basically i've been running vista on my home comp for like 3 years now, its alright, but i went to a friends recently and he had linux and it looked fucking awesome and the way he described it made it look really good. But if i want to install linux as the default OS on my computer, how easy will it be ? when i install it, will al my files still be on my computer ? if so, where will they all be ? could somebody who has literally no experiance with getting down & dirty with computers realisticly be able to do it ? any advice would be great, thanks !
You could have your friend who is using Linux to download the newest live cd and burn on their machine. This disk allows Linux to run off the memory of a Windows machine without removing the Windows software. You can try it out and see if you like it without changing your system until you are comfortable with Linux. Ubuntu distribution is the easiest to switch to for Windows users. There are also Linux support groups in major cites across the world. Many have help classes for new users. PW
^ Yeah I had Mandrivia for a while and I hated it. Was supposed to be faster for low end machines (P4, 1.5GB RAM) but it was slooow. Opening a folder took 3-5 seconds whereas in XP it is instant. Pain in the ass to get applications and the video software just wasn't what I was looking for. I use MPC with CoreAVC and it uses my graphics card for video (CUDA) so it takes the strain off the CPU. The video players in Mandrivia didn't use CUDA so all the videos played off the CPU. Not to mention subtitles support was a PAIN IN THE ASS (big anime fan). It looked pretty and had a nice setup, but that's all it was, pretty. Hardly more efficient and was simply a pain in the ass. Might be different for some (most) people but I didn't like it. Switched back to XP and it's running just as fast. Able to watch 1080p anime with only a P4 and 1.5GB of RAM.
Which distro are you gonna go with? Ubuntu is probably the most user friendly. Linux is great when you learn it. For other distros try Get Linux | Home. If you think you're up for it, try out a Unix OS.
Linux Mint is by far the easiest Linux distro to operate. It is very cool and makes older machines run with new vigor. DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD. its ranked #1 there.
I am very new to linux, running Ubuntu 11.10 on my Aspire One Netbook. It is quite a nice OS despite not being so "user friendly" in terms of customization and installation of some programs, That being said alot of helpful tutorials will usually provide you the information for what you want to do.
I have been using Ubuntu for something like 4 or 5 years now. I prefer the 10.04, 11 has a lot of issues. I highly recommend getting Ubuntu to get introduced to Linux +GUI. The command line stuff will take some time and research to learn but you'll be "sudo apt-get install..." in no time. Not too tough for someone who has a cursory understanding of computing.
You could try running using a Live CD or have a Virtual Machine on Windows and see if you like it or not . Linux is good for a lot of things and bad for lot others . Same goes with Windows .
First, make a partition of your hard drive, give it a name, whatever. Then: Download | Ubuntu Save the .exe to the newly created partition file. launch wubi based on the settings(install size, Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Mint/etc), and the rest will either prompt you or do it by itself. Enjoy.
1. Depending on the distribution, very easy to very hard. Ubuntu walks you through the install, so you shouldn't have any problems. 2. No. You need to reformat your drive to Ext3 or Ext4 (the installer will do this), so you'll lose everything on your drive. 3. Gone. 4. Absolutely, just make sure you backup all your important stuff beforehand, because you'll lose all your data when reformatting (during the installation). There is plenty of documentation and a vibrant ubuntu community, so I'd recommend you start with that distribution. As you become more comfortable, you may want to explore others, but each distribution is different, so you may have to relearn some or many things when exploring.
thanks a bunch for all the replies guys ! seriosuly, it all really helped i got an old laptop i never use, so i think im gonna install unbuntu on that and see how it goes, and see if i like it enough to switch to my main computer one last question, whats gaming like on linux/ubuntu ? because i play cod4 regularly, so if gaming is a pain in the ass on it, that will probabaly mean i stay with windows
yea about that..... there really isn't any kind of gaming on linux but that shouldn't discourage you from trying it on an old laptop and learning some stuff.
its not supported at all ? :O damn, i guess that plan is done haha. Yeah, i downloaded ubuntu onto my laptop last night, not got to play with it yet but i will this evening
Sometimes it isn't what you know, but who. I had no idea that existed and my whole world is now complete. Thank you.
There's like no programs for it, games, and the drivers suck balls! It's just a novelty that wears off pretty quick, I remember dual booting with Ubuntu before they killed it with shitty updates and it was cool but I had no use for it.