What is the best linux?

Wig

With microsoft being so expensive, is there a good free alternative now?

Is it impossible for linux to run windows based programs?

I would only need a photo viewer and media player, and maybe word processor, spreadsheet maybe? These must be available in Linux?

I could maybe keep 2 machines, one with Win 98 on for Windows office 97 (which is what I use currently), and the other with my Linux applications on.

What version of linux should I be looking for and where to download from?

When I have it and say I theoretically have myself a new computer with a blank new harddrive, what is the process for installing the linux from scratch, including the format of the hard drive?

Will the installation be as simple as a new windows installation would be? Or maybe easier?

gaming_guy

on ubuntu, you have openoffice (equivelent to MS office).

as for running windows apps, you can run wine or something like virtualbox which allows you to run windows in a virtual machine

fermi

Plenty of info out there on migrating.

For example..........

http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-mandriva-one-2009.0-gnome

[Deleted User]

Wig wrote: »

With microsoft being so expensive, is there a good free alternative now?

You'll get a lot of recommendatins for Ubuntu, as it's made moves to make the transition from Windows to Linux the easiest of the distros available.

What is the spec of the machine you're putting it on?

Is it impossible for linux to run windows based programs?

No, you can use WINE. It's still a bit hit and miss, but the larger software titles shouldn't have a problem.

I would only need a photo viewer and media player, and maybe word processor, spreadsheet maybe? These must be available in Linux?

Of course, Picasa for photos, VideoLan for Media and OpenOffice for your word processing and spreadsheet.

asininity

Any program windows has theres a linux alternative, admittedly the names generally bare no resemblance as to what they do.

As to which is the best, well that depends on what you're using it for and what you're running it on. On older machines I'd personally use either Xubuntu or if its real old Puppy Linux or Damn Small Linux.

maxamos

The only problem I've found with Linux is using external hardware (i.e printers and scanners) as a lot of manufacturers don't provide drivers. I use a dual boot system with XP and Ubuntu with a swap file so I can do all my work in Linux and then use XP to access my printer - very easy to make both systems read each others files although I would recommend making a third partion on your computer as a swap file.
I find Linux quicker and pretty much all the disrto's come with everything you're asking for for free.

HTH Max

Wig

The current machine is

AMD Athlon XP 2400
2000Mhz
L1 cache 128KB
L2 cache 256KB
Total memory 256MB
DDR 1 256MB/ 166Mhz (DDR333)
DDR2 empty
DDR3 empty
On an ASRock K7S8X motherboard

Hard Drive roughly 73GB (which is 90% full but most of it will be deleted and not transferred to the new hard drive)

But I'll be getting a new Hard Drive - what would be seen as a standard size to go for these days?

As for the machine, I am open to building a new one. or buying one complete if it's cheaper.


I only use the computer for the internet, and word/XL documents photograph storage and watching a video file. I play an online game called Enemy Territory (which is free btw, if you are interested in that sort of thing.) Which also has a linux version, I found out.

eamon

Your PC is a similar spec to mine. My PC had XP (sp2) and many years of updates, patches etc. But was so slow. Anyway have now installed xubuntu and it fires up in less than 2 minutes. I'm still in the process of working out what software will work with it but so far no issues that worry me. The only problem that I've got is that the shutdown procedure will not work, but that is what the off button is far. On a plus side the machine doesn't need anti-virus of a firewall.
Go for it.

robredz

Xubuntu would be a good choice, as it needs less RAM than Ubuntu, why not download the iso for Puppy, this is a very compact distro that would also run very well, and has a supportive online community and easy (relatively) updating system. You can try it as a live cd without altering your system once you have burnrd the iso to a disk, and would run better from the cd than Xubuntu in 256 Mb

Zahc

I use ubuntu on a low spec Toshiba Satellite and it a lot faster and more stable than Vista Home Basic it came with. The Ubuntu community is vast and very helpful, and once you get the hang of the way it all works it really is very easy. The only thing folk might miss is the games, but that's not a problem for me.
I especially like the way you can tweak everything about ubuntu to suit your needs; I dare say you can do this with any of the linux distros.

Zahc

robredz

With a reasonable spec, Windows games run fine under Wine in Linux, I have various games running this way, including Half Life2 with steam. There are also plenty of games out there that run on Linux natively.