Adrohak

I am building a few new boxes, and I would like one of them to be as small in size as I can get it to be (I'd like to stick it in a cube case), but still be able to game well and whatnot. I want to put a 3500+ or 3200+ venice in the small one; would the performance difference between having that on an ATX and a micro-ATX board be a big one, even if the chipset on each was the same? I.e., an Abit AN8 and this. I'm not worried about overclocking or anything, just performance at stock.

I'm not sure about 10.1, but earlier versions of Slackware had an 'upgrade' option on the install CD.

I guess, then, the mouse wouldn't work very well (or at all) if I popped it open and removed the LED?

I just switched to an optical mouse (behind the times? maybe.), and the red LED in it is incredibly annoying. Is this LED necessary for the mouse to work, or can I remove it safely?

Actually, in Linux, you can "just install" quite a bit. I use Gentoo, and installing stuff is easier for me than it is for Windows users. # emerge application That's pretty simple. I know that Debian and its varients have apt-get, which works similarly, and I've heard that Fedora has yum, which appears to work in the same fashion. On the topic of games, using Cedega, I just install games like a Windows user would. $ mount /mnt/cdrom $ cd /mnt/cdrom $ cedega install.exe $ cd && umount /mnt/cdrom && eject /mnt/cdrom

Something you may want to add is the use of Nessus.

A lot of people don't use it because they have never heard of it. For instance, many people with whom I come in contact have never heard of Linux, or if they have, they think that it's for the types of hackers they would see in movies like Hackers or Anti-Trust; many people who I meet who have heard of Linux don't even realize it has a GUI. Other people don't use it because they have been using Windows for so long that they have become accustomed to its quirks, to its ups and downs, and they simply don't want to switch. They are fine with using an OS that is subpar in comparison. Still other people don't use it because they simply can't figure it out, or had a horrible experience with it. Quite often, the people who fall into this category are ones who decided it would be an absolutely fantastic idea to switch directly from Windows XP to Gentoo Linux. Also, quite a few people _do_ use it. At the time of my writing this, 145341 users have registered their Linux copy (http://counter.li.org/). Also, Linux is the #1 server OS on the public Internet, according to a 1999 survery of primarily European and educational sites, and the #2 web serving OS on the public Internet according to a Netcraft survey from March and June 2001. For a more in-depth look at why to use Linux or any open-source OS, check out http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html or http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,26926,00.html Well, my first response to this was, "For the same reason that Microsoft doesn't release the source code to their programs." That, although pretty correct in itself, does not fully answer the question. Many Linux users are big supporters of the open source movement, and, because of that, they will release their programs open-source. The open-source license most commonly used is the GNU GPL. Under this, the source code is free to distribute and edit (there are many requirements for redistributing edited versions, you can see the license here for the full listing: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html ), but the credit for the original work must be kept intact. Many people decided to breach the GPL, assuming that there would be no consequences because the software was free, and now the authors are fighting back. Bluntly, open-source developers were sick of their stuff being stolen and passed off as the works of someone else. I will put this simply: it does, and it does it very well. I run nothing but Linux, and I regularly play Command and Conquer: Generals, FarCry, UT2k4, Doom 3, Half-Life, CS, Warcraft 3, Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne. Besides those, I have a lot of games that you will never play on Windows, like bzFlag and NetPanzer. These are common questions with simple answers. Open-source has all of the benefits of closed source, including technical support, professional documentation (Hah, this is something I hear many Windows users complaining about the lack of), training classes, binary distributions for common platforms, and user help groups, as well as allowing advanced users to tweak a program to his or her needs or wants. Also, open source is simple a way of rapidly moving along the development of software in a constantly changing environment.

Last time I checked the Transgaming website, Halo was not supported by Cedega anyway. Halo certainly doesn't have a native port, and Cedega doesn't support it, and I've never heard of anyone having success getting Halo to run in Linux, so... My bets are that you won't be playing Halo in Linux. However, Cedega will handle almost every other game or program on the market, so don't take this Halo experience to mean that Linux is not for gaming. For more information about Linux gaming (and its advantages and disadvantages in comparison to Windows gaming), see http://hexus.net/content/reviews/review.ph...mlld19JRD0xMDEx

I don't know why it would do that, but, for some reason, some people wind up having a lot of problems installing ut2k4 in Linux. I installed it with just a few easy steps, so I'll share them and see if it helps you any. Also, most of you who know Linux will say "WTF" at the security risk of some of these steps, but it's fixed later, don't worry. $ su -l Password: (root password) # chmod 777 /usr/local/bin # chmod 777 /usr/local/games # exit (now put in the first install CD) $ mount /mnt/cdrom (or whatever your cdrom mount is) $ mkdir ~/ut $ cp -a /mnt/cdrom ~/ut $ cd ~/ut $ ./linux-installer.sh (Follow all of the steps in the installer) $ su -l Password: (root password) # chmod 775 /usr/local/bin # chmod 775 /usr/local/games # exit $ cd $ rm -r ut $ ut2004 Good luck!

Linux is fine for gaming. There's no defragging in Linux, but mke2fs still makes it fsck the drive every so often (tune2fs to fix this, for those of you who get fed up with it). Uh. How about Linux can be run from a CD? i.e., liveCDs. Not necessarily a problem with Windows, but rather an advantage to using Linux. I haven't used DOS much, but when I have used it, I have problems getting the amount of functionality I have with a Linux command line. That is, command-line Linux seems to be a lot more powerful than command-line Windows/DOS. (Yeah, some of you will say that's because Windows is focused more for the GUI, but Linux users have X, too, which [uSE=-flamewar] is more advanced than the Windows GUI.) Linux settings can easily be changed from the command line. Can Windows users change the resolution their GUI will start up with next time from DOS? How about including something about the variety of windows managers for Linux? Yeah, Windows has those 'shells' like LiteStep or whatever, but the differences between those few alternative shells are nothing in comparison to the myriad of differences between different Linux window managers and desktop environments. Bell for class just rang, I may add more to this later.

# useradd -d /home/newuser newuser # passwd newuser Password: (password) Retype password: (password) # mkdir /home/newuser # chown newuser /home/newuser # su - newuser If that doesn't work, remove the user and try adding the user manually; id est, add something like this to your /etc/passwd: newuser:x:100:0::/home/newuser:/bin/bash Then passwd the user ('passwd newuser'), create and chown the home directory ('mkdir /home/newuser && chown newuser /home/newuser'), and try changing to that user ('su - newuser').

Linux is great for computer newbs. I build boxes for people locally and the only OS I install is Linux, and I've never had a complaint. Windows users can switch to a distribution like Knoppix in a heartbeat, without missing anything.

Same thing I recommend for any other purpose: Slackware.

Although it seems you've already gotten an answer to this... I would recommend vsftpd. As markiemrboo said, "secure > functional," but if you can be both secure _and_ functional, I say go for it. http://vsftpd.beasts.org/