Linux Or Windows. What is better?

Hi I am wonderin why linux is so cheap? And can linux download many files off internet? Im looking for your opinions thanks for looking>

There are also very expensive Linux distributions out there..

Linux distros are usually cheap (free) mainly because they are (mostly) made up of free open source components. Since anyone can take these bits and put together their own Linux distribution, it doesn't make much sense to charge outrageous sums for it - people would just go and take the free alternative.

You can download the whole internet if you like.. Has nothing to do with what operating system you have..

O so a 15 year old with no cash should get linux? Do you know where i can get linux for free?

The internet

You should first take a look at what Linux is, without messing up your computer. Go to www.knoppix.org and download the latest CD image. This is a version of Linux that runs off a CD and doesn't touch your hard drive - an excellent choice for first impressions.

Once you decide you want to mess around with Linux, pick a distro and download it from their homepage. www.suse.com, www.mandriva.org, www.ubuntulinux.org to name a few "user-friendly" ones.

well, u asked for an opinion...
I'll keep this short

I think Windows is better the Linux for whomever wants a VERY user friendly, EZ to use and light OS (including any gamer out there).
Linux is made mostly for ppl looking for a very spacific thing of their PC (be it programind, editing or what-not) and they have skill with PCs, or have the time to put into learning the gut-work of linux

I would advise u to use Windows, and keep things EZ with it

Nepowizard

Take the "light" with a grain of salt here

I am yet to see Windows on a floppy and the last Windows version that ran OK on a 386 was Windows 3.1

Ok ill try those Nodsu.Thanks for looking

Not if your OS is so unstable that it constantly crashes before you can even load your webbrowser. :knock:

Also check out Linspire, you can get their "live" CD, similar to Knoppix, so you can boot up the CD and check it out before installing.

Linux OR Windows, is only easy to the person who has used it for a good deal of time. For a person brand new to a computer, either will be just as much a learning curve.

When PCs first became popular, they had to learn command line, DOS. Wouldn't be any different learning some more command line in Linux. Besides, XP still has command console, which still makes certain tasks easier to just type out. And most new Linux distros rarely require command line knowledge.

ok kool. sounds good.

Windows is made so you dont really have to know anything to use it. It AutoDetects everything and keeps you from deleting things like the c:/windows folder Windows also sacrifices performance so it can be more user friendly.
For example you can type services.msc in run and it lists all the services that run in the background such as autodetect and stuff. Theres a service in there for keeping everything up-to-date. Such as computers on the network, updating IP addresses, ect. My least favorite is the indexing service, it keeps an up-to-date list of files on your computer. Talk about using some resources. You can turn all of these off if you know what your doing and would rather have your computer faster then up-to-date.

Now compare this(nVidia Geforce MX440):
Playing Neverwinter Nights on Tweaked Windows XP SP1: 5-10FPS
Playing Neverwinter Nights Linux Client on Fedora Core 4: 30-40FPS

Theres quite a big difference there, but setting Fedora Core 4 up to where i could play this game took me around 6 hours, would of been much faster but it was my first install of linux ever. I mean in this distro atleast just to install video drivers for my card i had to write down the filename of the driver and location. Then change the boot mode from GUI to command line, Reboot. And then type out the command to "untar"(same as unzip) the pkg. Then reboot and start linux through command line. Change the boot mode back.

Now this was just the video driver. Windows this is like a 2 minute thing.

After that i did some searching about how to install Neverwinter Nights onto linux and found it was possible to install off the game discs themselves. Now i have the platinum edition of this game.... its all of the expansions and original game put together into a set and the install is different. SOOOOO i had to request a tutorial for this version on the game's forums. They put it up and what i had to do was extract certain files off the 4 CDs in a certain order, and then download a patch off the forum and untar it into the folder.

Now this was a lucky case, this game actually had a linux client. Other games you would have to use Cedega which may or may not work.

Cedega is called a "Windows compatibility layer". It pretty much makes a windows directory on your linux drive and tricks the game into thinking it is on linux. Cedega controls everything to allow this quite well, atleast it did with Counter Strike. Cedega you have to pay for i do believe, unless you know a good Warez site, which i do...

But during the install of CS theres lots of little glitches that you have to do certain things to fix them. ACtually it wasnt really installed CS it was installing Steam. After you get it installed you if you have a steam account and the CS CD Key in it you can just install off the net.

But i mean really, i spent around probably 10 hours installing a video driver and 2 games on Fedora Core 4. I'm sure now that i've done it i could do it much much faster but i've messed with computers since i was 4 years old. Not everyone has done that.

Again, i have only used Fedora Core 4, which i believe some of the other distros are more userfriendly.

wow thnks for the long post.... Yea i know it takes really long to install things on linux. I still havnt figured it out,..........lol

If you are willing to pay a small fee ( I think ), and if you use Linspire per chance, their click-n-run deal installs things in one click. You basically get a huge database of programs, free and paid-for, that you can install/uninstall at will all visually and easily, easier then Windows even, they say.

and were can i get this?

http://www.linspire.com/

o its that simple lol

I got Linspire when it was free. I still haven't used it, but I have a legitimate copy of the OS. Why I don't know - just in case I ever wanted it I guess, purely because it was free. Was a sod to download at the time though due to the server load resulting from the promotion.

I've got a free Linspire as well, I think it's like version 4 or 4.5 or something??

Anyway, when they had to dump their old name Lindows due to pressure from MS to change the name, they changed the name and gave away free copies for a time. I have one of those but also haven't installed it anywhere yet.
The click-n-run system of installing software I think is subscription based. But I think you get some freebies when you're new.

o i think ill try it.

well this depends largely on whether you know how to use Linux or not. its pretty much the same as windows with a few minor diffs. to quote MaximumPC: "Its like traveling to a different country, where everyone speaks english, the basics are there but its still strange"