Should I get Linux?

Question

I just got a new computer and it has Windows XP. And I want to delete it so I can put Linux on it. Is this a good idea? I am new to Linux; is Linux better than Windows? And should I get it, I'm not sure.

Answer 1

Some advice from a Linux newbie:



I just installed Linux on a desktop computer of mine about 2 months ago knowing about as much about Linux as you do (i.e practically nothing) - no exaggeration. With Ubuntu Linux you can get away with this. When I bought a wireless card to put into my desktop, Ubuntu automatically detected it and configured it when I restarted my computer (D-Link WDA 1320 PCI wireless card). I tried some other Linux distributions, but many of them required too much technical know how for me to setup.



Linux also seems to have been way ahead of Microsoft. 64-bit computing? Linux is the only way to go (we will see what Windows Vista has to offer). The fancy 3 dimensional desktop you saw in Windows Vista previews - its been available for Linux for a while.



Other programs are easy to install - you simply select the Synaptic Package Manager program from the system menu on the toolbar, and you will find thousands of free software programs (let me repeat - free) that you can install. You simply tell Synaptic you want them installed, and it will download and install everything for you. In this respect, I think that Ubuntu Linux is just as easy as Windows, because all of this can be done without any Linux knowledge. These procedures can also be done from command line if you know exactly the name of the package that you want to install.



Linux, however, does have limitations - gaming seems to be the one that most home users complain about. Also, I am of the opinion that there is no better office package than MS Office. If you only use excel for making pretty tables and Word for simple word processing this will probably not make much of a difference to you.



Open Office seems to be the best office package for Linux available currently, and it can do a lot, but you will have to learn to use it, and performance tests that I have seen show MS Office handling complex tasks far faster than Open Office. Additionally if you write any academic or scientific papers and like to use Endnote for bibliography management, you will not be able to do this with Linux.



There are supposedly ways to get all of these windows programs to run in Linux using wine or winex, and I may for the first time today try to install Steam and Half Life on my Linux Box using wine, but I doubt it will be simple.



To me the biggest strength of Linux is that it is far better for scientific computing than Windows because more software is available for it. That being said Mathsoft (makers of Mathcad and Matlab) does not make software for Linux, but there are good free substitutes (like Maxima, Scilab, Octave, R), and Mathematica (not free) is avaialble for Linux (don't know about Maple). Additionally I have not managed to get Genesis or Neuron to work for Ubuntu yet.



I recommend Ubuntu because it is very easy and requires almost no technical know how, yet its fans include not only new Linux users but also Linux gurus. www.desktoplinux.com has articles reviewing lots of Linux distrubutions if you want to research some other options.

Answer 2

I'd make a comparison to the Mac OS. OS X is Unix based, just like Linux. Can you uninstall OS X and run Linux? Yes. Should you? Not unless you *really* want to. OS X is a superb OS, and works well with the Mac hardware.

Likewise, you can uninstall Windows and run Linux. Should you? You can, but it can be a trial. Microsoft has put a lot of energy into making an easy to use operating system, and in many ways it is superior to Linux. My recommendation is, if you wish to experiment with Linux, format your hard drive into a couple of partitions. Put Windows on one and Linux on the other. Play with both.

Security is an issue with Windows, but there are easy ways to make it reasonably secure. I install a few pieces of software on my client's computers running windows, they are all free, and they give you relative security.

Avast antivirus www.avast.com

Spybot search and destroy www.download.com

Zone Alarm free edition firewall software www.download.com.



Ultimately, it is beneficial to have Windows software, and, if you wish, a Linux installation on another partition.

Answer 3

No. Unless you explicitly need to move to Linux, don't bother.



Linux has a learning curve. It would be nice to pretend there isn't one, but it exists, and however small you make it, it's still bigger than the one on Windows. Once you get the hang of Linux, it might be easy, but it takes a bit of time to learn how it works.



Linux isn't necessarily compatible with everything. Hardware manufacturers ignore Linux, and linux does a great job of trying to provide support, but still. Sometimes pieces of hardware don't work perfectly. Like one of my sound-cards. Of course, many hardware manufacturers with support for Linux beat the windows version, like some nVidia graphics cards, many networking cards, etc.



You know what I suggest you do? Get a live CD. It lets you run Linux without installing it on your computer. Effectively, you get a "taste" of Linux and can see if it works with your hardware, etc.



Check out http://distrowatch.com/



I know Ubuntu (a distro) has a LiveCD. Knoppix has one, and I use it as my failsafe when Windows breaks down. Other distros should have one.

Answer 4

If you're a newbie, snag a copy of VMWare Server. It's free now. Set up a Linux VM on your Windows box and play with it. Then YOU can decide if it's for you.



Linux has a lot to offer, and it has a secure place in the data center, but as a desktop OS it still leaves a LOT to be desired. Getting device drivers can be a nighmare, especially for video cards; and loading a video driver from the command line will leave you ready for the rubber room. Ditto for wireless network adapters.

Answer 5

If you want to try Linux I would start with a "Live" CD like Knoppix or set up your computer to dual boot with windows and Linux installed . Check out http://distrowatch.com/ it list many different flavors of Linux and is a good place to start.

Answer 6

Computer says: Comparing software (Linux, Windows)...

Computer says: Security: Linux

Computer says: Stability: Linux

Computer says: Usability: Linux

Computer says: Software: Linux

Computer says: Recommendation: Linux

Computer says: Comparison Done.

Answer 7

Dude, people brag about Linux being better but it depends on perspective really. It may be more stable and blah blah blah but try running MS Office or a game without an emulator to make it Windows.

Answer 8

I would say Ubuntu, It is very simple to use for a newbie, but it still has the ability to do very advanced things Also GNOME is a desktop environment, like KDE. Ubuntu comes with GNOME. If you want a more Windows-like environment you should use Kubuntu which is Ubuntu with the KDE environment rather than GNOME. A good thing with Ubuntu is that you can change between the versions very easily, just using synaptic package manager (a program you will use a lot if you get Ubuntu or Debian) you can change desktop environments and add the features of each version with just a few clicks. Also Ubuntu is based off debian, so they are similar but ubuntu is designed to be more user-friendly.

Answer 9

Linux is way faster the windows but its all command prompts like DOS.... you can different versions that look and run like windows but whats the point of that... so if know how to use command prompts to run your PC i say go for it

Answer 10

ah this is so old