quote:Original post by AndreTheGiant

Im currently using windows 98 (on possibly the oldest computer ever!) I plan on getting a new computer soon, and Ive been looking at windows XP professional, and Im not sure if i like it. Ive only got to use it for maybe an hour or so, but It reminds me of some sort of Fisher Price operating system. It really likes to hold your hand for everything you do ( you cant even search for a file without some gay little paper-clip or dog or something trying to help you along ). Not exactly my idea of ''professional''.

How do I decide (quickly) if Linux is for me? Ive only ever used it for a short while at school, and even then, i only used the simple point-click interface (I dont know all the fancy little commands).

Looking at the way you handle computers (calling Windows ''gay'' because of a wizard, totally ignoring the fact that XP is based on the W2000/NT kernel and thus totally professional), and not really having used Linux, I''d say stick with Windows.

For beginners Linux is nice if you use that lame desktop, but real men would use the command line. And that''s a very steep learning curve.

Sure, with some trouble you can set up Emacs to compile and show errors in the editor window, otherwise it''s just editing files, saving them, running ''make'', noticing the ''syntax error in line 598 in file3.c'' and editing again. It has nothing like VC++, no context sensitive help, no completion, just bare bones. Linux (and UNIX) are about textfiles, editing, processing, sorting them. If you don''t like typing "awk -F: ''{print $5}'' < /etc/passwd" or ''sed c/a[b-c]*$/$1../g'' all the time then maybe Linux isn''t for you.

quote:Original post by Fidelio_
...but real men would use the command line.

Sure, with some trouble you can set up Emacs to compile and show errors in the editor window, otherwise it''s just editing files, saving them, running ''make'', noticing the ''syntax error in line 598 in file3.c'' and editing again. It has nothing like VC++, no context sensitive help, no completion, just bare bones. Linux (and UNIX) are about textfiles, editing, processing, sorting them. If you don''t like typing "awk -F: ''{print $5}'' < /etc/passwd" or ''sed c/a[b-c]*$/$1../g'' all the time then maybe Linux isn''t for you.

Sounds like it''s for people that think their hard because they like making life difficult for themselves. VC++ may ''hold your hand'' but it is far more efficient than doing everything manually with no help.