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[tangledaria]

I totally wrecked my computer at work. Well, I tried fixing it and then wrecked it. I got the computer from the owner before she left for her retirement. It was a very very very very very slow thing running Windows 2000 Professional and it took a good three minutes to start up to the point I could use anything. So I usually push the power

Comments

[windiain]

I had Ubuntu for a while last year. The only reason I don't still have it is because the laptop is a little old and a few things like hibernate didn't work properly, which was actually threatening the health of my hardware. As soon as I get a new laptop, Ubuntu is going on it.

However, linux is a different beast to windows, and as user-friendly as Ubuntu is, you have to get used to a completely different way of installing apps and having to do some things on the command line.

HOWEVER, you can download a Live CD, which you pop in, boot up the computer, and then it lets you have a play with Linux without actually having to install it.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

Other things to be aware of: windows software probably won't automatically run on it. Some stuff will run under the WINE emulator, but that can be hit or miss. There are some apps that are equal to what you can get on windows (open office is better than MS office, in my opinion), others that are not so hot (graphics software is lacking).

[tangledaria]

Thanks for the help! If I run across anything confusing, can I ask you? Are you pretty familiar with it? I'm very graphics oriented, so that's the setup that I downloaded. Our book inventory/point of sales thing at work runs on a concurrent dos. No, really! It's amazing how much of those dos commands I remember. And here I thought I could dump that information for other important things in my brain.

[windiain]

I'm not THAT familiar with it, and don't have it installed anywhere to play with and work things out. But I know several geeks who are, so if you post for help in an unlocked post, I can point them towards it.

Command line linux and DOS aren't really the same thing, but you may find you don't need to use command line stuff very often. So far as graphics go, if you get along with the Gimp, you're fine. If you don't, or it's not good enough, then you need to stick with Windows or a Mac. That's why my desktop machine is Windows, so I have easy access to Windows software.

Really, the best thing to do is play with the LiveCD and see what you make of it.