Well folks, My machine has been broken for some time, and I got bored waiting for parts, so I installed Ubuntu 10-04. I have never been so impressed with an OS before in my life. Being a Windows user and nothing but for years now, it was a complete shock to find that Linux/Ubuntu really is that much better. Everything loads faster (even on a 2001 computer with 512MB of RAM), it played my sounds through my surround sound system like a personal home concert (an effect Windows has never given me) and has done nothing but win yet. If Flight Sim would run on Linux, I would become a spokesperson. PLEASE do not flame me, I am still a PC user, but I also appreciate the benefits of Linux, and I encourage everyone to at least try it and get an opinion of their own, as it does not require you to touch your existing Windows OS to install it.

Was thinking about Linux, but never got around to installing it. Take a look at number three at this link:http://useopensource...s-in-linux.html Glad you're happy with it!

I've been using X-Plane 9 for quite a while on Linux,but there's the lack of good VC's in general, and trackIR is not supported yet on linux and it's doubtfull it will be since NaturalPoint are not really interested in writing drivers for it. This would not be too bad,but the hat swich is not supported on X-Plane 9 either.Maybe X-Plane 10 will improve on this.- Until then,it's booting into Windows and starting FSX again.There is some good payware out there,but nothing in the league of PMDG stuff (hint hint)

I use a version of Puppy Linux. I got a program that quickly and simply makes a dual boot with none of the usual hassles. When you uninstal the program the bootup goes back to normal on its own, no trying to get rid of any components. I use another version that works from a memory stick too. When you boot into the Linux side it has all the Office stuff you need, games, movie players, music, Linux version of FireFox and others available too. You name it, its there already installed and ready to run with no messing. Its just a refreshing change now and then to dive into it. But then I also have a Mac Mini to dive into (pre Intel version) when I feel like it and several PC computers inc this one. Steve

Wine looks quite appealing, but no TrackIR support definitely is a HUGE turnoff, I will be looking into Wine for getting things like Vatspy to work, (as this will be my second computer, with my main Windows computer running FSX normally.)

Linux is awesome. I've been hooked on it since 2007. Last weekend I built my first Linux home/media server with Mint 11 64 bit. My favorite distro thus far is Crunchbang. Ubuntu is good for beginners but it really holds your hand a lot. You can get a much more streamlined and personalized OS if you're comfortable writing scripts and using the terminal. Sadly I can't move my own programming projects over to linux. I need tools like Visual Studio, the .net framework, SQL server, as well as the Adobe creative suite. These don't work at all or work poorly at best on Wine. If you're an open source programmer and use Java, MySQL, and PHP, Linux is the perfect OS. Of course you could always install a VM...

I'm loving it, but I need some more RAM. Getting a new stick from work tomorrow, hoping it freezes less (it's still a 2001 computer LOL). I have not been dissatisfied yet, and I have only scratched the surface. I will get my hands a little deeper in it soon, I can't wait to see what else I can make happen! Any ideas (as there have been good ones already) are welcome!

Ubuntu is amazing, also. I have it installed in my VirtualBox, along with Windows 2000.

I'm loving it, but I need some more RAM. Getting a new stick from work tomorrow, hoping it freezes less (it's still a 2001 computer LOL). I have not been dissatisfied yet, and I have only scratched the surface. I will get my hands a little deeper in it soon, I can't wait to see what else I can make happen! Any ideas (as there have been good ones already) are welcome!

Well it all depends on what you want to do with it. It seems like you're pretty computer literate so you'll find your way around easily. My new server has 16 gigs of ram... lol. Probably a little overkill. I would definitely recommend trying a lighter-weight distro for a computer that old. If you want the conveniences of Ubuntu, maybe try Xubuntu (Gnome is fairly resource heavy). I used it on my netbook for a couple years and loved it. Crunchbang would also run well on a machine that old, but you'd probably want some prior experience before trying it out.

I've always dual booted WinX and usually I run Ultimate Ubuntu, I prefer Gnome over KDE. It really has made tremendous advances from the days of hoping your Xconfig would actually startup Xserver.

Kubuntu (or Ubuntu, ) is definitely the easiest disto to upgrade from one release to another,and the only one I have had more or less trouble-free upgrades with.

It figures too, as I have no liking for the new release. Upgrading is a peace of cake, but it got WAY to GUI-fied in the new release. I love having menus with every option you could ever need, which was removed.

Is it strange that every time I read the title to this topic I hear it (in my head) being said by James Earl Jones? I've never messed with Linux personally, but I've only ever heard good things about it.

I dual boot my FSX box. Win 7 Home Prem 64bit on one partition and Ubuntu 11.04 64bit on the other. Inside the Linux OS host I have VirtualBox 3 running WinXP Pro 32bit just as snappy as this old 3Ghz Toshie Laptop that I'm using right now. (The Toshie is tripple booting -> WinXP, Vista HomePrem and Mandriva). Ubuntu installs with tons of very good software by default and if you need more it's a mouse click away from downloading of the Net mostly for free. The FSX box hardware is an Intel Q6600 clocked at 3GHz (2.4 GHz default) using the standard cooler with 4gig of DDR2800 ram and a GF9600GT 512 GFX card. If it wasn't for FSX I reckon that I would be Linux 100%. It's Sooo Automagical !!

Automagical, I wasn't expecting that response LOL. The only quarrel I had with it was the slew of boot errors I had trying to install it as a primary OS. I ended up with about 3-4 seperate errors, and formatting my drive about 8 times. NOT a fun way to spend Friday night. I did gain three bootable CD tools though, which is a plus. Their software center is amazing, and the Linux terminal is so powerful. It is like having another OS built in to a command prompt window. To anyone that does it, how does FSX perform if you run it entirely through Wine? (Including all the necessary dependencies.) If no one has done it, it may be how I spend my Saturday to find out.