Domain extension country list with full form

List of Domain Extensions - Country List

This list will help you determine the country in which a website is based, if the extensions (the letters after the last dot) are not one of the common extensions (like .com, .org, .gov, .edu, etc.). But also notice that some countries allow foreigners and foreign businesses to register.  For example the Cocos Islands allows anyone in the world to buy a domain with the extension .cc).  Scammers that build websites to scam people use this as a way to disguise their true location or to pretend they are in another country.

A

.ac ï¿½ Ascension Island
.ad ï¿½ Andorra
.ae ï¿½ United Arab Emirates
.af ï¿½ Afghanistan
.ag ï¿½ Antigua and Barbuda
.ai ï¿½ Anguilla
.al ï¿½ Albania
.am ï¿½ Armenia *
.an ï¿½ Netherlands Antilles
.ao ï¿½ Angola
.aq ï¿½ Antarctica
.ar ï¿½ Argentina
.as ï¿½ American Samoa *
.at ï¿½ Austria *
.au ï¿½ Australia
.aw ï¿½ Aruba
.ax ï¿½ Aland Islands
.az ï¿½ Azerbaijan

B

.ba ï¿½ Bosnia and Herzegovina
.bb ï¿½ Barbados
.bd ï¿½ Bangladesh
.be ï¿½ Belgium *
.bf ï¿½ Burkina Faso
.bg ï¿½ Bulgaria
.bh ï¿½ Bahrain
.bi ï¿½ Burundi *
.bj ï¿½ Benin
.bm ï¿½ Bermuda
.bn ï¿½ Brunei
.bo ï¿½ Bolivia *
.br ï¿½ Brazil *
.bs ï¿½ Bahamas *
.bt ï¿½ Bhutan
.bu ï¿½ Burma (not in use since re-naming of country to Myanmar, see .mm)
.bv ï¿½ Bouvet Island (not in use; no registrations)
.bw ï¿½ Botswana
.by ï¿½ Belarus
.bz ï¿½ Belize *

C

.ca ï¿½ Canada
.cc ï¿½ Cocos (Keeling) Islands *
.cd ï¿½ Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly .zr ï¿½ Zaire) *
.cf ï¿½ Central African Republic
.cg ï¿½ Republic of the Congo *
.ch ï¿½ Switzerland *
.ci ï¿½ Cï¿½te d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
.ck ï¿½ Cook Islands *
.cl ï¿½ Chile
.cm ï¿½ Cameroon
.cn ï¿½ People's Republic of China *
.co ï¿½ Colombia
.cr ï¿½ Costa Rica
.cs ï¿½ Serbia and Montenegro (formerly .yu ï¿½ Yugoslavia; Note: on June 3, 2006, Montenegro declared independence, thus dissolving the state union) (.cs code not assigned; no DNS) (.cs code previously used for Czechoslovakia)
.cu ï¿½ Cuba
.cv ï¿½ Cape Verde
.cx ï¿½ Christmas Island *
.cy ï¿½ Cyprus
.cz ï¿½ Czech Republic

D

.de ï¿½ Germany
.dj ï¿½ Djibouti *
.dk ï¿½ Denmark *
.dm ï¿½ Dominica
.do ï¿½ Dominican Republic
.dz ï¿½ Algeria

E

.ec ï¿½ Ecuador *
.ee ï¿½ Estonia
.eg ï¿½ Egypt
.eh ï¿½ Western Sahara (not assigned; no DNS)
.er ï¿½ Eritrea
.es ï¿½ Spain *
.et ï¿½ Ethiopia
.eu ï¿½ European Union (code "exceptionally reserved" by ISO 3166-1)

F

.fi ï¿½ Finland
.fj ï¿½ Fiji *
.fk ï¿½ Falkland Islands
.fm ï¿½ Federated States of Micronesia *
.fo ï¿½ Faroe Islands
.fr ï¿½ France

G

.ga ï¿½ Gabon
.gb ï¿½ United Kingdom (Reserved domain by IANA; deprecated ï¿½ see .uk)
.gd ï¿½ Grenada
.ge ï¿½ Georgia
.gf ï¿½ French Guiana
.gg ï¿½ Guernsey
.gh ï¿½ Ghana
.gi ï¿½ Gibraltar
.gl ï¿½ Greenland *
.gm ï¿½ Gambia
.gn ï¿½ Guinea
.gp ï¿½ Guadeloupe
.gq ï¿½ Equatorial Guinea
.gr ï¿½ Greece *
.gs ï¿½ South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands *
.gt ï¿½ Guatemala
.gu ï¿½ Guam
.gw ï¿½ Guinea-Bissau
.gy ï¿½ Guyana

H

.hk ï¿½ Hong Kong *
.hm ï¿½ Heard Island and McDonald Islands *
.hn ï¿½ Honduras
.hr ï¿½ Croatia
.ht ï¿½ Haiti
.hu ï¿½ Hungary *

I

.id ï¿½ Indonesia
.ie ï¿½ Ireland
.il ï¿½ Israel *
.im ï¿½ Isle of Man *
.in ï¿½ India *
.io ï¿½ British Indian Ocean Territory *
.iq ï¿½ Iraq
.ir ï¿½ Iran *
.is ï¿½ Iceland
.it ï¿½ Italy

J

.je ï¿½ Jersey
.jm ï¿½ Jamaica
.jo ï¿½ Jordan
.jp ï¿½ Japan

K

.ke ï¿½ Kenya
.kg ï¿½ Kyrgyzstan
.kh ï¿½ Cambodia
.ki ï¿½ Kiribati
.km ï¿½ Comoros
.kn ï¿½ Saint Kitts and Nevis
.kp ï¿½ North Korea (not assigned; no DNS)
.kr ï¿½ South Korea
.kw ï¿½ Kuwait
.ky ï¿½ Cayman Islands
.kz ï¿½ Kazakhstan *

L

.la ï¿½ Laos *
.lb ï¿½ Lebanon
.lc ï¿½ Saint Lucia
.li ï¿½ Liechtenstein *
.lk ï¿½ Sri Lanka
.lr ï¿½ Liberia
.ls ï¿½ Lesotho
.lt ï¿½ Lithuania
.lu ï¿½ Luxembourg
.lv ï¿½ Latvia *
.ly ï¿½ Libya *

M

.ma ï¿½ Morocco
.mc ï¿½ Monaco
.md ï¿½ Moldova *
.me ï¿½ Montenegro
.mg ï¿½ Madagascar
.mh ï¿½ Marshall Islands
.mk ï¿½ Republic of Macedonia
.ml ï¿½ Mali
.mm ï¿½ Myanmar (formerly .bu ï¿½ Burma)
.mn ï¿½ Mongolia *
.mo ï¿½ Macau
.mp ï¿½ Northern Mariana Islands *
.mq ï¿½ Martinique
.mr ï¿½ Mauritania
.ms ï¿½ Montserrat *
.mt ï¿½ Malta
.mu ï¿½ Mauritius *
.mv ï¿½ Maldives
.mw ï¿½ Malawi *
.mx ï¿½ Mexico *
.my ï¿½ Malaysia
.mz ï¿½ Mozambique

N

.na ï¿½ Namibia *
.nc ï¿½ New Caledonia
.ne ï¿½ Niger
.nf ï¿½ Norfolk Island *
.ng ï¿½ Nigeria
.ni ï¿½ Nicaragua
.nl ï¿½ Netherlands * (first ccTLD registered)
.no ï¿½ Norway
.np ï¿½ Nepal
.nr ï¿½ Nauru *
.nu ï¿½ Niue *
.nz ï¿½ New Zealand *

O

.om ï¿½ Oman

P

.pa ï¿½ Panama
.pe ï¿½ Peru
.pf ï¿½ French Polynesia
.pg ï¿½ Papua New Guinea
.ph ï¿½ Philippines *
.pk ï¿½ Pakistan *
.pl ï¿½ Poland *
.pm ï¿½ Saint Pierre and Miquelon
.pn ï¿½ Pitcairn Islands *
.pr ï¿½ Puerto Rico *
.ps ï¿½ Palestinian territories *
.pt ï¿½ Portugal *
.pw ï¿½ Palau
.py ï¿½ Paraguay

Q

.qa ï¿½ Qatar

R

.re ï¿½ Rï¿½union
.ro ï¿½ Romania *
.rs ï¿½ Serbia
.ru ï¿½ Russia *
.rw ï¿½ Rwanda

S

.sa ï¿½ Saudi Arabia
.sb ï¿½ Solomon Islands *
.sc ï¿½ Seychelles *
.sd ï¿½ Sudan
.se ï¿½ Sweden *
.sg ï¿½ Singapore
.sh ï¿½ Saint Helena *
.si ï¿½ Slovenia
.sj ï¿½ Svalbard and Jan Mayen islands (not in use; no registrations)
.sk ï¿½ Slovakia
.sl ï¿½ Sierra Leone
.sm ï¿½ San Marino *
.sn ï¿½ Senegal
.so ï¿½ Somalia
.sr ï¿½ Suriname *
.st ï¿½ Sï¿½o Tomï¿½ and Prï¿½ncipe *
.su ï¿½ Soviet Union (deprecated; being phased out; code "transitionally reserved" by ISO 3166-1)
.sv ï¿½ El Salvador
.sy ï¿½ Syria *
.sz ï¿½ Swaziland *

T

.tc ï¿½ Turks and Caicos Islands
.td ï¿½ Chad
.tf ï¿½ French Southern Territories
.tg ï¿½ Togo *
.th ï¿½ Thailand
.tj ï¿½ Tajikistan *
.tk ï¿½ Tokelau *
.tl ï¿½ East Timor (formerly .tp) *
.tm ï¿½ Turkmenistan *
.tn ï¿½ Tunisia
.to ï¿½ Tonga *
.tp ï¿½ East Timor (deprecated ï¿½ use .tl; code "transitionally reserved" by ISO 3166-1)
.tr ï¿½ Turkey
.tt ï¿½ Trinidad and Tobago *
.tv ï¿½ Tuvalu *
.tw ï¿½ Republic of China (Taiwan) *
.tz ï¿½ Tanzania

U

.ua ï¿½ Ukraine
.ug ï¿½ Uganda *
.uk ï¿½ United Kingdom (code "exceptionally reserved" by ISO 3166-1) (see also .gb)
.us ï¿½ United States *
.uy ï¿½ Uruguay
.uz ï¿½ Uzbekistan

V

.va ï¿½ Vatican City
.vc ï¿½ Saint Vincent and the Grenadines *
.ve ï¿½ Venezuela
.vg ï¿½ British Virgin Islands *
.vi ï¿½ United States Virgin Islands
.vn ï¿½ Vietnam
.vu ï¿½ Vanuatu *

W

.wf ï¿½ Wallis and Futuna
.ws ï¿½ Samoa (formerly Western Samoa) *

Y

.ye ï¿½ Yemen
.yt ï¿½ Mayotte
.yu ï¿½ Yugoslavia (subsequently renamed Serbia and Montenegro)
(code officially replaced by .cs (see above) but still used; code "transitionally reserved" by ISO 3166-1)

Z

.za ï¿½ South Africa *
.zm ï¿½ Zambia
.zw ï¿½ Zimbabwe

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The Pirate Bay's 3rd and the Last Founder Arrested After 4 Years On The Run

By: kedharinath on 16:58

Fredrik Neij – known online as "TiAMO", third and the last founder of the popular file sharing website The Pirate Bay has been arrested driving across the border of Laos and Thailand.

The 36-year-old fugitive Fredrik Neij was convicted by a Swedish court in 2009 of aiding copyright infringement and now he has been arrested under an Interpol warrant after four years on the run.

The Pirate Bay allows users to share files, including copyrighted content such as movies and music, through peer-to-peer technology.

He fled the country after being released on bail and had been living in Laos with his wife and children since 2012. Neij was arrested on Monday while trying to cross a border checkpoint in Nong Khai province, about 385 miles northeast of Bangkok, with his wife, Police said.

"Mr. Neij will be transferred to the immigration headquarters in Bangkok on Wednesday where the Swedish embassy is expected to pick him up and bring him back to Sweden" WP reported.

According to Neij's travel records, he and his family have traveled to Thailand about 30 times since his passport was revoked by the Swedish Embassy in Bangkok in 2012.

His photo had been given to immigration police in Nong Khai. It might have been a coincidence, but unluckily Neij was wearing the same grey T-shirt while crossing the border that was in the photo.

"The immigration police officer who spotted him in the car recognized him, so he pulled his car over,” Regional immigration police commissioner Major General Chartchai Eimsaeng said.

Last week, Pirate Bay's first Founder Gottfird Svartholm, who used the alias "Anakata" on the Internet, was also found guilty of hacking by a Danish court and is now serving a three-and-a-half year sentence, while the second founder - Peter Sunde is serving the final days of an eight month sentence in Sweden.

Anyways, the awesome 'The Pirate Bay' website is of course still alive and Kicking!

but i support the pirate bay if u support them give a like for them

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high alert 4 DROPBOX USERS Nearly 7 Million Dropbox Account Passwords Allegedly Hacked

By: kedharinath on 13:53

Internet users have faced a number of major privacy breaches in last two months. Major in the list are The Fappening, The Snappening and now the latest privacy breach in Dropbox security has gained everybody’s attention across the world.

Dropbox, the popular online locker service, appears to have been hacked by an unnamed hacker group. It is still unclear how the account details of so many users were accessed and, indeed, if they are actually legitimate or not. However, the group claims to have accessed details from nearly 7 million individual accounts and are threatening to release users’ photos, videos and other files.

HACKERS CLAIMED TO RELEASE 7 MILLION USERS’ PERSONAL DATA

A thread surfaced on Reddit today that include links to files containing hundreds of usernames and passwords for Dropbox accounts in plain text. Also a series of posts with hundreds of alleged usernames and passwords for Dropbox accounts have been made to Pastebin, an anonymous information-sharing site.

Hackers have already leaked about 400 accounts by posting login credentials, all starting with the letter B, and labelled it as a "first teaser...just to get things going". The perpetrators are also promising to release more more password details if they're paid a Bitcoin ransom.

"More Bitcoin = more accounts published on Pastebin. As more BTC is donated, More pastebin pastes will appear."

The security breach in Dropbox would definitely have bothered its millions of users and since passwords are involved in this incident, so it has more frightening consequences on its users. Reddit users have tested some of the leaked username and password combinations and confirmed that at least some of them work.

DROPBOX DENIED THE HACK - THIRD PARTY IS RESPONSIBLE

However, Dropbox has denied it has been hacked, saying the passwords were stolen apparently from third-party services that users allowed to access their accounts. In a statement to The Next Web, Dropbox said:

"Dropbox has not been hacked. These usernames and passwords were unfortunately stolen from other services and used in attempts to log in to Dropbox accounts. We'd previously detected these attacks and the vast majority of the passwords posted have been expired for some time now. All other remaining passwords have expired as well."

The incident came just few days after the Snappening incident in which the personal images of as much as100,000 Snapchat users were leaked online, which was the result of a security breach in the its third-party app.

Snapchat has denied that its service or server was ever compromised, but the servers of a third-party app designed to save Snapchat photos, which became the target for hackers to obtain personal photographs.

DROPBOX - "HOSTILE TO PRIVACY" SAYS SNOWDEN
Dropbox was in the news earlier this week when, in a recent interview with The Guardian, NSA whistleblowerEdward Snowden called Dropbox a "targeted, wannabe PRISM partner" that is "very hostile to privacy" — referring to its ability to access your data itself, which is yet another security consideration when it comes to web services.

Snowden suggested web users to stop using Dropbox and warned them that the cloud storage service does not safeguard users’ privacy because it holds encryption keys and can therefore be forced by governments to hand over the personal data they store on its servers. He suggested people to use an alternative cloud storage provider that do not store any encryption keys, so that the users’ data cannot be read by anyone.

USERS ARE ADVISED TO CHANGE PASSWORDS

Until the full scope of the problem is known, it’s probably worthwhile changing your password. But whether the attack is confirmed or not, it’s a good idea to change your password just to be on a safer side — especially for those users who use same password for multiple services.

Users are also recommended to turn on two-factor authentication, which Dropbox now supports and install a time-based, one-time password app on a mobile device.

Update: Dropbox has issued a statement on its blog further clarifying that the Dropbox passwords were stolen from "unrelated services."

"The usernames and passwords...were stolen from unrelated services, not Dropbox," the company said in a blog post. "Attackers then used these stolen credentials to try to log in to sites across the internet, including Dropbox. We have measures in place that detect suspicious login activity and we automatically reset passwords when it happens."

"Attacks like these are one of the reasons why we strongly encourage users not to reuse passwords across services. For an added layer of security, we always recommend enabling 2 step verification on your account."

Windows 10 preview free download with product key !

By: kedharinath on 13:14

WINDOWS 10 free preview download

While the whole world was waiting for the next generation of Windows operating system, i.e. Windows 9, but skipping right over 9, Microsoft has announced the next version of its Windows is Windows 10, disclosing its first details on Tuesday at an event in San Francisco.

The latest version of Microsoft’s flagship operating system, which will be available for everyone next year, brings back the popular Start Menu, which had been removed from Windows 8.

Windows 10 will be Microsoft’s single platform for developing apps across all devices, from Smartphones and tablets to desktop PCs. However, Windows 10 will not be a one-size-fits-all operating system and instead will vary a bit from device to device.

"Windows 10 will run on the broadest amount of devices. A tailored experience for each device," Microsoft's executive VP of operating systems, Terry Myerson said at a press event here Tuesday. "There will be one way to write a universal application, one store, one way for apps to be discovered purchased and updated across all of these devices."

"Some of these devices you hold in your hand, others are ten feet away," Microsoft said. "Some of these devices you primarily use touch/pen, others mouse/keyboard, others controller/gesture—and some devices can switch between input types. We’re not talking about one UI to rule them all—we’re talking about one product family, with a tailored experience for each device."

Codenamed as Windows Threshold, Windows 10 will come with customizable live tiles in the new Start menu, which will look familiar to Windows 7. Among other features, Windows 10 will provide new options for re-sizing windows, multiple desktops, and a convenient "task view" to switch between them.

The resizable tiles will provide users a quick view of notifications from relevant applications, such as details of new emails, Facebook messages, weather forecast updates and more.

Other features include Task View – which supports multiple desktops, and Snap Assist – which lets you grab apps from multiple desktops. The Windows command prompt has also been improved.

The announcement of an updated Windows operating system doesn't come as a complete surprise, as the leaked images of the latest Windows OS – under the codename "Threshold" – spreaded online which gave a closer look at Microsoft’s next major version of Windows. The only surprise is that the latest version of Windows is Windows 10, instead of Windows 9.

"We believe that, together with the feedback you provide us, we can build a product that all of our customers will love," Myerson said. "It will be our most open collaborative OS projects ever."

Microsoft has open up the OS to dedicated beta testers under its Windows 10 "Insider Program" for individuals to start testing and already reached out to companies to evaluate the new operating system as well. Windows 10 is still in its early stages of development and is expected to ship in mid 2015.

Download Windows 10 Technical Preview Edition

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By: kedharinath on 12:00

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Facebook eyes up solar-powered drones, to blanket the world with internet access

By: kedharinath on 01:32

Facebook, with the thinly veiled veneer of “bringing internet access to the underconnected,” is looking to acquire Titan Aerospace — an American maker of high-altitude UAVs (drones). The idea is that these Titan drones would be used to connect the 5 billion or so people who don’t yet have reliable internet access — a philanthropic act on the face of it, but when you consider that Facebook’s entire business model is predicated on continued growth, and that almost everyone in the world with an internet connection already has a Facebook account, you can see that this is more about self-preservation than humanitarianism.

Titan Aerospace has two products, the Solara 50 and Solara 60, which the company refers to as “atmospheric satellites.” They seem to be functionally identical, except the Solara 60 can carry a larger payload. Both aircraft are powered by a large number of solar cells, allowing them to ascend to 65,000 feet (almost 20 kilometers), and then circle over a specific region for up to five years (presumably that’s the lifetime of the on-board lithium-ion batteries, which are required for night-time operation). The high altitude is important: The FAA only regulates airspace up to 60,000 feet — above that, pretty much anything goes.

Once these atmospheric satellites are up there, there’s a wide range of possible applications. Facebook is obviously interested in internet connectivity, but mapping, meteorology, global positioning, rapid response to disasters and wildfires, and a whole slew of other scientific and military applications are also possible.

As for what level of connectivity Facebook hopes to provide with these drones, it’s too early to say. TechCrunch reports that Facebook, which is looking to acquire Titan for $60 million, would launch 11,000 Solara 60 drones. Their coverage would begin with Africa, and then spread out from there. There’s no word on how fast these connections might be, nor how much such a connection would cost the end user. Perhaps more importantly, there’s also no word on how Facebook intends to connect these 11,000 satellites to the internet. Facebook will need to build a lot of ground stations, perhaps in very remote and very hard to administer areas, and then run fiber to hook them up to the internet. And yes, in case you were wondering, this effort appears to be very similar to Google’s Project Loon — which is essentially the same thing, but using big balloons instead of winged aircraft.

It’s worth pointing out that Titan hasn’t yet produced a commercial UAV. “Technology demonstrations” have been flown (probably much smaller prototypes), and “initial commercial operations” will start sometime in 2015. Perhaps this is why Facebook is only paying $60 million for Titan, rather than the $19 billion it paid for WhatsApp.

While bringing internet access to the underconnected masses is really quite a noble undertaking, don’t ever mistake this for an altruistic act. One of Facebook’s most pressing problems is how to grow its user base. Almost everyone who has an internet connection already has a Facebook account (or uses one of its national competitors, like Russia’s VKontakte). If Facebook doesn’t continue to grow, and doesn’t miraculously stumble across some way to make more money (its ads aren’t doing very well), the stock market will react very poorly indeed. Facebook is almost a victim of its own success — it got so big so quickly that it’s virtually impossible to continue the same growth trajectory. Acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp were a savvy moves to bring in a few hundred million more users, but ultimately they were nothing more than stopgap measures. Bringing the next billion users online and into Facebook’s gribbly mandibles will be a very hard task indeed

Ubuntu 14.04 final beta download: A much-needed upgrade for LTS users

By: kedharinath on 01:32

The next version of the world’s preeminent Linux distro, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, is almost upon us. Late last night, the final beta of 14.04 Trusty Tahr (an African wild goat) was released, with the final build due on April 17. Trusty Tahr is the first long-term support (LTS) build of Ubuntu in two years, and is thus contains a lot of exciting features that thousands (millions?) of Ubuntu 12.04 users can’t wait to get their hands on.

Because Trusty is an LTS, most of the changes are fairly conservative in nature. Unity 7 is still there. Mir, the new graphics stack being developed by Canonical that is due to eventually replace the X Window System, is still a long way off. Despite Canonical’sShuttleworth saying that Ubuntu 14.04 would include the Touch/Mobile, it appears they won’t make it into the final build. (Canonical has revised its estimate for the first Ubuntu smartphones to the third quarter of 2014, so there’s still a little time to polish things up.) For the big changes, you’ll be waiting for Ubuntu 14.10 (or likely even later for Mir).

Look at those beautiful borderless windows and rounded corners!

So, what is new in Ubuntu 14.04? There is finally the option for locally integrated menus (LIM) in an app’s title bar, instead of forcing the app’s menu to appear at the top of the screen (enable it in the new Unity Control Center). There’s a new Unity lock screen. You now have the option of minimizing apps from the launcher (and launcher icons can be made much smaller, too). Windows are now completely borderless, rather than bounded by a one-pixel black line. The shift from Compiz to GTK3 means window corners are now antialiased — oh, and resizing windows in Ubuntu 14.04 now occurs in real time.

Moving down the list of importance: Ubuntu 14.04 also improves support for high-resolution displays, TRIM is enabled by default for Intel and Samsung SSDs, Nvidia Optimus support is improved, and you can pump the system volume up above 100%. All of the default applications have been updated to their latest stable versions (Firefox 28, LibreOffice 4.2.3, Nautilus 3.10.1, etc.), and it rocks Linux kernel 3.13.

This video from WepUpd8 shows most of Ubuntu 14.04′s new features, but be sure to turn your sound down before pressing play.

Overall, Ubuntu 14.04 is a surprisingly pleasant operating system. It feels very polished, especially for a Linux distro. If you’ve been using 12.04 for the last couple of years, 14.04 will feel like a sizable step up. The question, though, is whether Canonical should even be putting much time into desktop builds of Ubuntu — the desktop PC is undoubtedly on its way out, and I’m not entirely sure what role Canonical can play on other form factors. It might be able to gain some traction on TVs, but I’m fairly certain that mobile has already been sewn up tight by Android (also a Linux distro) and iOS. (I’m looking at you too, Firefox OS.)

Download Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr. For the first time, every flavor of Ubuntu 14.04 (Desktop, Server, Edubuntu, Lubuntu, etc.) has been approved for LTS status, meaning they’ll all be supported for a minimum of three years, and some of them will be supported for five.

With the death of Windows XP, now is the perfect time to switch to Linux

By: kedharinath on 22:50

If you're one of the few hundred million people that are still using Windows XP, I have a suggestion for you: It’s time to switch to make the switch to Linux. With the official retirement of Windows XP, the release of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, and surprisingly healthy software and gaming ecosystems (yay, Steam!), there has never been a better time to switch to Linux. Linux will also run very well on any old, Windows XP-era hardware that you might still be using, too — and if you're anxious that you’ll be filled with switchers remorse after nuking your Windows installation, don't worry: dual-booting is a cinch as well.

Why switch to Linux?

As you've no doubt heard over the years from writers and enthusiasts far beardier than I, there are all sorts of reasons for switching to Linux, from financial to ideological to functional, and everything in between. For some tasks, Linux is far superior to Windows. More importantly, though, there are many tasks where Windows isn’t significantly better than Linux — such as surfing the web (Chrome for Ubuntu is the same as Chrome for Windows or OS X). Even for gaming, Linux is definitely catching up with Windows, thanks to Steam and the Source engine. (The big exception is big-budget FPSes, where Linux definitely falls flat).

Linux is great for reviving your old Windows XP beige box

Really, a better question to ask is why shouldn't I switch to Linux? If you need to use Microsoft Office, or one of Adobe’s multimedia apps, you should stick with Windows or OS X. If need a very Windows-specific tool, like Visual Studio, then Linux isn't for you. If you want to play the latest and greatest PC games on release day, then you really need to use Windows.

For most everyday tasks, thanks to advanced browsers like Chrome and Firefox, and the maturity of web apps like Gmail and Google Docs, you may be surprised by how proficient a modern Linux distro is.

How do you switch to Linux?

Most modern Linux distributions make it fairly easy to switch from Windows. Wubi lets you install Ubuntu in a dual-boot configuration from Windows. For most other distros, such asLinux Mint or Debian, it’s mostly a matter of grabbing the correct 32-bit or 64-bit ISO, burning it to a CD or USB stick, and rebooting your PC. (How to do that is beyond the scope of this story, but Google will give you a dozen easy-to-follow guides.)

To begin with, make sure you install Linux in a dual-boot configuration. That way, if you’re struck by switchers remorse, or you suddenly remember that you need to use an app that’s only available in Windows, you can simply reboot.

Depending on your hardware setup, installing and running Linux for the first time can be a bit tricky as well. A modern distro like Ubuntu 14.04 supports most hardware under the sun, but you may have trouble with older hardware or extreme outliers. Bear in mind that hardware makers focus their efforts on Windows and OS X drivers, relegating Linux drivers to a distant third place. Things like mice and keyboards and external hard drives should be fine — but you might have issues with your monitor calibration gizmo or USB audio breakout box.

Unfortunately, the only real way to find out if Linux has any issues with your computer is to install it (most distros install fairly quickly, though).

Fortunately, if you are having issues with a device after installing Linux, you can normally find very good support online. Linux support isn't quite at the same omg-500-search-results-for-a-really-obscure-bug level as Windows, but it’s pretty good.

Steam for Linux, on Ubuntu

What should you do after installing Linux?

I won’t lie: Switching to Linux from Windows XP (or indeed any other operating system) will be a fairly harsh experience. Modern Linux distros are much better than they used to be, but there are still a lot of rough edges that you won’t notice until they’ve stabbed you in the ankle. In my opinion, the best thing you can do after installing Linux is to use it. Don’t fall for the usual trap: Don’t run back to Windows with your tail between your legs the first time Linux throws an error in your face. Stick with Linux, and you might just find that you like it.

Here are a few more tips for making the switch to Linux:

Install Steam, and then buy some Linux games. You will be surprised at the number of good and half-decent games that are now available for Linux through Steam, including FTL: Faster than Light, Dota 2, Europa Universalis IV, and all the usual Source engine games. Through Wine and Cygwin emulation, other older Windows games are available to you as well.
Read an Ubuntu guide. One of the biggest issues with switching to Linux is not knowing how to perform basic tasks, such as watching a video. The Getting Started guide, produced by the Ubuntu Manual team, is pretty good (you don’t need to read the whole thing, but the table of contents makes for a useful reference). Always remember that googling for “how do you do X in Ubuntu” will usually turn up a ton of results.
Finally learn to use the command line. Linux, at its heart, is a command-line based operating system. The Linux command line is incredibly powerful; there’s almost nothing you can’t do, and in many cases it’s the best or fastest way to do something. Ubuntu’s official Using The Terminal guide is a pretty good starting point. You will love apt-get.

If you have your own tips for switching to Linux from Windows, be sure to share them in the comments. Alternatively, if you think that Linux still isn’t ready for an influx of ex-Windows XP users, be sure to let us know as well.