09-20-2007, 12:03 PM
I am your local open source advocate and consultant. I use linux almost exclusively. Hubby is mistaken - there are dozens of graphical user interfaces for linux with all the features (and better) of Windows. I use KDE; Gnome is another popular one.
Personally I use the Debian distribution (debian.org) of linux, however there are dozens to choose from. For home desktop users wishing to escape from the Borg (Micro$oft) Ubuntu linux (ubuntu.com)is highly regarded as one of the most user-friendly "newbie" installations. To try linux without having to install it at all, you can download and burn a bootable CD image such as Knoppix (knoppix.com) and boot from CD to check it out (note that it will be SLOW because everything is loading off CD instead of hard drive).
Most distributions come with all the essential open source applications bundled - Firefox web browser, Thunderbird mail program, OpenOffice office suite (which handles Microsoft Office's proprietary file formats quite well in most cases and by default uses the Oasis international standard XML document format) and so on. The GIMP is your Photoshop replacement; Scribus is your PageMaker or Quark replacement; most major applications have equivalents in open-source land, and there is tons of specialized software, games, educational, etc..
Note that most open source replacements for Microsoft's (or Adobe's etc.) proprietary software are also available for Windows and Mac OS, so even if you don't want to switch operating systems (to linux) you can still get the power of open source applications on whatever OS you currently use.
Note also that Mac OS X is built on an open source base called Darwin, with the Mac proprietary GUI layered on top.
I am available for consulting on open source software as well - I don't visit this forum very often so contact me directly for more info.
cheers,
John S.
Personally I use the Debian distribution (debian.org) of linux, however there are dozens to choose from. For home desktop users wishing to escape from the Borg (Micro$oft) Ubuntu linux (ubuntu.com)is highly regarded as one of the most user-friendly "newbie" installations. To try linux without having to install it at all, you can download and burn a bootable CD image such as Knoppix (knoppix.com) and boot from CD to check it out (note that it will be SLOW because everything is loading off CD instead of hard drive).
Most distributions come with all the essential open source applications bundled - Firefox web browser, Thunderbird mail program, OpenOffice office suite (which handles Microsoft Office's proprietary file formats quite well in most cases and by default uses the Oasis international standard XML document format) and so on. The GIMP is your Photoshop replacement; Scribus is your PageMaker or Quark replacement; most major applications have equivalents in open-source land, and there is tons of specialized software, games, educational, etc..
Note that most open source replacements for Microsoft's (or Adobe's etc.) proprietary software are also available for Windows and Mac OS, so even if you don't want to switch operating systems (to linux) you can still get the power of open source applications on whatever OS you currently use.
Note also that Mac OS X is built on an open source base called Darwin, with the Mac proprietary GUI layered on top.
I am available for consulting on open source software as well - I don't visit this forum very often so contact me directly for more info.
cheers,
John S.