Reply to Re: Considering OS switch from Vista
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I've been using Ubuntu since 2008 and I now definitely prefer it over Windows. I'm more in control as it only takes action when I say so, not when it feels like and this becomes more noticeable when you haven't used Windows for a while. The lack of viruses and malware is also a relief, no more annoying messages of the virus scanner.
Ubuntu is currently the standard of the Linux desktop, as alternative for Windows and Mac OS X. There are other Linux distributions as well and you can try those as well if you like. It mainly depends on what you want to do with it: text editing, browsing the web, and so on can be done in any distribution but some are more catered towards certain users, such as those with slow computers.
Many Windows applications have a free equivalent that you can use instead. If you're using Firefox to browse the web, you're already settled for browsing the web. For Word, we have OpenOffice and for WordPad, we have gedit, and so on.
For games and other Windows applications that have no free equivalent, you can use Wine (www.winehq.org/). Quite a few games are known to work with that or with only minor issues. In the AppDB, you can see how well a particular application/game is supported: http://appdb.winehq.org/ . For example, I've played Team Fortress 2 through this method and it works pretty well, aside from minor graphical glitches. There are also some games that you can try, like the first-person shooter Urban Terror. If you're looking for really the latest DirectX 10 graphical accomplishments, it probably won't work.
If you have any particular questions, just post them here.
Ubuntu is currently the standard of the Linux desktop, as alternative for Windows and Mac OS X. There are other Linux distributions as well and you can try those as well if you like. It mainly depends on what you want to do with it: text editing, browsing the web, and so on can be done in any distribution but some are more catered towards certain users, such as those with slow computers.
Many Windows applications have a free equivalent that you can use instead. If you're using Firefox to browse the web, you're already settled for browsing the web. For Word, we have OpenOffice and for WordPad, we have gedit, and so on.
For games and other Windows applications that have no free equivalent, you can use Wine (www.winehq.org/). Quite a few games are known to work with that or with only minor issues. In the AppDB, you can see how well a particular application/game is supported: http://appdb.winehq.org/ . For example, I've played Team Fortress 2 through this method and it works pretty well, aside from minor graphical glitches. There are also some games that you can try, like the first-person shooter Urban Terror. If you're looking for really the latest DirectX 10 graphical accomplishments, it probably won't work.
If you have any particular questions, just post them here.
