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- This topic has 29 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 9 months ago by Philip.
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January 19, 2008 at 12:25 am #28162VvWolverinevVParticipant
After Firefox really opened my eyes to the world of open source and Mac OS X showed me there really ARE alternatives to Windows, when I bought my new PC, I decided to make it Linux (well, almost… – I partitioned a 500GB HDD as 64GB Vista-64 and the rest Ubuntu-64). It is definitely a project to get used to the differences, but I remember feeling that way about Mac OS X at one point and now I actually prefer it to Windows.
For those of you who know a little about computers: I did have some trouble when I reinstalled Windows-64 over my original installation of Windows x86 and the Windows boot loader wiped out “GRUB,” the Ubuntu boot loader. But there is great community support for Ubuntu, and I was able to fix that within a couple hours.
Overall I’m still happy with the decision. I’ll update after a month or so 😀
January 19, 2008 at 12:44 am #166161PhilipModeratorWolverine:
I did try to install Ubuntu onto a spare Pentium 3 933MHz PC a couple of months back, but for some strange reason the installation process would stall halfway through. I could run Ubuntu in preview mode without any problems, but the actual installation itself wouldn’t complete. That old PC had 256MB of RAM.
And a 500GB hard disk? OMG…makes my 80GB look puny in comparison. Anyway, enjoy your new OS!
January 19, 2008 at 7:44 am #166147AwesomeSauceParticipantCongrats, Wolverine. If you want to get the best out of Linux – particularly Ubuntu – teach yourself all the different features. Learn how to use Synaptic (it comes preloaded). Learn your way around the desktop environment. Also, be friends with the Linux terminal, as it can be extremely handy when you need it.
Another basic Linux commandment would be this: NEVER log in as administrator. Of course, this is a common practice in Windows, but when it comes to Linux, you should always use a regular account. To perform administrator tasks – for example, changing the permissions of a system file – you would do the command “sudo chmod 777 /directory/systemfile”
It might sound intimidating at first, but I love it. I love the way the software is handled. I love the build and overall flexibility of the OS.
Good luck.
January 23, 2008 at 11:35 pm #166153VvWolverinevVParticipantPhilip;225813 wrote:And a 500GB hard disk? OMG…makes my 80GB look puny in comparison.😀 Yeah, I’m acquiring quite a bit of local storage these days. Between the new 500GB, the 300GB moved over from my old Compaq Presario, the 80GB still in that machine, and the 80GB in my Macbook, I’m closing in on 1TB :p
Incidentally, how much storage does your P3 machine have? Ubuntu.com says you need 4GB for installation.
January 24, 2008 at 1:07 am #166162PhilipModeratorVvWolverinevV;225918 wrote:Incidentally, how much storage does your P3 machine have? Ubuntu.com says you need 4GB for installation.My P3 has a 40GB hard disk with about 25GB free in a separate partition.
January 24, 2008 at 7:18 am #166152RustyMemberI tried doing this but I tried to do it on an old windows 98 computer and It didn’t work out so well.
January 24, 2008 at 2:18 pm #166154VvWolverinevVParticipantSorry to hear you guys had so much trouble. Did you try asking for help in #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net?
January 25, 2008 at 12:40 am #166163PhilipModeratorVvWolverinevV;225940 wrote:Sorry to hear you guys had so much trouble. Did you try asking for help in #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net?No I didn’t, because my son couldn’t wait, so I ended up installing XP Pro for him.:p
January 25, 2008 at 2:39 am #166135DavidParticipantNo sense in using an OS that you need to go onto IRC to ask for help to even get it installed…
January 25, 2008 at 4:44 am #166155VvWolverinevVParticipantHaha. Yeah, I won’t yet claim that Ubuntu is better than Windows or Mac OS X. The advantages of Ubuntu from my perspective are that it’s open source and free.
January 26, 2008 at 2:14 am #166136DavidParticipant@VvWolverinevV 225957 wrote:
Haha. Yeah, I won’t yet claim that Ubuntu is better than Windows or Mac OS X. The advantages of Ubuntu from my perspective are that it’s open source and free.
I understand the advantage of “free,” but open source? Unless you are a developer (are you? I’m not sure), it doesn’t really matter. This is a big part of the reason I dislike FOSS people, because they push that corporations are evil without realizing that true innovation usually happens when its backed by a fiscal investment (R&D). FOSS has its place, but I don’t see it for a consumer-grade OS.
Just my two cents. 🙂
(I have used Ubuntu, as well as Fedora, but I just don’t see it as a very good graphical consumer OS)
January 26, 2008 at 3:06 am #166156VvWolverinevVParticipantI suppose I do have aspirations of someday contributing to the code in some way. I agree that if you have no intentions of contributing to the project (and you can afford Windows or Mac OS), there’s not much of a reason to switch to Linux until some distribution is actually better than the other available options. At the moment, for the strictly end user, Windows Vista is well worth the money.
But this is not to say that some Linux distribution will not overtake the competition sometime in the near future. This would, of course, be an ideal situation as the number of developers would scale with the number of users, and Linux would only get better faster. This is a situation I think is worth working towards.
January 26, 2008 at 3:20 am #166148AwesomeSauceParticipantDavid;225977 wrote:I understand the advantage of “free,” but open source? Unless you are a developer (are you? I’m not sure), it doesn’t really matter. This is a big part of the reason I dislike FOSS people, because they push that corporations are evil without realizing that true innovation usually happens when its backed by a fiscal investment (R&D). FOSS has its place, but I don’t see it for a consumer-grade OS.Just my two cents. 🙂
(I have used Ubuntu, as well as Fedora, but I just don’t see it as a very good graphical consumer OS)
When Wolverine said that the main advantages are that it is “open source and free”, I think he was spot on. Notice how he listed two HUGE aspects of Linux that aren’t exactly present in other OS’s, rather than saying something like “Good programs and application/developer support”. Although I love software such as GIMP, Audacity, XMMS and OpenOffice, that’s not the primary reason why I use Linux. I’ll admit right now that it still remains very impractical to use the platform for gaming, and movie-editing even more so (especially because it applies to me. I love filmmaking and doing post-production, but it’s just a waste of time to try to install After Effects on a linux box.)
Basically, most geeks understand your argument about innovation, proprietary software and Ubuntu not being up to par in user-friendliness. Although, personally, I think the constant improvements in GNOME, compiz and beryl are pretty damn awesome. While GUIs become shinier, and different Linux distributions become easier to use, Microsoft still has the monopoly for multiple reasons.
Ubuntu doesn’t really bring anything new to the table in terms of innovation… although maybe the whole idea of making your software freely available to use and edit is an innovation in itself. Except… innovation probably isn’t the right word. And you probably think that sounds stupid anyway. =P
January 26, 2008 at 7:53 am #166137DavidParticipantSo these developers… they are all going to work for free? The entire OS will be based on developers working for free, just “for the greater good of man”?
Top rate developers work for the best companies, you’ll find better developers at Google, Microsoft, Apple, IBM and Intel than anywhere in the FOSS world. Capitalism drives innovation, it always will.
Linux will advance, but Microsoft and Apple will always deliver more to the Enterprise and Consumer (respectively) than Linux ever could. Why would I (as a company), ever trust that people all over the world will fix the bug in the OS, when I need it fixed? No, I need to be able to call my contact at Microsoft, and push for it to get fixed. FOSS can’t do that.
January 28, 2008 at 7:27 am #166157VvWolverinevVParticipantQuote:So these developers… they are all going to work for free? The entire OS will be based on developers working for free, just “for the greater good of man”?Yes, the developers already do work for free.
Quote:Top rate developers work for the best companies, you’ll find better developers at Google, Microsoft, Apple, IBM and Intel than anywhere in the FOSS world.Yes, but my point is that even if open source coders are slower than hired coders, 100 or 1000 of them will still certainly be able to accomplish more than a single hired coder (even if they each only work on open source for a few hours per week.)
Quote:Capitalism drives innovation, it always will.Not really sure how that’s relevant…
Quote:Linux will advance, but Microsoft and Apple will always deliver more to the Enterprise and Consumer (respectively) than Linux ever could. Why would I (as a company), ever trust that people all over the world will fix the bug in the OS, when I need it fixed? No, I need to be able to call my contact at Microsoft, and push for it to get fixed. FOSS can’t do that.There’s no doubt in my mind that you would be able to hire Linux experts to fix your bug for way less than it would cost to get the kind of attention you’re describing from Microsoft.
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