thinkin of switchin to linux

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MadMaXXX

Mad Man
I know there are quite a few members who use linux here, and lately windows has just been getting on my nerves, even with a fresh reinstall soI am considering Linux. Also, i have an athlon 64 3000, so i thought that i might as well take advantage of this and go 64. Now i wouldnt say that I am an advanced user, but I am fairy capable and resourceful-that is, if i dont know the answer i can usually find it online. I've read up and seems Ubuntu would be the distro for me. Would you agree? and also, what kinda difficulties should I expect swithing over, or with running in 64 mode? I plan on running dual boot just in case. Any other suggestions would also be appreciated. thanks
 
im not running 64-bit (although i could). download the latest ubuntu (7.10 Gutsy Gibbon). ubuntu is a great distro and works on pretty much anything. you really shouldnt have to install anything. all drivers and stuff are included. the installer is easy to use, just follow the directions. i really like ubuntu 7.10.
 
I know there are quite a few members who use linux here, and lately windows has just been getting on my nerves, even with a fresh reinstall soI am considering Linux. Also, i have an athlon 64 3000, so i thought that i might as well take advantage of this and go 64. Now i wouldnt say that I am an advanced user, but I am fairy capable and resourceful-that is, if i dont know the answer i can usually find it online. I've read up and seems Ubuntu would be the distro for me. Would you agree? and also, what kinda difficulties should I expect swithing over, or with running in 64 mode? I plan on running dual boot just in case. Any other suggestions would also be appreciated. thanks

Numero uno: Install the 32 bit compatibility libs when you install.

Without these you will not be able to install 32 bit versions of certain applications, such as Firefox which due to Adobe's madness does not have a 64 bit version of Flash.

For first timers, Ubuntu and Kubuntu are solid foundations to start learning Linux.
 
werd...if you like youtube, getting flash to work on 64bit is a pain, so stay with 32.

I use Debian 4.0 and Ubuntu 7.x and i love them both. Ubuntu's desktop libraries are a little more complete, so thats what id recommend.

Its super easy to install, and most of the interface is self explanitory. It just take a little getting used to. If you dont love it after a month, then XP is the thing for you. Id recommend getting familiar with the command line. In ubuntu its not a necessity, but it does make things easier (i think).
 
hmm, it seems running in 64 would be more much trouble than its worth, especially for a n00b like me.
 
Aside from Flash, I don't have a problem running 64 bit. Anything that does snag me, well that's what the 32 bit compat. libs are for. I compiled a 32 bit version of Firefox and that solved my Flash problem (now, time to solve the problem called Flash... or should I say Adobe).


Just for the sake of ease-of-use, I'd say stick with 32 bit for now.
 
yeah, you can compile the 32 bit version...true, but its a silly work around for a first timers.
 
ugh...kde freaks make me shudder...i think im going to be on gnome for life. i just cant get used to kde's interface. Flux is a strong second to Gnome though.
 
im gonna come out and say it.....linux + flash on any browser sucks.

i cant make my car payment on a linux machine cause tmc's site has a flash ad that hangs over the amount box. the DOM support in FF/linux sucks.
 
another question: I have the hard drive with all my data on it is formated in NTFS. Will that be a problem for linux?

also is there a way to partition my windows drive without deleting everything?
 
its a drawn out procedure to reformat a sector just for linux. Its best just to get a small new hd, and just mount your windows partition.

Ubuntu 7.10 installs NTFS write ability by default.
 
you could try VMWARE and create a virtual machine that runs a guest ubuntu. i think you could also try norton partition magic.

im trying the first method myself, hopefully soon.
 
you could try VMWARE and create a virtual machine that runs a guest ubuntu. i think you could also try norton partition magic.

im trying the first method myself, hopefully soon.

cool, let me know how it turns out. I tried partition magic and it was very straightforward, even asked if im installing an additional operating system, linux, dual boot, etc., but when the time came to partition on restart, i restarted and nothing happens.
 
Everything is working fine right now. Im actually posting on the virtual "guest" machine as I type.

The setup is VMware on Windows XP running Ubuntu Desktop 7.10. Everything installed without any problems and its pretty cool if I had to say so myself. I will probably run on the Linux machine for a bit just to see. If I like it, Ill end up running it on my older machine.

VMware takes about 1GB to install and I allocated 8GB for Ubuntu, but the OS itself is like 4GB, but Im running it as a livecd. BTW, the difference between install and livecd?

My computer specs:
X2 4200+ @ 2.6ghz
2X512MB DDR1
DFI LanParty w/Nforce4 chipset
8800GTS 320MB
SB Audigy 2 Value
Seagate SATA 500GB
 
Night and day. difference. The live CD requires accessing the CD ROM for all applications where as the install doesnt.

Good luck traveling down the winding road to salvation.
 
well i have done it. ran from cd and used g parted to divide my hard drive. Everything seems so intuitive in Ubuntu when switching from windows as compared to mac os that has completely different means of navigating.

I still dont know my way around the commands, but thankfully i didnt really need to to set everything up how i wanted.

no more cpu spikes, but it does sometimes crash during flash in firefox. overall im very happy. I would erase windows completely if not for the few games that i would want to play sometimes. Perhaps virtual machine is a solution?
 
yup...there are just somethings you cant do in linux. wine runs all the games i play, so i dont have that issue.

but as we all said Flash + Linux = FAIL.

other than that, its awesome.
 
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