Linux is the pimp?

[Stellar]

Linux is customizable from top to bottom. You can decide how it looks, how it functions, etc.

No, it does not play most Windows-compatible games. You can play some games using Wine though. If you're curious as to which games have been tested, have a look here. Unfortunately, you might have to jump through hoops to get games/apps to run in Wine. Here is a list of the apps that work best in Wine.

As a relative newbie to Linux myself I can tell you that trying to get some things to run can be very difficult at times. Wine is definitely a challenge; sometimes things just won't run.
Thankfully there are (commercial) apps like Cedega and Crossover Office that will allow you to run stuff with ease.

There are A LOT of games for Linux though. A few sites where you can find Linux games:
http://happypenguin.org/
http://games.linux.sk/
http://www.tuxgames.com/
http://freegamer.blogspot.com/

And then there's emulation. You can play NES, SNES, PS, and more.

The good thing is that you don't have to install it to test it out. Many Linux distributions provide a Live CD. You burn the OS Live CD, boot with the CD, and you can test out Linux without making any changes to your system. For example, you can test Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS without installing them. Ubuntu/Canonical will even send you free CDs.

If you ever decide to install a Linux distribution, you can still keep Windows. Just partition your harddrive to your liking and (hopefully) the distro you have chosen will do the rest. I know that Ubuntu does this; I'm not sure about the others.

[silent2k8]

conclusion: stay with ur vista

[fstrulz]

conclusion: stay with ur vista

Good luck with that.


@mr. nails... Linux is worth checking out. It's easy to use and faster and more secure than Windows. I'd follow mollusk's advice (above) and try the latest release of Ubuntu, which is very Linux newbie-friendly and is also supported with a great community: http://ubuntuforums.org

[zapjb]

Don't go with the billionaire's release.

Ime PCLinuxOS is better.

[FIAcausePAE]

im gonna try pclinuxos, here in a few days. i will come back and say my opinion as well

[mr. nails]

most distros have live cd's meaning you can try the OS out without installing or copying files in your hard drive.

that's nice. i may try that.

stay with ur vista

not using vista anymore.

edit: i never post anything about linux nor do i read about it. didn't notice the linux section above. sorry.