Les Mikesell wrote: > On Wed, 2005-07-27 at 17:36, ryan wrote: > >>>i infer from some of your previous comments that you're looking to run >>>CentOS on your desktop machine (since you're talking about DVD drives >>>and Xine and so forth). if you want a pleasant desktop experience >>>where things Just Work, i'd recommend you buy a Mac like Bryan said. >>>running Linux on the desktop is a painful and laborious experience, and >>>is likely to be so for the foreseeable future. it's a different story >>>when you're talking about server applications, though... >>> > > >>I have Linux running on a Desktop machine, and 2 laptops. Installing, >>updating and using Linux on them has been great and not at all a"painful >>and laborious experience". >> >>For the technically savvy, and those who aren't afraid to learn, Linux >>is an excellent desktop OS. > > > Yes, but for many things you take for granted under commercial OS's > like playing music and videos you'll have to do some non-obvious > and legally questionable things to do the same on Linux. > The legal argument is a sword that cuts both ways. Commercial OS's have issues I never need to deal with on Linux. On Windows, if I run MS Anti-spyware running while I have Kazaa installed, I am violating the agreement I made when I installed Kazaa!* Another example is WPA support, which, was not available until mac OS 10.3 (jaguar only had WEP). If you were an early adopter of OS 10.2 (some buyers got credits for OS 10.3 later on), you had to pay for an upgrade to 10.3 just for WPA support for the WiFi card. Paying for a security upgrade. ACK!** I don't think that downloading RPMs is very non-obvious. You may have to read the README on some packages, but that goes back to my "for those who aren't afraid to learn" ;-) Many Linux distros include mp3, .wmv, etc support built in. * http://www.kazaa.com/us/terms2.htm "you will not take any action, including downloading other software which modifies, is intended to modify or permits others to modify registry or other settings on your computer to, disable, remove, block, prevent the functioning of, or otherwise interfere with any of the Embedded Third Party Software." ** http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/G.Wilford/WiFi.html "You need Panther (Mac OSX 10.3), it's not supported on Jaguar (10.2)"