Some Cool Linux Distros

Linux is one of the coolest OS's I have played with in a long time.

I started with Commodore 64 and moved to DOS. After a while 3.11 Dos was one of the best and then it moved along for a while then it was not until 6.0 Dos. Then Windows 95 showed up on the scene. Then Windows 98 then Windows 2000 then Windows 2001 Then Windows XP then Windows Vista Now we have Windows 7 on the edge. If you are a windows user you have moved from one Windows to another Windows time and time again.

Well if you grew up on UNIX there is LINUX out there for you UNIX users. But of course unless you lived in a hole for the last 20 years you already know this. Did you know that UNIX has not changed much in the last 40 YEARS...... Linux has changed much over the last 20 years but if you learn UNIX or LINUX you don't have to change unless you want to. You are not forced to move on. Best of all if you go with the free versions you can get it free. Yes I said FREE.

What versions are out there. Well we have Red Hat but thats not free.
We have Mandriva but that is not free.
We have Linspire but again that is not free.
Now we have PCLinuxOS - not free. SUSE - not free.

Debian is free, Knoppix is free, Mint Linux - free, Ubuntu - Free. Fedora - Free, Open Suse - Free, Freespier - Free, as you can see there are many pay and many free.

But If you want Linux you can down load free versions of Linux. Learn how to use Linux. Learn how to install and uninstall programs. Know the difference for zip, tar, RPM, YUM. Know the different Desktops. Gnome, KDE, being the most popular and several other Desktops. You can try out all these different Desktops, Learn text mode. (Like DOS) Once you learn the ins and outs of the basics. You will keep learning because of scripts and pipes, languages.

There is one draw back. Getting Linux to run like Windows may take awhile and may require you to reinstall Linux from time to time. But once you get it. You will have a Computer that is yours. Set up the way you want it. Doing what you want.

Once Linux is up and running Windows will start looking bloated and buggy. Everything you would like to do you have to pay for. So after Windows $200 install and then you buy the programs that you want to load. Games run about $50 a pop. Applications run between $25 to $1000's. Linux is free most of the programs are free. There are several nice games (not great) but fun stuff. Free. Sound and video, Cad, Drawing, Art, Publishing, Office suites. the list goes on and on. FREE.

Now you have Open Solaris and Solaris. UNIX you can get. You can have a great time playing with UNIX. Learning how to do all this stuff you do on Windows for a price you can do on Linux for free.

It may take some of your time. But you will learn.

Now let's talk about MAC. MAC is like Windows in that it is way more expensive than Windows and you have to buy MAC hardware. You can't buy off the shelf hardware unless that it is for MAC. Higher cost for that. The great thing about that is just plug it in and go. No set up like with Windows or Linux. But the cost is so much more.

So do you want a very expensive MAC. A buggy Windows system or a Linux system. By the way Linux will run on your old computer that will not run Windows anymore. I can get a 512K computer system to run Linux with no problems. The only problem I have is stuff that loads into memory, if it is too big then it will lock up.