Looking for a Linux...

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Hi everyone,



I'm stuck in limbo here. About 6 months ago, I satisfied the itch that has been bothering me and built a cheap-ish PC. I love it, but windows is making me go mad. So, I'm waiting for a Mac Pro or updated iMac, but when they drop, there's no guarantee of being able to fund it.



So, I'm looking for an alternative OS. Might a good linux be it? I've never learnt more than a few unix commands, and those have long been forgotten. Is there an option that will make me slightly less desperate for a Mac?



Thanks for any help,



David

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Linux isn't very good as a desktop OS. It has very few commercial apps for it and it's much harder to use than Windows or OS X if you don't know what you're doing.



    If you are unhappy with your PC, I'd say sell it on. I've seen Tiny selling a machine with a pretty bad spec for over £900 so I'm sure you could sell your PC for a decent price to someone who doesn't know different.



    Of course, you could try putting a questionable version of OS X on your PC but this place would be better if you consider it:



    http://www.osx86project.org/



    I'd say sell the PC and buy either a Mac Mini Duo with 1GB Ram for £600 and live with the fact that Apple made a stupid mistake of using integrated GPUs or save up some cash for an Intel imac.



    One thing I wonder is whether or not they will get OS X running in a virtualization software under Windows. You'd use your 3D stuff in Windows and apps in OS X.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    benzenebenzene Posts: 338member
    As much as I love linux (I have two servers running RedHat and one running Yellowdog), I have to agree with Marvin. Linux is a viable OS only if you really like fiddling with your machine. Just getting mundane things like sound working can be a real nightmare. Considering your experience with unix/linux and the reasons marvin outlined above, I'd make the same suggestion.



    Maybe there are other distros that are better, but it's still not going to compare to OS X.



    I gave RedHat Fedora Core 3 a shot on my wife's PC. After getting everything working, it was just a hassle for her to use compared to a mac. After a month of constantly fiddling, I broke down and bought her a mini.



    Now she's more of a mac zealot than I am.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    why not run all three OSs at once like my buddy Lance did...
  • Reply 4 of 7
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    If you're using a Mac, there's not as much reason to run Linux, but if I read you're post correctly, you're using a PC right now.



    What are you looking to do with your computer? Linux is definitely worth having as a dual boot option. There's a lot of relatively unique software available for linux, and usually it's free. SuSe is easy to install, so why not give it a shot?
  • Reply 5 of 7
    dhagan4755dhagan4755 Posts: 2,152member
    Ubuntu? I d/l it and it seems pretty good.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    Quote:

    Originally posted by DHagan4755

    Ubuntu? I d/l it and it seems pretty good.



    Beat me too it.. and by a mile but I agree!



    At some later date I plan on trying out Linux for learning reasons mostly I love my OSX but never hurts to learn something new



    Anyways heres the site http://www.ubuntu.com/



    If you don't have fast internet they will ship you a CD free of charge (I don't think you have to pay for shipping)



    Anyways let us know what you choose and how well it works out
  • Reply 7 of 7
    imacfanimacfan Posts: 444member
    Thanks all for the advice - I'll have a play with a couple of free linux variants, but it seems like I'll have to save for a decent Mac - here's hoping for a good iMac bump soon!



    David
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