🚀 go-pugleaf

Thank you to everyone who responded to my questions about Linux.

I have had some bad experiences with DOS/Windows, leading to my predjudice
against DOS. A number of people seemed to interpret this as a dislike of
command lines. It's not. I avoid Windows in favour of DOS whenever
possible. I also felt a few people interpreted my antipathy towards DOS as
a Mac user being unable to cope with any other system.

I believe I am a lot more capable than I perhaps portrayed in my post. My
concern was that I might buy a computer intending to run Linux, and be
forced back to DOS to work. I do not want to have to use DOS. A few people
suggested OS/2. This is a system I had never looked at. (I thought it was a
variation of Windows!) I have now read about OS/2 and if it matches what I
read, I think I could be happy with it.

Last weekend, I downloaded the Slackware 'a' and 'u' disks, borrowed Dad's
laptop, and tried an absolute minimal UMSDOS installation. Installation
went with no difficulty, except the mouse did not work, but I don't know if
it's meant to work when I'm not running X. I had no idea what sort of mouse
it is and just guessed, so that was probably the problem.

With a library copy of "UNIX for Dummies" and a book about UNIX system
administration I was soon finding my way around. I think I like the way
UNIX works. My feeling is that I could do my work with Linux straight out
of the box, and gradually learn to customize.

After I finished exploring Linux on Dad's computer, I shutdown, then
rebooted with DOS/Windows. When I tried to run a program, the computer
crashed. It turned out they had installed extra memory a couple of days
before, and it was faulty or not installed properly (I'm not sure which).
Linux had no difficulty running with the problem (although since I wasn't
running anything but the basic OS, it's possible Linux never tried to use
the faulty memory).

Anyway, my current decision (subject to change between now and when I can
afford to buy) is to buy a fast 486 machine and run Linux, and if
necessary, OS/2.

I think everyone pointed out that LaTeX is not a word processor. Most said
I wouldn't like it, some said I might like it and couple of people were
very passionate in support of it. I went looking for more information and
found a Mac version (OzTeX).

I like it! I am very impressed with the output. As an exercise to learn
LaTeX, I took a document I had formatted to the best of my ability in Word,
and converted it. The difference is incredible, although I couldn't say
exactly what makes the LaTeX output better (I used the same font so that's
not a factor).

Once again,
       thank you

Tim.

-- 
Tim Badgery-Parker      Everything you know is wrong,
timbp@ozemail.com.au       But some of it is a useful approximation!