[ale] Fully functional desktop [Was: Greetings and introduction]

[msmith at mikeandmel.com]

> On 4/18/06, Jim Popovitch <jimpop at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> --- James Sumners <james.sumners at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > I don't want to scare you off, but I have to make this observation. It
>> > sounds to me like you are looking for some magic distribution that is
>> > going to "let" you do everything you did in Windows exactly the same
>> > as you did with that operating system. I have seen this sort of
>> > mentality among my personal friends and watched it fail. When people
>> > talk about the "Linux desktop" they are, most typically, not talking
>> > about the same sort of "desktop" most Windows geeks are familiar with;
>> > that being a business system that excels at playing games and various
>> > other "home" applications (e.g. iPod management). No, the "Linux
>> > desktop" is one where work is accomplished. Casual surfing, writing
>> > papers, developing programs, etc. There are a select few big name
>> > games that have Linux ports (UT2004, Quake 3/4, Doom 3, etc.), but for
>> > the most part it isn't a gaming platform like Windows.
>>
>> I don't want to start a flame war.... but not all work is simply vi'ing
>> files and writing papers.  Musicians need *advanced* software.
>> Application
>> developers need *advanced* (cough, non-java, cough) GUI design,
>> debugging,
>> and testing tools.  Finally, the same people that work all day on word
>> processing applications appreciate things like Weather Bug, CNN
>> Pipeline, Cisco
>> IP Communicator, GPRS via Bluetooth, Skype w/ Bluetooth headsets, iPass,
>> Google
>> Earth, Delta Flight Schedules, QuickTime videos, WPA2, etc.  Oh, and
>> those same
>> people appreciate the way Microsoft Windows File Association really
>> works with
>> installed applications, whereas with most Linux distros it is just a
>> *complete*
>> pain to maintain even with lots of finger crossing.  What Linux lacks is
>> massive application vendor support... mostly due to all the different
>> ways that
>> things are done between Linux desktops and distros.
>>
>> Don't get me wrong, I love Linux.  I just still (in 2006) haven't seen a
>> Linux
>> desktop that even comes close to the flexibility of what Microsoft
>> produces.
>> You can make all sorts of claims about your environment being different
>> and how
>> you don't need application xyz, but in the end the lack of massive
>> worldwide
>> adoption speaks for itself.  I work for IBM, arguable one of the worlds
>> leading
>> Linux supporters.  Yet IBM's own internal corporate Linux desktop distro
>> (based
>> on RHE4) is still a long way from being what Windows 3.1.1 was.  Sorry
>> if I
>> strike a nerve, I am just giving you opinions based on years of
>> professional
>> *developement* and "on the road, in the field" experience with *both*
>> OS'es.
>>
>> If I need to setup a server I use Linux.  If I need a usable desktop I
>> use XP.
>> I would love to go back to a Linux Desktop, but not if it still takes
>> away
>> nights and weekends to make useable.
>>
>> -Jim P.
>
> I still use XP as my desktop at work as well.  I then use FreeNX to
> give me a Linux desktop on a test server.
>
> I went to the IBM/Intel/Red Hat presentation last week.
>
> I now want to redo my desktop computer as an Intel/AMD cpu with the
> new VT technology.
>
> Then have SUSE 10.1 (coming shortly) as my host OS, Xen as the
> hypervisor and run 2 guest OSes: SUSE and XP.
>
> I have not seen any benchmarks for this kind of setup, but it seems
> Xen is very efficient and should only introduce a couple percent
> overhead for the SUSE guest and an acceptable amount of delay into the
> XP operations.
>
> What I don't know is what, if any, desktop computers support this yet.
>  Per the presentation the computer would need a VT enabled chip and a
> BIOS with the appropriate support.
>
> Greg
> --
> Greg Freemyer
> The Norcross Group
> Forensics for the 21st Century
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>

Does XP work with Xen?  I read an article(I think in Linux Journal)  about
it not supporting XP yet.  If it does then Xen really sounds like a
promising option.