I have three computers at home connected to a Linksys, 4-Port router connected to a DSL modem. I have been thinking about loading/running Linux on one of the computers.

Please give your thoughts/impressions/experiences/recommendations about Linux. Some beginning questions:

* Is Linux compatible with MS apps; Word, Excel, IE.?
* What about computer games; Half-Life, Tomb-Raider, Medal of Honor, etc.
* Any issues with printer functionality?
* Is Linux faster/more stable than XP?
* Does a computer with Linux seamlessly communicate (share files, etc.) with an XP computer?


Thanks

 

* Is Linux compatible with MS apps; Word, Excel, IE.?

In general, no. But Linux does have equivalent apps.

* What about computer games; Half-Life, Tomb-Raider, Medal of Honor, etc.

Generally not. There aren't that many games for Linux because there's little money to be made from it.

* Any issues with printer functionality?

Local printers are straightforward to set up, network printers are a little trickier.

* Is Linux faster/more stable than XP?

Yes. Linux's speed and stability are what make it great for servers.

* Does a computer with Linux seamlessly communicate (share files, etc.) with an XP computer?

Not out of the box. It'd be easiest to get some sort of common LAN software, i.e. Novell Netware (not sure if they support Linux but just as an example).

Personally, I have to use Linux at work, but prefer using Windows, at least for everyday tasks. It's not that bad once you get used to it, especially with the modern Linux desktops like Gnome and such, but Windows is still easier for most things. Now, if I were running a server, then I'd definitely go with Linux.

I would suggest making one of your machines dual boot Linux just to see if you care for it or not. If you don't like it, you can always remove the partition and forget it was ever there.

 

In general, yes, OpenOffice.org is fairly compatible with MS Office formats, although there's no guarantee that they will be going forward.

Not typically, although there are some games that have been released for Linux (Q3A for example). And some older games are playable with a Windows Emulator (WINE)

There can be. But it's gotten better in recent years.

It depends. The base OS tends to be more stable for me, but many of the Open Source applications have issues.

Samba (the package that provides the SMB protocol support) is included in just about every linux distribution and different distributions come with varying packages to make the configuration of samba graphical and easier to use.

check out http://www.linuxiso.org/ for a great place to grab CD images for many linux (and *BSD) distributions.

 

My personal favorite option for evaluating different distributions is to grab an eval copy of VMWare Workstation (http://www.vmware.com) and load up several distributions in separate virtual machines, that way you can compare them head to head.

 

I have Mandrake 9.1 running on a machine at home. I have been running linux at home off and on for several years now. I also have a Windows box for games, basic use, etc.

For comparison, I decided to install Mandrake 9.2 on my linux box, and Windows XP Pro on my Windows box, and see which was faster and easier to configure and use. XP Pro won hands down. After repeated attempts to get my sound card to work in 9.2, and numerous failures to properly configure for my video card, (and good luck making the scroll wheel on my mouse work) I went back to Mandrake 9.1, and everything worked right off the bat.

I have at least 6 different linux distributions laying around, and at least one version of FreeBSD, and settled on Mandrake 9.1 after trying them all numerous times.

Windows is what I am typing this under, using Internet Explorer, because the Linux box is slow unless I use blackbox for a window manager (which is great, BTW).

Each distribution includes multiple versions of every kind of linux program you could imagine, but almost none of these have ever gone through a rigorous QA department, and none of them have been optimized for ease-of-use. There are stupid bugs, like all the Konqueror windows blanking out whenever you do anything, i.e. you can only browse the web when you are just browsing the web, don't try to do anything else, or get a new browser. Netscape isn't bad, beyond being slow. There are several different places to manipulate settings, and good luck trying to figure out how to adjust some functionality, like the middle mouse click, the software just isn't designed very well, when compared to something like Internet Explorer. Documentation is poorly written, and the user seems to be an aterthought. Good thing it's free, it is certainly worth every penny The MS Office-type software is OK, but falls under the category, "good enough." It falls far short of MS Office, being similar only superficially, and only moderately compatible.

Linux is a multi-user system. It doesn't make very much sense to try to use it at home, unless you need that kind of functionality. It plays pretty nice with Windows if you use Samba on the linux box, or are familiar with ftp programs, and use an ftp server on one machine.

Gaming on linux is almost non-existent, for a number of reasons. There are a few good games available, but the market is not very big. Part of the problem is linux uses a very inefficient model for graphical display. It works very well in a multi-user environment, but it is too slow and unwieldy for graphics-intensive gaming. Things like Bubble Bobble work fine, things like Quake and Unreal work OK, they are just going to run slower, and have more spotty graphics card functionality than the same game under Windows. Windows uses a very efficient display model, for single-user computing, and this benefits gaming, especially multi-player first-person shooters.

Mandrake 9.1 is pretty good, if you want to try out linux at home. I downloaded isos and burned a few disks, but the site I got it from is no longer up . I have a hard time seeing why someone would prefer linux over any version of Windows for the home user. As a multi-user system it is a great option, but it is a poor choice for a single user. Windows is only 100 bucks to upgrade to XP, the cost savings are a whopping 100 dollars if you download, and much less than that if you buy a distro. Additional software for Windows may cost money, but you usually get what you pay for.

 

Wow, thanks for all the info and insight. I guess I will stay with way I have, 2 running XP and 1 using 98. I was under the impression Linux was almost a

 

Mandrake is one of the more memory and processor hogging of distro's. #1 being Red Hat now-a-days. Mandrake and Red Hat are generally introductory distro's for new linux users to get a feel for it and be more comfortable.

I used debian and I gotta say, after you get every driver worked out. It's really fast and you can run so many apps and not waste any ram because the codes are generally short.

The only thing that sucks is that you dont have any videogames and sometimes you gotta make things work by yourself. Slowly companies are making drivers and the apps are getting better. It's really more of a work enviroment OS or for someone that wants a OS that looks and feels exactly how he/she wants it to.



I suggest just giving it a shot doing a dual boot setup for about 2-3 weeks. Dont like it, delete it.

 

Replied to subscribe to thread. I will post more after I go pick up my friends new M3. heh.