New Laptop

[kt66se]

Linux, linux, linux.
Hate Windows, used it for ages and lived with slow start up times, constant patches, virus scan - by the way, dump Norton in favor of AVG, best out there by far - but still have to endure scans.
I use Linux on a Tosh laptop. Knew nothing about it 3 years ago but now will never go back to Windows.

Best thing these days is you can try it without wiping off existing OS, (Operating System) with live CD's. If you like, you click an icon to and it will install onto your PC, if you are not sure, you can easily dual boot so you end up with Linux and Windows, just select either on the start up screen.

My 11 yr old boy and 13 yr old daughter use it, (much to dismay of WinNT based IT school teacher), I have yet to convert the wife.

Linux to me is like valves compared to transistors. You guys should be running Linux, why go for the mainstream when your hearts lie with traditional, get under the hood electronics - apply this to Linux. Use it for image manipulation, audio editing, DVD playing and back up, MP3, or even better - ogg. Run a web server, set up a database, create a file server, run MS applications on Linux, it's all available and its all free!

Best place to compare and have a look is www.distrowatch.com
You can download and try different types of Linux, I would recommend, Ubuntu, Mandriva, SuSe, Mephis for starters, they all run from a CD with the option to install if required.

Sorry, had to get it off my chest. Everyone to there own!

Adam

[FoxJT]

A couple of questions. Has anyone any experience with Linspire 5 as a Linux OS?

What about Mozilla's Thunderbird as an email handler?

What about Open Office? (Alright, that's three questions!)

Jeremy.

[kt66se]

Hi Jeremy,
Linspire - very good and has the look and feel of Windows, comes with Mozilla Thunder bird, nice and straight forward as well as firefox and OpenOffice. OpenOffice is great, I use it mainly for documentation and converting to .pdf.
You have to pay for Linspire but if you want a clone, try freespire. Exactly the same with a good community of people to help out if you get stuck - similar to this site

If you are into scripting using MS stuff then there is not much support for VB although there is an alternative within OpenOffice. (Basic I think)

Linspire, Xandros, Mandriva, SuSe etc have free alternatives with as much applications, the price is normally for support. If I were to start out, I would choose Mephis 6, great hardware detection, auto updates and a vast library of applications to choose from.

If you are currently running Win, you can use OpenOffice, Mozilla Thunderbird etc, they also run on Win.

Cheers

Adam

[FoxJT]

Thanks Adam. That's very helpful

I will download and play as soon as I can get my wireless network to start talking again

Cheers,

Jeremy.