Feeling weary of trying new OSes and Linux distros..

[billdotson]

I tried Ubuntu and I like it alot. I am interested in trying other OSes like Sun's OpenSolaris, or NexentaOS or other types of OSes. Although I often feel weary of trying new OSes and/or distros because I have a fear that somehow the code in the OS might be written and mess up my hardware or something by overclocking or things like this. I know Linux OSes seem to be pretty safe but I am always weary of these things because while there are people that do good things for free there are also others that do bad things. I know it would be a ridiculous amount of work to make an OS so that it in itself would be a sort of virus but I am always weary of these sort of things.

[MedivhX]

Well if you ant to try OpenSolaris go on!!! I like trying new things myself. But OpenSolaris doesn't support much hardware.

BTW don't be worried... Hardware can't be destroyed by operating systems, especially not with open source systems like Linux or OpenSolaris...

[zAo]

BTW don't be worried... Hardware can't be destroyed by operating systems [...] Well, it can destroy hardware in some exceptional cases, but don't worry about *nix/BSD bases operating systems.

[saulgoode]

Not to be overly pedantic, but the appropriate word is "wary". When I first read your topic, I thought that you might be exhausted from trying several different OSes and distros.

I have only heard of two cases (in the last 25 years) of malicious code being introduced into Free Software obtained from a legitimate source (official repositories, SourceForge, projects' homepages, etc).

Even for non-official sources of Free Software, any presence of viral code will generally be noticed within a few hours, warnings issued, and the offending files removed (this is, to my knowledge, a condition of all ISPs' terms-of-use). You might wish to be a little more cautious when installing software from "third-party" locations, but if they have been around for a while then you should feel fairly confident in their integrity.

[Mateo]

i wouldn't bother. aside from what you might hear, they are all very close to each other. KDE is KDE no matter what OS it is on. Gnome is Gnome. The difference between most OSes is petty. Like, for example, the basic difference between ubuntu and fedora is apt vs. yum. That's basically it. There are other, minor, differences.

[troymcdavis]

Try it! Try it try it try it try it! If you have the time and the hard drive space, it is absolutely worth your time to try other distros and OSs. Don't worry about any hardware problems. Serious/unrecoverable problems are extremely unlikely.

The great thing about trying other distros and OSs is that you not only know which distro or OS you like the most, but you know why, which means you know more about how the OSs work. And, you get a computer that's best adapted to you, which means higher productivity and more enjoyment! Plus, you know which distros/OSs have potential, so you can watch their progress and switch if it becomes beneficial to do so.

[billdotson]

so if I am downloading from a site like distrowatch or sourgeforce I should be safe?
And malicious code is extremely rare in free OSes from these places?

My computer was quite a big investment and I would rather not want to end up with a paper weight.. so I am just cautious. Oh and thanks for the correction.. I will note wary from now on.

BTW what type of OS would destroy hardware as you said that *nix/BSD OSes are incredibly unlikely to do so?

[Ptero-4]

Windoze for sure.

[AndyCooll]

You want this forum!!! Other OS Talk (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=147)

:cool:

[RAV TUX]

You want this forum!!! Other OS Talk (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=147)

:cool:moving to the other OS forum

[FuturePilot]

BTW don't be worried... Hardware can't be destroyed by operating systems, especially not with open source systems like Linux or OpenSolaris...
Actually it can. But one OS isn't more likely to do it than another. Heck, even Windows can ruin hardware. But I wouldn't be worried about this at all. My laptop actually runs cooler with Linux than it does with Windows.

[3rdalbum]

If you're worried, why not try virtualising these operating systems with Virtualbox or VMWare? That way, they can't touch your hardware or your existing files.

I recommend beginning with Virtualbox as it's easier to set up; and if you want to use Syllable or ReactOS you should look at Qemu or VMWare. Having said that, I used the Syllable Live CD and it didn't cause problems with my hardware.

[watson540]

anyways...you should fear windows more than linux...thats the whole point of having open source software , is so that ANYONE can go in and look at whats going on. these apps arent just thrown together by ANY old nerd in their parents basement. Its more like 2 or 3 of them, and they are organized into teams and they get code audited and everything else. if you feel suspicious its time to learn to code and start auditing apps :)

[igknighted]

so if I am downloading from a site like distrowatch or sourgeforce I should be safe?
And malicious code is extremely rare in free OSes from these places?

My computer was quite a big investment and I would rather not want to end up with a paper weight.. so I am just cautious. Oh and thanks for the correction.. I will note wary from now on.

BTW what type of OS would destroy hardware as you said that *nix/BSD OSes are incredibly unlikely to do so?

You cannot download from distrowatch. They just link you to the sites of distro's to download from. Any distro on distrowatch.com should be 100% safe to download (or close to it, so long as you don't get phished). Sourceforge I /think/ is good, but I rarely download directly from it, I wait till someone makes a .deb for the repo's usually.

[Ptero-4]

You don`t need to worry about OSS OS's/apps. It`s the closed-source (specially M$) ones you should be wary about.

[watson540]

What exactly do we need to worry about? is ms satanic? is closed source satanic?

[jinx099]

I've been trying out openSolaris in VMware and... blech. The one redeeming thing, and it is a really big thing is ZFS. You should try openSolaris just to try ZFS. I also tried zfs-fuse on my opensuse server, but it was not the same :(

I'm going to burn openSolaris and try it out on my physical hardware one of these days, but testing it in VMware left a lot to be desired. It needs a package manager like Ubuntu's. I gotta try nexenta sometime too.

[igknighted]

What exactly do we need to worry about? is ms satanic? is closed source satanic?

lots of big name companies put adware/spyware in their apps, and its closed source so you don't know. In OSS if its bad, someone will see and sound the warning.

[handy]

The next version - Alpha 7 - of Nexenta (http://www.gnusolaris.org/gswiki/Nexenta_OS) is said to include ZFS (http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/), which should make it a very interesting release - Nexenta = Ubuntu on the solaris kernel, with over 12,200 files (& growing rapidly) in it's apt repo's & the ZFS!!

It is a bit different than Linux under the hood though...

[RAV TUX]

I tried Ubuntu and I like it alot. I am interested in trying other OSes like Sun's OpenSolaris, or NexentaOS or other types of OSes. Although I often feel weary of trying new OSes and/or distros because I have a fear that somehow the code in the OS might be written and mess up my hardware or something by overclocking or things like this. I know Linux OSes seem to be pretty safe but I am always weary of these things because while there are people that do good things for free there are also others that do bad things. I know it would be a ridiculous amount of work to make an OS so that it in itself would be a sort of virus but I am always weary of these sort of things.
Just wear your tinfoil hat and you'll be fine.

[mips]

Pack your computer into a box and put in the attic or give it to someone else.

[Jhongy]

If you are seriously worried that installing an operating system will destroy your computer, I recommend that you do not install other distributions at this stage. You'll only get frustrated.

I'd install and get comfortable with Ubuntu, and use it for 6 - 8 months, and get comfortable fixing/customising the software experience. Then when you feel more confident, branch out.