the benifits (& drawbacks) of linux

**0l33l** · 02-14-2005, 02:05 AM

Originally Posted by linuxguy

True but if im going to spend 1000+ dollars on a car pc, why not pay 40 for speech to text - it definately beats the cost of a windows license...how much is that now?

Some projects working on free voice recognition...not good yet but getting there.
http://freespeech.sourceforge.net/FreeSpeech/html/
http://www.perlbox.org/pbtk/

As you said, its not there. But yeh, I don't see a program like NaviVoice on linux.

**frodobaggins** · 02-14-2005, 02:15 AM

Hey 0l33l, quit harrassing the linux users.

**Rafster** · 02-14-2005, 02:31 AM

I have a question. I have installed a couple of different Linux Distros on my desktop (AthXP 2000+, 1GB DDR) including Knoppix, and always find myself going back to Windows. Something that is really important to me and my future carputer is boot time. How fast can one get linux to boot and actally get to a point of playing music?

Example hardware: VIA M10K, 512MB DDR, ATA133 7200RPM 8MBCache HDD.

Peace,

Rafster

**0l33l** · 02-14-2005, 02:39 AM

Originally Posted by frodobaggins

Hey 0l33l, quit harrassing the linux users.

But I have tried linux. No time to continue trying

**frodobaggins** · 02-14-2005, 04:18 AM

Originally Posted by rafaelsherman

I have a question. I have installed a couple of different Linux Distros on my desktop (AthXP 2000+, 1GB DDR) including Knoppix, and always find myself going back to Windows. Something that is really important to me and my future carputer is boot time. How fast can one get linux to boot and actally get to a point of playing music?

Example hardware: VIA M10K, 512MB DDR, ATA133 7200RPM 8MBCache HDD.

Peace,

Rafster

It depends on what you are running, what services you need etc.
If you want a full blown X-Windows and a window manager, it may take
a while, but if you have some nice simple framebuffer based app, could
be short. I'm sure with this new forum, we should see some tutorials and
interesting apps forthcoming.

Frodo

**Dj_Aleks** · 02-14-2005, 07:21 AM

Originally Posted by 0l33l

As you said, its not there. But yeh, I don't see a program like NaviVoice on linux.

maybe, but seriously, i´d prefer a 5-6sec boot time for the cost of navivoice...i just don´t see the need of that app anyway...
Linux owns, no question about that! BUT, windows is more mainstream and therefore developers, coders etc etc spend more time developing apps for win, but the trick is that linux is able to do EVERYTHING that windows does and a lot more to it, and if it doesn´t have support, you can ALWAYS write one without having to wait 1 year for M$ to write a hotfix that probably makes more trouble than good...

**Grimey** · 02-14-2005, 09:05 AM

Linux is hard...yes.
Linux runs smoother then windows...yes.

It all comes down to if you have the time and patience to sit down and learn the new OS. Just like many other people here I find myself using Linux for quite a while then run into a road block when I need a piece of software. I always keep a partition of Linux on my drive at all time and ocassionaly flop back and forth between the two to keep my brain fresh in the OS.

Definitely is your friend when it comes to Linux. If it wasn't for that I would have never learned anything really. I've busted COUNTLESS installs before I get a working one, it's a part of the game. In doing so you learn more and you also end up getting a more stable system running.

You can definitely run Linux on slower machines and still have a stable box. I was running Debian on a 450 Mhz AMD K6-2 with 128 MB of crappy RAM and it was running my webserver fine hosting 5+ websites with constant traffic. They make stripped down versions of your favorite X-Windows system (like Ice or VMIce or whatever it's called) and others that can easily be modded to suit a carputer and also have an extremely fast boot time. Especially if you strip some of the excess weight out of it.

Also as far as software goes, become friends with Wine early on. It will allow you to emulate some windows programs within' Linux. There are also other packages out there (one for running Office applications) and Cedega (which you must pay for *sigh*) that allows you to run most mainstream computer games.

**superbowl** · 02-14-2005, 09:35 AM

Hi,

i got my first linux-distribution an 5 x 1.44 meg disks, so i am aroud with linux for a really long time. But i would never use it in my car or in my office. (i do use it as server for internet-based-applications / router)

PROS OF LINUX IN CAR:

- Linux is free
(But.. in most cases you´ll buy a distribution, so it´s not completely free)

- Linux should boot a fews seconds faster

CONS OF LINUX IN CAR:

- Never saw mapmonkey for linux

- Never saw centrafuse for linux

- Never saw an asskicking frontend-software

- superbowl

**MatrixPC** · 02-14-2005, 10:50 AM

I wouldn't recomment Linux for newbie as a carPC. If you are not familar with the PC and when thing goes wrong, you will be freak out and end up crashing your car and your carPC at the same time.
I am very comfortable as a Linux user, but I am not dare enought to put it in carPC. The reasone being is that most software for CarPC are NOT ready for Linux.
I run Linux for my everyday home usage (email, web bla bla ... ) since Redhat 5.2 or 6. But been with the *NIX enviroment since the college day doing ada on those BSD machine.