A lot of people are fed up with Windows but don't know where to turn. I'm going to offer some help for those of you bold enough to check out Linux.
Let me begin by explaining some of the important differences between Windows and Linux.
First off, there's no one thing that goes by the name "Linux" -- well, there is, but it's the operating system Kernel, which is a pretty technical concept. In a nutshell, the kernel is the heart and brains of an operating system. A kernel by itself, though, cannot interact directly with you, the user. You need more than that to have a whole operating system.
So when most people say "Linux" what they mean is any of a number of operating systems that are based on the Linux Kernel. Companies take the linux kernel, add all the other parts that are needed to make a full operating system, and then distribute the whole thing.
When I say the whole thing, it typically means a lot more than in Windows. If you come from a Windows system, you're used to buying a computer with Windows on it, then you have to buy a word processor to go with it, and maybe you need to buy photoshop if you're into that, or whatever... for each task you want to perform, you need to go out anfd purchase another program to do it.
In the Linux world, most of the Linux distributions have all the software you could ever want included, from word processors to photo editing software, media players, web browsers -- you name it, it's there. They can do this because they choose to include software that is free(*).
So -- maybe you're intrigued at this point. Well, there's one easy way to take Linux for a "Test Drive" without making a comittment to it. You can download Knoppix, which is a complete distribution of Linux that fits on a CD or a DVD. If your computer is set to boot off of the CD-ROM drive, and most are by default, then you just burn your own Knoppix CD or DVD, put it in the drive, and reboot.
Some important notes about running Knoppix off the CD, though, so your experience isn't a negative one.
Most operating systems will use more RAM than is physically present in your computer. Windows does this by taking a big chunk of your hard drive and setting it aside to use as extra RAM when your real RAM fills up. This is called "swap space". Linux typically does the same, but when you are running Knoppix, it's forbidden to write data to your hard drive, plus Linux needs a seperate partition for it's swap space, so there will be no swap space available to KNoppix, and you may notice this if you run out of RAM trying to run a bunch of programs at the same time. This will not be an issue if you decide to go with a full Linux installation.
Secondly, Knoppix uses some tricks to give itself an "imaginary" (virtual) hard drive -- it takes a big chuck of your already unusually limited RAM and uses it like a hard drive -- sort of like swap space in reverse. Rather than setting aside some hard drive space as extra RAM, it sets aside some RAM as hard drive space. This way it can run off the CD and be useful without touching your real hard disk. This will result in a reduced amount of RAM that is useable to you. I've run knoppix successfully on machines with 128mb of RAM, but it's pretty slow.
Which is the third things about KNoppix you shoudl knwo won't apply to a real Linux installation: Knoppix uses one extra trick of compressing the data in your RAM, so it can do all the above things and still be useable. Compressing and decompressing the data also slows things down a little.
Also, Knoppix is reading all it's data off your CD or DVD drive, which is much, much slower than your hard drive.
So when you are evaluating Knoppix, keep in mind that a real install will be several orders of magnitude faster. In just about any speed test I've been able to devise, a real Linux install beats Windows.
So what are you waiting for? Give it a whirl!
http://www.knoppix.org/
(* Avoiding the discussion of what kind of Free I mean for now)
Let me begin by explaining some of the important differences between Windows and Linux.
First off, there's no one thing that goes by the name "Linux" -- well, there is, but it's the operating system Kernel, which is a pretty technical concept. In a nutshell, the kernel is the heart and brains of an operating system. A kernel by itself, though, cannot interact directly with you, the user. You need more than that to have a whole operating system.
So when most people say "Linux" what they mean is any of a number of operating systems that are based on the Linux Kernel. Companies take the linux kernel, add all the other parts that are needed to make a full operating system, and then distribute the whole thing.
When I say the whole thing, it typically means a lot more than in Windows. If you come from a Windows system, you're used to buying a computer with Windows on it, then you have to buy a word processor to go with it, and maybe you need to buy photoshop if you're into that, or whatever... for each task you want to perform, you need to go out anfd purchase another program to do it.
In the Linux world, most of the Linux distributions have all the software you could ever want included, from word processors to photo editing software, media players, web browsers -- you name it, it's there. They can do this because they choose to include software that is free(*).
So -- maybe you're intrigued at this point. Well, there's one easy way to take Linux for a "Test Drive" without making a comittment to it. You can download Knoppix, which is a complete distribution of Linux that fits on a CD or a DVD. If your computer is set to boot off of the CD-ROM drive, and most are by default, then you just burn your own Knoppix CD or DVD, put it in the drive, and reboot.
Some important notes about running Knoppix off the CD, though, so your experience isn't a negative one.
Most operating systems will use more RAM than is physically present in your computer. Windows does this by taking a big chunk of your hard drive and setting it aside to use as extra RAM when your real RAM fills up. This is called "swap space". Linux typically does the same, but when you are running Knoppix, it's forbidden to write data to your hard drive, plus Linux needs a seperate partition for it's swap space, so there will be no swap space available to KNoppix, and you may notice this if you run out of RAM trying to run a bunch of programs at the same time. This will not be an issue if you decide to go with a full Linux installation.
Secondly, Knoppix uses some tricks to give itself an "imaginary" (virtual) hard drive -- it takes a big chuck of your already unusually limited RAM and uses it like a hard drive -- sort of like swap space in reverse. Rather than setting aside some hard drive space as extra RAM, it sets aside some RAM as hard drive space. This way it can run off the CD and be useful without touching your real hard disk. This will result in a reduced amount of RAM that is useable to you. I've run knoppix successfully on machines with 128mb of RAM, but it's pretty slow.
Which is the third things about KNoppix you shoudl knwo won't apply to a real Linux installation: Knoppix uses one extra trick of compressing the data in your RAM, so it can do all the above things and still be useable. Compressing and decompressing the data also slows things down a little.
Also, Knoppix is reading all it's data off your CD or DVD drive, which is much, much slower than your hard drive.
So when you are evaluating Knoppix, keep in mind that a real install will be several orders of magnitude faster. In just about any speed test I've been able to devise, a real Linux install beats Windows.
So what are you waiting for? Give it a whirl!
http://www.knoppix.org/
(* Avoiding the discussion of what kind of Free I mean for now)
