Wednesday March 11: it ain't all about Windows ya know! part one

Wednesday March 11: it ain't all about Windows ya know! part one
Greetings, fellow gearheads!

Almost all of you have working computers running some kind of Windows O.S., either XP or at least Win2K. You've loaded some essential programs on such as pdf readers, system utilities, an Office suite, some version of the Firefox browser and assorted game and fun stuff. Now its time to branch out into some alternative Operating Systems, stuff that is NOT WINDOWS (icy chills up and down the spine!!!)

The best known is an O.S. called Linux. There are many different kinds, and I've got a bunch of them for you to test out. They come in what are known as "live CDs" meaning you can run the compute from the stuff thats on the CD. Here's what you will do:

A) You are going to test out at least five of them between today and tomorrow, so pick out at least two CDs for right now.

B) pick any one of them, pop it into your CD drive, and restart your computer. It should "see" the CD first, before the hard drive; fetch me if it doesn't

C) when it does start, this is the stuff I want you to look for, and write down

0) what is this version of linux called?
1) how long does it take to boot up ?
2) when you get there, how easy is it to find programs?
3) please list the programs you do find there --
ie what does it come with already installed?
4) please list five programs that are similar to
those you've already worked with
5) please describe the ones you liked best: what do they do?
6) does the setup look similar to what you see in a Windows machines?
7) describe how you get to different folders, including the hard drive,
floppy, CD drive, flash drive
8) can you save files to the hard drive from within some program
found on this CD?
9) what does it have for help files?
10) Besides being free to use and own, what might be
some other advantages to using this version of linux?

D) Please understand that this is a serious matter and I expect time
and attention to be paid to each version of Linux you examine. All this material
will need to end up in some kind of text file that is passed in to me

Cheers,
Mr. L