I am not a tech guy and have been using Windows as these years. Recently thought to try Ubuntu as Micro$hit will stop XP support. I have few basic queries about Ubuntu which I guess more knowledgeable members can answer. 1. Now on download site there are 2 versions.. 12.04 and 13.10 Which one should I install? It says 12.04 will be supported till 2017 and 13.10 for nine months?! 2. Do I have to upgrade every time Ubuntu comes out with new versions? Ubuntu seems to be upgrading every now and then. It would be a pain to install an OS every nine months! 3. Will MS Office 2007 run on Ubuntu? 4. What about antivirus? Are there any free Ubuntu free antivirus? I did a basic googling about these queries... but either they were old/not relevant or have only confused me more. Thanks.
I'd recommend to use dual boot before you make the switch over to Linux. Then you better get a "tech guy". First shrink your XP partition and try to free at least 10GB, the more the better. Install with separate /home partition -> then you can easily upgrade the OS - or you wait for ~2 months until the next LTS release. And you better use LinuxMint with Cinnamon, which in fact is just a more "user-friendly" version of Ubuntu.
Then have a look at LibreOffice if it is not sufficient for you. Otherwise one can run MS-Office with Wine, put it takes a bit of sweat in the learning curve. You don't need antivirus with Windows. So Linux runs faster.
Office 2007 run on Ubuntu! First install wine from software center. Then open the exe file of office 2007 setup with wine. Follow the on-screen instructions
>> get ubuntu live cd, play with it, till you know the rules and also understand the rules and are comfortable to play with it. unlike now back in 1998 we didnt have the luxuary of livecd ...... damn i am such an unfortunate chap! ;-) >> no not exactly, if you are okay with editing the /etc/apt/sources.list and change the version like x.x -> y.y viz. in debian all i do is change from squeeze to wheezy (i most stick with sid)! and then apt-get update && apt-get -duy --no-act upgrade this will update the packages and also download the upgrade packages on the fly and you can then see if it breaks something via a simulation (--no-act) then if you feel good to go? then apt-get -uy upgrade && reboot then you need to perform one more step apt-get -duy --no-act dist-upgrade and inspect if the packages breaks other dependent packages. and then finally type apt-get -uy dist-upgrade && reboot and pray that old-stabe to stable dist upgrade transition went smooth. else reinstall ;-) >> to install libreoffice which is FOSS's answer to M$'s office, and yes you can open almost all formats related to M$ office and also the odf files apt-get install --no-act -duy libreoffice libreoffice-base libreoffice-base-core libreoffice-calc libreoffice-common libreoffice-core libreoffice-draw libreoffice-emailmerge libreoffice-filter-binfilter libreoffice-filter-mobiledev libreoffice-help-en-us libreoffice-impress libreoffice-java-common libreoffice-kde libreoffice-math libreoffice-report-builder-bin libreoffice-style-galaxy libreoffice-style-oxygen libreoffice-writer and then when you see it goes smooth then run apt-get -uy install libreoffice libreoffice-base libreoffice-base-core libreoffice-calc libreoffice-common libreoffice-core libreoffice-draw libreoffice-emailmerge libreoffice-filter-binfilter libreoffice-filter-mobiledev libreoffice-help-en-us libreoffice-impress libreoffice-java-common libreoffice-kde libreoffice-math libreoffice-report-builder-bin libreoffice-style-galaxy libreoffice-style-oxygen libreoffice-writer >> you can install the FOSS antivirus, called clamav, but its mostly for mail and mail related stuff, and secondly linux is a different beast, you dont have virus attacking your system, you need to read the security of that arch viz. debian or ubuntu or slack or suse or rhel or fc to make your system adapt to the hardening method. yes you have asm virus for liux too, but it stays where its kept and doesnt affect the system unless you execute it with root/wheel permission. i hope this answers your questions! >> welcome to wild wild west, in linux you got complete freedom, you can be what you want. straight from rolling your own distro to packages to what not. ..... so dont jump.... take your sweet time. linux is like old wine, it needs time to hit you in the spot... and get high! and you will cruise soon (hopefully) remember: logic is prime here emotion is bollocks! thanks to you too! thanks! -paul
You could try Linux mint based off Ubuntu. They also have a debian based mint as well. Or you could just go Debian.
In order to run MS Office you would need "Wine" don't bother wine sucks. But you could use Open Office or Libre Office. Ubuntu Uses Ip tables for the fire wall you just need a GUI to go with it.