Thinking of migrating from Windows 8 to Ubuntu

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jnvdh06

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Hey guys. As the title implies, I have been contemplating totally replacing Windows 8 with Ubuntu. I have used Ubuntu and Linux Mint in a dual boot before and a virtual machine. But have always been afraid that I might miss some functionality that I have in Windows.

I mainly use my PC for:
Document reading and editing
Movies
Music
Printing
iTunes
Email
Some gaming ie GTA San Andreas

I have struggled before with setting up a printer and scanner, so that bothers me.

And also I am longing for a good Outlook replacement as I have an Exchange account related to work.

Your advice is appreciated
 
There is no outlook replacement.

I've used geary that was quite lekker, but with all open source outlook alternatives they can't handle massive mail accounts it will either hang or "stop working" and crash continuesly
 
Personally I would go windows 10 first, but that is not the topic of conversation.

What you can do as a "lifeline" is download VMWare converter and create a virtual machine based on your current physical one. Test it in VMWare player and make sure it works as expected.

You can then replace your OS and play your old one in a VM if needed when you run into hickups. Good luck with Ubuntu, it has progressed marvelously in the last few years.
 
Don't Just Dont!

Windows is the format 90% of your apps and programs will run on. Hardware is designed to be compatible with it.
You will not benefit from switching over to linux.

Windows 8 is awful in terms of looks and feel but behind the scenes it works. Upgrade free to Windows 10 Like Pilgrim says your life will be a lot simpler.

Also windows 8 and windows 10 comes with Hyper-v built-in if you want to play with visualization.

And games and itunes on linux, haha you a funny guy.
 
Thanks. Yes I will see how it turns out. Just a bit tired of Windows. But I know I am going to miss some of the Windows software
 
Upgrade to Windows 10 first and see how you like it. I prefer Mint, however, if you're re-doing your PC and have a few hard drives, maybe get an Unraid license. It's a linux OS running off a memory stick that allows you to create VM's and passthrough GPU/keyboard etc. I use it at home and run Windows 10 on KVM, as well as my Linux installs. Everything is either in a plugin or a docker container, so I can reboot/shut down my windows install without worrying about my media center or sonarr. It's also a type of raid where you can set a parity drive, and it will rebuild from there if a drive fails, but keep your drives separate so if more than 1 drive fail, you can still recover the data left on the others
 
Linux has always been a skeleton OS to me, more suited to precise roles than a general everyday pc.

You set it up to be a file server or media server or web proxy.

That is how linux works best. So you spend hours configuring linux and the open source software till it works then pray it doesn't break.
 
I moved over about a month ago - no issues so far.

Although I do the following
Music
Email
Work / Self-learning.
 
xrapidx said:
I moved over about a month ago - no issues so far.

Although I do the following
Music
Email
Work / Self-learning.
Click to expand...

To be fair to linux, Android is linux based and is the words most popular OS.

Android can be install on x86 architecture and this opens a whole world of Apps and Gaming that linux in it other forms just cant do respectably.
 
So a couple of things to keep in mind:
- LibreOffice is good but not great. Support MS Office formats though.
- Email = webmail. There are apps out there like Geary and Evolution but I always end up back with webmail.

Both of the above issues are solved with Office 365.


Ubuntu - Unity sucks
Ubuntu Gnome - buggy AF!
Kubuntu - Plasma is VERY PRETTY but unstable imo
Xubuntu - Loving it, missing some features like a GUI to switch proxy settings. I'm using it right now.
Mint Cinnamon - Boring, windows like but rather this than plain old Ubuntu
 
LOL. All these Linux "haters" Ag shame maybe that is to harsh before they crying to mummy --- The lazy people just don't want to do the hard work or lets call it grunt work to tune the system to their liking. Any who --- I tried a few distros and I love linux mint.

Linux is just fast and efficient. I use it as my main system or working system. And dual boot with windows 10. To play games etc. etc, etc. Don't want to dual boot. If you have enough memory going around. Use a VM for your Windows 10 on Linux.
 
spyketdog said:
LOL. All these Linux "haters" Ag shame maybe that is to harsh before they crying to mummy --- The lazy people just don't want to do the hard work or lets call it grunt work to tune the system to their liking. Any who --- I tried a few distros and I love linux mint.

Linux is just fast and efficient. I use it as my main system or working system. And dual boot with windows 10. To play games etc. etc, etc. Don't want to dual boot. If you have enough memory going around. Use a VM for your Windows 10 on Linux.
Click to expand...

Not even that much "grunt work". Install Xubuntu, change the theme to Numix, done.
 
I like Linux, but it always seems "umpolished", work in progress in a sense. Its almost like Android vs iOS. I love both, but iOS just feels more like a "finished product", where Android always seems like a work in progress. Same can be said in regards to Ubuntu/Linux vs Windows. Windows feels in a sense more "polished" due to better software support, where Ubuntu/Linux feels like a work in progress. I guess its due to the open-source nature, and that its not as widely used by the general public, and thus lacks some software support
 
jnvdh06 said:
Hey guys. As the title implies, I have been contemplating totally replacing Windows 8 with Ubuntu. I have used Ubuntu and Linux Mint in a dual boot before and a virtual machine. But have always been afraid that I might miss some functionality that I have in Windows.

I mainly use my PC for:
Document reading and editing
Movies
Music
Printing
iTunes
Email
Some gaming ie GTA San Andreas

I have struggled before with setting up a printer and scanner, so that bothers me.

And also I am longing for a good Outlook replacement as I have an Exchange account related to work.

Your advice is appreciated
Click to expand...

See if your printer is supported
http://www.openprinting.org/printers
Canon is a pain in the ass to setup sometimes. Lexmark is flatout often not supported. HP and Samsung is generaly easy to get up and running, samsung hosts linux drivers on their website.
http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html

The SteamOS/Linux game catalogue on steam is growing and more games being ported or have been ported.
You might have to say good bye to GTA though, i don't think rockstar has gotten onboard yet.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/

iTunes will not work

Don't forget about thunderbird for emails. I can't comment on how it fares with corporate exchange servers though.
One very important plugin if you do end up using it is lookout. Without it attachment sent from outlook to you will not display properly.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/lookout/
 
ODTech said:
See if your printer is supported
http://www.openprinting.org/printers
Canon is a pain in the ass to setup sometimes. Lexmark is flatout often not supported. HP and Samsung is generaly easy to get up and running, samsung hosts linux drivers on their website.
http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html
Click to expand...
I've had no problems with several models of Canon scanners, printers and all-in-ones.

ODTech said:
The SteamOS/Linux game catalogue on steam is growing and more games being ported or have been ported.
You might have to say good bye to GTA though, i don't think rockstar has gotten onboard yet.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/
Click to expand...
Over 2000 games on Linux now.
You might be in luck with GTA: San Andreas on WINE.

ODTech said:
Don't forget about thunderbird for emails. I can't comment on how it fares with corporate exchange servers though.
Click to expand...
I've used Thunderbird against a corporate exchange server over IMAP, not sure if that had to be configured on the server side.
ODTech said:
One very important plugin if you do end up using it is lookout. Without it attachment sent from outlook to you will not display properly.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/lookout/
Click to expand...
Never heard of this, is it really needed?
 
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