Should I give Linux a go?

Well you could get a Linux CD, when booting up insert the disc and you can try out Linux to see if you like it. And if you don't like it, when you shut-down, all of the info has gone leaving you back where you were.

you should definetley try linux. it depends on your hardware, but for new hard ware i'd use SLED 10, openSuse, ubuntu, kubuntu, mepis, dreamlinux, slackware, etc.

for older machines, try debain(one of the best), DSL, antix, slax, etc.

there are many distros to choose from, and you'll find that all of them are in ways the same, but have different software, manages, and settings.

like Srunson said, you could try live cd's, which let you expirience linux in a very limited way.

and for eye candy don't forget to use beryl and compiz.

Yes , look at Ubuntu (there is two, you want version 7.04 DESKTOP ). Its designed for beginners

Its a "live cd" which means that you can put it in and run it to check that your hardware is detected and that you like it, before installing. Its also only 1cd big and comes with most of the stuff you will need.

Generally (unless something goes wrong or you want to be a power user) you dont need to use the command line.

Here is scome screenshots and a link to Ubuntu (i believe you can order the cd from them too if you cant face downloading about 700mb and burining the image file to a cd (you will need software for this but its easy, just ask us)

http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?release=790&slide=25

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

you can now buy dells with ubuntu pre-installed, by the way.

Bennet would like that :P

and you can buy dells at walmart too.

>Generally (unless something goes wrong or you want to be a power user) you dont need to use the command line.

Um to be a good linux user you _have_ to use the command line. You can try to avoid it but it is unavoidable. There will be some problem that you need to fix with the command line. Here is my desktop btw:

> Um to be a good linux user you _have_ to use the command line

not if you use ubuntu and you want to do every day tasks.

> There will be some problem that you need to fix with the command line.

that's what jbennet just said.
is your theme like some cheap vista theme?

Bennet changes his OS daily! :P
He had 2K that looked like XP, Vista the other day, and Linux randomly on and off!

actually thats my webbrowser opera. My wm is evilwm, definitely not vistaish...

well it looks live vista

We just had Office 2007 installed at our college, personally i think it is rubbish!
Too many sub-menus hidden away behind everything. Something i have to get used to :P

I here Open Office is a good set of programmes that runs well on Linux

my opera browser has a vista skin.

> We just had Office 2007 installed at our college, personally i think it is rubbish!
Too many sub-menus hidden away behind everything. Something i have to get used to

i heard that it's actually easier to use, i've only used it for a little bit and i think it's pretty cool. it's a new GUI, so it feels fresh.

Microsoft office is the only microsoft product that I actually like, much superior to open office... Regardless I hate word processors.... latex is better ;-) (and it looks better)

Yeah the only MS products I like are Media Player, Visual Studio and Office

i don't like media player, but love visual studio office, and their server products.

I like media player 11.Prefer it to Itunes. I like Amarok in linux but its a pain in the ass to have to use a seperate app for riping/burning

I like mplayer for linux.

In the past few weeks I've essentially bricked my laptop. XP won't boot any more and in an attempt to sort it i've stuffed the hard drive. I won't go into detail mainly cos i can't be bothered. Anyways, I'm away to go reformat the hard drive but I can't find my disk of xp anywhere so I'm going to have no OS. I'm not away to go buy myself another copy of XP (and of course getting a cracked version would be wrong lol), so I've started considering using linux as my OS (A - because its free, B - I like the idea of having control over my OS, C - XP annoys the hell out of me and D - it would please my inner-nerd). I've read up about linux a fair bit and i'm finding it more and more intriging. My only issues about it are im slightly concerned about using the command line etc (as i've NEVER actually used/seen a linux run machine) and the general difference's compared to XP or OS X in which i have a little experience. I'd like to think of myself as being better than the average XP user but not an expert by any means ie. when something goes wrong on any of my families computers i'm the one who always has to fix it, but i still get very concerned when im made to go into the regstry to do something. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to have a bash with linux and is there any particular distro you'd recommend?

Command lines are your best friend. Don't fear the command line. Just open a konsole or terminal and type in what you want. Here is a link to some command lines that work with mepis and should work with other linux too.
http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Bash_commands

Copy the tips of others into konsole or terminal.
You do not need to understand the text in order to be able to cut n' paste it into the box - so long as the person who is telling you what to type understands what they are doing.

Most new Linux users are reluctant to use the command line at first; it is actually very easy and experienced users will often refer to it as your best friend.

http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Start

I recommend mepis first then pclinuxos, then antiX which is an amazingly fast sub-version of mepis and is like mepislite 'cept it is based on SimplyMEPIS 6.5. After that there is ubuntu, slax,sled and many others to the tune of between 200-400 linux operating systems and versions of systems. More coming all the time too. Try as many live linux cds as you can .
Distrowatch is a good place to see some the more popular linux versions.

mplayer is kind of dumb, last time i used it, i couldn't get it to play dvd's.

you use SuSE dont you TheNSS?

Novell deliberately crippledd most of the media players in thier repos so that they dont work with LibDvdCSS so they dont get sued.

yeah, i use sled, and LibDvdCSS doesn't work with any player. Even at their site, novell says you can listen to mp3's, watch dvd's,
"if you can think it, you can make it with suse linux"
it's kind of lame.

PowerDVD (pre-installed) and WMp11 do me fine for all my media needs :P

yeah, i use sled, and LibDvdCSS doesn't work with any player. Even at their site, novell says you can listen to mp3's, watch dvd's,
"if you can think it, you can make it with suse linux"
it's kind of lame.

That's one of the main reasons I use mepis. All the players will work with libdvdcss2. Mepis plays dvds smoothly when you use the right vid driver and have all the extra needed packages. One of the first things that I do when I install mepis is to get these packages from synaptic package manager. This is for mepis but should work for some other linux too.

To use a graphical method, follow these steps:

1. Open Synaptic by clicking Menu --> System --> Package Manager, and supply the root password.
2. On the menu bar, click Settings --> Repository. Scroll down to the bottom of the list, and check http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ to add that repository. Click OK.
3. Using the Search box, find and mark for install libdvdcss2 package.
4. Install and exit. Now DVDs should play just fine using KMPlayer or another player.

Also grab these.
Dvdauthor, dvdbackup, dvdrip, dvdrtools, dvd+rw-tools, k9copy, K3b,lame, lame-extras, libavifile-0.7c2, libdvdnav4, libdvdplay0, libdvdread3, libmad0, libxine-extracodecs, mencoder, qdvdauthor, transcode ,vlc and vamps.
With these packages you should be able to watch encrypted dvds and more.
Dvd play and back up is one of the main reasons that I prefer mepis. No trouble ripping or burning or backing up dvds. When my 5 year old is watching treehouse channel and the wife is watching a soap or something then I like to watch a dvd on the computer.

If you use kaffeine then sometimes the xv driver in kaffeines settings will play smoother than some other drivers.

yeah, i use sled, and LibDvdCSS doesn't work with any player. Even at their site, novell says you can listen to mp3's, watch dvd's,
"if you can think it, you can make it with suse linux"
it's kind of lame.

I have opensuse 10.2 with VLC player and it has never been a problem

click_me

nice background!

Thanx, :)

You can get a better pic here if you like...

http://www.indigorenderer.com/joomla/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1975

yeah, i use sled, and LibDvdCSS doesn't work with any player. Even at their site, novell says you can listen to mp3's, watch dvd's,
"if you can think it, you can make it with suse linux"
it's kind of lame.

Google for the site "Hacking Opensuse! (works with SLED too). They have thier own repo where you can download un-novellised media players which work with libdvdcss etc... there is atutorial there.