what is Linux??

The Master

2007-11-26 14:05:52 UTC

well,well....I *know* its an operating system,but can i do everything on linux which i do on windows xp??

> Technically you can you just need to look into linux a little first and see what you can do with it.

>>can i surf the net,listen to my music,make office docs & play games on linux??

> Yes, There is mozilla firefox, opera, epiphany and konquerer which are graphical webbrowsers and there is links for command line browsing. Openoffice, Gnomeoffice, Koffice and star office are all office programs that run through linux. Or you can run some of microsoft office through wine a windows emulator. Music there are a buttload of free media players where you can watch videos or just listen to music like atunes, amorok, vlc media player and mplayer. Games you can play some windows directx games through this proprietary wine product called cedega or you can use wine. There are also so many little games and free projects for linux and some proprietary software for linux also.

>>Does it have a good Graphical user interface & easy to install?

> Depending on the distro, Ubuntu comes with an easy installer and the Gnome graphical desktop.

>>Do windows software,games,firewall,AV etc.work with it or i'll have to download software exclusively for linux?

> They only work if a program is made to work through wine or cedega or crossover office (all wine based) you don't really need a firewall or antivirus because the market share for linux is low and there is an almost 0 percent chance you will ever get a virus in linux and there is no spyware.

>>Are there some reasons why i should migrate from windows to linux?

> Linux is safer and built better and is faster than windows.

>>i am interested in "Live CD" linux which i dont need to install....Are these distributions good enough?

> Ubuntu is a live CD and can be installed get one and try it out!

>>Please recommend some live cd distributions which suite my requirements.(from where can i download them?)

> Ubuntu, Knoppix and a few others check out http://www.distrowatch.com

>>which one's better--windows,mac or linux?

> It is all personal preference just try something.

currently im running windows xp sp2 ,256MB RAM.pentium4

MarnenLK

2007-11-25 06:41:51 UTC

Try one of the Ubuntu distributions ( http://www.ubuntu.com ). They generally do everything you ask about, and live CD images are available for download.

As far as why you should switch from Windows...well...no viruses on Linux! That's a big plus right there. And you're not tied to an inefficient, poorly designed operating system.

For a desktop operating system, though, you can't beat Mac OS X. It's BSD Unix (stable and secure) with a proprietary graphical layer (easy to use) on top of it. If you're getting a new computer, I *highly* recommend a Mac. No viruses here either (and it will run Windows and Linux if you're desperate for some other OS).

anonymous

2007-11-26 04:31:40 UTC

You can do _everything_ with Linux that you can do with Windows XP. There will be an exceptions of some games that are written exclusively for Windows.

That apart, if you used Nero burner to burn optical discs on Windows, you'll use K3b or GnomeBaker on Linux. If you used Notepad on XP, you'll use gedtit or kate on Linux. That is to say, the Windows XP way of doing a thing will differ from Linux way of doing the same thing.

As long as you are willing to learn a new way of living(on Linux that is,), you'll find Linux good.

Try Debian or Ubuntu if you are a new comer to Linux. When you graduate, have a look at Slackware or Gentoo as well.

There is Minix 3, GNU/Hurd, OpenSolaris, *BSDs, Plan 9 for free (but at various levels before reaching the point that Windows or Linux is at today). Some will never be usable if you are not willing to goof up with your computer. Look around to find out which ones.

ndowens04

2007-11-26 09:46:40 UTC

well you could surf the net(according if your network card is supported in linux which is most likely), listen to music(streaming music look at previous parenthesis, if on cd then yes) and also if your sound card is support by linux too, but generally linux supports a lot of hardware and it gets better as it get goes, there are some games u can play like i heard world of warcraft and i think diablo(not for sure on this one), some windows software will work with a program called WINE, some games, linux has it's own firewall, no need for a antivirus. reason i like linux to answer ur reason to go to linux is, security, stability and of course free. ubuntu is one livecd, there are others, u can find more on distrowatch.com which not all on that list is livecd but you can find them there too. ubuntu.com opensuse.org fedoraproject.org(i think has a live cd available)

Beau

2007-11-25 09:07:05 UTC

Linux is A trademark for an open-source version of the UNIX operating system.

TJ

2007-11-25 06:27:48 UTC

I just read this the other day it was helpful.

anonymous

2007-11-25 06:29:53 UTC

You could type less and find more,Google is your friend!