What operating system are you running?

[flamepanther]

Though i still wish I got to use linux, maybe in the future...

If installation was too much of a hassle for you in the past, you might want to try Ubuntu. It is not the be all end all of Linux, but it is certainly among the easiest to set up. I find it no more difficult to install than Windows.

[RareCollector5]

I always wanted to try linux but it was always hard to install, or it just needs some kind of special configuration to work with your hardware.
Multiple flavors makes it even more confusing, and having to learn extra computer skills just to use it does not make it very appealing....

I know what you mean because when I switch over a few years ago I had a hard time too. So, I'm going to try and help you out.

I use Linux Mint KDE CE because the KDE interface is very similar to Windows 7 and Linus Mint is based off of and uses Ubuntu repos.

There are a bunch of variants and I'll just explain the 3 best ones in my opinion.

Linux Mint (Vanilla) - Uses Gnome as an interface and its similar to OSX.

Linux Mint KDE CE - Uses KDE4 as an interface and its similar to Windows 7.

Linux Mint XFCE CE - Uses XFCE as an interface and its similar to Windows but very lightweight. (If you don't care for eye candy this is the one)

They all come with codecs and drivers so you don't have to download and set them up yourself like you have to in Ubuntu. Its really the only linux distro that I know of without any hassles and with a lot of eye candy depending on the variant you choose. They also make their own software to make things easier for downloading programs and other things.

Another distro is PCLinuxOS which uses KDE4 but they have variants with Gnome and I believe XFCE. I use it as a Recovery LiveCD because its very much like Windows and they work hard to make it that way.

Check them out and if you got any questions you can ask me. Also the only real thing you really need to know about linux is that it mounts and unmounts drives instead of leaving them mounted like Windows and that you get programs through a package manager (Synaptic) instead of downloading a file from a website and installing it. This also goes for CDs you don't install any software from them, you get all your free linux software from the package manager.

[RCBH928]

@RareCollector5

Thanks for all the help, I can't hide my will to use Linux since the 1999 days(when I thought Ill grow up to be a hacker, and for that to happen I must use linux)

I thought Ubuntu was the easiest and most compatible Flavor

but my question is,
Today, is there any real reason to run Linux for the average computer user other than it being free?
I am sure that will be a huge cost cutting process for schools, institutes , and any big organization, but for most people they do get a free OS copy with each computer they buy any way.

[DAAAAA!!]

i use xp

[t0yrobo]

I really don't think it's fair to compare KDE to Windows and Gnome to OSX. Neither of the comparisons are really accurate. Personally I found Gnome far easier to get used to. When I used KDE I had a hard time because it's aesthetically similar to Windows, but that's about it.

[casterofdreams]

Vista as of now. I got it to be very stable by downloading and installing all system packs. I also use a combination of Glarysoft's programs for stability maintenance.

I have a full version of both x86 and x64 versions of Windows 7 Ultimate on disc I got for $15 through the Expert Zone when I used to work for Staples. I have that as a back up for the future because you can never get an OS like that for that price while being legal. Secondly I have as a file Windows 7 Pro upgrade. I'll use that for a new PC when it's built (few parts remain).

[Jerkface Killah]

Mac OS X 10.6.6 and a Windows XP partition for playing games. I live on the Mac side and game on the Windows side. It's the best of both worlds!

Haha, OSX 10.4!

I think it's time for an upgrade partner!

[RareCollector5]

@kingmohd84

I don't really know the answer to your question but I'll try anyway.

I use linux to get away from viruses and inflexibility in other OS's. When I get something, I like to make it mine and do a lot of customizing. I can do that more easily and free on linux than on Windows. There is the added bonus of it being faster, more reliable, and requiring less maintenance. I would only use Windows to play games or run software that isn't compatible with linux. Wine gets most of my Windows needs down and to be honest, linux has very good alternative software that can not only replace software that is built for Windows but also can exceed it. A good example is Open Office, I've used it for over 5 yrs and have never needed Microsoft Office once and for burning CD/DVD images and the like I use Brasero.

Basically if you don't want to put up with the BS most Windows OS's give you and you don't like the simplicity of Mac OS. I'm sure you'll be happy with linux and for those of you who wondering. I had to use a Mac in High School to complete my Multimedia projects. I must say its a very good OS and I can see why people really like it but it just doesn't do it for me. Another thing I should point out is if your a power user and you really want to do something that a lot of people wouldn't really care about. You can find the solutions with linux much easier than Windows. An example would be window management, I had to install 3 programs on Windows to come close to what I have on KDE and all it really did was bog down the OS. I'm happy to see that the KDE developers are porting KDE to Windows now so maybe one day I'll use Windows more often but it still doesn't stop the viruses, high maintenance, and the damn instability of the OS (I had to spend 2 days on average fixing things up on Windows when official updates made the OS nearly unusable on 3 separate occasions and to me that is absolutely unacceptable).

If you give me a list I'll try to find the best alternatives for the programs you use most often.

Also t0yrobo what I meant by similar is what it's like when you first start using the interface. When you use it all the time and start using all the different features it true. It's just not fair to compare but you got to start somewhere.

[RCBH928]

thanks a lot for the information
I am currently using Mac OS, and extremely happy, no issue no head aches. Works like a charm.

All the issues you stated about Windows are the exact same ones that made me run away from Windows, I hear its much better now though.

Maybe I will give Linux a try after all...
3 questions

1) Mint or Ubuntu? Looking for easiest most compatible plug and play

2) GNOME or KDE?

3) Is there anything I should know about how to run the OS? Maybe it just has a different file system or installing system? Whats mounting?

[RareCollector5]

I'm going to find out more info for you kingmohd84 but in the meantime I recommand trying the LIveCDs from the Linux Mint website. "http://www.linuxmint.com/" like I said in a previous post Linux Mint comes with a lot of the proprietary codecs and drivers installed. Whatever you do don't install it right away, thats what I'm going to be looking into cause I'm a former Windows user not a Mac user so things are going to be different.

LiveCDs allow you to play with the distro before installing it to see if you like it and its very much plug and play. You just download and burn the CD then restart the computer and it should automatically start loading the CD into RAM. If sort of makes the OS into a ROM in an emulator without actually permanently changing your computer unless you install it or try to delete files with it (recovery CD for me in Windows because of this). I would try both Gnome and KDE versions of the distro to see what you like. I personally don't like Gnome and really like KDE. Your a Mac user so you will probably like Gnome but try both anyway so that you can get a feel of the inner workings of the OS. Also to put your computer back to normal. All you do is go through the main program menu and do a shut down. At the very end it will tell you to remove the CD and turn off the computer. You can actually reboot if you like, all its doing is getting you to remove the CD so that your computer won't boot with it. This because once it starts loading and while your using the OS it won't allow you to remove the CD from your computer. This is perfectly normal when linux is in LiveCD mode. You don't have worry about this after the install.

That brings me to your next question about mounting. When you try to access a drive of any kind, for example a flash drive that you have just put into the computer it will be mounted so that you can work with the files on the drive. Windows will do this automatically on boot but in linux it doesn't work that way. You have to try and access the drive first and then it will be mounted (this is an automatic process). Now your probably thinking so what I just end up mounting the drive later when I access the drive and thats true but the problem comes in when you make a shortcut to a file. It wont work unless you mount the drive first. Luckily the partitions the OS uses by default are always mounted, thats the Root and the User partitions witch you'll be using the User partition when your using linux.

I'll explain more later, its nothing to worry about its just how linux handles drives and more importantly File Systems. Mac OS has it's own File System that I'm going to look into for you. When you do install linux it will make it's own partitions on your HDD with a boot partition that has ext2, a swap partition that I also believe is ext2 (you don't have think about this its just a swap file), and the last partition will be the OS and it will be either ext3 or ext4 (it doesn't matter for the end user).

Let me know when you intent to install because there are install options and what not. The research I'm going to be doing will help and I don't want to recommend something and not have it work you. On a dual boot system with Windows it is real easy and you could just use defaults and everything will pretty much be done for you automatically.

Now anther thing I should point out and this only matters after the install is what graphics card do you have? You might NOT want to use the open source driver and there are easy ways to install the proprietary one but we'll get to that later.

As I've said and the others that use Ubuntu have said is that it should work out of the box. The graphics card and other things I'm going to end up mentioning is more or less tweaking the OS to get the most out of your system.