danarhea

LMAO. Years ago, I would have told you not to argue with someone who is not a techie, but NOW? Linux is easy, more stable than Windoze, more secure, and pretty much idiot proof. I can do a Linux install in minutes now, whereas, when I installed my first Slackware distribution, it took me hours, and I REALLY had to know what I was doing. I can install Linux in my sleep now. LOL.

If he doesn't like Linux, no use arguing with him. He just doesn't like it. Maybe he doesn't like the name, or maybe he hates anything that is not Windoze, but for whatever reason, he has it in his head that he hates it. LOL.

Also, Open Office works on all versions of Linux. Works nicely too, but want to know what I like about it best? No damn paper clip pestering me about crap I don't want to do. One of my favorite cartoons I ever saw was the Microsoft Office paper clip saying...

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vauge

A nerd after my own heart. If you were a woman dana... zomg

Here are a few others from distrowatch.com that fit on even smaller Flash Drives:

Damn Small Linux
Damn Small Linux is a business card size (50MB) live CD Linux distribution. Despite its minuscule size it strives to have a functional and easy to use desktop. Damn Small Linux has a nearly complete desktop, including XMMS (MP3, and MPEG), FTP client, links-hacked web browser, spreadsheet, email, spellcheck (US English), a word-processor, three editors (Nedit, nVi, Zile [emacs clone]), Xpdf, Worker (file manager), Naim (AIM, ICQ, IRC), VNCviwer, SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE, a web server, calculator, Fluxbox window manager, system monitoring apps, USB support, and soon it will have PCMCIA support as well. If you like Damn Small Linux you can install it on your hard drive. Because all the applications are small and light it makes a very good choice for older hardware.

Knopperdisk
Knopperdisk is a Linux distribution designed for a USB pen drive. It is based on Gentoo Linux and contains various programs and utilities, such as network-related tools.

Puppy Linux
Yes, Puppy Linux is yet another Linux distribution. What's different here is that Puppy is extraordinarily small, yet quite full featured. Puppy boots into a 64MB ramdisk, and that's it, the whole caboodle runs in RAM. Unlike live CD distributions that have to keep pulling stuff off the CD, Puppy in its entirety loads into RAM. This means that all applications start in the blink of an eye and respond to user input instantly. Puppy Linux has the ability to boot off a flash card or any USB memory device, CDROM, Zip disk or LS/120/240 Superdisk, floppy disks, internal hard drive. It can even use a multisession formatted CD-R/DVD-R to save everything back to the CD/DVD with no hard drive required at all!

I am soo jealous, I need to get a decent 3d card. I'm running Ubuntu on one of my older computers.

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rathi

Ubuntu is great. I installed it on someones computer and told them it was a special version of windows. Its been 4 months and they haven't complained so far. It finally managed to add a user-friendly touch and make the OS actually usable by the public. Its easier to install for scratch, and easier to get programs.
Linux still has its faults, but its not reached the point where most of the problems come from blatant market corruption not technical issues. The only real remaining flaw is the lack of replacement for directX to allow for high-end gaming.

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Hatuey

GREAT VIDEO! But what does it do other then give the average teenager a hard on from eye candy? Can it run Photoshop? What about 3DMAX? C4D? Illustrator? InDesign? Lightroom? What about cameras? Can it read RAW? NEF? Better then say a Leopard(Mac OS X v10.5)?

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Leftist Protozoa

I run Luddite v4.3 on my computer.

I was recently considering making the jump to Mac. But, I'm having some second thoughts. The price is a big issue, and the Mac I would want would require too many compromises (MacBook Air).

I thought about Linux, but I'm a little timid about trying a clean instal. My XP isn't perfect, but at least its faults are familiar to me (sort of like that perverted friend I've known since high school). I also watched a DVD titled Revolution OS, and I realized how limited my understanding of software really is. I'm trying to get better, and have even purchased some textbooks on learning Python and stuff like that. I've always been that kid who wanted to know more about what was going on inside the radio, but sucked at math.

I'm not sure Linux is for me.

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FallingPianos

I dont know what all of those programs are, but quite a few of them have open source alternatives. not necessarily good enough for a professional who does it for a living, but certain very powerful, and more than enough for an amateur.

blender for 3d animation, raw studio or ufraw for raw photo manipulation, the gimp for photo and image editing.

one problem I've had, is that I haven't figured out how to get linux to be able to read data directly off my digital rebel xti. I'm sure its probably possible, I just haven't figured out how. in the mean time, I've been having to use windows XP to export photos off it.

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FallingPianos

why choose? you can do a dual boot and have both linux and windows on your computer. when you start up your computer, you just choose which one you want to use.

also, many distributions including ubuntu have live CDs which allow you to load the OS into memory and run it completely off the CD. no permanent changes are made to your system unless you explicitly tell it to.

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Leftist Protozoa

I thought I read somewhere that it wasn't "free" like most people think. What about the data I already have on my computer? Will software designed for Linux open Microsoft Word documents? And, when I downlaod Linux, does it come bundled with basic software (like word processing and web browsing)? What if it screws up during the install? Who would I call?

I don't want to be a computer moron, but I've never seen answers to basic questions like this. I think that is one of the reasons Linux has such a small market share. Not because it's inferior or difficult.... but because most people (like me) haven't been force-fed the information. And, it it so much easier to just buy a laptop that Bill Gates has made idiot-proof (well, almost).

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FallingPianos

openoffice can read and write most microsoft office formats. there might be some exceptions for MS office 2007, but I'm not sure. there is an OpenOffice is available for windows, so you can try it out without using linux.

it depends on which distribution you get (and there are hundreds), but most of them come with lots of bundled software. ubuntu is currently the most popular distro. I think about a 3rd of linux users use it. people like it because its easy to use and comes with lots of bundled software. some of the programs it comes with include:

Gimp image editor - similar to photoshop
OpenOffice - a full office suite
firefox - web browser
pidgen - instant messaging
thunderbird - e-mail

all of the above programs have windows versions, so you can try them out.


many distributions, including ubuntu, have a live version. meaning that you can load linux from a disk without making any permanent changes to your system. it will take a bit longer to boot, and will run slower, since the entire OS is running in RAM, but since linux takes less system resources to begin with, you can expect it to run at similar speeds as windows.

this is really great for testing out hardware compatibility before you install, and just for messing around and seeing what linux can do before you actually decide to install it. if the liveCD works, its unlikely that you'll run into any problems installing it unless you're trying to do something complicated. even dual booting is pretty easy to do with ubuntu.

ubuntu has a large online community of users, as does linux in general. there are tons of forums where people can ask questions. with ubuntu, you can also pay for telephone technical support if you want to.

try a liveCD with ubuntu. seriously. if you like it, you can use the same CD to actually install ubuntu onto your computer.

you'll have to download a iso image file and burn it onto a CD or DVD. normal burning applications wont work for this, I use a free program called ImgBurn.


one major disadvantage to ubuntu, is that mp3 and most DVD viewing isnt enabled by default, because royalties are required. getting around it is very easy, you just have to know how to do it.

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Lachean

Its an operating system (so that means people can write any program you need for it), that can run windows applications, and games faster than windows.

Yes it can, and it also has some linux equivalents, that I would say is always about a version behind Photoshop. When you say 3DMAX do you mean 3D Studio Max, the 3d model design program? If so, no, but there are other more powerful open-source applications. You can also always emulate windows and run 3DMAX though.

Call to Duty 4? Its in WINE's list of supported games.

Not familiar with them, why don't you ask me if it has those kinds of programs, rather than specific ones.

Often when a new application is released, it takes a few weeks before the user community comes up with the support for it. Which is why I keep a dual boot of XP for new video games.

Wouldn't know, not my thing. Are you a Mac guy or a PC guy?

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At the root of every civilized achievement, such as science, technology, progress, freedom--at the root of every value we enjoy today, including the birth of this country--you will find the achievement of one man, who lived over two thousand years ago: Aristotle.