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Persuade me!

B

BruceCM

Well-Known Member
Since I've never got around to really trying any other OS than Windows, should I? What are the choices? Heard of Ubuntu & Linux but hardly know anything about them!
Mostly, I get on well enough with Windows 7 & I need something 'user friendly', not that can only really be used by experts.
 
Ubuntu is Linux, it's a distribution of it. In my opinion, there's no real need to use another OS if you already have Windows, there's no huge advantage. If you just want to try one for the sake of it, then start with Linux as it's free.
 
Yeah, Ubuntu is just one of the (many, many) Linux distros out there. It's relatively new and is the Linux distro that really helped popularize Linux, thanks mostly to it being one of the most user-friendly Linux distros ever. I started using it in 2004, the year it came out, which I believe is the same year Firefox came out.

If you make the switch to Linux I suggest that you start off with a noob distro such as Ubuntu or Linux Mint since they're user-friendly. Once you familiarize yourself with one of those you can install something more advanced like Arch Linux or Gentoo.

If you choose to install Linux I suggest that you keep Windows installed on a separate partition in case you ever need to do something in Windows that you can't do in Linux. Personally, I'd never make Linux my primary OS since I'm very much reliant on Windows software that either doesn't run at all through Linux (even using Wine) or runs like **** on it. And I'm not so fond of many of the popular alternative apps for Linux and often would rather just use something I've installed on Windows.

Software compatibility is my main concern. If security and speed are your main concerns, go with Linux. If software compatibility is a big concern, you may want to stick with Windows. Most software developers create programs with Windows in mind and either don't bother making Mac or Linux compatible versions of their apps or make crappy, rushed versions of them. Even popular stuff like Flash works like crap on Linux. So yeah - there may be headaches . . .

Anyway, all operating systems have their benefits; simply use what fits your needs.
 
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Definitely got to be a free one & sorry, didn't know Ubuntu is a kind of Linux! Trying that, alongside Windwos now. My 'main' concern is probably security but I'll still need something user-friendly & I've not had major problems with Windows 7, so it's probably just trying it, for fun. Jolicloud?
 
It used to be that Linux was the most stable of the operating systems out there [or thereabouts], but Win 7 isn't too bad.

Basically, if you like the concept that software should be free - go Linux. Ubuntu is quite useable and friendly, and fairly easy to install.

I'm not much of a geek, so other than the ideological background behind Linux, I can't give you a really good reason to take it up.
 
OK, thanks! Trying it, anyway; currently back on Windows to get stuff across. Seems fairly easy & to have enough programs for what I need. My concern with the laptop is what to do when the warranty runs out, as I'm not a geek, either & can't afford it going wrong but I'm not sure there's much I can do about it. Manage without, like I did before I had one, I suppose.
 
I have Windows 7 on my main laptop, and I have also have a little Dell netbook that came pre-installed with Ubuntu (it's what I'm using to post this). That's a pretty handy way to be able to play around with Ubuntu occasionally without messing around with partitions or anything (I tried that once on one of my old laptops and probably won't ever do it again). If you want to try out Linux, Ubuntu is definitely the distribution I'd recommend. The only other one I've ever used was Red Hat, which we used a little bit in a computer class I took years ago. It was ok too, but I don't think that one is used much anymore.
 
Only got this laptop but running Ubuntu alongside Windows, anyway, as it had a version intended for that, thanks. There's some 'mint' version, that any good?
 
I've got Mint 11 32-bit on a 6 year old laptop and with a few minor problems, it works well and is pretty responsive overall. The memory footprint is low as well, perfect for an older machine if you can't match Windows' requirements or if you just want to experiment with it as I do.

If you've got a newer computer on the other hand then I find it hard to recommend anything besides Windows 7. It's far more stable and secure than any other version I've used and most of the support for hardware is going to be directed towards Windows, if that's a concern. Have yet to run across any major problems (asides from hardware related). I would recommend Linux for a newer machine if it wasn't for the flaky hardware support by vendors and/or the open source drivers, which as far as I've used Linux have always lagged behind Windows. Mac OS X, I don't have much experience with it and I could care less for it ever since Windows 7 - not comfortable with the idea of an OS being tied to one brand of computer anyways.
 
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Well, I managed to 'crash' Windows 7, anyway! It won't reboot from the discs & I can't be bothered with the inevitable hassle of trying to get that fixed, so I'm on Ubuntu 11.04, instead, as I had that on a disc, to try, anyway. Got kubuntu, Fedora & Knoppix on discs, too, if needed, so I'll play around with those for awhile. So far, I seem to able to find equivalent software for most stuff on Ubuntu.
 
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