Hatrack River Forum: My first steps in Linuxland :-)

This is topic My first steps in Linuxland :-) in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Eduardo_Sauron (Member # 5827) on :

Hello, Hatrackers. I've been missing you all dearly. I'm really sorry I don't have the time to browse and read the forum as I once did, but that's life... mine has been wonderful :-)
As I type this message, it's almost two months since I gave up Windows and joined the freaky Linux cult. My desktop and notebook are both running Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn). My wife's desktop is running Kurumin (KDE Debian Brazilian distro).
Why I finally did it? Well...I'd like to say it was only the prospect of speed and reliability, or ethical musings about free X comercial (or pirated) software. All of them had a part in it, but in the end it was the eye-candy factor [Blushing]

. Yup... Beryl sold it. If you don't know what I'm talking about (it's a 3d desktop manager and decorator for linux), watch this youtube video.It compares a Beryl-running Ubuntu linux desktop with a full-fledged aero-totting Windows Vista. I've had Vista and now have Ubuntu (with Beryl). Although the guy running Beryl must be veeery good (I'm not nearly as quick as him...that or the video-speed is doctored, hehehe) you don't need an über-machine to run it. 128MB video card, 512 DDR400, 1,8Hz CPU will do it (my desktop).
I'm not making any money by advertising it, but I foud it really awesome (oh, yes...it's a free software, silly me).
Now, I won't say using linux didn't required some learning. There are lots of distros out there with very user-friendly Graphic interfaces, but none will be 100% equal to windows (for some people, me included, it's not a bad thing, hehehe). Downloading and installing software is also different (easier, IMHO, with apt-get and synaptics), but making the system recognize your Video Card can be challenging (so people say... it detected my NVidia 5200 card easier enough).

Is there other Hatrack Linux n00bs out there (or experienced people)? Which distro do you like most? Why? Should we send one to OSC to amelliorate his Windows Vista troubles? [Evil]

Posted by Alcon (Member # 6645) on :

I love the fact that there is a linux distro for everyone. I use the same linux distro as you do, but I use the standard gnome desktop. I love it precisely because of it's lack of eye candy. I've always hated eye candy, it just slows everything down and is pretty much useless. With linux if I just use standard gnome, it has very little of it. Yet it's still pleasantly shiny. Plus the whole it's free!!! bit. Big seller for me. The fact that I can download my OS and any software or drivers I need straight off the internet.

But yeah, it does take some basic computer know how to really use effectively. More so than windows or mac os.

Posted by Eduardo_Sauron (Member # 5827) on :

If you like (I do a bit, although I don't know much) to tinker with it, sure takes some basic computer know how. If you don't, though, there are some pretty tame distros nowadays. 'Kurumin', the one I installed in my wife's desktop is one of those. She doesn't like to 'play' with the system. Just wants it to work, and marveled at the simplicity of it (and the newfound speed of her old machine) :-)

Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :

I'm not really convinced that Linux is any more difficult than windows. For the most part, basic tasks like writing a paper, surfing the internet, etc, are more or less the same. And compared with most installations, I'd say that graphical package managers are probably easier to understand.

Really, there are only three big problems I can think of off the top of my head. Proprietary media formats like .mp3 that don't come shipped with many distros are probably the biggest. A lot of people aren't going to care about patent issues or whatnot, they just want their songs and movies to play, and in a lot of cases you have to do extra work to get to them. Hardware compatibility is another big problem. Although it's getting a lot better, there's still a lot of hardware that doesn't have linux support, and that can really be a big issue. The other big problem for inexperienced people is simply getting them to understand that most of the software at the local walmart simply isn't going to run on linux. Of course, for many applications there is a similar program available in the repository, but there are still plenty of people out there who don't really get the idea that there are different operating systems.

Other than that, though, I really think that linux is just as easy or easier than windows for your average user.

Posted by Tstorm (Member # 1871) on :

Hmm. Another Ubuntu user saying good things. I may have to give Ubuntu a try, one of these days.

I'm running Slackware 9.2 on an older Pentium II box here; it functions perfectly well as a webserver. The upside of Linux on this machine: it runs, I'm quite sure Windows XP would have serious performance issues. The downside of Linux on this machine: it stays in command-line mode all the time. Booting something like KDE takes several minutes and it is not very responsive. Overall, this situation works out pretty well, because I'm forcing myself to pick up the command-line stuff as I use it.

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying Linux, too. [Smile]

Posted by theamazeeaz (Member # 6970) on :

I just decided to give Ubuntu a try. I stuck it on the XP laptop that I ditched for OSX. So my foray into Linux is little more than a hobby. Then again, Astronomers use Macs (the Unix part) and Linux more than Windows, so knowing how to deal with things on Linux outside IRAF and the command line will be a benefit to my professional life.

Installation on the old laptop was really really easy. I figured out how to get the campus email server on the feisty fawn end, ergo life is good. In fact XP is still there and useable, which makes me happy. If I bring my old laptop to school too, I can run all 3 operating systems. Yippee!

Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :

I'm buying an Ubuntu laptop in the next month. I can't wait.

(I'll probably dual boot XP for iTunes -- shhh.)

Posted by Lamarque (Member # 10825) on :

I've got Ubuntu Feisty set up with a dual boot for Vista on my laptop. I'm having tons of trouble getting my video card (NVIDIA 8200 I think... but I'm not sure) to work properly so it only runs at very poor screen resolution. I've also had a ton of trouble with my Wireless Network...It still doesn't work.

Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :

Seriously considering adding Ubuntu to this XP machine.

--j_k