h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That reminds me of a joke about the Y2K crisis.

There was a company that thought it was all ready for Y to K. It had adjusted the spelling of the days of the week yo:
Mondak, Tuesdak, Wednesdak, Thursdak, Fridak, Saturdak, and Sundak.

I really feel angry and sad hearing stories of viruses and the like with Winders, so dear friends may i humbly suggest you take a look at this link: http://www.ubuntu.com/

It is the most popular Linux distribution at the moment. Please dont take my word for it-check out "Linux" (wikipedia, a friend who knows computers - etc - wherever you can get some advice that you trust: now my tuppence worth: Linux is a more stable, (much more) free, more feature rich ( much more), more fun (much ...), based on " an operating system called "UNIX" which has been around since the seventies ( 1970's ) and so is much more mature than winders (MUCH...), and can do whatever you want- if you know how (unlike winders etc, you are not forced to use your computer the way big multinational companies want you too, no features are blocked and because Linux etc are "OPEN SOURCE" it means that there is nothing hiding in the background that will monitor what you do, or mess up your pc.
Its hard to hide when thousands upon thousands of people have access to the actual source code that the operating system ( and all its utilities and user aplications ) is written in, people spot bugs aswell as any other problems very quickly and a huge amount of manpower and womanpower all over the world can be mobilized ( is mobilized daily ) to combat such things. Belive it or not Microsoft with all its Billions could never afford the ammount of manpower from proffessional programmers from all over the world, that donate thier time to develop Linux etc.

Worth a look

I dont get viruses anymore and my pc runs faster than it ever did under winders

For example: my pc is a pentium 3 550mhtz office workstation , i could never run vista or even XP well on this box. (I had winders Me)
and i was gonna get a new one-but since i have had Linux, i run a modern Fast operating system which doesnt get viruses anymore and doesnt ever need the hard drive to be fragmented ever again, IMO its MUCH more professional software - and will run on the oldest of modern PC's .

the boss of Linux has offered £10,000 of his own money, to anyone who can put a virus on Linux, some have tried all and many have failed

Does Linux have a boss? I thought it was open source, and not owned by anybody.

http://www.linuxfoundation.org/

Thanks for the tip!
Taking note.
When I get an internet connection...

I supose Linus could be considered the boss, as he originally wrote the Linux kernel, but he has not profited from it, but has shared his work from day one and countless many likeminded individuals have helped right from beginning; and so he is able to get paid for what was just his hobby ( he was a Uni student/lecturer ) .
But Linus is only a part of a much bigger movement.
Much of the programs that make up the actual Linux operating system , come from an organiation of like minded people called the Free Software Foundation ( FSF ); which has been writing free software ( free as in you have acess to the code and can modify it for your own perposes ( under a free sofware license - GPL is most common, aswell as being free to download etc)

If you are interested, Linus Torvald - is the guy who wrote the actual Linux Kernel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds

The "Free Software Foundation" (FSF) is headed by Richard Stallman; and are the people who have written most of the actual programs that make Linux work ( they were written a long time before Linux, they just needed a kernel for a complete Unix-like operating system ).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman

Linux is not the only free Unix-like operating system, there is something called "BSD" which has many versions, and is one of the most rock solid computing platforms in the world; they have systems up for years without having to reboot. These Unix-like systems are the backbone of the internet.
And since the early 1990's home pc users like us have had Linux - which is aswell as being an incredibly powerful and solid platform , also a very user friendly one now too(if i can use it anyone can ).
There are quite a few variations: (ALOT )with Ubuntu ( itself based on debian )being the most popular desktop version."MEPIS" was suggested to me as a good beginners Linux also.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(operating_system)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MEPIS

Here is a list:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions


May the force be with you!

wish people wouldn't bump this up

with a title like that and so soon after terri-zendevil i always think the worse

someone out there trying to give ME a coronary!!!!!

Not all coronaries are fatal. I've read that some are mild enough that you don't even know you've had one.

For some reason, my parents have made it to the age of 90 without ever having had any. My grandmother had angina, and still lived to be 93.

Nowadays many of the risk factors are well-known, and the are standing by with prescriptions for blood pressure and cholesterol medicines that will make coronaries much less likjel;y, though, they'll do a job on your sexual performance and give you stomach aches for the rest of your life.

you missed the point paulh

my heart goes 10 to the dozen when i see this type of subject line on the convo board!

don't want to lose any more friends

Thanks for explaining.

I gather that Jabberwock sometimes thinks he has no friends, or maybe only one, hence the "friend" in the subject line. I believe that he has plenty of friends, and is welcome whenever he comes here. He's very very creative and bright, and I would love to see him here more.

Had a bit of a scare at the title of this thread too. Phew! :D

Very sorry to have bumped it up. It's just that I haven't been on this site in years and wanted to let Jabs know I had been by.

To all my friend:


I'm still here! In fact the title of this convo went up well before our friends left us, I do believe.

Jabs.

I'm still here!
you'd better be

It's okay Jabs, it's just we are a little jittery about our friends at the moment

Connection problems are a drag. I'm glad you can get here occasionally. Jabs. :-0

Quite understandable, Lil. We've had far too many shocks recently .

If anyone doubts that real love and friendship can be found on the Internet, have them look at our genuinely sad and shocked reactions to the deaths of our true, genuine, delightful on-line friends

An' thanks, paulh!


Jabs