I have never seen Linux. What is it like?

[Hotpepperz]

I have never seen a computer with Linux running on it. What does it look like? Does it look like windows? Is it possible to snap a screen shot? If you can could someone post it. I would like to quit relying on M$ and try something new. Thanks.

 

[skriefal]

Linux can look like whatever you want it to look like -- i.e. Windows, Mac, Amiga, NeXt, OpenLook (old Sun interface), 'classic' Motif, etc. These are provided by window managers that sit on top of X Windows. At the moment, the most popular 'look' is KDE, which is a lot like Microsoft Windows. You can check out the web site at www.kde.org -- there is a link in the navbar on the left to some screenshots. GNOME (www.gnome.org) is also popular.

Of course, you can also use text mode (i.e. no GUI) if you wish.

But... shouldn't the functionality, reliability, availability of needed software and drivers, etc, be more important than what it "looks like"?

 

[ET]

skriefal, depends on what you want to do with it. If you just want to look at it, then what it looks like counts most

 

[Hotpepperz]

skriefal, I was just curious what it looked like. I would never judge an OS by what it looked like. I would be happy with a DOS interface if it was rock solid and had no problems and supported everything and was effiecient in its use. I simply never used it let alone seen it. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Praetor]

Well, if one were to take a quick look at the "classic" *nix screen, you might say it looked like DOS. Albeit, something that only vaguely had a passing resemblance to DOS and was approximately 100x more powerful and configurable.

X is the UI (user interface) that "simplifies" the use for most of us. Graphical, configurable, people use different shells (AfterStep, GNOME, KDE, et al) that enhance/change the UI to their needs. Each is configurable up the wazzoo. Heck, you could even get it to look like your Windows desktop if you wanted.

So when someone says "depends on what you want to do with it," they really mean that.

If you have the space, time and patience, you could always download a distro and try it out on your current partition. Linux4Win comes to mind, as does Mandrake (7.1, at least that I know of) will let you install a "fake" partition on your HD. It creates a very large file which it uses as a virtual-partition for linux. Then, if you like it, go all out and 'nix Windows. Pun intended.

 

[Hyperchronismos]

The man just asked for some Linux screenshots and you began an in depth analysis of the pros and cons of it!Here visit some links:

e.themes.org
kde.themes.org
as.themes.org
wm.themes.org
sawmill.themes.org
bb.themes.org
www.plig.org/~xwinman

 

[Pretender]

Linux is like warm, apple pie....

 

[Sebastian]

Ahh yeah you want a screen shot?

Here:
http://sc.esf.edu.hk/linuxscreen.jpg


It's my gnome desktop running on the aqua theme with a licq and a kde clock thingie running. Enjoy.

 

[Sebastian]

Whoops i found a few more ... here:

http://sc.esf.edu.hk/snapshot1.png
http://sc.esf.edu.hk/snapshot2.png

 

[Sebastian]

whoops sorry guys it's snapshot01.png and snapshot02.png
My bad.