That time again .... PC

[cowpoke]

Looking for a new PC,
looking to get away from MS, what are some off the alternatives ?

Looking for something that will provide basic usage, and support Browsers,
Email, Spreadsheets etc.... nothing to exotic.
Also, it must interact with the rest of the world well.

Any suggestions.

p.s
where are the best places and prices ?

[Budfred]

If you want to get away from MS, you mostly have 2 choices: Macs or Linux. With Macs, you need a Mac machine and probably need to explore Mac forums to learn more about them. With Linux, you can use just about any machine around and do well with even an older machine. Unless you are willing to deal with a really steep learning curve, you may want to stay with MS for the moment and use your old machine to install one of the various flavors of Linux and learn to use it before you take the plunge....

As for what machine to buy: How much do you want to spend? Are you planning to build it yourself or buy a prefab? If you only want basic abilities, why bother to upgrade at all? Newer computers are mostly better for things like 3D rendering and intensive work. An old P3 will do all the basics quite well....

[cowpoke]

Thanks for the reply.
I use UNIX at work so I am a little familiar with what Linux might have ??

What is the ref. to P3.

I assume if I can get a browser etc. to work the underlying system will
be invisable to me ...

[Budfred]

P3 = Pentium III

I am not sure what you mean about the underlying system being invisible. Getting the OS to work is pretty much the first order of business with any system. Once you do that, getting the browser to work is usually pretty easy. Setting up Linux is likely to be more difficult because you are unfamiliar with it... UNIX isn't really the same at all. Windoze would be easier, but it is MS.... Macs are easy if you don't mind paying a premium for them and leaving the PC world...

[cowpoke]

Ya , I guess what I was saying is once you have it installed and run a
browser lets say, Netscape for instance, the system would be invisable to you in that Netsacpe would be Netscape, correct ??

I'm asumming you can get generic things (browsers, email, spread sheets ..) like that to work on Linux ?

[pentachris]

Most Linux distributions come with a wide variety of applications, like web browsers and the open office suite, included.

Installing most modern Linux distros is fairly simple - it requires a little more input and thought than Windows, but not much, and there is plenty of help to be found online that can answer most common questions.

Once you get things set up, running apps in KDE or Gnome (the two most common GUI's for Linux) is almost exactly like running them in Windows. The differences are mostly quirks.