Linux

I switched to Linux a while ago and it's 100 times better than windows or apple.

IT'S FREE!

It's easy to get, just download it or get a CD/DVD. Installing it is a breeze!

PERFECT FOR SIMPLE THINGS

Ubuntu 7.04 Fesity Fawn, the linux I'm using comes with Firefox and evolution mail. It comes with it's own music player, and everything works well. Plus you can install additional programs like thunderbird, XMMS, ext.

WORK

It comes with various office programs, word processors, presentation programs, data programs, spreadsheet programs, and more.

IM

Comes with GAIM which you can connect to any network like MSN and just about every other IM

You can also get Amsn which is designed just for MSN and works great.

RUN ALL YOUR WINDOWS PROGRAMS

Most programs say they only work on windows, wrong! you can install wine (can be hard for beginners). And run ALL your windows programs on linux.

VIRTUAL MACHINES AND VIRTUAL BOXES

You can run windows vista or any other OS inside linux.

Example

I used these features, took me about a week to learn my way around linux. And it was worth it. Switch to Ubuntu, or any other linux!

In what way is it 100 times "better than" Windows for most people?

Opensuse 10.2. Whatever you use is fine, the fact is that the
question is not about the use of linux (which is much easier than it
seams) but about the "FUD" spreaded by a historically bad
looser Ps. try wengo, it is very cheap to call landlines. For
videochat I would however try out before on the wengo website to see
weather your model works. If not maybe Ekiga.....

nothing so far has convinced me... and it being freeware... is it more prone to viruses??

"Most programs say they only work on windows, wrong! you can install wine (can be hard for beginners). And run ALL your windows programs on linux."

so
you unistalled windows
the installed linux
then installed this "wine" thing, so you could use the programs designed for windows.

correct me if im wrong, but its would seem a lot easier to just keep using windows.

No, Linux is, for the time being, virtually without viruses. It's generally not overly hard to break into any given installation, but a linux system will almost never get infected randomly the way a standard Windows installation seems to.

It's not really accurate to call it "freeware" either. Freeware implies that the software is free of cost, but still not free to distribute or modify. Linux is [generally] best referred to as open source software.

It is.

Thanks for correcting me.. i was going to use the word open source.. but didnt think it was the right word.

So this thing that hes talking about.. worth the average computer user doing? or point less?

You answered it already..

Totally pointless for the average computer user IMO.

Jonny, as long as you are not working for the agency, it is very much
saver to run a linux system than a windows system if it comes to get
in. Especially if you have thing to cover up (whistleblower and
similar creatures), then I would reccomand a crypted root partition
(plus crypting the other partitions, boot from a usb key with a boot
manager you have around your neck and a firewall (linux has real
ones, not the personal ones. Let us see, a rooter with a NAT,
renaming the root account. I would like then to see how "easy it is"
to get into such a system....honestly.

Linux in general??

reason i ask ive been thinking of a knew PC from this place that builds computers.. the spec i want is well cheap and it comes with Linux or Unix or Vista (anything you want to be honest), but vista/xp is more because of the license.. is it worth getting linux or just pay that little extra and have Vista.. i just really down know???

Is linux easy to use?? sorry to swamp you all with questions, i have only used all the windows OS nothing else..

There is a big difference between "an average Linux installation" and "a properly secured Linux system."

It's not that hard to properly secure a Windows system, either.

The security of a properly administered Linux system and the security of a properly administered Windows system is similar, depending on setup and services.

The security of an average Linux system is quite a bit higher than the security of an average Windows system.

Basically you can do anything you could do on windows or apple. You can also run windows, and you can use all your games/programs.

Then you can also use all the more advanced things on linux, never really get viruses, and not pay a penny. I mean you have to try for yourself, and I could write a book of facts on why it's better, but It's not so much that Linux has got better (It has anyways) but that windows has got worse, Since Vista was launched, I have been wondering why it's claimed so bad by reviewers, Some reviews i saw when the GeForce 8800 GTX and the AMD ATI Radeon 2900 HD came out, the benchmarks were not too impressive, and even some games with DirectX10 were UNPLAYABLE with the graphics card. The person did not blame the graphics card, but windows Vista. The last sentence on all articles were always something similar to : "...If that doesnt happen, then the Games for Windows platform is in serious trouble." or "..I knew Vista would be a gamers nightmare but this is innacceptable.." or even "And my problems didn't end with DX10. If you'll notice in the chart, I had to reduce the resolution in S.T.A.L.K.E.R to 2,048 x 1,536 for stable performance." the software and hardware are not in sync.

And that's just the games for windows vista, but the software, combatibility, and everything about vista is so unpredictable and terrible. I mean in the past year the linux community has grown massively, there are now over 30 million linux users worldwide, and many many developpers, who develop for linux only. Many windows users have switched to apple, or linux. Year by year i recon windows will die. Dell now sells computers with Linux on them. Games like Unreal Tournament 3 are now available on linux. In the next many years, the linux community will continue to grow and apple and windows will shrink. I mean, vista can't even handle hardware properly, you can't really have great speed and performance with vista. And it's certainly unstable. Where as linux is so much faster (you can feel the difference after installing linux). Linux takes advantage of your hardware and is trully the best OS.

It's generally easy to use. You can expect to run into a few issues that drive you up the f***ing wall and require you to edit text files, compile binaries from source using the command line, that kinda thing... and good luck getting help with this stuff. Documentation is almost always written for people who are already very familiar with the underlying mechanics, and forum posters tend to be not very helpful.

I'd suggest that dual booting might be a good option to ease the transition, but going cold turkey from a Windows environment to Linux will cause some major growing pains for no return whatsoever.