What is a user friendly Linux OS?
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at
11:42
I am looking to switch my computer from running XP to just about anything else. I have heard about good open source apps for linux based PCs. I use my computer for music, word processing, internet and not much else. Could i still use XP on my computer when necessary?
Ideas, anyone?
Thanks!
Tagged with: Linux • music • open source apps • word processing
Filed under: Linux
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Ubuntu.
You can go to http://www.ubuntu.org and download a cd image and burn it to a cd. Or they can mail you one for free. You boot off the cd, and with that you can install linux. Most distributions come with office software thats compatible with ms office file types, along with functional clones of most other popular applications.
Ubuntu’s differentiator is
1. it comes in a zillion languages
2. it’s easy to use
3. it tends to ‘just work’.
4. installing software is easier (in my experience) than anything else. its package manager, synaptic, allows you to search up what you want, select a batch of programs, and download and install them all automatically. All in one place. What’s more, you can upgrade all the software you have, including the linux kernel, at once, with a few clicks.
You can keep XP. What you want to do is to resize your xp partition to make room, or install linux on another drive. You need 15 gigs free, tops. 10′s fine. 1 gig for ‘swap’.
To do this, first defrag your disk to get all the data on one side. The resizer will just chop off the last few gigs no matter what’s on there, so margin of error is good.
Then you can just resize your xp partition as part of the ubuntu install, it will detect your windows install and give you the choice of what operating system you want to use at boot.
If your computer’s fast and comes with a nvidia card and you like eye candy, there’s a package called compiz-fusion you may want to look at.
If your computer’s not fast and a bit old, you may want to try xubuntu or an older version of ubuntu (6.06 preferably) so it doesnt run so slow. Ubuntu’s competitive with vista in more ways than one, if you know what i’m sayin’.
Ubuntu comes with an interface called GNOME. It’s pretty simple, not very configurable. It may sound wierd to a windows user, but you can change that window manager out for something else. An alternative is KDE, which is slightly more similar to windows, except it is extremely customizable.
get a copy of Fedora. yes you can have dual boots of OS. install fedora 1st then windows (windows bootloader has sometimes troubl)
You can burn an ISO with this download and run as a temporary install to try it without changing your XP
I have it it looks nice
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download