linux for beginners

[dilligent]

hi guys, ok i have one little question that has been bothering me for a while. i have been using Windows since my first pc, slowly but surely i got fed up with the problems that come with windows and i want to change to linux. you all know how difficult change is especially since i never had ANY contact with linux, i heard from a few friends who are using it it is much better to have than windows and i also did some research about which is best to use as a beginner (MINT). my question is what am i getting into with such a huge change and is it too difficult to learn? thank you for all replies.

 

[Stephen M]

Hi, I have been using Linux for less than a year and have not had any real problems. I am not computer illiterate but neither am I particularly talented with them. The majority of what you will want from a PC is available to Linux users, although if you are a gamer you will need to check further.

Mint or Ubuntu is simple to start with and you cab run it live without installing to see if you like it, although live it will be slower. There is also Zorin which was designed for people making the transition from Windows to Linux. Personally I like Ubuntu because of the desktop but I also use Debian, I think Mint or Ubuntu are equally easy to install/use, a lot of it is personal prefernce. You can find an extsensive list of Distro here (http://distrowatch.com/) with links to the relevant sites.

Basically Linux is as easy or difficult as you want to make it, as you get more experienced you can think about your own partitioning for dual-boot but if not Ubuntu and Mint will do it for you. Likewise you will have a few more options once you are happy with using the terminal but it is not neccessary and you can get all you would get from Windows without any needing to do anything complex.

 

[mishra]

Main question you need to ask yourself is that can you survive without games? If no, then forget about Linux at least for now. Even though there are some Steam attempts and Wine it's a massive headache and will not work as well as on Windows.

Linux is amazing system, but the worst you can ever do to yourself at the beginning is to throw yourself at deep waters with it... because you will hate it for life. And you will become yet another person that do not like Linux for all the wrong reasons.
Best advice ever is to install Virtualbox software (virtualization) on your Windows and then install Linux as virtual machine inside it. This will allow you to have a go with Linux without the fear of messing anything up. It is really a very good way to familiarize yourself with Linux. You can even run it in Desktop seamless mode that will allow you to operate Linux and Windows at the same time.

Once you are happy with it, backup your data and then install Linux as your main operating system. It really is a great O/S it's just not design for any real gaming yet... Even thought attempts were made, it's exactly the same as it was... well 15 years ago

 

[barrydrake]

I'd try Ubuntu as installation is very simple. If you are using a desktop, consider installing a second hard drive and letting Ubuntu carry out its default installation on this second drive. That will leave your Windows untouched and dual booting will be automatically set up without you having to do anything at all. I'm not a gamer, but I understand the situation with regard to gaming is changing rapidly. Wine does not work in every case, but don't disregard it. It can be a very convenient tool. I wouldn't be able to use the e-book library at all without it - the books are only available in Adobe Digital Editions format.

 

[dilligent]

thank you all for the very educating replies, as far as gaming is concerned the only game i play is where did i hide the d**n TV remote xD i really don't have time for videogames and even if i would i would still use my time doing something more productive. now i did do some google search and found UBUNTU 13.10 as the latest version, there is a lot to read about it but i will not shy away because i am fed up with all the problems and headaches caused by Windows. i can use it no problem i do have a macbook that i got as a gift in 2009. so i will now download the 13.10 Ubuntu and follow the instructions on how to install it i keep most of my important data on the macbook all the rest is stored on an external 500 GB HDD. i will do a full install of ubuntu in order to have full speed of it, i will keep close to the posts in order to tell you if i found my way around Ubuntu and how to use it.

now just for the sake of space, i have a question about my macbook. i hope the moderators will not get angry for posting this here ( since it is a question about APPLE) i have a macbook as i mentioned, and untill rececntly it was just ok and i was happy with its performance, HOWEVER since thursday it's overheating when i watch a movie. the specs are core 2 duo 2.4 GHz, 2Gb RAM and GeForce 8600M GT 200 GB (5400 RPM), now i looked at the activity monitor it was pretty high and i guessed it's because of only 2 GB ram and thought to upgrade it and saw an article on how to upgrade ram.
do you think if i upgrade the ram it would stop overheating? Thank you all in advance

 

[barrydrake]

2 GiB is just fine with 13.10. Unless you are doing something really processor heavy you won't find any more than 2 GiB is being used. Watching a movie is not ever so demanding so I'd start by blowing the dust out from around the processor cooler. I've not used Ubuntu with Mac architecture, so can't advise there. Your spec is fine for running 13.10 but try running from the live-CD first. You might just need to build in the 'nomodeset' parameter if the video is not supported by the kernel.

 

[ajgreeny]

I started with ubuntu 5.04 way back in 2005, in dual boot with WinXP.

I have never been a real gamer, so that was no problem to me and I used my computer as a work machine for letters, invoices etc etc and also for photo, music and video, though not much video at that time. The machine I used was an AMD Sempron 2400+ with just 512MB ram at the time, but it ran Ubuntu extremely well; much faster than XP. I had been using OpenOffice in windows, along with other open source applications, such as GIMP, Firefox, Thunderbird, etc etc, so there was no huge shock of a change to the applications I used most, and therefore I was probably in a much better situation than many others who dip their toes in the linux pond. For about two years I booted into XP only to update the virus checker on it (just in case), but it quickly became obvious to me that XP was doing nothing apart from wasting space, so I removed it and for the last few years have run nothing but Ubuntu, or now Xubuntu 12.04, as I do not like unity as a desktop but prefer the traditional style.

I suggest you dual boot to start, but use linux (Ubuntu or Mint if that's your choice) for as much of the time as you are able, and whenever possible avoid the temptation to boot into Windows to get things done. If your experience is like mine you will quickly get to the point where you can not remember how to use Windows with all its problems, and may even be able to remove it completely from your computer.

 

[barrydrake]

With regard to Unity, I find that EVERYBODY took a dislike to it when it first came out. I also found that most folk who gave it at least a couple of weeks use began to like it a lot! Finding the application you need is really simple much easier than having to plough through the Gnome menuing system. I have Windows 7 on a spare SATA drive that I can slot into a trayless caddy in place of my regular backup drive. I had to use it last week as somebody sent me a rather complex formatted letter in the dreadful non-portable docx format and I had to open it with MS office and export as rtf to get it to look anything like the original.