Considering converting to Linux


The reason why I advocate new users to use Ubuntu and Mint, on top of optimal hardware compatibility, is the amount of support available. Ubuntu forums, Ubuntu stackexchange site, etc.

Yeah, for a while Mint devs got ahead of themselves and thought they could do a better job than the Ubuntu folk. They failed so have reverted back to the ease of the Ubuntu installs.

So I was only half wrong. :p
 
The reason why I advocate new users to use Ubuntu and Mint, on top of optimal hardware compatibility, is the amount of support available. Ubuntu forums, Ubuntu stackexchange site, etc.

Yeah, but Zorin already comes with everything right out of the box, so he wouldn't need support. :p
 
Its sad that Gentoo moved to the back of the stack, that was my favorite distro.
 
I've never heard of Zorin before.

OP go with Ubuntu or Mint.

Well now...there's a first time for everything, right? :)

(I suggested it, because it's easy peasy to install, everything he could possibly need is there -out of the box - and the layout is pretty close to win 7...or ubuntu...or others...he can choose. Also:

Zorin OS is a multi-functionaloperating system designed specifically newcomers to Linux. It is based on Ubuntu which is the most popular desktop Linux operating system in the world
)
 
Yeah, but Zorin already comes with everything right out of the box, so he wouldn't need support. :p

Things do go wrong occasionally. Support is invaluable to newbies.
 
Hi all. This is my first post, so be gentle. I am finding it difficult to convince myself that I use windows because I want to. Looking at the cost of upgrading to an up to date OS, I realize that growing up with ms dos and never trying anything else has left me "subscribed" to Microsoft. So instead of learning the hard way , I would like to ask the local Linux masters for some guidance and hopefully open my eyes to not only an alternative, but possibly a superior OS experience. I will be trying this on a hp laptop with Intel CPU, nvidia graphics and 3 gig ram. I intend to use it as a htpc as it has a hdmi port. I have no experience with Linux , so details please.


I first starting using linux back in 2004. I setup a dual boot environment (win & linux) but because there was a learning curve involved I mostly booted into windows.

Linux is much easier today compared to back in 2004 where getting certain things to work like GPU's, sound etc, these days however it's mostly plug and play and everything get's taken care of for you.

My suggestion to you is not to dual boot but rather only install linux on the machine. Linux is NOT windows so expect things to be different and this is gonna require a bit of a mindset change on your part. Once you get used to linux and go back to using a windows machine things genuinely feel a bit retarded and you might get frustrated like I do these days when using windows.

Stick it out and make a good go of it as you will be rewarded in the long run.

You are still gonna experience issues like your scanner or printer might not work right off the bat or not at all. This is not the fault of linux but the manufacturers not providing drivers or even information for others to create drivers. So when you buy stuff like printers and scanners first check that they have linux support but in most cases you should be fine.

Get over the idea of downloading software to install manually (or even source code to compile) the windows way, linux distros maintain repositories and 99% of the apps will be available via a gui (or the command line if you so choose) so it's click and go kinda like steam for example. Quite often one sees a new user manually downloading a application or the source code and battle to install it simply because they have not got their head around how repositories and linux ecosystem works.

My suggestion would be to install Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon 64-bit version which is the first one listed on the download page, http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php
(I'm assuming you have a 64-bit laptop) 17 is also a LTS (Long Term Support Release) which will have support until 2019.
 
Hi all. This is my first post, so be gentle. I am finding it difficult to convince myself that I use windows because I want to. Looking at the cost of upgrading to an up to date OS, I realize that growing up with ms dos and never trying anything else has left me "subscribed" to Microsoft. So instead of learning the hard way , I would like to ask the local Linux masters for some guidance and hopefully open my eyes to not only an alternative, but possibly a superior OS experience. I will be trying this on a hp laptop with Intel CPU, nvidia graphics and 3 gig ram. I intend to use it as a htpc as it has a hdmi port. I have no experience with Linux , so details please.

Hi Cowboy172

As you can see there is a lot of bickering about which distro of Linux to use and this is because they are very passionate about their distro's. I agree with the comment that Linux has come a long way and it is not the operating system of choice for just the advanced PC users anymore.

I have been doing a bit of distro hopping recently to try the different distros and I found that at the end of the day it comes down to the distro you feel the most comfortable with. I tried Ubuntu 14.04 and it was not for me. I found Mint, which is based on Ubuntu, was much easier to use and it has a nice interface which makes it the better choice for beginners. I have also used Opensuse which to me was easy to use and it is very stable.

My distro of choice however is OpenMandriva 2014. It is extremely user friendly and it opens with a welcome window you can use to check if there is any upgrade available, install additional packages, load your codecs for videos, load games etc. There is also a link to the forum with a very helpful community to assist with questions.

Mention was made of using a LIVE CD to first see if you are comfortable with Linux which I think is a very good idea as the live CD's do not install on your computer and do not change anything. If you decide to use Linux you can install it alongside your Windows operating system and make use of the dual boot option to load either Windows or Linux.

I stay in the Centurion so should you stay in the vicinity I will provide you with a copy of any of the mentioned Linux distro's namely OpenSuse 13.1, OpenMandriva 2014, Mint 16 or Ubuntu 14.04.

Let me know
 
Linux malware ..

[video=youtube;w3I8bPYwP-o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3I8bPYwP-o[/video]
 
well Cowboy172 - that was the default mybb baptism of fire.

you asked for a bit of advice & landed up with a pissing contest, save the above couple of replies.
 
I recently converted the SO's parents to Linux, and I am quite surprised how smooth the process was after I finished setting everything up for them.

It was a bit contradictory for me, in that I do feel Archlinux wasn't the best choice for them, however they insisted on they wanted a Linux for which support won't be dropped and keeps getting updates and newer software ect., and will work well enough for years to come. So I thought rolling release. If CentOS 7 was out by now, I would put that on even though it is not rolling release, so I settled for Manjaro XFCE edition.

I had to get everything they do to work on Linux of-coarse, this coming from a Windows XP install. Most things worked 100%, they just had to get used to a slightly different look, and using Chrome vs IE, and Thunderbird vs Outlook Express. Printer worked out of the box, same with the scanner, webcam and pretty much everything else. Most of my time was spent getting a better looking theme than the disastrous theme from Manjaro.

Additionally, they also bought new hardware, so at least I had a clean PC to work with, brand new. The feedback I received is very positive, and I think Manjaro really makes Archlinux a dream to work with. The only time I needed the console was to install some AUR apps that can't be packaged on the small tmpfs /tmp. In hindisght, I should just have disabled that setting, or figure out how to get Pamac to use a different folder.

Personally, never having used Manjaro, only Archlinux, I am very impressed with how most work is done for you, and I still feel comfortable because it is 99% like Archlinux.
 
Manjaro is king. As an ex Arch user (I still love Arch) I feel very at home with it.
 
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