I have written a couple of times about LINUX, the free operating
system that is starting to take some business away from Microsoft Windows, especially
in the server market. LINUX also makes for a very good desktop operating system
although its "market share" is still a tiny fraction of that of Windows.
I now have a LINUX system on my desktop alongside my Windows systems. I find
that I am using LINUX more and more every day, simultaneously using Windows
less and less.
Linux has many excellent free programs, including Web browsers,
e-mail, games, word processors, spreadsheets and much, much more. The only thing
I find missing in LINUX is a good genealogy program that is the equal of the
leading Windows genealogy programs of today. I solved that with Win4Lin, a Windows
emulator; I can now run Windows programs on my Linux system whenever I wish.
See my article here
for a description of Win4Lin.
LINUX is not only free, but it is also a lot more stable than
the Microsoft products. I have never had my LINUX system lock up, something
that cannot be said for Microsoft Windows. LINUX also runs faster than Windows
on the same hardware, assuming everything else is the same.
If you are thinking about trying LINUX but don’t have a spare
PC you can dedicate for the purpose, you could divide your hard disk into two
partitions and then "dual boot" the PC. That is, when your PC is turned
on and booted, a menu appears, asking which operating system you want to run:
Windows or LINUX. However, installing a dual boot of two operating systems involves
some technical knowledge and also a significant commitment that you really want
to perform surgery on your computer’s hard drive. That’s difficult
to justify if you simply want to take LINUX on a "trial run" for a
bit. Luckily, there is a simpler method.
DemoLINUX is a LINUX release from France. As its name suggests,
DemoLINUX is designed to be a demonstration of LINUX. It is a great way to try
out LINUX for a while without making any changes to your hard drive’s configuration.
DemoLINUX is a complete LINUX implementation that is booted directly
from a CD-ROM disk. The concept is simple; you boot from the CD and then try
out hundreds of applications installed on the CD, ranging from simple games
to the full-featured Star Office 5.2 suite. You can still access your PC’s
hard drive to look at data files or whatever else you wish, but no LINUX-specific
files are ever written to your hard drive. When finished, you simply log off
LINUX, remove the CD-ROM disk, and then boot Windows in the normal manner. If
you decide that LINUX isn’t for you, you can return to normal Windows operation
with your unaltered PC at any time. The only drawback is that running any operating
system from a CD-ROM results in slower operation than running the same thing
from a hard drive.
Quoting from the DemoLINUX Web site: "The site is dedicated
to the production of CD-ROMs (the DemoLINUX CDs) that allow to run Linux without
installation, disk partitioning and other hassles that usually prevent people
from giving Linux a try. [...] We wanted to make it possible to everybody to
look at what Linux can offer, and to make it possible for software publishers
wanting to show their Linux-based software to distribute a no hassle hands-off
demo CD. But this kind of CD makes also a wonderful Linux-to-go solution you
might carry your favorite desktop configuration in your pocket, sit in front
of a non-Linux box, boot from the CD and be in front of your preferred environment
in minutes." (Keep in mind that those words were apparently written by
someone who is not a native English speaker so we might excuse the minor grammar
errors.)
Like the other versions of LINUX, DemoLINUX is free. You can download
it online. However, you will need access to a CD-ROM writer to create the DemoLINUX
CD-ROM boot disk. You also will probably want to use a cable modem or DSL connection
to download the 650 megabytes of files required. If you do not have access to
these items, you may tap a friend with the capability to download the files
and to burn them onto a CD-ROM disk. If not, you can probably obtain a copy
of DemoLINUX for a few dollars from a local LINUX users group near you. DemoLINUX
also requires at least 32 megabytes of RAM memory for simple graphics interfaces,
64 megabytes for advanced graphics interfaces, or 128 megabytes if you wish
to use StarOffice (a free competitor to Microsoft Office).
I tried booting the DemoLINUX CD on five different PCs. It worked
well on all of them except for recognizing some network cards. DemoLINUX only
found the network cards on two of my computers and then still would not function
properly on one of those. I was only able to connect to my local area network
on one of the five PCs that I tried. If you do not have a network card in your
PC then obviously this would not be an issue for you. DemoLINUX also could not
find the sound card on one PC. Everything else seemed to work properly on all
five systems. I was able to run all of the non-network dependent programs on
all five computers. Even with these drawbacks, DemoLINUX is a great way to take
LINUX for a "test drive" without altering your PC’s hard drive.
If you decide you like LINUX and want to stay with it, you probably will throw
away your DemoLINUX CD-ROM disk and then obtain one of the more common LINUX
distributions. If you already are a dyed-in-the-wool LINUX aficionado, you can
carry a DemoLINUX CD-ROM disk with you when traveling and use it to boot from
someone else’s Windows PC. That way you can access your e-mail and run
other LINUX programs while on the road.
For more information, or to download DemoLINUX at no charge, look
at: www.demolinux.org.
Dick Eastman Online
