It has been seen that most of the people use windows for common application that is-

1. Office applications (MS Office, Open Office or other alternatives
2. Brows the web
3. Read emails
4. Read news (RSS)
5. Chat
6. Listen to music
7. Review their pictures

But to have these application we have to install windows itself and then we would be able to -

* Read emails
* Browse the web
* Chat (Only on MSN)
* Listen to music
* Review pictures

But inorder to enjoy you have to install and pay for windows and also you need to install antivirus also.
You have to pay for MS Office installation too.
One thing noticed about windows is that it is not good with Firewall.

Now lets talk something Linux too.
Its the booming software in PC market.To enjoy all the functionalities you just need to install Linux and you get them all,
in one installation.
You dont even have to install any antivirus or any firewall.
Just forget them and enjoy the functionalities given by Linux.

But as it is said that every coin has two sides Linux as it has all good functionalities at the same time it seen that,
it is not much compatible with most of the latest games.
But taken a deep look you will see that it is not linux that it is not supporting gaming softwares,
it the game companies that are not making such games that are linux supportive.

For HTPC use, I don't think gaming is that important, at least the type of gaming that typical "l33t gamerz" types play (Bioshock/Crysis/etc)

I was a gamerz-type in the roaring 1990's, up until about 2001 or so- then I grew up and focused on making my PC's real media machines. It is common knowledge here that constantly chasing the latest video card/audio card and game software will make your media PC unstable, so for a good set-top-like stable media PC, you really need to avoid installing gamerz-type games on your media PC.

Some games are well suited for theater machines, like the You Don't Know Jack's, Wheel of Fortunes, Jeopardy's, Deal/No Deal and puzzle type games, which are great for parties and groups of people in a theater.

The other category that works well in a media PC are emulated consoles- from the classic early 80's through at least the PS1/N64/Genesis/SNES. I hardly played any of these games from these consoles, so I have 20 years of catchup there- I suspect a lot of others do to ;)

The party games and emulated games are covered by Linux well, either native, from a browser/website or through Wine.

As for gamerz type fare like WoW, Guild Wars, Steam games, DoD, CoD's, and many others, these work on Linux-
http://appdb.winehq.org/

For the balance of games that aren't Linux native or Wine capable, just get a Wii/Ps3/Xbox360. Given the state of gaming DRM, you don't *want* gamerz games moving forward in your media PC- it will start breaking things.

And of course, there's hundreds of native Linux games
http://rangit.com/software/top-8-linux-games-of-2007/

or browse Synaptic. I've found the Linux games more Wii-like and for people who've grown out of their gamerz phase.

The Linux games meme is getting *really* old, and really as no teeth any longer.

As most new games move to consoles and/or platform independant tech like web based/Flash/Java/OpenGL, the issue is increasingly moot.

Effectively, Microsoft turned XP+DirectX into just another Microsoft gaming console- so they have three- Xbox, Xbox360, and XP+DX for the gamerz types.

Everyone else whose grown up has moved/is moving to Linux ;).

As Rgb has said, HTPC alot of those items aren't as important compared to an everyday main pc.

I will say Counterstrike, WoW, DoD,etc look awesome on my 102" screen running off my HTPC on Ubuntu, but I find myself playing those games on my main Windows PC more than my linux box. Linux gaming is making big strides forward and more games are starting to recognize this, but hardware support really keeps the linux gaming segment from booming. I personally doubt I will ever tire of gaming, been upgrading my PC to play games ever since Arctic Fox on my Dads old 386.

I just recently started back into Linux about 3 months ago and will say the Distro's have come a very long way. My last install until recently was Mandrake 7 with its impressive GUI install (not so impressive by todays standards). With Ubuntu making desktop linux more user friendly, and PCLinuxOS gaining ground (still need to try this one out), Linux is making headway, and as long as M$ spits out products like Vista, Linux will keep moving forward, and the age of the "conf" file edits will hopefully be a thing of the past.

I currently run Ubuntu on my HTPC, getting ready to order a HP laptop for my developer machine (Coldfusion, PHP, mysql, eclipse, etc), plus my general use PC with PCLinuxOS (which will have wine and a few windows games on it). I still run windows on my Gaming Rig and don't see that changing for another year or two, unless hardware support for linux makes some big leaps in their driver support.

Just to reiterate, we don't *want* the "l33t gamerz" mentality contaminating the HTPC hobby- IMO, it was this gamerz mentality that resulted in the HD disc fiasco, with both HD disc camps pandering to the gamerz and diluting the focus from audio/video-phile issues.

Linux gaming is making big strides forward and more games are starting to recognize this
And thank the maker that Enemy Territory Quake Wars has both Linux and Mac clients. I did not want to upgrade past Win2K as I could not justify the $$$.
Fortunately a dual boot linux partition saved me big bucks in order to play this game. :D

Yes, Linux gaming is making big strides.

The trend is clear- it isn't so much "Linux" gaming that is growing by leaps and bounds, but Youtube/Facebook/Myspace-like community-centric, user content oriented gaming that is growing. This means user generated gaming, i.e. "free" gaming, like Youtube "free" content, what we used to call "public domain" software in the old Amiga/Atari ST days :D

Whether the games are open source (free speech/beer) or just free (beer) binaries, the revenue model for gaming moving forward will rely decreasingly on the sale up front, and more on access/subscriptions (WoW, etc) and in game ads. Games will increasingly use platform independant tech and strategies, so Windows-locked gaming will become a curiosity of computing history.

Linux is the "user generated content" of OS's. People will start to see Linux as the "cool" OS, just watch and see as it unfolds...

Refering to the title of this thread, I don't think it is easy to install and setup linux.

Everytime I have tried to install Linux, I have never been able to get video playback to work. I would always get choppy playback, incorrect aspect ratio, etc. In the end, I would always give up and install Windows.

In windows, all I need is Media Player Classic, and I can playback all my content without a problem. I just wish linux was that easy.

I think the experience is different for everybody, depending on their hardware, peripherals, expected use, distro etc. I have 1 mac, 3 PCs and 2 laptops running Linux in my house. All of them I use for multimedia except the mac. 2 PCs pretty much worked for everything with very little fuss. One took a lot to get video/aspect ratio, etc. working. Laptops took a little bit. and the Mac took quite a bit. I installed the same distro (ubuntu) on all but one (debian). The differences in install issue where in the hardware...

Linux has gotten pretty damn easy to install compared to how it used to be. The only significant issues I had when installing Fiesty was that the xorg config tools do a really crappy job of generating the config file for the "ati" driver for my old ATI 9800 pro card, so I had to manually modify the xorg.conf file. I never had any problem with frame dropping once I managed to get the "dri" module loaded and running.

I also have an old Sharp LCD monitor that is 1600x1200 native which it doesn't report properly in the EDID info, so I also had to mod the xorg.conf file for that too.

BTW, that monitor causes me grief when installing Windows too. Although it is easier to override the EDID defaults and force it to use the right setting in Windows.

And I've had other grief with Windows. I spent a month trying to get the drivers for my OnAir GT to install properly in Windows. Then I gave up on it for six months. When I tried again I was finally able get it to install. So it's not as if Windows is perfect and Linux is junk.

Refering to the title of this thread, I don't think it is easy to install and setup linux.

Everytime I have tried to install Linux, I have never been able to get video playback to work. I would always get choppy playback, incorrect aspect ratio, etc. In the end, I would always give up and install Windows.

In windows, all I need is Media Player Classic, and I can playback all my content without a problem. I just wish linux was that easy.

It *is* that easy in Linux.

I don't know what distro, vintage of distro or motherboard/video card you were trying to install to, but for most mobos and most video cards from ATI and Nvidia, just boot from a Mint 4.0 LiveCD, install the video driver with the point and click method in the sticky thread procedure, install SMplayer (a Media Player Classic equivalent) with a few clicks in Synaptic, and you're done.

Easier and much faster than an Xp install from scratch, which includes all app downloads/installs, audio and video drivers and other hardware drivers you may need. The beauty of Linux is that most hardware drivers are included in the distro- the only driver most people would need to install after the OS install is the video driver, just like on Windows with a few clicks using Envy.

Even for all the Ubuntus since at least 7.10, the same procedures apply, just a few extra clicks to install ubuntu-restricted-extras and mplayer from Synaptic, plus copy/ paste a few lines (no harder than a quick Registry edit) into a term window from

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

to enable the balance of Win, Real, Quicktime codecs and DVD decryption, just like you need to install Quicktime Alternative, Real Alternative, and DVD player software (usually have to pay for like PowerDVD or WinDVD) in Windows.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9076879&pageNumber=2

"When I choose a distribution to install on a desktop or laptop system, it's always Ubuntu. It has the most trouble-free installs and usually the best support for the hardware on my systems. Some of the other distribution makers have taken the success of Ubuntu as a wake-up call and are focusing more on creating an easy-to-use desktop experience, but for the moment, Canonical has the lead by several horse lengths. Anyone who tells you Linux is hard to install or use has clearly not seen Ubuntu lately."

Put in an Ubuntu CD and try it out. If you like it you can just install it. The LIVE CD will do everything you say you want to do. Seriously it's not that hard. a half dozen mouse clicks and you are running linux.

The best part of the Linux installation process for me is not having to call up some dude in India and explain why I should be blessed with his approval to activate my legitimate copy of the OS because I have reinstalled it too many times.

^^^^ That's what sent me down this latest attempt to use Fiesty. Since I build all my computers from scratch, I was no longer willing to jump through Microsoft's hoops just to install the OS.

My previous attempt was with Suse 8.0 a few years ago. Everything has gotten so much better since then that I actually consider Fiesty to be a very useable desktop machine for home use (although there's still some issues with business use).

I don't care how long it takes to install, since one its set up, it stays that way. No more corrupted registry or missing system files like I used to randomly get with that other OS.

Just a comment on the original posters POV:

It's really what you are used to using. People can think Linux is hard but it's because they are used to Windows. They have used Windows for years and know all the "windows-isms".

I'm the opposite. The last version of Windows I owned was win95. All new PCs I've purchased the last 12 years, the first thing I do is delete windows and install Linux. I know the "linux-isms" so installing seems easy to me.

I'm pretty lost just using the windows desktop. Which makes people laugh when they see me struggling with it the once in a blue moon I'm forced to use it.

I might have already said this but at work now I get frustrated if I work on a windows pc and it kinda freezes up. You know how sometimes you click on the start button and it's selected and it takes a while for the pc to respond.

I've tried many times Linux before but had problems with how difficult it was to set up. The first Linux that felt easier was (for me) Suse 10.1, still configuring network shares was a hard task to acomplish for a Linux novice like me (I dont think I'm intermediate yet), but I kept that machine running in hopes of keep learning.

Then a link to Popular Mechanichs site about a HTPC they did and that they wanted to have it run with a special edition of Ubuntu they had modified so that it would play everything audio/video you could throw at it.... downloaded the ISO and couldnt make it work either (at least SUSE installed all the times).

But the name stuck with me and some time later I read about how easy it was to use Ubuntu and downloaded 7.10 and got hooked on how usable the live cd was. I then deleted suse and installed Ubuntu and started having fun with it. Still, my main computer, the one that is my 'HTPC' of sorts (since its also gaming and work and has no HTPC look - like the Silverstone HTPC cases) was running Windows.

Then my HDD started acting up and decided to go the dual boot way, got me a small 40gig drive and got Ubuntu on it and it was working really good, but the 5.1 built in nforce2 I had. The Windows disk kept acting up and many times didnt load, I was so glad I had Ubuntu already working, the main tasks I could complete in Ubuntu no problem.

Today, Im this close to flip the switch finally.... but need 5.1 to work and now Im fighting with the options to see which way Im going towards.... M Audio Revo, HT Omega Striker, Turtle Beach Riviera or Creative Audigy ES (or SE I dont know).... not sure yet. Once 5.1 works... gaming is the next step.

So far wine doesnt make it for me, so I have to try Cedega. But my main use of this computer is audio and video, and 5.1 (analog for now) is the most important thing to achieve.

ELP