On 03/12/2015 05:15 PM, Paul wrote:
T wrote:
On 03/11/2015 03:18 PM, Slimer wrote:
Instability however, is another issue. Windows 7 is NOT unstable.

Hi Slimer,

Ask yourself why Windows 7 has restore points and roll back
features. This is an attempt to control the inherent
instability of the OS. Linux and OSx don't have such an
animal because they don't need it.


WrongO, dude.

Think of the environments a bit first.

Windows:
Open to user driver fiddling. Users can and do add hardware.
Open to poorly tested security patches (some brick the machine).
Users can install just about anything, drivers without WHQL
certification, open source software they compiled with MinGW
or Visual Studio. It's completely open season. Why *wouldn't*
you have Restore Points in such an environment, even if they
don't cover all possible use cases ?

Linux:
Drivers are mostly included. Brick-age can happen when people
install NVidia or ATI tainted drivers. There's probably been the
odd occasion I've done something like that, and just reinstalled
to clear up the mess. That was the fastest resolution.

Applications sit in a pre-compiled Repository. That's a
curated environment. My experience, is the quality there
is a little better than Windows. Since it's curated,
there is less that can go wrong.

Many times, I've accepted a kernel update in a Linux VM,
and it doesn't boot. As long as I know there is a menu
where I can move back to the previous kernel and boot,
no problemO.

A Linux user can download an open source package (as source),
compile it and install it in /usr. But, when that Linux user
is honest, ask them how much trouble that caused. How much
maintenance is required to keep it running (when the next
version of Ubuntu comes along, and you update from 12.04
to 14.04). That's really no different than the kinds of
exposures in Windows.

The average Linux user (not you), just isn't that
adventurous.

OSX:
Drivers are for the most part, under Apple control.
On modern Apple, there may not be a lot of hardware
slots, to go adding PC hardware. Back in the day, I used
to add a couple .kext modules, to support an IDE card
in my SCSI Mac machine. And that could cause "sleep"
issues. It was less common to "tip over" an Apple
with a .kext, because the supplier had tested it a bit.

You can still have problems with third-party utilities,
but then, only the utility is busted.

And Apple has Time Machine, so they haven't exactly
abandoned the user. They're at least providing a
hint that you should do something.

On Linux, there is little in the way of hints about
disaster planning or what a "best-practice" might
be for keeping data safe or preparing for some
catastrophic event. Windows has provided some
feeble attempts at it, so users at least know
there is a word called "backup".

For example, I have a complete backup of this
Windows machine, sitting on a 3TB disk. And the
disk is left disconnected from the computer.
It's there, because of my concern over cryptolocker.
Not that I expect it'll actually happen to me, but
because I want to look "less stupid" when it does
happen.

*******

I can de-stabilize any OS, if you let me
get my hands on it. Would I appreciate it
if an automatic disaster recovery procedure
was present ? Yes.

Paul


Hi Paul,

Go with the Red Hat for anything critical. And
sign up for support. You will not believe the
professionalism.

I have notes on how to restore X11 when a new nVidia
driver hits. Pain in the ass when that happens.
Supposedly, they have that fixed now. (We will
see!)

In Linux, I have tools available to me that are not
available in Windows. Have you discovered
ctrlaltf1 and ctrlaltf2 yet?

On my Linux servers, I leave the back up drives
disconnect when not in use. Not because of crypto
locker, but for something worse: meddling, worthless,
no-account, know-it-all, boss' sons.

I have restored entire Linux servers, including my own
twice, when I discovered the DVD error, with my
backups from Dump. Got great notes on it, if you
want them.

Haven't found a good way to disconnect a backup drive
from the command line in Windows yet. There are
ways, I just don't like them.

And lately, I do full (Linux) drive encryptions on the
base system and the backup drives. That is a pain in
the ass with Windows.

I also encrypt a lot of flash drives with EXT4 and LUKS.
You can read them in Windows with Free OTFE, but the
64 bit driver signing problem is a pain in the ass.

As I have stated before the OS you use is the one that
meets your needs.

-T