You won't regret making the switch to Linux, it is definitely a better alternative for 95% of what people use computers for and that last 5% is getting better every day.
As for flavor, the most popular lately is Ubuntu, which is also what I use at home. Debian is great too and offers the same great software management that Ubuntu does. Fedora is a nice alternative too since it is based on Red Hat, I just like apt-get for software management better than yum. The honest truth though is that the flavor of Linux isn't all that important since they all run the same kernel and therefor the same software. They all offer superior command line utility to DOS/Command Prompt and they are all capable of managing as many users and whatever permissions you want to give them. They are also all free to download and use. As for the look and feel, you're in luck, Linux can look like just about anything. There are a bunch of window managers that handle the GUI and each of them is individually customizable. The two most popular are gnome and KDE. I prefer gnome because it is what I am used to since it is the default in Ubuntu, although as I mentioned before, all flavors can, for the most part, run all software. So you can use KDE with Ubuntu as well. KDE looks a lot more like windows and gnome is somewhat similar to Mac. There are tutorials around to customize gnome to look almost exactly like OSX too. All that to say, when switching to Linux, you are already trading up feature wise, no matter what flavor and window manager you pick. That is the great part about Linux, there's no company telling you how your system should look or work, it is almost entirely up to you. Now, I know you came here for advise and "they're all great" was probably not what you were looking for. So I will go ahead and recommend Ubuntu. It has good package (software) management and a really friendly and helpful community if you run into trouble. You can download it free here: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download I will not go out on a limb though and recommend a window manager, it is best to try a few and stick with what you like. You can install as many of them as you want and pick the one to use at login. I'm happy to answer any other questions you might have. Welcome to Linux! Jimmy On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 1:22 PM, ryan mcgill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello, everyone. > > I'm planning a move to Linux in the next few month, and have been reading > Moving to Linux by Marcel Gagne. > > I would like to have some idea of which "flavor" will be most compatible > with my preferred use. > > I love DOS. I prefer to do whatever I can that way, both for simplicity and > efficiency. > > I like the layout of Windows 9x/XP for its simple access to all open windows > and intuitive menu system. > > I like how Mac OSX keeps all programs running unless they are explicitly > shut down. I also prefer its visual style. > > I need to be able to manage at least five user accounts such that three > accounts will only be able to write to their own folder. > > Does anyone have a release that incorporates those features? How much does > it cost, where can I get it, and can we have coffee sometime so I can pick > your brain? > > I used to be so computer savvy, but using XP and OSX for the last 6 years > just killed all that. > Rx. > > _______________________________________________ > EUGLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug > > _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
