Linux users...

[Tasmaniak]

First question..why?

Second question, which one should I use for a PC?

Thirdly, what makes it better then Windows?

Thanks guys.

[VS Omega]

Rock solid stability and lack of virus/spyware/whatever written for it (therefore security), being free, lots of it is open source so if you know much you can see what's happening/some much better looking interfaces available make it a good choice..

Downsides are that everything that I use is written for Windows, so I have to stay here for now And installing stuff like drivers which is a simple task in Windows takes about 100 steps, and not all hardware/features of may be supported.. lack of software (games and applications) although windows can be emulated this isn't 100% and the performance takes a hit..

I've played with a few versions; Knoppix, Red Hat, Mandrake/Mandriva, xboxhdm.. Mandrake/driva and Red Hat were probably easiest to use for me

Prepare for someone to respond with a more kick-arse answer soon

edit: If they couldn't even make 64 bit drivers for my Nokia N70 when promised I pray for all the Nokia users in Linux

[clixanup]

First question..why?

1. Its good for you.
2. Its free.
3. It'll teach you everything about computers that Windows hides from you.
4. By design, its relatively virus proof.
5. It does what you tell it to do when you tell it.
6. Settings never change themselves. Once something has been set up it stays that way.
7. It gives you complete control over everything your computer does.
8. There are no back-doors or spyware in the OS code. With Windows - who knows?

Second question, which one should I use for a PC?

If this will be your first ever foray into the Unix world, then you have one hell of a learning curve in front of you. But don't let that scare you, there are several Linux distributions aimed at the Newbie.

Suse 10 isn't bad. You might go for this one if you want to get up & running fairly quickly. It has the largest collection of fonts I've ever seen. Everything 'just works' automatically with Suse.

Personally, I prefer simplicity, so I use Slackware. It is fairly well documented, but can take a while longer to set up than Suse because many things need to be manually configured. Once they are, though, you can use mostly the same config files every time you upgrade. One downside is that you'll need to read a lot before you can set Slackware up properly.

Thirdly, what makes it better then Windows?

1. There's no registry...
2. Intelligent design which makes it stable & invulnerable to virus attacks.
3. With the notable exception of playing the very latest 3D shoot-em-ups, there isn't anything you can do on Windows that I can't do in Linux. Older games are playable under Linux through emulators which in most cases work better than Windows.

Try this website for more info:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/

Have Fun!

[Tasmaniak]

thanks Juzza and clixanup. I will have a look at the various types you mentioned and see what I can determine.

[Tasmaniak]

ok, I had a look.....at they seem to want me to download about 3 cd's wortht of files...!! Think I might stick with XP for a while.

Unless....

[pro_gmh]

I have orded and recieved 3 copies of the Latest release of linux "Ubuntu", its great u can order it for free of the net and they ship it to you for FREE.
Its loads more congigurable than windows, comes with alot more standard sofrware, so much upgradable and reliable.

BUT, im still usin windows, its a big change, i would recomenf=d when installing, set up as duel boot.

[Shifty1]

Go to your local newsagency and get a pc mag. 9/10 they have a distro on the fron cd.

Yes, most distro's are 3+ cd's..

[Tasmaniak]

ok, thanks guys...

adox..my intentions were to set it up on another computer first and if I liked it I would configure this PC to run it as well.

[Darren]

I've been using Linux for probably around 4 years or so now, it's a massive learning curve as mentioned already from good old Windows but what you can do with it is endless. I am not a guru, actually far from it and I use a very small portion of it's power but what I need it to do it runs very well.

I'll be frank and honest here, it's not for the faint hearted, chances are you will encounter problems and at times I found the messages are often cryptic but a quick search on google.com/linux usually finds the answer, other than that help usually isn't too far away.

I personally wouldn't use it as a desktop system, ok, if your into just web browsing, chatting and email it's fine but for games you'll bash your head against a wall well I have previously and strictly use it as a server now. The GUI has come a very long since I first start using it back around the Red Hat 7.3, but still has a long way before it will replace my Windows machine.

It's main purpose is a server as such the CLI is where all the real power sits, I have 2 machines, 1 runs my internet (WhiteBox Enterprise) ie firewall, routing and happens to also runs a development JC site amongst a file sharing for the rest of the network. The other machine is running Ubuntu which is actually really nice, I can't comment on Slackware or Suse as I have not used either but if you ask 10 people what they reckon the best distro is chances are you'll probably get 8 different answers.

As a matter of interest JC runs on linux (Debian).

Generally speaking download the 1st CD and then use the update software which comes with it such as apt-get, up2date, yum etc to obtain things that your after. The additional stuff is things like mail, web, php, mysql etc.

Ubuntu has a very nice Synaptics package for the GUI which is drop dead simple to use, simply type in what you want and your off and running. My suggestion for a n00b would be Ubuntu, the documentation is very good and I've even learnt a thing or two.

My first experience with linux wasn't pleasant, I logged in and thought well what do I do now? I didn't know about startx so I gave up, read more and went back to it and haven't looked back since.

In terms of a system grab some old piece of junk and you'll be fine, if your going to install the GUI ie KDE, Gnome etc have 3 - 4 gig space available and some decent amount of memory saying 128 or 256 at a minimum.

Uptime is awesome as well
17:38:37 up 122 days, 11:06

Try getting that on your windows system

[clixanup]

Think I might stick with XP for a while.

And here's me thinking you were serious.

Seriously man, if you're going to let an "obstacle" like that get in your way, then Linux isn't for you.

These were the first few results of a 10 second Google search for "Linux CD"

http://www.linuxpickup.com/
http://www.thelinuxstore.ca/
http://www.linuxcdshop.ca/
http://www.osdisc.com/

Perhaps the most important thing you need to know about Linux is that you must want to use it. If you're not prepared to do some learning, stick with Windows.

P.S. I thought bandwidth was dirt cheap in America? What's the problem with downloading between 3 and 3.5 Gb?

[Tasmaniak]

I have unlimited downloads...and I pay $49.99 p/month and that also includes about 200 channels on my TV

The issue is I'm still not the greatest PC user. I can use XP it's just that I have heard about Linux and so many praises. I'm sttill considering going ahead with it...

[Joes_meat]

http://www.nomachine.com/testdrive.php

This will let you test out someone elses Linux system over the internet. Remember the speed will be slow because its not local.

[stocky]

i havent used linux for years, but i was wondering how hard is it to install to an XP machine and make it dual boot? i think i have red hat version 7 somewhere

[pro_gmh]

How many partitions do you have on your computer?

[stocky]

2 drives, one SATA one IDE, 3 partitions on each

[clixanup]

i havent used linux for years, but i was wondering how hard is it to install to an XP machine and make it dual boot?

Not very hard at all. Especially if you already have a spare partition. Ideally you should have at least 2 partitions set aside for Linux (one for swap and one for /)

i think i have red hat version 7 somewhere

That's a digital antique. Things have changed a lot since then...

[killuminati]

I have unlimited downloads...and I pay $49.99 p/month and that also includes about 200 channels on my TV

The issue is I'm still not the greatest PC user. I can use XP it's just that I have heard about Linux and so many praises. I'm sttill considering going ahead with it...

whats the connection speed?

[Shifty1]

also, try this site for distro downloads www.linuxiso.org

[dephilile]

I experimented with linux a while back but found there was just too much frustration involved. Windows didn’t want to talk to it and I couldn’t use programs like autocad and protel and just about every game I own. If all I did was check emails and chat it would be the way to go but IMO it’s just too much effort.

[azkwazere]

I only use linux for servers, not my cup of tea for all other computer related things. It does a perfect job of serving tho!!

I reccomend using GENTOO as it is designed to be fully configurable from the beginning so you kernal contains only 100% what you want! Makes for a very secure OS.

You may want to start with a copy of the MANDRAKE or MANDREVA or however you spell that one...i reccomend the use of GNOME as you GUI...KDE is also good.

HAVE FUN!

aZk.

[stocky]

I have unlimited downloads...and I pay $49.99 p/month and that also includes about 200 channels on my TV

The issue is I'm still not the greatest PC user. I can use XP it's just that I have heard about Linux and so many praises. I'm sttill considering going ahead with it...

yeah i remember deals like that when i lived there. think i had AT&T or comcast or something

[stocky]

hmmm i can download mandrake linux for free from bigpond. is that one any good?

[azkwazere]

You can download most distros for free....joys of open source...

mandrake was the first linux os i used...its good....gentoo = better

aZk.

[pro_gmh]

Ive used a couple, Knoppix, Redhat, Ubuntu and FreeBSD

[stocky]

You can download most distros for free....joys of open source...

mandrake was the first linux os i used...its good....gentoo = better

aZk.

well theres two different definitions of free in this case.
1 - not having to pay for the software
2 - not having it count towards my bigpond download limit