What should i know before buying a linux pc?

What are the things that aren't so good about linux?

What should i know before buying a linux pc?
hardly any software works on it and if you don't understand source code then forget getting linux, i used it for a few months and it was a waste of time, don't bother, go for windows xp, not vista, yet. forget what people tell you about linux being better than windows, it isnt, those people just want to be different and probably like the smell of their own foeces
Reply:everything.
Reply:About the only "bad" things I have found with Linux is the lack of drivers for webcams, which is not the fault of Linux, but because the manufacturers won't provide the information necessary to write the drivers. I haven't found any problems with programs using Ubuntu Linux. It is quite user friendly, you don't need to know how to write code or anything. Almost everything you want to do can be done with programs written specifically for Linux.
Reply:Don't know about that guy above me but I was an early employee at a company that made linux computers and was eventually sold for billions of dollars.





So we must have done something right :)





Here is the short answer:





A Linux PC is no different from any other PC. You can run Linux on the PC you already have.





In fact, unlike Windows, you can run Linux on PCs that don't have enough horsepower for MS anymore.





It won't cost you anything to try. there are any number of free, bootable cds or dvds available that will run but not write to your hard drive.





Here is what you do:





I suggest starting with the knoppix version, located at knoppix.org. It has great hardware support, and a very good sampling of all kinds of software for you to try out, already installed and ready to go.





If you can boot from DVD, load the DVD version instead of the CD for even more software to try.





If you want, you can install Linux and Windows at the same time on your hard drive and choose which one to use at boot time. But play around with the bootable DVD a while first.





I have both windows and linux pcs at home. I use a linux machine for 98% of my desktop work these days.





Here are things I can do that you probably will want to do to:





1 - browse the internet using firefox browser


2 - send email using any number of email clients that are also available on windows


3 - edit photos


4 - create and view flash movies


5 - create and view pdf files


6 - create and edit microsoft office files using OpenOffice or other similar applications


7 - network with all of the other computers on my network


8 - any p2p application you want








Here are some things I can do with linux that I can't do with windows easily:





1 - run a web server


2 - run a email server


3 - run a ftp server


4 - run an ssh server


5 - run a game server


6 - virtualization - the PC I am using to type this is actually acting as about 6 PCs right now for all intents and purposes, making much better use of my hardware instead of having it sit around idle all the time,





and so much more





Most importantly, for Linux, there is a community of people to help you, and if a program doesn't work, someone is always working to fix it, or you can fix it yourself if you are so inclined.





Try that with a windows application sometime :)





Here are windows things I can do that are not needed on a linux system:





1 - worry about viruses





The cost of a Linux system is always free, as in speech, and as in beer.





knoppix is a sort of "everything including the kitchen sink: distribution - another one I like that is less complete and well worth considering is PCLinuxOS.





Others look towards ubuntu.org for beginners and desktop support in the community. You can try their bootable disks too. I am sure they are fine, but I haven't used them personally yet.





All they cost to try is the time it takes to download, burn an iso image, and reboot your PC. For your protection, they won't write to your hard drive, so there is no risk at all. What are you waiting for? :)








OK, that wasn't so short, but if someone asked why windows, it wouldn't be too short either. Linux is a VERY mature operating system, and so there is lots to say.
Reply:The newest Open SUSE is the closest thing to a windows like computer. It has come a long ways in development. It's only quirk is how slow it loads the system up, but once running it is fairly fast.
Reply:You will be unable to buy software created just for Window's-based computers until emulators have been created. (Not clear when this will take place.)





But most major applications (word processing, photo processing etc) have been written for Linux, and many of these are free!
Reply:linux is really good for modding and for editing because it is open script and it is great for developers. I would suggest this if you are into that kind of stuff. But other than that, i don't think linux really has too many other features if you don't know script and don't know a lot of computer programming





if you have a windows pc you can download a trial version of linux and use both windows and linux on the same system. It might be a little complex to configure the computer to run both (i think there is some software out that will help you run two OS [operating systems i.e. windows, apple mac...]) but in the long run, i will save you money if you don't really need a new computer for linux. ]





heres the link to download linux


http://www.smarter.com/---se--qq-Downloa...


It may be an older version. but it will give you the overall feel for linux