• Question: If Linux is so good, why doesn't everyone use it instead of the generic windows OS?

    Asked by harry1993 to Andy on 16 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Andrew Hearn

      Andrew Hearn answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Excellent question! Linux doesn’t have anything to buy lots of advertisement space, nor the financial muscle of Microsoft to indirectly “pay” education boards to install them on school computers, also there isn’t anything on the same scale neither to also indirectly “pay” retailers to sell computers bundled with Linux. Great quesiton this is!

Comments

  • Photo: harry1993

    harry1993 commented on :

    Makes more sense now. I’ve heard it’s also very complicated to set up?

  • Photo: Andy

    Andy commented on :

    I’m glad that you’ve asked that too!

    No, actually not, setting it up is far more straightforward than it was 10 years ago – there is this thing called “Live CDs”, where you can try out Linux on your PC without touching what’s on your hard drive – it will run a bit slower because of the computer using the CD as its hard drive instead of using the real hard drive.

    This is so that you can have a play with, to see if you like it. If you do, then you can then choose to install it (remember to back up your files first…..!). So far I think LinuxMint is really good for those who want to try Linux for the first time.

    http://www.linuxmint.com/

    The downloads section is where you get to choose which LiveCD to save onto a CD, then restart your computer with the CD still in the CD drive. LinuxMint LiveCD version will automatically load – just follow instructions on the screen, and away you go!

    Do let me know how you get on!

    I read LinuxFormat regularly:
    http://www.linuxformat.com/