Alternative, and free operating systems

[forumdude123]

Beside windows, mac, and free BSD, what are other free alternative operating systems that are available?

[hughv]

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_operating_systems
Linux is freely available in a number of versions, with Ubuntu being very popular at the moment.

[DimaYasny]

what kind of OS are you looking for exactly?

[jbennet]

ReactOS?

[forumdude123]

i'm thinking of either KDE 4.0 or Solaris, which one is better and can be installed on a blank machine with out any preinstalled os.

[DimaYasny]

KDE is a desktop environment, that can run on solaris, linux, bsd, and loads of other distros.

solaris is Sun's Unix flavour.

What do you want the system TO DO?

[forumdude123]

run as a test system for beta software, and test things on it, as well as have an extra usable pc available when needed. also, i want to surf the Internet, put music and photos, and basically run just like a windows pc without any hefty price tags (very tight budget, even xp home OEM is out of the question!).

[hughv]

Get the latest Ubuntu, then.
It installs easily and supports many media features. There are thousands of free apps available for Linux.
http://www.ubuntu.com/

[DimaYasny]

yeah, go for ubuntu or debian linux.

[forumdude123]

how compatible is it with software like ms office 2003, need for speed hot pursuit 2, printers, and things of that sort?

also, how good is the user interface?

(ubuntu)

[DimaYasny]

it is possible to run msoffice under linux. same with some games.
the UI imo is better than windows.

but if you need a gaming PC - go for a hi spec vista machine. Linux is for doing real work, not for games

[forumdude123]

i'm not a gamer. i just want a pc with a decent UI and compatible with printers, and most other software and hardware.

How does ubuntu use ram, hard disk, 32/64 bit, bios, etc. compared to windows xp how is it. what about compared to vista. what does DimaYasny mean by "real work".

[DimaYasny]

the UI is good, much faster and more customizable than windows. I've connected several different printers - they all work.

but the thing is, if you want to move over to linux, you better leave software written for windows behind. it is possible to run some of it, but there are free open source alternatives to everything.

as for hardware utilization - everything works. acpi is still an issue, but there are workarounds.
ATI drivers are a bitch to use, but there's always Nvidia to buy.
My external USB hard disk bluescreens Vista Business, fails sporadically on XP pro, but works perfectly under Ubuntu, even though it is NTFS formatted

and for real work I mean a PC used and configured for a specific purpose, not a home do-it-all gaming machine.

[jbennet]

no no no no no

Office 2003 does not run under WINE and the performance of the games he mentioned is unnacceptable under it.

linux runs linux programs. It has fairly good driver support but printers are an issue

if you need an office suite, ubuntu comes with OpenOffice that is mostly compatible with MS office

Seriously man, just save up for win xp if you dont want the hassle.

[hughv]

It's completely incompatible.
All the apps you mention run on Windows.
Most printers will work, and there are alternatives like Open Office for MS office, but very few games, except for card games and the like.
The Ubintu interface is much like windows, but there will be a learning curve. The good news is you don't need ant-virus or anti-spyware software.
Linux is different, but other than major gaming, it does everything windows can do, and more.
You can earn a little about games here:
http://www.ubuntu.com/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Games
You might be interested in Wine.

[DimaYasny]

except for card games and the like.

look in the gaming section in synaptic

[hughv]

i'm not a gamer. i just want a pc with a decent UI and compatible with printers, and most other software and hardware.

How does ubuntu use ram, hard disk, 32/64 bit, bios, etc. compared to windows xp how is it. what about compared to vista. what does DimaYasny mean by "real work".

You can find out all about Ubuntu here:
http://www.ubuntu.com/
Don't worry too much about how it it does things, just download it, burn a CD and install it.(It will run from the CD also.)
I suspect DimaYasny means really boring stuff like word processing, but it does a lot more, including burning, ripping, email, DVDs, CDs and some cool stuff like astronomy apps.
Very affordable: free.
Just do it.

[culmor30]

Great UI. It doesn't support actually installing MS Office, but the included OpenOffice suite can save to and open all office formats. Need for speed MAY run if it is a Windows version, but you would need to download WINE, a free Windows emulator. (Technically not an emulator, but pretty much what one does.)

[jbennet]

no NFS doesnt run in WINE, like i just said.

[forumdude123]

it's alright, the linux/ubuntu machine will be mainly for testing purposes

[CoMpUtErGoD20XX]

My shout goes to Ubuntu. It is very simple to use and comes with a fully featured desktop. It is also very easy to add applications to using the built in package manager. The whole install fits on one CD. They also have live CDs that will allow you to boot of the CD drive and play with linux without actually having to wipe your hard drive

Best!

[caperjack]

it's alright, the linux/ubuntu machine will be mainly for testing purposes

for testing what!!

[culmor30]

Yeah, just burn a CD and see how you like it. Linux has spent years on CPU clock time management, thus, your programs will run much faster.

Don't use the CD as an example of speed, because running the OS off of a CD is quite slow.

[jbennet]

Linux has spent years on CPU clock time management, thus, your programs will run much faster.

evidence please.

[DimaYasny]

Linux has spent years on CPU clock time management, thus, your programs will run much faster..

only if he actually goes as far as recompiling his own kernel for a very specific hardware.
a generic kernel is good enough for a workstation or a server, unless you are looking at very specific purposes or a very untrivial hardware

[culmor30]

Didn't change too much, some, but on my laptop I noticed a significant increase in speed from that 1.8GHz processor. And it won't get slower as time goes on like with windows if you know what i mean.

[jbennet]

yeah, so long as you remember to clear out /var/log

my ftp server had 16gb of logfiles wtf - seems it logged the ip etc... of every single request

[forumdude123]

somebody here said that you can download linux ISO onto a cd or dvd and use it without installing, but how can you do that without messing up my system. my notebook is an hp with a recovery partition and vista preinstalled. i want to test linux ubuntu on it first.

could someone also give me a link to the linux ubuntu website where i can use the live cd to test ubuntu please?

[jbennet]

you burn the ubuntu .iso to a cd in a special way and then run it by booting from it. The whole system runs off the cd and into RAM - it doesnt touch your hard disk unless you click the icon to install.

RECOVERY PARTITION WARNING

DO NOT install linux on systems with recovery partitions unless you are willing to risk losing it.

[caperjack]

somebody here said that you can download linux ISO onto a cd or dvd and use it without installing, but how can you do that without messing up my system. my notebook is an hp with a recovery partition and vista preinstalled. i want to test linux ubuntu on it first.

could someone also give me a link to the linux ubuntu website where i can use the live cd to test ubuntu please?

the os runs from the cdrom and uses ram to install necessary file .but can/may also use harddrive .but removes file on shutdown . i have used most live cds' don't have a favorite ,but think that puppy linux has best option ,you use live cd then using puppy linux you create a multi session cd or dvd ,and you can then use it to run from the cd and actually save things back to the multi secion cd/dvd things like emails and browser favorites .,
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

also i like knoppix lve cd .
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

and puppy linux ,lve and multisession cd/dvd
http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_id=1