just a quick little stichato ramble on various linuxy things.

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_deutsch_a_new_way_to_explain_explanation.html

i really took to the sentiment expressed in the middle of this video, regarding the renounciation of authorities as the source of truth as being the principle of progressing our knowledge.

i was 5 when i decided the church was much hulabaloo about a storybook. i was about 6 or 7 when i hit upon the idea that maybe the teachers werent smarter than me. i was just barely a teen, barely having used win95, when i decided microsoft were not the pinnacle of human potential reflected technologically in our software. maybe i was always destined to choose opensource, freedom, linux, etc.

so anyways. i was playing around with my slax distros again... getting a bit of a headache from the wifi problems i'm havign with the slax based and davix based pair of distros i'm re-working. it's looking like it might be a bit more of a pain in the arse than i first thought to get it to have a one-size-fits-all ootb wifi solution. most of my headache though was when internet here went down for a couple hours. that was not amusing... me fiddling around trying to get something to work when it had no chance, and all my tests were giving me back false fail results. well, thats another couple hours i'll have to relive. so i need a break from that for a bit. might as well ramble a bit then eh? :D

so once my internet came back on, one o the first things i did brought me to my local forum where i posted a reply in a thread about easy ways to startlinux, which i'll share C&P style here.

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other similar installation methods from other linux distributions (incase xandros linux doesnt suit):

http://wubi-installer.org/ Ubuntu! wubi=Windows UBuntu Installer. as in the above example, no partitioning is required, very simple installation wizard.

http://goodbye-microsoft.com/ Debian GNU/Linux! again, no partitioning required. but will require you to know your hardware very intimately, and know a bit more about linux. not advised for the average beginner. (tho do try it to see anyways. you can always leave the installer uncompleted on your machine, and still use windows with no probs while you go learn how to get through the l33t hurdles.)

http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/Sauver-18423.shtml Sauver Linux. yet another linux distribution offering this kind of installation. except sauver doesnt seem to offer any other kind of installation. (i never got the graphics working in it, so idk what its like).

using the 4 above methods, you might later come across little niggles and nuisances about the way the filesystem isnt accessible in a more familiar standardised way... idk... most folks probably wont find an issue with this. but if you're a proper nerd, you'll want to go do a proper install for your multi-boot.

then there are other methods too...

virtualbox.
(tho we'll all have to wear our tin-foil hats to use it if sun microsystems get taken over by oracle.)
very user friendly virtualisation method, with excellent performance. just download any (i686 compatible) operating system's installation or "live" cd/dvd .ISO file (like this tiny one for example), and follow the on-screen wizard dialog-windows upon making a new virtual machine. very easy to surf lots of different operating systems this way, without risking the operating system you are currently using to some pebcak accidental format or anything. lets you shop around for the best operating system, so you're not stuck being a wintard.
virtualbox is not only useful for surfing linuxes, you could also use it for client MS Windows virtual machines inside a Linux host OS, since linux offers much better performance, this way, you only need to use your MSWindows virtual machine when u need to use some piece of windows software you've not found an alternative for, or couldnt get to install in wine.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ not quite so much just a distribution of linux, but rather just a handy site sharing lots of helpful walk-throughs to installing various linux distributions to usb drives.

though, once you first set eyes upon unetbootin, you'll likely think pendrive linux a bit redundant. but that would be premature, because unetbootin doesnt really "install" anything. run from windows or linux, it just very conveniently puts a installation/live cd onto your usb, so that the usb drive can boot pretending it's the cd. ... so if you do choose to use unetbootin (and i wholeheartedly give it my recommendation), do keep in mind that it's more like running from a cd (only likely much much faster than your cd drive), than an actual installation. but if you can install from the cd, you can install from the unetbootin'ed version on your usb too. this is another great way of browsing through different operatingsystems/distributions like virtualbox is, except this way, you will be able to get a better feel for the native speeds, as it's not virtualised, and you dont need to be running a host system at the same time. further, unetbootin makes itself even handier, by providing a very generous and broad selection of distributions available in a drop-down menu... and it's so convenient, it goes and fetches the .ISO files from the net for you, and does the whole process of making the usb a live bootable cd environment. very plush, and so simple.


[quote]installing software ain't as easy and straightforward as windows.[/quote]
that can be a falsehood. these days there are many distributions offering solutions which make it easier to install software than it is in windows. it's all about the respository and package management in linux. open up your package manager gui in any major (and even most minor) linux distributions these days, and you'll be taken to a simple interface from which you can search/browse for software by name or purpose, and clicky clicky, and it's installed. no going to s shop to buy proprietary software, no spending money, no travel. just sat from where you are, depending on your distribution's repository, you'll likely have at least a few thousand (probably tens of thousands) of pieces of software you can install, and likely need no further explanation than "that there, thats your package manager, click/double-click on it."
i am slightly exadurating the simplicity to stop scaring people away. but suffice to say, if a repository doesnt have what you are after, you are still afforded the opportunity of doing it the manual way, the noob-feared "source installation"... and likely a few ways in between too. and just when u think you need to be a rocket scientist, chances are, you only need to be an idiot (as in "complete idiots guide to...") who knows how to use a search engine. :)


phew! what a pile of links i put in that. :D filled a whole row of tabs. hope they're o' use t' ye.


PS.

just now after posting this reply, looked at that prestopc thing ... oh. thats not like what i thought it was. :D :O
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and besides that, i dont really have much else to add to this post, except to say:


I LOVE LINUX!

:D

(doesnt get any less true with time.. if anything, more true)