Linux .....

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barrydrake

Silver Level Poster
Hi ....

I use nothing other than Ubuntu Linux these days and have installed it for most of my family and friends. I am delighted that PcSpecialist are willing to supply equipment with no OS installed! Just wondered how many Linux devotees there are among you?

Barry.
 
Gorman

Gorman

Author Level
Surprisingly few, i do like to dabble with Linux now and again but always run it in a VM.

I just <3 windows too much, did i say windows? i mean Direct X.
 
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barrydrake

Silver Level Poster
I'm surprised. I've posted a review on the UK Ubuntu list saying how pleased I am with my recent purchase from pcspecialist, so I guess there will be a few from there looking around. Dell have almost stopped supplying Linux ready computers so we've all bee grumbling about our being pushed into paying a licence fee for an OS that we don't want and won't be using. I built my last PC, but this time I wanted something with a higher spec and was worried about what to do if the processor or mobo died on me. .... pcspecialist was the answer.

As for vm's .. I prefer the OS natively installed. I still have a box that I can dual-boot into Windoze but otherwise it's Ubuntu 10.04 with Wine installed for the occasional Windows app that I can't replace with something native.
 
Phoenix

Phoenix

Prolific Poster
Wine and other programs like it always produce far fewer frames per second in games compared to running them on windows as well :(
 
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misterdave

Enthusiast
I'm a Linux lover, plenty of kit at home running many different variants, from netbook with Mint to servers running ubuntu 10.10server ed and an OpenSuSE box o fun, plus the odd VM on my desktop.

Used to have ubuntu desktop and tripple boot XP 7 and ubuntu but with the recent introduction of my custom cooling loop I has to remove some of the HDDs.
 
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barrydrake

Silver Level Poster
Hmmm I'm not a gamer. I went in for a more up-market PC for video capture and editing. Linux has plenty of good support for that. My first efforts on the new PC reduced video rendering time from 11 hours plus to make a DVD, down to around 2 to 3 hours max. And the result has less errors by a long way.
 
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MintMove

Member
Hey all

I was just browsing the forums and found this thread. I'm going to try linux as well. Ordered a new pc from PCS (delivery delayed due to bad weather) and plan on installing linux mint.
I was all set yesterday. Downloaded mint, burnt it on dvd and was anxiously waiting for delivery but dhl never showed up.

I've tried linux before but didn't really like it. Bought a cd of kubuntu 6 from a computer fair long time ago but never really made the effort to learn it. So now I'm going to try again. I read somewhere that mint is a better option for people who are switching from windows to linux. I've tried the liveCD and found it to be much better than kubuntu. Hopefully there won't be any compatibility issues with the new hardware but if there are, at least I could get some help here.
 
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barrydrake

Silver Level Poster
Ubuntu is even better now ....

Hi ....

How long was it since you tried, and didn't like Ubuntu? Version 10.04 is really fantastic. The latest - 10.10 might have a few snags, but it's going to be good. Download a live-CD of 10.04 Lucid and try it live. You'll be impressed!!!!
 
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MintMove

Member
barrydrake said:
Hi ....

How long was it since you tried, and didn't like Ubuntu? Version 10.04 is really fantastic. The latest - 10.10 might have a few snags, but it's going to be good. Download a live-CD of 10.04 Lucid and try it live. You'll be impressed!!!!
Click to expand...


This was a few years ago, this guy had set up kubuntu 6 on a machine and it looked amazing so I thought I'd give it a try but it needed a lot of work done (like getting mp3 files to work). I think I didn't even install it properly in the first place, hehe!

There are soooo many distros to choose from so I just got Mint 10... I'm sure ubuntu is good but didn't really like the name (mint sounds so much cooler, lol! (I know... lame))
Is lucid the name for the new version of ubuntu or is it a different distro?

This time I'm not installing windows at all. If I make a dual boot, I might get lazy and just go back to windows and I really want to start using linux. I know I can get there and just by using the liveCD it seems it won't be too difficult
 
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barrydrake

Silver Level Poster
Ubuntu is even better now ....

Hi ......

Things (times) have changed. Just download and run a live_cd and see. The latest Live-CC will amaze. Please have a go.
 
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MintMove

Member
Ok, downloading ubuntu 10.04 64bit...

that reminds me, the new pc that I'm waiting for is amd64 but the one I'm using is 32 bit. Will it still run the live CD properly or do I need a 64 bit system to check it out?
 
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barrydrake

Silver Level Poster
MintMove said:
Ok, downloading ubuntu 10.04 64bit...

that reminds me, the new pc that I'm waiting for is amd64 but the one I'm using is 32 bit. Will it still run the live CD properly or do I need a 64 bit system to check it out?
Click to expand...

No prob. I'm using Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 32 bit on my amd64. The 64 bit live CD will only work on an amd64 processor. You might want to download 10.04 32 bit. I have tried the 64 bit live CD but you might be better sticking with 32 bit for now. There used to be problems with some of the browser plugins under 64 bit. I think most of them have been taken care of, but it might be better to wait awhile. I have a Windows Vista hard drive in a caddy so I can boot into Windows if all else fails - haven't used it in about four months now. Last week, I put Ubuntu on my sister's computer. I put it on a new hard drive 'just in case'. I don't think she'll ever want to use Windows again. I just get sooo frustrated when I have to do something on a Windows box these days.
Barry.
 
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MintMove

Member
Hi Barry

Got my new computer today and I've already installed ubuntu 64bit. I might dual boot with mint but for now it's just ubuntu. The layout is very similar to mac os. I know coz my boss has a macbook. I was going to check if the 5.1 speakers are all working but couldn't find the application to configure the sound. Could you help me please? I logged on to youtube as well and it wasn't working. I got a msg to install flash, which I did but still didn't work. Need your help there as well, hehe!

I'll probably be posting more questions in due course. :-D
 
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barrydrake

Silver Level Poster
Sound ....

Actually, I had a problem with the sound when I first tried 64bit. The problem went away when I tried again. Were you able to get sound while running the liveCD live? You don't say what your mobo is. Do you need a proprietary sound driver? (System->administration->hardware drivers). There is a speaker icon somewhere top RHS. Left click and open 'sound preferences'. Any clues there?

You might like to run lshw from the command line (applications->accessories->terminal) and see if the output of that gives you any clues.

Oh, my e-mail is: b[dot]drake] [at] ntlworld [dot] com (Am I allowed to do that, Mr. Moderator?).

Regards, Barry.
 
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MintMove

Member
barrydrake said:
Actually, I had a problem with the sound when I first tried 64bit. The problem went away when I tried again. Were you able to get sound while running the liveCD live? You don't say what your mobo is. Do you need a proprietary sound driver? (System->administration->hardware drivers). There is a speaker icon somewhere top RHS. Left click and open 'sound preferences'. Any clues there?

You might like to run lshw from the command line (applications->accessories->terminal) and see if the output of that gives you any clues.
Click to expand...



Yeah, I tried those tips and browsed around other forums and tried different things but nothing worked. The 5.1 sound should've worked just by going into sound prefs and changing the settings to 5.1 surround but there was no such option for some reason. I installed a restricted pack that I found while going through ubuntu software manager (i think) and it should've got everything working but afterwards I went on youtube and all I got was a blank screen whenever I clicked on a video. By midnight I just gave up and as a final attempt I thought might as well try linuxMint and that's what I've got right now. The surround sound seems to be working fine and had no problem with youtube.

I have a theory that if I install ubuntu 10.10 instead of 10.04, it might work fine.

BTW, I found it very interesting what you said about the 'X' in OSX has something to do with Linu'X'...
 
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