Linux?

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MusicallyInspired · #1 Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 5:51 am

Been reading up on Linux lately because I've been wondering what all the fuss is about. I was originally very skeptical about it, being a hardcore Windows/DOS user and all. You normally don't like change, y'know?

Anyway, after reading loads of information about it it's really interesting. Especially seeing as everything is completely free (or quite reasonably cheap, compared to Windows and Windows applications). I'm thinking of switching, or at least trying it out. I'm downloading a CD image of one now called KNOPPIX. Anybody here run Linux? Got any words of wisdom or personal experiences to share? Or advice on what a good version would be?

druuge · #2 Post by **druuge** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 11:51 am

The first 3 distributions I would recommend to try out would be Ubuntu, Fedora Core or Gentoo.

I have been using GNU/Linux for several years as a server OS. It is amazing the breadth and quality of the free software available for the platform. Thank God/Allah/FSM for Free/Open Source software developers.

If it wasn't for this silly game addiction I would have dropped Windows years ago. Though with the existence of emulators (Sarien, scummVM,MAME etc.) and projects like Wine/Cedega perhaps this will be less of an issue in the coming years.

Try not to get overwhelmed at the increased control you will now wield over your computer box. At times this can seem as much a blessing as a curse.

Oh and don't go for a 64-bit OS as Macromedia hasn't released a 64-bit flash player for *nix (last I heard)

Pro tip:
You'll probably also want to install the mplayer browser plugin (www.mplayerhq.hu) for video playback, as default installs probably won't support codecs like wmv, etc.

Vildern · #3 Post by **Vildern** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:49 pm

I've been thinking about switching to Linux too.

But before I do that, I wanna listen to opinions. Could you write here about your own experience with Linux, MI? After you've installed and tried it, of course.

MusicallyInspired · #4 Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 4:03 pm

I'm in the process of downloading some. Right now KNOPPIX is done downloading. Fedora Core 5 is almost done (less than 60 MB to go!). Maybe I'll go with Fedora since I see it most everywhere. But I'll try Knoppix real quick, too. Ubuntu is also downloading. I'll look for Gentoo as well, though.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

MusicallyInspired · #5 Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:09 pm

Well, so far it's not going well. I tried Fedora and there was an option to check the disc to make sure there weren't any errors and it said there was errors. So it was either my DVD burner or the DVD ISO image I downloaded was corrupted somehow. I tried Knoppix which is supposed to be a"Live CD" version, which means you can run the operating system straight from the CD. No installation. The burning process didn't complete but it ran anyway. But when the GUI came up the screen went haywire like it was in a resolution my monitor/video card couldn't handle, which I don't understand because I have a decent monitor with an ATI AIW Radeon 9800 Pro. I even tried my onboard video card and that didn't work either. And then when I went to burn another one I aborted it by accident and it ruined the CD so I have no more blank CDs left. I have to go buy some before I can try again.

Sigh.

Angelus3K · #6 Post by **Angelus3K** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:34 pm

Best thing to do guys is download and install either Virtual PC or VMWare (I recommend the latter) and install Linux there so you can try it out. This way it doesnt affect your Windows system at all and you can switch back and forth without restarting.

Klytos · #7 Post by **Klytos** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 1:12 am

Just be careful of Wine if you play World of Warcraft, as Blizzard will pick it up as you using a bot and cheating and will delete your account. This happened to a friend of mine with a level 40something elf or something. She was pissed.

MusicallyInspired · #8 Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 3:00 am

Well I don't play World of Warcraft so it shouldn't be a problem.

Klytos · #9 Post by **Klytos** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 11:41 am

Everybody should play WoW. It rocks.

Swift · #10 Post by **Swift** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 12:04 pm

Knoppix is great. It was the only thing I could use to retrieve my data from my notebook when Windows failed to start up and System restore refused to work. Everyone should get a copy as a backup plan or something.

MusicallyInspired · #11 Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 7:15 pm

I don't like the idea of paying for games after I've already bought them. Not for me. That's why I didn't get Matrix Online even though I'm a Matrix fanatic.

Vroomfondel · #12 Post by **Vroomfondel** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 11:41 pm

I don't like the idea of paying for games after I've already bought them. Not for me. That's why I didn't get Matrix Online even though I'm a Matrix fanatic.

Same here. On-topic, I've had some intreste in Linux, but it just sounds so different from what I'm used to with Windows that I've never bothered to try it.

MusicallyInspired · #13 Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 3:50 am

Something somewhere must not want me to turn to Linux (Microsoft maybe?) because I've just been running into problems galore. First of all I started installing Debian (the base installation that just covers the basics and downloads the rest later) onto Virtual PC and it seemed to be going fine. But it had to download everything from the internet so I let it do that overnight. I woke up this morning to find that my stupid computer had restarted because of some stupid microsoft stupid automatic stupid updates!!!!! ERgg...just thinking about it makes me want to mash the keyboard.....

Anyway, I had to start all over again and left it on while I was at work. Then when I came home it was all installed and I just had to set some settings. But I skipped through one by accident and now it's set at the wrong resolution/refresh rater or something (or it just doesn't work in Virtual PC I don't know how it emulates a video card/monitor) so it'll only work in text mode and not GUI mode. So I'd need to learn all the commands for Linux in order to do anything. But I did figure out how to explore directories. It's similiar to MS-DOS but I can see how Linux users would say it's more efficient. I just don't know how to run any programs. I'm gonna try again sometime and see if I can get the GUI working.

JWar · #14 Post by **JWar** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:39 am

Well, you're touching on something that's both the up- and downside of linux. Everything is configurable, and therefore everything can be configured incorrectly very easily. Debian is the best linux distro in my opinion, but in no way a starters distro.

Why exactly do you want to go to linux?

Vildern · #15 Post by **Vildern** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 11:05 am

But I skipped through one by accident and now it's set at the wrong resolution/refresh rater or something (or it just doesn't work in Virtual PC I don't know how it emulates a video card/monitor) so it'll only work in text mode and not GUI mode. So I'd need to learn all the commands for Linux in order to do anything. But I did figure out how to explore directories. It's similiar to MS-DOS but I can see how Linux users would say it's more efficient. I just don't know how to run any programs. I'm gonna try again sometime and see if I can get the GUI working.

Sounds like a crappy program.

ThreeHeadedMonkey · #16 Post by **ThreeHeadedMonkey** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:56 pm

I have used Linux in the past, it worked perfectly smooth, but in the end I was not as comfortable with it as I am with Windows (which I have been using for nearly 10 years). Perhaps I just didn't give it enough time, I think I'll get Knoppix and try that. I know people who think Linux is the most awesome piece of free software ever written, so I think it just depends on whether it's "right" for you. If that makes any sense.

MusicallyInspired · #17 Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 4:04 am

Why exactly do you want to go to linux?

Very simple reason: I wanna learn it. I'm interested in taking something in computer programming maybe in the future and I want to learn as much as I can. But besides that, I just want to learn it. I like learning things I'm interested in as a hobby. I've always wanted to know how to program and code and script etc. Getting and learning to use Linux will only make it easier.

MusicallyInspired · #18 Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 6:54 am

I'm posting this post in Knoppix right now from it's awesome live CD feature. Everything is so smooth-running! Multitasking is SO much better. Other programs run like nothing's happening while another program can be busy working their hearts out to run something simultaneously!

Only problems so far is that I have 3 sound cards (2 are Audigys) and I can't choose which one I want as my main sound card. That's probably a driver thing, though. Another problem is I don't have any drivers for my Radeon 9800pro. But I will.

I'm also going to try out FreeSCI since Linux is its native OS.

Angelus3K · #19 Post by **Angelus3K** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 4:12 pm

Cool MI!!

If your a Playstation fan you should look into getting a PS3, you can install most PPC compatible Linux OSs on it!!!

BeetleB · #20 Post by **BeetleB** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:29 am

The first 3 distributions I would recommend to try out would be Ubuntu, Fedora Core or Gentoo.

Please. Gentoo is not for beginners, and over 90% of them will run away screaming if they tried it first.

Can't really recommend, as I've been using Gentoo for years now, and no longer know what is friendly for beginners. I used to use Mandrake, but it probably sucks now. I've heard great things about Ubuntu.

Hope no one minds me saying this, but if one wants to do things well in Linux, one simply will have to spend a lot of time learning it - including editing config files.

I started Linux for the same reason as the original poster: To learn it. It was slow, and I was not too motivated. But I kept going back to it, learning more and more. 2 years later I switched to Linux for good - except for games. I use Linux for everything. And if I want to play a game, it better be really good for me to want to boot into Windows just for it. I've been using it full time for over 3 years now.

(And by no means does it need to take 2 years - people do it in a few months - I just was not that dedicated).

Angelus3K · #21 Post by **Angelus3K** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:06 am

I was new to Linux too, but Fedora Core 6 is pretty easy to get to grips with.

MusicallyInspired · #22 Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:11 am

I have Fedora Core 5 but I couldn't get anywhere past the installation because it wouldn't detect my bloody USB mouse. So I never went back to that. I have a nice couple handfulls of distributions now so I'll do some experimenting. I've used DSL and that seems pretty cool. Little did I know that my brother has been using Linux all this time and never told me! So he had a few tips as well. It looks like I'm going to have to have a dual-boot system because I need Windows from my Music recording software and my multiple sound cards (which I still can't get to work in any Linux distribution so far) and my games, of course. I think I'll be using Linux mostly, though. Once I get the hang of it.

One question: is it advisable to split a partition of a HD without formatting it beforehand? (I don't want to have to reinstall Windows and all my stuff if I don't want to) And then install Linux on the seperate partition?

Angelus3K · #23 Post by **Angelus3K** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 6:54 pm

If you use a program like Partition Magic or similar you can simply partition any free space you have into its own drive then format that to EXT3 or let the Linux installer format the partition upon install.

It's as easy as that.

Pidgeot · #24 Post by **Pidgeot** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:54 pm

If you don't want to spend any money, you can use the free programntfsresize to change the existing partition by downloading it to a floppy disk and running it via a LiveCD.

I personally prefer doing it like this, since you don't have the risk of having the operating system on the partition running while you tell it to resize, but it DOES require a little more manual labor - assuming you do it on your own via the command line. LiveCD's with a front-end for the task also exist, notably GParted.

MusicallyInspired · #25 Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:03 pm

Many thanks! I'll do that in the next little while. Hopefully everything works out.

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