Linux Advantages/Disadvantages; Operating System - HP Armada 7400 Software Installation Manual

Installation of Linux on Compaq Armada 7400/7800 Portables
§ Support for networking:
- TCP/IP networking, including FTP, telnet, NFS, etc.
- Netware client and server
- Many networking protocols: the base protocols available in the latest development kernels include TCP, IPv4,
IPv6, AX.25, X.25, IPX, DDP (Appletalk), Netrom, and others. Stable network protocols included in the stable
kernels currently include TCP, IPv4, IPX, DDP, and AX.25.
The following portable features are not currently available under Linux:
§ Hot-swapping of optional storage components (such as Hard Disk Drives, Floppy Disk Drives, CDROM' s, DVD-
ROM, LS120 or ZIP drives).
§ Hot-docking into Armada Station docking stations.
§ Multi-media support of MPEG-2 Hollywood Encrypted video content designed for Digital VideoDisks (DVD-
ROM) drives.
§ Enhanced audio features.
§ Use of Compaq programmable keys .
§ USB is experimental only.

Linux Advantages/Disadvantages

The following matrix represents the results of a small, qualitative study conducted in December 1998 by Compaq
Computer Corporation' s Enterprise Computing Group.
ISPs, research institutes and academic institutions.
Advantages
Free Open Source OS
Availability of free or inexpensive productivity
applications
Runs on most industry standard computers
Minimal hardware requirements
More stable than Windows operating systems
Y2K compliant
According to this study, the RedHat distribution of Linux is the most popular and easy to use. The latest version of
RedHat is 6.0, which incorporates the latest Unix Kernel 2.2.
www.redhat.com.
0206-0799-A
The study group consisted of participants from corporations,
Disadvantages
Difficult to install and setup
Linux code updates get released to public while being
developed even if they are not considered " production quality"
Lack of a single dedicated technical support infrastructure
Limited availability of commercial applications (although the list
is slowly growing)
Numerous commercial distributions (versions)
Lack of advanced mobile computing features
For information about RedHat please refer to
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