My suggestion to folks who want to whine about Tiny Core (though Robert asked me to refrain from issuing too many opinions as my posts tend to get long) but perhaps as someone who:
a) earned my keep in college breaking corporate software - professional "Its broken folks"
b) earned my keep thereafter for 30 years writing and breaking my own stuff
c) have spent 10's of thousands of hours in support calls or face to face
d) have spent decades in both mainframe and novell and windows and run and owned computer stores
e) currently run 100+ web sites comprised of 15,000 + pages, most of which I personally authored - and I test every darn script to make sure it runs right - no errors
... so I am a sort of "BUG and SUPPORT call" reliability FREAK.
Onward:
1. Whining about what Tiny Core lacks without acknowledging that Windows crashes regularly, has to be reinstalled regularly, loses data regularly, doesn't run nearly as fast or boot as fast as TC, can't run on nearly any partition and has a tendency to require or often allow and encourages all your data, docs, videos, images, spreadsheets etc. to reside on the same "DOOMED" partition, whereas TC is naturally suited to "getting data somewhere safe" from the OS - so this is the first key to avoiding a nightmare. Whatever else TC is or isn't, in the world of business, this characteristic of "safety" and "reliability" alone is worth its weight in gold - literally. And if for some reason the TC aps do take a dump (as in last night when I was downloading about 20 TCZ files at once - a feat that is impossible to even attempt in Windows) - you reach into your little 10 - 50 MB install and - ka-poof - the system is back up - running fresh - in less than the time it takes to make a pot of coffee - also worth its weight in gold. To do the same thing in Windows takes me 6 - 12 hours or more and then a week of finding out what I missed. Naturally I could use an Image/Ghost utility for Windows, but then the same would work for TC.
TC is reliable and robust and re-installs in a blink. No whining there.
2. TC is a Linux product and that means things like Skype and Flash and other aps have to be "custom carved" and getting to know a terminal - like DOS - requires "translating habits" from typing C:\ to typing cd /mnt/hda1 and cp instead of copy. And learning why permissions affect the ability to easily execute programs turns out to be a blessing, since in Windows any old virus can run rampant on your system, but in Linux it takes a bit of really screwing up to give anything that sort of permission. Yes, that level of security means you have to learn how to manage permissions. Perhaps a GUI utility to handle some of that would be helpful instead of learning CHMOD. Yes, you spend a lot of time in web based tutorials as you migrate. Yes, as new GUI aps are developed, things will get easier.
But I somewhat disagree with Robert's statement "TC is not the 1000MB system - go use that and it will get easier" etc.
It won't get easier using a fat boy Linux OS. I know. I tried a bunch of them.
TC installed. The others would not or croaked on trying to get online.
The TC wireless utility works well. Knoppix - as much as I respect the gent who made it - did not.
Yes, I had to write a little script to fine tune my fragment packets etc. but now the wifi works better - stays online longer - than the Manufacturer's original package for Windows. As these things are incorporated into TC - one step at a time - then the combination of easy install and re-install, and fairly well tested robust aps makes it a hands down winner for real desktops that need to do real work and do it reliably day after day.
Most PC's in the commercial/industrial world have a tight set niche of aps they run. Once tuned, an OS like TC is the ideal platform for that: tight, reliable and rather easy to re-configure to develop a system that can run the same way for 5 - 10 years without a burp.
Yes, like many Linux products it lacks all the bells and whistles. But my Flash runs better/faster (much), the new music player I have runs far more reliably and is about 20% of the size of the one I had in Windows and my Firefox is working perfectly - no complaints - and it also runs far more reliably, less freezing, than the same ap in Windows, as is my GIMP for image editing, and I am pretty sure most aps I run will enjoy a similar "LIFT" in performance and reliability.
I haven't seen TC choke yet. Of course I am new and I am sure I will, but its going to take some work to break this thing. Yes, some of the small tight packages like BZBOX are rather plain-jane looking - but as Robert has said "Start with minimal and if you want more gloss - at the expense of performance - its probably here in the repo."
To me, that "CHOICE" makes a a lot more sense than being stuck with bloated, slow operating systems (like my posts) that take forever to load and often have so many conflicts going on half of your Windows aps won't even run.
My guess is as TC continues to mature, and new tcz files are created and tested, it will compete just fine with "1000 MB systems" and in fact, on a commercial or industrial level it already beats them since its far more reliable and certainly runs faster. There were things I could not do in Knoppix, Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, Xbuntu, Slackware, Puppy and other distros that I did easily with TC - piece of cake - and while I do have a Ubuntu installed somewhere, I haven't touched it and don't expect I will unless I find TC can't do something really special - required for business - and no one here knows how to get it done.
Thus far everything DOES get done, DOES work, and IS available, and if not, creating a little utility to do it is likely in a matter of time. That "TIME" is certainly faster than waiting for Microsoft to cater to your need and make a new ap because you thought it was a good idea - dream on.
Well dreams can come true at TC and I am a picky in your face b**ch about quality control issues - especially software - I have been for 30+ years and frankly I wouldn't recommend any other version of Linux under any circumstances and don't appreciate it when you folks tell new users to "go try" some other "fat bloated" brand, when you all know they're likely to be even MORE frustrated and experience even WORSE performance installing something else.
Eye candy is not a substitute for fast reliable performance. It doesn't matter if you're typing a doc, editing a jpg, listening to a flash video or making one in a video editor. You need processing speed and a whatever the tool, a reasonable interface. Sometimes it takes time to learn the new interface. Usually we all WHINE AND WEEP about growing pains and learning curves. That's often a good thing: it causes new aps to be developed and problems to be solved...and they'll be solved a lot faster here than at "Microsoft" or nearly anywhere else.
The tutors/admins here are patient and knowledgeable, Robert made an extremely tough, high performance product that has wide-spread appeal and applications in commercial and consumer markets, runs on a variety of hardware platforms, including diskless systems (good luck with the other live CDs and USB installs), and rather than going on about how kewl TC is, I suggest folks do what I did: I spent 6 darn weeks learning it - getting it to run right - and finally have Skype working along with everything else.
Once the "ONE CLICK" install is done, folks won't have to eat that learning curve I endured. That ease of installation, loaded with 1001 aps is a huge Microsoft advantage today - indeed - at least it seemed like it to me at first until I got used to click - installed - done - works - at Tiny Core. It took awhile to get the hang of it, but now I know when I go fetch something the darn thing works. You can't say that about Microsoft at all, and I won't belittle the other Linux distros beyond my other posts - they wouldn't even install right.
Instant "Microsoft" installs are not a panacea and having to do that and reinstall Windows every few months is a nightmare of lost data and hunting down drivers, that TC solved once and for all.
Migrating to a sluggish, bloated Linux box is NOT a prudent solution either, nor is buying an expensive Mac a wise thing to do, when you can have an inexpensive PC running TC and darn near everything you need for home and office - free and reliable and as fast as anything developed in the PC world today.
It took three decades for someone to make an operating system that could actually squeeze the juice out of a CPU and make a 3Ghz machine boot and run faster than an old 286 with DOS 3.33.
Robert did that. I don't know anyone else who has done that except him and the team here.
That suits me just fine.
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