That's the question that came to mind for me. We have 3 machines in our home running Win XP (two Desktops and a Notebook). I generally reformat the hard drives on all 3 machines about once a year.
If Vista turns out to be too restrictive for reformating, etc, then after we run the wheels off these 3 machines, maybe we'll switch to Mac. They are more expensive machines, but guess I'll have to consider it.
I read the talk about Linux, and I am moderately geeky -- doing my own computer maintenance and so on, but I know and understand nothing about Linux. A few questions come to mind: How geeky does one have to be to learn to use Linux? Do you buy or build your own machine for it, and where do you get the software? Is it hard to learn to use? Can you use Windows Office, Quicken, Adobe Photoshop, Palm Desktop software, browse the Internet, .. and other commonly used software on Linux-based machines (for example, my wife takes college courses part time and must use Power Point)? And of course, I presume you can browse the Internet using Linux, download, etc.?
I'm with you as far as not know about Linux is concerned. I've been able to run a Mac quite happily with no sense that I'm "missing" crucial interaction with Windows apps. Apple is even starting to come out with some apps that are taking one the MS Office environment, without the bloat.
babu..mash here...http://linspire.com/
MS isn't populated with complete idiots (Yes, I know this will generate numerous counter comments), they're just trying prevent users from reselling old licensed copies of Vista. If the end result is that the market starts seriously looking to alternatives to MS, then they may look for a new means of controlling the OS. And clearly the intention isn't to prevent Vista users from upgrading hardware. I'm not going to worry about it. If it comes down to it, I just won't upgrade to Vista, and if I buy a new machine I'll downgrade to XP.
If you want to try Linux, there is a very easy way to do it. You can download LiveCD's of just about every flavor out there to test how your hardware will react. Simply download the ISO image, burn to CD being sure to use the ISO image tool in your CD burning suite, and you now have a bootable Linux CD that will allow you to boot up in Linux without making any changes to your computer. My favorite flavors are Knoppix, Gentoo, and Ubuntu, but your mileage may vary. For downloading the ISO images, you can go to:
www.knoppix.org
www.gentoo.org
www.ubuntu.com
I opted for Knoppix on my laptop to dual boot with XP Pro. I can boot into XP Pro, Sever 2003, or any of the above three flavors of Linux on my desktop machine.
I highly suggest the above scheme of using both XP and Linux for the time being. That way, you can test out software suites, and make sure you can operate in Linux as well as you can in XP. If you get into a tight spot, you can just switch back over to XP. When the time comes that you are confident that Linux is serving 100% of your needs, you can then be confident that a switch-over to Linux is a good move, and won't give you any headaches.
I like XP. I don't even really have any disdain for MS, but these liscensing schemes are getting ridiculous. Charging me twice the money for their latest OS, and cutting my usability down to one transfer is beyond arrogance. Luckily I've seen MS trending this way, and I've been boning up on Linux for about 18 mos now. I can say confidently that Vista will probably never enter my household, and it won't cause me a moments trouble.
How geeky does one have to be to learn to use Linux?
Simple distros like Suse and Ubuntu are little more difficult than MacOSX. You shouldn't have to hit the command line to do anything.
Do you buy or build your own machine for it
Either. A machine that is a year or two old is actually best, since all the hardware should be supported natively. It can take some time for new hardware to be supported out of the box.
, and where do you get the software?
In most distros, there are software repositories. Ubuntu uses a program called "synaptic" to manage the software. You simply select a program from a list and click install. There are a few difficult areas -- primarily proprietary video codecs and DVD playback. The software is out there, but not officially supported.
Is it hard to learn to use?
If you can learn Windows or OSX, you can learn Linux. There are good books and helpful websites. Ubuntu has great forums for technical assistance.
Can you use Windows Office, Quicken, Adobe Photoshop, Palm Desktop software, browse the Internet, .. and other commonly used software on Linux-based machines (for example, my wife takes college courses part time and must use Power Point)?
If you REALLY NEED Microsoft office, you can run it under wine or Crossover office. There are Linux programs that do all the office functionality, including OpenOffice (which includes word processing, spreadsheets and powerpoint compatible software), GNUcash (for finance), GIMP (image editing), Evolution (Outlook -- it also supports Palm devices). They have their strengths and weaknesses. If you use the really advanced features of some of the Windows programs, you may be let down. Otherwise they are good programs.
And of course, I presume you can browse the Internet using Linux, download, etc.?
Firefox runs on Linux -- it's included in almost every distro. The Internet is really Linux's desktop strength.
Depends on your poison ;) Some distro's like Slackware can be a bear, some like Fedora are a little too bleeding edge, but distro's like Mephis and Ubuntu are very good..
Do you buy or build your own machine for it, and where do you get the software?
Try going here "http://ubuntu-releases.cs.umn.edu//6.06/" There is a livecd download which will let you try linux on youc current computer without changing it (put the cd in, reboot to go into linux, reboot and remove the cd to go into windows)
Is it hard to learn to use?
At a user level its not hard at all, it just feels a little different.
Can you use Windows Office, Quicken, Adobe Photoshop, Palm Desktop software, browse the Internet, .. and other commonly used software on Linux-based machines (for example, my wife takes college courses part time and must use Power Point)?
Yes and no, wine will run alot of windows software on linux but youre better off with native equivalents like openoffice (oppenoffice.org has a windows version so you can try it) for office.
I'd say get a good image backup product like Acronis, so instead of reformating you recover from backup.