with the talk of eyrie site running off a linux server, I was wondering, is linux a point-and-click interface, or is a DOS type of opsys?

Xervis
AKA
The Chrono Shifting Trigger

If death is only the begining, then
what is the end?

Me

>with the talk of eyrie site running off a linux server, I was
>wondering, is linux a point-and-click interface, or is a DOS type of
>opsys?
>
Well, the basic interface is a command shell (take your pick of about a half dozen, bash being the most common default). However, there are several windowing options for linux, and several window managers to provide the actual GUI on top of it. However, unlike DOS/Windows, the windows portion is _not_ tied to the OS, nor do you have to switch between the two when running things.

Also, Linux is a multi-user system - not only can it run multiple processes, but multiple users can run processes interactively at the same time. Also, windows don't have to be run on the machine itself - they can be run on a remote system piping windowing commands to the machine running windows itself.

For further information, I suggest starting at the Linux Documentation Project at http://www.linuxdoc.org.

Offsides

#include <linux.h>

Errr... not to say that was very technical or anything, but to make it slightly clearer: many people run it like DOS, but there are ways to make it run like Windows... at least on the surface. The guts of the thing are vastly different from Windows.

Of course, some of it is open source, and these variants often have interesting flaws that never really come to the surface... just like Windows!

(Hey! Neat! I can get fread and fwrite to go into infinite loops by returning the correct value! Wheeee!)

-Craig

>Errr... not to say that was very technical or anything, but to make it
>slightly clearer: many people run it like DOS, but there are ways to
>make it run like Windows... at least on the surface. The guts of the
>thing are vastly different from Windows.

Thank you, Craig... that's what I thought he was saying, but I read it quickly and consequently wound up having not the vaguest clue. As I've demonstrated before, I'm not geek enough for this board.
-Eliot "Who probably would have answered the question if he'd been certain" Lefebvre
-=()=-
We're only given a little time in our lives to waste. Make the most of it.
Electronic Transcendence Productions
Producer of, um, stuff for an unspecified time-period.
Thoughts of the moment, and such

>Of course, some of it is open source, and these variants often have
>interesting flaws that never really come to the surface... just like
>Windows!

>-Craig

Ayup. And, unlike Windows, you can seek and destroy those flaws. Thus, the really obnoxious problems get fixed by impatient programmers right quick.

This is as opposed to Windows, since Microsoft (and, frankly, most software vendors) kindly weld the hood shut on your software to keep you from breaking it.

--rR

Thanks guys, Its just I'm formating my computer(pentium 166MMX Piece of Sh!t) and I wanted someting other the Windows(95 is the most stable platform if you ask me)as an OS and linux sounded good. thanks again.

Xervis
AKA
The Chrono Shifting Trigger

If death is only the begining, then
what is the end?

Me

>Thanks guys, Its just I'm formating my computer(pentium 166MMX Piece
>of Sh!t) and I wanted someting other the Windows(95 is the most stable
>platform if you ask me)as an OS and linux sounded good. thanks again.

the Eyrie IRC server is running on a PPro 166 running Linux.
it's been up for 107 days without a reboot. It's also acting
as a wireless packet router, a mail server, a news server, a DNS
server, a file server, and a web cache. Linux can milk a lot
out of a PPro166.

--
jer@gweep.net
Ceci n'est pas une .signature

LAST EDITED ON Oct-28-01 AT 06:18 AM (EST)

Until a while ago, we had a 50-user shell server with about
20 domains of webhosting run very nicely...

on a 233MMX. :) we finally took pity on it and retired it in favor of something beefier, but now we're thinking of recommissioning the 233 as a router/ firewall for a particularly troublesome segment of the house network (19-year-old brother of my SO, who has never, ever learned the meaning of the words
"antivirus software"). That, however, will probably run one of the BSDs.

Ard Sumhenner
Ronin Research, Sacramento, CA