Some Linux questions...?

Question

ok, my whole life i've been a Windows fan. i always hated Mac. but recenlty i've been getting interested in Linux! i'm actually kind of curious about it and wanted to know the differences and stuff

-how stable is Linux? does it ever crash?

-is Linux faster then Windows? does it use less RAM/Processor? and how much does it use?

-i don't play many games on my PC, but some games like FEAR Combat, Total Annihilation, and Rollercoaster Tycoon i really like. i'm not much of a gamer, but i really would like to be able to play those games if i get Linux. would i be able to?

-can AVG 8.0 run on Linux?

-how much of your Hard Drive is needed for Linux?

-and what do i do about Drivers problems? where would i get the drivers i need for my PC to run Linux?

-i like comletely deleteing my cookies and history on my PC. in case a hacker or someone gets on my PC, i want to make sure no personal info is there and he can't get my Credit card numbers and banking info

i realize that there's quite a few questions there, but please try to answer the most you can. thanks :-)

Answer 1

-how stable is Linux? does it ever crash?

its regarded by "people in the know" as stable, but in my experience its about as crashy as windows, probably because a lot of the software is pre 1.0 release

-is Linux faster then Windows? does it use less RAM/Processor? and how much does it use?

Yes its faster. Depends what desktop environment you use (kde, gnome, xfce, etc) and what distro. Also depends on whether you use desktop effects (3d stuff like beryl, compiz, etc). But on the whole its potentially quicker than windows, especially on older machines (if its set up correctly)

-i don't play many games on my PC, but some games like FEAR Combat, Total Annihilation, and Rollercoaster Tycoon i really like. i'm not much of a gamer, but i really would like to be able to play those games if i get Linux. would i be able to?

Linux sucks for gaming. To see what windows games will run on it see http://appdb.winehq.org/ There arent many decent native linux games. Developers generally dont support it (there are a few exceptions though)

-can AVG 8.0 run on Linux?

No. Its not as susceptable to viruses as windoze. There are malware scanners available for it though.

-how much of your Hard Drive is needed for Linux?

From 0 (running from a usb or cd) to as many gb as you want to give it. Probably allow 3gig or something like that minimum.

-and what do i do about Drivers problems? where would i get the drivers i need for my PC to run Linux?

Depends on what hardware you want to run! - but you will need linux drivers. There are a couple of apps that will 'bend' windows drivers (ie for wireless cards) but for the most part you will need to find either proprietary or open source linux drivers. Your choice of distro will have a lot to do with its capacity for hardware reccognition, and also its important to run a recent kernal.

Id recommend ubuntu or kubuntu or mint

Answer 2

You are asking the extact same questions I had a year ago. Solution...Install Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. This will allow you to create multiple Linux virtual machines so you can try them yourself. I liked PcLinusOS and Ubunu the best.

Answer 3

I shall attempt to give you a Quick Answer Guide to your questions.

Here we go...

Linux is by far more stable than any Windows version.

Kernel crashes occur but they are by far more rare compared to even Windows Vista (I have been using Windows since 1992 all the way until Windows Vista...)

When you mean faster?

Genrally speaking, you will experience higher performance on your computer.

To put it simply, Windows Vista requires a minimum of 1GB of RAM to operate (the system it self that is, let alone other applications).

On any Linux distro, 512MB or RAM is adequate to run the kernel, the GUI and serveral memory hungry apps the same time :-)

Forget running native Windows OS based games on Linux.

Unless you use the Cedega software, which is extra and it costs.

AVG? Why??? Linux is immune to Windows viruses...

In order to have a perfectly running system, you will need a minimum of 10GB of space on your hard drive (do not follow guidelines that say you need a minimum of 2GB. Do not limit your horizons that much :-) )

As far as security is concerned, I will only say this :

                                          Mozilla Firefox

It is the default browser used in most major Linux distros.

It beats IE hands down in every aspect!

Most likely you will not need any extra drivers. The latest the Linux kernel, the more hardware is automaticall supported (generally speaking, Linux kernel has built in support for 20% more hardware than Windows Vista does)

To make things even more simple, go to www.ubuntu.com and download the .iso file of the Ubuntu distro.

Burn it on a CD, reboot the system with the Ubuntu disk in and it will run as it, without installing anything on the system.

This is called a LiveCD.

It is a perfect way to test drive your computer hardware and see if everything works out of the box.

Feel free to email me with ANY questions you might have...

************************

Edit : For a first time user, I definitely recommend the Ubuntu distro.

http://www.ubuntu.com

It is the distribution that has convinced 7 people I know to make the switch from Windows to Linux.

So go for it.

And one last piece of advice : If you are really serious about it, either get an extra hard drive for your Linux installation or use...  Wubi.

Wubi is an officially supported Ubuntu installer for Windows users that can bring you to the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application, in a simple and safe way. Are you curious about Linux and Ubuntu? Trying them out has never been easier!

For more info, click the following link  :

http://wubi-installer.org/

Answer 4

Hi there!

Well, I've just switched to Linux so hopefully I can help you somewhat.

Linux is generally much more stable than windows, I have myself had a few apps crash but rather then wait 20 minutes for windows to start responding (and tell me 20 times that a program is not responding ...well, duh!) it's usually just a case of turning the app off and starting again (the whole system doesn't go down when an app crashes).

Is Linux faster? Well, yes and no, depending. If you're running Linux puppy (a whopping 100MB for the whole OS) you can run Linux from ram, if you like ...generally I believe it's a faster system (though I'm still new) ...certainly my distro (Ubuntu studio) is faster than xp. I know linux is easier on ram, but i couldn't give you figures.

I'm no gamer, but I think they would usually run under a program called WINE (Wine is not an emulator) so have a check here: http://appdb.winehq.org/

Drivers unfortunately are a royal pain in the butt. If you've got an ati graphics card, soundblaster soundcard (at least nothing too rare)  and can get by with wired internet you should be working out of the box ...there usually are work arounds, but it can be a pain (especially when you don't know the system).

Saying that, there are plenty of guides if you don't mind getting stuck in (it's so worth it).

Hard drive space ....8gb should be more than plenty (it uses a different file format so you need somewhere to put your programs.

AVG 8.0 on Linux ...lol, why? I'm guessing no because linux works in a different way to windows, there is a virus scanner in the repositories, but I hear linux is the most secure os around. Cookies etc are firefox territory I guess.

Which linux version? I've only really used ubuntu, which seems to be the favorite amongst noobs, it's pretty d**n good (check out awn manager and gnome-do, and of course tomboy notes)

Oh, a heads up -be very very careful with your install ...partition two drives beforehand if you can (different sizes to the rest ..drive names will not show up) -otherwise like my dad you may completely loose your windows install.

Answer 5

To add to the existing (very good) answers:

One of the good things about Linux is that it's open source so any bugs get squashed pretty quickly (compared to Windows - XP still has major bugs, which will never be fixed now).  If it crashes, there's someone out there (more likely a lot of someones) working to fix it soonest.

Oh, the availability of free (and open source) software for almost every function is nice too.

And I concur with Ubuntu - I still support a few older PCLinuxOS BE servers, but I run Ubuntu on my own computers (and a few at the office).

Answer 6

Reliability/Stability

The majority of Linux variants and versions are notoriously reliable and can often run for months and years without needing to be rebooted.

System Requirements

Overall Linux makes better use of system resources.

Gaming

Linux support for gaming is poor.

Security

Linux is very secure.No bloated anti-virus software is necessary.

Hard Drive

On average 10gb is ample.

Hardware Detection

Many Linux distros. are very good at self installing the necessary  drivers.

Cookies

Most Linux distros. come with the ultra secure Firefox 3 as default. Cookies are collected as with any other web browser, but these are easily disabled.

Here are some Linux distros. worth considering

Mandriva 2008.1 Spring http://www.mandriva.com/

SimplyMEPIS 7.0 http://www.mepis.org/

Ubuntu 7.10 http://releases.ubuntu.com/7.10/ (My Preference)

Ubuntu 8.04.1 http://releases.ubuntu.com/hardy/

Linux Mint 5.0 http://www.linuxmint.com/

All are easy to install and easy to use.

I would perhaps suggest you select Linux Mint 5.0 for starters as it has much of the software you are likely to use preinstalled.

I have only skimmed the surface here. To find out more about Linux check out this link http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/

If you already have a Windows installation. You can install Ubuntu 8.04.1 using Wubi installer. You keep Windows as it is, Wubi http://wubi-installer.org/ only adds an extra option to boot into Ubuntu. Wubi does not require you to modify the partitions of your PC, or to use a different bootloader, and does not install special drivers.

Wubi keeps most of the files in one folder, and if you do not like it, you can simply uninstall it as any other application.

LUg.