

Best OS with GUI for business laptop? - thesmileyone

Recently went and purchased a laptop specifically for two things; all things business, and writing any ramblings/stories etc.<p>I purchased a new Dell, 2.3ghz i3 quad core, 6GB ram, 1TB hard drive (wanted an ssd but was not optional for the price I got it at).<p>I ideally want to run linux, but I need a GUI and one that actually works properly as I have next to no linux knowledge currently (but want to learn). Infact the only nix knowledge I have is basic SSH.<p>More to the point it needs to be very secure, I dont want to worry about some Windows 0 day comprimising the passwords to my ltd company web server etc.<p>I plan to use TrueCrypt too however is it easy to unlock the partition to edit the files and then lock it again or is it strictly for backup usage?<p>Many thanks.
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taixzo
This is probably the best way to launch an argument. Currently Ubuntu is
probably the simplest to get up and running. However, many people will
probably recommend a different distro.

No matter what OS you install, as long as it's not Windows it won't be
vulnerable to Windows attacks. Linux, for example, will be theoretically
vulnerable to Linux attacks, however there are few in number and they
generally get patched before someone can take advantage of them. If you want
the maximum in security that would probably be one of the BSDs; however, bear
in mind that there is less software available for BSD than for Linux.

TrueCrypt can be used to lock a partition, a backup file, or an encrypted
container for everyday use. It's pretty simple to use, and you can even set it
up to lock your home folder (which then gets automatically unlocked by your
password when you log in).

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javert
If you need Windows-only applications (in particular, the MS Office suite),
you may run into problems on Linux. There are "equivalents" for Linux, but,
for example, if you want to be able to send someone a .pptx and know that it
will look the same on their Windows computer as it does on yours, you would
either need to run Windows navively on the machine, or run it inside a virtual
machine.

