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I've been ranting and raving about the insecurities of Microsoft Windows and Internet
Explorer for quite some time now without giving you an alternative to them.
Now, after looking at and playing with Linux desktop computer systems for about a year
and a half, I've finally replaced Windows as my main computer's operating system. The current
operating system is Xandros — a flavor of Linux that came about via Corel — yes,
the same Corel that owns Word Perfect, etc.
Xandros
Not surprisingly, shortly after Microsoft made an investment in Corel, Corel's Linux
division was spun off. The same fellow that ran the division under Corel's banner is running
Xandros, and they have one beautiful computer desktop software that lets you install many
Windows programs such as WinZip, Microsoft Office, Quicken, etc., right out of the box
for less than what Microsoft is charging for Windows XP.
I combined this operating system and a product called Win4Lin, which lets one run Microsoft
Windows 95, 98 or ME in a window in Linux. Note that you must have a licensed version of
Microsoft Windows in order to install it in Win4Lin.
I was more than pleasantly surprised when I saw that on a Pentium-III computer, Windows
now boots up in only 12 seconds!
Comparatively, it takes 45 seconds for an Athlon 1800+ running Windows XP to boot —
and the Athlon has much faster RAM and a faster hard drive. The same Pentium III computer
took over two minutes to boot Windows 98SE when it was the only operating system on the
computer. On top of that, installing Intuit Quickbooks 99 took only 30 seconds, and
shutting down the Windows window takes a mere three seconds! And running Quickbooks v2003
is close to faster than running it on the Athlon computer mentioned above!
The bottom line is that this manner of running Microsoft Windows is faster than having
it installed as the only operating system on the computer.
Both Xandros and Windows can access Windows shared files and printers with ease. In
45 seconds I had two Windows shared printers installed and tested in Xandros; and all Windows
shared files on our network that I have access to are easily available via Xandros' wonderfully
simple File Manager.
Upgrading, and adding software to Xandros, couldn't be easier, although in truth I did
make a change to make more software available to me.
At this point, I do believe we have found a worthy operating system and software combination
that our clients can use to transition away from Microsoft without the "shakes"
or withdrawals of doing so. This combination is a very smooth one that I feel will serve
95% of the computer users in the world.
I have already mentioned the office suite Star Office which can run in Linux, Windows
and very shortly Apple's Mac OS X and that can open or save files in Microsoft Office 97/2000/XP
formats. The last bit left is finding a groupware product that will fill the bill of most
of our clients and testing that. Watch for this in upcoming newsletters!
It is already known by most computer savvy people that UNIX (and its clone Linux) are
more stable than Microsoft Windows products. This is borne out by the fact that there are
more web servers on the Internet running UNIX or Linux than there are running Microsoft's
web server software.
If you run a business, or just want to have a stable, dependable computer, or computer
network, the answer is yes, you can have your cake and eat it too.
If you have any questions on this article, or are interested in upgrading your
office network, please feel free to call me at 818-352-8700 or send
email online.
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