If trebb's experiences with Linux are anything like mine, a live CD won't tell the full story. In my case there is at least one program I really need that requires Windows and is not available for Mac or Linux, and there are no alternatives.
Getting it set up after copying a command line you find in a forum somewhere is nice. After a few update cycles, something changes so that the program no longer can be launched. Try to find a solution online again and hope it works. Rinse, repeat.
I had other errors after updates as well.
I cut my teeth on DOS and can understand how to move around and get stuff done in that environment if I ever need to, but most Linux commands make little sense to me.
Like I said--try it out. I don't know every situation, and some situations won't work. Use what works for you.
[[In my case there is at least one program I really need that requires Windows and is not available for Mac or Linux, and there are no alternatives.]]
That’s where dual boot comes in handy- VM won’t cut it for programs liek photoshop- you need to run it directly on windows- so my solution was to dual boot- i do all my itnernet stuff during day, then late at night/early morning, i boot into windows and do my photoshop work on my photos, and save all my work to my second hard-drive so i can access the photos in my linux os too-
No problem - used to actually teach some low level Solaris - the issue isn’t being able to learn/work a command line environment - it’s laziness. I like the thought of using a live CD to get a feel for whether or not I want to actually load the OS.