Why should you try out Linux?

Why should you try out Linux?
Linux is a Unix-like operating system that has been around for a little over twenty years. Linux was invented by a Finnish programmer named Linus Torvalds in 1991. Many big iron servers like Google run on Linux. Years ago Linux had the reputation of being difficult to use, today that is not the case. There are several versions of Linux like Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, and Fedora that are fun and easy to use. Linux is very secure and robust and has the advantage of being immune to the virus and malware infections that plague Windows based systems! Also, Linux is free open source software that can be installed on several PCs without fear of copy write violations. Free is a good thing.
If you are curious about giving Linux a try you can try one of several Live versions of Linux that are available. For example, you can download and burn an OpenSUSE live CD and run it on your windows system. That is, you can boot your PC from the CD, give Linux a try without changing anything on your Windows installation. If you find that you like Linux You can use the Live CD to install Linux and set-up a dual boot so that you can choose to run either Windows or Linux at system start-up.
Here are some links to Linux websites if you would like to give this amazing operating system a try.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

http://www.redhat.com/resourcelibrary/articles/the-fedora-project-open-source-evolved

 

I know a few people who have bought new computers, and they are unhappy with Windows 8. One asked me to install Linux, with the windows system. I have found that he uses the Linux system more often than windows.
The number one reason, It boots faster. In less than 10 seconds the system is ready to go. rather than a minute or so using windows.
On the web the pages load faster than using windows.
So far he dose everything on Linux that he would otherwise do on Windows.
My self I have 6 working computers in the house, and only two of them are Windows Machines still.
From what I have been reading lately Microsoft, and Intel have been shooting them self's in the foot lately.

 

At the moment I have four Slackware Linux work stations, one Win 7 box, a pfSense router, and a Macbook Pro (plus three PCs gathering dust in the basement). Agreed. For me, Linux is much faster than Windows.

 

I forgot another reason, I like Linux.
I can let my 6 year old grandson play games on it without supervision.
Because he can't damage the OS in any way. Try that with Windows, and your in for trouble.

 

Exactly! My 9 year old has the Win 7 box. I spend the majority of my administration time on that box (scanning for malware, virus infestation, etc, etc.). Linux all the way for me.

 

There are a few things you can never do in Linux.

I had problems printing coupons. This is a major part of our budget now, and so I changed one system to Win 7.

Second, there are games that will not run in other OS.

Lastly and not worth a whole lot, you lose iTunes.

 

I don't understand the printing coupons issue...wouldn't ANY browser do this? Or is this because of flash, or perhaps Java not being available for your chosen distro? You've always been a great "Linux trouble-shooter" for my tough problems, so I can't imagine you couldn't solve this issue. Please elaborate, if ya don't mind.

With respect to games, that is changing VERY SOON, if it hasn't already, with Steam and Valve currently being ported & beta-tested on Linux. I know they're working with Ubuntu, perhaps other distros also.

Lastly, agreed that iTunes isn't worth a whole lot, but it is easily replaced in Linux! ITunes is just a mechanism to 1) purchase music 2) manage music on your iPod and 3) "update" iPod software. FWIW, I weaned my kids off DRM-laden iTunes a long time ago and force-fed DRM-free Amazon music as the substitute vendor, which iTunes automatically imported. Secondly, turns out that Rhythmbox and Banshee sync music quite nicely in Linux; and Banshee has a built-in Amazon store browser, effectively replicating a direct iTunes replacement. I've also read that Amarok syncs nicely, but have no personal experience with it. And lastly, does anyone truly believe an iPod music player is unstable or a privacy concern to be updated/patched? I've read these patches/updates by Apple simply re-shuffle "hash files" and other items to 1) keep people from figuring out how to "share" DRM music and 2) lock them in to Apple.

In all fairness, I've read that iPod Touches and iPhones (touchscreen devices) are hit & miss, depending on your distro, version of music software, etc... My kids' computer runs Linux Mint 9, and I can confirm that my kids regularly sync differing Apple devices ranging from 2nd-3rd generation Nanos to 5th & 7th generation Classics. To be perfectly honest, the iPods "work better" with Linux than Windows/iTunes, and the kids are pleased with how much "faster" it is than iTunes!!! FWIW...

 

The printer apps look for the C:/ directory which never works. I tried many work around including VirtualBox and gave up. The wall is for theft deterrent, costing some stores $10000 per DAY. I am very happy with Win 7 and yet read yesterday about the favorite Linux Distro being LinuxMint with Cinnamon. Some say Unity was the base for Win 8...

http://www.linux.com/images/stories/blogs/desktop-thumb.jpg

I still dual boot LMDE (Green) on the laptop. Here is Cinnamon link. http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/

 

heathens - where's the redhat derivatives ? :-D:-D

just to put my penny's worth in,

there is nothing i can't do on my mandriva that windows can do - apart from the gaming, but i have a 360 for that,

full multi-media center with bluetooth remote control thrown in, just because i can,
media server for the 360,
all media formats can be viewed or played,
couple of emulators (not wine) for playing various platform games,
fractal generators and manipulation programs,
gimp for image manipulation,
digikam for my digital camera,
dvd rippers, transcoders, creators,
video security enabled with my webcam - just trying a motion sensor out at the moment,
other interesting things media related,

and its hooked up to a 42" plasma, xbox360 and a quadraphonic amp (not caught up yet)

i use amarok with the jamendo and magnatune database loaded, free music mainly using the creative commons licence,
i have a generic mp3 and an mp4 player which have no problems with amarok,

dual boot on my main machine with mdv2010.2 (default) and mdv2011 (not nearly as nice in the looks department)
the little alien has pclinuxos on her dell lappy, she likes to be a show off as non of her friends can use it,
all her homework is done on it via oo4k and tuxpaint,

gnu/linux is a serious replacement for other commercial operating systems, all it takes is time to learn
(that bit is for visitors)

 

Mint Linux 13 Mate

 

At the moment I am happily running Slackware 14.0, and Slackware-current with XFce 4.10.

 

I'm really happy with, antiX-12.5-full-alpha2-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) It's incredibly fast, and runs great on my machine. :cool

 

This video really goes to show that you can do anything on Linux that you can do on other operating systems. Linux really has something for everyone, including gamers.

http://youtu.be/u43lfJ3-SSY