However, that does not automatically mean that if you are coming from OS X you will find Gnome more familiar, or KDE will be more familiar to Windows users. The thing with GUI debates is that it depends on many more factors than just your original OS. There are a lot of questions that an end user needs to ask themselves as far as what they are looking for in a desktop environment.

Take the hardware you are running into for consideration first and foremost. Running a process heavy GUI like Gnome or KDE with only 256 MB of RAM will not get you the best results; maybe you might want to try something like Enlightenment, or you could also try something like Xfce. These of course are a just a few of the alternatives — there are many more.

Second thing that needs to be considered is the application selection. Gnome and KDE have very different design philosophies. KDE goes for integration. Gnome, on the other hand, goes for simplicity. KDE is very upfront with your customization options. Gnome has most of its customization options buried deeper into the system.

The last thing to consider when choosing any desktop environment is simply which one looks better to you. Believe it or not, aesthetics play a very important part in what the user will get out of a desktop environment.

And the very last tip I will give to any user is just to simply try all your options to find the one that fits your needs.

Now when it comes to the operating systems debate the debate usually breaks down to the which OS is more secure. Is it the security through obscurity or is the many eyes approach that make something secure? Now to be honest there really is no completely secure operating system, and the reason is simple. The OS can only be as secure as possible, but the end user is the biggest par of the security problem not necessarily the OS itself. Viruii and other types of malware, spyware, trojans, works, and a majority of the types of security problems and infections usually happen at the end user level.

The end user usually be it from downloading on a p2p network sucj as Limewire or various bittorrent clients, or the kind of end user that click on links ,or attachments from an unknown email address. The real problem is how do you educate these kind of computer users?

That is not a question that can be easily answered nowadays. Most modern computer classes are at least taught basic security of anti-virus and firewall software, but not efficient enough to know to keep it up to date as most end users don’t realize new virus and trojans are created everyday and released into the wild. Keeping your operating system up to date is also a good way to keep it secure. Also always make sure to make backup of your important files. How it is backed up is up to the end user be it external hard drive, CD, DVD, usb storage device.

There are many different ways that simple things end users can do to avoid these malicious software programs. The major question though is are end users really willing to learn and do these simple things? That is a question that I will leave to the community to answer. So lets hear your thoughts.

The Year of a Linux desktop will not happen when a majority of things need to be fixed within the community first in order for Linux to truly succeed at the desktop. While personally I believe that open source is a better business model as it makes for more competition. The fact of the matter is the FOSS community needs to come to the realization that not every company will either get or understand open source. So criticizing a company for deciding on a proprietary business model while with in your right does not mean Distros should not support commerical software. Yes some FOSS software is better than others while some FOSS software is  not better then the proprietary counterparts. Simply put yes as far as I am certain freedoms that need to be granted is the whole EULA needs to be changed. To where if you buy the software yes you own the software.
But in the End the Philosophical debate of proprietary vs open source in the end does not matter to the general end users. General consumers only care to know that software or hardware that they buy will work. Now most certain sets within the Linux community will say that people need to know there hardware will work beforehand,but when all is said and done. The facts of reality are consumers generally go shopping for hardware or software based on price or name recognition. The Linux community if we really want to see the Year of a Linux Desktop then we need to also come to realization that 6 billion people 6 billion different opinions and way to do things. Hence the reason open source will help with each one of those opinions not everyone wants to program people just want their software hardware to work with there system.
So if fellow Linux users that means KWord works for you or Office 2003(w/wine) works for someone then so be it. But in the end more products and software mean more competition means the odds of what we have now with Microsoft dominating everything is less likely to happen as much in the future. If we show that we are welcoming to ISV’s. Now on a side not as far as hardware is concerned hardware vendors need to start becoming less OS dependent. Hardware should be operating system neutral. Now when I say that like i said eariler 6 billion people not every one is going to want to run a Microsoft operating system. When I say Operating system neutral I mean that if I buy a graphics card it should work the same on BSD as it does on a Microsoft OS. that’s my 2 and half cents lets hear your thoughts.

The choice of freedom — the different desktop environments and window managers that each different distribution of Linux uses — is what makes Linux appealing to some. This is a call for one uniform desktop environment from the Linux distribution BUSINESSES. However, what I should state is that each Linux distribution should have a common environment in order for Linux to truly become mainstream. Keeping the X Window System as the standard for Linux would let the people who do want something different, or feel that the current desktop environment or window manager is not working for them, still be able to change it however they see fit.

I have no personal opinion as far as what desktop environment or window manager should be the common one. KDE, Gnome, Xfce — all have pros and cons. It’s up to the Linux community to finally come together with a unified voice. The beauty of open source is that users — not businesses — have the freedom to modify their systems from the GUI to individual applications, and a little standardization doesn’t have to change this. Let’s hear the feedback.

5. There are, for the most part, four core distributions that most distributions are forked from. Those distributions generally tend to be Slackware, Red Hat (aka Fedora), Debian, and Gentoo. Each distribution has a difference at its core in the way files are installed. Each file format has its strengths and weaknesses. Depending on how new to Linux you are and how much you are willing to spend time learning should be part of the decision on which distribution you choose.

• Gentoo: everything is installed from source
  • Strength: compiling from source gives the best performance out of your installed OS

  • Weakness: can take a long time to compile a complete system — sometimes days

• Slackware: installs from tgz files
  • Strength: one of the most stable and secure Linux distributions

  • Weakness: can be very intimidating to a new user

• Debian: installs from .Deb file
  • Strength: apt-get for installing programs

  • Weakness: depending on the distro fork, the community within Debian can be very vocal and not always in a good way, which can drive away new users

• Fedora (or Red Hat): installed from RPM
  • Strength: as the testing ground for RHEL, there are many cutting edge things within

  • Weakness: some would say that RPM is the major weakness (however, there have been major improvements)

4. How much time are you willing to spend, and do you prefer a GUI or do you prefer the command line? One major thing to remember in Linux is there are two ways of doing things and getting around. There is the command line and then there is the GUI — in the end it boils down to choice of wanting to learn menus or wanting to learn commands. Now to give an example, getting the right resolution sometimes requires opening up xorg and manually editing the file, however, if you’re setting up Nvidia graphics, there’s a settings manager GUI. How would you configure that file? Change it through manually editing or changing it by clicking? However, in answering that question, that’s where you should be looking for a possible distro.

3. Does the particular distribution you are thinking about trying fit your needs? A lot of the distributions within Linux are meant for specific tasks. For example a distribution like Ubuntu is meant for ease of use to a new user, whereas something like Backtrack 2 is meant for security penetration. So find the distribution that will fit best as to what you will be using it for.

2. How good is the hardware detection of the distribution you are using? Each distribution will detect something that other ones won’t or will and vice versa. Which leads me into my very first point

1. The number one thing to remember is that most distributions of Linux now use LiveCDs that can be downloaded and burned to CD or DVD. Place the disc into your computer and boot into a full Linux operating system. This is a great way to test out the distribution of your choice on your real hardware to see what will work and what will not.

The biggest thing with Linux is its all about choice. So research is key to choosing your Linux.

This is the way computing should be: programs working without an OS requirement. For more info on KDE for Windows, here’s the link to the Web site. This is still in an alpha development, so performance is still buggy. Give it a try.

My Second problem with the IPhone stems from the fact that I am a fan of open source, while Apple tries to be different then their competitors in the end they are just the same as the old school IBM, Microsoft proprietary software and hardware. However saying that I will not deny that Apple provides the best customer support that I have ever had to deal with. So while I tend to go more towards Linux as my OS of choice I am not oblivious to the good system that Apple has. Its just not my personal cup of tea. I personally believe that if Apple really wants the iPhone to be a bigger success like the iPod then It has to be made available to more then just one wireless carrier. It has to be allowed to be more opened up then it is right now as far as third party applications. That’s my take on it; what do you guys think?

I mean I’m talking about a machine that was built specifically for Microsoft Windows Xp Pro and if it had not been for having a program called driver detective I would have probably been able to put the copy of xp that I had for this computer back on So heres the really big kicker though. When People say Linux is tough and no drivers and what not Funny thing was all the things that Xp did detect or find the drivers for Linux already did “out of the Box” detect it not to shabby for a open source Operating system. Now after this I truly remember why I limit the amount I must use windows my primary box boots between xp and ubuntu 7.10. So if ya got stories lets hear em.

First up is Microsoft Windows as is Windows can be a good operating system. however like anything it requires monitoring if connected to the internet Some of the problems that are inherent in Windows are that, for example, When a problem with GUI starts and the whole system freezes requiring a reboot. Or when the updates are done and a complete restart is necessary. While Windows continues to remind you to constantly restart your computer for the updates to take effect.

To me this is the particular area that OS X and Linux in general have Windows beat hands down. What I mean by that is that Unlike in windows when the GUI crashes at least in Linux all that is required to restart X Windows system is ctrl alt backspace. While the X may have crashed the actual kernel for the OS did not require a complete system reboot. This is the biggest area that Microsoft needs to improve for the overall user experience in Windows.

Now onto Linux the biggest issue facing Linux across all distributions is that there is no universal package type the X windows system is not so much of a problem as it allows for a different user experience that the user defines. The multiple distributions is said to be a problem. But Not really if Linux is looked at as a whole as opposed to the overall number of active distributions as there are certain key core distros that every other is Forked from. Debian, Slackware, Fedora, Suse to name a few. However the bigger problem with linux is the lack of Vendor support which up to now is just recently starting to change with OEMS now offering Linux this will hopefully bring about more drivers for Linux.

Now onto Mac OS X the problems with Mac OS X isn’t so much with the OS as the company behind the OS X. I will not deny that Apple does provide some of the best customer service experience available. The biggest problem with Apple is the old school IBM vendor lock in mentality that they have in regards to anything that they make, In the end though the response that whatever OS you use the consumer experience that the one that matters most and the companies and distros need to remember.