New to linux
 

I'm new to the linux community and I would really like to know how popular is linux? Is it really widely used as people say it is by it technicians?

What about all this talk i have been hearing linux isn't a good office os due ot it's office suite's bugs?

Thirdly I'm trying to learn programming and some people have said it is best for me to start off using python. But how is python used to enhance linux what can python do for linux how do people use python inside of linux for what purposes? i'm asking because linux is written in c and there isn't a python shell for linux red hat as yet or is there?

Linux is very stable compared to its conterparts (ie. Windoze)...especially when it comes down to runnin' servers. Yeah I agree that the office suite can be buggy at times; but as the the version gets higher the better it gets...so give it time or if ur a expert in c programming u can fix the bugs urself.
I agree Python is better to learn first.....even though Linux is comprised of C++ programming. You can learn the basics from Python without overwhelmin' ur brain over other things that u probably don't need to know just yet as a beginner....like pointers <-----yuck. Me I took classes in programming in C++; but if I was teachin' myself I would definitley start out with python.

Re: New to linux
 

You can check out sites like www.netcraft.com , they have statistics on servers and other good info on the numbers of OS's being run on the net and etc...

Linux for the average guy off the street
 

Linux may be a great networking tool, I don't know.
It may do a great job of handling the computing needs of a big corporation.

But it isn't ready for the average user.

Too many dead ends, too much documentation that is out of date. Too many impossible situations to handle. Too much time requred to get peripherals working, if you can get them working at all.

I'm not stupid. Have years of computer experience. Have yet to successfully recompile my kernel.

I think Linux is a great too, especially if you want to learn programming. You can get a great background on programming for just looking at the Kernal.

Man, look at all those lines of code. Now, I have a programming background in C. C++ is similar, somethings have been tidied up a bit.

However, I think if you have the time, and the resources, it is a great thing to get involved in.

As far as configuring your perfs, most things now-a-days, with some exceptions, run out of RPM files, and can be easily configured.

I know some of the files, as far as drivers go, are a pain to setup, for example. I have a motherboard with an ON board RAID, and it too awhile for me to get it working correctly.

Well, I hope this clears somethings up about Linux.

Later,
Oz

You could give Kylix a go. There is a 'free' version available for download from Borland. Basically it's Delphi (Visual Pascal, for want of a better description) for Linux. It's nice and easy to learn (maybe not as easy as BASIC, but as of yet there's not a Visual Basic for Linux, and the X-Basic can be quite difficult to get your head around :D ) and quite powerful. All applications developed under Kylix (as far as I know) are for X (mainly KDE) only.

Not really tried python, but it is definitely a very popular choice.