David, you are delving into a deep and unknown area :)
As WaVy states, most unix's/linux are free, so don't spend any money on
them. A good one to play with (and you dont' have to install) is
Knoppix http://knoppix.org/ (it runs from a cd, or you can go through an
installer), just pop the cd in, reboot and off you go. You can download
it for free or order a cd or dvd version if you are on dialup pretty
cheaply. It's something good to play with and not mess with your
windows setup, unless you have a spare computer laying around.
Don't mess with purchasing one of the enterprise versions of linux,
you'll be disappointed.
All of my web, mail, etc servers run on unix, and I use it daily at work
for most of my tasks. I only keep a windows computer around for gaming
these days.
If you have questions or need help, feel free to email me.
Charles
David Locklear wrote:
I am posting this here because it might interest
a few of you, and I feel it is important.
I was in a computer store last week in the book section
and there was a magazine that included CD's for a program called
"Mandriva Linux 2006."
I have been wanting to give Linux a try. The
review below is intended to help someone, like me, with no knowledge
of Linux. I hope this will save them from the
hassles of trying Linux.
Review of Mandriva Linux 2006:
I was impressed with this program. The $ 20 price
for the magazine included a ton of good software, almost
everything a computer user at home would need, including
an office suite, a web browser, a e-mail program, games,
etc.
I knew absolutely nothing about Linux and I was up and
running in less than an hour of tinkering with it. It immediately
recognized most of my hardware, even USB gadgets like memory sticks
and card readers. I believe the only thing that failed were a modem
driver and a printer driver. I purchased a new modem that had
Linux drivers at Fry's - ( PCI Plus model 2920 ).
However, based on my experience, I would NEVER mix
Windows and Linux on your first experiments with this
operating system. I would get a cheap computer from
somewhere that has USB ports, and then transfer your
photos, music, etc. via USB sticks to the Linux computer.
The commercial version of Mandriva 2006 appears to
be around $ 85 on the web.
http://wwwnew.mandriva.com/en/individuals/products/2006powerpack
An equivalent MicroSoft product would cost over $ 1000.
The magazine I purchased was:
http://linuxformat.co.uk
In my opinion, Linux is ready to go mainstream, and Windows is
going to have some real competition.
Based on my "brief" encounter with Mandriva 2006,
I am convinced now that Linux has a very bright future.
Before you spend money upgrading Windows to the new Vista, I recommend you
at least give Linux a test drive. There are many new releases of
variations of Linux, besides
the one I tested. There is Fedora 5, DamnSmallLinux, Ubuntu, Linspire,
Xandros, and many many more.
Based on my web research the following distribution of Linux is getting
some of the
best reviews:
http://www.ubuntu.com/
But to be fair, I can't say all is rosy and perfect. I couldn't get
my favorite
windows-based program to run inside of Linux. And the more I tried,
the more my computer
became screwed up. I ended up with a big mess and had to reformat
my partition. So, in my opinion,
trying to mix Windows and Linux is a bad idea for beginners.
Many of the computer books that I saw on Linux, seemed out-dated. If
you buy one with
a disc in it, look for the books that were printed in 2006 and have a
DVD. However, those
are in the $ 45 range. You can find similar books in the used
section for under $ 20.
David Locklear
