Which OS to use?

S

Schonza

Member
Hey guys,

I've been hearing a lot of talk about Different OS's being better than others for performance/ Simplicity/ Security. I'm having a lot of problems with my Dad's computer with viruses and am going to wipe his drive and install another OS.

His comp specs are:
P4 3.0 ghz.
Gigabyte 8IPE1000P2 motherboard.
512mb (2X256 mb) kingston pc3200 @ 2-2-2-6.
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 256 mb graphics card.
13 GB Seagate HD in IDE.
160 GB Western Digital in SATA1.
Lite-On DVD Burner.

At the moment, He has XP Professional (legit copy) but we are contimplating wheter to put Media Center on, Re-install XP, or go to Ubuntu.

The only thing is im umfamiliar with Ubuntu, so I don't know much about it. He seems to get a lot of viruses, most are removed by VET but I've had to do a lot of manual deletes and safe mode deletes, registry cleaning, file cleaning etc etc...

Which of the those 3 OS's would be the most secure?

Which is has the best Performance?

Which is the easiest to pick up/use?

Thanks,
Mitch.
 
Talking about security... Linux, end of story.
If you could just add 512 mb of RAM you can Upgrade to vista and run it smoothly.
If you have to choose between those 3 operating systems, I think it depends on how your father is familiar with the OS, I don't think Linux will stand a chance here.

You can just install Windows again and install a good anti-virus with a good anti spyware and setup a nice firewall.
 
Well, Yeah he is familiar with XP, however he said he is willing to change if need be. We've tried a few anti-viruses, First off! NEVER USE NORTON! I have had over 50 people who have lost files or had to reinstall/format there drives due to norton not working or deleting system files. We've also tried avast, but it didnt work, also tried vet.

We have a legit copy of MC as well, and are not going to buy Vista due to the price and all the info about it, apparently it isn't as good as it is cracked up to be. But yeah... Would Ubuntu still be able to run all the programs that he can run on XP? Photoshop/outlook and some games?
 
No, you won't be able to run all programs, There are some programs that support Linux, But you're gonna have to get another copy for Linux. The one you have for windows won't work.
 
Oh ok, I think I'll go to work and start wiping the drives, and repartitioning and formating them.. I"ll install XP and leave avast and ZoneAlarm Pro (dad's beloved program which doesn't realise it isn't all that helpful) and see what happens.. Thanks for the advice.
 
Ignores other posts. Go vista ultimate or home premium. Really it'll do you alot of good and plus its amazing, ubuntu is free though and virus free but I mean if your dads a noob at any level of computers, which most are... then dont get ubuntu, its a bunch of freeware thats amazing but if you run into wanting to change alot of stuff is from the comand prompt and blah blah blah. Go vista.
 
vista, altho microsoft's stuff isn't the best. but lol u just simply cant live with out them :O like me. god I freaking heat apple.
 
schoning16 said:
Oh ok, I think I'll go to work and start wiping the drives, and repartitioning and formating them.. I"ll install XP and leave avast and ZoneAlarm Pro (dad's beloved program which doesn't realise it isn't all that helpful) and see what happens.. Thanks for the advice.
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You could do a dual boot with XP and ubuntu. With the ubuntu CD it is not to hard. This is what i am doing now. When i need to do something on windows, i load that and i just use Ubuntu to mess around and try to learn it. I would like to move to ubuntu when i learn enough, but i still have to go back to windows a lot.
 
jasonz said:
When i need to do something on windows, i load that and i just use Ubuntu to mess around and try to learn it. I would like to move to ubuntu when i learn enough, but i still have to go back to windows a lot.
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Thats what im gonna do.

Im getting sick of windows letting me down so many times so im going to dual boot Suse linux with Xp and go back to xp ONLY when i want to game.
 
Nevakonaza said:
Thats what im gonna do.

and go back to xp ONLY when i want to game.
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Unless you are linuxlly challenged and cant figure how to print and play mp3s. But i am working on it and it will come. I am having a good time learning everything. It is really interesting and totally diff. than windows.
 
Im just gonna dual boot it with xp and force myself to learn linux....the reason i didnt swich earlier to linux is because i just couldnt be bothred learning it but xp has started to do my head in lol:D

Ive tried Ubuntu and i didnt realy like it....but when i tried SUSE at a friends house i liked it.
 
I run suse 10.2 on my desktop and laptop at work. I like it alot, ubuntu isn't bad. I have an ubuntu virtual machine on my macbook pro.
 
Hmm, just as a question? Am I able to do a dual boot of Ubuntu/XP on the one drive? I've been considering it on my own computer because I've always had a thing about using Linux. Also. Dad and myself have sworn off Vista due to the articles and reviews we have read about it.
 
schoning16 said:
Hmm, just as a question? Am I able to do a dual boot of Ubuntu/XP on the one drive? I've been considering it on my own computer because I've always had a thing about using Linux. Also. Dad and myself have sworn off Vista due to the articles and reviews we have read about it.
Click to expand...

Yes, you can download the iso from ubunto, then burn it to a CD/DVD. Some burning software doesnt work though i found out. Sonic that came with my machine wouldnt work, but ifran recorder does the job and its free. When you have the CD, you can run it as a live CD and try ubuntu or click install and follow the on-screen instructions. It will partion your drive for you if you choose, however i could not get this option to work and had to do it manually. I really like it this way. Its great to learn linux, but you can go back to windows when need be, which i assure you will.
 
i really like vista, has everything i could care about and didnt have to download and install anything, finally for once you can just boot up and go while in xp i had to install this for security, install that for eycandy and those for usability.

i always hated the linux distro's i tried like suse or xandros, fine i suppose if it does everything you want but as a gamer it really sucks.other stuff was alot easier in windows too. guess thats why most dualboot but then again i'd rather just do it all under one os.
 
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