linux can read off the windows fs (file system) and can run dos and windows programs. linux is a damm fine os (operating system) but its hard to learn and u will need c programming knowledge to make it do everything u want. i had it on my pentium 1 and learned the basics, the screen savers are much more intersting than any windows ones and the gui (graphical user interface) is a nice change. if u hav a nice old comp (say pentium 1 w/ 32 mb ram w/ atleats a 1 gig hd) try it, if u want to become a hacker u'll need it. if you want to hide a pr0n on there it wont work because linus is useless at displaying pics on old comps. if u do try it then ya gonna hav to download like 1.3gigs and burn them to cd or buy them.