Frequently Asked Questions

We feel your pain. Historically, Windows has been riddled with security and performance problems, and Vista . . . well, when Information Week starts writing articles about how to "downgrade" to Windows XP from Vista, there's definitely trouble in Redmond. Mac users have a different situation: Upgrades to the Mac OS outpaces the longevity of the hardware Apple makes. For example if you have a G3 iMac (the "fruit flavored" ones), you can't run Tiger or Leopard on it. So in both cases, Windows and Mac users have an option: GNU/Linux.

Actually, what most people refer to as "Linux" should be called GNU/Linux. Linux itself is just the kernel, which manages the system's resources and the communication between hardware and software. All the tools that make Linux an operating system have been contributed by GNU -- which stands for "Gnu's Not Unix" -- and hence both the Linux kernel combined with the GNU tools make up the GNU/Linux operating system.

You can try out various GNU/Linux distributions -- or "distros" -- on your PC or Mac by using what is called a Live CD. Many distros provide users Live CDs to try out a particular brand before taking the plunge and converting to that particular OS. And if you don't like the distro on the Live CD, you just take the CD out and go back to the system you had before. To help people get acquainted with GNU/Linux the Cabrillo College GNU/Linux Users Group holds installfests periodically to help those who are curious about GNU/Linux or would like help in installing their choice of distro onto their computer.

You could, but not necessarily. Actually, it's up to you. You can set up your computer to either have solely the GNU/Linux system or have "dual-boot" capability. Generally, if you install GNU/Linux as a dual boot system with Windows, for example, you will be able to access your Windows files when you boot into Windows. Again, we can help you there if you come to an installfest (and, incidentally, it's always a good idea to back up your important files and programs).

Since OS X, the Mac OS already has a version of BSD (a Unix variant) under the hood. However, it runs its own versions of proprietary software. Also, as we mentioned before, the Mac OS upgrades tend to outpace the longevity of Mac hardware, so perfectly good G3 won't run the latest Mac OS, but it will run several of the latest GNU/Linux distros, like Debian GNU/Linux.

Sure. Got an Amiga? There's a GNU/Linux distro for it. Commodore 64? Ditto. There are even GNU/Linux distros for Sun hardware, although Sun seems to have freed up both Java and the Solaris operating systems, calling the latter OpenSolaris (not only that, some developers have jumped on the Sun bandwagon and have started developing GNU/Solaris distros for Sun hardware).

You might, and you might not. While you could use a Windows emulator like Wine to use Windows-based software you already have, many GNU/Linux distros come with a wide variety of free -- "free" as in "free beer" (price) as well as "free" as in "free speech" (freedom) -- and open source software (FOSS) that matches up with proprietary software you may have. For example, if you have the Microsoft Office suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.), you might want to try OpenOffice.org or KOffice. Use Photoshop? Try Gimp instead. Need a page design program like Quark or Pagemaker? Try Scribus. In fact, if you wanted to give some of these FOSS programs a try before converting to GNU/Linux, many of them have Windows and Mac versions. Visit our links section for a variety of programs.

According to DistroWatch, there are about 350 active distros to choose from today, and the total number is around 500 if you count the inactive distros.

Many distros are straightforward variants based on one of three pioneer distros -- Slackware, Debian and Red Hat -- but many smaller distros are more specialized, containing packages to fit a certain type of user's needs. Some distributions contain enhanced security, some are very small, some are for power users, some will install under Windows, and some are very specialized such as www.hostgis.com which is for handling Geographical Information Systems.

You can download GNU/Linux distros from most of the distros' sites. This entails downloading approximately 700MB of files and buring them onto a CD (in the case of some distros, like Fedora, the download could be as big as 4GB to be burned onto a DVD). You can also buy already-burned CDs and DVDs for a marginal fee from companies which provide this service. We have a list of distribution Web sites from which you can compare, contrast and choose. Also, if you come to one of our installfests there will be some distributions of GNU/Linux available for you to try and, if you like them, install.

Yes. Dell has started selling their PCs with the option of having Ubuntu GNU/Linux installed on them, at the buyer's request. Locally (well, almost locally) ZaReason in Berkeley builds GNU/Linux hardware at competitive prices. There are some companies that are selling computers with GNU/Linux preinstalled. I'm not sure if you'll save money. You usually don't have an option of not having any operating system installed.

The Cabrillo College GNU/Linux Users Group meets on the second Thursday of the month at the new student center on campus -- and we are working on finding a second meeting day and time for "working students" who have trouble making a day meeting. You can sign up for our mailing list at CLUG-subscribe@cabrillo.edu.