Windows OS vs. Red Hat OS or both

[wmabear54]

Hi my name is Mike

I am new to all of this, getting there slowly but surely.

In looking at the pros and cons. Each door I open has about 100 to 1000 or more doors on the other side to open.

I am running a windows xp home edition on my machine and don't want to upgrade to the pro hince the cost just to get the pws and access data base that I will need to learn a good basis for building a database from the ground up.

Red Hat OS ver.8 can be downloaded for free(would take many hours to download) or purchased for a reasonable cost w/all manuals.

Good or bad.

Are there any thoughts on this.

Thanks in advance

Mike

[Keimos]

Red Hat is aimed at the server market, if you are not looking for a server then do not bother as there are versions of Linux that will suit you better.

ie: Lindows

It is getting easier but I personally would do your research and trawl the various linux sites to find out which version would be the best for you.

If you have been bought up on windows some versions will appear familiar but the bottom line is that you still need to understand and use a command driven interface. ie DOS, UNIX for the more complicated administration.

Free comes with the cost of time and effort.

By the way I am neither for or against windows or linux I just look at the practicalities. I welcome the day when there is an easy choice.

[wmabear54]

Thanks Keimos

I checked out Lindows I didn't know they existed. Basically all I am trying to do is have a pws that would be local on my machine. I suppose you would call what I am doing is to play catch up as I got a sprinkling of dos in the late 80's early 90's. sure wish there was a way to add pws to the xp Home.

Mike