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Almost went Vista - Decided to go Linux, any tips?

N

NamelessMC

Senior member
I stared at the Home Premium box for nearly 15 minutes, just looking at the features. I played with a desktop that had Vista on it. I thought to myself, "I have the money for this, why not get it? I mean it's a one-time license that I can use on whatever computer I own and it has antivirus and all that."

Then I thought... I'm way too damn lazy as it is, thanks to World of Life-craft. I practically threw away my life and integrity principles over that game. I need to get back into the habit of learning and I feel like Linux is the first step. (Well, quitting World of Warcraft was the first step, starting to work out again frequently was the second step, I guess that'd make Linux the first MAJOR step) An operating system that isn't so much, easier as it would be, funner, because I have to learn how to use it, but once I learn, the options are limitless. (Except for games, which is why I have two hard-drives, *read further) So I screamed (to myself, inside my head mind you), "Screw you Bill Gates! You're not gonna take me this time!" and ran out of the store, with some momentum and velocity mind you, to go home and start researching.

That being said, here's my repost information from Toms:

Since I'm rather new, is Ubuntu the best for the following:
Internet use
Word processing
Wine (For playing games)
Chatting IM Messenger programs
Downloading and watching media via P2P (Bit Torrent)
Good looking GUI
Programs like GIMP(Shop), Krita. GAIM, Mercury, MPlayer, VLC, OpenOffice, mount

I know that with me having a separate XP partition, I'll easily be able to use the Windows equivalents, but I really do want to convert to 100% Linux due to the security and stability.

Also, I have a dual core processor (Pentium D 805). I downloaded the Ubuntu i386 version because I didn't know if the AMD64 version 64-bit also supported Intel 64-bit processors.

My system specs if it helps:
Pentium D 805
Biostar 965PT
1GB DDR2 667 Ram (Corsair XMS2)
EVGA 7900GS - I went with Nvidia because of long-dated Linux support, I feel it's more stable. I also wanted EVGA because of step-up program, so it was win-win for me.
Western Digital SATA 160GB HDD x2 (No Raid) - Is there a problem using SATA drives with Ubuntu?
Onboard audio/onboard LAN

Will I also have to use a USB-converter for my USB mouse? Or will the USB mouse be supported off the bat?

Thanks for any help/suggestions you guys can give out. This rig is being put together over the next 2 week period, so I have roughly 2 weeks to cram everything I can on getting Ubuntu or whatever other version you guys recommend up and running rather quickly.

EDIT: I did read the sticky, hence my small knowledge about the Windows equivalents on Linux, but my hardware is my reason for making this thread. I'm also hoping someone with a similar experience to mine might share their story with some words of support.
 
1. SATA support is dependent on whether the SATA controller chip on your motherboard is supported in Linux, not the drive itself. Conversely, some motherboards support PATA emulation mode for SATA drives, which is handy if your controller is not supported.
2. Your USB keyboard and mouse will be supported "off the bat," although some of the auxiliary buttons or features may not be available if there is not a compatible Linux driver or supporting application.
3. Ubuntu is a good starting point simply for its ease of set up. All of the basic things you'll need can installed and setup thru EasyUbuntu or Automatix, and installing software moving forward is very simple using apt-get. That being said, Fedora and Suse have a bit more versatility as they generally include more applications and drivers, ex. desktop search and AIGLX/Compix/XGL is already setup and easy to enable in both.
 
2. Your USB keyboard and mouse will be supported "off the bat," although some of the auxiliary buttons or features may not be available if there is not a compatible Linux driver or supporting application.
Click to expand...

Fancy keyboards don't require special drivers. Although you will have to go through extra configurations to get them configured.
For input devices.. the mouse is initially configured to be a three button mouse with scrollwheel. If you have fancy mice with lots of buttons it would require extra (annoying) configuration.
 
Not to piss on your parade, but it's worth considering that Linux may be funner for a while, but eventually the newness will wear off and it will just be your OS, no different than anything else.

What is it that you're learning Linux for? Is there a specific purpose, or are you just expanding your horizons?
 
Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Not to piss on your parade, but it's worth considering that Linux may be funner for a while, but eventually the newness will wear off and it will just be your OS, no different than anything else.

What is it that you're learning Linux for? Is there a specific purpose, or are you just expanding your horizons?
Click to expand...

The free third party software, the lack of major virus implementation, the interface (XP is plain to me now, and almost every theme comes with bundles of spy and adware), the community, the possibility of using XSOS in the future (For DX10), the experience so I can maybe get a job that requires Linux experience.
 
I think Ubuntu or Kubuntu would be great choices for anyone, really. Out of the box it has everything you mentioned except a few things (Proprietary codecs like mp3, Wine, and Nvidia drivers). The codecs and Wine are a snap to install - just use the package manager and it'll do everything for you. As for the nvidia drivers, its not THAT easy but its not hard. There is an install script for video drivers called "envy" (google "envy for ubuntu") which will take care of it for you.

You said you'd like a nice GUI... WELL! After you have your nvidia drivers, you can optionally use Beryl as your window manager. Beryl is the program that makes your desktop all 3D and awesome looking. For example, when I'm running Beryl and close a window, it catches on fire and burns away. Not to mention all the very useful features such as un-cluttering your workspace, multiple desktops, etc.

Ubuntu and Kubuntu are almost the same thing except (mainly) Ubuntu uses Gnome as its desktop environment and Kubundu uses KDE. Personally I like KDE over Gnome, and I think there is better software for KDE, but if you can't decide, you're fine. You can still run Gnome software under KDE and vice versa, you just need to install the appropriate libraries (which is automagically done for you with the package manager🙂). Also, if you REALLY can't decide, you can go ahead and install either Kubuntu or Ubuntu and install Gnome or KDE and have BOTH of them at the same time. When you log in, you'd just choose a KDE or Gnome session. While you're at it, you could install a bunch of other desktop environments and try them all!

I started with linux in early January and I'm pretty much completely switched over now and not looking back too much. As you can see, it doesn't take too long to really get into it. I will say this though: be prepared to run into problems. Don't let the problems discourage you! Instead, look at them as learning experiences. If it wasn't for me running into every problem imaginable, I would have no idea what I'm doing.

Also be prepared to re-install a couple times. It took me a few different linux distros to determine which one worked best for me. Try out a few, experiment with them, and see which is best for you. Judging by what you've said, I think you'll enjoy Ubuntu or Kubuntu the most.

One of the reasons you gave for switching was the free third party software. VERY VERY true. There is so much GREAT software, its unbelievable. The best thing is that it's all so easy to get since its all legally free! Not only that, but major distros (like ubuntu) have almost all the software you could possibly need in one easy to find place: the package manager. Search for whatever you want, click install, DONE. No searching for mirrors, serial numbers, getting spyware or viruses, none of that. Pretty much, if there's some type of software that you need, there's usually several options for it. That's the beauty of it - you pick and customize for what YOU want... for free.

As for gaming, don't scrap windows. Just so you get an idea, my windows partition has the following: windows xp, firefox (open source), gaim (open source), OpenOffice.org (open source), Visual Studio 2005 Express (free), and my games. I can't play all my games on linux, nor can I do my game development... so thats ALL I have on windows. But here's the cool part - I have my games installed on my linux partition. This way, I have ONE installation of all my games, but I can still try to run them under Wine. For example, half-life 2 works, but the Valve-Anti-Cheat picks up Wine as a cheat and wont let you connect to servers. World of Warcraft, however, runs flawlessly with great framerates at maximum settings. Other games, such as any Unreal or Quake games, have native linux support, so there's no need for Wine. Emulators are also easy to get and generally run great!

Hope this helps 🙂
 
Ubuntu is a good choice for starting out with Linux, IMO. I personally started with Knoppix v 3.9 (a while back) on a liveCD, but most of the distros are similar in look and feel. Ubuntu, Knoppix, Slax, Fedora Core, and Sabayon are just some examples of popular distros to start off with.

One of my friends just got the latest version of Ubuntu installed as part of a dual-boot on his laptop, and the Beryl window manager is simply amazing. Here are some images to show you just a few of the things it can do to make your experience more fun (some of which the previous poster mentioned):

Screens taken from Sabayon 3.2

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/996gt2/snapshot4.png
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/996gt2/snapshot3.png
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/996gt2/snapshot2.png

If you really want to get serious, you might want to consider buying a book devoted to Linux beginners or read into some forums about Ubuntu. It'll help with the transition from Windows to Linux. Good luck and enjoy!
 
I'd recommend ubuntu or kubuntu also for you. Best of luck to you.

By the way, if you don't like ubuntu, or kubuntu, avoid debian. Same style of distribution.

There are also other distros you cna use. Fedora Core, Mandrivia, (and if you are really up for a challenge, Gentoo 😀).

 
If you want to learn more then you are on the right track! I had absolutely very little experience with Linux or Unix, even though I tried Linux a few times before -- Red Hat (before they forked Fedora), Fedora 2 and Mandrake 9.x, but was never considered it to be good enough to replace Windows. After a long gap, recently I tried Ubuntu on a Virtual Box (a free virtual machine software) and was blown away by the easiness of installation of OS as well as other packges. After testing Ubuntu in Virtual Box, I installed it in a very low end (~1 GHz) machine and it is surprisingly perfect for day to day home use. I don't play games any more in PC, though.

Here is a tip from my experience: One problem I had to face during this exercise was that the ISO image of Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy) was a tad bigger (715 MB) than what can be burned in a CD (700 MB). Nero Express refused to burn a DVD from the CD image. I finally got hold of another gem Infra Recorder, which did the job just perfect. To try it in Virtual Box you do not have to burn CD, you can mount ISO image as a CD in Virtual Box.

After this success I am reading more about other Linux distributions. See following videos for a demo of SUSE. The video has some of the breathtaking visual jugglery which made Vista famous among home users.

(Move slider to the middle in the progress bar)
http://www.novell.com/linux/demos/desktop.html

(Watch Visual Workspace from the list in the following page)
http://www.novell.com/video/desktop/


 
Also a nice thing that unlike Vista you do not require spanking new hardware to do it.

I have two machines...
Apple Ibook running Debian with a ATI 9200 64meg video card and 1.25g of RAM. It'll run compiz fine up until you have a lot of windows open. But even then it only becomes a bit jerky.

However.. My second machine is
Intel Pentium-D 930 with Integrated GMA 950 graphics (128megs shared RAM) and 1gig of RAM. I can run full Beryl 3D desktop with almost all the eye candy turned on. Exploding flaming windows and the whole ten yards. The only thing it wouldn't do was the motion blur or the water effects.

But all that wobbly windows, alt-tab, genie effects, taskbar thumbnails, spinning cube desktop, etc etc. No problem at all.

A little bit too much for my tastes though. To fancy. But to each their own. 🙂
 
^^ too much for YOUR tastes. PERFECT! That's partly what linux is about... you do whatever YOU want 🙂
 
Sounds like most of the people have told you what you need to know. Gotta give you some props for quitting WoW, I still play but not very often (casual = fun again). At least you showed self control which you may need when starting with Linux 🙂
 
Originally posted by: zig3695
Almost went Vista - Decided to go Linux, any tips?
Click to expand...

I almost ate a peice of cake - i took a ****** instead, got any squares?
Click to expand...

So.. You... like... to.. eat... crap?

What a fasinating individual. You must be fun at parties. Also it helps to explain the intensive incoherence. Them turds ain't got much in the way nutrition, I hear. That'll muddle the thoughts a might.

 
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