Thinking about trying linux

General Forums Off-topic Chat
#1

I’ve been a windows user forever, and I have never really seen a good reason to make the switch to linux. I have considered it for a while, but it never seemed worth the effort to make the switch.

Until now.

I bought a laptop, and its not a bad laptop, I was only planning on using it for basic stuff (iTunes, firefox, and open office is all I really need it for), but the laptop came with vista. This laptop was clearly not designed with vista in mind. With only half a gig of ram, doing anything takes far too long, and when I just want to quickly check a website or something, it is really a pain.

So, I figured I would try Linux. I was thinking about duel booting the two, in case I need vista for something, but I really don’t know where to start.

I’m sure there are forums set up for this exact thing, but I was wondering if you guys could help me. Which …err… “version” (I know that isn’t the right word) of linux am I going to want, I’ve heard a lot of good things about Ubuntu, so I was considering that.

Where do I start, do any of you know how I can duel boot linux and vista, is it worth the switch to linux?

thanks!

#2

If you have broadband internet you can download a live CD version which will let you run the CD & test it out before you install anything. If you are interested in Ubuntu you might want to wait until Oct 18th when the newest version is released, ver 7.10 I believe. Or if you can’t download such a large file then you can have them ship you a free CD. Just go to ubuntu.com. Other popular distributions or “distros” can be found at Distrowatch.com. Just try them all and see which one you like best.

#3

Do we need a new thread everytime someone needs to install linux.

#4

Do you have anything valuable to say?

#5

IMO, a thread such as this is better than many of these other rather silly OT threads. I think it’s part of the whole open source community spirit that we respond as well as we can with useful info.

A good place to start is most likely with Ubuntu. Seems to be the most supported. I use Fedora personally, which suits my needs just fine. I find the Fedora Forums somewhat better than the Ubuntu forums, because they seem to be populated by more experienced users. I don’t need the forums that often anymore though.

One big thing to consider, Nivek, is whether your wireless card will work with linux or not, as this can be a rather grey area with all linux distros. You should find out the model and chipset of your wireless card, which is either in Vista’s device manager, or in the documentation that came with your laptop.

Considering dual booting, I’m sure there is a thread dedicated to that on various forums. you can easily google ‘ubuntu vista dual boot’. As for a complete switch - that depends. If you play retail games a lot, then you generally stick with windows. If you use certain windows apps such as Photoshop or some video editing apps, then stick with windows…

Either way, get your hands on some live CDs so you can try out the various distros.

#6

Here is an easy way for you to get Ubuntu or ubuntu studio, plus many other flavors of linux.

With this method you will not need to partition your hard drive, most of the install is from inside windows…


If it sucks, you can simply uninstall it from the windows add and remove programs…
This is a full blown linux , not emulated or virtualized :D.
Live CD’s are cool too but with the ammount of ram you have you will have a very slow and painful view of linux
Have fun :smiley:

#7

I just dual booted my laptop a few weeks ago.
It was for a computer programming class, so the teacher recommended Mandriva. He had some DVDs that we borrowed. He says it the easiest one to install. It really helps in partitioning your hard drive. You tell it how much you want to leave for windows and it does the rest.

It definitely has a faster start-up than windows. It also opens programs much faster. Right now Linux is set as the default and I don’t feel like changing it. It gives me 8 seconds to choose which OS I want, then it goes with the default.

As for the support… no good. You have to pay for the “premium package” to get any help. It works for me though because I can ask the teacher for help.

#8

Hey Mmph, that’s cool, I never heard of Wubi before, thanks for sharing.

#9

Alright, its decided, I will (hopefully) try it when I get back tonight

thanks everyone for the help, maybe all I needed was a “you can do it, linux isn’t that scary”

hopefully the wireless card works, I searched around the ubuntu forums, and it looks like there are alot of forums dealing with wireless cards, so with any luck, I can get the internet.

And if not, the place I will primarily be using it doesn’t have wireless anyways, so I can just plug the internet right in.

#10

Oh, but please don’t unplug the Internet when you leave. Others may need it.

#11

Make sure you unplug the internet before you leav I heared a story a guy who drained someone’s bandwidth

#12

Yes, we wouldn’t want a repeat of this incident:

#13

I’ve found that Kubuntu is a good way to go if you need help, as the Kubuntu forums are less populated with newbs, and more populated with experienced users. Just a suggestion from someone who has used both.

Also, it may be a good idea to find out your graphics card, because ATI is a pain to set up right (and nVidia used to be, but not anymore).

#14

hahaha, I knew when I was typing that, it sounded awkward :stuck_out_tongue:

#15

use the vista, soon them come up with else, and its allready installed for you. For linux there are no drivers for everything because…
When you get a virus that likes to hold on in staying on your comp then i recommend changing or was it no net

#16

j, you had 724 posts before this one, and this is the best you can do after all that time?

#17

I agree with gat. J, you need help. You can’t seriously think Vista is more virus safe than Linux. 90% of viruses don’t even WORK on Linux. And the ones that do must be run on purpose to do any damage.