What UNIX GUI OS?

sequoias

sequoias

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What do you recommend installing that is user friendly and free of charge? It is to install on my girlfriend's Acer laptop with Intel i3 processor @ 2.26 GHz and blu ray drive. Not worth the money to install Windows 7 with all the crap to protect from viruses, spyware, etc.
 
sequoias said:
What do you recommend installing that is user friendly and free of charge? It is to install on my girlfriend's Acer laptop with Intel i3 processor @ 2.26 GHz and blu ray drive. Not worth the money to install Windows 7 with all the crap to protect from viruses, spyware, etc.
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I think the only consumer-level UNIX system you could get your paws on would be Mac OS 10 (Apple). That's not free, of course.

But the best, free UNIX-like system would be Ubuntu Linux, in my opinion.
 
sequoias said:
What do you recommend installing that is user friendly and free of charge? It is to install on my girlfriend's Acer laptop with Intel i3 processor @ 2.26 GHz and blu ray drive. Not worth the money to install Windows 7 with all the crap to protect from viruses, spyware, etc.
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Zorin 5 OS. It's free and super excellent and easy to use and is a version of Ubuntu. If she has blu-ray then this version of the OS will run great. Just put Zorin on a USB flash drive and boot from it. Should be able to set up boot sequence in the BIOS or hit whatever key for the one time boot setup...(like mine is F12). BIOS key is usually F2, but it might be different on the Acer. This OS set everything and installed all the software for all the hardware I have...even the wireless. SUPER easy.
 
with an i3 you can run any linux distro fine. Minimum specs are often way lower than that for most distros.

I've used fedora (formerly red hat) as my choice of o/s. Also like freeBSD and kubuntu. A lot of the distros are based on similar or modified versions of another linux distro. It's kind of like cars, you have toyota honda acura lexus as imports from asia, euro imports like bmw audi, and so on.

If your gf's used to windows and a point and click GUI then that is where ubuntu and kubuntu are at. Those are friendly for beginners. The rest, you have to have some understanding of how to run the terminal and command lines to get things working.

Check out distrowatch.com to get an idea.
 
I have not heard of X Lion...but then again I have never used a MAC. :) But, in my humble opinion anything has to be better than a windows OS. LOL
 
mizwytch said:
Zorin 5 OS. It's free and super excellent and easy to use and is a version of Ubuntu. If she has blu-ray then this version of the OS will run great. Just put Zorin on a USB flash drive and boot from it. Should be able to set up boot sequence in the BIOS or hit whatever key for the one time boot setup...(like mine is F12). BIOS key is usually F2, but it might be different on the Acer. This OS set everything and installed all the software for all the hardware I have...even the wireless. SUPER easy.
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Nice! I just checked this out. I hadn't heard of this one before. Looks like it's based on the Ubuntu distribution.

I like that the GUI is designed to look like Windows 7, that's great. It's like a Linuxed Win7. :lol:

Yeah, I think I'd recommend this one to the average computer user who is more familiar with MS Windows.

Nice find, mizwytch!
 
naisho said:
with an i3 you can run any linux distro fine. Minimum specs are often way lower than that for most distros.

I've used fedora (formerly red hat) as my choice of o/s. Also like freeBSD and kubuntu. A lot of the distros are based on similar or modified versions of another linux distro. It's kind of like cars, you have toyota honda acura lexus as imports from asia, euro imports like bmw audi, and so on.

If your gf's used to windows and a point and click GUI then that is where ubuntu and kubuntu are at. Those are friendly for beginners. The rest, you have to have some understanding of how to run the terminal and command lines to get things working.

Check out distrowatch.com to get an idea.
Click to expand...

Oh yes! That was my problem...I am a noob to the whole terminal/command line thing...so when I found the Zorin OS version of Ubuntu I was ESTATIC! I had tried Fedora...and may eventually re-install Fedora again...but I was L-O-S-T when I tried it. I couldn't get anything to install or anything else. SO, I went back to Windows. YUCK! After this last windows crash about a week ago I went looking on the LInux site again...and found a ton of choices...and found the Zorin OS....AND it was FREE! :D
 
DeafBadger said:
Nice! I just checked this out. I hadn't heard of this one before. Looks like it's based on the Ubuntu distribution.

I like that the GUI is designed to look like Windows 7, that's great. It's like a Linuxed Win7. :lol:

Yeah, I think I'd recommend this one to the average computer user who is more familiar with MS Windows.

Nice find, mizwytch!
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THANKS! I picked the XP look option myself since that is what I was familiar with...they have 3 options...the windows 7, XP, and Linux in the "Look Changer" . I love the tweakability of it too. All the tweakability of any of the Linux distros, but the ease of use people like about windows...I love it! it's a win-win! :D
 
Ubuntu Linux is good i have it too, Linux is developed from Unix..
theres another unix but im not sure if its still around or if it still continuously being developed, FreeBSD...i had it in the text-version from way Way WAY back...it wasnt the noob freindly at all, its more a full fledged geeky OS , hard to master...
 
yeah, any distribution that compiled off ubuntu should be pretty noob friendly. If it has the KDE desktop then that's pretty much most of windows already like Zorin is.

I come back from a time where redhat and freebsd were 'the stuff'... :P mid-later 90's, so yeah the terminal stuff isn't too hard for me to grasp since my first computers were all in MS DOS.
 
Grummer said:
Ubuntu Linux is good i have it too, Linux is developed from Unix..
theres another unix but im not sure if its still around or if it still continuously being developed, FreeBSD...i had it in the text-version from way Way WAY back...it wasnt the noob freindly at all, its more a full fledged geeky OS , hard to master...
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Wow...I don't think I saw this one in the line up...but I have to say since I is a noob I would have cried if this was all Linux had to offer. :laugh2:
(I REALLY loathe Windows.) :D
 
naisho said:
yeah, any distribution that compiled off ubuntu should be pretty noob friendly. If it has the KDE desktop then that's pretty much most of windows already like Zorin is.

I come back from a time where redhat and freebsd were 'the stuff'... :P mid-later 90's, so yeah the terminal stuff isn't too hard for me to grasp since my first computers were all in MS DOS.
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What does KDE stand for? There are all these different "flavours" of Linux...I saw so many on the site...and they all mentioned these abbreviated desktops...and I am completely clueless. I can build a computer...but all the coded geeky stuff may as well be written in swahili because I can't read it either! LOL I haven't the foggiest idea what the difference is...but I wouldn't mind learning. :)
 
Grummer said:
Ubuntu Linux is good i have it too, Linux is developed from Unix..
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Sorry, not quite. UNIX was first developed in the 1960s and it was a proprietary system. It was shared with several business interests and University of California at Berkeley. It is the Berkeley UNIX that Steve Jobs adapted into NeXT, an UNIX-based OS he built while outside of Apple. When NeXT was acquired by Apple, he brought UNIX into Apple and it became OS X. So the current Apple OS is based on the Berkeley version of UNIX. It has always been a proprietary OS that had a license you had to pay for to use.

Linux on the other hand, was started by Linus Torvalds (Linux gets its name from him). The intent was to create a free OS that would look and function like UNIX. It started in about 1991. It has gone a long way since then. It is not actually UNIX, but UNIX-like. Similar to UNIX. It has a free license to use.
 
mizwytch said:
What does KDE stand for? There are all these different "flavours" of Linux...I saw so many on the site...and they all mentioned these abbreviated desktops...and I am completely clueless. I can build a computer...but all the coded geeky stuff may as well be written in swahili because I can't read it either! LOL I haven't the foggiest idea what the difference is...but I wouldn't mind learning. :)
Click to expand...

KDE is the graphical interface in some versions of linux. It's actually pretty easy to understand, there are 4 main ones around. Think of them as different start menus or launchers.

GNOME (ver 2 and ver 3) has always been a default, oldest 'start menu' to linux imo. Ubuntu was using GNOME until the latest version, 11, which uses something new now called Unity (but still has Gnome with it).

KDE and LXDE are like windows start menu clones, easy to use them. Zorin uses LXDE. Kubuntu is ubuntu that uses KDE (think, K-ubuntu :D). Lubuntu is ubuntu that uses LXDE.

XFCE is like a mac os like start menu launcher. All the icons are at the bottom and you just pick which one you want to use.

Some of the builds combine some of them together too, or release in different versions just like ubuntu-kubuntu-lubuntu.
 
naisho said:
KDE is the graphical interface in some versions of linux. It's actually pretty easy to understand, there are 4 main ones around. Think of them as different start menus or launchers.

GNOME (ver 2 and ver 3) has always been a default, oldest 'start menu' to linux imo. Ubuntu was using GNOME until the latest version, 11, which uses something new now called Unity (but still has Gnome with it).

KDE and LXDE are like windows start menu clones, easy to use them. Zorin uses LXDE. Kubuntu is ubuntu that uses KDE (think, K-ubuntu :D). Lubuntu is ubuntu that uses LXDE.

XFCE is like a mac os like start menu launcher. All the icons are at the bottom and you just pick which one you want to use.

Some of the builds combine some of them together too, or release in different versions just like ubuntu-kubuntu-lubuntu.
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Thanks. This actually made a little bit of sense to me. Seeing as how I have absolutely NO DESIRE to ever use a frigging Windows OS EVER again...learning all of the ins and outs of the various Linux flavours sounds like a fun adventure to me. :ty:
 
KDE stand for kewl desktop environment... originally, DE is "Desktop Environment" and back in the time usually start out with CDE, which stand for Common Desktop Environment. Then later they decided to change it to K instead of C, they call it "Cool Desktop Environment". So, over the time I've heard Linux fan call it "Killer Desktop Environment" because of all the bad ass graphical designs and user friendly desktop environment. So, KDE all come in many different flavors, some are awesome design.

It just similar to Windows Themes, and how you want to set the taskbar and colors, menu setting and so forth.
 
Well my girlfriend is computer literate. Just need something legal and free to use. Zorin isn't really free. They force you to donate, prior to download it. I just need something that is user friendly and supports Blu ray, flash, etc. She mostly uses it for web browsing and internet.
 
sequoias said:
Well my girlfriend is computer literate. Just need something legal and free to use. Zorin isn't really free. They force you to donate, prior to download it. I just need something that is user friendly and supports Blu ray, flash, etc. She mostly uses it for web browsing and internet.
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Really? That's odd. I was able to download the ISO file for Zorin without being prompted for a donation.

Did you download it from this page: http://zorin-os.com/free.html
 
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