FatalityxZ

Just the title, no I'm not provoking any flame wars, I'm just asking if there are advantages.
I might want to try Linux. If I do, I guess I'll use Mint or Ubuntu.

__________________
On Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2:
PC GAME BLOWOUT!!
http://www.overclock.net/software/59...e-blowout.html
My photography: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatalityxz

t9N

they are both used for totally different purposes.
vague example #1) linux is great for running servers of many types
vague example #2) windows is great for gaming & everyday use

Jimi

Basically, the main advantage I'd say is customization.

Security probably comes second, also.

__________________

jaibot

im not too great with linux but ill tell you what i have found
1) basically everything is free need to edit movies? free want music editing software? free want security software? free
2) customisability you can change anything if you have the know how simple as that
3) updates are sooo easy you have to maybe maybe click three times and your whole system is updated
4) responsiveness i have found that in fedora 11 and mint everything is more responsive once you boot basically everything is instantaneous in windows sometimes you lag going into control panel, etc
5) gnome, kde, xfce, fluxbox etc basically all of these are awesome they are customizable and are way easier to use. For example in gnome you have a pull dwon menu with all system preferences and info
6) hd management doing anything with a harddrive is remarkably easy. Formatting 160 gig hd to ntfs (usually takes xp disc >10 mins) with gparted takes about two minutes. No defragging, ever. MAking partitions is easy as hell too. In gparted just take space off whatever partition you want and no problems.

I have found many other advantages and my friend could talk for years about how great it is
that being said it is still different and sometimes difficult. For example, my sound card, cant get it to work. The new kernel is supposed to work with it though so that is a plus. In addition sometimes ati drivers are shaky with some kernels (atis fault i believe)
overall linux is awesome but you have to try it for yourself
btw installing stuff that is not from the package manager is a pain still trying to get that down

Jimi

what distro are you using, because i have that same sound card and it works beautifully

__________________

esocid

It's free and open source.
A lot of free and open source programs to do what you need to do.
AV is unnecessary.
Customize until your heart is content.
Many, many options of an up to date OS.
Updating stuff is very easy.
Many of the visual features in Windows/OSX existed in Linux distros for years now. I love compiz-fusion .
Did I mention free?

There are things you may encounter that might put you off too. You'll have to find and install proprietary things, such as flash, java (actually Fedora bundled their own version, but the Sun version is better right now), certain video and audio codecs. Some stuff you'll have to fiddle with to get working. And you have a lot more control, which I think is another big detractor for casual computing crowds, as well as the plethora of choices for which distro to use.

__________________
Phenom II x4 920 Deneb @ 3.64
EVGA 260 Core 216 Superclocked

We Are Gr33n Machine

Fedora 10 Post Installation Tips My-Guides Fedora 11 Installation Guide

UndertheGun

Try it some love it!

DuckieHo

Generally speaking:
Complete control, options, customization, specialization at no monetary cost.... at the cost of official tech support and supported application.

__________________
To answer most of your questions: (1) a fridge cannot cool a PC (2) 64-bit OS for over 3.4GB (3) If a PCIe card fits, it should work (4) Resolution, not screen size (5) If you have a question, it is not news (6) Report, not respond to Spam (7) Single-Rail/Non-Modular PSUs are not always better than Multi-Rail/Modular

Nibble

I've been triple booting 7, Ubuntu, and [insert new and shiny OS here] for a while now. I love Ubuntu for all of my office and surfing stuff, but I stick to windows for games. I would highly recommend setting up a partition to at least play around with Linux, just get a second hard drive to back up all of your music and movies in case you hose your GRUB.

On a side note, apparently 7 has a good support to VM and its easy to install Linux inside it so you don't have to worry about hosing your system... but I haven't dabbled with that yet.

mcastaneda68

I have also been triple booting Vista, Windows 7 and Ubuntu for about six months on my home rig. I have dual boot on my laptop (Vista & Ubuntu).
I would personnally stick to dual-booting instead of virtualizing. Why? you get only some of the feautures (e.g. can't setup any advance desktop effects)

__________________
____________________
P45 motherboard selection charts (Gigabyte & Asus)
P55 motherboard specification tables (Asus)