Ako se vaš kompjuter gasi. a da Vas ne pita, ako se čudni prozori sa tekstom koji ne razumete i svakakve reklame pojavljuju kad ih ne tražite, ako se Vaši e-mail-ovi šalju svim Vašim kontaktima bez Vašeg znanja, onda verovatno Vaš kompjuter ima virus. Glavni razlog za to je što verovatno koristitte Windows.

Linux jedva da poznaje viruse. I to ne u smislu "ne naročito često", već "Ako ste ikada čuli za pravi linux virus, molim Vas recite mi". Naravno, Linux virus nije nemoguće napraviti i dobiti. Međutim, na Linux-u je ovo mnogo teže iz nekoliko razloga:

• 
  Većina ljudi koristi Windows, a loši momci hoće da naprave što veću štetu (ili da imaju što veću kontrolu) i zato ciljaju na Windows. Ali ti nije jedini razlog; Apache web server (web server je program koji je lociran na udaljenom kompjuteru koji šalje web strane na Vaš kompjuter kada ih Vaš browser zatraži), koji je open source softver, ima veći tržišni udeo (nasuprot Microsoftovog IIS servera), ali ipak trpi mnogo manje napada/grešaka od Microsoft-ovog.
• Linux koristi pametni sistem autorizacije. U Windows-u Vi (i program koji instalirate) obično imate pravo da uradite skoro sve samom sistemu. Ako Vam dođe da kaznite sistem zato što Vam je upravo upropastio Vaš dragoceni rad, možete otići u sistemski direktorijum i izbrisati šta god hoćete, Windows se neće buniti. Naravno, sledeći put kad restartujete kompjuter, nevolje počinju. Ali zamislite kad ne bi mogli da izbrišete te sistemske stvari, a ni Vaši programi, niti da ih pokvarite. Linux to ne dozvoljava. Svaki put kada pokušate da uradite nešto vezano za sistem potrebna Vam je administratorska lozinka (a ako niste administrator na tom sistemu onda jednostavno ne možete ništa uraditi) Virusi ne mogu da se šetaju okolo i menjaju ili brišu po sistemu kako im se svidi; oni jednostavno nemaju autorizaciju za to.
• Više očiju pravi manje sigurnosnih propusta. Linux je Open source softver, što znači da svaki programer u svetu može da pogleda kod programa ("recept" za svaki program), i da pomogne, ili da kaže drugom developeru "Hej, šta ako bla bla, zar to nije propust?".
Jel Vaš sistem stabilan ?


Jeste li ikada izgubili važan rad zato što se Windows srušio? Da li uvek gasite kompjuter na ispravan način, ili ponekad morate da ga ugasite prekidačem zato što je Windows poludeo i ne dozvoljava Vam da radite ništa drugo? Jeste li ikada dibili "plavi ekran smrti" ili poruku koja Vam saopštava da kompjuter mora da se ugasi iz nekog nejasnog razlogas ?

Poslednje verzije Windows-a, naročito "Professional" postaju stabilnije nego pre, ali ipak ovakvi slučajevi se dešavaju relativno ćesto.

Naravno, ni jedan operativni sistem nije savršen i ljudi koji Vam kažu da se njihov nikada nije srušio - lažu. Ipak, neki sistemi mogu da budu toliko stabilno da većina korisnika nikada ne vidi kako se ruše, čak ni posle nekoliko godina. Ovo je tačno na Linux-u. Evo dobrog načina da vidite. Kada se sistem sruši, on se mora ugasiti ili restartovati. Zato, ako Vaš kompjuter može da radi dugo vremena, ma koliko ga koristili, onda možete da kažete da je Vaš sistem stabilan. Pa, Linux može da radi godinama bez potrebe da se restartuje (većina internet servera koristi Linux, a oni se najčešće nikad ne restartuju). Naravno, prilikom velikih osvežavanja ipak se mora restartovati (na pravi način). Ali ako instalirate Linux, i onda ga koristite koliko god hoćete, držeći kompjuter stalno uključenim, tako možete raditi godinama a da nemate ni jedan problem.

Najčešće, ne morate da ostavljate kompjuter stalno uključenim, ali ovo pokazuje koliko je Linux stabilan.



Linux štiti Vaš kompjuter


Virusi, trojanci, adwares, spywares... Windows pušta sve ove da uđu na Vaš kopjuter veoma lako. Prosečno vreme pre nego što se Windows PC (povezan na Internet i sa podrazumevanom Service Pack 2" instalacijom) zarazi je oko 40 minuta (a ponekad je dovoljno i samo 30 sekundi).

Ostaje Vam samo da 1) instalirate firewall, 2) instalirate antivrus program, 3) instalirate anti-adware program, 4) otarasite se Internet Explorer-a i Outlook-a (menjajući ih sa Firefox-om i Thunderbird-om), i 5) da se molite da negativci nisu dovoljno pametni da prevaziđu ove zaštite i da, ako se pronađe sigurnosna rupa, Microsoft-u neće trebati više od mesec dana da napravi zakrpu (a ovo se ne dešava veoma često). Ili možete instalirati Linux i spavati mirno od tada.

Kao što smo već rekli u "virus" sekciji, Open Source softvar (npr. Linux) znači da više ljudi proverava kod. Svaki programer na planeti Zemlji može skinuti kod, pogledati ga, i videti da li možda ima neku sigurnosnu rupu. Sa druge strane, jedini ljudi kojima je dozvoljeno da vide Windows kod (njegov "recept") jesu ljudi koji rade za Microsoft. To je stotine i hiljade ljudi (možda milioni) naspram nekoliko hiljada. To je stvarno velika razlika

Ali, u stvari, i nije baš bitno to koliko grešaka sistem ima, u poređenju sa drugima. Ako ima mnogo grešaka, a niko ih još nije otkrio (uključujući i negativce), ili su one minorne (ne ugrožavaju važne delove sistema), onda loši momci neće moći da naprave štetu. Više je stvar u tome koliko brzo sigurnosna greška može da se reši kada se otkrije. Ako se takva greška nađe u open source programu, svako u open source zajednici mođe da pogleda i da pompgne u rešavanju. Rešenje problema (i zakrpa) obično izađu u roku od par dana, ponekad čak i nekoliko sati. Microsoft nema toliko radne snage, i obično izdaje sigurnosne zakrpe nakon mesec dana od momenta otkrivanja propusta (i obično objavljivanja istog): što je više nego dovoljno da zlobnici naprave manje-više šta god hoće da Vašim kompjuterom.



Nemojte platiti 300$ za Vaš Operativni sistem
(I nemojte ga nelegalno kopirati)


Verovatno kažete sebi: "O, ja nisam ni platio Windows". Jeste li apsolutno sigurni? Ako je Vaš kompjuter došao sa instaliranim Windows-om onda ste ga platili, iako Vam u radnji to nisu rekli. Cena za Windows licencu kreće se u proseku oko jedne četvrtine cene novog kompjutera. Dakle,ukoliko niste nabavili Windows ilegalno, onda ste ga verovatno platili. Šta mislite, odakle Microsoft-u novac?

Sa druge strane, možete dobiti Linux potpuno besplatno. Tako je, svi oni likovi u celom svetu radili su veoma naporno da naprave lep, jasan, efikasan, lep na oko sistem, i daju svoj rad da ga svako može slobodno koristiti (ako se pitate zašto to rade, pošaljite mi e-mail u pokušaću da Vam objasnim ). Naravno, neke kompanije prave dobar posao prodajući podršku, dokumentaciju, servis, itd., za njihovu verziju Linux, i to je svakako dobra stvar. Ali u najvećem broju slučajeva nećete morati platiti ni dianara.



Sloboda!


Linux i "Open Source" softver je "slobodan". To znači da je njihova licenca "slobodna licenca", a najčešća je GPL (General Public License - Opšta Javna Licenca). Ova licenca kaže da je svakom dozvoljeno da kopira softver, pogleda izvorni kod ("recept"), menja ga, i ponovo izdaje pod uslovom da licenca ostane GPL.

Ali što bi Vi marili za slobodu? Zamislite da Microsoft nestane sutra (dobro, to baš i nije verovatno, ali za možda 5 ili 10 godina?). Ili zamislite da odjednom utrostruči cenu licence za Windows ili Office. Ako ste vezani za Windows, nećete moći ništa uraditi. Vi (ili Vaš biznis) zavisite od te jedne kompanije, i njenog softvera i ne možete naterati stvari da rade bez njega (kakva je korist od kompjutera bez operativnog sistema?). Zar nije to ozbiljan problem? Zavisite od jedne kompanije i nadate se da če nešto tako važno kao što je Vaš kompjuter raditi kako bi trebalo. Ako Microsoft odluči da naplati 1000 dolara za sledeću verziju Windows-a, nećete moći da uradite ništa po tom pitanju, sem da pređete na Linux, naravno. Ako Windows ima grešku koja Vas veoma muči i Microsoft neće da je popravi, ne možete ništa uraditi (a prijavljivanje problema Microsoft-u nije lako, pogledajte samo sekciju "Prijavi grešku").

Sa Open Source-om, ako pojedinačna firma ili projekat propadnu, sav kod ostaje otvoren za zajednicu i ljudi mogu da nastave da ga poboljšavaju. Ako Vam je takav projekat posebno važan, možete i sami da ga preuzmete. Ako Vas nervira neka specifična greška, možete je prijaviti, razgovarati sa programerima, ili još bolje, sami je popraviti (ili platiti nekome za to), i poslati promene naviše ka developerima kako bi svi zainteresovani mogli da dobiju poboljšanje. Slobodni ste da uradite (skoro) sve što hoćete sa softverom.



Kada je Vaš sistem instaliran, zašto bi ste morali instalirati još stvari?


Instalacija Windows-a je samo početak. Zamislite da ste upravo instalirali Vašu novu kopiju Windows-a XP i spremate se da oslobodite Vaše kompjutersko umeće. Prijatelj Vam pošalje email sa prikačenim PDF dokumentom: dovraga, niste instalirali program da ga pročitate. Morate otići na mrežu, pronaći sajt koji će Vam dozvoliti da skinete Adobe Reader (ili neki drugi program za pregled PDF dokumenata), skinuti ga, instalirati, možda čak i restartovati sistem. Ufff, dobro, sada ste spremni. Prikačen uz mail Vapeg prijatelja je i tekstualni dokument file.doc. Vaš Windows ne može pročitati ni njega: super. Ili ćete otići da kupite kopiju Microsoft Office-a, ili ćete jednostavno skinuti OpenOffice, ali ipak, morate da ga nađete, skinete (nadamo se da imate broadband konekciju), instalirate itd. vaš prijatelj Vam je poslao i sliku, ali ima loš kontrast, ili osvetljenje i mora da se smanji. Dakle sad možete otići i kupiti Photoshop (koliko stotina novčanica je to ?), ili skinuti GIMP (ovo je ime besplatnog programa koji može skoro isto što i Photoshop) : pretraga, download, instalacija, itd. E sad je dosta: shvatili ste poentu, Windows je daleko od kompletnog i njegova instalacija je samo početak nevolja.

Kada nabavite Linux (kao što je Ubuntu, Mandriva, Fedora, itd., ovo su različiti "ukusi" Linux-a), takođe dobijate, bez dodatne instalacije :
• Sve što Vam treba da pišete tekstove, pravite tabele, prezentacije, crtate, pišete jednačine.
• Web browser (npr Firefox) i e-mail program (npr Thunderbird, ili Evolution).
• Editor slika (GIMP) skoro isto moćan kao Photoshop.
• Instant messenger.
• Player za filmove.
• Muzički player i organizator.
• PDF čital.
• Sve pto Vam treba za rad sa arhivama (ZIP, itd.).
• itd.
Možete jednostavno odmah da počnete sa radom.



Osvežite Vaš softver jednim klikom miša.


Windows ima zgodan alat koji se zove "Windows update", i koji Vam dozvoljava da ažurirate Vaš sistem najsvežijim dostupnim zakrpama.

Ali šta je sa svim ne-Microsoft-im softverom. Adobe programi ? ZIP kompresor ? Program za rezanje ? Ne-Microsoft-ov web browser ili email klijent, na primer. ? Morate da ih ažurirate jedan po jedan. A to oduzima vreme, s obzirom da svaki od tih programa ima svoj (auto)update sistem.

Linux ima centralno mesto zvano "Package manager", koji se brine o svemu što je instalirano na Vašem sistemu, ali isto tako i o svakom parčetu softvera koji Vaš kompjuter ima. Dakle, ako hoćete da imate sve najsvežije verzije, jedina stvar koju treba da uradite jeste da stisnete "Install Updates" dugme :




Zašto kopirati softver ilegalno kada možete da ga dobijete besplatno?


Dakle, Vi ste savršeno čisti, Vi ste *kašljuc* kupili licencu za sav softver koji ste ikada koristili *kašljuc*, i niko Vam ne može prigovoriti? Pa, ako je tako, čestitamo

Ipak, većina ljudi, budimo iskreni, ilegalno kopirani softver je veoma čest. Kopiranje Adobe Photoshop-a umesto kupovine verovatno Vam neće oduzrti mnogo sna. Ali da li ste sigurni da zbog ovoga nikada nećete imati problema? Niste baš sigurni... Proizvođači softvera svakodnevno napreduju i nalaze nove načine da pronađu ilegalne korisnike, i, kako sve više i više ljudi ima širokopojasni (stalni) pristup internetu, možda će uskoro dodati opciju koja će kontrolisati i verifikovati Vašu verziju softvera svaki put kada ga pokrenete.

Ako koristite Linux i instalirate besplatan softver o ovome više nećete morati da brinete! Većina slobodnog (kao sloboda govora) softvera je besplatna (kao besplatno pivo). Možete pronaći besplatnu zamenu za većinu komercijalnog softvera koji postoji. Možda im fale neke napredne mogućnosti ili funkcionalnosti, ali će biti više nego dovoljan za većinu ljudi. Evo liste nekih komercijalnih programa i njihovog open source ekvivalentas :



Treba Vam nov softver? Ne tražite po mreži, Linux će Vam nabaviti.


Ako želite da probate novo parče softvera u Windows-u, moraćete da:
1. Pretraćite mrežu i nađete aplikaciju koja Vam odgovara.
2. Nađete web stranu koj Vam omogućava download (skidanje).
3. Možda da platite.
4. Uradite download softvera.
5. Instalirate
6. Poneka restartujete kompjuter.

Uf, to je mnogo posla da bi se probalo nešto novo!

Sa Linux-om, sve je mnogo jednostavnije. Linux ima nešto što se zove "package manager": svako parče softvera je spakovano u "paket". Ako Vam treba nov softvere, samo otvorite package manager, ukucajte par kjučnih reči, izaberite softver koji želite instalirati i pritisnite "Apply" ili "OK". Ili možete samo pregledati postojeći softver (to je stvarno puno mogućnosti!) po kategorijama.

Ovde sam samo ukucao "mine game" da bih našao igru mine sweeper (u stvari, već je bila instalirana sa Linux-om, ali ipak). Ako želite da instalirate nov program, samo čekirajte kvadratić sa leve strane, i kliknite "Apply" ("Appliquer" na Francuskom - sada je osenčeno jer još ništa nije obeleženo za instalaciju):




Does your digital life seem fragmented ?


If you already know what fragmentation is, and are already used to defragmenting your disk every month or so, here is the short version : Linux doesn't need defragmenting.

Now imagine your hard disk is a huge file cabinet, with millions of drawers (thanks to Roberto Di Cosmo for this comparison). Each drawer can only contain a fixed amount of data. Therefore, files that are larger than what such a drawer can contain need to be split up. Some files are so large that they need thousands of drawers. And of course, accessing these files is much easier when the drawers they occupy are close to one another in the file cabinet.

Now imagine you're the owner of this file cabinet, but you don't have time to take care of it, and you want to hire someone to take care of it for you. Two people come for the job, a woman and a man.
• 
  The man has the following strategy : he just empties the drawers when a file is removed, splits up any new file into smaller pieces the size of a drawer, and randomly stuffs each piece into the first available empty drawer. When you mention that this makes it rather difficult to find all the pieces of a particular file, the response is that a dozen boys must be hired every weekend to put the chest back in order.
• 
  The woman has a different technique : she keeps track, on a piece of paper, of contiguous empty drawers. When a new file arrives, she searches this list for a sufficiently long row of empty drawers, and this is where the file is placed. In this way, provided there is enough activity, the file cabinet is always tidy.
  
Without a doubt, you should hire the woman (you should have known it, women are much better organized ). Well, Windows uses the first method ; Linux uses the second one. The more you use Windows, the slower it is to access files ; the more you use Linux, the faster it is. The choice is up to you!



Choose what your desktop looks like.


If you're a Windows user, your desktop environment probably isn't very far from this:


Pretty much all Windows users have the same desktop. You can still change your wallpaper, or the color of your windows decorations (default is blue), but basically you'll still end up with the usual Windows interface.

With Linux, choice has been brought back to you. You're no longer forced to accept the one-and-only way to manage multiple windows: you can choose among many programs, which are called "window managers". But don't worry, you won't needto worry about that, since you'll have a pretty good default window manager. The point is you can change it if you wish.

So if you like a simple, efficient and easy-to-use desktop environment, you'll probably like this one:



If you like a more modern and glossy look, you might want to switch to this one:



Or you could try this one, simple and fast:



Or even this one, if you love to completely customize your desktop environment:



As you can see, with Linux you decide what your desktop looks like. And you don't even need to decide once and for all : you can switch to any of these desktop styles whenever you log into your computer.



Why does your Windows get slower day after day?


Windows has a number of design flaws, resulting in it becoming slower and slower and not lasting very long. You've probably heard more than once someone say "My computer is getting sluggish, I'm gonna reinstall". Reinstalling Windows solves the problem... until next time.

You may think this is just how computers work, they're very new technology, and still not really stable. Well, try Linux and you'll be surprised. Five years from now, your system will be just as fast and responsive as the day you installed it, not to mention that you won't have any viruses, adwares, trojans, worms, etc., that would force you reinstall anyway.

I have managed to convince many people to switch to Linux, while keeping Windows on their hard disk, because they needed to use some piece of software that Linux doesn't have (eg Autocad), so they use both systems. Since the day they switched, most of them have reinstalled Windows about once in a year or two; but Linux didn't let them down, and is still running perfectly well and snappy today.

Linux lets you spend more time working, less time reinstalling over and over again.



Enjoy free and unlimited support


One of the great assets of the Open Source community (and Linux in particular), is that it's a real community. Users and developers really are out there, on web forums, on mailing lists, on IRC channels, helping out new users. They're all happy to see more and more people switch to Linux, and they're happy to help them get a grip on their new system.

So if there's something you don't understand, a program that doesn't behave the way you would expect, or a feature that you can't seem to find, don't hesitate to go and ask for help. If there's somebody near you (family? co-workers?) who is using Linux, he or she will probably be happy to help you out. Otherwise, just go online and you'll find literally thousands of places where nice people will answer you and walk you out of your problem most of the time: geeks actually are very nice people, if you ask your question politely. Just type "linux help" (or replace "linux" with whatever distribution you chose -- see the install section) in Google and you'll undoubtedly find everything you need.



Use MSN, AIM, ICQ, Jabber, with a single program


You may have accounts for several instant messaging services, such as MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Jabber, AIM, etc. While running Windows or Mac OS X, you probably need one program to connect to each one of those : MSN Messenger for MSN, ICQ for ICQ, etc.

With Gaim, the instant messenger for Linux (it exists for Windows as well), you can connect to all these services at once, with this one program, and see all your buddies at the same time.





Too many windows? Use workspaces.


I never was a Windows user and there is something I just cannot understand: once you have your word processor, your web browser, your email application, your instant messenger software and some windows open to explore your files, how do Windows users manage not to get lost in this clutter?

Workspaces is a feature I would never trade for anything else. You probably only have one screen, right? Try Linux, and you have four. Well, you can't actually look at the four of them at the same time, but this doesn't matter since your eyes can't look in two directions at once, right? On the first screen, lets put your word processor. On the second one, your instant messenger software. On the third one, your web browser. So when you're writing something in your word processor and you want to check out something on the web, no need to review all your windows to find your browser, stacked all the way behind the others. You just switch to your third screen and voilà, here it is.

Take a look at the following screen, and pay particular attention to the bottom right of the screen:



That's your "workspace switcher". You can see it has four (virtual) screens, but you can have more than this (I use 12 of them, but some people have many more). The one on the left is highlighted: it's the current one. To switch to another one, just click on the one you want (each one of them shows a small preview of the windows they contain: in this case the three others are empty), or use a keyboard shortcut.



Save some energy : let your computer sleep or hibernate.
• Windows allows "sleep" and "hibernate" (for the latter, hold the Shift key down when you see the shutdown dialog).
• Mac OS X only allows "sleep".
  
While your computer is sleeping, you can't use it, but it's consuming very little power, and you can wake it up by pressing a key or clicking the mouse.

Of course, Linux lets you do this as well, but it also lets you "hibernate" your computer. Hibernation is pretty much like sleeping, but your computer won't be using any power at all: you can even unplug it, it won't do any harm. This is especially useful for laptops : whenever you need to move some place else, just hibernate your computer, unplug it, and when you give it power again, you'll find things just as you had left them.

So basically, you just don't need to "boot" your computer again! Since Linux is very stable and seldom needs to reboot, you can just boot it once and for all, then just hibernate, wake up, hibernate, wake up, etc.



Reporting bugs


If you find a bug in Windows, you can basically wait and pray that Microsoft will fix it fast (and if it compromises your system's security, you would have to pray twice as hard). You might think that reporting that bug to Microsoft (so that they can fix it more quickly) must be easy. Well, think again. Here is an interesting article about this. What if Microsoft doesn't even notice the bug ? Well then, let's hope the next version of Windows will fix it (but you'll need to pay another few hundred bucks).

Nearly all open source software (including Linux distributions) have a bug tracking system. You can not only file bug reports (and you're encouraged to do so !) explaining what the problem is, but you can see what happens next : everything is open and clear for everyone. Developers will answer, they also might ask a little extra information to help them fix the bug. You will know when the bug has been fixed, and you will know how to get the new version (still for free, needless to say). So here you have people taking care of your problems, keeping you informed about it, and all that for free ! If the problem is solved on your system, it will be on everyone else's : it's in everyone's interest to work together to make software better. This is how open source works.



Are your tired of restarting your computer all the time?


Have you just upgraded one or two little things on your Windows system with "Windows update"? Please reboot. Have you just installed some new software? Please reboot. Does your system seem unstable? Try to reboot, everything will probably work better after that.

Windows always asks you to restart your computer, and that can be annoying (maybe you happen to have a long download going on, and you don't want to interrupt it just because you updated a few pieces of your system). But even if you click "Restart later", Windows still keeps bothering you every ten minutes to let you know that you really should restart the computer. And if you happen to be away from your computer and you didn't see the question, it will happily reboot automatically. Bye bye long download.

Linux basically doesn't need to restart. Whether you install new software (even very big programs) or perform routine upgrades for your system, you will not be asked to restart the computer. It is only necessary when a part from the heart of the system has been updated, and that only happens once every several weeks.

Do you know Internet servers? They're the big computers that answer you when you ask for a web page, and send the information to your browser. Most of them run Linux, and since they need to always be available (a visitor could come anytime), they aren't restarted very often (services aren't available while the system is starting). Actually, many of them haven't restarted for several years. Linux is stable, it runs perfectly well without restarting all the time.

You'll probably not let your computer on for several weeks but the point is: the system won't bother you with restarting all the time.



Let your old computer have a second life


Windows requires more and more hardware power as its version number increases (95, 98, 2000, Me, XP, etc.). So if you want to keep running Windows, you need to constantly buy new hardware. But I can't see any good reason for so fast an evolution. Of course, many people need a lot of computer power and new hardware and technologies are really helping them. But for most users, who surf the web, read and write emails, write text files and slides, what's the point of buying a new computer every 2, 3 or 4 years, apart from letting computer vendors earn more money? What is exactly the profound reason why your computer can't do any more of what it did perfectly well 5 years ago?

Linux runs perfectly well on older hardware, on which Windows XP would probably even refuse to install, or let you wait 20 seconds after each click. Of course, Linux won't make a race-winner out of your 12-year old computer, but it will run very well on it and allow you to perform usual tasks (surfing the web, writing documents, etc.) just fine. The very computer that delivers this page to you is not very young and runs Linux: if you can read this, then it is up and running (and if the website loads slowly, blame my Internet connection only).



Play hundreds of games for free


Hundreds of games are released under a free (as in "free beer" and as in "free speech") license: 2D, 3D, puzzles, war games, online multiplayer games, you name it ! Here are a few examples (the full list would be endless) :



Help other countries, and your own
(Thanks to Gabriel E. Patiño -- gepatino {at}gmail {dot} com -- for the idea and first version of the text)


Microsoft is an USA company, and its success is great for the American economy.

But if you don't live in the USA, when you buy propietary software (eg Windows), about a half of the money goes directly to the software company's HQ (eg Microsoft's): that money leaves your country, while the other half stays in (sales commissions, etc.: no technical benefits). Your country is not producing anything, and you don't even need qualified people to sell boxes. That leads to IT professionals with no high level knowledge who only install and configure proprietary software without the option of modifying/learning/customizing it.

With Free Software (eg Linux), the economy (and IT professionals' knowledge) of your country could improve, since there could be a lot of small/medium companies customizing solutions, providing support, consulting, etc.

People who know how to do things and retain money in your country will benefit from it, rather than people who just sell boxes with a predefined sales pitch, sending your money offshore, leaving IT professionals without real knowledge about how things work.



Get a great music player


Linux has many music players (including AmaroK, Rhythmbox, Banshee, etc.), and some of them are great. Check out AmaroK for example (see the screenshot) : it manages and plays your music perfectly, learns which tunes you prefer, automatically fetches their title (and lyrics) on the Internet, and even gets the CD covers for you!




Keep and eye on the weather.


Are you tired of having a thermometer outside your window and go check it before getting out ? Just take a look at your Linux screen and keep and eye on the weather :

Of course, Linux doesn't force you to do anything, so you can place this anywhere you want on your screen, or just not have it at all (after all, isn't it nicer to have a look through your window ?). You can select the place where you live (or anywhere else) in a complete list of locations (OK, I cheated, I chose Honolulu for the screen capture, it's 2°C right now in Paris !).

If you click on the small picture, you can get more details like this (yeah, sorry, that's French you're reading) :






Nekoliko slučajeva kada se treba držati Windows-a (za sada)





Proprietary software


Until recently, many software publishers considered the software market for Linux to be too small to bother releasing software for it. Though this is beginning to change, most proprietary software does not run within Linux.

That being said, there are several Open Source programs that can replace these "essential" proprietary ones (see this section).

Give these programs a try; they often release Windows versions, which you can use right now. Take a look at their screenshots and feature lists, and see if they satisfy your needs.

If there is a piece of software that you absolutely cannot work without, then keeping Windows is probably a good choice. However, you can have both operating systems installed (often called "dual-booting"), which can be used to suit your needs.

There is also a project called "Wine" which, in some cases, is capable of running a given Windows application in Linux. You can visit their homepage, which includes listings of compatible software, at www.wineHQ.org. Another option available is to emulate Windows itself within Linux, though this is typically not suitable for running high-performance programs.



Games


Most games are compatible with Windows, and nothing else. Some of them have Mac versions, and some of them have Linux versions (Quake 4, Neverwinter Nights, etc.), but most of them just run on Windows.

So if you spend a lot of time playing recent games, you should stick to Windows. But you can still install Linux, keep Windows (see the install section), and use both of them, depending on your needs.



Books & printing industry


Linux software still has very experimental CMYK features. This is getting better, but it's not really satisfying for professional use yet.

While most books and magazines about free software switched to Linux a long time ago (and don't they look great ?!), if you work in the printing industry and use a lot of CMYK colors, with subtle images, special printing effects, etc., you probably should stick to Windows for now. But you can still install Linux, keep Windows (see the install section), and use both of them, depending on your needs.



Hardware


Most pieces of hardware work just fine with Linux. However, very recent hardware (a few months old) are sometimes not yet supported. Like software vendors, many hardware vendors still consider the Linux market as a very small one, and don't bother to provide Linux drivers for their hardware. The Linux developers work on that, and do a terrific work to let every piece of hardware work like a charm, but this takes a little time.

The best and most straightforward way to see whether your hardware is well supported is to run Linux from a Live CD (see the "Try Linux without touching Windows" section).






Dobro, hoću linux na mom računaru! Šta sad treba da radim?






Try a "Live CD"


You can try Linux for real without even needing to touch your hard disk, without needing to do anything to your existing Windows !

This is possible with "Linux live CDs". A live CD works the following way :
• Download a CD image from the web (this will be an .iso file, about 650 MB). [li]
  [li]Burn it onto a blank CD.
• Put the CD in your CD drive, and reboot.
• Your computer will boot on the CD instead of booting on the hard drive (where Windows is), and will not touch anything : don't worry about Windows and your data, they'll still be there when you reboot again without the CD.
• If your computer still boots Windows (the CD doesn't seem to have any effect), then your BIOS configuration is faulty : you need to ask it to first scan the CD drive for an operating system, and then the hard drive. You can usually access the BIOS by typing "Del" or "F2" while booting (if you don't feel comfortable with this, get some help).
• And voilà, Linux runs on your system, you can test it and see how you like it !
So, where can you download those CD images ? There are a lot of Linux Live CDs available on the web ! You could try one of these for example :



Install Linux


Okay, so you've decided to switch to Linux. You won't regret it!

If you want to keep Windows on your computer (which I recommend, in case you change your mind, or in case you find stuff you can only do with Windows), Windows is gonna need to share the disk with Linux. Then, each time your computer starts, it will let you choose between Windows and Linux.

You should first backup all your data. This is extremely important. We never know what may go wrong. No, really, I'm not kidding. Backup your data, get blank CDs, blank DVDs, another hard disk, whatever, but back up your work.

Then you should defragment your hard disk. Right now, your data is scattered all around (Windows doesn't manage this very well, Linux does much better). After defragmenting (this can take a few hours depending on the size of your disk), all the data will have been gathered at the beginning of your hard drive (think of it as a long linear tape, with a beginning and an end). If your data is gathered there, Linux won't have any problem splitting (virtually, of course ) your hard disk in two, and install itself on the second part.

Okay, you're all set, now all you need to do is choose which Linux distribution you want. Linux comes in a lot of different "flavors", built by different organizations or companies, with different sets of software, differents look & feel, etc. They're all Linux, but with different "interpretations". This is not an obvious choice, and I can't really help you there (actually, lots of people like to argue about their distribution being the best). However, here are the four most popular distributions, ranked by distrowatch.com :
         

When you have chosen a distribution, download the CD(s) image(s), burn it (or them) onto blank CD(s), insert the first one in your CD drive, and reboot. Your PC should use the CD to boot ; if it doesn't, your BIOS configuration is faulty (see the "Try Linux" section).

After that, just follow the instructions on the screen : they're pretty simple and straightforward most of the time !

Have a nice time with Linux!





Izvor: www.whylinuxisbetter.net


Sorry za delimičan prevod, nije do mene

Instalirao bih linux live verzija knoppix 4.0 na hard.ako moze pomoc,bio bih zahvalan.P.S.-nisam pocetnik.Hvala unapred

U terminalu kucaj:
sudo knoppix-installer

btw. Postoji ova tema 

ja instalirah vistu da vidim kakva je mada su orednosti linuxa neverovatne!!!ali ja ne znam jel moze autocad da radi na linuxu a i takodje igre koje postoje da li mogu da rade na linuxu??!!!osim te dve mane,mozda i velike,linux je nenedmasan...

paz` ovako.
za auto cad ne znam,al sigurno postoji neki program koji je kompatibilan sa njegovim fajlovima..
igre rade,al ne sve.samo one najpopularnije tipa Q3,UT,Wolf...i to ima caka da iskopiras igru za win najnormanliju i skines kao neki "pokretac" posebno za tu igru i tako igras ....bar sam ja tako igrao Wulfa na SuSe-u....davno

al Liniks (kako se izgovara na eng    ) nije ni predvidjen kao igracka platforma,tako da ne treba ocekivati previse ...

knock knock...linux...top tema...

Pa gdje se skida taj bootabilan Linux! Ja bih ga probao!

   click na smajlija

jel linuks stabilniji, kako se ponasaju igre na njemu i neki zahtevniji programi?posto nisam nikad imao priliku da ga koristim

mnogo stabilniji. normalno se ponasaju,ne znam kako bi se ponasali .