As stated on informationweek.com, here are some questions about Linux that have been answered especially for beginners.
1) How many versions of Linux are there?
There are around 350, as per a list created by the website, DistroWatch.com, Ubuntu being the most popular with heavy support. Ubuntu’s development was funded by South African Internet entrepreneur, Mark Shuttleworth in his efforts to offer better educational opportunities for his nation's youth.
Another popular distribution is SUSE which is available for free under the OpenSUSE.org program that was sponsored by Novell or in a paid version that comes with end-user support from Novell. It was developed by a German vendor SUSE Linux. The other major Linux distributions are Mandriva, Debian, and Fedora.
2) What applications are available for Linux? And what is LAMP?
The open-source app that was responsible for giving Linux PCs a boost and one that is essential for doing anything productive is OpenOffice.org. This is based on Sun's StarOffice and is a suite that acts as a free alternative to Microsoft Office. It comes with word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and graphics programs. OpenOffice also has various Linux distros, which include those from Red Hat and Novell.
Although OpenOffice is one of the most important Linux productivity packages, it has issues with respect to compatibility with MS Office file formats. The other free or less popular, Linux office suites are GNOME Office and Koffice. As far as web browsers are concerned, Mozilla's Firefox and Thunderbird e-mail client are a great option. You can get them in CD for $6.
The LAMP refers to a "stack" of packages. It has Linux as well as Apache Web server and the MySQL database. The "P" refers to the PHP, Perl, or Python scripting languages. However, leaving aside the OS, all those programs are of interest for developers and not desktop users.
3) How can I listen to some tunes?
As far as music player app is concerned, RealPlayer is one of the few major players offering a version for Linux. The Linux RealPlayer is based on the open-source Helix player offering downloads. Another free player is amaroK from the KDE group.
As far as buying music is concerned, you can go to MP3tunes.com which is an online music store charging 88-cent-per-song. For artists off the beaten path, you can go to Mindawn. For those of you who store MP3s on your computer, you are also in control of your family’s digital photos. You can access the Google's Picasa image management and sharing software which has been released on Linux.
4) Which "desktop" environment should I use with my distro?
As far as your computer’s user interface is concerned, there are two options, Gnome or KDE. The difference between the two is more political than technical. KDE has Windows-like bells and whistles, while Gnome runs faster. Gnome benefits from it being linked with the Linux GNU Project which was founded in 1984 by free-software advocate Richard Stallman. KDE ( K Desktop Environment) is ideal for beginners.
5) Linux on the server, Linux on the desktop -- which is it?
The other reason that makes Linux a poor choice for users is that unlike Windows, Linux needs more tweaking than most workaday PC users can handle. The drivers in the Linux aren't as yet widely available, nor are they as plug-and-play as their Windows counterparts.
But surprisingly, Linux is making headway in one area i.e embedded sphere, where Linux is being used for powering everything from smartphones to digital video recorders. Linux is also making its presence on certain diverse embedded platforms which include Sony's upcoming Playstation 3.
6) Too may facts, but not much advice. How do I start?
If you want to give Linux a try, you must refer to Question 1 above where a list of distros has been provided. As selecting a distribution is much easier than getting hold of the actual install. The most effective way for downloading is to get hold of an ISO image, which is a file that can be burned directly onto a CD-ROM and many disk-authoring programs have an option to take care of this.
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