WBHoenig

DRM should be made illegal (it actually is, in my opinion, as it eliminates the right of fair use). Let's all run for Congress and ban it

Firefox primarily, but I use Opera and Konqueror a lot and like all three.

I bet Newegg does.

From what I know, here are the differences: 1) You may install it on one computer, and it is tied to that same computer forever. 2) It has to be purchased with a hardware component. Just buy a $5 mouse and throw it away to satisfy this.

Nice desktop. Is the OS X-like bar at the bottom the StarterBar for gDesklets? By the way, Konqueror in KDE is the windows explorer equivalent. Also, the majority of those apps run on Windows (and the KDE ones, like k3b and Amarok, will with their next versions that use Qt4 and the KDE4 libs), so you can try them out before switching operating systems.

Lightty has caught my interests recently; I don't think it is in the Ubuntu apt repos yet, and I don't have the time to compile and configure it right now... has anyone here used it? How does it stack up to Apache?

Mine's decent; Road Runner (cable):

I'll try to give the best explanation I can. My primary OS is Ubuntu (GNU/Linux), and I am more than a little biased towards it. Also, I haven't used Vista RTM yet, but I used builds 5546 (Pre-RC1), 5600 (RC1), 5728 (September 2006 CTP) and 5744 (I think that's what the number was; RC2) extensively as my primary OS for a few months. Personally, I am not at all a gamer, so that made the transition much easier for you. I will be honest - Wine and Cedega's compatibility levels are not nearly perfect. Wine is still technically pre-release software, and for good reason: it is too incomplete to be release quality software. I've never used Cedega, and it might be better, but it forked from a version of Wine that is many years old (the last one to use the permissive X11/MIT license that allows them to make Cedega completely proprietary without making any upstream contributions) and thus is quite different. Also, there is Crossover Office, which recently hit version 6.0. It is based on Wine, but sends all patches it makes to Wine back to the Wine project, so in terms of actual Windows app compatibility, they are pretty much neck and neck. However, Crossover makes it much easier to install some common software (including a few games) by auto-downloading and installing needed software dependencies. They're bottle functionality is nice too, but easy to replicate in vanilla Wine. I liked Vista when I used it, but not enough to justify spending $400 on it just yet. It (the pre-release builds) ran just as well as XP SP2 (which I currently dual-boot with Ubuntu) on my hardware, although it needed me to readyboost (an excellent feature of Vista that Ubuntu doesn't need) my 512mb USB flash drive or I would have a heck of a time doing anything. Not at all to my chagrin, Aero doesn't run on my laptop. I personally don't care about that fancy eye-candy; if I did, I'd be using OS X, right? That being said, I have messed around with Compiz, Beryl, and XGL (I think it is AIXGL on Ubuntu, actually) a bit, and they (coincidentally?) ran fine on my nVidia card with 32 megs of vram. However, the eye-candy is something I have no problems going without, and don't have installed right now. Besides, the nVidia driver to run them makes VMWare Server crash. If you want some moderate eye-candy, but not the OS X or Aero type, then you can easily get that done without any of the aforementioned software. There are two main desktop environments for GNU/Linux and other UNIX-Like systems, like FreeBSD (which is a wonderful OS if you have the time to dedicate to it, but that's another debate): Gnome and KDE. KDE is *full* of eye-candy at default (although minus translucently and the like, and thus you don't need that good of a video card to run it, just a decent processor [i have a pent. 4 at 3.0 GHz myself]), and Gnome is more buisness-like, streamlined, and light. Both can be expanded heavily to meet your eye-candy desires. I personally run Gnome with gDesklets and make it look like this: I haven't customized it that much (trust me, you should see what you can do with Gnome and KDE), but it provides be just the right amount of eye-candy for my productive liking. And I have a fast enough CPU to make it (and KDE) fly. KDE is more heavy, and a bit of a combination of Windows layout and OS X styling. I have it installed, too. It has some of the best apps in the world, such as Amarok, K3b, and KTorrent, and I use them without issue under Gnome. It is your choice. A lot of new GNU/Linux users prefer the simplicity of KDE and start (and stay) there. It just depends on personal preference. As an OS in general, I can say that I like GNU/Linux (Ubuntu and Debian in particular), as well as FreeBSD and the like, much better than Windows. I feel like I am learning something with Ubuntu, and I am a much better computer user because of it. The terminal is just pure power; you might discover that once you master a few basic commands, you can do tasks in half the time compared to a clunky GUI. Don't try to compare it to the DOS prompt in Windows; Bash shell is completely different. I also enjoy knowing that I am running free software (as in freedom, libre, not price), and am not being locked into one company. The learning curve was negligible (although I've always been computer inclined), and the benefits were innumerable. If you do decide to give GNU/Linux a shot, I highly recommend Ubuntu. Mepis and Linspire or Freespire might be good choices, too, but in the end, I like Ubuntu due to it's ease of use (just as easy as Mepis and Linspire, despite what they say), large community, and commitment to free software. The install CD for Ubuntu also functions as a LiveCD, meaning you can put the CD in, restart the computer, and boot into Ubuntu from the CD without modifying any files, but to really get the feel for it, you have to install it. VMWare is a good choice; also, setting up a dual-boot with Vista and/or XP is quite easy (just follow the directions to install and it will configure a dual-boot for you). Also, if you think that KDE would be better than Gnome for you, than grad a Kubuntu CD instead. If you install it, here are some tips: Download Automatix. It will help you install codecs for DVDs, mp3, etc. very easily, as well as Flash Player, Google Earth, and more. Click Applications -> 'Add/Remove' in Ubuntu (Gnome), or the equivalent in Kubuntu (don't remember what it is right now). Browse through software to install and give it a shot. Here is some that I highly recommend: Amarok - the __BEST__ audio player. Ever. k3b - the best CD burner ever kTorrent - the best torrent app (for download legal stuff, which is what I use it for) ever. Opera - if you like the Opera browser better than Firefox, then go ahead and download it. AbiWord - an excellent word processing app. Do a little research on terminal commands and play around a little. Browse through and/or post on the Ubuntu Forums. Bottom Line: Be bold and give it a shot. I hope this post helped!

If I were you, I'd go to http://ubuntu.com/ and download and burn that ISO. It is the most used distro right now by most estimates (although Fedora and OpenSuse are close and at times have beaten it recently). It is a normal distro that you install, but the install CD boots into a LiveCD and you can run it without installing. If you don't like the look and feel of it, then try Kubuntu (http://kubuntu.com ) instead. It is the same base system with an entirely different desktop enviroment, KDE. KDE is a bit more Windows- (and, in terms of eye-candy, OS X-) like and perfect if you like eye candy (although you can't really use all that eye candy off of the CD; to get the full KDE experience, you need to install it).

That's exactly why I use Ubuntu and my highly nLited XP install with the wonderful Windows Classic theme, no desktop background, Firefox (on both), Cygwin, and MSYS/MinGW

Are you using Vista RTM, or an earlier build? I ran it on 5536, RC1, 5728, and RC2 constantly with no problems.

I've tried it, but not the advanced display stuff (is it Compiz or Beryl here?). It is a decent OS, as Fedora Core tends to be, but coming from the Debian side, I have to say that it isn't nearly as good as Debian, Ubuntu, or the like.

I agree with the suggestion of Debian. It is the best OS out there when it comes to server use. I personally prefer Ubuntu on the desktop, but that's just me.

...Unless the original poster was intending to run in on WINE.

I'd use Ubuntu if I were you; it's what hooked me on Linux. Also, I've had experience with Fedora Core. It is a solid OS, very similar in many ways to Ubuntu, but in the end it is Red Hat-based. Ubuntu is Debian-based which gives it a huge edge, especially when it comes to installing software. And this isn't Linux, but you might want to try PC-BSD. It's package management system is just like Windows; you download a *.pbi file and go through an installation wizard. It also has the legendary FreeBSD ports system, which is excellent, but a bit harder to use.

I don't get crashes that much, but I cannot say that my laptop is the best build model out there. Make: Toshiba; Model: Satellite P15-S420 Of course, Windows (and Linux when I mess it up too much) crash day in and day out (well, not that much, as I keep my OSs nice and clean). In terms of hardware, where I could blame Toshiba, it has died thrice. All three times it was under warranty, but the hard drive was obliterated. Only one of those times was my backup not corrupted (I hate my luck, or lack thereof), too. 1: The harddrive needle went off course and destroyed the harddrive. They replaced the harddrive. 2: Same as above, but they replaced it with a *higher quality* one this time. 3: My little laptop is stuffed with a heat-loving Pentium 4 at 3.0GHz. It kept overheating and shutting down for no real reason whatsoever. I came to MSFN and someone was kind enough to fix my problem for a while. Then, the processor super-overheated and fried the mobo. I had to have the mobo and CPU replaced.

a) What type of package management does it use? b ) Does it include proprietary blobs by default? c) I can't tell by the screenshots. Gnome, KDE, or what? d) The fastest you'll get on an old computer is Gentoo... or linux-from-scratch

Would you be okay with deleting the entire partition and then re-creating it?

Actually, I was under the impression that they chose a Linux platform because it is more robust, reliable, and secure than Windows (although some might argue, and I might agree, that FreeBSD is more robust, reliable, and secure than Linux). Useless? I don't think so. It's nice for anyone when you don't need 128mb of graphics ram to run the OS fully. It's also nice when, with or without the graphics ram, the OS doesn't crash constantly. Windows is more popular not because of ease of use. If things were popular due to that, Mac OS X would be the standard. Or even something like PC-BSD, which is based on FreeBSD, but is as easy or easier to run than Windows and OS X. And Ubuntu isn't far behind, too. It is popular because it comes on computers. The average PC user doesn't know the difference between Windows, Linux, BSD, and Mac. The average PC user runs Windows because that's what came with their new Dell. It comes on their new Dell because Windows got popular right at the right time. And every new Dell increases Microsoft's market share. It is a viscous cycle. Linux, BSD, and OS X can't get popular because no one knows about them (well, maybe not OS X) and they don't come on computers. And they don't come on computers 'cause they're not popular. Next year will not be the year of Linux. Nor will 2008, 2009, or 2010. It probably will never be popular on the desktop PC. But not because it is inferior to Windows.

I echo everything you said. The Vista RC's are actually quite stable, but at least on my laptop RC2 and I have no doubt RTM... suck. By who, Microsoft? I could easily poll myself, and the poll would show that 100% of PCs run Linux or *BSD better than Windows. And in the case of FreeBSD, people have kept servers running for years without rebooting. I'm sure the other BSDs and Linux aren't far off. I personally used it constantly on an old laptop a few years back, and I know I'll get flamed for this, but it was actually quite quick and responsive. More than XP or Vista, but that's not saying much, is it?

I personally am one of the type of techie enthusiasts who was running it as a primary OS starting on RC1 and very well might be camped out at BestBut on Jan. 30. But until then, I have Beryl on Ubuntu. But no, I will not be buying a new OEM system. Ever. Again. When I am good and ready for a new PC, I'll build it and avoid Dell's markup.

Haha

I bet the mods will begin to report a huge influx of bogus spam reports soon

Nooooooooo!!!!! Hehe, it would be nice to enjoy a drink that the Longhorn bar while enjoying the beautiful Canadian vistas

I use Gnome myself, but I don't mind KDE or XFCE or anything else.