thinking of installing linux hate vista

[tyson]

on a linux os will you still be able to run all the same programs as you can on windows also what are they like for connecting to the internet

[mrrangerman43]

It all depends on what programs you are talking about, Linux will not run windows programs natively but there are emulators that will run some windows programs. Wine will run a good amount of programs there is another program called Cedra but I think you have to pay for it.
I find that for every program Windows offers Linux has two or more programs that will do the same thing.
As for Linux connecting to the internet that shouldn't be a problem although some Linux Distro's have problems with wireless, but most the time that can be worked out. I would suggest you download a Live-cd of a Linux flavor eg. Fedora, Ubuntu, Knoppix and so on. After you burn the .iso Image boot to it to see if you like linux. If you do chose to install Linux on your system, Ubuntu seems to be the flavor of choice for a beginner. I install moonOS 3.0 on my daughters system, its based of Ubuntu 9.04.

Edit: Oh and welcome to JL.

[ehawk]

You can also easily install ubuntu linux within your windows vista partition so that you have the option of running ubuntu linux when you reboot your computer. It might be a nice way to see what linux has to offer. It can be download and installed like any other windows application wizard.

You can read about it and download it here:

http://wubi.sourceforge.net/

The live-CD test drive is also a great idea. I would pick some from the top 5 on the right hand side here (those are typically user friendly and I think all of the top 5 have live-evaluation CD .iso files for burning)


http://distrowatch.com/

[grizato]

There is also something called portable ubuntu(I've never got it working though!), that yo can rrun inside xp or vista. Read more here (http://portableubuntu.demonccc.com.ar/).
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