Okay, basically right now I am getting tired of Windows and their folly attempts at trying to protect me from myself, and I am thinking about trying out Linux. I have a few concerns to address first, and since I come to you guys with all of my technical questions, I figured you may be able to help me out:

Compexity
I've heard that Linux has a lot of command lines and is extremely complicated...I currently have Windows XP, and if you know XP users like myself, I dont know much about using command lines or any kind of programming...the extent of my knowledge with that is changing my IP through command prompt. How hard is Linux to use?

Compatability
I'm a huge gamer, and what I am concerned about is will all these games that I have (Counterstrike: Source, Diablo 2 LOD, AA, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, etc) work on Linux? Also will things like the Microsoft Office package work on Linux? If not is there a way to still use the Office package and have Linux on my machine?

File Transfer
I have never switched OS's before, and one question that I have...is there a way to transfer all or some of my files to Linux? Do they stay without any transfer process?

Security
Does Linux, like Microsoft XP, come with a Firewall? If not where can I find a good one? What about a good virus protection system? I've heard really good things about Linux Security and Reliability!

Networking
Do I need to change anything with my cable network? Do I need to contact my ISP before the switch?

Thanks,
~Katana

Linux has a GUI interface and very little command-line stuff is necessary -- well make some for configurations.

Gaming will be a Waterloo for you!
Linux is not a gaming system and few will run there. You might install a
Virtual Emulator to make it work, but then I distain games and have no experience with any.

Moving files is a big subject: Programs (no way!), data files depend upon the program.
IF you offload to an external USB HD, then you can just copy them to the new internal HD.
Getting Linux to use them is the issue; eg
MS Word/Excel files can be read/written using OpenOffice -- you download and install it.

depends upon the vendor. I like RedHat and you can install an optional FW.

no; Your modem/router is the interface for the Ethernet connection.
Your ISP sees nothing and therefore doesn't care.

I did a little research about the gaming...I call it research for lack of better terms...I searched to see if you could install the games I listed on google for Linux and immediately several sites popped up that do just that. I dont think gaming will be much of a problem...

I'm currently using Ubuntu, a distro of Linux. You can run Wine on Ubuntu; Wine is a compatibility layer for Linux, so that you can run some (though not all) Windows apps on Linux. Lots of apps have been tested to see if they work properly with Wine; full list HERE.

BTW, just how do you change the IP using the Windows command line?

Well you open command prompt (type cmd.exe in the "run" application) and type:

ipconfig/release

press standby button on modem (might not be exactly labelled that) or unplug the cable wire

ipconfig/renew

ipconfig/release

press stanby button again (lights will come back on) or plug cable wire back in

ipconfig/renew

IP is changed.

Counterstrike: Source and Diablo 2 work with Wine and/or Cedega.

If AA means America's Army, it has a native Linux version.

RtCW has a native Linux version, so works as well.

(those two links were just some I found - there might be better mirrors somewhere. Id's ftp server was full when I tried.)

Crossover Office allows you to run Office 97-2003 in Linux. Most of them may even work in Wine.

Why would you need/want to? Linux has read and write support for NTFS.

Yes (I'm not aware of any major distribution that doesn't). However, its configuration might not be as simple as in XP, it depends on the distribution.

Thats the same reason I get scared about switching OS because of my games.

Return to castle ET? haha that game is like a drug to me i cant get enough of it

if you're a gamer, then stay with windows.

Sorry for the late reply, but I can tell you something about gaming on linux :P

generally, what the guy above me said, is true, If you're a real gamer, stay with windows. However: the games you mentioned:Counterstrike: Source, Diablo 2 LOD, AA, all work under linux, be it with an emulator called Wine, but you won't notice much of that. I've seen that AA even has a special linux file, so that shouldn't be a problem.

edit: AA is not being released for linux anymore. However, looking at AppDB(the 'application database' of applications that run under wine) (check www.winehq.com) it does run. Diablo II runs perfectly, including battle.net,CS:S seems to work as well.

about RTCW: from what I've read, it does work, but with a lot of hassle. I've read you can't change the cd's during the installation, but there's a workaround for that. You also cant seem to patch it. Not sure about ubuntu though, couldn't see any test results for ubuntu. If you want to know more, just check the website I gave you. I also suggest you make a dual-boot first(if you know how to) to get to know linux well and to test out if you can get everything to work. I'm a novice ubuntu user(two weeks now) and I can get most of the stuff to work.

Office '97 and 2000 work under wine, and there's a program called Crossover office(it costs money) which lets you use office 2003. Not sure how well that works though, never tried it. office 2000, again, works under wine.

I'm not so sure about the data, I guess you can best burn it all to a cd/dvd and import it into linux.

A decent firewall would be 'firestarter' it's really easy to get. (you go to 'applications->add/remove programs->look for firestarter->click apply and it installs the firewall for you).

So yeah, hope this helps. good luck!

edit: there is a way to run windows in linux. You basically make a virtual machine, and run the windows apps on that machine, however, you can integrate this machine in linux. So imagine having linux with a windows taskbar from where you can run the windows apps. It's a bit of work, but it's not that hard. You can run every windows thing you can imagine. E.g. office 2007, windows live messenger ,etc. However, you cannot run heavy graphical applications like games etc. since you're still running stuff on a virtual machine with a virtual graphics card. it is kind of a good solution for the rest of the software..

If you go for Ubuntu, it has Open Office already installed, Firefox, Media Players etc etc.

Getting other applications is a breeze - there's an Add/Remove list, select what you want and it downloads and installs automatically.

It has very good Hardware support, everything works straight away, though you will need to install ATI or NVidia Drivers.

The only games I've used on it are UT GOTY and UT2004 and they play great.

It is much more secure than Windows.

http://www.ubuntu.com/products/WhatI...desktopedition

Also has Compiz built in - the Desktop Cube {if you enable it}