More specifically, to Ubuntu. Anyone done this? I tested the Live from the CD, and so far made everything in my Dell Inspiron B130 work perfectly, where in Windows half my RAM goes down on installed drivers, so I though "why not"? I currently use Windows basically for IM and download purposes, but it seems all of it is covered there. I've no Office Suite since OpenOffice runs SLOW on windows (but seems to run perfectly there), and well, Zsnes has a Linux version.
Im almost about to make the jump, but I thought I'd ask around first.
So Im thinking in switching to Linux...
Moderator: General Mods
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corronchilejano
- Transmutation Specialist
- Posts: 724
- Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:17 pm
- Location: Colombia (and no, not on the jungle)
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So Im thinking in switching to Linux...
[size=67]
Playing:
[color=green]Blur, Front Mission DS, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, The Last Remnant[/color]
In Line:
[color=red]Far Cry II, Final Fantasy XIII, Revenant Wings[/color]
[/size]
Playing:
[color=green]Blur, Front Mission DS, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, The Last Remnant[/color]
In Line:
[color=red]Far Cry II, Final Fantasy XIII, Revenant Wings[/color]
[/size]
-
DancemasterGlenn
- Veteran
- Posts: 637
- Joined: Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:05 pm
I started using it a little over a year ago, with no linux experience at all. If you're in the same boat, it helps to have a friend who actually DOES know linux to walk you through stuff for the first month, at least. That said, their forums are startlingly helpful, and have gotten me out of most binds. From what I've experienced, it seems like it's the smallest step into linux you can take, for the most part. That was/is okay with me. I'm surprised at how fast I was able to pick this up, so don't let it intimidate you. It's actually been a lot of fun learning.
The other thing is that rather than going for Ubuntu (if you're set on the distro itself) you could opt for Kubuntu, which uses a different file management system (i.e. bells and whistles, to over-generalize perhaps a bit too far). Kubuntu uses KDE, which is customizable almost to the point of delirium. I've tried it more than once, but it really overwhelms me. You may feel differently, a lot of people do. But yeah, give Kubuntu a try if you can get a cd for that as well, they both should run all of your hardware in the same fashion. And they can both run zsnes very well indeed.
Hope that was helpful, if you have any specific questions I can try my best to answer them, but I'm sure others on the forum will be much more informative than I.
The other thing is that rather than going for Ubuntu (if you're set on the distro itself) you could opt for Kubuntu, which uses a different file management system (i.e. bells and whistles, to over-generalize perhaps a bit too far). Kubuntu uses KDE, which is customizable almost to the point of delirium. I've tried it more than once, but it really overwhelms me. You may feel differently, a lot of people do. But yeah, give Kubuntu a try if you can get a cd for that as well, they both should run all of your hardware in the same fashion. And they can both run zsnes very well indeed.
Hope that was helpful, if you have any specific questions I can try my best to answer them, but I'm sure others on the forum will be much more informative than I.
I didn't do ubuntu, but last fall I switched to Kubunu, which is basically Ubuntu with the KDE desktop environment instead of GNOME, and comes with all the KDE apps and stuff and more things are written in Qt concequently vs. GTK.
It's all personal preference though so whatever.
Either way the installation and basic use are dead simple. There are enough things that are very different, but also many things are the same (as far as user usage)
DancemasterGlenn is right though, it's nice to have a friend to help you out because you can get snagged on the easiest of problems but you have no idea how to fix them.
posting a "help linux noob" on friendly boards can help you out a ton though.
honestly for basic usage it is a piece of cake, the hardest thing is just making sure you have everything set up and working, this should be pretty much automatic but sometimes you can get snagged.
make sure you have programs and plugins that run all the filetypes you use. Usually there is an equivelant of a lot of programs on linux.
learn how to use your package manager whatever you end up using, synaptic has worked fine for me. Basically you use a package manager to download and update all your programs, but you can also just compile them yourself if they are not in a repository, you prolly also want to find out what repositories you need to recieve from.
now I'm getting too in depth, don't let this overwhelm you, it really isn't a big deal.
just make sure your internet is working, you have a browser you are comfortable with, you have apps/plugins to play stuff like mp3s, make sure you have stuff like flash and java, you might want an app to play wmvs and quicktime files, etc. etc. etc.
you might want to learn some basic command line for using a terminal, I use this for compiling emus and such that aren't in repositories.
Like I said, there is an equivelant to like everything so if you take photos, find your photo program, it'll prolly already be in your menu from when you installed the OS. there are usually games, a paint program, etc already ready for you and you can easily pick up stuff like gimp, wine, openoffice, etc. etc.
So yeah. it DOES take a little time and getting aquanted, but it is pretty logical
just be willing to commit a little time to learning some new stuff, have a support group like here, it should be pretty straight forward, and yeah, the most techy thing I did was learning to compile emus in a terminal, and usually that is copying what someone told you to write into a terminal window, so it really isn't a big deal. Hope that helps.
maybe some more experienced linux users can chip in too.
It's all personal preference though so whatever.
Either way the installation and basic use are dead simple. There are enough things that are very different, but also many things are the same (as far as user usage)
DancemasterGlenn is right though, it's nice to have a friend to help you out because you can get snagged on the easiest of problems but you have no idea how to fix them.
posting a "help linux noob" on friendly boards can help you out a ton though.
honestly for basic usage it is a piece of cake, the hardest thing is just making sure you have everything set up and working, this should be pretty much automatic but sometimes you can get snagged.
make sure you have programs and plugins that run all the filetypes you use. Usually there is an equivelant of a lot of programs on linux.
learn how to use your package manager whatever you end up using, synaptic has worked fine for me. Basically you use a package manager to download and update all your programs, but you can also just compile them yourself if they are not in a repository, you prolly also want to find out what repositories you need to recieve from.
now I'm getting too in depth, don't let this overwhelm you, it really isn't a big deal.
just make sure your internet is working, you have a browser you are comfortable with, you have apps/plugins to play stuff like mp3s, make sure you have stuff like flash and java, you might want an app to play wmvs and quicktime files, etc. etc. etc.
you might want to learn some basic command line for using a terminal, I use this for compiling emus and such that aren't in repositories.
Like I said, there is an equivelant to like everything so if you take photos, find your photo program, it'll prolly already be in your menu from when you installed the OS. there are usually games, a paint program, etc already ready for you and you can easily pick up stuff like gimp, wine, openoffice, etc. etc.
So yeah. it DOES take a little time and getting aquanted, but it is pretty logical
just be willing to commit a little time to learning some new stuff, have a support group like here, it should be pretty straight forward, and yeah, the most techy thing I did was learning to compile emus in a terminal, and usually that is copying what someone told you to write into a terminal window, so it really isn't a big deal. Hope that helps.
maybe some more experienced linux users can chip in too.
[quote="byuu"]Seriously, what kind of asshole makes an old-school 2D emulator that requires a Core 2 to get full speed? [i]>:([/i] [/quote]
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DancemasterGlenn
- Veteran
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- Joined: Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:05 pm
Just to add to that, getting used to the terminal was my biggest hurdle. I really really love it now, as it's invaluable for figuring out problems in programs that would otherwise be crashing without giving me any information. It also gives me nerdy joy to use... so if you're into that, that's always fun.
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MisterJones
- Trooper
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adventure_of_link
- Locksmith of Hyrule
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don't forget that in *ubuntu that mp3s, real player, wma/wmv, etc are disabled by default due to those formats being proprietary and you need said proprietary (aka non-free in the GNU/Linux, Debian, Ubuntu, etc communities) codecs/libraries in order to use those files. So expect those to not work right out of the box upon first installing it.
However, you CAN get them installed later on though, if you so desire.
However, you CAN get them installed later on though, if you so desire.
<Nach> so why don't the two of you get your own room and leave us alone with this stupidity of yours?
NSRT here.
NSRT here.
I. personally, use Gentoo and prefer it over most of the other ones but it's really not the best for most people. I just like it because it doesn't try to shove it's crap in your face about non-free software. It'll let you install mplayer and wine and even win32 codecs without any issues at all. Debian wont even give you unrar right away.
Just some software I recommend for different things. Most of it should be installed already but here goes:
Web Browsing: (Pick your favourite or use both if you want)
Firefox - Very compatible, extremely customizable, a bit slow, though.
Opera - Not quite as compatible as Firefox but still a good browser, doesn't have as many plugins but it's a very fast browser. Non-free if that bothers you at all.
Media Players: (You should probably get all of these. Kinda fall through these one by one if a video fails to play.)
mplayer - My favourite media player. Supports almost everything if configured properly. Lots and lots of settings and other things to fool around with to get stuff just right, if you want. The GUI is a bit ass but I use the command line interface anyway.
VLC - Another media player. Decent GUI, good compatibility. Not a whole lot of options, that I've seen.
xine lib/xine-ui - Yet another media player. Not too crazy about it. xine-ui is a bit ugly and doesn't work too great for me. Daunting amount of options though most of them are useless but something specific might prove hard to find.
Art Stuff: (I'm not much of an artist but this is pretty much what Linux has to offer...)
The GIMP - A bit hard to use at first but once you learn it it's a very good image editor. Multi window interface is a bit unweildy at times.
Krita - Part of KDE's stuff. I haven't used it much. Seems a bit like Paint shop pro but it's still sorta new I guess so it's a bit lacking in features.
Inkscape - For vector graphics. It can produce SVG files. I didn't use it too much but it's not hard to learn and I've seen some pretty nice stuff made in it.
Window Managers:
KDE - Pretty much anyone's first choice and, in my opinion, a decent choice if you have a good computer. Very complete desktop system, comes with most apps for things. Pretty much every basic application has a K counterpart. Lots of features and settings you can change all around.
GNOME - Middle of the road. Has a lot of applications but is a bit sparse in features or lacks customisability. Because of this, though, it's very comfortable.
Xfce - Just a desktop system. It doesn't bring any of it's own applications besides a few very very basic things. Just provides window management, desktop icons, panels and workspaces. Very fast, small and light.
Ion - Probably not right for most people but I'm putting it here anyway. It's kinda like windows 2.0 on steroids. Be default, everything is tiled together. You can resize all these tiles as you please and each tile can contain multiple tabbed windows and supports multiple workspaces.
For either one of these, if you want a graphical file manager, i recommend you use Dolphin, it's very good and fast.
Word Processing:
Openoffice - A very good office suite. It can do pretty much anything you want. Word processing, spreadsheets, databases, even basic vector and raster drawing. VERY big though and not very fast. Supports pretty much any format you can come across.
KOffice - KDE's offering for an office suite. I haven't used it much but it seems pretty complete but not to the point of openoffice. Decent compatibility.
Abiword - NOT an office suite but a very good word processor. Just a few MB in size. Small, quick to compile. Snappy when running, not too many features but supports most formatting and other things, okay compatibility.
Some other recommendations:
Wine - Gonna need this. Compatibility is OK. OpenGL works pretty much perfectly but DirectX is a bit shitty. Most things will work if you wrestle with it enough. There's an on line app database that has status of a lot of applications and advice on getting it to run. Some are quite old, though.
Kate - Good text editor if you're a programmer. It doesn't get all in your face like most IDEs do but provides a terminal for quick compiling and testing.
Konsole - KDE's terminal. Pretty much the most customizable one that runs the best for me. A bit large compared to some of the other offerings but none of them are as complete as this. Beats gnome-terminal in speed by a wide margin.
pidgin, kopete, psi - Decent IM clients. Look around, there are more. I've only ever used pidgin because im used to it but there's some other very capable ones.
Tell me if I missed anything or if you need any more help.
Just some software I recommend for different things. Most of it should be installed already but here goes:
Web Browsing: (Pick your favourite or use both if you want)
Firefox - Very compatible, extremely customizable, a bit slow, though.
Opera - Not quite as compatible as Firefox but still a good browser, doesn't have as many plugins but it's a very fast browser. Non-free if that bothers you at all.
Media Players: (You should probably get all of these. Kinda fall through these one by one if a video fails to play.)
mplayer - My favourite media player. Supports almost everything if configured properly. Lots and lots of settings and other things to fool around with to get stuff just right, if you want. The GUI is a bit ass but I use the command line interface anyway.
VLC - Another media player. Decent GUI, good compatibility. Not a whole lot of options, that I've seen.
xine lib/xine-ui - Yet another media player. Not too crazy about it. xine-ui is a bit ugly and doesn't work too great for me. Daunting amount of options though most of them are useless but something specific might prove hard to find.
Art Stuff: (I'm not much of an artist but this is pretty much what Linux has to offer...)
The GIMP - A bit hard to use at first but once you learn it it's a very good image editor. Multi window interface is a bit unweildy at times.
Krita - Part of KDE's stuff. I haven't used it much. Seems a bit like Paint shop pro but it's still sorta new I guess so it's a bit lacking in features.
Inkscape - For vector graphics. It can produce SVG files. I didn't use it too much but it's not hard to learn and I've seen some pretty nice stuff made in it.
Window Managers:
KDE - Pretty much anyone's first choice and, in my opinion, a decent choice if you have a good computer. Very complete desktop system, comes with most apps for things. Pretty much every basic application has a K counterpart. Lots of features and settings you can change all around.
GNOME - Middle of the road. Has a lot of applications but is a bit sparse in features or lacks customisability. Because of this, though, it's very comfortable.
Xfce - Just a desktop system. It doesn't bring any of it's own applications besides a few very very basic things. Just provides window management, desktop icons, panels and workspaces. Very fast, small and light.
Ion - Probably not right for most people but I'm putting it here anyway. It's kinda like windows 2.0 on steroids. Be default, everything is tiled together. You can resize all these tiles as you please and each tile can contain multiple tabbed windows and supports multiple workspaces.
For either one of these, if you want a graphical file manager, i recommend you use Dolphin, it's very good and fast.
Word Processing:
Openoffice - A very good office suite. It can do pretty much anything you want. Word processing, spreadsheets, databases, even basic vector and raster drawing. VERY big though and not very fast. Supports pretty much any format you can come across.
KOffice - KDE's offering for an office suite. I haven't used it much but it seems pretty complete but not to the point of openoffice. Decent compatibility.
Abiword - NOT an office suite but a very good word processor. Just a few MB in size. Small, quick to compile. Snappy when running, not too many features but supports most formatting and other things, okay compatibility.
Some other recommendations:
Wine - Gonna need this. Compatibility is OK. OpenGL works pretty much perfectly but DirectX is a bit shitty. Most things will work if you wrestle with it enough. There's an on line app database that has status of a lot of applications and advice on getting it to run. Some are quite old, though.
Kate - Good text editor if you're a programmer. It doesn't get all in your face like most IDEs do but provides a terminal for quick compiling and testing.
Konsole - KDE's terminal. Pretty much the most customizable one that runs the best for me. A bit large compared to some of the other offerings but none of them are as complete as this. Beats gnome-terminal in speed by a wide margin.
pidgin, kopete, psi - Decent IM clients. Look around, there are more. I've only ever used pidgin because im used to it but there's some other very capable ones.
Tell me if I missed anything or if you need any more help.
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corronchilejano
- Transmutation Specialist
- Posts: 724
- Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:17 pm
- Location: Colombia (and no, not on the jungle)
- Contact:
Allright, my first two issues:
1.)Got overwhelmed so I installed Xp and Ubuntu (a bit crowded on a 40gb HD).
2.)Can't seem to install the newest Java and a flash plug in. My nephew plays Runescape and now can't log in on Ubuntu (still got Xp for that but I'd love to have it fixed). This appears to be due to the GJC or something driver not being up to date and the Java 6 one that Firefox talks about not being properly installed for some reason (it's there, but Firefox doesn't show it in about:plugins). Flash is pretty much the same, as the Adobe on after installed by firefox isn't recognized by itself.
1.)Got overwhelmed so I installed Xp and Ubuntu (a bit crowded on a 40gb HD).
2.)Can't seem to install the newest Java and a flash plug in. My nephew plays Runescape and now can't log in on Ubuntu (still got Xp for that but I'd love to have it fixed). This appears to be due to the GJC or something driver not being up to date and the Java 6 one that Firefox talks about not being properly installed for some reason (it's there, but Firefox doesn't show it in about:plugins). Flash is pretty much the same, as the Adobe on after installed by firefox isn't recognized by itself.
[size=67]
Playing:
[color=green]Blur, Front Mission DS, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, The Last Remnant[/color]
In Line:
[color=red]Far Cry II, Final Fantasy XIII, Revenant Wings[/color]
[/size]
Playing:
[color=green]Blur, Front Mission DS, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, The Last Remnant[/color]
In Line:
[color=red]Far Cry II, Final Fantasy XIII, Revenant Wings[/color]
[/size]
for java, you should use your package manager (I believe synaptic is your default) to search for it. Something like sun java 6 or something
for flash, if you go to the flash website they have a detailed tutorial for how to install flash on linux by downloading the file, extracting it, and then from within a terminal, installing it.
go to their site for the tutorial.
for flash, if you go to the flash website they have a detailed tutorial for how to install flash on linux by downloading the file, extracting it, and then from within a terminal, installing it.
go to their site for the tutorial.
[quote="byuu"]Seriously, what kind of asshole makes an old-school 2D emulator that requires a Core 2 to get full speed? [i]>:([/i] [/quote]
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corronchilejano
- Transmutation Specialist
- Posts: 724
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- Location: Colombia (and no, not on the jungle)
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For Java I did use the Synaptics package manager with no luck at all. For Java, it would SURE help to know what Im doing as I believe the instructions are wrong (followed them too).
I still won't give up. Something in me wants to learn how this works.
I still won't give up. Something in me wants to learn how this works.
[size=67]
Playing:
[color=green]Blur, Front Mission DS, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, The Last Remnant[/color]
In Line:
[color=red]Far Cry II, Final Fantasy XIII, Revenant Wings[/color]
[/size]
Playing:
[color=green]Blur, Front Mission DS, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, The Last Remnant[/color]
In Line:
[color=red]Far Cry II, Final Fantasy XIII, Revenant Wings[/color]
[/size]
-
corronchilejano
- Transmutation Specialist
- Posts: 724
- Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:17 pm
- Location: Colombia (and no, not on the jungle)
- Contact:
It´s actually on a 1.7Ghz Centrino for my Dell Inspiron B130.
EDIT: Ok, for some odd reason after wipping everything and reinstalling, it worked with normal installations. Now I'm off to break the OS by the terminal.
EDIT: Ok, for some odd reason after wipping everything and reinstalling, it worked with normal installations. Now I'm off to break the OS by the terminal.
[size=67]
Playing:
[color=green]Blur, Front Mission DS, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, The Last Remnant[/color]
In Line:
[color=red]Far Cry II, Final Fantasy XIII, Revenant Wings[/color]
[/size]
Playing:
[color=green]Blur, Front Mission DS, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, The Last Remnant[/color]
In Line:
[color=red]Far Cry II, Final Fantasy XIII, Revenant Wings[/color]
[/size]
yeah, my start with it had all sorts of random crap like that, but once you get it stabilized it's a piece of cake, (well, for the most part) and the more you understand, the easier it is. etc. etc. **continues to state the obvious**
[quote="byuu"]Seriously, what kind of asshole makes an old-school 2D emulator that requires a Core 2 to get full speed? [i]>:([/i] [/quote]
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casualsax3
- Veteran
- Posts: 743
- Joined: Tue Aug 10, 2004 4:38 pm
I switched to Linux for work about a year and a half ago. This was on a Thinkpad T60 - a Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz with 2GB RAM and an ATI Radeon Mobility X1300. Within the first few months I ended up reinstalling four or five times. I tried Ubuntu 6.04 first, then Fedora 5, then Ubuntu 6.10, then Kubuntu 6.10, then back to Ubuntu, and I've been doing well on the latest releases from them ever since. I'm currently running 7.10.
It was so frustrating at times that I would have switched back to Windows if I had a legit CD at my disposal, but luckily I didn't. The Ubuntu forums are a godsend, along with anyone else you might know who is familiar with Linux. There are so many niceties and bells and whistles that it would take a seriously amazing version of OSX or Windows 7 to even get me to consider switching back.
It can be tough at first, but once you get it customized and working exactly how you want it there's no looking back.
It was so frustrating at times that I would have switched back to Windows if I had a legit CD at my disposal, but luckily I didn't. The Ubuntu forums are a godsend, along with anyone else you might know who is familiar with Linux. There are so many niceties and bells and whistles that it would take a seriously amazing version of OSX or Windows 7 to even get me to consider switching back.
It can be tough at first, but once you get it customized and working exactly how you want it there's no looking back.