a few questions about linux...

[fizler]

never have i ever run or even seen a computer with linux on it..but i am interested in it.. can anyone answer these questions for me...

#1 is it pretty user friendly?
#2 does the G@H client run faster on it? (thats a big one!)
#3 what version should a "normal" user install? I don't do graphics, programming or anything professonal......

thanks for any help with my questions

fizler

[phil]

1) Linux is a lot more "friendly" than it used to be. I am a relative newbie myself although I have tried most of the major distributions in the last couple of years, I find Mandrake is the more flashy and seems to hold your hand the most. My personal favourite is Red Hat. It looks good and works great and isn't that hard to setup.

2) I tried an experiment a while back with the same WU running on Win2K and RH and it was slightly quicker on Linux but not massively so.

3) I like Red Hat 7.1. It installs very easily and you can either go for a default "workstation" install and allow the PC to setup your machine or customise even further by choosing individual programs, partitioning you HD etc. Something for everyone.

[MechCD]

I agree with phil there.

You need to be at least a medium advanced windows user to do any good in linux. you don't need to know how to program, but you do need to know about your hardware nd how your hardware works, etc.

[fizler]

i consider myself to be an windows expert.. i also do a little programming in c++ so i guess linux is going to work out for me fine!

[MechCD]

You should do fine then :) I recommend the RedHAt distros, they are popular and have RPMs so ya don't have to worry about compile errors from wrong version dependancies. Check out my thread, "More fun problems for me" to see the joy of RPMs and the evil of compiling stuff on different kernel versions