Hi all. I've been a lurker here and this is the first time I post anything, so any help is appreciated. I'm a longtime Windows user who recently considering getting Linux OS for my computer. However, a friend of mine thought Linux is inferior to Windows, and I suddenly found myself unable to stage a counter-argument. If anyone can give me some information about a comparison between Linux (GUI/Shell) vs. Windows/DOS, like ease of use, reliability, file system, practicality, or anything significant, I'd like to hear your thoughts about it. Many thanks!

Hey...I'm a newbie on my way to intermediate...and so far I have no harsh complaints about Linux. I use SuSe 7.1 Personal. I like Linux because of the modular design of the OS...that would be comparable to the structure of WinNT/2000. The thing you have to watch out for is hardware compatibility. The have a neat hardware checker at www.suse.com

Dear Steven , Above is difference between Linux and dos/windows. 1) Linux is multiuser , multitask os. 1) dos is single user or windows also its multitasking envornment. 2) Linux is more secured than dos/windows. 3) Linux required password ( its first level security is password.Its support number of level security dep on you. 4) Linux support more than one shell.Thats why you can easily handled same hardware through different way. 5) Linux is portable .Means its open system software. I think this difference is enough for you . If you want more diff than mail me here. Thanking you

Ask your friend if his windows have a builtin webserver, Smtp&Pop, ftpserver, dns, ssh, NAT&ipforwarding. Windows is good as workstation and Linux is mostly used for networking/routing. Ask him if he ever seen a Blue window "Fatal error" in linux!!!

ah, the marketing aspects of free software 8) How can we sell thee, let me count the ways....one one-thousand two one-thousand three one-thousand... "How easy is it to use?" is usually equated to "How well does X compare with Windows?" Depends on your window manager: KDE = pretty good. Gnome = not as integrated as KDE. Blackbox = we don't need no stinking icons! FVWM = if you're desperate. There is no Office + IE that you can abuse with some version of VB and completely automate your computer. Word Perfect WILL open Word files most of the time. And games came to linux mainly because some buy at ID software thought linux game him a "woody." (That's quoting him, BTW 8) Having said that, linux is a network/internet OS, not a desktop OS. It was meant from the beginning to do internet type things (mainly because it's based on unix). The X protocol allows you to run graphical applications across a network (on other OSs even) and you can usually download and install the basic internet servers (ftp, http, telnet, ssh, and others) as is. I think I'm up to 4 separate packages in Windows: Windows NT server, pcAnywhere, IIS, Terminal Server. Does anyone know of another way to serve graphical applications over a network in Windows BESIDES pcAnywhere? I use Blackbox as my Window manager because I just don't need a bulky GUI. KDE is just too big. Which do I like better? Linux. Simplicity = power. And I like having gcc 8)

Remember one very important thing: We can say that there are no risks with virus on Linux because the ones that exist were made only to read mails and check the ports for windows virus... ;-) °-paikan-°

Im a long time windows user & ive been using linux for about a year now. linux is alot more secure than windows, but it lacks in software, linux also does not support alot of hardware windows does, linux if more of a server & devolment os. windows is more of a multimedia os, but its also no where as stable as linux. only if windows was as stable as linux, secure as linux & wasnt owned by bill gates