Linux, mhm. Options

[emberfly]

What is it? Yes, it's an operating system, but what's special about it?

How do you download it? What happens once downloaded? Any side effects?

I saw everywhere i looked that it was free, but that's basically all I could find out :(

Could you please explain more? Research has failed me.

[six]

mhm... stick to windows, linux sucks!

you might like it if you know scripting(bash, csh, ksh...) and loves installing things using the command line interface. it's this window where you type something and the computer interprets/compiles it.

i think it's mainly used as a server. unlike windows, linux can be installed without a gui(graphical user interface). no gui means better performance.

i deleted mine long ago and messed up my windows. linux's bootloader is going to take over the mbr(master boot record; executed when the pc boots up) so if you're going to install, i suggest you get another hard drive.

ubuntu is a good linux distro for noobs(imo), so if you're really interested, http://www.ubuntu.com/ <-thats the site.

[synatribe]

depends on what your looking for, I have a windows computer and a linux web server. Depends on what your talking about :]

[mipadi]

What is it? Yes, it's an operating system, but what's special about it?

Actually, it's an operating system kernel, but that's being pedantic. In practice, the Linux kernel is generally combined with other software to form an operating system. In theory, you could make something exactly like Windows but using the Linux kernel, but in practice, almost all Linux-based operating systems are more or less the same, and generally follow the design of Unix.

But what's "special" about it? It depends on what you mean by special, I guess. Linux is a stable, relatively secure kernel on which people build flexible operating systems.

How do you download it? What happens once downloaded? Any side effects?

You can download the kernel itself from kernel.org, but that won't get you far. Generally, you'll have to download a complete distribution of Linux to actually do anything. Some of the most popular distributions are Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and Gentoo.

Once you download it, you'll burn an ISO file onto a CD or DVD. Then you can install the OS. Most distros allow the CD or DVD to act as a "live disc", meaning you can actually use the operating system without installing it, right from the disc. It'll be really slow, because CD and DVD drives are slow, but it lets you check it out before installing anything.

If you decide you like it, you can install it to your hard drive. If you want to get rid of Windows completely, that's easy: just reformat your hard drive, and install Linux. If you want to "dual-boot", that's a bit trickier. You'll have to install Linux to another hard drive or another partition on the existing hard drive.

Could you please explain more? Research has failed me.

What else do you want to know?

[kryogenix]

Linux is the bitch's tits. It'll suck your dick and jack you off at the same time. You can use it to hack the planet and make stir fry.

[sixfive]

Linux is the bitch's tits. It'll suck your dick and jack you off at the same time. You can use it to hack the planet and make stir fry.

[rnicroni]

Linux is the bitch's tits. It'll suck your dick and jack you off at the same time. You can use it to hack the planet and make stir fry.

[HeartOfPandora]

Just felt the need to correct a few things for you:

mhm... stick to windows, linux sucks!

You f*ckin' mad?! Bet you run on Vista, don't you. Have you, honestly, within the last five years, used any distro? If not, I think you'll find they've changed drastically and are much more user friendly. Don't knock it until you know what you're talking about, Arschlock.

/cough but anyway, on to actually helping the poster...

you might like it if you know scripting(bash, csh, ksh...) and loves installing things using the command line interface. it's this window where you type something and the computer interprets/compiles it.

You can install things via Terminal but you don't have to. Depending on which distro you get, you'll always have the Terminal option but for some of the more user friendly distros you'll have something like Ubuntu's "Synaptic Package Manager" which is basically this giant list of all the software you could ever be interested in. It's not already on your hard drive, though, so they're not just sitting there taking up loads of space. You install them as you like, and can remove them in the same fashion. You find a programme you might like, you tick the box and click Apply and it'll download all the bits and bobs and then install it for you. No need to reboot, just have to find it in your menu open it up. Same goes for removing a programme - untick the box and hit Apply. On some more basic distros, yes, you will have to know how to hack but the only people who download these software-lite distros just do it to mess around with them anyway. What you have to understand is that there are literally hundreds of derivations from the Unix and Linux kernels, and they're all tailor made for specific types of people. Some are bare bones, simply building blocks for developers and programmers and such. Others are set for music producers and have everything they'd ever need. Still others are for graphic / web designers. Gamers. Business moguls. On and on and on the list goes.

i think it's mainly used as a server.

In all of technology everywhere - and I'm talking web servers, police hardware, hell even the street lights - yes, Linux does reign champion. Which tells you something... it's better than Winblows if we rely on it for our lives on a day to day basis.

i deleted mine long ago and messed up my windows. linux's bootloader is going to take over the mbr(master boot record; executed when the pc boots up) so if you're going to install, i suggest you get another hard drive.

Oooor you could take the intelligent route and partition your harddrive and set up the grub menu which allows you to choose which operating system you want to boot in to. :)

ubuntu is a good linux distro for noobs(imo), so if you're really interested, http://www.ubuntu.com/ <-thats the site.

In nicer terms, yes, Ubuntu is very user friendly and very customisable. OpenSUSE is one of my favourites, followed by Mint and Fedora. If you're interested in reading up on a bunch more, I'd recommend DistroWatch.com's list of the major distributions.


One of the best things about Linux is that, compared to Winblows, your chances of getting a virus are close to nil. Linux has less than 300 known viruses (fact check, don't quote me on that), whereas Windows has hundreds of thousands. Not kidding you with this one, you're safer under Linux going to a malware laden website and downloading everything there is to download than if you were in Windows with the best anti-virus programme doing the same thing.

Would also like to mention that I got an extremely bad bug in Windows which made my entire drive crash, and when I tried to boot it back up again it instantly went to my Linux distros Safe Mode and said distro fixed the problem with Windows. It let me run a bajillion tests and take safety measures, and then went back to my grub menu where I booted back into Windows which told me there'd been some horrific unknown error it couldn't fix blah blah thanks, already did that.

So, not only is Linux safer but it's far more stable. It really is a lovely bunch of systems, I highly recommend one if you're in the market for an OS.

[mipadi]

I'm going to move this to Technology, so it'll become an ever bigger clusterf*ck than it already is.

[emberfly]

I highly recommend one if you're in the market for an OS.

So it's not free?

[mipadi]

So it's not free?

No, it is. Some distros cost money, but the best ones are free anyway.

[emberfly]

Ubuntu said it was a desktop OS.. what does that mean?

[mipadi]

Ubuntu said it was a desktop OS.. what does that mean?

It's for use on personal computers, as opposed to servers.

[emberfly]

does it delete all your old stuff, such as images and other files? programs you have installed?

[HeartOfPandora]

^ Nope.

[emberfly]

could you maybe tell me how i go about downloading it and exactly what would happen to my system? I'm using XP atm.

[shanaynay]

Well if your hardrive isn't partitioned for dual booting, you should go get the program Gparted so you can slice your hard drive up, I'd read up on it more so you don't destroy it XD.

right now I have Fedora core 10 installed, I only use it for my linux class really, I use Windows for the most part.

[emberfly]

how do i know if mine is or not?

[Maccabee]

If I were you i would download the ubuntu iso burn it(and burn the actual iso not the file) to a disc and then pop it in and restart your computer and dont install it but just hit enter on the top button. I forgot what it says but it lets you try it without it affecting your computer in any way. I dont think you'd like linux. Its very customizable and faster than windows but there are always things you need to fix. ANd you cant put photoshop on it and you can download and install programs off the internet. There is a good list of programs you can install in add/remove programs though.
Edit: also there is a ubuntu option to install it like a program so you can test it out and then remove it.

[heyo-captain-jac...]

Linux is good for people that know what they're doing. For example, someone who can't figure out how to use cmd on windows would be pretty lost on Linux.

If you do end up downloading Linux, I suggest Ubuntu/kubuntu, Mandriva, Slackware, OPENSuse, or Debian.

I've also heard good things about Red Hat, but I haven't tried it, because I'm broke.

[HeartOfPandora]

Before you do anything, defrag Windows and run the Disk Cleanup (I actually prefer CCleaner as it's way more thorough but the standard cleaner works fine for this). This is just to make sure your PC is running as smoothly as possible.

First off you'll need a fresh rewritable disc with at least 700MB of usable space. Navigate to the download page, pick your mirror and choose to Save the ISO to your desktop. You'll also need a CD burner and programme, which you open the ISO with and burn the image to the CD on the slowest, most thorough setting possible (to be super specially careful nothing goes awry).

After the image has been burned - keeping the CD in the disc drive - power down your computer. Start it up again and if your computer is set up correctly the CD should take over and you'll be directed to the menu where you can set up Ubuntu. If it boots straight into Windows, you'll probably need to change your boot order, and you can read up quickly on that here (you'll need the table on that page to know how to get to the menu).

After you've changed the boot order (if necessary), power down and back up again and you should get the Ubuntu menu. I strongly recommend running the test to see if your CD in perfect working order. You can do the memory test if you like, but it's not necessary and I did it once and it took nearly 4 hours, so... If you like, you can also view the environment without installing to see if you even like it or not. You'll need about 384MB of RAM for that to run smoothly, so if you have a slightly older computer I don't suggest it.

Go ahead with the installation and follow the prompts until you are asked "How do you want to partition the disk ?" From here you can choose to partition the harddrive automatically, but I suggest "Manually edit partition table." The next screen will list all of your current partitions.

• Select the partition you want to resize (usually the largest one which is the Windows default partition, don't touch the FAT32 partitions) and press Enter.
• Select "Size:", press Enter.
• Select Yes, press Enter.
• Type in a new size in Gigabytes for your partition, it's recommended you free up AT LEAST 10 GB of free space for your Ubuntu install.
• Press Enter when you are happy with your changes.
• It may take some time to apply the changes.
• Create a swap partition of at least your amount of RAM (if you don't know, 2000 MB is a good value).
• Create a partition for your Ubuntu installation, at least 10 GB.
• Select "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk".

Finish installing and when you reboot, take out the Ubuntu CD before your computer can detect it (but not before you power down).

Now, in order to get the grub menu I mentioned (allows you to select which OS you want to boot in to), you'll need to go here after you've installed Ubuntu and change around the system file as it tells you. If you don't add this line of code, it'll automatically boot you into Ubuntu every time so remember this bit!

This site has images from the actual install process and shows what to expect when you're installing, so if you want to take a look I'd just skim through the article or simply look at the pictures and read their captions. Your menus will look a teensy bit different (the tutorial is for the previous version), but all the words and information will be exactly the same.

If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me or whatever, other contact info is on my profile. I'll also lurk here just in case. :)

[six]

You f*ckin' mad?! Bet you run on Vista, don't you. Have you, honestly, within the last five years, used any distro? If not, I think you'll find they've changed drastically and are much more user friendly. Don't knock it until you know what you're talking about, Arschlock.

unix is a requisite for cisco networking and computer science. we ran it without a gui btw. the latest distro i installed was intrepid ibex. i dislike pidgin, i dislike transmission. i do like synaptics, and i do like the the look of the default theme. compiz-fusion is alright but it has glitches/annoyances. still, i rather spend money for a legit copy of xp or windows 7 than run that free os. i can knock it, burn it, shit on it, i might even buy windows 95 just to piss you off.

linux still sucks!

[HeartOfPandora]

i might even buy windows 95 just to piss you off.

It's funny that you think I care about what you do or say... at all.

[Maccabee]

I love Windows 95. haha. Its the lightest/best os. It just looks stupid. haha.

[shanaynay]

I wouldn't use linux, you sound like you have no idea what you're doing, just stick to windows.