Questions about Linux

As a beginner

[zeus]

This or the next month Im gonna get a new computer and I would like to have Linux as operating system.

The question is:

1. Is it possible to play any PC games
2. Can I have any software on the system, like from Microsoft (frontpage,word... (we cant live with or without them)

Like I said Im totaly new to Linux, but I want a secure system, so Microsoft is not the way to go.

zeus

[Rincewind]

You probably won't be able to play the windows based games you already have. As for MS Office. Well you won't be able to use that either. However there are loads of other programs that you can use instead. Not only are they often cheaper than the windows equivelent, but they are also, often, much better quallity. A browse through some Linux community sites should provide you with links to the relevent replacements. Many of the alternative software will have windows siblings to you can try them out on your current system first if you like.

[zeus]

What do they offer for a webmaster that is use to have frontpage, thanks

zeus

[Farix]

Learn to write HTML directly. Seriously, you will eventually have to wing yourself off of the WYSIWY[M]G editors at some point. And this is just as good a time as any.

[wruk999]

zeus,

Your most common microsoft office programs come in the flavour of Openoffice for linux.

this thread talks about its update to version 1.1

[webmasterworld.com...]

wruk999

[wruk999]

This thread may also help in regard to the wysiwyg problem.

[webmasterworld.com...]

Seems like the Mozilla and IBM SiteBuilder options are the only real way to go

wruk999

[encyclo]

And some first-hand experiences of switching here: [webmasterworld.com...]

I moved over to Linux last year, and there's no way I'm going back. However, I must admit that it is a big change, and you should think carefully beforehand in identifying your needs. If gaming is important, Linux is perhaps not ideal. As for MS Office, OpenOffice 1.1 is an excellent replacement unless you need MS Access (there is no real equivalent in Linux). Mozilla is very good as a browser and email client, but if you need to connect to an Exchange server in a corporate envoronment, it's more difficult.

The best way to get the feel of some of the applications in Linux is to download the Windows versions beforehand and see if you like them. OpenOffice 1.1 for Windows can be downloaded from openoffice.org, and can be installed next to MS Office with no problems. Try it and see if it can open all your Office documents, and whether it works to your liking. Could you live with it? Hey, you may prefer it to MS Office (I do!). Go to mozilla.org and download Mozilla 1.6 for Windows. Import your email, and use the browser to visit your favorite sites. It's a great browser, with pop-up blocking, great standards support and a whole host of other features. It's streets ahead of IE in my opinion, but what do you think? Same goes for loads of other open source programs. Think of it as "try before you buy"!

If you do choose to go for Linux, you need to find a "distribution" - that is, a flavour of Linux which suits your needs. Linux offers a huge choice, and it can be difficult to find your way at first. I would strongly recommend looking at Mandrake Linux, from www.mandrakelinux.com. The current version is 9.2. It is the easiest distribution to install, it includes only 100% free software, is downloadable as 3 ISO images (which you can burn directly to 3 CDs). Put the first CD in, choose the defaults for everything, and you'll get a great system with very little hassle.

Good luck!

PS. Don't forget Linux, Unix and *nix like Operating System forum [webmasterworld.com] here at WebmasterWorld, where there are loads of people to help out when you get stuck.

[hartlandcat]

The main problem with Linux is that, with the exception of the limited number of commercial programs, there is no graphical installer, and most installations of most programs have to be done via the command line. And the problem is, very few of these programs actually give you full instructions on how to install the programs. What doesn't help is that different distros do things slightly differently. Most install tutorials are written for RedHat, so if you use a different distro such as SuSE (like I did), it won't necessarily work the same. The overall attitude with Linux is that you're "supposed to know". Most guides telling you how to do various things miss out important things which they assume you already know. Most of the time, if you're a newbie, you don't.

I used Linux as a secondary OS (the primary being Windows) for about 6 months. I finally decided that I couldn't cope with it, and bought a Mac instead. I haven't looked back, and I now use Mac OS X as my primary operating system.

If you really must have Linux as the operating system on your next computer (although I would definately recommend that you got a Mac instead), then you should probably go with one of those super-easy distros like LindowsOS.

The other advantages to getting a Mac would be that you would be able to run Microsoft Office and some of the games which you had on Windows (even if it would mean buying them again). Other operating systems that where it's easy to install software are OS/2 Warp and BeOS. You might want to consider one of them, although unfortunately, they seem to be two of those OSs that are just "no longer supported".

[zeus]

Thanks everybody for the great replys, about LindowsOS I have looked at and it looks great.

About to buy a mac, I had a mac ones it was great, but the problem is you can not upgrade the hardware and you can not use every software.

I hope Linux will soon be able to accept every software like Microsoft or maybe its time to buy to computers linux for the internet and Microsoft for fun and webmaster stuff.
zeus

[hartlandcat]

About to buy a mac, I had a mac ones it was great, but the problem is you can not upgrade the hardware and you can not use every software.

Not true. It's perfectly possibly to add more RAM, upgrade the hard drive, as well as a whole catalogue of other things with Macs. As for the not being able to use all software... do you honestly think that most of the software you use already will run under Linux? You said that you couldn't live without Microsoft Office. You can run that on a Mac, but you can't on Linux.

[ergophobe]

First, if you absolutely must have some windows apps, you can get a windows emulator that will allow you to run anything (you will still need to install Windows, but it will run within Linux and you can do this in reverse as well).

Second

I want a secure system, so Microsoft is not the way to go.

This is only partly an OS issue and mostly an operator issue. I don't want to get into a flame war, but the vast majority of *nix system out there are probably not very secure (read Herb Kohl's Cuckoo's Egg, which though old, but things are probably worse now). They aren't hit as much because they are a smaller target and many virus propagators don't have access to a *nix machine. If one distro of Linux were to achieve 90% of the desktop and server market, they would be getting hit all the time.

Most attacks that have seriously crippled Windows machines lately exploited security holes that MS had patched as many as six months earlier, but so many people fail to install the patches, regardless of which OS they use.

I think securing a system you know well is likely to give better results than installing a system you know nothing about and making it publicly available. *nix is not inherently secure. It needs to be made that way. That said, if you were an expert in both systems, you would probably have a more solid setup with *nix. If you are a neophyte, you are unlikely to be very secure unless you unplug the machine from the world (I used to work at a place that ran classified stuff on *nix systems and that's what they did - it could only run on a machine that was not connected to any network - and they had serious computer security people). Short of that, everything is more or less vulnerable.

Tom