Hi there,

I've been playing around with a few Linux distro's before, but haven't really had an experience with Linux that opened my eyes and urged me to give up Windows or just make a slow migration to a Linux platform.

Here are some questions I want answers on, which I don't find when googling, or find too much of, I want some important things/factors to keep in mind, not the stuff I'll never ever use or that won't affect me as desktop user.
1) Hardware support and compatibility - now I don't want a list of compatible hardware, I want to know, if I buy a new piece of hardware every now and then which aren't the everyday, run-of-the-mill typo hardware, in other words, more specialised hardware, what efforts are the hardware vendors making to support their new hardware under Linux platforms? What are the pro's and what are the con's?
2) Everybody's talking about Linux being more secure, and Windows having many flaws and backdoors open where Linux has an advantage upon. What important security issues can I address with Linux, that I cannot address with Windows XP/2000 and also vice versa?

N.B. Websites with direct comparisons of Windows and Linux are ideal.

Thanx

Hi,

If you don't feel the urge to change then don't. What do you do with your computer? Why would you change something that work for you? If you're gaming stay with M$ if you like freedom and security you're welcome to join the club of linux users. Learning is an effort with a price

For your questions, harware support is changing but they keep inventing things without giving specifications (to avoid copy) so you'll have unsuppprted hardware under linux.
For security issues, i'm using debian and now Ubuntu for five years without infection. On the winodw partition I found three viruses and i use that part like one half hour per year.

By the way, you're in the wrong forum

I'm a studying programming, using my PC as a recording device for my music production and some gaming now and then. The reason why I want to go over to Linux is to avoid extra costs involved in setting up and maintaining the system. Good compilers in Windows are expensive, good recording software in Windows are very, very expensive... IOW, I'm trying to save costs, but I need some motivation as why to use Linux instead of Windows?

With these above mentioned issues, I also need to keep in mind the factors that I mentioned in my previous post.

I think you answered your own question.

Don't forget that there's a third option - a dual boot system, or even two separate systems. If you can find linux software that meets your requirements for the music production you do, then I think that's probably the best way to go. As for compilers, gcc is free...

seriously, if you need someone else to motivate you to use something you clearly don't want to use it.

We can give you all the usual arguments, but just try it. If you like it, wonderful, if not you haven't lost anything.

More and more companies are releasing drivers (or at least specifications for the hardware they make) for Linux. But there wil always be some who do not. Theoretically, Linux is more secure than windows. More people look at the source code, so the chances are higher of someone finding and fixing a bug before it becomes a problem. One may worry that it's a hacker who finds the bug, but the majority of hackers are just script kiddies who don't even know C. Also, Linux has kernel level support for a firewall in the form of iptables. This means that the firewall in no way can be just "turned off" by a hacker.

However...the firewall can be difficult to configure. People (such as myself) often need configurable frontends just to use iptables. Also, there are many bugs in Linux, just like anything else. Security is really up to the admin, and not the OS. Also, I'm sure there would be many more viruses written for Linux if it were more popular.

As stated by swagger, if you can't choose, use both in a dual boot system. I use Linux when I run servers and program, but I boot the same system into Windows when I feel like playing a game.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Linux - General and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Motivate me to motivate you.

linux=future: You may need to brush up on your definitions before stereotyping the term "hacker". It sounds to me like you mean a cracker...

Hacker.

Sorry, just came out when I typed it . The whole concept of the term "hacker" as a good person is fairly new to me.

That's because the media got a hold of it and perverted it like everything else

I have more fun when using my Linux system, updating, trying my hand at programming (Python and shell scripting). Tweaking, getting things to work (real sense of achievement) i have also learnt alot more about underlying principles of computing, hardware and software. I guess it can be viewed as a cost saver, but i wouldn't say that it is it's best quality, a Linux system is as secure as the user permits it, he same as any system but it has smarter defaults and better mechanisms to implement and maintain security

Well, just to give a balanced view on the developmnt tools argument, I'd just like to point out that GCC is also available for Windows (and several free IDEs that can be used with it/come with it already set up), as are language (interpreters) for languages like Python- as are quite a lot of open source projects in general.