Microsoft: Legit Windows or no updates

[isoFlux]

i dont reccomend Linspire or Xandros for an intro to linux.

why? they seem to be geared towards windows users, and say that many Win32 programs run on their OS?

because you have to pay for it. last time i checked, Linspire is $90 (USD).

plus, all these \"windows/linux combos\" are the linux kernel, x.org, and a few perks that mean nothing. i would recomend Red Hat Fedora for its ease of installation and verbose use of \"wizards\". RH9.0 is the linux distro that i learned on and it was great. OpenOffice.org provides an improved clone of MS Office, wine allows win32 programs to run reasonable smoothly, and the interface (KDE or gnome) can be configured to be just like a Mac, XP, or anything else. if you want to use Linspire or xandros later on, go for it, but you can download and install Fedora completly free and no-hassle.

and no matter what those distributions say, they cant run windows programs nativley or seemlessly. its a UNIX-based OS, and win32 binaries do NOT run unless extremely heavy modifications are made to the kernel.

game compatabilities are limited on Linux. few games run nativley, but when they do, they run better than windows systems (assuming you have a GeForce. if you have an ATI and wish to game, good luck ). UT-family games run very well, and i guess Torque does also. Neverwinter Nights is another good game on Linux. thats about all i play, and i dont know of any other engines that run nativly on linux.