Switching from Windows to Linux

I'm not very geeky, but on the recommendation of a friend of mine I am thinking about switching to Linux. I have an "older" desktop that has a Celeron prossesor and runs on XP. Not being able to afford to buy a "newer" computer, this thing slows down real quick while surfing the 'net. All I really need do on my desktop is use spreadsheets, store photos, and search the web.

Right now, I'm trying to decide which Linux OS to try out for a test run on a live cd. Of course, I don't have a CD burner, so I'll probably have to run out and get a 2G USB flash drive.

But in any event, would anyone who knows about this stuff be willing to recommend (in non-geek of course) which one to try out? Also, I use Clear for access to the net, so I'd need to be able to have a driver (or whatever) for the ethernet port, or whatever the darned thing is called.

Thanks.

I have heard good things about Ubuntu, however some don't like the new GUI.

Google "Ubuuntu"... there is a lightweight variant of that, which will be good for an older system, and it has a robust community of people that work on it. It's tremendously popular.


Related to Ubuuntu, but a little more "polished" in my opinion, is Linux Mint. Click this link, and look at the XFCE version. It is very lightweight on system resources, and you should see a notable improvement over XP.



I'm not a Linux geek, but I do play around with some of the distributions a little bit. If you have any technical questions, I'm afraid I can't be of much help, but I can tell you that Linux Mint is typically pretty straightforward and easy to work with.

I used to hang out in a yahoo chat room computers thing. Some of those guys were up on Linux, but you'd probly have to hang around awhile to know who to listen to, and what current Linux distro's work best
I have numerous older Linux versions, and installed them on some machines to tinker with, but never really used them much, or even took one online.
They're not too difficult, and most have a fairly easy to use GUI, it isn't Windows, but in most cases I found it wasn't any more difficult, just took some figuring to know where to click.
Installation of IRIX was the trickiest one I used, it required numerous command lines to get it installed
They also use different terminology such as "shells", "roots", and other terms I can't readily recall, instead of "files", "folders" etc.
You'll just have to find someone to ask about current distro's, to help in difficult situations, and google a lot.
Tinkering around with it a bit, you'll likely be up and running in no time

Thanks for the replies so far. I failed to mention that I've been researching. But that's the Catch-22. In the old days I only had to choose between IBM or MS dos. Now theres 50,000 Linux OS systems out there.

I did check out Linux Mint. It says on the download page that it's not for beginners. So right now I'm liking either Ubuntu or Xubuntu, unless anyone has a better idea.

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Tinkering around with it a bit, you'll likely be up and running in no time

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Or pulling the hair out of my head.

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Originally Posted by billygoat

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Or pulling the hair out of my head.

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haha! maybe some of that too ; )

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Originally Posted by billygoat

Now theres 50,000 Linux OS systems out there.

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That's the thing about Linux, it's open source, anyone(mostly colleges do this, I believe) can take one version, rewrite it or add too it(not sure exactly what all they do), and post it as another distro.

These are just my thoughts on how it "evolves". Maybe someone else can explain it better

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Originally Posted by billygoat

I'm not very geeky, but on the recommendation of a friend of mine I am thinking about switching to Linux.

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I have used Linux in the past and based on those comments I would say what ever version your friend has installed before and will help you with.
I would use another Harddrive to do the install on. This why you can just plug the old one back in if things do not work out.

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Originally Posted by billygoat

Thanks for the replies so far. I failed to mention that I've been researching. But that's the Catch-22. In the old days I only had to choose between IBM or MS dos. Now theres 50,000 Linux OS systems out there.

I did check out Linux Mint. It says on the download page that it's not for beginners. So right now I'm liking either Ubuntu or Xubuntu, unless anyone has a better idea.

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Or pulling the hair out of my head.

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I really like this and have had no troubles with it. It's fast and easy on the memory.

http://www.mozilla.org/media/img/fir...eader-logo.png

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

Hmm... How about if I install it on a "scrap" hard drive plugged into the USB port?

Mechanic, are you talking about a Linux OS or just the browser?

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Originally Posted by billygoat

Hmm... How about if I install it on a "scrap" hard drive plugged into the USB port?

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You noticed I said another not a new hardrive. You need to see if your bios will let you boot off a USB for that to work.

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Originally Posted by billygoat

Mechanic, are you talking about a Linux OS or just the browser?

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I use it instead of Windows and also Kingsoft Office.
Kingsoft office software: free office software, professional office software

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Originally Posted by billygoat

Hmm... How about if I install it on a "scrap" hard drive plugged into the USB port?

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Do you have trouble physically swapping out a HDD? Installing on an outside drive might be more difficult, but, I dunno

We've been using Ubuntu for the past 8 years, not to crazy about the new desktop but there are alternatives to Unity.

What you want is a BSD flavor of Linux which is more closer to Unix.

The BSD story is interesting in itself, Berkeley Software Distribution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ron, I did realize what you were talking about.

Yes, Bear, I do know how to swap out the hard drive. But that's about it. How would I download to the new HD?

My computer doesn't accept a second HD, if I remember correctly.

I'm just thinking it would be easier/more direct and simple, to avoid having to send it through the extra channels of using external peripherals etc

You can run Ubuntu live from a USB stick, to create the live stick I use unetbootin from XP UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads after the live OS is installed into memory you can either us it as is or install.

While were waiting for the replacement SCSI drive to arrive this is how Pat is currently using her computer, no hard drive attached.

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Originally Posted by Bear

I'm just thinking it would be easier/more direct and simple, to avoid having to send it through the extra channels of using external peripherals etc

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I do agree with you. But then and again, if I swap out hard drives I would have to reformat the old drive and then download. Either way, there would be an extra step or two. I think. Then and again, like I said I don't know that much about computers so it all sounds complicated to me.

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Originally Posted by gustavus

You can run Ubuntu live from a USB stick, to create the live stick I use unetbootin from XP UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads after the live OS is installed into memory you can either us it as is or install.

While were waiting for the replacement SCSI drive to arrive this is how Pat is currently using her computer, no hard drive attached.

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That's where I got the fancy idea to use a "scrap" hard drive. I only have a couple of 1 GB flash drives and from what I've read I need 2 GB or more to download onto a USB stick. So I thought maybe I could substitute a hard drive for a USB stick and save me a few bucks. But I don't have a clue whether that would work or not.

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

I use it instead of Windows and also Kingsoft Office.
Kingsoft office software: free office software, professional office software

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Somehow I missed this. I use the OpenOffice suite myself. Mostly use the spreadsheets. It's also free, and the files can be saved in a MS format in case I need to print them out at the library or something.

I have used OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, puppy linux, fedora/redhat and even the dreaded Gentoo. I have also done light systems administration on several of those distro's (mostly SUSE) and even have a custom kernel compiled on one of my machines.

If you really want to use a USB drive as your boot disk, puppy linux will be the fastest and the smallest (other than **** Small Linux, which i haven't used extensively) , but it should fit on a 256mb drive (atleast it did at one time).

As far as a recommendation beyond that, Ubuntu is a pretty standard suggestion but, I prefer SUSE mostly because me and apt have issues.

Thanks to all with all the suggestions. So far I've tried Ubuntu and Xubuntu with terrible results. Searched and searched on the net to see if I could find a fix, but no luck. I'm thinking it's my computer. I think those OS systems require a Pentium 4 or better.

So now I'm downloading Linix Mint onto a USB stick. We'll see what happens.

By the way, I thought my USB stick was a Sun brand and that there would be no way to delete the pre-loaded stuff on it. A closer inspection revealed it was a SanDisk brand. If you want to delete the pre-installed programs off of it, they have a downloadable program to do so. Even works for deleting other stuff off in "one swell foop."

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Originally Posted by billygoat

Thanks to all with all the suggestions. So far I've tried Ubuntu and Xubuntu with terrible results. Searched and searched on the net to see if I could find a fix, but no luck. I'm thinking it's my computer. I think those OS systems require a Pentium 4 or better.

So now I'm downloading Linix Mint onto a USB stick. We'll see what happens.

By the way, I thought my USB stick was a Sun brand and that there would be no way to delete the pre-loaded stuff on it. A closer inspection revealed it was a SanDisk brand. If you want to delete the pre-installed programs off of it, they have a downloadable program to do so. Even works for deleting other stuff off in "one swell foop."

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Dont forget to format your USB stick Fat 32

I only see a FAT option on my computer in My Computer. Same thing, right?