PCTech Forums

Just recently I was reading a post somewhere that said:
1. get a copy of the linux os
2. install to a small portion of your HD
3.whenever you want to surf the internet, just boot to Linux. This willl protect you pc from viruses as most don't target the linux os.


I was wondering if this would be a free way (no subscription payments to give to Norton) to protect your pc from viruses.

any advice is appreciated

-thx

Athough it is safer, because when people make malicious content, like viruses and so forth, along with spyware and pop-ups and what not, they aim to target the masses, and ,lets face it, Windows is by far the majority when it comes to usage.

But in my opinion it is not worth it to go through the partitioning of the HDD and the installation of a distribution of Linux just to surf the internet. Its just to much of a hassle to switch from one to the just for internet use, plus most distributions of Linux's media players arn't compatible and the browsers usually don't have shockwave, flash, or java plug-ins, and at my point right now, I'm to big of a Linux noob to figure out how to install the plug-ins.

So in my eyes stay with windows to avoid unneed hassle, and either suck it up and pay for a good anti-virus program, or just be safer with your internet content

thanks for the response and sorry i took so long to get back to you, just wanted to do my research.

yes, liljim, I am thinking of trying out linux. I think I will start with knoppix (live bootable cd)

now for my questions:
how/where do i go to download it? when I go to the download page on this site:

http://www.knoppix.org/

I click on the link to a download site and it takes me to a strange looking page that I'm not familiar with. What are you supposed to do when you get there?

I think I di enough investigating to answer my own questions:

I figured out that one of the links is a 700mb file that downloads

I used roxy easy cd creater to make a bootable cd with the iso file that I downloaded.

I set the burn speed on 6x

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it works.

I'll report back shortly.

let me know if I did something wrong...

I guess theres a couple ways to find out but heres one of several

in XP, click the start button and go to run. Type in dxdiag then press enter. Click yes on the dialog box then a window will appear. Click on the Display tab at the top of the window and all the information for your video card will be listed in the device section.