Your computer self-destructs. KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

Why use Linux as Windows? If you want to learn linux learn linux and not linux + windows. I'm completely frighted by title. :O

I haven't used it, but I am not sure that the terms of usage are even ok with the gpl. It's possible that it violates the gpl since works that derive from gpl'ed works must also be gpl (and that means that they should make freely available the sources for anything that derives from a gpl product). The lgpl is more free in that sense, but I bet that most of the software included in their distro is gpl'ed, and not lgpl'ed. The sources for the distro should be made public, except for the closed source parts which will be the minority. Nothing stops you from selling the product though, that's an entirely different issue, and it's fine with me and the gpl. But that's food for lawyers and I am not one.

I've seen their front page, and it's misleading to say the least. Quoting from their site:

False, the correct phrase would be this one:

Because that's the reality. The set of Windows apps that you can use depends entirely on the capabilities of Wine and/or Crossover or Cedega, and not in the virtue of LinuxXP. They are inaccurate, which, out of "causality" is very convenient for them. Or, like I like to put it for the sake of clarity: they lie to sell. Shame on them.

The second, that I like even more:

False, false, false. Linux is more secure than Windows, no mystery there. But it's not invulnerable. Gosh, not even Superman is such thing. There are viruses for Linux, they are just not famous, but vulnerabilities are found and fixed every single day that passes by in the kernel, in Firefox and in virtually any existing program for Linux. If they get fixed is because they exist!

My word of advice: don't buy this product, They are selling vapor-ware with a nice Xp-ish theme.

Hi,
I thought 'Superman' was only venerable or weakened by 'kryptonite'.

What do you define as a 'GNU/Linux' virus?

I can see 'FF' problems but those too do not present a major problem.

Well, that's a vulnerability, even if it's just one.


You can start here (not that I am too confident about wikis and that stuff, but it's a place to start researching).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...mputer_viruses

The number of them is growing each year as Linux becomes more famous. Note also that there are threats that are not OS specific. Anything based on Javascript or a vulnerability on your web browser or your sendmail server can be used (and has been used lots of times in the past) to inject shell code that can potentially grant you access to a remote host.

Search for "buffer overflow" in the changelogs for ssh, apache, sendmail, firefox or whatever suits you. As said: if these problems gets fixed everyday is because they exist. Simple maths

Hence, the LinuxXP guys' claim is false.

They are major problems if they permit you to gain remote access or scale privileges. If an attacker can inject shell code due to a buffer overflow it can do whatever s/he wants with all your data. In a PC that's used for gaming that can anger you at most, on a PC that's used for something useful it can create very serious trouble. You can lose the work of the last year (backup ) or personal information can be compromissed. If your personal info is not that important think about paypal or your bank accountings. That's what I call serious.

Besides that, an attacker only needs a simple command to mail himself your shadow and password files, then John the ripper can do the rest of the work and guess valid passwords to break into your system. Not nice either. I continuously see bots on my ssh logs attempting to break into my server. However they are going to have a very bad time to break my passwords, believe me

This would return 'false' in a script
And this 'Error 666: Too true to be true'.

But anyway , what is user-friendly definition?
Big icons? , Many programs? , An arrow showing where to click next?
The answer to all above is NO.
User-friendly is something easy to understand ,but complicated. Lets say ,a car. There are many buttons ,pedals ,switches , but it takes few weeks to learn to drive and use them. That is user-friendly. What does it take to learn to use a computer? Forever. But you are focused on something, and that is why you bought it. You used to have Windows XP, I guess,was it user-friendly? No? Then you cant find a user-friendly , XP-like linux distro. What I suggest ,make a double-clutch. That is , install KDE to your Windows XP (I cant remember the link, google it),then after a month or so , after you get used to KDE, make a dual-boot OpenSuse <-> Windows XP , use both, and then you can delete XP, after you get used to Linux, not KDE.
Best regards,
Someone.

Thanks for the info. I will try it out. Wish me luck. Hope I can find in Opensuse what I am looking for.

Greetings
from PR.

To all the people who understand what I am trying to do, even though it sounds to simple for you, thanks for your kind help and good advice. For those who think they are to high or elevated in their knowledge and mastering of the Linux System/Universe, thanks to all of you, too.

But, remember that once, most likely a couple of years back, you were standing where I am right now, in the land of nowhere, trying to figure out and understand, how I am going to grasp at least a basic knowledge of the Linux way of doing things; in order to use it as my launching platform to continue my learning process until the day, I can feel comfortable with the OS and its apps., just the way many of you feel now.

I am pretty sure, you all who master this software, didn't learn Linux as an act of God, through a mighty miracle, because like everything in this life, in order to learn something, you have to invest time and a lot of effort, in order to acquire what you want to learn. Please, be patient with us, newbies, maybe we are not as smart or intelligent like you , but we have the desire and the need, to learn this system called Linux. Thanks again, for all your help and kind advice.

Yours truly,
Ylian10017.

I remember completely, and also remember having the same feelings. Good luck!

My reply got huge :P
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...-guide-704907/

No one criticized you for that. You are right but for one thing: some time ago we were at the same point, but we decided to learn Linux instead of making it work like Windows (which is impossible despite the efforts of the Linux XP people and their false claims).

We are not criticising here; we are telling you the facts. Telling you how good the world is when it isn't is not going to help you. In my humble opinion, the sooner to face the truth the easier your life will be. And this is not different.

I know that it can be frustrating at times, but if we do advice here is because we really think that it's the best thing and not just because we want to seem smart (it's my view anyway, can't speak for the rest). If we just wanted to look and sound like smart asses we would use out true names instead of nicks. We all have a life and have no need to sound "brilliant" here or in any other forum. And most of us are far far from being brilliant anyway, we are regular mortals like most John Doe's around.

I think I have you very valid and well explained points about why I think you shouldn't use LinuxXP. You can take or refuse my advice (such is the beauty of having the freedom to choose), but I felt that it was important info that you should be aware of so you can choose freely. Disinformation won't give you the freedom, it works the other way around.

The only intention was always to help. Cheers, and I hope you stay long around here whatever distro you choose to use.

OK, having commented on how much I think that you will have irritated some people by a title implying that Linux is as bad as Windows XP, I'll now do something irritating all of my own; I'll assume that you have asked completely the wrong question. I'm going to assume that you really wanted the user interface to look like some other operating system.

Look at http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/...inux_look_good (particularly note the linked materials, like kde-look) or http://www.linuxhaxor.net/2008/07/09...ser-interface/
and you may even want a quick look at this http://www.linuxhaxor.net/2008/07/09...ser-interface/.