Tips on moving to Linux?

[Duce]

Good thing about Linux is most of the distros either have live cd variants or fairly easy VM solutions to give them a whirl rather than having to do a "real" install of them.

I'm partial to Ubuntu these days just due to ease of use, but there's a fair portion of the community that swore off Ubuntu when they made it more "windows like" UI wise a few stages back.  If I used Linux more, I'd probably use something other than Ubuntu, though.  I just use it mainly due to ease of use right out of the box, it's very familiar feeling to a Windows user like myself.

Personally, I found that a good thing.  I work in the PC trade as a part time living, and get a lot of old hand me down, XP era PC's that I have no use for.  I generally donate them to people that can use them, non profits and such and such people generally have no issues picking up Ubuntu's learning curve if they have some Windows experience.  It's not for everyone, though.

Mint is very nice as well, as is Puppy Linux.  Puppy has a very low overhead and works just great on older boxes, as does Slack.

[Duce]

All depends on which version (not XP / Vista / 7, so much, etc. - but home, business, oem, vlk, ultimate) of windows you are running.

Some won't allow what Ral-Clan said.

[Duce]

I use 8.1 on a daily basis and cannot recall the last time I even saw the Metro UI interface.

8.1 Update 1 that's due here shortly will improve the divide between Metro and traditional desktop mode even further, which quite frankly should have been the way it was to begin with.  W8 should have defaulted into a traditional desktop mode from the start when said OS was installed on desktop / non touch hardware versus cramming Metro down ones throat.

[Duce]

Question still remains - has John even tried Windows 8 yet, or is the incessant badmouthing still based on "facts" garnered from "credible" blogs and stories passed down from the ancients?   You might not see value in something, but that doesn't make it crap out of the box when there's no facts and actual usage case presented.

I love hearing peoples opinions on things, but they often fall flat when people readily admit they haven't even tried the things they are smack talking.

Win 8 is what it is, and anyone that's used it will tell you the pro's and con's.  IIRC, the guy was the same guy that claimed tablets and smartphones were a passing fancy and that no one in their right mind would ever have a credible use for something like an ipad.  Might be of no use to you, but the people virtually throwing money at companies like Samsung and Apple, well - BS walks, the market talks, eh.

It's the ones that have no experience with things that present things as facts that often become the muttering old men in the corners, shaking their fists at "these damned newfangled kids!11!!!"    

Sorry, the "I've seen a screenshot and read a blog and that tells me something sucks" doesn't cut it.

[Duce]

God Forbid you just click the one radio box in Windows 8 that lets you avoid 99% of the "Metro" features to begin with, John.  

Irony is, I'd be willing to wager fair money you wouldn't know the difference between a desktop-only W8 setup (again, ONE CLICK REQUIRED! for boot to desktop mode, avoiding your Pure Evil aversion to Metro) vs. a Windows 7 box if you plunked yourself in front of each of 'em.

There was a lot to gripe about in the early days of Windows 8, and it's still not perfect.  But all in all, I've found it wholly faster and more stable than 7 - and that's saying a lot.  On average, my Windows 7 boxes only get rebooted once every 3-4 months, tops - and I can count the crashes I've had on them on one hand since the day W7 launched.

My one remaining XP machine, which I'm forced to use because my work apps are old and crusty and require XP, they crash multiple times a week.

But I digress, this is a Linux thread (another super OS in itself) - don't let me put throw a wrench in your alternate reality field

[Duce]

It's very simple to install Linux and Windows to the same drive on different partitions, lol.

Machine I am on right now has Ubuntu on one partition, Windows on the other, on the same physical drive.  Boot menu comes up when the machine starts, I select my OS du jour, easy peasy.