-=> JOHN CRANE wrote to ANDY BALL <=-

 AB>    My wife runs MS Windows on her own machine, but I mostly
 AB>run NetBSD and occasionally Linux.

 JC> NetBSD??? I looked at BSD a long time ago but have been a member of
 JC> the evil empire since the days of edlin.

 JC> What does NetBSD offer for you?

I don't know about BSD but I am running Slackware linux ever since
2006.

I'm virtually exempt from fear of virus even without a virus scanner.

I have F-Prot AV though and one very rare occation run it.
It's free for Linux home use.

The ONLY time it registered a virus was the first year I was on linux
and only then because I stuck a second drive into the machine and ran
Linux - Windows dual boot.
The virus was on the Windows drive and migrated to the primary Linux drives
MBR.

All updates, new releases and most applications are FREE for the download.

Now Slackware Linux has a somewhat obscure and steep learning curve
but I've gotten it together.

I suggest if you have a CD burner you download a free release of Linux
Ubuntu as it's supposed to make installation and operation easy
and many persons in the Windows 95 echo now use it and can tell you about it.

What I know is it's a so called live CD which providing you've enough RAM,
much less than Windows 7 requires by a factor of three, you can boot it
directly
into RAM to give a look see and it won't even touch your hard drive unless you
run
the installation script.

If you've enough hard drive space It will even recognise the existing Windows
and install around on a separate partition it so on a reboot you're given the
option 
of selecting either operating 
system though you need to defrag the drive first to put your windows files
at the front of the drive.

My firewall is free too and tested at www.grc.com('s) Sheilds up tests out
completely stealthed and will not return a ping so as far as the net is
concerned
hackers who scan the net for computers can't even see me to break in.

Best of all I'm free from the onerous users licensing agreement, having to
reinstall
or to date even having a corrupted file.

The word processor is Open Office, minimal cost for Windows, free for Linux
and compatable options for all standard word processors out there.
MSOffice, Word Perfect, ect.

Oh and I'm running the second to latest release on a 1998 IBM Aptiva with 384 
Meg of RAM and can do video and DVD's burn CD's and generate mp3 or the free 
uncopywrited oog compressed format with the applications, Mplayer  cdparanoia 
and lame.

I've never looked back.

Now this is a pretty minimal system and I did have to add a video
card without shared memory instead of the onboard shared ATI Rage
Because to operate right Slackware 12.2 needs pretty much all the RAM 
I've got and limped with the onboard video.
Now I can open 30 tabs in Firebird or more and never crash.

Mplayer, lame and Open Office I had to download and compile but I 
believe Open Office is included with Ubuntu Linux

When I have had a crash for whatever reason a reboot  or possibly two
fixes it right up as it has a journeled file system.
Takes an additional few seconds to do this on the boot.

Zero virus since 06, no corrupted files and as I didn't have internet for a 
while I did have to pay ten dollars including the shipping to get the 
software and the sources CD's from www.cheapbytes.com where Ubuntu is also 
available.
I paid extra for the source disks so if so inclined I can modify the code 
and compile it.

DCHPCD, launched upon boot, will automatically detect and configure your DSL
or cable modem and if you're on dialup it's Kppp for the graphics interface
where you do have to enter the phone number and port your modem is on.



... No matter where you go, there you are.
--- MultiMail/Linux v0.49