Any point in giving Linux ago?

willhub

willhub

willhub

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Just for something to do and abit of a learning experience, I am planning on installing Linux, I am going to experiment with them abit in VirtualBox first thought.

I am thinking of going openSUSE as it's got a pretty neat looking desktop.

Just wondering, any benefits over Windows, apart from the obvious reasons such as more secure.

Will I be able to run Windows applications like Office 2007/2010 in Linux, I remember this being possible using some software called wine? Does it run at the speed of say if I had the app running in Windows?


Thanks
Will.
 
Rather than use WINE, if you dual boot you can run the windows applications through a VM box which should be quicker.

Advantages.

Free, Hugely customisable, Can be very quick (don't need a powerful machine).

If you don't want to VM box you can use open office as alternatives to the MS products.
 
Just for something to do and abit of a learning experience
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You answered yourself here :D

Linux is pretty well developed nowadays, especially Ubuntu, and you can have a decent setup very quickly.
Be prepared for the fact that most opensource applications are not as intuitive or polished as their windows counterparts, If you're just using web / office / media it shouldn't be an issue though, and it's nice to be legally running a free system - installing packages is a breath of fresh air too compared to windows.

In my experience Linux is fine until you try and do something out of the ordinary and run into a problem, at which point be prepared to spend hours browsing and posting on forums and tearing your hair out.

Bottom line is that if you're happy with windows, stick with that - Linux isn't really any better so to speak, but it can be interesting to learn if you've got the time to spend on it.
 
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No harm in trying it out to be honest.
You could also just use a Live DVD to try it out without installing anything, it's probably a bit slower but you could always just give it a try and see different window managers and linux distro's without installing them.
 
willhub said:
Just wondering, any benefits over Windows, apart from the obvious reasons such as more secure.
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For me; it's that technical tasks are often 1000x easier, or possible at all, bash is very powerful. Then there's the scripting ability, forget your batch files, this is where scripting comes alive.

Will I be able to run Windows applications like Office 2007/2010 in Linux, I remember this being possible using some software called wine?
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Yes.

Does it run at the speed of say if I had the app running in Windows?
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No.

It's a compatibility layer rather than an emulator though, so it's usually faster than it would be to run windows and office in a VM.
 
Ah right, I'll give it a go.

Call me stupid like but I want to get the desktop so it's as aesthetically pleasing as Windows. I just find the default look pretty horrid.
 
willhub said:
Ah right, I'll give it a go.

Call me stupid like but I want to get the desktop so it's as aesthetically pleasing as Windows. I just find the default look pretty horrid.
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I'm assuming you mean GNOME?

The good thing about Linux is that you can make it look and act however you want. There's a good selection of desktop environments and window managers that you can use to make your system look exactly the way you want it, so that's nothing to worry about. :)
 
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willhub said:
Ah right, I'll give it a go.

Call me stupid like but I want to get the desktop so it's as aesthetically pleasing as Windows. I just find the default look pretty horrid.
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give something like KDE a try if your after something to offer a kind of transition to linux. You might find gnome a bit much at first :p
 
nutsnut said:
Rather than use WINE, if you dual boot you can run the windows applications through a VM box which should be quicker.

Advantages.

Free, Hugely customisable, Can be very quick (don't need a powerful machine).

If you don't want to VM box you can use open office as alternatives to the MS products.
Click to expand...

Agree with this... Personally I would run Microsoft Office inside a VM, if you use VMWare's Unity, that'll put the app right on your Linux Desktop. Its also worth trying OpenOffice - taken me some time to get used to it but now I'm using it both at home and work.
 
NicNac said:
give something like KDE a try if your after something to offer a kind of transition to linux. You might find gnome a bit much at first :p
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KDE 3.5 or KDE 4?
I've never actually used KDE 4 but I gathered that it is really different compared to 3.5
 
Oxy said:
Maybe, but to a new user it doesn't matter! :)
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It does if they are wanting it to be as nice looking as possible (as the OP has mentioned in their post) and close to windows which I assume is what they are wanting
 
Smit said:
It does if they are wanting it to be as nice looking as possible (as the OP has mentioned in their post) and close to windows which I assume is what they are wanting
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err yeh. I was reffering to the fact that you said 3.4 is different to 4, which it is.

It's like KDE 3.5 = XP. Whereas KDE4 = Win7

Lookwise.
 
I would say use the live CD environment first to see if you like the look and feel before you wipe and install it on your windows box.

I downloaded Ubuntu, Mint and Open Suse before settling on Ubuntu for a few weeks. I eventually went back to Windows though because, to be fair, I didn't need the extra coding features that Linux supplies and all my paid for software is on Windows. I also run Truecrypt on my laptop and it doesnt support whole drive encryption under Linux :(

Apart from that, after a week of fiddling, going crazy and posting on numerous forums I was quite good with linux and enjoyed it. But as I had already paid for Windows I just went back to that so I could simply install my software again as I was tired of dual booting. I thought whats the point in dual booting if everything I want is under windows anyway!

The geek inside me shall be revisiting Ubuntu when the new version comes out only to do the same thing again no doubt and go back to windows a few weeks later. I enjoy a good play around Linux has come a long way over the last few years. They need some sort of standard to adhere to though for it to go fully mainstream as each distribution is vastly different so a lot of it doesn't feel as well made as OSX or Windows and feels bolted together at times because that's what it is I suppose.

If I was looking for a machine just for browsing the internet, email, etc and was forced with having to buy a windows licence, I would just install Ubuntu full time. As it happens, I only have one laptop these days and it comes with a windows licence so I just use that!
 
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