|
Linux, a free alternative to Windows and Macintosh
What is Linux? Not many people know about it. Linux is an alternative to Windows if you don't want a Mac, and it's free too! Linux is a OS, (Operating System). An OS is the software that runs your computer. Windows and Mac OS X are operating systems also. But what are the pros and cons to choosing Linux? I got my hands on a retail copy of Linux Suse to find out. First of all to understand the pros and cons of Linux I had to do a bit of research on how Linux works. Unlike Windows and Mac OS, who release one updated operating system every once in a while, Linux has multiple up to date choices of operating system styles. For example, Microsoft has Windows XP, and is working on Windows Vista. Macintosh has Mac OS 10.3 and is working on 10.4. But because Linux is free, anyone can take it and change it to how they think it will be better. The version of Linux I used was Suse. Another neat thing about Linux is that when installing, I could choose between two different styles of how the operating system looked. They are called a GUI, (Graphical User Interface), and are what you see when you start up the computer and it gets to the desktop. The GUI allows the user to interact with the operating system through things like the mouse, and keyboard. The GUI I chose was Gnome. This entire review will be based on Linux Suse running the Gnome GUI, so if you don't like what you hear, you can always research other Linux versions and GUI s.
To get Linux I have two options. Download it off the Internet and burn it to a CD, or buy a retail version, which includes lots of free software and is not that expensive. I chose to buy the CD to make things easier. I found it at Fry's computer store in Renton. When I first put in the CD and restarted my computer, it ran through a simple installation. I had the choice to partition my hard drive in half and use half for Linux and the other half for the OS I already had on the computer, Windows. I chose this. Now when my computer starts, I have the choice of windows or Linux on the screen. This is good if I want to keep some of my favorite programs that will only run on Windows. As it ran through it detected most of my hardware, like my TV tuner, video card, and sound card. If you have a very old sound card, Linux will probably not detect it. It loaded software for my hardware, including my printer. Linux has to come with lots of software because it is harder to get Linux software than windows software. I will talk about this more later. There is a problem with the installation though, If you are not computer savvy, I recommend you have someone who knows a lot about computers run the installation for you, and you can tell them what settings you want.
Once Linux was loaded I was ready to begin hunting for pro's and con's. I had to be a little patient though, because Linux takes a little while to start up. I timed it at on an average computer. Once it loaded, I was greeted with a clean smooth looking desktop, with a little bar at the bottom, sort of like Windows. This bar is smaller than the windows bar and can be dragged to any side of the screen. I really like the bar. it has lots of options, and I had the choice of having little weather reports on it and customizable mini menus. I could even put a pair of eyes on it that followed my mouse around the screen. All I have to do is right click the menu to get a list of options. Like windows I can right click any where on the screen to get a list of options. From the bar I can access anywhere on my computer, because it has a menu called “Places” from where I can browse folders. It also had a shortcut to the control panel. It has a sticky note program to make little notes, and a menu similar to the Windows Start menu. I opened it up, and found it was already nicely organized and had cool little images next to each choice. I could choose from games, graphics, Internet, multimedia, office, system, utilities, and Suse help center.(an image of it is here) There were a lot of fun little games inside of the menu games. The games were also preorganized into little sub menus such as action, arcade, and puzzle. I found this to be true for every other menu. It made it a lot easer to find what I wanted. The graphics menu had lots of picture editing and drawing programs. One I used, Called The Gimp, was comparable to photo shop. In the Internet menu, I had multiple choices for web browsers, chat programs, RSS, Email, and other options. The multimedia menu was packed full, and had multiple media players, including one that let me watch my TV tuner. All of my MP3's worked and Cd's. I also had CD burning programs and video and music editing programs. The office menu went above and beyond Microsoft Office. The office suit is called Open office. I can also open Power point presentations, Word documents, and Excel spreadsheets with programs similar to their windows cousins. I wrote this entire article using Open offices version of Word, called Writer. There was an on line dictionary, a calendar, and an address book, to name a few of the extras. System contained loads of configurable options and access to the network. Changing the setting was easy to figure out once I had messed around with it a little bit. I put up my own background and screen saver and changed the color theme. Utilities had printing options, a calculator, and a program for zipping files. Remember, All of the programs in the menu came FREE. Some of them can even be downloaded for Windows for free, such as Gimp and Open Office. On the Internet, There are massive amounts of free software for Linux because it is hard to find Linux software in regular stores.
I left the menu behind and took a look at the desktop.(click here for an image of it) There were a few folders. I could get to my floppy drive and trash bin. When I put in a flash drive an icon popped up for it on the desktop. The same happened when I put in Cd's or DVD's. This is similar to how Mac OS works. There was also a folder called My Home, and was sort of like My Documents. Inside folders it looks a lot like the Mac OS folder system. I can get to all of my drives and network from a panel on the side of the window. I could even add bookmarks for folders and files.(an image of a folder is here) The Menus look and feel can also be customized.
Overall, Linux is a great operating system. Although it can be a little slow at times, I now use it often, and I still use all of my windows programs and games because I have both operating systems loaded. The only way for you to really find out if you like it is to try it for yourself. I included some helpful links at the bottom to help. Give Linux a try today!
