I know if you’re reading this you’ve got to be wondering how anything under the Linux umbrella could be considered easy to use, and for the most part you’d be right, except you’re wrong. In the past few years many new distributions or distros for short have come out focused solely on the home consumer.
Compared to Microsoft Windows (especially Vista) these operating systems(what makes all your programs talk to the physical components of the computer) load faster and can automatically set up your systems for you in a matter of minutes. with quick, easy to follow screen prompts. Whats better is that most of these installs come with everything you would need from a web browser, to a media browser, movie and graphical editing programs, to a suite of Office like tools that are fully Office compatible and even an email reader that downloads your email from sites like GMail or your internet service provider without you having to log in.
Best of all the price tag for this wealth of software is $0. That’s right, people give this stuff away for free. If you’re interested in learning more see my previous posts about all the different kinds of free software available. Part 1, Free internet Resources Part 2- Free internet resources
So now that I’ve got you interested I am sure you’re wondering where you can get this great wonder. Truth is there are quite a few places. I am going to focus on 3 big ones Ubuntu, Freespire and Mandriva. All of the sites offer free downloads or you can purchase DVDs or CDs of the operating systems which you can test drive right from the disc without ever having to touch your current Windows setup.
While I won’t say any one is better than another each one does offer different things that you may or may not like as each one is based on different code. I highly recommend you play with each of them and see which one feels right for you and if you were to purchase all three it would still cost you far less than Windows and Freespire does also offer an upgraded Linspire system which professes to be even easier to use and has some added software.
All in all the process for moving to Linux has become very painless for the novice user. While there are some driver issues(drivers tell individual pieces of hardware how to work) Unless you have a bleeding edge computer many of theses are resolved fairly easily. With a quick visit to the built in updater utilities Apt on Ubuntu/Kubuntu (The letter difference is just a difference in which software is used to make your desktop graphical as opposed to text), Mandriva uses rpmdrake and Freespire uses CNR. All are graphical interfaces that find what you’re looking for in a few clicks and if you’re having trouble there are live chats and forusm available to help you.
I hope that this has encouraged you to at least dip your toe into the water and try out Linux, especially with so little to lose and so much to gain. Any questions shoot me an email or a comment.
cool article…i luv open-source softwares..will switch to linux in june!!