Over the past several posts, I have said a lot of praise about Windows 7. I am just surprised that Microsoft is finally doing things a lot better with 7.
However, Linux is still an OS of choice for me. With Linux the virus scare is non-existent as much as it is with Apple’s OS X. One main reason is the virus/spyware writers aren’t going after the smaller fish as they want to snag the great white shark of the computer world aka Microsoft. But there are a few threats out there mainly because the writers were told it wasn’t possible and they did it just to prove the advertisers wrong.
Now would I say go with Linux right out of the gate blindly? NO! Actually, my first exposure to Linux was one called PhatLinux. This Linux actually ran inside of Windows back in the day of Windows 98. When you were done with it, you would just delete the directory it ran from. But with Windows XP and later, such a thing was not so great. Basically because XP and later used the NTFS file system and back then Linux was not great at writing to a NTFS partition. Read… yes. Write… no.
Now along comes something else that can be a “try before you install for good”. It’s been around for years actually but instead of going PhatLinux route, I’d say a better first try would be a live CD version of Linux such as Knoppix
You would download the image then burn it to disk. Then you boot to the CD/DVD you burned. This can show you a lot about Linux without dedicating hard drive space to it or having to wipe out Windows. I’ve actually used Knoppix to get information off a physically defective drive. Also if you have the know how, you can even crack Windows passwords with it. I won’t say how because that information can be used for very bad things so find it yourself if you want.
As for that Office suite you rely on so much — well, there is something for you there. Most distributions come with OpenOffice or even if it doesn’t you can download OpenOffice and install it on your Linux box. OpenOffice first started out for *nix users but has found a way into the world of Windows as well.
If you need to IM someone — well, we got you there too. Pidgin runs on Linux. Again, it started there and has then been ported to Windows.
E-mail — I can say you can use Thunderbird but why. With Linux you get access to using Evolution which you should try. Evolution has not been ported to Windows.
Gamers — You can get quite a few games running using Wine which can help run a lot of Windows programs. However some games that require DirectX will not run or run that great with Wine. Therefore you may need to pay for a program called Cedega which has a monthly fee. First try it with Wine then if it doesn’t work then look into Cedega.
Now after Knoppix, if you decide to make the jump, there will be some decisions to make and you will need to do some research. Next would be which distro to go with. Beginner Linux I would suggest Mandriva (used to be Mandrake who bought up Connectiva and because of trademark issues with Mandrake the Magician they renamed it Mandriva), Fedora (free version of RedHat Linux), or Ubuntu. Ubuntu is kind of the Flavor of the Month now because it’s based on Debian unlike the other two. Most hardcore Linux users will swear by Debian being the “true Linux”. My first real Linux that required installing to the hard drive was also based on Debian. It was Corel’s Linux SE. Yes, the people who make WordPerfect. Corel dropped it coincidentally around the same time Microsoft gave them a bailout.
After that, I bounced between Mandrake and RedHat. I actually won a CD copy of RedHat off the now defunct TechTV. I know it got put into G4 but it was never the same after it stopped being called ZDTV truthfully. Over the used used Debian, SuSE, Ubuntu (just to taste the Flavor of the Month), and others.
Choosing a distro that you like really depends on you. I hate the “true Linux” crowd making that claim because people should choose what works best for them. And the beauty of *nix is unlike Microsoft and Apple, you get to choose the differences that best suite you.
And all this and I haven’t even touched on the server aspect of Linux if you wanted to run a dedicated server like those of Windows 2003 or 2008. One thing is the Active Directory aspect is not there. Yes, I know. Samba 4, right? Um… will it ever come? Samba 4 has been “in development” for about 6 years now so I am really having doubts. But Samba 3 gives a lot of the server capabilities for Windows clients save having Active Directory.
If you wanted to run a web server at home — we got you. Most web servers you browse to are running some distro of Linux. And you can too for virtually free. Now if you wanted to host other people and make money then you will have to invest in a commercial web hosting package like CPanel but there are some lightweight ones that can make setting up web hosting for a site or two really easy.
Again you will need to do research but this should get you started if you have never thought of using Linux.