Andy's Unix FAQ

Question

Hi Andrew
This is a simple question you may find a bit strange.

You go to the pc store to buy a copy of windows xp or windows 98se so what software do you buy for the Unix os. and can this unix os be used on a home pc as i would like to try it.

Answer

Much of the software one needs to buy to make Windows platforms useful, such as wordprocessor, spreadsheet, is generally free for Linux and frequently bundled with the operating system ( Redhat + Suse ). For example, the Linux equivalents of MS Office are KOffice and OpenOffice - both free for personal use.. Also Linux is a software developer's paradise, with good, free compilers being available via the GNU project for just about every known programming language.

In fact Linux comes with so much free software that the market for commercial software is quite small. One area where there is a growing number of commerical applications is Games. My personal favourite being Civilisation Call-to-power by Loki

I would recommend that you start with a Redhat Linux distribution as this is probably the easiest installation for new-comers.

Here are some links to authoritive Linux related sites;

	Lists many of the free software packages and projects available for Unix platforms
	All types of Unix related News.
Linux Documentation project	Plethora of Linux related documentation, including many 'HowTos'
GNU software	Unix tools and compilers for s/w developers