[GeoGeo]

I have heard Linux is an option as an operating system, instead of Windows. I also heard it was free. Where do you find a safe download? Can you use your Windows based programs on it? How would you know if your current programs would work with Linux? Is it fairly user-friendly? I have also heard that it is immune from viruses??? How is that?

If anyone is familiar with it, any info. is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Midvale]

Yes, Linux is free and legal. It is immune to Windows viruses and (as of yet) there are almost zero Linux viruses. There are hundreds of various Linux distribuions (distros) of various levels of newbie friendliness. Ubuntu, Mint, PCLinuxOS are good for beginners. You can install a Linux system alongside of Windows and Mac OS X and then boot into either at startup. There may or may not be issues with hardware like webcams.

You cannot run Windows applications directly but there is WINE which lets you run many (but not all) Windows applications with it under Linux.

Most distros offer a "Live CD" iso. After downloading and burning it to DVD you can place it in your DVD drive, reboot and run Linux without installing or changing anything on your hard drive. See if it runs ok on your hardware. Shut down, take it out and your machine boots back into Windows. Some distros (PuppyLinux) are created to run this way without being installed.

Check out distrowach.com. There are rankings and links to the top 100 distros including reviews, download links, etc.

Apple's OS X is Darwin BSD (a Linux cousin) running with a user friendly pretty face on it. Android and Chrome OS are also based on Linux.

Originally Posted by GeoGeo

I have heard Linux is an option as an operating system, instead of Windows. I also heard it was free. Where do you find a safe download? Can you use your Windows based programs on it? How would you know if your current programs would work with Linux? Is it fairly user-friendly? I have also heard that it is immune from viruses??? How is that?

If anyone is familiar with it, any info. is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Computer Corner]

Here is a list of pros and cons for windows and Linux. If you have a computer you can mess around with, it would be worth your while to put Linux on it. You've got nothing to loose anyway..

Linux vs. Windows