Linux
 

Howdy kids.

As my Win 7 stopped working on 6-1 I had to either revert to XP, buy Win 7, install Linux, or dig a Commodore 64 out. As money is tight, I chose Ubuntu 10.04.

I am seriously impressed. I've used Linux before, even compiled a kernel in 1999 or so. I have audio, video, email, dual-monitors, etc running great. I do miss Win 7 and I will eventually buy it, but I am very impressed with where Linux has gone.

This is not an attempt to start a flame war. This is just MY opinion. Others will, of course, vary. :thumbsup:

I have a hunch that, if you keep up with Ubuntu for a few months, you will find that your need/desire to purchase windows 7 has faded into nothingness.

It's what I've been using for the last 3-4 years and have yet to find it an unwise move.

I love ubuntu, I started using it when 9.04 came out and I haven't went back to windows yet. I will say I do run WinXP and VMware 10.04 inside of it so that I can drop down to play video games. Besides that, I do 99% of my computer work in linux.

Ubuntu is slick, there's no doubt of it. From what I've seen, it's a good noob distro, and a great way to learn how to navigate linux and accomplish day-to-day tasks.

I still say that Synaptic is pretty much the best package manager ever designed.

I'm very impressed with Ubuntu 10.04 so far. I like it a lot. But I kind of miss Win 7. I guess it sometimes comes down to what you are used to. But I'm actually enjoying learning stuff about Linux again.

And even though I was into Linux pretty deeply ten years ago, I consider myself a noob now. Humility. Lol.

I used 9.04 for a while, but an update hosed it so I went back to XP for the time being. Now I'm on Win7 and really, honestly, I really enjoy it. I'm a windows admin by career choice, so it makes sense. I have my active directory / file / DNS server with 2008R2 x64, Win7 x64 desktop, Win7 x86 HTPC (both on domain), 2008R2 WDS / WSUS sandbox, 2008R2 core sandbox, several 2008R2 VMs for testing, etc.

Houston is a M$ town, so if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

I'm not saying I don't like linux, but open office is crap and I don't like fighting with wine to run office 2007 (or having to load it in a VM just to edit my resume).

I run freebsd for SSH tunneling my HTTP when I travel. Great OS, I love freebsd. I broke in on slackware years ago, so it makes sense in a way.

Unless of course you like to use your computer to game.

Even with Wine, you're hosed.

Well, for now Linux is great. Funds are low, looking for a job. I could legally install XP Pro, just don't want to. When I can, I will get Win 7. I could pirate it, but I don't want to have to worry about MS disabling me. Now that I can't play my favorite games, I want to. But at the same time I'm learning some things (again) about Linux.

I really do miss Win 7, though.

A surprising number of popular games work quite well under Wine (which is after all a compatibility layer and not an emulator). You can check on the Wine Application Database to see if your favourites will run, as well as getting tips on getting them to perform optimally.

If you have a licence for Windows XP (or even if you don't, if you're not particularly bothered by the legal niceties) you can also set up a virtual machine to run games in. The performance hit involved with that may be problematic, though.

Yeah, as I have an nVidia 8600 GTS, I doubt that games would work well under Wine.

There's no reason why they wouldn't. Again, compatibility layer -- games usually don't run any slower under Wine than they do under Windows. The bigger problem is generally getting them to run in the first place, which may require some tweaking. The appdb often has helpful advice for getting your favourite games up and running, and the winetricks script is great for any libraries you might need.

Good to hear, Wyodiver, I kept using XP for years for gaming. Once I stopped gaming, I "played" with ZFS on Nevada, or Indiana, (OpenSolaris) then switched over to Debian. I think I only prefer it to Ubuntu because I started on Slackware and OpenBSD. Easy to do most anything, as long as gaming isn't your primary intent.

Yeah, I know Ubuntu is the "frowned upon" distro for Linux geeks. Gotta start somewhere.

I really think the best bet for running games is to run Linux (whatever flavor) inside of windows using something like VMware. I have linux spread over my two LCDs all the time and when I want to play a game, I drop linux down to one LCD and play the game in the other. It's really easy to switch back and forth between OSes. I still do my web surfing and any other computer needs in linux, but being able to play Dragons Age on one LCD while playing around in linux on the other is awesome.

I tried running winxp inside of linux using VMware, but the games were really jerky and I really didn't have the RAM for it (4gb). Some day I'd like to do that, but until I double my RAM I won't be able too.

I never got linux elitism about distros. I'm running linux, give me a fucking break. I don't know anyone that started with linux that didn't get some kind of help with it. People act like they sat down in front of a PC, booted Slack, and started recompiling kernels without batting an eye. Linux elitists piss me off.

Yea, I use Linux in a VM too. Would never make it my desktop OS because of how much I use my PC for gaming.

I run Ubuntu on my stationary computer. I was very happy with it for a while, but I use a lot of different sound editing programs and DAWs, so I need Windows as well. I ran XP on my old laptop, but my stationary Linux computer was still my main machine for surfing, music, and everything else. However, a few weeks ago, I got a new laptop, and installet Windows 7, and I'm so happy with it, I now use it as my primary computer for sound editing, surfing the Internet, and basically everything. I just listen to music and watch video on my stationary now.

To be fair, most "Linux elitists" are 14 year old guys that want to be special and think that browsing the web in text mode is the coolest thing ever. More grown up Linux users (Like myself) realize that indeed people have to start somewhere, and even if you are a Linux guru Ubuntu is still a nice distro and just seeing it as a beginners Linux is just silly.

if linux is frowned upon by the true geek... exactly what all would be involved to be cool the the linux geek world?