Brosville
Queen Bee
A subject that got raised in another thread - I'll attempt to give a simple explanation of how Linux may be just what you've always wanted.......
Linux is an "operating system", like Windows and Mac, but unlike them is completely free to use. I first tried it out some 5 or 6 years ago - at the time I had an elderly ex-corporate laptop running Windoze XP - it had reached the stage where it was so slow to start up you could wander off, have a bath, eat your breakfast and dress before it had finally condescended to be up and running - it often suffered the "blue screen of death", and it ran as if the works were filled with treacle......
I tried a Linux install, which allows a couple of ways to "try it out" safely before committing yourself - you download it, and burn a cd or dvd with it on, then reboot your machine - you then have the choice of running it off the cd for a "test run" (it makes no permanent changes) - it'll run fine, but a lot slower than if you install it by one of the other methods, but is a good way to get an idea of the "feel" of it - to really give it a go, try a "dual boot" install alongside Windoze - it's really simple, and is just a matter of clicking your way through a few screens and it'll do all the hard work for you - thereafter whenever you fire up your computer, you can choose to run either............
At first it's rather like landing in a foreign country, lots of things appear to be missing, but you soon discover that instead of "Word" there's "Libre Office", Firefox instead of Internet Explorer etc - software is free and available to install from the "software centre" with just a few clicks - I recommend Amarok to handle music, Qbittorent for torrents, Digikam for photos, Openshot for video editing - GIMP comes installed as standard (which will give the unintuitive Photoshop a run for it's money) etc.......there's over 36,000 packaged programmes available just a couple of clicks away
Why bother? - you'll find that it's absolutely rock-solid, crashes become a distant memory, because it's well written code your machine runs fast and with no worries about viruses and trojans - my old laptop which had been destined for the scrapheap suddenly became useful and fun to use again (and lasted me another 18 months) - it's a very "transparent" way of computing, it gets out of the way, and lets you get on with the job - and best of all you're not paying £85 on a new machine for the cost of the operating system to the noxious Microsoft.
Much of the internet runs on Linux as it is so intrinsically safe and stable, and if you're sick and fed up to the back teeth with Windoze, it can restore your sanity....... It tends to "just do it" - it'll sniff out wifi connections and politely ask if you'd like to connect, updates are the same - a little "tell tale" will tell you there's updates available, a couple of clicks later they're downloading and installing while you get on with your computing.
Downsides? not many, probably not the best choice if you're a hardcore gamer (they're all built for Windoze), sometimes you can get compatibility problems with some video/sound cards and printers, which are usually fairly easy to sort out with the online help forums, but apart from that there are few drawbacks, and the good things more than make up for that.
Once you're a complete convert and are happy to run it as your main operating system it can be difficult to find a suitable machine not encumbered with Windoze, such is their stranglehold on the industry, but companies like Ebuyer will sell you a barebones machine for around £200 with no operating system installed (just add screen, mouse, keyboard and speakers) - even relatively modest machines are real flyers running Linux as they are unencumbered with Windoze bloatware.
I strongly recommend Linux Mint - you can even "dip a toe in the water" by starting with a "dual boot" install that'll allow you to run it alongside your existing Windoze system (just choose which you want on boot up!) - http://linuxmint.com/ - probably best to go for "Maya"............
There's a bewildering array of different "distributions" of Linux available, I recommend Mint for it's ease of installation and user-friendliness, Ubuntu is sadly nowadays best avoided as they've lumbered it with the most annoying interface (Unity) which is enough to put you off linux and probably computing for life!
Linux is an "operating system", like Windows and Mac, but unlike them is completely free to use. I first tried it out some 5 or 6 years ago - at the time I had an elderly ex-corporate laptop running Windoze XP - it had reached the stage where it was so slow to start up you could wander off, have a bath, eat your breakfast and dress before it had finally condescended to be up and running - it often suffered the "blue screen of death", and it ran as if the works were filled with treacle......
I tried a Linux install, which allows a couple of ways to "try it out" safely before committing yourself - you download it, and burn a cd or dvd with it on, then reboot your machine - you then have the choice of running it off the cd for a "test run" (it makes no permanent changes) - it'll run fine, but a lot slower than if you install it by one of the other methods, but is a good way to get an idea of the "feel" of it - to really give it a go, try a "dual boot" install alongside Windoze - it's really simple, and is just a matter of clicking your way through a few screens and it'll do all the hard work for you - thereafter whenever you fire up your computer, you can choose to run either............
At first it's rather like landing in a foreign country, lots of things appear to be missing, but you soon discover that instead of "Word" there's "Libre Office", Firefox instead of Internet Explorer etc - software is free and available to install from the "software centre" with just a few clicks - I recommend Amarok to handle music, Qbittorent for torrents, Digikam for photos, Openshot for video editing - GIMP comes installed as standard (which will give the unintuitive Photoshop a run for it's money) etc.......there's over 36,000 packaged programmes available just a couple of clicks away
Why bother? - you'll find that it's absolutely rock-solid, crashes become a distant memory, because it's well written code your machine runs fast and with no worries about viruses and trojans - my old laptop which had been destined for the scrapheap suddenly became useful and fun to use again (and lasted me another 18 months) - it's a very "transparent" way of computing, it gets out of the way, and lets you get on with the job - and best of all you're not paying £85 on a new machine for the cost of the operating system to the noxious Microsoft.
Much of the internet runs on Linux as it is so intrinsically safe and stable, and if you're sick and fed up to the back teeth with Windoze, it can restore your sanity....... It tends to "just do it" - it'll sniff out wifi connections and politely ask if you'd like to connect, updates are the same - a little "tell tale" will tell you there's updates available, a couple of clicks later they're downloading and installing while you get on with your computing.
Downsides? not many, probably not the best choice if you're a hardcore gamer (they're all built for Windoze), sometimes you can get compatibility problems with some video/sound cards and printers, which are usually fairly easy to sort out with the online help forums, but apart from that there are few drawbacks, and the good things more than make up for that.
Once you're a complete convert and are happy to run it as your main operating system it can be difficult to find a suitable machine not encumbered with Windoze, such is their stranglehold on the industry, but companies like Ebuyer will sell you a barebones machine for around £200 with no operating system installed (just add screen, mouse, keyboard and speakers) - even relatively modest machines are real flyers running Linux as they are unencumbered with Windoze bloatware.
I strongly recommend Linux Mint - you can even "dip a toe in the water" by starting with a "dual boot" install that'll allow you to run it alongside your existing Windoze system (just choose which you want on boot up!) - http://linuxmint.com/ - probably best to go for "Maya"............
There's a bewildering array of different "distributions" of Linux available, I recommend Mint for it's ease of installation and user-friendliness, Ubuntu is sadly nowadays best avoided as they've lumbered it with the most annoying interface (Unity) which is enough to put you off linux and probably computing for life!
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