I am the only user on this computer, so how do I make it boot automatically instead of getting that user - password screen?
I am the only user on this computer, so how do I make it boot automatically instead of getting that user - password screen?
> I am the only user on this computer, so how
> do I make it boot automatically instead of
> getting that user - password screen?
I'm not sure you can do it now. When you first install Windows, if you just click "okay" when the username/password screen pops up, without entering anything, then you won't get that screen any more. I'm not sure if you can change an existing system.
You might try un-installing "Microsoft Client for Networking" and then re-installing it and doing as above, but I'm not sure that this would work.
Look at the bright side. Linux and other flavors of Unix are designed from the ground up as multi-user networking systems, so there is no way to get around the password prompt - except to enter a password.
Of course, I can also leave my Linux system up for months at a time without it crashing . . . :-)
> Of course, I can also leave my Linux system
> up for months at a time without it crashing
> . . . :-)
I've been playing around with Linux for quite a while now, and I have to say that I still like the IDEA of Linux better than the actual product. I don't think that it's quite ready for prime time (ie the masses). I still run into some weird configuration issues, and it's very hardware dependent. If you're using any exotic hardware you have a potential problem.
Having said that, its stability blows the doors off of Windows (although it gets less stable when you run the GUI), and it seems to get better with each release (compare that to Windows). The biggest problem with Linux is that the software support isn't there yet.
> I've been playing around with Linux for
> quite a while now, and I have to say that I
> still like the IDEA of Linux better than the
> actual product. I don't think that it's
> quite ready for prime time (ie the masses).
> I still run into some weird configuration
> issues, and it's very hardware dependent. If
> you're using any exotic hardware you have a
> potential problem.
This is true, although things get better with every release. Linux started out as a product produced by computer geeks for use by computer geeks. I think it is difficult for the developers to design for "the masses". And of course, they don't have Microsoft's market research machine telling them exactly what the public wants. Sort of like a bunch of advantage players trying to come up with a game that ploppies would enjoy. :-)
Even so, my last few Redhat installations have gone flawlessly, with autoprobing detecting and correctly identifying all of my hardware. Even my scanner and printer were no problem.
Laptops used to be a real pain, but not any more. The installation program detects that it is a laptop install, and such things as PCMCIA support are automatically installed.
Unless you are running something that is bleeding-edge new (or conversely, really ancient), this is not the problem that it used to be. All the major distributions have hardware compatibility lists on their respective websites, so it is possible to check before deciding which distribution to use.
> Having said that, its stability blows the
> doors off of Windows (although it gets less
> stable when you run the GUI), and it seems
> to get better with each release (compare
> that to Windows). The biggest problem with
> Linux is that the software support isn't
> there yet.
One of the nicest things about Linux is that while an application may crash once in a while, it never takes the entire OS down with it. Unlike, well, you know . . . :-)
I assume that by "software support" you mean applications, and this is only true to a point. Obviously, Microsoft is in no big hurry to port Internet Explorer or Office to Linux. However, one can choose between Netscape, Opera, Mozilla or Konquerer for a web browser, and Star Office, WordPerfect, or OpenOffice for a word processor, etc. While your favorite application may not be available for Linux, there are probably several other products capable of doing the job equally well.
One exception, sadly, is the specialized software that we use as advantage players. The main reason that I still bother with Windows at all is so I can run programs such as Casino Verite, Blackjack 6-7-8, and BJRM2000.
I have tried to convince the developers of these products to port them to Linux, to no avail.
And I cannot really blame them. Such software appeals to an extremely narrow market to begin with, and the percentage of that market that would be interested in Linux versions is all but non-existant - we may be talking single-digit numbers here.
Oh, well. Just another reason to have several computers around the house. :-)
Just as an example of why software is not likely to appear in great quantities for these systems in the near future, below are the percentages of operating systems that have visited my site in the last month:
Windows - 98.26%
Macintosh - 1.26%
Linux - 0.45%
Sun OS - 0.03%
> Linux - 0.45%
Yeah, but that's only because Parker was there 6 or 7 times. :-)
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