Choices, choices...

I am building a computer and I am now close enough that I have to decide what OS to put on it (I have made sure the hardware is compatible with Linux), this is a really tough decision for me. I have used both Windows and Linux and I like both, but I am leaning a bit more towards Linux. I am learning to program so Linux is an obvious choice but there are many free compilers out there for Windows too. From a security perspective I find both operating systems to be neck and neck(It all depends on the knowlege of the person securing it I believe). What do you guys think, any suggestions? Exactly how different is OpenBSD from Linux? I am all ears to anyones's suggestions.
-libertie

Gawd, not this question again. Try punching "linux vs windows" into a search engine. You'll recieve well over 2 million results. Why would anyone waste thier time anwering a question which already has 2 million answers?

I have time to burn, it sounds like you like both linux and windows. I say make a dual boot with winXP pro, and whatever distro of linux you want.
by the way, if you take my advice, make sure and install windows then linux, because windows will just overwrite whatever linux puts in the mbr.

Well, I'm not sure how much linux experience you have, but I really like Slackware. IMHO, it doesn't feel windowy (new word:D) like RedHat does. RedHat is good..don't get me wrong, but the fact that it isn't free anymore, kinda turns me off of them. I mean you can still download it and install it, but I coming next year, they are stopping support or errata for their previous releases.

I'm starting to play with SuSE a bit, so I'm curious about that myself.

In terms of security, I agree with you saying that it's knowledge of the person securing the box, but the windows operating system and its applications seem to have far more security holes than any of the linux flavors.

You could always dual-boot;)

Hope I helped.

OK, I think yes, a dual-boot would be the answer in your situation. Then you no longer have to decide. Install Windows first, then Linux, as the Windows installation will completely ignore the Linux installation if it exists and you won't be able to boot Linux anymore. But there's already a thousand howtos on dual booting. It's really not that difficult. Try it.

edit/
Thourht I'd add this... a great PDF howto on multbooting can be found here
The HTML version of the same can be found here
Thanks go to The Linux Documentation Project... always a good resource.
/edit

You are right tekno, they are stopping support for the older releases. I was thinking about dual-booting, I knew about the mbr thing, I learned abou it the hardway when I first started playing with Linux. I appreciate all of the input thanks.
-libertie

Why not dual boot Windows and Linux? Or Windows and a UNIX Variant (ie. BSD) again there are many discussions about "What Distro's the best." "What Operating System roc0rs your s0xors" and so on. Go with what you like and what you feel is better for you. as for OpenBSD, it has different features and functions than Linux, and doesn't use Bash mainly as it's main shell, there are loads of other difference too, but it's 12:30, I'm lazy, I'm chatting on IRC trying to get Syini666's site working right, and I have school tommorow, so I won't go into it all now. But dual booting would be good, so when you need one Operating System it's there and when you need another it's there.

Good luck.

MB

yes Micro...great minds DO think alike:p

I like Windows 2000 Professional with another partition having Linux, especially if you can get them to work correctly

I'm gonna go with the crowd :)

Dualboot Dualboot Dualboot!!!