TruthMedia Review: Lunix OS

Overview: Open-Source Inc. has some great ideas; if they can utilize them into a more usable form I’m sure they could become the next Microsoft. Their current efforts though simply don’t make the grade, and as much as I hate doing it I am going to have to go ‘against the grain’ as it were and slate Linux. Directed By: Open-Source Development Inc. The Pros: It sounds harsh but it’s incredibly difficult to think of any. Linux is halfway to being great in so many ways, but never quite achieves. Very sad because there is obviously a lot of talent behind the making of Linux. The Cons:No technical support, terrible file structuring. Bad, awful system recovery. It also Has some major software compatibility problems, which need to be fixed if Linux is going to really take off. Unnecessary difficulties imposed upon the user.

I’m sure many of you have experienced breaches of your computer's security in the past. Yes, we’ve all been there, re-formatting from the boot disk and losing the contents of your A: drive. Well an exciting, new, innovative project from the up-and-coming young company ‘Open-Source’ promises to change all this!

Linux is causing a big stir on the Internet culture. This is mainly due to its direct opposition to Microsoft’s Windows98, who has in the past have been accused of monopolising the computer market by using "insider tactics" with companies such as Gateway and AMD. Make no mistake; you do not need to buy a new computer to install this software because Linux will, quite remarkably, run on a Windows formatted machine! Many critics and computer "wiz-kids" are still not exactly sure how this works, however the company behind the magic, Open-Source Development Inc., have declined to reveal what exactly makes Linux so successful in utilizing Windows machines.

Now I know exactly what you’re thinking; you’ve probably heard all the hype up to this point about Linux and the question you want answered is, “does it perform?” Sadly the answer is no. It can be considered as the smaller, less successful recluse brother of WindowsME. This is not unjust and without reason, as there are far too many downfalls to Linux for it to be considered a serious contender for the most commonly accepted operating systems. An example of one of the most harrowing being the inclusion of ‘fsck’ in the final retail release of Linux. This basically causes major conflict issues with the file system upon improper system shutdown. I found it was myself shouting ‘FSCK!’ at 2 am in the morning while kicking my Linux box over, only to reboot in Windows and use Scandisk to retain my file structure and system performance.

Please don’t think I have a dependency on Windows, because that is absolutely not the case. The CLI (or command-line interface for you less technical people) of Linux is where many people consider Linux to pick up pace and become a serious contender. Yes, some people would actually rather type in commands than simply point and click! Since ‘point and click’ technology has been developed there is no longer any need for the use of long commands... or so it would seem. But Linux ignores these developments and seemingly takes a step backwards. When compared to Windows98 or WindowsME which has a DOS command line and very advanced point and click interface, you can see where Linux obviously begins to lose ground.

I’m not even sure if I really want to begin on the compatibility issues Linux has. Absolutely none of the programs I had immediately available to me would function at all in Linux. Many of these programs are vital to my work, such as Photoshop and Dreamweaver. These programs are two of the biggest commercial IT products, and Linux not supporting them is absolutely absurd. This was obvious not considered by Open-Source Inc. when they were developing Linux. The advantages I found while using Linux are sparse to say the least, it did only crash a few times during the testing period… but this is really irrelevant when you consider there is actually nothing you can do with Linux that is any more advanced than Windows98 or WindowsME.

If you have adequately read this review you will be aware of the huge holes I have ripped in Linux’ accessibility and ability to operate as a standard operating system. Linux is probably available at your local IT store, however I would strongly recommend you consider WindowsME your primary choice.

Each category in the rating system is based out of a possible 10 score (10 being the best). The overall score is based out of a possible 50 score (50 being the best).

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