So... My A+ Classes are over. I bought a netbook to take notes on, I ended up not using it like I thought I would... I ended up not needing a computer to take notes on, the class wasn't set up for it. Anyway... I go back to my apartment tomorrow. I plan on putting OpenSuSE on my netbook. It's a HP Mini, 2GB RAM, 1.7GhZ VIA C7-M Processor. Not the greatest, but it'll be fun to toy around with.
I've tried OpenSUSE, and it's pretty good, but I haven't used it as much as Ubuntu. I believe that's also a very good distribution. Perhaps OpenSUSE is more appropriate for your hardware.
I've used Linux since Red Hat 9, off and on. In April 2011, after having my e-mail password stolen by ZeuS, I finally went to Linux full time. This is, by far, the best operating system you can install on your computer. Rock-solid, customizable, secure. I never worry about viruses. However, be prepared to seek free software alternatives for popular commercial programs, as they are not available on Linux. GIMP is one example of an alternative to Photoshop; it is still fully-featured but lacks more advanced intricacies that Photoshop may sport. You'll most likely find that many of these free alternatives more than do the task of all the commercial software you had to pirate. Also, be in it for the long haul. A big difference with Linux vs. Windows is that most Linux settings and utilities are conducted from the command line (whereas everything in Windows is done via GUI.) This allows you to do anything you want with the kernel and OS, at the expense of user friendliness. You will find yourself in the terminal a lot, so learn basic UNIX shell commands. It's like DOS if you're old enough to remember that...just a LOT more powerful. Be prepared to get pissed off at puzzling problems, but don't give up on fixing them. Most importantly, enjoy learning how to use it. There's a lot of Linux jobs out there and you get a leg-up on the Windows-using competition by being a Linux wizard. I'm actually going to go against the grain and recommend Ubuntu or Mint over openSUSE. Ubuntu may be too heavyweight for your netbook however, so using Mint with the MATE desktop should be sufficient. Once you learn how to use Linux more, you can actually sidestep all the desktop environments and install something simple like Openbox, which will make things scream with speed.
A little while since I have dabbled with Linux. But I think the average user can get around in Linux mostly without use of the command-line-interface. These days many Linux distros are pretty easy to learn to use. I agree that the UNIX shells are infinitely more powerfull than DOS, though :icon_bigg
I'm not at all new to Linux... I do enjoy OpenSuSE. My netbook runs a variant of Ubuntu called Joli OS.
I use Ubuntu a lot for class and I like it well enough, but I wouldn't want to use it everyday, I'll stick to OSX and Windows 7.
Bahh.. I remember being excited about the 1.0 kernel. With modern distros you can do just about every thing you need to do and never need to touch the shell. Though if you are planning to go into IT I suggest learning how to do stuff manually through the shell.
I don't like partitions LOL but more than that the harddrives on my computers are basically full.. (but my father mentioned he might me getting a free used PC from an upgrade...he knows I like to mess around with computers LOL so asked if I'd want it, if that happens I might have something)
