linux vs windows

[DancingmadRB3]

For me Linux has more then caught up with Windows, and in many ways surpassed it.
In terms of gaming, Windows might be the best but for everything else Linux is pretty awesome.
Now a lot of comments here have said you have to use command line a lot in linux, not true I barely touch it and there are plenty of nice GUI tools in Linux.
In terms of looks sure Windows 7 looks pretty, but its virtually impossible to customize it without some third party patch...
Sure you got some nice colors to choose from but the customization in Linux blows it out of the water.
Also hardware compatibility in linux these days is great, it even matches and surpasses windows at times.
Especially Ubuntu, it accepts practically anything I throw at it.
Also Ubuntu is far more stable and secure.
Haters need to take another look at linux, use a distro that is set up for codecs like Linux Mint and see how good it can be.

 

[Andrea Borman]

I have installed Linux Mint 9 Gnome edition alongside Windows 7 on my Netbook by mounting the ISO CD file on a program called Virtual clone drive,a CD Rom. I downloaded virtual clone Drive from the Internet then the ISO file from the Linux Mint website and mounted the file on the removable disk. Linux Mint 9 is the only brand of Linux that works for me. Please see my thread " Should you install Linux alongside Windows" which I wrote here on Windows 7 forums. I do not use Linux or Windows to play online games but I have installed Windows web browsers using Wine as the Linux version of Mozilla Flock comes bare with no plug ins so you cannot play videos. But the Windows version of Flock installs and works perfectly on Linux and you then just download the Adobe flash player plug in for Windows in the Windows Flock browser. You can install Windows Flock browser through Wine 1.2 but I do not have Wine doors as it does not work.

If you have Wine 1.2 installed you just go to the website of the web browser you want to download and then download it the same way you do on Windows. Then the windows installer should be in the downloads folder in home folder. right click with your mouse on the file and select propriorites and make sure you tick run executing program or it wont install. After this select open with Wine. Then click open and the web browser will then install on your computer in Linux.

And thats it. I have successfully installed Pale Moon web browser,which is strictly for Windows only but it is running on Linux,along with Comet Bird,Safefox and Wyzo. All of these are Windows only browsers but are running on Linux but I have not however been able to run Aim Messenger or ICQ both Windows only video chat messengers or the Windows version of Google Talk. Much to my dissapointment.

But it is true that Windows has more choice of software than Linux as a lot of web browsers and video chat messengers are not compatible with Linux. And my opinion is if you want to install Linux alongside Windows,give it a try. You have got nothing to loose as the operating system is installed through Windows,either with a Windows installer like Jolicloud is or mounted on a CD Rom and windows installer then finishes the installation. Then if you decide you do not want Linux you can just uninstall it in the programs menu in Windows. So this method of installing Linux does not replace your windows operating system with Linux,it just installs it alongside Windows.

There are other methods of installing Linux but this is the one I use,as I have a Netbook,which does not have a CD drive. Andrea Borman.

 

[Andrea Borman]

Windows is the best choice of operating systems as it is easy to use and very user friendly. And it is not true that there are viruses on Windows. The problem is Internet Explorer web browser.But I have uninstalled it completely from my Windows 7, so it is no longer a problem. And Windows is working fine if not better without IE. Andrea Borman.

 

[DancingmadRB3]

do not use Linux or Windows to play online games but I have installed Windows web browsers using Wine as the Linux version of Mozilla Flock comes bare with no plug ins so you cannot play videos.

Well neither does Internet explorer on a self built computer, your point?

But the Windows version of Flock installs and works perfectly on Linux and you then just download the Adobe flash player plug in for Windows in the Windows Flock browser. You can install Windows Flock browser through Wine 1.2 but I do not have Wine doors as it does not work.

Again if you have all the plug ins they should work, besides why complain about Flock for, you can social network in standard firefox and in my honest opinion Flock has no reason to exist as you can use firefoxes native features to use facebook and other websites that it offers.

If you have Wine 1.2 installed you just go to the website of the web browser you want to download and then download it the same way you do on Windows. Then the windows installer should be in the downloads folder in home folder. right click with your mouse on the file and select propriorites and make sure you tick run executing program or it wont install. After this select open with Wine. Then click open and the web browser will then install on your computer in Linux.

Again why use a windows version of an app you can get natively in the OS, if you are too lazy to install plugins of your own one by one there are many tools in Mint and Ubuntu to get one started.

And thats it. I have successfully installed Pale Moon web browser,which is strictly for Windows only but it is running on Linux,along with Comet Bird,Safefox and Wyzo. All of these are Windows only browsers but are running on Linux but I have not however been able to run Aim Messenger or ICQ both Windows only video chat messengers or the Windows version of Google Talk. Much to my dissapointment.

Again you have plenty of native browsers for linux that do the same job.
Swiftfox is a speed boosted version of firefox that is built for Linux
There is no real linux alternative to cometbird, safefox and wyzo but again why bother as they are firefox spinoffs...
Customize the real thing, if you can download 200 different browsersthat are just spinoffs of firefox its just as easy to customize firefox to do the same bloody job.

As for ICQ and AIM, while true the linux alternatives to them are not as featured, need I remind you of all the adverts and bloat that come with AIM and ICQ...
Ain is a virus magent for crying out loud, you are better off with a linux alternative in the long run, or trillain for that matter.

But it is true that Windows has more choice of software than Linux as a lot of web browsers and video chat messengers are not compatible with Linux.

Yeh but quality over quantity, Linux has fewer apps yes but I think most of the linux apps are more stable and more secure then some of the windows counterparts.

Windows is the best choice of operating systems as it is easy to use and very user friendly. And it is not true that there are viruses on Windows. The problem is Internet Explorer web browser.But I have uninstalled it completely from my Windows 7, so it is no longer a problem. And Windows is working fine if not better without IE. Andrea Borman.

Again try building your own computer sometime, when you buy a computer in the store it usually has all the bells and whistles, but build one of your own and you will see windows is not really the better in most areas.

 

[Andrea Borman]

I am not clever enough to build my own computer and I don't think that most people can either. I have read several websites on how to export Firefox plug ins to Linux Flock by using different commands in the terminal. I have tried all the commands I have read about and NONE of them would export the plug ins needed for Linux Flock. But with Windows Flock running on Linux I have installed the Adobe flash player for Windows on it and Windows Flock does play videos but Linux flock does not. So it is pretty much useless.I suppose it is cheating using Windows Flock on a Linux operating system,but if it works,why not?

Some people run Internet Explorer on Linux, but why? I would never do this,I would not even run it on Windows. And as I mentioned I removed it from my system on Windows 7 by deleting the file. It is possible to run Windows without IE. In Europe,they are shipping Windows 7 computer without IE,and they have Firefox or another browser instead. So it can be done.

You say Flock should not exist,but it is a very good browser with a lot of character. I am talking about Mozilla Flock not Flock beta,which I do not like as it another Google Chrome clone. And as I already use Google Chrome,I see no need to use an alternative to this,except for Chromium browser,which is slightly faster and several builds ahead. But Mozilla Flock is an excellent browser and lots of people use it and it is one of the first web browsers I like to install.

On windows Firefox is good but Pale Moon browser and Safefox,which are both open sources of Firefox are faster as they are made only for Windows. Comet Bird and Wyzo are yet another open source version of Firefox but they have plug ins to download torrents as an extra addition feature. On windows it is recomended to use a Firefox open source browser,like Pale Moon and Safefox, as they perform better.

On Linux it is a different story as I have tried Swiftfox, Iceweazel and Swiftweazel but they do not run well at all. In fact swiftfox would not even work. So on Linux the best advice is to forget the open source versions of Firefox and stick with Firefox as this runs better and without any problems.

Wine runs the windows versions of the Mozilla browsers very well on Linux,so you can safely install Pale Moon and Safefox,Windows only web browsers on Linux. But IE engine based browsers such as Green browser and Advanced browser do not run at all on Linux and even if you can get them to run,they constantly crash. So just use those on Windows instead as they just don't seem to work on Linux but run very well on Windows. And are nothing like the horrible Internet Explorer browser.

As for the video chat messengers, a lot of them are just not user friendly,I never could get Trillian or pidgin to run,these problems are the same on both Windows and Linux. The only ones I get on with are Aim and Google Talk,and on Linux you can use Empathy to chat to contacts on Google Talk for voice and video chats. But for aim contacts Empathy only does email text chat not voice or video chat.

And again in Linux they only have the multi network chat messengers,which like the Windows versions are not user friendly and do not work. But there is a way around this and that is to use a web messenger like Meebo,that you use in a web browser just by going onto the website. This will enable you to do voice and video chat to friends on Google Talk or Aim or any other messenger network,such as Yahoo and Windows Live.

The web messengers such as Meebo and E buddy work on both Linux and Windows and you do not have to install them. As you just go onto a web browser and use it from the website. These web messengers work well without any problems I find. Andrea Borman.

 

[Andrea Borman]

On both Windows and Linux there is not a lot of choice of chat messengers,as apart from Aim Messenger,Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk,which are for Windows only. Other messengers are difficult to use and do not work. But I have been using Meebo a web messenger,where I can log into and do voice and video chat on all of the above networks mentioned. And it works better than the messengers you install on your computer.Well,most of them anyway. Which is a way round the problem for Linux users who do not have direct access to Windows Live messenger or Aim Messenger. As they cannot be installed on Linux. Andrea Borman.

 

[blackoutworm]

On both Windows and Linux there is not a lot of choice of chat messengers...

Not true at all.
Have you ever tried linux?
In fact, there are more IM apps for linux than for windows, and since most of them are open source you can always add more fun features and plugins to it.

Voice and video chat does not work on Pidgin, which supports almost all the chat and blog channels such as msn, aim, irc, twitter, facebook, gtalk etc.
Linux's version for skype does support voice and audio chat, plus the skype call recorder is more stable (don't know why).
And same with AOL, Google Talk and IRC chat. They all have the features windows has.
For voice and audio support in MSN you can use Emesene. The new Emesene2 also includes a webcam recording function which is great.
I think it's also available for Windows (not sure).

I didn't post this to sound like a dick but my point is, do some research before you post all that BS you just did, Andrea.

I am not clever enough to build my own computer and I don't think that most people can either. I have read several websites on how to export Firefox plug ins to Linux Flock by using different commands in the terminal. I have tried all the commands I have read about and NONE of them would export the plug ins needed for Linux Flock. But with Windows Flock running on Linux I have installed the Adobe flash player for Windows on it and Windows Flock does play videos but Linux flock does not. So it is pretty much useless.I suppose it is cheating using Windows Flock on a Linux operating system,but if it works,why not?

To install addons in firefox on linux, use the browser to install them, or import them from windows by copying them from the c:/documents & settings folder to the folder on linux /home/username/.mozilla/extensions. But why would you ever do that when it takes like 3 sec to install the add ons from the firefox browser itself.

And again in Linux they only have the multi network chat messengers,which like the Windows versions are not user friendly and do not work. But there is a way around this and that is to use a web messenger like Meebo,that you use in a web browser just by going onto the website. This will enable you to do voice and video chat to friends on Google Talk or Aim or any other messenger network,such as Yahoo and Windows Live.

All you do is bitching about programs you can't figure out due to poor pc knowledge.
I know this thread is called Linux Vs Windows but you really don't take anyone's side here, do you?
Stop bashing the programs without having any idea of what you are talking about.
Seriously. what if a pc newbe saw this message? He would probably give up computering or get very frustrated. If you're gonna talk crap about something, be constructive

Sorry about the very long message though

 

[Andrea Borman]

I have tried many multi chat messengers,Digsby,Trillian,Pidgin and others and no they do not work and are not user friendly. So I could not even use them. These were all Windows messengers and on Linux there is even less choice. I have installed Empathy on Linux Mint,which is a multi network messenger and funny enough I am able to use it. Empathy does voice and video chats with Google Talk,but with Aim and Windows Live you can only do email text chat,not voice or video chat. And the other messengers on Linux Kopete does not work at all.And Linux Pidgin is the same as Windows Pidgin,not user friendly. I cannot use it so I uninstalled Pidgin from Linux Mint and X chat which I have no idea how to use anyway. X chat is like windows live mail,which is nothing to do with Hotmail or Windows Live messenger.

Windows Live mail and Seamonkey mail,I just cannot use. It asks you your outgoing server number,which I don't know what that is,incoming server,I don't what that is either. It is just not for the average computer user and X chat is like this,so I got rid of that too. The Seamonkey web browser is fine,I use that,but Seamonkey mail which you can get on Windows and Linux,I don't use. I just send emails using my normal email account,Hotmail or Google mail and when I want to do voice and video chat. I use Aim or Google Talk or Meebo as they work.

Aim has recently added Google Talk to it's services which means you can now chat to friends on Google talk from Aim. But Aim only lets you do email chat to Google talk but not voice or video chat. But at least you can email text your Google talk friends from Aim which is a step up.

I know you can now get Skype on Linux but I think you can only do video chats to others who have a Skype account. I don't think you can chat to friends on Aim or Google Talk from Skype,unless they have a Skype account.

The only messengers that work for me are Aim,Google Talk,Nimbuzz and ICQ. Windows Live Messenger but is not as user friendly as I would like it to be but I would consider using it again if I had to. And Meebo and some other web messengers actually do work better than the ones you download.

Meebo and other web messengers can be used on both Linux and windows. But unfortunently the messengers I can use Aim and the others I mentioned are not compatible with Linux and will not install through Wine. So if I want to use those I have to go onto windows.There is an open source messenger called a msn but when I used it on Windows it crashed my computer and I got the blue screen of death with a warning that my system crashed. So I quickly uninstalled that. So there is not a lot of choice of chat messengers on Linux or Windows. Andrea Borman.

 

[Andrea Borman]

The fact that a lot of chat messengers do not work has nothing to do with the operating system. It is just that there is not a lot of choice about at the moment. Andrea Borman.

 

[catilley1092]

I'm going to throw my two cents in here. First off, I'm not into bashing different brands of OS's & those who uses them. For the most part, this is a free world, and everyone has the right to the OS that he/she wants.

Both sides has their pluses & minuses. With Windows, the shortcuts are there, access to most everything is easy, whether some wants to believe it or not, there is choice with Windows. Thousands of programs to choose from, some free, some paid.

With Linux OS's, the choice of what OS to run poses a challenge within itself. But for beginners (or "newbies"), OS's such as Ubuntu, Mint, Zorin OS & PCLinuxOS are good choices. Zorin OS is showing a lot of potential these days. One myth about Linux OS's that must be addressed is security. Many OS's (or "distros") claims that there's no need for additional security, but I beg to differ. When I use my choice of Linux, I always run the ClamTK Virus Scanner after use.

ClamTk Virus Scanner

It's a small, but powerful virus scanner, that can even scan Windows partitions in a dual boot install. Also ESET has an AV for Linux.

http://www.eset.eu/products/nod32-for-linux

Most versions of Linux also has a built in firewall, it's by default turned off. The user must turn it on, and make whatever exceptions necessary. This is for security, by design. And this continues this topic. The Linux user must be just as proactive in their security stance, just as Windows users does. Successful attacks against Linux users are rare, but one must consider the numbers. For every Linux user, there's at least 90 Windows users.

So, if one chose a career in cyber crime, the money goes with the odds. There are plenty more Windows users to attack than Linux users. That's why more is heard of the attacks on Windows vs Linux.

Next, there are those who believe that Linux is garbage & is unworthy to use, and mainly only former Windows users who don't have reinstall media are the primary Linux users. Wrong. NASA, NYSE, many branches of the military & government, many banks & other financial institutions/brokerages & utilities of all sorts runs Linux on desktops, portable devices & servers. And many of us, whether or not we want to believe it, use Linux, if indirectly, daily. Who knows, this forum may be running from a Linux server? There's many that are.

The typical devoted home Linux user is educated, has an above average job (paywise), and usually are more than happy to share their knowledge with others.

Here's the caveat with Linux OS's. The user has to do some actual work, if he/she plans to be a power user, and take control of their system. Like learning the command line. It was once that way with Windows too, and many long time Windows users knows this. But it's not as intimidating as many would think. One can Google search most any issue with Linux OS's, and full instructions can be found, down to what to enter into the command line.

It's all a matter of personal preference.

As for myself, I run a combination of the two, and enjoy them equally. Both brands of OS's serves a purpose in my computing life & will continue to do so.

Cat

 

[blackoutworm]

With Linux OS's, the choice of what OS to run poses a challenge within itself. But for beginners (or "newbies"), OS's such as Ubuntu, Mint, Zorin OS & PCLinuxOS are good choices. Zorin OS is showing a lot of potential these days. One myth about Linux OS's that must be addressed is security. Many OS's (or "distros") claims that there's no need for additional security, but I beg to differ. When I use my choice of Linux, I always run the ClamTK Virus Scanner after use.

Cat

There's no such thing as a virus in linux.
So far, you can only get malware though browser add-on / extensions, or you can get hack attacked if you run a server and are in root when the guy is trying to attack you.
No virus apps have so far noticed any virus on the linux side of things. ClamAV and all that, are AV software made to repair your windows partition and emails that will be sent to a windows user.
Let's put it like this.
You still get all the same spyware and viruses in linux when you browse the web or whatever. But they are made for the windows file system and registry. So linux won't be able to recognize it.
You can however get virus attacks in your wine folder, which will obviously only attack your windows software within that folder.
And the only way you can get viruses there is if you use Internet explorer under Wine. And who does that anyway?
And even if someone made a virus that the linux system will recognize, you still need to be in root at the very same time the virus is is process.
Or to put it this way. You have to be a no-brain idiot to even get a virus in linux at this point of time
Back to the hack attack thing.
The way you can prevent this from happen, is to run UFW. Should already be installed.
But this is literally the only security you need.
As for malware in your browser, just install and run a software called bleachbit. This is like CCleaner for windows.
It cleans up all your browser's cache, cookie, temp and other crap that takes up space.

 

[Mike]

I do not know if you are oversimplifying the issue, or what, but there certainly are exploits in Linux that can allow someone to compromise the entire system. This is why pentesting is performed on Linux boxes all the time. Specifically, SQL injection exploits are still a major problem for servers depending on what code they are running and if a loaded kernel module is compromised it can take down the entire system. Linux systems are rooted all the time. In fact, as news recently reported, cybersecurity.pandasecurity.com was just completely wiped out by anonymous, with the entire /etc/passwd of the system being posted there. It is obvious if you saw the message, they also compromised MySQL on the system. It is true that mostly servers are targeted, but security is a real issue in both Linux and Windows. The best way to prevent hacking attempts is to remove the attack surface with iptables and using only exceptions (some management options available with lfd and csf). If you want to base it on market share, you are 80-90% more likely to get a virus/hacking attempt in Windows because Linux only holds a 5% marketshare. Virus authors do seem to discriminate based on how many people they can target. While it is true that Linux is generally safer than Windows in "getting a virus", or "attracting malware", I would think this has a lot to do, heavily, with how many people are using it. Another good example of this would be the malware being detected and removed from the Android Market (now Google Play). The requirement of most malware, including virii, is to obtain root access on the given system. This is true re: the need for administrator elevation in Windows. As a form of malware, the goal of a virus is to replicate or duplicate itself on as many systems as possible. This has happened in Linux before, through exploits in IRC clients, all manner of server software, and through kernel exploits themselves.

 

[whs]

I use Ubuntu a lot (also Fedora and Puppy). But I am seasones IT person. For the average user it is OK if they do only simple things (mail, documents, pics, etc.). But as soon as you want to do a bit more, you have to use the command line or a similar low level interface (e.g. in Linux Puppy you have to type in the complete destination path if you want to copy a file). And that is beyond the reach of most average users.

What is also confusing is the many Linux distros. If they would bundle their efforts into 2 or 3 distros, things would be easier and I am sure they would get a lot more users.

 

[Andrea Borman]

Well I got given 2 netbooks as presents from a friend. And now that I have got a plug in USB DVD CD drive, I can install any operating system I want. As well as reinstall Windows if I have to.Instead of having to restore to factory condition.

So I went ahead and installed Linux as the only operating system on those 2 netbooks. On one I installed Linux Mint 11 Gnome edition and the other Zoren OS also Gnome.

The 2 netboks my friend gave me used to have Windows 7 on them. But as I have 6 other netbooks,3 with Windows 7 and the other 2 with Windows XP. So I had nothing to loose by installing Linux on those 2 netbooks.

The Linux Mint is running fine. I chose it because it has the Windows style start menu that Windows users are used to. And you can pin shortcuts to your desktop like on Windows.

The Zoren OS has given me a few problems and I have had to reinstall several times. Once when I started my computer I got a black screen that looked like Windows booted into safe made saying Zoren OS could not start due to error.So I had to reinstall it. Then another time I had to reinstall because my taskbar and start menu disappeared and I did not know how to restore it.

Actually in Linux it is called a panel not a taskbar. Although Zoren OS too has got the Windows start menu,I have had several problems with it. But none with Linux Mint,so I am going to put Linux Mint on that netbook.

If you install the ISO file onto a DVD you can actually try out the live CD before you install. That way you can see if you like it or not. And also see if it works with your computer and all of the drivers are working.And note some Windows computers do not have drivers that work with Linux.

I tried Lubuntu in live CD but I rejected that because you cannot change the desktop background. And I rejected Xubuntu because it would not install the Adobe flash play needed to play videos. And it is not as user friendly as the Gnome desktop.

With the coming of Windows 8 and because in the latest version of Windows 7,Consumer Preview.They have made it so you cannot turn off Metro like you could in Developers Preview. And any third party software that would give you a Windows XP or Windows 7 start menu does not work in CP. People are looking for an alternative to Windows 8.

Yes,you have got a start menu in Linux maybe not quite like Windows but a start menu listing all of your programs.

But the disadvantage of Linux is-

It is difficult to install software from the Internet. So if the software you want is not in the package manager,then you cannot have it.

You have to log in with a password and enter it every time you do something on your computer. But on Windows you do not have to have a password if you do not want one.

When things go wrong on Linux you often don't know how to fix them. So like me you end up doing a reinstall of the system. But on Windows I rarely have to do a reinstall. As most problems can be fixed in a few minutes without this on Windows.

Most software only works on Windows not Linux. So you still need Windows if you want to run software like Windows Movie Maker or Windows Live Messenger or Windows Live Mail. As anything that is Internet Explorer based does not work in Wine.

And as for the password thing which you cannot remove or disable in Linux. I get round this by creating a simple password like yes or no,which is a password you will never forget.

And now the new versions of Linux now come with broadcom wireless network drivers. So you can connect to the Internet right away. Without installing additional drivers. And often Linux will activate the drivers for you but you must be connected to wired broadband first.

So yes I do have Linux as my only operating system on 2 netbooks but I have also got Windows on my other 5 as well. Also bear in mind that once you replace Windows with Linux,you cannot reinstall Windows again on that computer. I got a message saying my hard drive needs to be a FAT or NFCS partition. So the Linux install must have altered the hard drive.

but if you have other computers with Windows on it is okay to install one computer with Linux. But you will probably need Windows as well at some point. As not all software works on Linux.Andrea Borman.

 

[catilley1092]

Last year, Linux Mint moved up a notch, making the OS the #1 most used consumer OS. The most recent version, 12, is good, but has some kinks to iron out with some AMD/ATI cards. The driver that's offered, in both the 32 & 64 bit versions, messes up my screen. For this reason, I've rolled back to Mint 11. No problem, as it's still supported for some time.

Which brings up another thing, for most Ubuntu based OS's (or distros), the user can run the version prior to the latest, and be fine. The bugs have usually been worked out of the prior release, and updates are available as soon as released.

Just as with Windows on Update Tuesday, these updates includes security updates & patches, so it's important to install them. Usually, the updates are rated by priority (1 through 5), level 1 & 2 updates are important, level 3 & above may be optional, I simply install them all.

blackoutworm, you may want to check this out:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Antivirus

While the chances are low of the actual OS being infected unless running as root (a knowledgeable Linux should know better than to do this while connected to the internet), there's always the chance of picking up viruses & malware through the browser & pass it on to other Internet users. For this reason, just as when running Windows, Linux users need to scan their computers. Most of the scanners takes very little time to do a recursive (full) scan of the home folder, which includes the installed browsers, Wine, VirtualBox VM's & other items in the folder.

And Linux OS's are not exempt from remote code execution. No OS is. OS's are written by humans, who aren't 100% perfect, therefore the OS isn't perfect either. Check this thread out, it's been ongoing since 02/02/2006, 6 years.

Mozilla Firefox Vulns

I was an actual participant in this thread, and made an ignorant statement, going along with the common perspective that this kind of thing just couldn't happen while using a Linux OS. I was wrong, was warned, and issued an apology for my statements.

Security is imperative, regardless of whatever brand of OS is used. This includes Mac users, I haven't ran any of those OS's, but there has been recent reports of compromised security on those systems.

Cat

 

[catilley1092]

Well I got given 2 netbooks as presents from a friend. And now that I have got a plug in USB DVD CD drive, I can install any operating system I want. As well as reinstall Windows if I have to.Instead of having to restore to factory condition.

So I went ahead and installed Linux as the only operating system on those 2 netbooks. On one I installed Linux Mint 11 Gnome edition and the other Zoren OS also Gnome.

The 2 netboks my friend gave me used to have Windows 7 on them. But as I have 6 other netbooks,3 with Windows 7 and the other 2 with Windows XP. So I had nothing to loose by installing Linux on those 2 netbooks.

The Linux Mint is running fine. I chose it because it has the Windows style start menu that Windows users are used to. And you can pin shortcuts to your desktop like on Windows.

The Zoren OS has given me a few problems and I have had to reinstall several times. Once when I started my computer I got a black screen that looked like Windows booted into safe made saying Zoren OS could not start due to error.So I had to reinstall it. Then another time I had to reinstall because my taskbar and start menu disappeared and I did not know how to restore it.

Actually in Linux it is called a panel not a taskbar. Although Zoren OS too has got the Windows start menu,I have had several problems with it. But none with Linux Mint,so I am going to put Linux Mint on that netbook.

If you install the ISO file onto a DVD you can actually try out the live CD before you install. That way you can see if you like it or not. And also see if it works with your computer and all of the drivers are working.And note some Windows computers do not have drivers that work with Linux.

I tried Lubuntu in live CD but I rejected that because you cannot change the desktop background. And I rejected Xubuntu because it would not install the Adobe flash play needed to play videos. And it is not as user friendly as the Gnome desktop.

With the coming of Windows 8 and because in the latest version of Windows 7,Consumer Preview.They have made it so you cannot turn off Metro like you could in Developers Preview. And any third party software that would give you a Windows XP or Windows 7 start menu does not work in CP. People are looking for an alternative to Windows 8.

Yes,you have got a start menu in Linux maybe not quite like Windows but a start menu listing all of your programs.

But the disadvantage of Linux is-

It is difficult to install software from the Internet. So if the software you want is not in the package manager,then you cannot have it.

You have to log in with a password and enter it every time you do something on your computer. But on Windows you do not have to have a password if you do not want one.

When things go wrong on Linux you often don't know how to fix them. So like me you end up doing a reinstall of the system. But on Windows I rarely have to do a reinstall. As most problems can be fixed in a few minutes without this on Windows.

Most software only works on Windows not Linux. So you still need Windows if you want to run software like Windows Movie Maker or Windows Live Messenger or Windows Live Mail. As anything that is Internet Explorer based does not work in Wine.

And as for the password thing which you cannot remove or disable in Linux. I get round this by creating a simple password like yes or no,which is a password you will never forget.

And now the new versions of Linux now come with broadcom wireless network drivers. So you can connect to the Internet right away. Without installing additional drivers. And often Linux will activate the drivers for you but you must be connected to wired broadband first.

So yes I do have Linux as my only operating system on 2 netbooks but I have also got Windows on my other 5 as well. Also bear in mind that once you replace Windows with Linux,you cannot reinstall Windows again on that computer. I got a message saying my hard drive needs to be a FAT or NFCS partition. So the Linux install must have altered the hard drive.

but if you have other computers with Windows on it is okay to install one computer with Linux. But you will probably need Windows as well at some point. As not all software works on Linux.Andrea Borman.

Andrea, yes you can reinstall Windows after a Linux OS has been installed, but it will need to be formatted. The Windows install disk has the option to format.

One thing to keep in mind, if the hard drive has been formatted with ext4 when installing a Linux OS, it may take 2 attempts for XP to re-format the HDD. For this reason, I always use ext3, rather than ext4.

And as far as software goes, most Linux OS's has a software manager that contains over 30,000 possible apps to install. Most any software to cover many needs/uses. A few of them are paid apps, but not many.

The password that's required by Linux to do virtually anything is for your protection, not as a PITA for the user.

And if you need help installing software, or any question at all, each OS (distro) has their very own forum, with many members who are watching for "newbies". Many Linux users are more than happy to assist you. It's important when registering on these forums, just as this one, to list your specs to the best of your ability/knowledge, so that you'll get more answers.

Yes, I agree, it can be sometimes difficult to do some things with Linux OS's, but most tasks aren't impossible. It takes time & patience to learn, I've been using Ubuntu & Mint since 2009, and still learning.

Cat

 

[Andrea Borman]

Last year, Linux Mint moved up a notch, making the OS the #1 most used consumer OS. The most recent version, 12, is good, but has some kinks to iron out with some AMD/ATI cards. The driver that's offered, in both the 32 & 64 bit versions, messes up my screen. For this reason, I've rolled back to Mint 11. No problem, as it's still supported for some time.

Which brings up another thing, for most Ubuntu based OS's (or distros), the user can run the version prior to the latest, and be fine. The bugs have usually been worked out of the prior release, and updates are available as soon as released.

Just as with Windows on Update Tuesday, these updates includes security updates & patches, so it's important to install them. Usually, the updates are rated by priority (1 through 5), level 1 & 2 updates are important, level 3 & above may be optional, I simply install them all.

blackoutworm, you may want to check this out:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Antivirus

While the chances are low of the actual OS being infected unless running as root (a knowledgeable Linux should know better than to do this while connected to the internet), there's always the chance of picking up viruses & malware through the browser & pass it on to other Internet users. For this reason, just as when running Windows, Linux users need to scan their computers. Most of the scanners takes very little time to do a recursive (full) scan of the home folder, which includes the installed browsers, Wine, VirtualBox VM's & other items in the folder.

And Linux OS's are not exempt from remote code execution. No OS is. OS's are written by humans, who aren't 100% perfect, therefore the OS isn't perfect either. Check this thread out, it's been ongoing since 02/02/2006, 6 years.

Mozilla Firefox Vulns

I was an actual participant in this thread, and made an ignorant statement, going along with the common perspective that this kind of thing just couldn't happen while using a Linux OS. I was wrong, was warned, and issued an apology for my statements.

Security is imperative, regardless of whatever brand of OS is used. This includes Mac users, I haven't ran any of those OS's, but there has been recent reports of compromised security on those systems.

Cat

I tried to install Linux Mint 12 from the CD I made. It goes fine until I get the the bit where it askes you to choose a picture or take a photo for your user account. Because I have a netbook,my screen is very small.

So I had to minimise the Windows to see the next button to click on after I took my picture. But even when I did click on the next button in the now minimised Windows. That was as far as I got, and Linux Mint 12 would not install on my netbook.

I have this problem a lot on my netbook because my screen is small. And on Windows I can just move the taskbar to the left to adjust settings in Windows Live Messenger for example. But I could not do this with the set up of Linux Mint 12. So even though I minimised the set up Window the install would not finish.

That's why I have got Linux Mint 11 instead, because I cannot install Linux Mint 12. Andrea Borman.

 

[catilley1092]

I tried to install Linux Mint 12 from the CD I made. It goes fine until I get the the bit where it askes you to choose a picture or take a photo for your user account. Because I have a netbook,my screen is very small.

So I had to minimise the Windows to see the next button to click on after I took my picture. But even when I did click on the next button in the now minimised Windows. That was as far as I got, and Linux Mint 12 would not install on my netbook.

I have this problem a lot on my netbook because my screen is small. And on Windows I can just move the taskbar to the left to adjust settings in Windows Live Messenger for example. But I could not do this with the set up of Linux Mint 12. So even though I minimised the set up Window the install would not finish.

That's why I have got Linux Mint 11 instead, because I cannot install Linux Mint 12. Andrea Borman.

I have Mint 11 also, but for a different reason. The video card drivers for ATI/AMD are buggy, the last time I tried to install Mint 12, less than 2 weeks ago. I'll wait until the next release, which should be an LTS (3 year support) before upgrading.

Right now, Mint 9, the current LTS, is still supported, but I prefer not to run a Linux OS that's that old. I skipped Mint 10 altogether, went from Mint 9 to 11 when it was a RC.

At the current time, the Gnome deal is changing, so this is a major adjustment period for anyone who is using the most current Ubuntu based versions. Many users don't like it, but there are other options. Mint comes in at least 3 types, many users are opting to use another shell besides Gnome.

Cat

 

[Andrea Borman]

I have Mint 11 also, but for a different reason. The video card drivers for ATI/AMD are buggy, the last time I tried to install Mint 12, less than 2 weeks ago. I'll wait until the next release, which should be an LTS (3 year support) before upgrading.

Right now, Mint 9, the current LTS, is still supported, but I prefer not to run a Linux OS that's that old. I skipped Mint 10 altogether, went from Mint 9 to 11 when it was a RC.

At the current time, the Gnome deal is changing, so this is a major adjustment period for anyone who is using the most current Ubuntu based versions. Many users don't like it, but there are other options. Mint comes in at least 3 types, many users are opting to use another shell besides Gnome.

Cat

Well from what I read Linux Mint are using Mate in version 12. I don't know what Mate is but that is the reason why there are 2 panels in Mint 12. I at the bottom that is the normal Mint menu that looks like Windows. And the top panel looks like Ubuntu.

But I cannot install Mint 12 anyway due to the problems I mentioned.

But there are many different version of Linux Mint. There are also the older versions like Linux Mint 7 and 8 that the website says are no longer supported. But the ISO files can still be downloaded and burned onto a CD. But the problem is that if you use Mint 8,you may not get all of the latest updates.

I don't know if that matters or not on Linux. But it does on Windows.Andrea Borman.

 

[catilley1092]

Well from what I read Linux Mint are using Mate in version 12. I don't know what Mate is but that is the reason why there are 2 panels in Mint 12. I at the bottom that is the normal Mint menu that looks like Windows. And the top panel looks like Ubuntu.

But I cannot install Mint 12 anyway due to the problems I mentioned.

But there are many different version of Linux Mint. There are also the older versions like Linux Mint 7 and 8 that the website says are no longer supported. But the ISO files can still be downloaded and burned onto a CD. But the problem is that if you use Mint 8,you may not get all of the latest updates.

I don't know if that matters or not on Linux. But it does on Windows.Andrea Borman.

Yes, those older Mint ISO's are still available for download, but that it. If the OS is on the unsupported list, it won't update. You can still use them, but in the years since those OS's were released (I started with Mint 7, Gloria), support & security has improved.

Back then, the user had to wait until the next release of Mint to get the latest Firefox, unless he/she knows how to manually install it. At the time, I didn't know, and the command line intimidated me a bit. But now, when a new Firefox becomes available for Windows, it's available for Mint (or most any Ubuntu based OS) in days, sometimes the next day, through the updating system.

As far as Mint 8 goes, being that it won't update, I don't want to use it. I don't mind using 11, and in fact due to my issue, was encouraged to go back to 11 from 12 from very experienced members of the Mint forum. One doesn't have to run the very latest OS, but on the other hand, I don't want to be running 2 OS's behind.

But soon, I'm going to have to make a decision. I recently installed Zorin OS & love it. Just haven't had the chance to use it much, as Windows 8 CP was released 2 days after installing Zorin. I now have 3 Linux OS's installed, Ubuntu 11.10, Mint 11 & Zorin OS 5.2. Either Mint or Ubuntu is going to have to go. The thing is, the latest Ubuntu (11.10), which Mint is based upon (the Gnome edition), runs quite well on my desktop, while Mint hasn't caught up (the issue with drivers).

I'm keeping Zorin OS, I like it better than both of the others. I'll make my mind up within a week or two as to which to dump. Before I do anything, I'll try Mint 12 one last time. If it's good, then my decision will be an easy one. As far as Mate goes, I don't care for it. I'm not putting it (or it's users) down, but I prefer the Linux desktop that I've used for 3 years, the Gnome one. I really don't care for learning multiple Linux desktops. Just a good one that will meet my needs. That's speed & security, as well as a rock solid OS.

It's just that at this time, I'm working hard on learning Windows 8 CP, I haven't had much time to be concerned about Linux. That doesn't mean that I'm abandoning it, just that Windows 8 CP is new, and so far, more exciting than Windows 7 Beta was to me. Windows is my primary OS, but my Linux installs are not far behind. I'm going to have both, no matter what, as I use each for different purposes.

Cat