Linux yes or no

[Redprophet19]

So lately iv been toying with the idea of getting Linux on my laptop and i wanted to hear other opinions about it. So what do you guy's think?

[Clare]

I personally love Linux, and everything about it. Currently, I'm using the Ubuntu distro with Wubi, which allows me to dual-boot it with Windows 7. It's faster and more stabler than Windows 7 in my opinion, and best of all it's open-source. The only problem I had with it was the fact that some programs that I liked couldn't run on it such as Itunes, Microsoft Office, and a few others. Though, there are better alternative softwares that are just as good if not better than their Windows counterparts. Aside from that, Linux is probably my favorite OS, and I plan to make the full switch over to it in the future.

[† ballard]

I used linux for awhile and enjoyed messing around with it. You should dual boot for awhile, and get use to linux... that and keeping a small partition for windows would allow you to go back and use certain programs if need be. You should definitely try it out.

[biggman15]

I'm a linux Mint fan, It's really not all that different from Ubuntu. I went with it simply because it was less of a pain to get Mp3's to play on it, They just work... but then, I merely play with linux. I still mostly use Windows...

[† Irish]

I used to dual boot Ubuntu and windows 7, I like Linux, but im a pc gamer and it seems like too much trouble to get things to work. I understand the operating system, im just lazy and would rather not have to fool around to get something to work unless i had to...

[† Talena Mae]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Dont get linux!!! it really sucks! the only thing it is good for is games.

if you want to get it set it up on a computer that you are only using for games.

[Asch]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Dont get linux!!! it really sucks! the only thing it is good for is games.

if you want to get it set it up on a computer that you are only using for games.

Hmm...You said just opposite Mae, Linux is the worst OS for games[even UNIX scores better than it in this area lol] but, I can say, Linux is more secure, would not let your friends breakthrough your pc, and blah blah blah, it really depends, if you like to use terminal more, like to config everything, you can use Linux, but I will say, Widows is for everything,Linux is not,their is not much of a advantage if you just want to play with a OS and install it, at the end, you will feel like you have wasted a large amount of time, and will install Windows back. Nevertheless I personally use Solaris 10 .

P.S. Although you can use live media of many distros out their, to see how they are.

[† Talena Mae]

it was doing fine for my emulators ^.^; should have made it a bit clearer

[BushidoSkeleton]

Linux is great. I once had to format my computer then realized I didnt have a Windows disc around do I loaded up Ubuntu.. I was using it for 3 months and loved it. I had to change back to Windows as my main OS because of school. But I still have it set up to duel boot.

[Ryuzaki2783]

Linux CAN be a better choice . It all depends on what your looking for I'd definitely recommend getting Virtualbox and Trying it out in a virtual enviroment if you haven't used the distro before. So after my ramblings , Yes I would say Linux is a good decision.

[† L4ugh]

First off, I wouldn't get rid of your windows install. If you do a straight move to linux your going to hate it, because all you will do is think about all the things you can't do or don't know how to do. Linux and windows are completely different OSes from each other. You can't dl a program for linux from the web then double click it and have it install itself to your computer, atleast not with any distro i've tried. Instead linux uses a package manager that has a list of all the programs that are supported by your distro. When you find a program you want just click it to mark it for installation and it will install the program and all dependencies.

If you are really wanting to try out linux I would first recommend trying some live distros. What the live means is that the entire linux os will boot and run from the disk. This means that when you shut it down or restart you computer you can go right back to using your windows os without having to worry about any changes being made to your hd. Most live distros are now starting to offer live versions that can be put onto a thumb drive or sd card as well.

When picking a distro I would try sticking to something simple at first like ubuntu, mint, or elive. Since your new, I would try doing some google video searches for different distros or looking at some screenshots to try and find a distro that you find appealing. I would also recommend checking out vids or screenshots of linux distros that use blingware like compiz, or maybe e17. These programs offer cool effects for your desktop that you can't get in default windows. This will hopefully help keep you interested long enough to pick up on the generals of using linux. I think if you can get yourself excited about what linux can offer you, that it'll be easier for you to except what you'll loose. If you then find that you like what you see I would try dual booting with windows like others have suggested. You will have to set aside some free(unpartitioned) space on your hd that you can use to install the new linux partition. This is necessary because linux doesn't run off of the ntfs file system that windows uses, instead it will most likely prefer ext3/ext4.

If you are wanting to check out different distros I would recommend Distrowatch.com. It's a hub of alot of the different distros that are out there. If you will be running this on your laptop you may want to checkout some debian or fedora based distros because there is a program called Jupiter that was designed to work with the super hybrid engine that is built into the asus eee-pcs but they have extended their version to work with laptops in general. It allows you to increase or decrease the processors output to either increase battery life or performance. I've been waiting for the AuroraOS (which has jupiter built in) to finally be release so I could use it for my eee-pc, but work has been stalled for about a year and half because the new installer isn't fininshed. If/when it is finished you may want to give it a look as well.

And one finally note, if you want a distro that offers a good idea of the type of games that linux has to offer you can try the live linuX-gamers dvd. Any games you like on this distro should also be available in the package manager of any distro you select.

[hagi]

i say linx yes..

[chojen]

I'm going to show my age here (no pappy comments or "I'll steal your soul").

I've been using Unix and Linux for over 20 years. My company develops multi-million dollar system for the government (that's my job) all on commercial Linux. There are pros and cons.

The professional engineering community has accepted and supports Linux, but the consumer market still continues to shun it.

Linux is NOT a gaming environment, even under emulator mode or using WINE (Windows emulator) under Linux (which works decently most of the time). The gaming issue can be linked to DirectX (and whatever the current 3D extension/version of it is). Game developers, I don't believe, develop to use the OpenGL graphics interface, but DirectX. Plus, have you ever seen a mainline game title with a picture of a penguin on the side of the box?

And one item that might be important to you. If you use NetFlix you are out-of-luck with Linux because Silverlight (a Microsoft product) is required for the DRM (people have struggled to run Silverlight in emulator mode). The Linux community has been "pissed" that you can get streaming Netflix on almost everything other platform other then a Linux box.

If you go with Linux KEEP WINDOWS AROUND. Starting with a live-CD is a great idea/start (I actually use a persistent thumb drive to boot and run Linux and to perform PC repairs to locate failing computer hardware on a system). An alternative to dual boot is using Oracle's (formally Sun Micro Systems) Virtual Machine. It allows you to run a machine within a machine. Right now, on one of my servers (I have six PC's in my house) I run Windows XP and on the virtual machine from within XP I run Windows 7 (no, that was not a typo). So you can start-up in windows and then boot a virtual machine session that runs Linux as if it was the only O/S running). You can map network drives using Samba (SMB) and have both system going at the same time (a multiple core processor is a must).

And if you have an old Pentium laying around Linux boxes makes great dedicated torrent and ed2k client as Linux is extremely efficient.

[blaxened]

Dual Boot Linux and Windows for the best of both worlds

I think linux is pretty cool looking and stuff

[nightraven]

Linux is more a personal preference the advantages you get by running Linux is a more stable and secure system if you have it setup right. Linux can be customized to do what you want it to where as windows can not. Linux can be repaired with a live cd where as most windows boot problems can't. There is far less malware for Linux then Windows. The software is free! how can you beat that. Like every one else says keep you windows install and don't delete you recovery partition when you install Linux.

[Lelouch Vi Brit]

linux is good for some things but i also use windows more then i do linux and win i use linux its ubuntu 100%