best free operateing system.

BlueMhz said:
Don't understand what point you are trying to make, both the above involving searching for the program you require.
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Most linux OS's have a central store of software. Windows does not and requires you to look for it yourself leaving the uneducated to download malware and other nasties.
 
Oxy said:
Most linux OS's have a central store of software. Windows does not and requires you to look for it yourself leaving the uneducated to download malware and other nasties.
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OK that's a valid point, a package repository is a good feature that Windows lacks.

Though even with a good package repository, there still might be cases where you want to install a newer version than available in the repository, or the software is not in the repository, and you need to download the source and compile it yourself. So that's sort of comparable to downloading and installing an application in Windows.

I have nothing against Linux, and I have nothing against Windows, both have their pros and cons, and for the record I do use both. At the end of the day, it comes down to what your requirements are, but I would never say one is vastly superior to the other.
 
To be honest, i prefer using a tried and tested version of the software that's in the repos and will definitely work with your distro rather than go searching for the newest version. I can wait 6 months or however long it is for it to be updated.
 
I recommend Ubuntu, you can dual boot with Windows.

Just make a new partition and install it on that.
 
I'm in a similar position as OP, Win7 RC is running out and I need a replacement OS to run on my 3 year old Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop. It originally came with Vista but I wanted to try out 7 before buying for my main rig.

I have no experience with anything other than Windows, so what pitfalls should I look out for when doing a fresh install of Ubuntu?

The laptop is mainly just used to watch DVDs and browse the Internet now, so I assume it will be fine for that?
 
Daaaveee said:
I'm in a similar position as OP, Win7 RC is running out and I need a replacement OS to run on my 3 year old Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop. It originally came with Vista but I wanted to try out 7 before buying for my main rig.

I have no experience with anything other than Windows, so what pitfalls should I look out for when doing a fresh install of Ubuntu?

The laptop is mainly just used to watch DVDs and browse the Internet now, so I assume it will be fine for that?
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I would also try Mint, much nicer looking OS IMHO. As many times as I try Linux and OS-X I still seem to fall back to Windows for my main machines though :rolleyes:
 
the x server concept throws people who know only directX. nvidia and amd have drivers that work with x server.
get used to the command line interface and the filesystem before trying linux.
i think the easiest thing to do is to try a few major flavours from cd and test hardware compatibility.
buy a big linux bible. i always look at it
 
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