There's never been a better time to jump into the Open Source Software pool. In the next several weeks, we'll witness the true coming of age of Linux, *BSD, and other Open Source operating systems. But first a word from Snoopy and company:
Just yesterday, OpenSuse unveiled their 10.3 Release Candidate 1, with the final release to come on October 4th. After having tried the second beta release of 10.3, I have to say that there's a good chance that they'll be stealing a lot of Ubuntu's thunder; I getting the RC1 right now, and if it's as good as they claim (very stable, only a few bugs left to sort out) then it will be an amazing distro. A must-have if you own a Thinkpad. OpenSuse will be including as much of KDE4 as possible, and that, if nothing else, mandates a test of this distribution.
Next Thursday, Mandriva offers their final release of Mandriva 2008; I've been using the RC1 for nearly two weeks, and if there is an easier and more intuitive set up for a major distro, I have yet to see it. Apart from PCLinuxOS (which borrows heavily from Mandriva), there's not a distro that is better looking and easier to use for those less tech-savvy/new to Open Source. I was able to install every bit of software, configure it to my heart's desire, update it and tweak it, all without getting even near a command line. The Mandriva Control Centre is without a doubt the finest bit of front-end engineering for a GUI that exists, something that the PCLinuxOS folks have faithfully incorporated into their fine distribution.
Three weeks after the release of Mandriva will see the much anticipated offering from the folks at Canonical: Ubuntu 7.10. To say that this will be every new Linux user's dream is perhaps a bit of an overstatement, but it will undoubtedly set the bar for one-size-fits-all distributions, a kind of Windows for Open Source. While not as polished as Mandriva, OpenSuse, PCLinuxOS and Fedora, it's incorporation of software repositories for easy addition of various media codecs and players, as well as the mind-boggling number of mirrors around the world (for fast downloads/updates) set it into a category of its own.
Nearly a month after the release of Ubuntu will be the final of Fedora 8; building on the huge success of Fedora 7, it will be interesting to see where they take this; after having tried the Rawhide (daily snapshot of release) a week ago, it's clear that they will be the distribution that most advances virtualization and roll your own distro technology. Imagine specifying exactly what you want in your Linux distribution down the the nth detail, then clicking a few buttons and watching it put it together for you, whether it's an install CD/DVD, or a USB live distro that you can carry around in your pocket for fun (and security) on the road. While it will be hard to pry me away from Mandriva, this is the distro that has the best shot at doing so, not the least for the speed and ease of its installer, but the polish and all-around good looks of the desktop.
After having used all of the above extensively, as well as the commercial offerings from Microsoft and Apple, I think it's safe to say that in terms of ease of use, security, configurability, and all-around fun, that the pecking order goes from (in order of difficulty of installation/use) Windows Vista at the top, followed by Windows XP, Apple's OS X (Tiger), and then finally Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSuse, and Mandriva/PCLinuxOS.
You may say that having a command line is the elephant in the room, that it makes Linux much harder than the rest, but that is simply not the case; with the documentation available in the various forums/wikis/Google, it's just a matter of Copy, Paste, and Return, and you have added software, updated your system, or tweaked it to your liking. It's actually faster than using the GUI, so much so that even a technically more complex distribution like Arch or Gentoo is fairly easily mastered and maintained, provided you do a bit of reading beforehand. And should you get stuck, there are thousands upon thousands of helpful folks willing to give you an answer, no matter how bone-headed the question.
That being said, one can easily afford to nearly completely avoid using the command line if one so chooses, particularly in the five major distributions mentioned above--you can even get FreeBSD going with PC-BSD and its amazing pbi directory--double click, and the software is installed. Couple this with the soon (Late November/Early December) to be released KDE4, and you have MacOS for free.
There's simply no technical reason not to try out a Linux/BSD OS these days; if you are wary of installing it, you have a couple of options--you can download the ISO file and burn it to CD/DVD and try out the live mode (get a feel of how well the system recognizes your hardware) and then pop out the CD/DVD and your system is untouched, or you can go the virtual machine route, using Virtual Box (free), Parallels (not), Vmware (not anymore) to install a system in a virtual environment that is just a file sitting on your hard drive, when you are finished you can dump it into the trash and recover the hard drive space.
There are a ton of new and exciting operating systems coming out in the next few days/weeks; I'll be trying them all out and putting down my impressions on the various distributions--each and every one of them. I'll also be around to troubleshoot any difficulties you may be having, and walk you through them if so desired.
The Golden Age of Free and Open Source Software is upon us; be sure to be a part of it, it's not something you will want to miss. As always, anything tech-related (free or not) is open to discussion here, even the oft-asked 'How does this help elect Democrats?'. If I have omitted anything or overlooked something important, feel free to drop a comment and I will edit/amend it to the diary. Cheers!