Posted: 6/1/2007 2:44:55 PM EDT
|
My wifeys company gave her a new laptop. She gets to keep her old one. Dell Latitude about 4 years old. Its running Win 2000 NT. I want to put a new operating system in it. So what options do i have in the Free/low cost area?? |
|
Ubuntu, its one of the best free linux distros. read about it here or you can get a free copy of windows XP or Vista if you are a student at a college though msdnaa.com |
+1000 I'm not a computer geek, but I installed it on my kids PC. I liked it so much I installed it on my PC (dual boot w/XP) and laptop. I'm running it now. |
Unbunto (sp) has a live CD option that lets you boot from the CD and play with the OS without reloading the machine. Kind of a nice thing if you aren't sure if you really want to go that way. |
on the computer you are on now: download the latest version as an .iso file. burn it as an image boot the laptop with the new CD in it's CD-ROM drive. |
Ubuntu? Qualified 'yes'. For any given TASK, there is an equivalent. The software repositories are scarily deep--I have a ton of math and science software on my Ubuntu machine that would easily be $20k of Windows proprietary software (GIS, CAD, CAS, image manipulation, programming languages, etc.) Some people expect Linux to run things /exactly/ as Windows does, and those people are disappointed. There is no Microsoft Money for Linux....there's some personal finance software, but nothing excatly MS Money. No photoshop, but there's The Gimp (which is far better now than it was four or five years ago). |
Can it run windows software? if not,any programs to make it run windows software? |
|
Ubuntu is at the bottom of my list! There is a ton of support though, it NEEDS it. I prefer an Os that needs little or no support - translation: Why do you need support if it just works? GO burn about 6 live disks and try them all. Anyone that does this will install Mepis when it's all said and done, especially w/a wireless laptop. |
Not natively. There are programs that provide some ability to run SOME Windows programs, but they are still rough and sketchy. One is called "WINE". Is there a specific program or list of programs you want to run? |