Ok, My son is whole heartedly trying to talk me into Linux. He doesn't have it himself yet. He wants to try it on his laptop. Is it better than Windows XP? Are there any major downfalls to it?

Basically you don't have to pay for linux (most versions). Where as XP you do. But there is more software and the majority of people use Windows. It can be dual-booted so you could have XP installed on the same system as Linux and choose which one you want to use on bootup.

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Linux is pretty cool, and I would switch if all my programs were not windows based.
The other major downfall is that drivers for hardware can be pretty bad. The support community for Linux is large, so it's not hard to find help for any problems.

Linux will never completely destroy your computer. Make sure you back everything up before installing though just in he makes a mistake during install that messes up his data.

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Hi there,

There are many advantages and disadvantages to different platforms. As tractordriver said you would be best backing up just in case, however, I recommend trying a Live CD which mean you can run the entire operating system from a CD, it may be a little slower than it usually would be but it allows you to get a feel for the operating system without actually affecting anything on your computer, just burn the cd and boot from it, when done, reboot and you're back to normal and into windows...

There are a number of distributions of linux, I recommend trying Ubuntu because it is very easy, it comes as a Live CD that can be installed if you wish, the community support is fantastic and with the latest release, hardware support is generally very good.

Try the Live CD, you have nothing to lose and if you do have problems I'm sure there's a couple of us around here that can help and the Ubuntu community support.

-Lebowski

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While everyone seems to be on Ubuntu wagon, PCLinuxOS is really a slick easy to install version. It also has a live CD that can be freely downloaded as an ISO.

There are ups and downs with any operating system.
Windows XP is better than Windows Vista in my opinion, and (most) Linux systems are better than Windows XP (in my opinion).
Most Linux systems are 100% free.
0 Windows systems are free (at least without nasty catches and long contracts).

When people say there is more software for Windows, what they mean is that there is less commercially-available software for Linux. I personally don't think it will be long until we start seeing companies selling software for Linux in shops, because Ubuntu (a big version of Linux) is driving Linux forward, and more and more people are switching to it.
As for the currently available software, there is usually an alternative to any Windows program, and it's usually free. At worst, you will have to run the Windows version of the software using a set of tools called 'Wine' - which lets many Windows applications run under Linux.

Many people also say that Linux can't play games. False. There are many free games for Linux, and many commercial ones too. Unreal (/Epic Games?)is one of the big companies which releases Linux installers for their games (Unreal Tournament since 2003 has Linux installers).
OpenGL (like DirectX, but free and for Linux) is more than able to handle games.
The only reason some mainstream games companies haven't started supporting Linux yet is because they don't see enough people using it, so they don't think it will make them enough money, development costs =]

It's a good idea to dual-boot, if you choose Ubuntu, it should be fairly simple and you can even run it straight from the CD.

As for other distributions, you could try PCLinuxOS, I've never used it but it's got a good crowd so it must be good.
I recently tried a distribution of Linux called Zen Walk, it's *very* quick to start and it's nice to use.

It doesn't hurt to try something that's free

Just my 2 cents..

I have been running SuSe Linux for almost 4 years now and I love it. I have tried Ubuntu and others but I found SuSe to be what "I" needed. As Moduliz0r said try as many as you want. They are free (most of em)

Here is a great site to jump in and start reading.. They have anything you need, and if you have questions just ask us..

The Linux Home Page at Linux Online

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I didn't know that. If only the original Unreal Tournament had a Linux installer; the PC upstairs would have a use (wireless cards with out-of-box Linux support are hard to come by, but I have one in my cart over at Newegg).

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There is a Linux installer for Unreal Tournament Classic (99 or GOTY) floating around on the web.