What OS?

[ac1dsp3ctrum]

Ok, Im getting a new system real soon (3.2Ghz, 256MB DDR RAM, 128MB Nvidia GeForce3) And I wanted to know everyones opinion on what OS I should run... Size is not a problem (80 Gig Hard Drive) I was thinking 1 version of Windows and a form of Linux... Just not sure which ones


Oh, And one more thing... A friend of mine had an OS that runs Directly off of a CD, no install necissary... If anyone knows what im talking about or something like it please respond with the OSs name and a link if possible

[khakisrule]

You don't need windows. Wine does it all, I now have Photoshop running on my linux box, its nice, plus I have MS Office running nicely as well.

EDIT: And I am pretty sure that some sites have star office 5 available to download, so another reason to ditch windows.

[ac1dsp3ctrum]

You still didnt answer my question, LOL

[Zadok0552]

Well, ONE of the Linux packages can run from just a boot diskette OR CD.

And that would be: Trinux. I have a win98SE box booted with it right now. I run Trinux cause it is primarily designed for security packages like Labrea (Ya know Tarpit?) and snort, etc.

The web site is: http://trinux.sourceforge.net/

bon apetit

[avdven]

For OS's, I would recommend XP or 2000 for Windows and Red Hat for Linux (that's only because it happens to be my favorite).

As for the OS on CD, there are various Linux flavors available which will run from a CD. If you're looking for a Microsoft product, WindowsPE does that for you (Windows Preinstallation Edition, which is the XP kernel, but cut down to limit the ability to use it as a full fledged OS). If you want more information about WinPE, let me know and I can hook you up with some links, though I don't think you'll get as much use out of it as you would a full OS.

AJ

[chefer]

http://cd-linux.org/ - CD based linux distro information

Trinux would do it. PicoBSD would work as CD or 3.5 floppy (http://people.freebsd.org/~picobsd/)

http://devil-linux.org - linux on cd for router/ firewall/ small server.

Good luck with the new box.

[Zadok0552]

To followup... since you asked for a windows flavor, as well.

Win2000 is probably for more serious users. There is a thread here regarding service pack 3.

However, I have a box with XP Pro. I did a full install - not an upgrade after using Win2000. Even though I have had to patch XP with over 24megs of "hotfixes", I find it more stable than 2000 Pro. What rankled me was that progs that ran OK on 2000 wouldn't even install on XP. Progs like some security apps that monitor connections in GUI format, and a few others. Over all I'll keep XP cause I'm impatient and it loads MUCH faster than 2000.

In reference to my previous post. After using Trinux for a few months, I'm thinking about installing Redhat as a dual boot OS and using Labrea, Snort and Firestarter. Reason - I want to play more with ipchains and firewalls in general. But, thats just me.

[KissCool]

There's a version of linux bootable only on one cd named DemoLinux. But as the name said it is not designed to a constant use on a static server.

the http://www.demolinux.org/ site say:

"We wanted to make it possible to everybody to look at what Linux can offer, and to make it possible for software publishers wanting to show their Linux-based software to distribute a no hassle hands-off demo CD.

But this kind of CD makes also a wonderful Linux-to-go solution: you might carry your favorite desktop configuration in your pocket, sit in front of a non-Linux box, boot from the CD and be in front of your preferred environment in minutes. "

[problemchild]

As for Windows, why not XP Professional? That seems kind of a no-brainer to me.

In the Linux world, I'm a huge fan of Gentoo. The great thing about Gentoo is that *everything* is always compiled directly from source, which means that you can pass processor-specific optimizations to everything. Everything down to ls can be performance optimized for your specific machine. If you're really looking to get balls-to-the-wall performance out of your spiffy new machine, you won't do any better than Gentoo. You better know something about Linux before you try it, though, 'cuz it gets pretty deep into the guts of the system.

And its package management system, Portage, is even better than Debian's apt-get. Portage is the future of Linux package management.

Hey, you asked!

[jaguar291]

I'm not a huge fan of Windows XP but XP and 98SE are the best versions out. If I were you I'd install both and then Redhat for your Linux OS.

Question: Are you building the box yourself?