I've run a variety of Linux on my home computer and I really love being able to browse the Internet without worrying about getting any spyware. Sometimes I have occassion to look for a serial number that I've misplaced ;)
With Linux, you don't have to worry about these ActiveX things fouling up your system.
Here's something I do, though. When you need to run those pesky Windows applications (cause, let's face it, Linux isn't 100%, right?), I run a little program called Win4Lin. It's so good, I even bought it!
Some folks want VMWare. And that's cool. If you have the computing power for VMWare, then go for it. It's double the cost of Win4Lin (and double the resource hog), but you want it, right? Meanwhile, Win4Lin is running on a native Linux kernel and does just about everything the average computer user would want.
Now, remember I said average user. It's not for gamers. It's not for the person that needs to use really specialized programs like Macromedia Freehand or something like that. It's for the average user that needs to make a Powerpoint presentation and doesn't want to use OpenOffice to do so.
At my old job, I installed Mandrake Linux and then installed Win4Lin. I did it because I needed to use Microsoft's SQL Server and Visual Studio. Plus there was an executable that one of the programmers had built for us. Win4Lin was the way to go.
And it's so damn simple to use. Just install Linux and get the Netraverse installer. It does everything else for you. You install Windows (it's for Windows 98 right now) and you're ready to roll.It was the greatest thing I had found for Linuix. I even had one of my coworkers convinced until he decided he needed to use his Zire (like I said, it's for the average user).
So, if you find yourself with an old computer that you want to keep using for your kids, install Linux and then get Win4Lin. It's a really nice way of keeping your old hardware.
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