The single largest attraction to Linux on a desktop computer is the price tag because it costs nothing to use. It may very well be that you have a computer where it runs good, it’s plenty fast enough and you have no intentions of putting down $119 for Windows 7 because it’s just not worth it considering what you’re running.
You’re thinking about Linux seriously because you want an operating system that’s modern without needing to buy any hardware.
The biggest issue here is which Linux distribution to go with as there are many to choose from.
Here are a few tips to get you on the right track.
Examining the major choices
These are some of the distributions people are using most on the desktop right now. I’m purposely keeping this list to 5 to make it easier. If you like you can go to www.distrowatch.com, scroll down and look to the right sidebar to see more.
Of the choices above, the most "automatic" (meaning easiest) you’ll deal with is Linux Mint. This is because it comes preconfigured to do normal things people on PCs, such as playing a DVD movie or listening to an MP3 file. With the other distributions you may have to manually enable that stuff.
The one with the most support is Ubuntu. For example, the likelihood of your wireless card working would be best in Ubuntu because of this reason.
As for the other choices, you can try them all if you wish. No one is any better than the other.
What not to get
If the intent is to use your PC for regular desktop use, don’t get a Linux distribution designed for workstation or server-specific environment, such as CentOS. This is not to say that CentOS is bad, because it isn’t. But it is designed for enterprise environments first and not regular home desktop use.
What this basically means is that for things like playing DVDs and other media-specific functions, CentOS is not particularly suited well for that kind of thing.
Hardware you may have a difficult time with
There isn’t much these days that Linux doesn’t support, but however there are a few things that still stick out.
Extended mouse functions
I use a plain ol’ Microsoft Comfort Optical Mouse 1000. It doesn’t get much plainer than that. Using the IntelliPoint software (acquired here), I purposely have my wheel-click set as a double-click.
I have never found a way to get that wheel-click as double-click working under Linux, and I use it so much that I can’t use a mouse without it.
For regular scrolling, sure, Linux does fine with that. But I lose extended mouse functions that I use on a daily basis.
Also bear in mind if you have a keyboard that needs software to enable specific parts of said keyboard, that most likely won’t work in Linux. Regular keyboard functions will work easily – but not extended functions outside of the standard 104-key environment.
USB wi-fi
With most wireless cards, you won’t have a problem in Linux – except with USB-based ones. The reason for this is because they’re software controlled, and that software is, of course, proprietary to Windows or Mac OS X and not Linux.
Some USB-based wi-fi cards are supported in Linux, but it’s best to check the HCL before trying. I’ll talk more about the HCL in a moment.
All-in-one printers
Linux can have issues with these for the same reason they do with USB-based wi-fi, that being the software controlled issue.
Other software controlled devices
The general rule of thumb with specific PC hardware support under Linux is by answering a simple question:
"Does [insert device here] require proprietary software in order to function?"
A quick example of what I mean:
You have a flatbed scanner. It is USB-based. Can you plug this into Windows and use it without having to load any specific drivers to get it to work?
If the answer is yes, it will most likely work under Linux with no issues at all.
If no, that means that scanner requires proprietary software just to function and you may encounter problems getting it to work under Linux.
The HCL
This is an abbreviation for Hardware Compatibility List. There are online-maintained lists that will state whether your particular PC hardware will work under a specific Linux distribution.
One of the best is for Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntuhcl.org/
All you have to do is go to that site, look up your hardware and you’ll be informed as to whether what you have will work or not, and moreover how well it works.
"How well?"
Yes.
Each listing has a rating of 1 to 5, with 5 being "most compatible" and 1 being "recognized but only works somewhat".
An example of that is for the Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 4650 video card. The report is that yes, it works, but DVD movies will flicker on view. That means the card does work, but movie playback has a problem.
Other things to take into consideration
Firefox
Most people who use Linux use the Firefox web browser. If you’re currently an Internet Explorer user, download Firefox for Windows and test the sites you use in that browser to see if they function correctly. And by sites I mean the important ones like your bank, credit card and government web sites you may use.
It’s most likely true that all of them will work without issue in Firefox, but better safe than sorry.
Legacy Windows applications
You may have some legacy (meaning old) Windows programs you don’t want to give up, and that’s completely understandable.
Linux does have WINE. This is not something you have to download independently as the Linux distribution you use will have it available in the Add/Remove Programs area.
Most older Windows apps will run in WINE easily. And, fortunately, WINE has a huge database of many different Windows programs that were tested. Like the HCL, you can go there to see if you can run your legacy Windows apps under Linux in WINE. Chances are good that everything you use in Windows now is listed there – and whether it will work in WINE or not.
It also should be noted that yes, Internet Explorer 6 and 7 are available in WINE.
File sharing on home networks
The way in which Linux shares files on home network is distinctively different compared to Windows. You can share files between Linux and Windows PCs as long as you familiarize yourself with Samba.
I do have a public video showing how to do this with Ubuntu, so you can check that out.
Got a question or two?
Feel free to ask by posting a comment and I’ll do my best to answer.
Leave A Reply (No comments So Far)
You must be logged in to post a comment.
No comments yet