I have always used Windows but now I would like to try a different OS. Can you give me some suggestions for a free OS for my laptop for a person of beginning to moderate computer experience.
Ubuntu. If you want a Windows feel, try kubuntu, as it’s apparently more similar in feel. The installation disks are Live disks, so you can try them out first without actually installing them.
Note: I am not a Linux user (though I used to have Debian on my old desktop box), but I am married to one. The above was basically a direct quote from my husband, so I cannot help you with any issues that might crop up. There are, however, plenty of Linux users on the boards who likely can give better advice!
I, for one, must warn you due to code 456 of the eXiCKorDian directive.
But seriously, try Ubuntu or Slax, they tend to be the “default” beginner Linux’s, at least where’ I’m from.
Just curious, how many programs, applications, and games from windows xp will work with kubuntu? (it feels like the answer might be “none of them” but that leads me to the question, why the hell would anybody use linux then?)
laughs
Too true. And not in a good way. It keeps seeming like if you go lower and lower into the abyss that eventually you’ll find a way to get Linux to not break. Eventually you just realise that you NEVER install ANYTHING outside of the official repository and keep a backupo of your files for when you have to reinstall the OS anyways. 
Because a lot of open source programs are developed for the open source operating system linux
I would like to install Microsoft office 2007. it would be a deal breaker for any OS if I can’t instal office. Would I be able to use to use my office 2007 on kubuntu?
Almost certainly not. Microsoft doesn’t write a Linux version of Office, and the reports from Wine don’t look so good. The only other possibility is a virtual machine (i.e., running Windows from inside Linux), but that seems like more effort than it’s worth.
Or you could use OpenOffice, but it doesn’t have many supporters on this board.
You won’t find a free OS that supports MS Office. If you want to try something else that runs it, buy a Mac.
Codeweavers Wine runs Office 2000 perfectly well. It’ll cost an extra $40, though. Compatibility | CrossOver Mac and Linux | CodeWeavers
If this is going to be a common POV for you, alternative OS’s may not be your playground.
I see, well that narrows it down to Microsoft windows. Thank you for the info, ignorance fought.
Windows makes Office for Apples.
And if you only use Word and Excel and you’re not embedding images, if you save as RTF and CSV files, respectively, then Office is irrelevant.
I think you mean Microsoft makes Office for Macs
Does Apple make any other computers than Mac? Does Office not run on them?
Unless you define iPods and iPhones as ‘computers’, no, Apple makes only Mac computers. (And all sorts of accessories for them, of course.) The last Apple II series computer was made in something like 1990 at the latest.
They may be extinct, but the Apple computer made by Apple Inc was the name of the computer, and is not the name of the computer they make nowadays, which is why none of us call them Apples. But actually, the correction had more to do with the assertion that Windows makes Office for Apples (Macs).
You wouldn’t say “Macintosh makes iTunes for MS-DOS PCs” would you?
Close. The Apple IIe was still being manufactured and sold up through late 1993.
Some people (like Sage Rat) say “Apples” and they mean Macintosh computers, especially nowadays. Personally I have no objection to this — although for many years, when both product lines were active, that would have caused confusion. A Mac was a Mac, and an “Apple” meant an Apple II of some sort.
Come to think of it, I do object a little bit.
:smack: Right…