Re: Linux Functionality?
Ed,
First, just like you had a "first", I've been using Linux since 1995.
I view/listen all kinds of multimedia, but don't expect to get
entirely away from the megahertz requirements. While Linux is much
more resource friendly than Windows, movies still require at least
800MHz to be viewable while doing anything else at the same time. But
compare that to what WinXP requires, it's a dream!
Playing music, pulling pictures from cameras, manipulating
photographs, recording CDs and even DVDs all exist in forms that run
on Linux.
You're right about "point and click" installation. While Debian has
over 16 thousand packages which indeed are as easy as "point and
click" to install, a game like Savage which comes from a 3rd party
can require you to know where to install it instead of it installing
somewhere whether you like it or not. Linux systems allow for much
greater granularity of control.
Konqueror, Firefox, Opera and the other browsers work as "file
managers" which will allow double-click launching of programs, copy,
move, delete, as well as file association. The difference is that
there are still "console only" programs that run just fine in a
terminal window without opening a new windows of their own to clutter
things up and suck up resources.
But it is that very command-line "inconvenience" which is at the heart
of the Linux systems frugality of system resources. There may be a
few things to learn, but millions of people were able to install
games under DOS back before Win95, and there is nothing in Linux
which is any harder than that was.
There is no functionality of Windows that is not equaled or bettered
in Debian Linux. The trick is to stop looking to the "kernel" for
features, and look to the applications and tools that are available
in such numbers and variety that makes what you get from Microsoft
look like an old Wang word processor that took up an entire desk.
Curt-
--
September 11th, 2001
The proudest day for gun control and central
planning advocates in American history
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