Totally new to linux
 

Hello people, first off i am probably the biggest noob when it comes to linux. im only 15 so dont give me a hard time. i have a lot of questions to ask but for simplicity's sake i will ask them when i need to know. First off, can you guys please tell me why you prefer linux over windows besides the fact that it is free. to me right now, the only reason why i like linux is because text mode looks cool. but like i said, i am a total beginer so i really dont know.

Here you have *some* of my reasons (it's impossible to enumerate all of them here).

1.- it's been long since windows simply can't do what I need it to do
2.- power, power, power, a simple command (or a complex one) can do in few minutes what in windows would take around 50k clicks and around one week.
3.- it works flawlessly on all kinds of hardware (note that i speak about linux, not about <insert shinny desktop environment here>)
4.- it's stable, rock solid, as long as you use a stable kernel and stable hardware, my uptimes are in the range of months now (and that's only because I need to reboot to upgrade my kernel). In windows you are lucky if you get an uptime of a few days without issues
5.- it's configurable to an insane extent, that can be good or bad, it depends on the eye of the beholder, as always

In my "shop" I have four computers: two Linux boxes, a Windows box, and a (OS/X) Macintosh. And I plan to keep it that way. Each machine serves a specific purpose: that's why it's there.

I don't "dual boot," and I never have or will. It's much easier to have extra boxes, or at the very least, separate disk-drives.

"Free" in computers is a relative term, because your own time isn't free. You'll invest a lot of time and frustration in learning Linux. But at the same time I think it's an essential thing to do at this point in time: "we are living in an open-source world."

So... don't get rid of your Windows box. Don't touch it. Get another box of fairly-recent vintage and start experimenting with Linux. Prepare yourself as best you can for what will be (especially at first) a very bewildering and frustrating experience. This will pass.

I agree with you ... now you are not old enough to know when there was ONLY text mode ... ahh those days of green screens ... ah amazing graphic games all drawn in ascii characters ... :D

Welcome to LQ and to Linux.
When you start off as courteously as you have, noone is going to give you a hard time. Stick with us, and you will be an expert in no time.

Why Linux?
The whole concept of Open-Source SW feels like the right answer. At least for me it has little to do with saving money--If I count my time at minimum wage, I'm still way in the red by using Linux.
To be sure, there is a motivation to break the current monopoly position. This will be a slow process--I would be happy if we could just get to the point where computer buyers were offered a choice of operating systems.

Well, free means a lot, when you consider that free isn't just 'zero cost', its free as in 'the first time you jump into your own car and can decide exactly what you are going to do with this new found freedom' kind of the world is your oyster freedom.

I'd point out that there are other systems that have a shorter learning curve than Unix-style ones, but if you decide that it is worth the pain of the learning curve, you can be efficient from that point on. And I absolutely abhor having my work eaten by a computer that crashes. And I'm not very keen on paying my money to make the worlds richest man (or is it second richest, these days?) even richer, by paying for substandard software. And, I suppose, I quite like learning about computers. And, you can't really compare a Linux distro with a bare Windows system: With Linux you get a whole pile of tools that you can actually use to do work; With a bare windows install, you've got a platform for buying extra stuff.

Can't say that I feel text mode looks cool, but that's up to you; One of the things that this is about is choice and I'm happy that you think something looks cool, even if we disagree on what exactly that is (try enlightenment sometime for eye candy!). In the great Free and Open Source world there are always alternatives, and it seems pretty certain that one will suit you fine.

Thank you guys for your answers. I have another question. As i am typing right now, i am downloading an iso image for ubuntu ( i chose that especially for beryl) but there is one thing, once i install linux, that i am afraid of, will my components that require drivers still work? Like the wireless LAN card i am using or the ati graphics card.

Some of them might require additional setup. It's usually a very distro dependent thing, which means that the first thing to check are the docs and wikis of your distro. Think that, if it's common and widely used hardware, most likely someone has already installed in and there must be documents, wikis and howtos around.

As soon as its completed and you burn the disk. Boot up with it and it becomes a "live" system. From there you will get an indication of what works and what doesn't.

Some have reported the opposite. That's where this forum and ubuntu forums come in handy. As some one has already pointed out. At 15 your very polite, and many will bend over backwards to help you. A note regarding ubuntu forums. Questions get asked over and over again. Try using the search function first. I'm not so sure about ATI, but I know that NVIDIA questions have received a lot of attention.

Like the old X-Files series said, "The truth is out there" :)

By the way, here is a link that may help to answer your first question. The ubicuous "Linux is not Windows".

Enjoy the adventure!

I really dislike that Linux is not Windows link. This sentence in particular really bugs me: "...understanding just how different FOSS is from proprietary software can be too big an adjustment for some people to make." The truth of the matter is that every thing Microsoft Windows can do GNU Linux can do better. An essays needs to be written for new Linux users who feel intimidated and overwhelmed with culture shock. a new users's confusion is actually an opportunity for them to enlarge his or her intellectual capabilities and enable them to experience spiritual excitement from solving technical problems (and eventually solving other people's problems, helping others flourish). Any curious Windows traditionalist is capable of making their first Linux distro run equal and better than Windows, as long as you believe you can.

Quick thought is VMware or Virtual Box used thousand times even in hospitals running multiple servers.... Why another box? just realize what power the server and processor can handle without overload to processing...

Vmware and Virtual Box are amazing software ideas....


later....

The Virtual world is alive... ;)

Free in terms of money isn't the only reason why Linux is popular, maybe not even the main reason - at least not for me.

First of all it's a capable UNIX-system, so when comparing against Windows that's my main point.

It has a vivid community around. The Linux community is quite diverse, but for the larger part it has people with a similar mindset. It like it better here. This is a rather emotional aspect.

Commercial applications sometimes perform better than open source alternatives, but I have found that in most cases open source alternatives are similar or even better. Even when counting time as money (because free software is only free if your time has no value) I have found open source alternatives more cost-efficient than commercial ones. Linux is an excellent environment for open source applications.

Linux Archive

As well as all the usual advantages of being free and open source, I just find GNU/Linux more interesting than Windows.

Because I am sick and tired of the windows way: first you install the OS, then you have to get the drivers, then you have to search all of the internet to get one application here and another there. Anti-virus and anti-malware sucking up your system resources. Absolutely no support worht mentioning ("Have you tried reinstalling?") although, ironically, it is windows that is commericial while Linux is free... Microsoft spreading the proprietary software "ideal", which means that more than once I have been confronted with poor drivers and sometimes none at all (both for windows itself and Linux).

Hi,

Slackware GNU/Linux is as close to UNIX as you can get. Unless you go for BSD which opens another arena of thought. If you have ever paid for a OS you would know how it feels to layout some real funds. Even M$ is not that cheap. Compare a UNIX license cost to M$ or GNU/Linux, guess who wins out for me. GNU/Linux! I've paid towards BillyBoy's trust fund. I still have several M$ license but I try to limit that. Only when clients are involved will I purchase a M$ product. Look an see what a UNIX license will cost you now ($$$). So GNU/Linux will win out if you do the numbers for initial cost.

Now if you figure time spent on the learning curve to understand a good GNU/Linux then we are talking serious funds here. If in my youth there was a simple computer system then I would have been on the band wagon. In my day it was radio/electronics. Which served me well in my endeavors through out my life time. In the early seventies the microprocessor started to become available to us. We all ate it up, somewhat like what is going on with GNU/Linux since the early 90s'.

If you learn a good GNU/Linux and become proficient with the OS then you will have some valuable experience that can transform into potential employment. Of course certification would be nice.