software, instant messaging clients, games, music and video players and even office productivity suites with powerful word processors, spreadsheets and presentation managers.
All this software is free and fully functional if it loads.
However, getting Linux to run glitch-free out of the box can yield mixed results. As much as Linux zealots like to crow about the wonders of their OS, it simply is not as friendly to get running as Windows.
Each version I tried had some problem that required troubleshooting, often at an advanced level.
With most of them, Linux would not automatically see the other computers on my network. On another, I couldn't adjust my computer's screen resolution. Another wouldn't work with the generic sound card in my test system. And one, PCLinux, never made it to the desktop, fighting with my graphics card until it gave up and dumped me to the Linux command line. Ugh.
There was one major exception: LinspireLive!, a CD-based version of Linspire, which I wrote about earlier this year (see www.chron.com/linspire). It saw my Windows network, worked with my sound card and let me change screen resolutions. Within a few minutes of launching 4.5, the latest version, I was playing MP3 files across my network, getting e-mail and surfing the Web.
You can pay $19.95 for a regular download of LinspireLive! at www.linspire.com. Or, use the BitTorrent peer-to-peer network to get it for free at www.linspire.com/mmp2plive.
Other live CDs that I liked:
• MandrakeMove 9.2 — www.mandrakelinux.com/en/ftp.php3. This distro can save settings to a USB-based memory drive and is relatively friendly. There's a newer version, 10.0, that's commercial software, and available at www.mandrakesoft.com/products/move.
• Knoppix — www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html. One of the most popular Linux live CDs, it has excellent hardware detection, but isn't as friendly to newbies as Linspire or Mandrake.
• Gnoppix — www.gnoppix.org. Similar to Knoppix, but it uses the Gnome desktop.
• SUSE Linux Live-Eval 9.1 — www.suse.com/us/private/download/ftp/live_eval_int.html. This very friendly distro from Novell couldn't see my PC's sound card, but worked fine in other computers.
For a list of dozens of live Linux CDs, try www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php and distrowatch.com.
HoustonChronicle.com - Computing
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