On 21 Feb 2008, at 01:35, Bill and Jan Klemme wrote:
[...]
It sounds like I may want to go with that "ubuntu" as someone
suggested? I love the bits and bytes stuff, but I just do not have
the time now to get into that. I want a replacement for Windows,
but want to be able to run my Windows apps (like Quicken and
Photoshop, etc). I am tired of firewalls and virus programs and
having to buy new ones every year that haven't been debugged yet.
I got sick and fed up of Windows slowly and surely over a period of a
couple of years. In the end I just wiped the whole lot and decided I
would live with the excitement of the bleeding edge which is Fedora.
I used SuSE for a while and that is a very good choice, too, for a
beginner. It is slightly more user-friendly than Fedora and has good
support, especially if you buy the commercial version (their Home
version is not expensive). Whatever you choose will give you gip,
these are computers after all, but Open Source Software (OSS) is
generally better on one's blood pressure. This is partly because the
community is not trying to stuff you at every turn; errors are made
but they are made honestly and people are determined to get them
corrected as quickly as possible (Microsoft is generally much slower
at getting things patched and corrected than the OSS community!).
As to your software requirements: GNU Cash is an excellent, high-end
accounting programme; there is also a perfectly good spreadsheet
programme in the Open Office suite, which is installed pretty much as
standard on most Linux distributions. For image manipulation, the
GIMP is excellent, although it works differently from Photoshop
(different menus, etc.). It is not really up to full professional use
but you will find that once you get used to its quirks (in the way
that you presumably got used to Photoshop's quirks!), it is fine for
most amateur and semi-professional purposes.
I was led to understand that some version of Linux would be much
less vulnerable to hacking and viruses so thought I'd go that route
with Fedora. I would like an OS that would be able to run Windows
underneath, but would be very user-friendly...maybe even look like
Windows. (My wife uses the computer sometimes too. I don't want to
have a lot of explaining to do.) Is a Mac a good solution, albeit
an expensive one?
The KDE desktop, available with all the major distributions of Linux,
is highly configurable -- it will even allow you up to twenty
desktops (what OS X Leopard calls "Spaces"!), if you need them. The
desktops can even be made to look like Windows, there is a sub-set of
Windows themes. However, if you are like me, you will soon find
yourself looking at a Windows screen and thinking how crummy and
amateurish it all looks. (Yes, the people in Open Source have much
better aesthetic taste and know how to implement it technically.)
Another thing which has notbeen mentioned yet is that Linux-based
operating systems are much kinder to your hardware. My girlfriend had
all sorts of problems with a mini-ATX machine under Windows XP. Even
on good days it made a hell of a noise as the hard disk thrashed
around, trying to find traces of Mr Gates' brains, no doubt. I wiped
the lot, installed Fedora Core 6 and all of a sudden she had a
problem-free machine which purred along like a cat on a cushion.
As for the Mac, it is an excellent solution: apart from two Linux
boxes (both of which happily run heavy-duty software on hardware
which would crack under the strain of running Windows XP, let alone
Vista) I have a Mac iBook G4 (laptop) which has been pottering along
happily for three years now, and I had my work Windows machine thrown
out in favour of an Intel iMac about six months ago. Macs are not
expensive, either. They cost more initially but you do not have to
keep on shelling out for virus software and various other bits and
bobs. Also, since the introduction of OS X they run on a UNIX kernel,
which means that the bloated neuroses of Redmond do not force you to
upgrade your memory, storage, etc., constantly. And it keeps running
-- there are costs associated with having to go without a computer
for days while someone works out how to recover your computer from
its latest crash.
Anyway, whatever your final choice of system, welcome to the community!
Best wishes,
Ian
