Is Linux worth it?

k cool.. I would never get rid of my windows! But gonna install Linux later on
 
It's much easier to just have a look at linux for yourself, instead of the dual booting consider playing around with some distro's in virtual-pc or whatever your poison is.

Dual booting is a hassle IMO
 
Linoman said:
Good grief, as most of you know I love Linux. However naughty-boy-sa I feel there are somethings you should know. *Do not let linux fanboi's doing their best to convert you influence your decision.*

Linux is not like Windows, yes recent advances might in some cases make it similar but it is not Windows. You can run some Windows applications on Linux using WINE, however success varies from person to person and it may or may not work.

If every Windows application ran 100% on Linux then there would be no need for Windows would there. My point with this statement rather think of using Linux with alternative versions of software, do not try to run Linux software on Windows. In the end it is not worth the pain and time in the end.

You will need to seriously look at your reason for trying Linux. If it is because of a few trojans than rather look at improving your habits and security software with Windows.

Using Linux will require you to re-learn many features etc, that you have become used to using in Windows. Linux is worth using and running even learning however it is not easy in the end. No matter what the fanboi's will tell you.
Click to expand...

The Oracle has spoken, take heed.
 
Drake2007 said:
It's much easier to just have a look at linux for yourself, instead of the dual booting consider playing around with some distro's in virtual-pc or whatever your poison is.

Dual booting is a hassle IMO
Click to expand...

gentoo is the only distro that i know which doesn't add your Windows install to grub. of course i wouldn't advise the op to be trying gentoo as a first time linux user.
 
As a new time Linux user, here is some sound piece of advice, if you are not willing to learn, if you are not willing to sit reading up on you new OS (Linux), then forget it.

Linux is not for the "lazy", and I mean that very loosy, what I'm getting at is that you are about to learn a whole new OS. Dual boot for a bit and play around with it. Crash it, try and break it, and LEARN, but for heavens sake do not go onto a forum and shout, "I cannot get my network working!"

Just Google "Ubuntu network how-to" "Ubuntu MS office 2007 how-to", etc. and the answer will present it self, read, read, READ! Everything you want to know has been asked and answered before, you only need to be willing to read and learn.

I'm more than happy to help out any newbie trying Linux, and I'm more than happy to answer any question, but if you are not willing to read up then give up now. I have been using Linux as my sole OS for over 6 years now and am extremely happy I made the transition, but in the beginning it cost me sitting till late a night with a printed manual learning my way and earning my stripes.

Harsh, but no nonsense honest to goodness truth.
 
MyWorld said:
As a new time Linux user, here is some sound piece of advice, if you are not willing to learn, if you are not willing to sit reading up on you new OS (Linux), then forget it.....
Click to expand...

+1

Also keep in mind there are plenty good and bad distro's and it takes some time to find one that fits you.
 
As Linoman said, you need to think very carefully what you want to use it for. For example if you plan to browse the web, watch movies and general multimedia stuff it's great. Depending on what kind of work you do, it's also very useful. If you're a hardcore gamer, don't waste your time. Also if you want to try it out, running virtual box/vmware/virtual Pc inside windows might be a better option than dual booting for you (thats how I got started). When you're familiar you can run Linux as your main OS, and vbox for any specialist windows Apps.

Also with regards to the apps, if they are not specialist apps, you should try some of the linux alternatives, or see if they have Linux versions (like VLC for example). So take a look at your app profile before switching.

But if you want to take your 10 Windows apps and run them on Linux, prepare for a tough time.
 
What they all said. I've spent the last 2 years playing with various distros, flitting between different setups, different window managers, desktops, bases, etc. before settling on an Ubuntu base with OpenBox on my laptop. My current goal is to replace my regular apps on Windows with *ix equivalents. I expect that to take a while. In the meantime Windows keeps chugging on in it's partition. My sons' fav games are in Windows, my daughter's are in Linux. Go figure.

If I may be so bold, you may want to consider a shared data drive that can be accessed by both OSes. The experts here can tell you what to format it in - I use NTFS, but EXT3 drivers are available for Windows if you so choose. It makes it easier to get used to Linux if your regular documents, photos, music, etc. is available for use.

VirtualBox FTW!! Love seamless mode... ;)
 
Even though I’ve been using Linux for 95%+ of the time for the last 5 years, I still have an NTFS partition where my docs are due to the fact I occasionally boot into Windows. Although since my system upgrade a little while ago I am planning on stopping that and have it all in Linux.

Rebooting from Windows to Linux should it happen I need a document while there should not be a train smash.
 
"Ubuntu" - an African word meaning "Gentoo is too hard for me".

LOL I love it!

You are in your Linux Distro, You need that file from window$ NTFS-3g is your helper. It reads from and writes to ntfs partitions. I suspect that fat32 shouldn't be a problem, although I haven't tried it.

I load window$ on a Saturday for the updates, back-up my cell, and go back to the Gentoo. That is the only thing I can't do in Gentoo. I must admit I haven't tried Pc-suite and Wine.
regards
peter
 
If viruses (virii?) and spyware are your concerns, then consider running a Linux-only setup. The Windows apps you need to run : first try running them under WINE, if WINE doesn't work for you install a Windows VM and *ONLY* use it for the apps you NEED and don't touch the net with it, alternatively investigate crossover (you need to buy crossover.)
 
psheldon said:
"Ubuntu" - an African word meaning "Gentoo is too hard for me".

LOL I love it!

You are in your Linux Distro, You need that file from window$ NTFS-3g is your helper. It reads from and writes to ntfs partitions. I suspect that fat32 shouldn't be a problem, although I haven't tried it.

I load window$ on a Saturday for the updates, back-up my cell, and go back to the Gentoo. That is the only thing I can't do in Gentoo. I must admit I haven't tried Pc-suite and Wine.
regards
peter
Click to expand...
:D I chose Ubuntu after trying Fedora, Gentoo, Arch, Slackware... Ubuntu is a solid base (based on Debian, my favourite base distro) to build on.

FAT32 would be ok, I suppose, but it wouldn't support my 80GB partitions as well as NTFS. ntfs-3g works beautifully, but I would choose my shared partition formatting based on which OS I use most.

Peter, try the VirtualBox route - non-OSE version for USB connectivity. That should sort you out for good, and you can get rid of that useless partition. ;)
 
Yeah you can share ntfs and fat32 without issue. But I try to avoid FAT32 at all times. I’ve been writing to a ntfs partition using ntfs-3g for 3-4 years and I have never had that partition give up on me.

While I hear what you are saying Raithlin what is the performance hit when using the ext3 windows driver to access files. When I first went the route of sharing partitions it was slow compared to running ntfs-3g.

Another reason why I went the ntfs shared route initially was that I had common profiles (firefox, thunderbird etc) shared and I could only open the ext3 partitions in Windows from the actual program. So for me that became an issue.
 
Did you ever try Ext2 IFS for Windows?

It installs a pure kernel mode file system driver Ext2fs.sys, which actually extends the Windows operating system to include the Ext2 file system. Since it is executed on the same software layer at the Windows NT operating system core like all of the native file system drivers of Windows (for instance NTFS, FASTFAT, or CDFS for Joliet/ISO CD-ROMs), all applications can access directly to Ext2 volumes. Ext2 volumes get drive letters (for instance O:). Files, and directories of an Ext2 volume appear in file dialogs of all applications. There is no need to copy files from or to Ext2 volumes in order to work with them.

Detailed list of features:
  • Supports Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista and Windows 2008.
  • Supports both the 32 bit x86 and the 64 bit x64 platform.
  • Includes drivers with a digital signature for Windows Vista x64.
  • All operations you would expect: Reading and writing files, listing directories, creating, renaming, moving and deleting files or directories, querying and modifying the volume's label.
  • UTF-8 encoding.
  • Files larger than 2 GBytes. (Please read the FAQ section, too.)
  • Supports hash indexed (htree) directories (utilizes the so-called dir_index feature of Ext3).
  • Full plug-n-play functionality. When a drive is removed, the corresponding drive letter is deleted.
  • Supports use of the Windows mountvol utility to create or delete drive letters for Ext2 volumes (except on Windows NT 4.0). This is useful for scripts. (Please read the FAQ section, too.)
  • A global read-only option is provided.
  • File names that start with a dot "." character are treated as hidden.
  • Supports GPT disks if the Windows version used also does.
  • Paging files are supported. (A paging file is a file "pagefile.sys", which Windows swaps virtual memory to.) Users may create paging files at NT's control panel at Ext2 volumes.
  • Specific functions of the I/O subsystem of NT: Byte range locks, notification of changes of directories, oplocks (which are required by the NT LAN manager for sharing files via SMB).
Click to expand...

While not perfect (See the FAQ for details), it certainly seems like a good stop-gap if your primary system is Linux.
 
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When i tried it at the time it couldn't do that. had to be run through an specific app. in any event as i said above i will no longer be giving windows the pleasure of sharing
 
I been using linux for some time now, suse, fedora, damn small linux not, debian and ubuntu. Debian works really better (at least better than ubuntu) on my old ibook ppc.

On my current laptop which came with Vista, I dual booted for a little while... then really could not see the point of dual booting.

There some compatibility issues with openoffice and msword. but I convert my docs to pdf and then email them. that way I keep the formatting I choose...

Yes, there can be a steep learning curve... but that's ok as there is usually help available.

Linux is not windows. See this link http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm for some interesting info and comparisons.
 
Decided to give Kubuntu a shot... what a pain... but now that I have everything setup it's worth it.

Got a nice collection of fixes that I have written down thankfully or I would have been lost.
 
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