Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Fedora vs Windows

This is not a comparison, I am not intentional to support any company, but all are from my experience.


Last Month I installed fedora Core – 5 at my pc running Win-XP, so it is now dual boot mode. I could operate both OS. I have been working with windows platform for the last 10 years or so. So I am pretty much familiar with windows. The reason behind my Fedora install was to just study about new OS and explore something new and innovative in it.


I would like to have music in my system when I work around. The first problem I faced with Fedora in this matter. I have a collection of music mainly in MP3 format. But when I tried to play my MP3 files with Fedora, I understood, it not just works there, you have to have some extra software enhancements there. The system itself has Totum installed, I went through some web sites, and they showed some steps for how to play MP3 in fedora. But after a month’s trial, I just put aside. So I can’t play my DVD’s there as they not support or promote DVD.


The second problem was when I tried to have a web server in it. Httpd was there, but could not start that and also found no error report, why it is not starting when I tried to start it. After days research, I found, the reason shows at the startup screen, but you have to be too much vigilant to grab the message in a fraction of second. It was the problem in the config file. But still it can’t display a single page as it always thrown forbidden error message. But I know Apache is the best web browser with Linux based platforms. But as people know, how much easy to start an IIS on windows and can easily figure out problems with the error messages. Sure there is number ways for an experienced hand in Fedora.


Another problem when I try to install my network card with Fedore, it automatically detected and configured with my XP, but not in Fedora. So I went through a number of discussion forums and web sites. Everybody have too much to say, but nothing understandable for a nascent like me. Them said re-compile your core and just put some text there and some test here , bla bla bla. I even downloaded the Linux based driver for that card, but I didn’t get how to install in the system. The network card still there uninstalled.



From my experience I reached some conclusions

  1. I have a book purchased from some book shop, now one of my friends want read this book, can I give to him, sure you can(even the copyright act in some countries may not allow to lend books or movies). But is it possible to make the copies of that book and give it your friends with or without any charges?
  2. There is a house and it have a number of doors which all locked from inside with a number of locks, but nobody other than the company made the lock knows the exact specifications , vulnerabilities of the lock and how strong it is. There is one another house which also have a number of doors which all locked from inside with a number of locks, but so many people know the exact specifications , vulnerabilities of the lock and how strong it is and even one person want to know all those, it is still available there. The question is which house has the chance to get more successful attacks, answer is obvious - Second house, but in reality The First type of house get more successful attacks. Do you know, what is the reason?, because every 8 out 10 houses are in the first category and all them using the
    same company lock. So peoples get more chances for trial and error for the first type of houses. And the second types of houses survive because of the rare availability and targeting is not coast efficient. But some people may think second type of houses are more secure and first is not.
  3. If you can buy
    something free of coast, and there are a number of volunteer - unpaid technicians for your after services. It is ok the volunteer technician is always there to help you, but in cases the technician delayed your service call, or giving bad service or even denied service. You can’t complain as long as you are not paying for what
    you are getting.