Any Decent free operating systems?

jbreckmckye

Variants of Linux? Here's a quick rundown of the *major* distributions:

- Ubuntu is a large, well supported variant, which has a lot of support for linux newbies. Lots of software supports it, finding help on the internet is easy. Supports several vista-like features.
- Debian is very stable, very safe, very sturdy, but has a smaller community, and doesn't update very often.
- Mandriva is very user friendly, but the developers are split over several organizations, and this makes it harder to find support when necessary. There's no official 'Mandriva HQ' you can reach.
- PCLinuxOS is great for those familiar with Windows, doesn't take full advantage of 64-bit machines.
- Gentoo can be very fast, very clean, and offers customization options you'll rarely see anywhere else - the flipside is that you are expected to be very familiar with Linux, and responsible for your own mistakes. Not recommended unless you know the ins and outs of Linux very well.
- Puppy is a small distro that can run effectively on old machines. Can't take advantage of newer machines like your own, though - no Vista-like features.

Snooze

bat999 wrote: »

The day that Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck will be the day that it starts making vacuum cleaners.

PMSL @ your signature. Very good! :rotfl: :T

OwtForNowt

Thankyou for all your replies.

I'll have to download one at the end of the week. My Windows 7 runs out in 8 days so iv got time.

It may sound like a silly question but what will i need to download one of them? A blank CD? Or will it just download straight from the site?

I'm not affraid of change, i was the first one in our road to try a pizza with a 'stuffed crust', it caused quite a stir. lol

Baldur

OwtForNowt wrote: »

Thankyou for all your replies.

I'll have to download one at the end of the week. My Windows 7 runs out in 8 days so iv got time.

It may sound like a silly question but what will i need to download one of them? A blank CD? Or will it just download straight from the site?

I'm not affraid of change, i was the first one in our road to try a pizza with a 'stuffed crust', it caused quite a stir. lol

Download the .iso file to your hard disk, then burn the .iso image to a CD - don't copy the file to a CD or it won't work, use your particular CD burning program's setting to 'burn image to CD' or whatever your program calls it.

bat999

Like Baldur said ^^^^^

Hi
Download the file from the website onto your hard drive.
The files are usually around 700MB. Often we download them using the bit-torrent system.
Burn it to a CD-R or CD-RW.
In your burning program see if there's an option to 'burn image' or 'burn iso'.
When that's done, put the new disc into your CD drive and reboot your computer.
As it boots, some information will be loaded into RAM and you'll be able to run the Operating System from the 'Live CD'
It will run sluggishly, but will prove whether it's compatible with your computer and other hardware.
There will be an option, somewhere on the desktop, to install.
Don't install it until you're sure.

OwtForNowt

Ok, thanks again for all your help.

kevsan

Remember, also before you install to backup any data you've got on the laptop that you want to key, to cd / usb drive etc..

bat999

Hi
If you decide to use Mint there are several different versions, the one to go for is 'Linux Mint 8 Helena - Main Edition'.
This is the download site:-http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=44
The filename is 'LinuxMint-8.iso'.

gonzo127

well i will 1+ ubuntu however add in that if you want MSN messenger to try aMSN looks and feels just like MSN

i currently run vista 64 (shudder) on my gaming system mainly because of the games i also run ubuntu 9.04 on a OLD dell ultraportable laptop with a single 1.4ghz CPU 512mb ram and a 40gb HDD and it runs as smooth and quickly as vista 64 on my duel core 3ghz cpu 4gb ram etc

with ubuntu you will need to download the ubuntu ristricted extras package to get full media abilities from it, as due to ideology about what can be part of the basic package some codecs are not included as standard, but this is easy enough due to the way ubuntu gets its software, basically it uses a central repository for all approved software so no going to this website that website etc you just go into the software centre/package manager and search for your package tick a box and click install then bobs your uncle it does all the rest for you easy peasy

as for 'the transition' my 13 year old step daughter easily goes between the main windows system and the ubuntu laptop, yes there was a couple of inital teething problems which lasted a couple of weeks but that was only down to not knowing which program did what

OwtForNowt

Ok thanks.

I dont really have any data on here to save, I only use it to surf the web. All my files were on my old PC thats gone (including a game of FM where i was 187 games undefeated :mad: )

Cheers for all your help, much appreciated.