I have a nested LAN configuration at home, to keep a business network separate from the LinuxMCE network.

As a hybrid Core/Media Director I use a Walmart $299 W3644 Gateway/eMachine with 64 bit Sempron (at 2.1 GHz, 512KB L2 cache, 1600MHz system bus), 1Gb dual channel DDR RAM, nVidia GeForce 6100 series integrated video with 128 Mb shared video memory, 160 Gb HDD, DVD-CD RW.

Integrated into my LinuxMCE home automation network are Greyfox wired analog cameras, Bluecherry video capture board, X10 automation with CM11A serial port controller, HTD MA-1235 12 channel whole house audio amplifier (set-up for nested 5.1 surround sound), ViewSonic Cine5000 Home Theater 720p Projector, Jandy pool controls.

I use a Buffalo Network Attached Storage, and a RAID 5 Netgear ReadyNAS. These devices are vital to my networking.

I programmed software for multiple military projects, and have networked university and large businesses. I have used VMS, Unix, DOS, Windows, Apple operating systems (including OS X) and Linux. I have networked using Novell, AppleTalk, NFS, Samba (Windows protocols).

I am currently dabbling in Beowulf processing (cloud computing) and am interested in *nix based distributed supercomputing at locations like Lawrence Livermore laboratories.

I prefer NFS networking (Linux), which is much more robust and reliable than other protocols. However, due to Windows and Apple PCs remaining on various networks, I also use Samba (Windows based) and Bonjour/Renedezvous protocols (Apple based).

Recently I have converted several networks to primarily Ubuntu (servers)/ Kubuntu (desktop) networks with groupware and internally managed services.

I had attempted this in the past with Windows servers, but this was cost-prohibitive and caused a significant amount of down-time, angst, and loss of productivity. Previously I ran two businesses (for several years) on Windows XP Pro, and liked this OS. However, a plague of rootkit infections knocked out a series of boxes and Microsoft refused to help (without significant amounts of capital outlay) to repair the systems. Further, hardware failures were difficult to accommodate in the Windows paradigm, whose operating system licensing is tied to hardware components. Furthermore, the purchasing department bought several PCs with Windows Vista, which did not work on the network and was not compatible with networked operations. After 2 months of attempts to accommodate Windows Vista, they were returned and replaced with XP Pro machines. These problems lost my business tens of thousands of dollars.

Because of this I then switched to Linux based systems. Since that time, I have not had a single similar problem on any Linux machine. My business is now approximately 80% Linux-based, with some 20% of legacy machines not yet converted from Windows. Initial lack of acceptance of conversion by Windows users to Ubuntu Linux has been overcome by using Kubuntu as the desktop. Now, acceptance is immediately achieved.

Most of my business PC desktops now run Kubuntu Hardy on them, and my home PCs (and laptops) have Kubuntu Ibex. My servers are all Ubuntu (generic) servers with LAMP installations (although I am trying postGREsql, which isn’t as well integrated into groupware solutions yet).

Richard Stallman is my hero. Linux Torvalds is second.

Windows, for most users, is familiar. Not better. That being said, I’m proeparing a post about Flash performance under Linux, which I’ve found to be sub par. That is my only real issue with Linux right now, everything else has been smooth sailing so far…

@LiEy: Why not have a look at the develoment version, available from wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-cumulus.

I just wanted to add that a lot of Windows tweaks require registry hacks. Linux uses human readable config files which I find much easier to edit. I would almost argue the opposite that you have to be a bigger geek to use Windows if you are not happy with it out of the box. On Linux you can tweak tons of stuff via GUI apps that you can’t tweak in Windows. Another grate example is drag and drop. Windows XP changes the default behavior of dragging and dropping files based on the source and target drive. To alter the behavior you have to hold down ctrl alt or shift while dragging. In KDE it just ask you whether you want to copy move or link after you drop the file. Much more intuitive in my book.

I think what is needed is an interactive Linux Demo that walks users through different features of the various desktops and helps them decide what is most intuative for them. In Linux you have lots of options unlike OSX and Windows. Unfortunately you have to be a linux user to know what those options are.

Grab all what you can and then run away fast has nothing to do with sharing.
It is more than stealing from the community.

If all people would act like you want to do, you would not have anything to download.