Switch to Linux straight away?

[HappyUser]

Well, I am a Windows user ATM, I have no (very little) Linux knowledge, and willing to switch to Linux. What do you think is best, should I use Windows and Linux simultaneously until I learn some Linux, or I should switch to Linux straight away, and make my best to learn it ASAP?

Thanks!!

[WingedPanther]

There are arguments that can be made on both sides. If you make the dive and have issues with doing a homework assignment, you can get VERY frustrated. On the other hand, you will learn far faster. In general, I would recommend either dual-booting or using a virtual machine until you get comfortable with it.

[TcM]

I must agree with Winged...

Although if you dual-boot you might get lazy and never actually look into Linux much.. and you will continue being a normal Windows user.. this happened to me.. on a virtual machine it's even worse!

[HappyUser]

Yeah.. and I'm quite lazy, but at the same time I don't want to end up with something not working and then end up pissed off because I can't do my work...

[PenguinLover]

If I were you I would switch right away... if you get pissed off, you would make your best to fix the issue and that will make you learn even more.

[Jordan]

Make the switch! I started with Dual Boot and set Linux as the default boot partition. I only booted into Windows when I got frustrated (and I did get frustrated a lot when using Slackware 3.x). I believe my dual boot Windows partition was Windows 95 so that helped keep me out of Windows.

[WingedPanther]

My first year with Linux, I dual booted with Linux as the default... There was one application I needed to run about once a month at work and I had to switch back to Windows NT 4.0 for about an hour a month. Then they gave me ANOTHER Windows-only program that I "had" to use and I got shoved back into Windows land. I was pretty irritated, actually.

[HappyUser]

Yeah, that is one of my "fears", not being able to do something on Linux while I can on Windows. If I was brought up into the Linux world, then I wouldn't mind.. but now that I was brought up into a Windows world... I don't know

[WingedPanther]

All normal activities can be done in both. The issue is when you have highly customized software that you must use (in this case, a really lame "math instruction" program that required a Windows-only app to run it) and can't get it to run under Wine.

[PenguinLover]

But sometimes even the different layout and everything... makes you feel unconfortable to use at first.