CharlesTowers
August 5th, 2008, 02:43 PM
I know there are a lot of posts like these, but I really think that maybe this will help new users to choose the best os. And that is of course Ubuntu! This may be very subjective, but my experience with many distributions will be, I hope, helpfull.
Now let's start. The first thing you need to know if you come from windows, is that it's not so hard to switch to any other operating system. The only requisite that is indispensable for this is to have the will to learn a little more about computers and how they work. There are many people out there who think installing software on linux is hard, and sometimes it is, but once you get used to, it won't be any problem.
Here is the list of operating systems that i have tried:
OpenSuse11
Fedora 9 Sulphur
Debian 4
Ubuntu 8.04
Kubuntu 8.04
Xubuntu 8.04
Mandriva One
PcLinuxOs
Windows 98
Windows Xp
Windows Vista
Linux Mint
OpenSuse11
As far as i can tell, OpenSuse11 is a really good free distribution. It includes many good features in a single live cd with KDE 4 (very stable) desktop environment. Brings an office suite, internet applications (konqueror, firefox, kopete -which i dislike very much) and it also includes a one-in-all pc configuration utility called Yast, which i found to be good. Now, the thing with OpenSuse is this: It didn't recognized my wireless usb card. And that was just a shame, because i tried many, many things to do to make it work and just couldn't. It's a shame, because one of the things that OpenSuse is knew about is for its compatibility with wireless :S
Fedora 9 Sulphur
Well, what can I tell you about this one... Fedora 9 is very, very secure. Brings a whole lot of features to keep your computer out of the range of normal atackers -note that if one hell-of-a-good hacker wants you, he'll have you-. Besides that, i can tell you one thing: the updates are HUGE, about 400 mb of download. I don't have such a fast connection, but it's not so bad, 2mb/s and it took me one time about 3 hours to download just the core updates! One other thing that is bad is that fedora is slooooow. I've tried it with several computers, from old to new, and it was the same. Also, it has some kernel erros sometimes -if you don't know what a kernel is, have a look at wiki, you'll need to know :) Besides that, if you have an allmighty powerfull computer with a lightning fast internet, Fedora may be a good option...
Debian
Well, this one is quite good actually... but, i couldn't manage to get my wireless card with it either. The updates are too old, like the kernel from the cd. Besides that, Debian is one of the more stable os i have tried. You'll have to compile a lot of things to get it work like a replacement of windows, and that is kind of difficult for some packages. Note that ubuntu -will get there someday- is based on debian, so if you want to go to the source of the magic, there's your chance!
Mandriva One
Good things come with mandriva one. For one thing, it brings all the software you'll need, with propietary drivers for many things. Also it has a good make-it-all-in-one control center that is actually good. I could manage to get my wireless to work, and everything worked allright. For this distribution, I have to say, there is a great chance that new users coming from windows will like it. So, give it a try, perhaps someday...
PcLinuxOs
Just the same thing as mandriva -in fact, it comes from mandriva-. One thing that is very very nice about this distro is that it is very lightweight, it runs smoothley in every computer I've tried, and it also includes propietary drivers. One thing bad about this one, is that it doesn't brings a default network manager system tray. You have to activate it. This distribution "could" use my wireless, but just when it wanted to! That was frustrating. The updates were really quick, via command line, or via synaptic package manager.
Linux Mint
Well, this is a clone of ubuntu. Many features to make it a little more user friendly. I found it to be actually good. Again, almost everything worked out really nice. It comes in various flavors, including xfce,kde and gnome.
Windows 98
It was a good os. I remember quite well windows 98 run smooth on almost every computer -that was modern in that time-. Then the viruses came, Bill Gates got more greedy... Many people used this os, and many more were expecting that windows will just grew better and better... By the way, every piece of hardware that i probed in this os run quite well.
Windows Xp
This was my first impression of Windows Xp: that's nice. My second impression was: Oh my god, my computer is rebooting on its own! Full of viruses, spyware, trojans, worms, and everything you can imagine. Full support for every piece of hardware i put on it, many games, and many nights and days of frustration. I grew up the idea that computers were just slow. Man I even deserted my ambition to study computer science -and that was for better now that i think of it.
Windows Vista
There's just something beautiful with that system. It is very good looking. It's more secure than windows xp, and many times -with an average computer- runs acceptable. There is now a lot of software compatibility. If you like very much games and that stuff i would say it's for you. If you want to pay for anti virus too... There's cool software for windows, i can't deny it, but, then again, you never know what are you installing.
One other thing about windows is ntfs. That file format is just bad. I know several people -including me. That have had many hard drive problems. NTFS is just bad, slow and old.
Linux uses ext3 or any other file format you would wish -except ntfs but it can read it-. You'll never had fragmentation! Well, about 1% I think...
Virus
Virus
Don't think about them anymore. It's even funny when you think about your troubled friends and their viruses. Well, If you like them, there's always something you can do, right?
Now, let's get to ubuntu!
Smooth installation and fast. The system works almost out of the box. You will only need to install a good bittorrent client, the flash plugin, a p2p application, and you're good to go! It detects almost any hardware, software is really easy to install -in most cases- and there's a firewall included. Ubuntu has a great community that will help you in almost any subject. You can download the cd's from the main page at a very good speed -torrents are even faster- and you can also request a free cd that will arrive at your doorstep.
Need some more reasons to go for ubuntu? Well, you can always try for yourself, experiment and learn from experience. Right now, i stick with ubuntu, if you find something better, please let me know... :)
Now let's start. The first thing you need to know if you come from windows, is that it's not so hard to switch to any other operating system. The only requisite that is indispensable for this is to have the will to learn a little more about computers and how they work. There are many people out there who think installing software on linux is hard, and sometimes it is, but once you get used to, it won't be any problem.
Here is the list of operating systems that i have tried:
OpenSuse11
Fedora 9 Sulphur
Debian 4
Ubuntu 8.04
Kubuntu 8.04
Xubuntu 8.04
Mandriva One
PcLinuxOs
Windows 98
Windows Xp
Windows Vista
Linux Mint
OpenSuse11
As far as i can tell, OpenSuse11 is a really good free distribution. It includes many good features in a single live cd with KDE 4 (very stable) desktop environment. Brings an office suite, internet applications (konqueror, firefox, kopete -which i dislike very much) and it also includes a one-in-all pc configuration utility called Yast, which i found to be good. Now, the thing with OpenSuse is this: It didn't recognized my wireless usb card. And that was just a shame, because i tried many, many things to do to make it work and just couldn't. It's a shame, because one of the things that OpenSuse is knew about is for its compatibility with wireless :S
Fedora 9 Sulphur
Well, what can I tell you about this one... Fedora 9 is very, very secure. Brings a whole lot of features to keep your computer out of the range of normal atackers -note that if one hell-of-a-good hacker wants you, he'll have you-. Besides that, i can tell you one thing: the updates are HUGE, about 400 mb of download. I don't have such a fast connection, but it's not so bad, 2mb/s and it took me one time about 3 hours to download just the core updates! One other thing that is bad is that fedora is slooooow. I've tried it with several computers, from old to new, and it was the same. Also, it has some kernel erros sometimes -if you don't know what a kernel is, have a look at wiki, you'll need to know :) Besides that, if you have an allmighty powerfull computer with a lightning fast internet, Fedora may be a good option...
Debian
Well, this one is quite good actually... but, i couldn't manage to get my wireless card with it either. The updates are too old, like the kernel from the cd. Besides that, Debian is one of the more stable os i have tried. You'll have to compile a lot of things to get it work like a replacement of windows, and that is kind of difficult for some packages. Note that ubuntu -will get there someday- is based on debian, so if you want to go to the source of the magic, there's your chance!
Mandriva One
Good things come with mandriva one. For one thing, it brings all the software you'll need, with propietary drivers for many things. Also it has a good make-it-all-in-one control center that is actually good. I could manage to get my wireless to work, and everything worked allright. For this distribution, I have to say, there is a great chance that new users coming from windows will like it. So, give it a try, perhaps someday...
PcLinuxOs
Just the same thing as mandriva -in fact, it comes from mandriva-. One thing that is very very nice about this distro is that it is very lightweight, it runs smoothley in every computer I've tried, and it also includes propietary drivers. One thing bad about this one, is that it doesn't brings a default network manager system tray. You have to activate it. This distribution "could" use my wireless, but just when it wanted to! That was frustrating. The updates were really quick, via command line, or via synaptic package manager.
Linux Mint
Well, this is a clone of ubuntu. Many features to make it a little more user friendly. I found it to be actually good. Again, almost everything worked out really nice. It comes in various flavors, including xfce,kde and gnome.
Windows 98
It was a good os. I remember quite well windows 98 run smooth on almost every computer -that was modern in that time-. Then the viruses came, Bill Gates got more greedy... Many people used this os, and many more were expecting that windows will just grew better and better... By the way, every piece of hardware that i probed in this os run quite well.
Windows Xp
This was my first impression of Windows Xp: that's nice. My second impression was: Oh my god, my computer is rebooting on its own! Full of viruses, spyware, trojans, worms, and everything you can imagine. Full support for every piece of hardware i put on it, many games, and many nights and days of frustration. I grew up the idea that computers were just slow. Man I even deserted my ambition to study computer science -and that was for better now that i think of it.
Windows Vista
There's just something beautiful with that system. It is very good looking. It's more secure than windows xp, and many times -with an average computer- runs acceptable. There is now a lot of software compatibility. If you like very much games and that stuff i would say it's for you. If you want to pay for anti virus too... There's cool software for windows, i can't deny it, but, then again, you never know what are you installing.
One other thing about windows is ntfs. That file format is just bad. I know several people -including me. That have had many hard drive problems. NTFS is just bad, slow and old.
Linux uses ext3 or any other file format you would wish -except ntfs but it can read it-. You'll never had fragmentation! Well, about 1% I think...
Virus
Virus
Don't think about them anymore. It's even funny when you think about your troubled friends and their viruses. Well, If you like them, there's always something you can do, right?
Now, let's get to ubuntu!
Smooth installation and fast. The system works almost out of the box. You will only need to install a good bittorrent client, the flash plugin, a p2p application, and you're good to go! It detects almost any hardware, software is really easy to install -in most cases- and there's a firewall included. Ubuntu has a great community that will help you in almost any subject. You can download the cd's from the main page at a very good speed -torrents are even faster- and you can also request a free cd that will arrive at your doorstep.
Need some more reasons to go for ubuntu? Well, you can always try for yourself, experiment and learn from experience. Right now, i stick with ubuntu, if you find something better, please let me know... :)