If you're considering a Mac, yet don't want it for any *specific* macintosh specific software / hardware compatibility, I'd say LINUX is going to work great for you.
a) LINUX doesn't play many video games well.
b) LINUX doesn't work well with certain low end / obscure models of scanner, printer, wireless networking devices, and various gaming oriented specialty peripherals like certain joysticks or so on. The reason being simply because the manufacturers don't write LINUX drivers, and there may not be open source ones that work well for certain devices. A slight bit of research will inform you good printer / scanner / networking / PDA / etc. choices for LINUX use. Newer Creative Labs sound cards and similar ones are a bit iffy in support too.
c) LINUX doesn't run most software designed for MS Windows well. Some things run in WINE, lots more run under a virtual machine. Just don't expect a lot of stuff that is heavily involved with gaming, advanced GPU functions, DRM / copy protected stuff, heavy use of non-standard PCI peripheral cards, etc. to work in a VM. Same deal as on a Macintosh running Parallels etc.
Internet -- LINUX does pretty well. Flash player / real player can be a bit unstable due to faults in the proprietary software, not so much a problem of LINUX. Firefox can be pretty unstable for some people and work well for others. I'd say that if FF doesn't work well for you, there's always Opera, Netscape, etc.
Generally there's equivalently good free download manager, P2P, FTP, S/W for LINUX as Windows.
Instant Messaging software doesn't work quire as well in terms of the advanced features like webcam and VOICE as under Windows, again, due to a lack of good LINUX support by MSN, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo companies. That would be an excellent thing to run under XP in a VM for when you need it. Pidgin (LINUX multi-protocol IM client) actually works quite well when all you need is basic text chat on the various systems.
Citrix -- I have no idea. I assume the clients for LINUX work ... research it.
SSLVPN -- I'm not specifically familiar with that one, but in general LINUX has better open standards / open source VPN / SSL / networking / encryption support than Windows. If it has a LINUX client I'd assume it would work great. IPSEC and OpenVPN and other VPNs work well under LINUX.
Wireshark / ethereal -- these kinds of things tend to work better under LINUX than Windows.
Telnet/SSH/FTP ditto of course.
Updates are automatic in most any modern distribution... just click the little "updates are ready" icon and tell it to go ahead and install them all or ones you want. Rebooting after a kernel or x-windows or similar major update is a good idea. Generally once or twice a month there will be significant enough updates that you might want to reboot. Generally you don't HAVE to install the updates as soon as they appear but can wait until a convenient time and your system will still usually be secure and functional until you'd like to install them.
Put the system on a UPS to protect it from power outages, keep it from running out of disk space, blow the dust off now and then, and in general it'll run with almost zero maintenance for months at a time, literally, without even turning it off / rebooting if desired.
There is generally VERY little maintenance needed unless you've had a severe crash due to power loss or unusual system errors. Even then USUALLY it just boots up and keeps working. If you want to do a full on upgrade of the OS that can get a little tricky; usually new OS distributions appear every 6 months, but there's no real reason to upgrade to the new version if you're happy with the old one. Chances are you'll keep getting all the major security / major bug fix updates for the old version for at least 2+ years even if you never upgrade to the newer ones.
Plug in USB drives usually "just work" occasionally something gets a little confused and it may not auto-mount something, but 60 seconds worth of learning will show you how to manually mount one if needed. NTFS-3G filesystem support is excellent these days. Also ISO9660 and FAT file system support is very good. Interchanging files on USB drives / flash disks / firewire drives / CD / DVD etc. is very easy typically.
Look into SUSE, Fedora 9, either one should be pretty stable and easy to use for you.
Originally posted by: Kadarin
Sorry for the noob question here, but I haven't installed Linux since about 2004 (gentoo, on an AMD 1800+ box). I'm debating whether or not to update this PC, and if I do so, whether to do one of the following 3 options:
1. Get an iMac, pay the premium in price, and not worry about installation, configuration, etc. Would run XP in a VM.
2. Replace this machine with a new homebuilt PC with decent specs, using Ubuntu or some other Linux distro (possibly with XP running in a VM).
3. Same as option #2, but with XP only.
What applications do I use? I do not do any gaming currently. I do the following:
intarweb
watch video
listen to music
use citrix client
use sslvpn client
use wireshark/ethereal
telnet/ssh/ftp
So... How usable is Linux? This means, if I install it, how easy is maintenance over time (security updates, and application updates)? Will it "just work"? Can I plug in external HDDs (NTFS) via firewire 400/800, without having to dig through config files?
Thanks for any input...
