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.

[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.

[emberfly]

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

So it's not free?