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Okay. I want to try it. I've used Windows since Win95 and I want to try Linux. I've never even used it before, so I don't know where to start. I will be trying it on a freshly-built PC, Athlon XP2800, 512mb, Radeon card. Could someone familiar with Linux please answer some questions? Many thanks in advance.

1. Which version? So many different distributions. Suse, Redhat, Debian? Which one is the leanest, least bloated version?

2. Is it true that I won't really need a firewall/virus scanner/spyware stopper? This is what I hate about Windows.

3. What about device drivers? Will I be able to use a USB scanner, printer etc.?

4. Is Linux really that great? Will I be converted if I try it, and burn every Windows CD I have?

Any other info would be appreciated.

First, use http://www.linuxhq.org/ as starting point for lots of useful info/links.

1. Which version? So many different distributions. Suse, Redhat, Debian? Which one is the leanest, least bloated version?

Mandriva (formally Mandrake) is a good all round beginner distro but before that try one of the cd-based distros to get a good feel for it before poss wasting time installing/configuring. You don't mention your main use but if you are into media try http://www.dynebolic.org/ (DyneII is imminent so try the beta)

2. Is it true that I won't really need a firewall/virus scanner/spyware stopper? This is what I hate about Windows.

No, just that you'll suffer less. You really need security on any/all systems but if your internet router has a fw and is properly configured mainly you just need to be careful what you download and run. Linux comes with most of what you need, most anything else is free.

3. What about device drivers? Will I be able to use a USB scanner, printer etc.?

Use site above to find Linux hw database and check for your devices. If in doubt email equipment manufacturers and if poss don't buy product that don't support Linux. Things are a lot better today than even two years ago.

4. Is Linux really that great? Will I be converted if I try it, and burn every Windows CD I have?

Depends. If you are simply a "user" as opposed to a "power user" you will proberly get frustrated about how much new stuff you may have to learn. If you don't mind the time to learn (or at least *know* they exist) the many many features available then you will be amply rewarded by having a powerful OS that can be bent to your will to a degree you can only dream of with Windows. If money is not an issue and you want the ultimate experience (at least today) then go Mac OS X maybe via a second hand notebook, which should be going cheap by Feb 2006.

I don't recommend Mandriva. RPM (Thier way of installing software) can be a mess.

For a great and easy linux: www.ubuntulinux.org

Its only 1 CD, and installs with very little hassle. Pretty easy to get working with nvidia/ati graphics cards too.

Firestarter is a quick n easy linux firewall.

Once you get used to the differences: (no C:/D:/E:, using the root account to do any tweaking) etc, You may well find linux is more to your liking than windows. Its more logical if nothing else.

Also PB on linux has a .deb file (setup-like file), which is useful on Ubuntu or Debian, or other Debian-based distros.

One thing is if you're into modern gaming, there is less selection than on Windows. However several good titles are out for linux as well: Unreal Tournament 2004, Any Doom, Quake older game since they are now open-source, as well as Doom 3, and Quake 4. There are others like Civilization and such.

There are also tons of open-source games people have made which are enjoyable so you should be pretty entertained

I hope you like it. There are tons of linux crash courses and beginners guides out there on the net, search for them and ye shall find.

Its well worth the effort to learn in my opinion.

PS: Mac is definitly not the ultimate experience. =\ Its much better now that its based on BSD (Unix-like), but its still bastardized and bubbly.

I agree with dracflamloc, and recommend Ubuntu. If you are a serious gamer, then keep a dual boot partition with XP just for your games.

The only hardware issue I have had with Ubuntu is a PCMCIA SCSI card not being recognized. But my scanner Benq 5300, digital camera, etc. all work fine.

If you need a serious accounting app, however, there isn't any. So I use Win4Lin ($30) and run quickbooks and a couple of other Windows-dependent packages for which there is no Linux equivilent.

Evolution is great, however, converting your Outlook is a little tricky but can be done.

Ubuntu has a Live CD that you can test drive with without having to overwrite you existing OS. Try that first.

Also, there is always PureWinLin...

Good luck

I am not a diehard Linux user, but have briefly messed with Mandrake and Kubuntu. I really like Kubuntu.

I would like to start using PB for making Linux games, but I am not sure how to go about it or how compatible the games would be with the various Linux versions and GUI systems out there.

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'll try ubuntu, a lot of people seem to like it. Basically, I just want a machine that I can use to surf the net with Mozilla, play MP3's, AVI's and that's about it. I don't play games really (apart from MAME), so that's not a problem.

Just one more question: This may sound silly, but which Linux distribution requires the lowest system requirements? I have an old laptop gathering dust, and I thought of installing Linux on it and messing around with it to get used to Linux.

Hi,

My advice is to download a copy of vmWare Player (it's free) and then download a Linux VM (Redhat / Fedora) from the vmWare site. Its all free and will work on your Hardware no matter what devices you have.

vmWare Player is a Virtualisation product. It emulates your PCs hardware and allows you to run dozens of different OS's concurrently.

vmWare Player is free, it only allows you to use VMs. To create a VM you need a copy of vmWare Workstation (<>£300, I think)

But, like I said, you can download a pre-configured Linux VM from vmWares own WWW Site for free anyway.

If you're new to Linux, this is (I guarantee you) the quickest / easiest / guaranteed successful / risk free route to getting a useful Linux OS onto your PC.

vmWare even supply a (presumably Linux based) Browser VM that lets you browse the web in complete safety.

My kids have a login to my PC, after a virus infection, I installed vmWare and gave them their own VMs which they can riddle with as many Virus' as they want (they can't infect the host) once a week - I restore their VMs back to the original state and voila. All Virus' / Spyware nasties gone (guaranteed) and their VMs are back in their original state.

DyneBolic - no install required

Re OS X - with FINK I find it a perfect combo.

FWIW (I am a linux newb and probably will be for a long time) but my experience:

Best at my level: Fedora.
Looked good but had some probs: Ubantu.
Two worst for different reasons: Mandrake and Debian.

Mandrake it was a begger to work with and died a few times.
Debian "proper" really needed more knowledge than I had.

Far and away the easiest to set up and use was Fedora. A walk-through install as you pick what you want. Reasonable window-ish front end. But it has the ducks guts as well, so you can ease into it. (Several CD's.)

Watch it with fedora. I've had it mess up a dual-boot setup once when I tried. And I'm very experienced with linux systems, it was a bug in thier installer. It may have been addressed.

Fedora is based on RPM and can be a pain to get software installed for the novice, but its not too bad.

Most of the time its just rpm -i <package> but getting the right package for your distro can be awkward.

Performance on linux is usually very good for even older systems. At work I've been evaluating ubuntu and fedora core 4 on old Pentium 500mhz computers to replace thier Windows 95, which no longer runs the software I need.

Linux can be as light or heavy as you want, typically GNOME and KDE are fairly heavy but still perform well. Lighter environments are IceWM and Fluxbox, though they arent as easy to use for a novice.

Another thing to note is that laptops typically use specialized hardware which doesn't always (though usually will) work with linux. THings like built-in wireless can be a pain, though since its an older laptop you shouldn't hit any major issues and it'd be a great playground for you to learn linux on.

Brice Manuel wrote:I am not a diehard Linux user, but have briefly messed with Mandrake and Kubuntu. I really like Kubuntu.

I would like to start using PB for making Linux games, but I am not sure how to go about it or how compatible the games would be with the various Linux versions and GUI systems out there.

PB linux uses SDL for 2d sprite stuff. Thus is it very compatible with just about every window manager and desktop environment out there.

Another thing I forgot to mention, linux distro's will not by default play MP3's or WMV files. These are patented/copyrighted formats and as such are typically not "out of the box" supported. However theres a tool called EasyUbuntu which will setup and install all those codecs for you quite easily.

Get it here:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread. ... EasyUbuntu

This company has a migration tool that looks pretty good - copies all of your windows settings and data like outlook to Linux.

http://versora.com/

Havent tried it - I did mine the hard way.

just to wet your teeth, consider a self contained distribution that can be booted from CD-ROM. A great way to learn about Linux, without the need to reconfigure your PC just yet.

One of the most popular is: http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

Fedora 4

Very nice and stable...