Linux users please give advice!?!

[jman1310]

Hey all,

My girlfriend is writing a paper comparing linux and windows.
She keeps asking me about the differences and what linux can do, but I have no real idea....

So...

Are there linux programs that are compatible with Word, Excel, Powerpoint...?
if so are they free?

Any recent converts out there, How hard would it be for an average user (someone who used windows for a couple of years) to buy and install Red Hat, Lindows, or DL and install from an ISO? Is this like learning a new language or is it relatively easy?

List major advantages of each?

Gaming? Is it possible in linux? (only talking about major titles like Diablo and Doom3) Does it require dual booting?

If you dual boot (or more...) why? does one OS have such advantages but include disadvantages that make it worthwhile to have 2 OSs (read that 2x the problems)

Thanks guys

No flamewars here, just looking for honest help and experience!

[pHaestus]

Here's my opinion as a long time Windows user who had to set up a Linux box to do some work-related coding/data analysis.

There is a free office application www.openoffice.org that is good enough for most casual users of spreadsheets and word processing. I tried to switch over to using this on Windows too, but it completely garbled a lot of my Word docs made in office 2003 so I quickly switched back. If this isn't good enough for you then there are programs like WINE (Windows emulator) that let you run common windows apps within Linux. There is some performance hit doing this but no huge deal.

Graphics packages: There's the Gimp for Linux (photoshop clone) and it isn't horrible by any stretch of the imagination but it isn't nearly as intuitive, user friendly, or full-featured as Photoshop. Ok for general/casual usage but not really for "pros" (sensing a trend here?)

Normal apps: Browsing, e-mail, chat, etc: Firefox is what I use in Windows so no IE is no big deal to me. There is no program like Outlook 2003 available if you need a complete package; you can cobble together a mix of calendar apps and Thunderbird e-mail client but it's not ready for prime time compared to Outlook 2003. It's a fine Outlook Express replacement though. You can use GAIM for all your chatting needs and it works quite well. There are plenty of "good enough" media players for Linux and all the codecs are available. I haven't come across a burning application I like nearly as well as Nero for Linux.

Gaming is something I am not too familiar with, but presumably having no DirectX support, very minimal driver support, and no concern from developers makes gaming a mixed bag. If it runs in OpenGL then you should be fine; if not then you may have to run a Windows Emulator to play. Others may be more familiar than I am with this.

I initially set up the work machine to dual boot Linux (Mandrake 9.1) and Windows 2000, but with all the RPC exploits and service packs and patches that come out daily I had some security issues. Students would dual boot it back to an unpatched Windows box every few weeks and then get hit with trojans and exploits and spyware from the network or the web. For this reason I think I would prefer a separate Linux box to a dual boot scenario. Plus you learn a lot faster this way.

Install is pretty much painless. Mandrake detected my NIC and network and went to the web to update all its packages prior to install and everything detected fine and "just worked". This was an older generic TBird 1.4 box running pretty standard hardware though.

As far as my overall feeling goes I think Linux is great for servers, ok for specialized work apps, and not worth the hassle for a desktop of a windows power user. For someone not familiar with Windows or modern computing (a grandma) it's probably just fine though. If I wanted to mess around with *nix seriously on the desktop, I'd buy an Apple and get all the advantages of BSD with a slick and easy to use interface.

[jman1310]

Thanks pHaestus,

anyone out there try Lindows? her prof had my gf try it. while using it a program crashed, which makes her think that the stablity was no better than windows

and what about linux stablity in general, is it as ironclad as i have always heard?

thanks

[Joe]

Windows = Makes the BEST workstation OS available for functionality and productivity in no small part by the proliferation of Office as the king of productivity packages. And makes a solid simple to use file server and terminal service OS. Also Windows provides a director to base authentication on and many authentication based services. More groupware oriented.

Linux/BSD = the best OS for areas where the Server must be hardened and protect itself from outside attacks. Also the best for console-less services such as MySQL/Apache/etc.. Makes a great web server, and solid "service" server for higher end environments. More service and service support oriented.

[iroc409]

i feel mostly the same as the others. unix makes an outstanding server. on the desktop, it's great to a certain extent.

the first real workstation i had was a mandrake install, and later i moved on to redhat. both were extremely easy to set up and get running, almost easier than windows. extremely reliable and robust. and i know with freebsd (my favorite unix flavor), there are thousands of programs out there, many a suitable replacement for their win counterparts.

however, when you get into more specialized or often more powerful work requirements, it simply does not replace windows. personally, my only real options are windows or mac. and mac is simply a platform i haven't really investigated yet (which still has its complications).

there are too many productivity apps that people like myself use that just aren't in the unix arena. and the ones that are just simply aren't up to the task. still, in all honesty, i haven't even been able to feel confident enough in an outlook replacement (full).

i used to be a little down on microsoft, but not any more. the more i look into microsoft, the more genius i find. since windows 2000, and particularly with the xp series, windows has become an extremely reliable and robust OS. the only crashes i have had in the last several months are hardware related and have nothing to do with windows. where i used to go a month without rebooting a linux desktop, i can now do with windows.

and that's not to mention raw capabilities built into windows or other products and such that drip of ingenuity and power.

i would like to someday investigate the mac platform at length, but the economics involved so far have not made it an attractive experiment.

when people yell about microsoft anymore it's usually about a limited number of things. unreliability, which is no longer an issue. cost, which is really negated when you look into the sheer capabilities and technology of the software(s). virus and bugs, which is really a matter of logistics. macs and unix machines don't have virii because people just don't make viruses for them. and, if you take some simple common-sense precautions, it's not an issue. and other people just hate mr. gates because he's an incredibly successful and sharp businessperson.

i love unix, but i'll have to stick to windows for now for my economic enterprises.

[9mmCensor]

Originally Posted by pHaestus

I haven't come across a burning application I like nearly as well as Nero for Linux.

K3B is great.