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?
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Jump to PostWell 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.
Jump to Postyou 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 …
Jump to PostYes , 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 …
Jump to PostMicrosoft 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)
Jump to Postnice background!
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