Phobos

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I have the Athlon 64 3200....i was wondering where i could get a version of linux that is for 64 bit processors and a little insight about linux...i have never used it before...how does it compare to windows...user friendliness, etc??

volfro

Linux, to be honest, is NOT for somebody looking for the ease of use of Windows. It's oftentimes like solving a puzzle.

There are 64-bit versions of Linux. Head over to Mandrake Linux's homepage to download theirs. Mandrake is a good distribution to start with; it's got one of the easiest installation procedures of any Linux distro.

To compare it to Windows is almost like comparing apples to oranges. They're both fruits--or, in this instance, operating systems. But they're very different things. Windows, though it's exceptionally easy to use, is known for bugginess and crashing, along with susceptibility to viruses and things like that. If you want something that's super-stable, and practically invulnerable, when it's installed correctly, but not so user-friendly, check Linux out.

I've been playing around with it for a little bit--a few months--and I'm still a complete newbie. When you've been in Windows all your life, switching to Linux is, in some ways, like learning a new language.

But, I can assure you, it's well worth the time it takes, in my opinion. You get out of the M$ monopoly by using it, and send a nice little "up yours, I don't need your swiss-cheese operating system" to good ole Billy Gates. It's very fast, very stable, and it's free. What more could you want?

Just be prepared for a learning curve. A steep one, in some cases. Mandrake tends to ease the learning curve a bit, but it's still quite a different beast to work with.

Different is good, though.

EDIT: oh, and it IS a free OS, depending on whos distribution you get. Mandrake has a free version and a pay version. In order to get most free versions, you need a fat connection, as it involves downloading large (600+ MB) .iso CD images. Just a warning. But it's not too expensive to buy it online.

EDIT2: One more thing! If you don't want to go through the trouble of backing up your stuff, partitioning your hard drive, and installing Linux, there ARE Linux live CDs--CDs that allow you to run the entire OS from your CD, without installing anything at all. You basically have a working linux distribution, but it runs purely from the CD and never writes to your HD--unless you ask it to. That's a good way to go. There are a few, but the most popular by far is Knoppix. Again, it involves the download of a CD ISO, but it's pretty cool. I used that before I installed Mandrake. There are quite a few other versions right here.

wolf68k

Before you go diving into Linux head strong, try testing the waters first some a distro called Knoppix which is a verison of Linux that runs from a CD.
You'll be able to do just about eveything you would normally get to do with a fully installed Linux distro. You won't be able to install any programs or drivers or update the kernel. You also can't get root access, unless they changed that since I've last played with it.
It has most of the common programs installed, however one many full distros don't expect to see all of this programs installed by default.