real newbie questions, thanks for your time

OK, M$ has hissed me off and its time to start a charge. So please excuse my totally uneducated questions. I've looked at the stickes and much of them are beyond me, at least at this point.

I have two needs. One is day-to-day email, suffing, and office like activities. The other is intensive scientific computation. So after very little reading it would appear that different Linux environments might work better in one than another. Is this impression true? Should I learn in one setup and then work into others.

Many thanks for your time and suggestions. Please KISS, I'm a virgin.

Well what I suggest to you is post what distros you are looking at, most come with a Live Cd version, which is good to test out, and use (runs of a cd and nothing else). Any linux distro will do the first stuff you suggested, but the science stuff, you would have to check if there is a linux version of the program, and then its a matter of installing it on any version you choose

The daily stuff can be met by any distro including a lot of the LiveCD distros that run from cd.
These can also help get you used to fiddling around in linux a bit.

The only computations I do are balancing my checkbook and adding/subtracting fractions when pipefitting.
But I do know that a lot of scientifical stuff runs in linux.
Most applications available in Windows have a fairly close approximation under *nix, so you will probably be able to find something. The next trick is that since all distros are NOT exactly alike it may be easier to install the software you need in some and harder in others.
Just about anything can be installed in just about any distro, but sometimes it can be tough...

rogerdugans said:

But I do know that a lot of scientifical stuff runs in linux.

Click to expand...

scientifical -- classic!

anyways, i would recommend trying the basic livecds like knoppix until you get your feet wet. but i think you will find that every distro can handle the first requirement.

then i would look at the software you use for your 'scientifical' stuff and see if there is a native linux version, or if perhaps you can run it under wine (or whatever it is now) effectively.

best of luck and welcome to linux!

Thanks folks.

I was looking at the more commerical setups initial, e.g. Xandros, but think I'll wait and play around with livecd such as knoppix as you suggest. While I work in a unix and linux supercomputing environment, can't say I use that environment other than as tools to do the work I need.

Related to computation, I figure compilers etc. that make use of AMD64. Yes, including Fortran, C and C++. I require 64-bit percision since I'm interested in highly nonlinear stuff and will write or utilize my own apps. Sounds like the computational stuff can wait till I educate myself a little more.