There are lots of distributions available of Linux. One of them that is geared towards the more inexperienced user is Linspire. It's usually $49.95 but until 6th September, they're giving away for free: http://info.linspire.com/freespire/index.html

It's worth a look and is very polished compared to some of the more popular distros.

I would have to say Fedora Core is probably the best for the new user as it's pretty much plug and play. Once you've got the hang of APT-GET for RPM packages installing new programs and services is a dodle.

I haven't tried linspire but paying for linux somehow seems to defeat the purpose.

What I love about Linux is that it's gradually being split into many different variants, and starting to cost more and more until eventually - hey - Unix!

No longer is it Linux but a whole bunch of different products each with their champions dissing all the others I imagine Torvalds must be sooooooo pleased - not!

What I love about Linux is that it's gradually being split into many different variants' date=' and starting to cost more and more until eventually - hey - Unix!

No longer is it Linux but a whole bunch of different products each with their champions dissing all the others I imagine Torvalds must be sooooooo pleased - not![/quote']

Surely that's the point of Open Source products, the kernel code is free for everyone to do as they see fit. Each person will have needs for particular features and so products will be developed for each market. The price will be set by demand, where considerable effort has been made to customise or improve certain features a charge is appropriate. If the price is set too high, it simply won't survive.

Torvalds must be happy IMHO, because the only other way to achieve this sort of proliferation would have been with a company with the size and resources of Microsoft.

I've tried many flavours of Linux, with SuSE being my favourite, depite being an excellent distro, I still feel that it isn't straightforward enough for "Joe Average" to set up. Linspire has gone some way to addressing this problem and for this I applaud them.

Microsoft wasn't always that size ... they must be doing something right

Don't get me wrong - I like Unix - but I don't think it's for everybody - or even for many people. I've spent 20+ years in IT and I, for one, can't be bothered struggling with Linux at home, trying to find drivers on the web, re-learning which obscure text file controls which aspect of networking, etc. Each to their own, however.

ncarring, I understand precisely what you mean but Linux has come a long way since digging into /etc to find a config file. Linspire (along with Mepis) may be run as a Live CD as well so you can see for yourself how good the autoconfiguration features are before it's installed to your HD. Give it a try, you know you want to

I think Nick hit the nail on the head there - unless you are hardcore tech or one of the 'anti-microsoft' brigade then what's the point of struggling along with Linux?? Go to all that bother and find out that all you can do is run open source stuff which some h4cKers and pHreaKEr$ and mangled and is supported by... no-one.

I'm sure it has it's place... errr - somewhere but these days what's the point? MS is just the biggest player out there and much as you probably hate to admit it makes the best software!

I don't think Linus Torvalds is too worried about all the different Linux distributions (and it's not a new phenomenon, there have been different distro's since the very earliest days). Richard Stallman is a bit peeved that Linux (which is just the kernel O/S) has overshadowed GNU (which provides most of the functionality ) in what should really be called GNU/Linux.

But, anyway - GNU/Linux (and even GNU/HURD, which is closer to Richard Stallman's ideal) are here to stay. What's more, there are - and probably always will be - genuinely free distributions. Debian is the obvious one; its constitutuion mandates freedom - commercial software is not allowed in the "official" distributions.

It's possible to build a viable company based on free software - you make your money on support contracts. Time and again, I have advocated the use of free software in my own organisation - only to be countered with "well, who will support it if you're not here?"

Dave

It Microshaft might be the biggest, used in all know areas, but would disagree about it being the best, it is become very bloated.

Always worth remembering that you can get "live CDs" - boot off them and you have a fully functioning linux distro to play with...

(Got a great one for my laptop that is geared towards erm, security checks... )

I can't understand why, as a consumer, you would run Linux at home. OK so Microsoft software costs money, but it's bundled with most new computers. Apart from the technical satisfaction of understanding a complex OS, which appeals to very few people, where are the advantages of Linux? If you want to play games, there aren't any. If you want decent Office software, there isn't any. If you want a browser, you have to use Netscape. What consumer software is being produced for Linux - and if there is any, where can you buy it? Certainly not in High Street shops. You'll need to fire up your clunky browser, download it off the Internet, struggle with the obscure command-line unpacking utilities, fight to make it work with your particular hardware, and eventually get something running that somebody wrote in their back bedroom and breaks down every 5 minutes, and when it does, has no mainstream support.

Now tell me it ain't so...

Wow - I didn't realise I'd need my flame-proof coat for this one! I was just pointing out a freebie that's all... thought some people might like it

Hey - it's not flames - just healthy discussion I was waiting for the next round. Disappointed now ... :(

Discussion eh? I like them

Well, one benefit of Linux to the complete novice is security. Linux viruses and trojans are few and far between. Very few Windows users know how to secure their machines effectively and when things go pear shaped have no idea what to do. Microsoft don't provide any support for customers with OEM editions (most people), so the situation is similar to Linux in this respect except that paid-for Linux support packages are now very good.

It sounds to me like you haven't tried out a recent distro. I had pretty much the same views as you until I experimented with Mandriva 2005 after a 3 year break form Linux. A good modern distro will install nearly all the apps the user is likely to need and more. Konqueror and Firefox are far from clunky browsers, both offer many more features than IE as standard. It's true that some websites won't render correctly but they're getting rarer by the day.

I completely agree that a gamer has no serious choice except for Windows and it will be a while before that changes.

I won't argue that MS don't deserve to be where they are, they have an excellent business model that incorporated a number of excellent strategies when the company was small. However, their market share has reduced innovation as there weren't viable competitors. After all why else did they take so long making NT their core product?

edit: I didn't address your bit about additional apps: Fedora, Mandriva and SuSE have fairly simple package handlers. Linspire takes this one step further with the 'virtual catalogue' that is Click'N'Run Warehouse, easy enough for most people to grasp.

Ding! Ding!

I can't understand why' date=' as a consumer, you would run Linux at home. OK so Microsoft software costs money, but it's bundled with most new computers. Apart from the technical satisfaction of understanding a complex OS, which appeals to very few people, where are the advantages of Linux? If you want to play games, there aren't any. If you want decent Office software, there isn't any. If you want a browser, you have to use Netscape. What consumer software is being produced for Linux - and if there is any, where can you buy it? Certainly not in High Street shops. You'll need to fire up your clunky browser, download it off the Internet, struggle with the obscure command-line unpacking utilities, fight to make it work with your particular hardware, and eventually get something running that somebody wrote in their back bedroom and breaks down every 5 minutes, and when it does, has no mainstream support.

Now tell me it ain't so...[/quote']

May I recommend Ubuntu Linux - it'll open your eyes!

Games - OK, no shoot-em-up games (but IIRC there's a Linux version of Doom), but every variation of card game, solitaire, tetris, snake etc. you could want.

Abiword is a fully functional word processor, without the bloatware. Of course, if you want a Microsoft Office lookalike (complete with bloat) you can use OpenOffice. Browsers -well, Mozilla Firefox is about as state-of-the-art as you'd want; most users rate it as better than IE . Only the really hardcore Linux users battle with unpacking utilities; Debian's "apt" is miles ahead of the Linux game (and light-years ahead of Microsofts's CMS) for managing dependencies.

Best of all, most Linux upgrades can be managed on the fly. No more "your mouse has moved, please reboot for the changes to take effect" replies :P

Well we agree really so it's hard to make much of an argument of it.

Basically for me you have a spectrum of OS's - MacOS at one end and Linux at the other. Most people aren't interested in knowing what goes on under the hood. Most people want more than one button on their mouse, and to be able to see their files individually, but don't want to have to understand permissions or password files to share them with the rest of their household. They want the security worries taken away from them - not to be security experts in their own right - and Microsoft are gradually doing that for them with the firewall, spyware removal tool, etc. As is frequently said, popularity breeds competition - hence Windows is the most hacked operating system in the world, but when I was younger, all the hackers were Unix experts. I'm sure they're just biding their time ...

Mike - we've had the Firefox/IE discussion before. I'm more or less used to it now, but there are still sites I have to use IE for - they just require plugins etc. that aren't available for Firefox, like a Citrix plugin for my distributed apps at work, and embedded Word docs which sort of work but have to be downloaded first.

But you still haven't said what you use your Linux for - I'm not doing much at the moment but I have Outlook, Firefox, VC++, MSN and Yahoo IM running - how many of those can I run under Linux?

...

Most people want more than one button on their mouse' date=' and to be able to see their files individually, but don't want to have to understand permissions or password files to share them with the rest of their household

.. They want the security worries taken away from them - not to be security experts in their own right

...[/quote']

And there lies the rub. Security is an individual responsibilty. Just imagine the reaction if someone put up a poster outide their house saying "my doors aren't locked" Which is what the average (non-savvy) Windows user does every day!

Most people want to wander around shops and markets, pay at the wave of a hand, don't understand (or even care about) security - but will complain mightily if they catch a virus as a result. They don't understand security

My view - (a) use a secure O/S (certainly nothing from the Microsoft stable). ( learn about basic Internet security. It's not rocket science, FFS!

So you're very secure - what do you have to steal? You have no software, no documents anybody else could decipher, no games .... :rubchin:

The Windows firewall is on by default post XP SP2.

There's a balance to be struck somewhere between functionality, ease of use, and security - I have a hardware router with stateful packet inspection etc. etc., functionality wins for me!

PS I can't remember the last time I had a virus - get the odd spyware infection, but no viruses as such. Not sure Linux is necessarily any safer where spyware is concerned but I'll concede it may be.