OT: New Virus? - Page 2

Jack Simth · #1 August 19th, 2005, 01:10 AM

Quote:

Xrati said:
I haven't had any experience with Linux. I suppose I should start looking into it. It has a bad rep with being able to run Windows programs. Maybe someone more familiar with it can explain that? As far as MacOS, I guess it's back to Apple. The last one I had was an Apple IIGS. It was one of the best computers I've ever had. Apple shot themselves in the foot when they stopped the II line! Oh Well, so few choices left...

Linux has difficulties running Windows programs because Windows programs are made with the (necessary) assumption that Windows will be present. Any program much beyond a simple "hello world" (and even most of those.....) make calls to Operating System routines (mostly for dealing with shared recources - memory, disk calls, the monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers... all the hardware, really). Windows Operating System routines are different from Linux Operating System routines. In order to run a Windows program (which assumes the presence of Windows Operating System routines to call) on Linux, you must first convince Linux to pretend to have all of the Windows Operating System routines that the program uses.

Enter Wine (Sourceforge project for Wine). Wine is an attempt to do just that - convince Linux to fake the Windos OS routines, not by emulating them, but by either replicating them entirely (and independantly) or making wrappers for Linux OS routines that do the same stuff.

Wine is still in Alpha, unfortunately.

dogscoff · #2 August 19th, 2005, 08:37 AM

Quote:

Atrocities ranted:
tell you what, if you hate Microsoft so much, why don't you, being the visionary that you are, go out ...

Atrocities, that was one of the best tirades I've heard in a long time. *applause*.
Thankyou for making me laugh today.

Quote:

Xrati said:
I haven't had any experience with Linux. I suppose I should start looking into it....

Yeah, me too. I'd like to learn about Linux, and I figure the best way to do so would be to install it. I have an old win98 laptop at home currently doing nothing at all (it's a Toshiba 470 CDT, I think). I've done a little research online and have found both drivers and success stories for installing Linux on this model, so it seems like a good choice.

Trouble is, I wouldn't really know what to use a Linux box for. My computing needs are fairly basic and pretty well fulfilled by my winXP Sony Vaio, so I'm kind of uninspired when it comes to actually getting on with it. Also, I have no idea which of the baffling array of Linux distros I should go for.

Can anyone help relieve my apathy?

Suicide Junkie · #3 August 19th, 2005, 01:17 PM

Making yourself a little webserver is a good use for a linux box, if you're on broadband.

It will be a nice "infinite"-space server that you can run anything you like on, 24/7.

Fyron · #4 August 19th, 2005, 02:07 PM

dogscoff said:
Also, I have no idea which of the baffling array of Linux distros I should go for.

Debian is the way to go. It has the best package management setup, making it really easy to install software.

Suicide Junkie said:
It will be a nice "infinite"-space server that you can run anything you like on, 24/7.

Only problem is that you won't get nearly as much bandwidth as a web server in a data center.

Xrati said:
It also sounds as though Wine will be a while before it can help.

Wine does a good job now. It doesn't due to well with very intensive 3d apps, such as some games, but it does work for most things (including SE4). A lot of people keep a Windows partition around for such problem games.

Technically, a lot of quite functional Linux software is still in alpha or beta.

Xrati · #5 August 19th, 2005, 10:25 AM

Thanks Jack, that was pretty informative. As I thought, Linux needs to be configured to operate along side of windows. It also sounds as though Wine will be a while before it can help.
All OS's are open to virus's. I would imagine that Linux, if it gets popular, will become a target in the future too!

Thermodyne · #6 August 19th, 2005, 08:36 AM

Quote:

Xrati said:
I haven't had any experience with Linux. I suppose I should start looking into it. It has a bad rep with being able to run Windows programs. Maybe someone more familiar with it can explain that? As far as MacOS, I guess it's back to Apple. The last one I had was an Apple IIGS. It was one of the best computers I've ever had. Apple shot themselves in the foot when they stopped the II line! Oh Well, so few choices left...

Apple was hit this week also. All OS's can be attacked, it just that windows is a bigger target. Windows runs on 90%+ of the worlds PC's.