Operating systems

ollyc98

Ex. Club Member
Hi all,

I am considering switching operating systems as I have just been virused again and am fed up of windows

I'll probably go for a Linux based system and was just wondering what systems people on here use and what you think the best system is.
 
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ollyc98

ollyc98

Ex. Club Member
I have tried many, at the moment I am using spybot, it's a free one developed by some american bloke, it is very reliable.

The reason I want to change is most viruses are written for windows and I want to go for sommat less targeted.
 
I use Avg free, it seems pretty good, It does catch a lot of trojans, I occasionally run a Norton scan as well, but it never finds as much as Avg.
 

Arnold

www.alanarnold.co.uk
Moderator
Site Supporter
First of all, Spybot isn't an antivirus product so that's where your going wrong. A decent free package like AVG will cover to you, but you want to get yourself a firewall too. Lavasoft Firewall AKA Outpost is excellent.

Also, don't buy anything by Norton or McAfee because they're awful.
 

Courior

Fat ppl r harder 2 kidnap
Search on google for Vector Linux SOHO Edition. Thats Very good!! or if you have apretty powerful machine.. 2Ghz, 512RAM, Middle/Upper Class GFX card (not the intel rubbish) then go for the latest version of MANDRAKE. it inclused Aiglx and its AMAZING!!! just "youtube" linux 3d and you will see loads of vids of it in action. makes vista look like it was new 10 years ago! If you insist on windows get the ultimate edition of vista as its the safest and has the most features, and they will stop supporting XP soon i rekon. :D

Gurpreet is right on as well though, Ubuntu is a very novice friendly linux distro! and will install on pretty much any system, but has a few niggles and once you get more advanced things get in the way a little.
 

micra_pete

Ex. Club Member
ubuntu is the linux i use quiet a lot at home - and its still ####, sorry leet guys. It has loads of great features, but I still prefer windows.
can you live without ALL your windows software? if not don't change.

If you want to try ubuntu google wubi - it allows you to try it without uninstalling windows - if you break anything though, its not my fault.

Get AVG -get spybot - keep them updated and do regular checks
 

frank

Club Member
linux mint is pretty good, its ubuntu but with all the codecs for mp3/mp4 /dvds etc and you can run it live off the cd! if you run without a hard drive, no one can see your personal data and no one can hack into a burnt cd!
for surfing i use damn small linux, it boots up quick and dillo (browser) is megga quick on my low power mini itx fanless setup
 

eltaylor001

North Rep
I got a macbook pro so I run Mac OS X but I do have parallels to run windows xp as a virtual machine and it runs fine, in fact i find it runs win xp better than my PC lol. (I need windows for Visual Studio work). I use mcaffee internet security for virus etc cos got it free and its not awful its perfectly fine on both my mac and my PC.
 

Arnold

www.alanarnold.co.uk
Moderator
Site Supporter
Sorry but its crap! There are so many better alternatives out there, that don't eat all the system resources or invent problems. i've fixed quite a few home PC's and recommended Mcafee / norton was replaced by AVG or the Lavasoft security suite, and i've had nothing but positive feedback!

Besides, why pay £xxx for Norton or Mcafee signature updates when AVG works better and costs nothing?
 

Ceirwan

Ex. Club Member
Agreed, AVG is the best, low system resource usage, very quick updating, unlike some *cough* Norton.
Arnolds also right, Spybot S&D isn't antivirus its anti-spyware

You could go Linux but i wouldn't recommend, no matter what people say its a complete pain to install programs, you need to learn how a completely different OS works, with avg free and spybot your computer should stay running ok. Oh and use Firefox as well, that will solve 90% of your spyware problems!
 

Igloo

Ex. Club Member
Ubuntu is a good distro for a novice.

Also, most of the commonly used applications are available as open source (free) alternatives.

For example:

Firefox - Web Browser
Open office - MS Office alternative
VLC - Winamp / media player alternative
Thunderbird - Outlook alternative
a-msg - Alternative for MSN Messenger (Lets you login to msn addresses still)

The list goes on :)
 

Ian

Ex. Club Member
I use windows XP at home. I don't find anything wrong with it. Buy a router and use that, even if you have 1 machine, most, if not all of them come with hardware firewalls that will stop most threats.
 

pjg1979

THIS IS MY BOOMSTICK!
I use AVG and haven't had any problems, but really I hardly go on the internet at home apart from the weekends to get my daily update of MSC because I hate spending my entire lunchtime on monday going through, all weekend material. Just use work email, lol.
 

Speedle

Ex. Club Member
Mac Os is the best Os and one of the most stable, Windows is based on the Mac OS they pretty much stole the code from Apple a long way back. The code and way in which Mac OS is much more efficient than windows every is or will be. its easy to say its crap but if you understood the coding involved and the way the data is moved and organized you'd see differently ;)

the only reason windows is any good now is because its based on NT technology where are windows 95-98 wasn't, XP was the first to be based on NT, in that it loads programs into memory differently and in that makes them more stable (Stable? windows? yes i did use them in the same sentence!) ;)

i digress!

The best free anti-virus is AVAST, updates nearly every day if not twice a day.

Zonelabs ZoneAlarm is the best free firewall its basic but it works been using that for years now.

Don't blame windows mate, get some decent anti virus and firewall sorted then do a fresh install of windows

Linux is great! but getting drivers and applications to work is a challenge albeit a fun one. theres just not enough Linux "mainstream" development done to make it a viable replacement OS. I hope someday soon it will be though.
 
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ollyc98

ollyc98

Ex. Club Member
I was going to mention that spybot isn't antivirus but does remove the problems.

Mac scared me and I have no intention of going near it again.

Linux is easier to personalise and after a bit of work can be a lot like windows.

I will run it in a separate partition so when I have had enough I can go back to windows.

My mate is giving me a copy of SUSE Linux 10.3 64bit
 

Maccy

Young K11-er!
AVG Free and Zone Alarm Free keep my Windows PC safe.

But I much prefer Mac - easier to use, faster, safer and more enjoyable :)
 

rlees85

Ex. Club Member
no porn + no gay smiley addons and really really gay software programs that are normally free off the net + no porn = no virus

worked for me for 10 years
 
I allso use AVG never had no problems very good i use this is well

Spybot - Search & Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Windows Defender
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Windows Live OneCare safety scanner (Check for and remove viruses
Get rid of junk on your hard disk Improve your PC's performance)

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-gb/default.htm

Comodo Firewall
http://www.comodo.com/products/free_products.html

You may want to read this Kit out your PC for free

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/free-anti-virus-software

All Free which i Like :grinning:
 

frank

Club Member
anti virus, anti popup, bot scans, security patches, firewall settings, porn, slowed down bloated micro$$$oft! what a load of hassle !!
get yourself DSL, the whole thing is only 50 mb, load it into your ram and its even faster.

linux rocks!!!
 

Ceirwan

Ex. Club Member
Linux only rocks if you want to use free open source software there is very little comercial stuff for home users, while that sounds great 'free stuff wowies!' its fine if all you do is use the computer for work, browse the net, type documents, spreadsheets etc...
If you want to use games at all as much as it saddens me to say it... windows, if you want userfriendly ... windows. Drivers are also a nightmare in linux.
I know there are emulations programs to run windows programs, but they usually run slowly.

Plus if you maintain your windows system well it shouldn't slow down at all, mine doesn't, i've tried linux and windows, and unfortunately windows is still best.
 

James

Chairman
plus linux is like a 1.0 corsa fully laden with a weigh####chers group... ie. very slow. imo anyway
If we're going to do car anaolgies for OSes, i'd say these are more accurate:

Linux
250px-LotusExigePicture.jpg

Lotus Exige - stripped out to the max and very fast if you know how to use it

Windows
250px-Ford.mondeo.mk3-black.front-by.ranger.jpg

Your Ford Mondeo repmobile, does everything you need it to do, see it everywhere, but double cross it and you'll be facing a broken down PC

Mac OSX
17.aston.png

That Aston Martin V8 Vantage N24 James May drove in Top Gear last week. Looks gorgeous and goes like the clappers, but not practical for every day - and would you really want it?? ;)
 

Ceirwan

Ex. Club Member
Who cares if it sounds geeky? Most people who don't want to end up appearing geeky tend to pay through the nose for 'geeky' people to fix something on their computer that takes like 5 minutes.

I've tried various linux'es in the past and none of the run as fast as windows xp.
 

Ed

Fusion Motorsport
MSC Founder
Official MSC Trader
Mac Os is the best Os and one of the most stable, Windows is based on the Mac OS they pretty much stole the code from Apple a long way back. The code and way in which Mac OS is much more efficient than windows every is or will be. its easy to say its crap but if you understood the coding involved and the way the data is moved and organized you'd see differently ;)

No offence Matt, but that's all nonsense! Until recently mac software was written for a completely different architecture, and had no chance running on an i386 based system!

Nor is it any more efficient over all. Install the same software and it will pretty much do the same at the same speed.

If MAC had it right with the IBM power PC chips then why did they drop them and go to intel with their i386, they certainly didn't do it to downgrade!
 

kristian

One Way Mule
Who cares if it sounds geeky? Most people who don't want to end up appearing geeky tend to pay through the nose for 'geeky' people to fix something on their computer that takes like 5 minutes.

Very true..

This is why when I build computers for family and friends I only install XP...

XP is simply a better all round system.. imo.. There are more niche OS's which are better suited to NICHE things.. ( Speed/gaming etc.. ) but IN GENERAL.. XP is best..

I said it was a geeky convo.. I didn't exclude myself with that comment!.. lol
 

Andrew

Club Member
Mac Os is the best Os and one of the most stable, Windows is based on the Mac OS they pretty much stole the code from Apple a long way back. The code and way in which Mac OS is much more efficient than windows every is or will be. its easy to say its crap but if you understood the coding involved and the way the data is moved and organized you'd see differently ;)

Mac OS X is based on Nextstep, which is a BSD Unix OS. Windows NT has more in common with OS/2, and there is no evidence and not really any rumours to suggest that Windows stole code from Apple.

Windows XP and decent AV such as AVG is all you need. The built-in Windows firewall is more than adequate. If all you do is use MSN and Firefox, I really don't see how you managed to infect your system with a virus, but anyway.

It's perfectly possible to run your system with no antispyware or antivirus software just by taking care. A firewall is needed though. I know, I've been doing it for 6 years with no problems.
 

kristian

One Way Mule
^I run this set-up^

Basically no 3rd party software as an anti virus control...

But good common sense and looking after your system..
 

Ceirwan

Ex. Club Member
Actually everyone claims Microsoft stole their OS and stuff like the mouse from Apple, but in actual fact it was the head of apple who stole all that stuff, he went on a tour of a company called Xerox that was starting to develop some of the stuff like the mouse and the windows based Os's we see today, saw all this and decided thats a good idea, we'll steal your ideas!

Back on topic:
You don't need a firewall if you are behind a router, if you aren't then you do!
 

frank

Club Member
this is a moral argument anyway, if you want to give the richest man in america even MORE of your hard earned money, feel free !! i would rather support the unpaid linux developers.
 

Ceirwan

Ex. Club Member
If your not paying them how are you supporting them? 0o
Plus its not a moral argument, i for example when i have not much to do on a night like to play a good game of Civ 4, which i can't do on Linux.
This is just one example, there are many other things i can't do on linux as well, so i choose windows for practicalities sake.

Plus i plain don't like the unix way of doing things, i learned on a computer that just had DOS so i'm used to the way all the files are organised on windows, i don't like the /home /user /bin etc etc method of linux.
 

frank

Club Member
cierwan

yes fair play regarding games ! if we,re weened on windows, then getting used to linux is VERY frustrating ! im,e still on a steep learning curve 2 years on. regarding drivers, linux hardware detection is 2nd to none ,this dsl (50mb) finds my soundcard, grafix chip, usb modem etc, if i loaded xp (2gb) on this mini itx m/board there would be a string of yellow question marks, no sound, wrong resolution, no modem etc and i would have to p### about downloading drivers.and i thought i was supporting linux on here !
 
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ollyc98

ollyc98

Ex. Club Member
I am going for linux cos I want to expand my knowledge of computer systems. If I stayed in the XP cave for the rest of my life I would get bored.
 

Arnold

www.alanarnold.co.uk
Moderator
Site Supporter
I personally use a desktop firewall (outpost) because it gives me application control, rather than just intrusion protection, for example, it'l alert me to applications doing stuff in the background sending out DNS requests etc. It also informs you what netbased applications are running, what ports are open, and when there are incoming pings / attacks.

You don't get any of this with Microsoft Firewall, it usually just blocks most things, including things you want inless you add an exception

I also don't rely on firewalls in my router, because to view what that's up to, you have to log onto the router itself & see what it's doing, which just takes a bit more time. I'd rather my main firewall just monitored everything and let my router just transmit traffic to and from my ISP, nothing else.

I've recommended AVG and others to so many people, as they're so easy to use, good on resourses and they work. I've never had any complaints!
 
Wow this thread gone on, im behind Arnold except i use Sunbelt personal firewall http://www.sunbelt-software.com which is very good on system resources and very secure also for anti virus i use Anvira personal edition not particularly well known but with daily updates and no viruses so far comes recommended.

No porn for 10 years??? I struggle to go a day,but then lately i found its best to pay for it from a large well recommended site.
 
Yeah see intelligent man, he pays for his porn or uses someone else's computer! Firefox rules, just tried that new internet explorer 7..........they've tried to copy firefox but its terrible!
 

James

Chairman
The only good thing about IE7 from a web developers point of view (eg me) is that a lot of the hacks we had to implement in websites to make them look okay on IE6 aren't needed for IE7, so when a decent amount of PCs are automatically upgraded to IE7 no hacks will be needed! :cool:
 
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