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Operating System Ubuntu, Xp or Vista

Ok my patience with Vista is running thin... I am sick of it, my XP machines run so much better and am wondering if I should switch to Ubuntu... Now having never used Ubuntu for more than 10 to 15 minutes I was kinda looking for pro's and cons other than the fact Ubuntu is open source.... basically I want your opinion on if I should switch or down grade XP or deal with the issues...
 
Ubuntu is awesome, I have it on my work PC, my main and server at home. It beats the ever living crap out of XP, in Phases' humble opinion. I was on XP (regularly, I'm an IT guy) for years and years.. and 3 months ago finally went full Ubuntu and virtualized XP on my work and main home computers for the few things I still need it for.

I tried Suse 9.2 a few years back and after a few weeks ended up going back to Windows, but Linux has come a long way since then.

However... and I don't care what anyone tells you... any Linux distro, even Ubuntu, requires a huge amount of dedication on your part. You have to be willing to spend the time it's going to take to get it all setup to your liking, get it to do the things you want, and get down into the nittiest of the gritties to tweak things. And if you use your computer regularly, there will be tweaking.

Hell, even just the regular security updates from the other day broke both foo and my work computers and took us two hours, working together, to fix. Turned out it was an easy fix but we didn't know what the hell it was when we were faced with two un-login-able (to X) computers out of nowhere.

You will have to be good, good friends with ubuntuforums.org and google. Need to be a tech savvy enough person to be comfortable with command line and always mindful of making backups of files you're modifying. And you will be modifying. Unless you are the most basic of basic users who just load it, use one account to get on, get online, get off and be done for the day, you will be modifying.

With that said. I love it and I think you should at least give it a try if you're willing. :)

One BIG plus is any time I've needed something, for whatever, any type of program, I haven't had to search long. The package managers and repositories are awesome. Search, select, install.

Edit: I could edit and revise this post a million times so I'm going to stop here.
 
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Everything Phases said.
There are just too many pros n cons, mostly pros though, to list about using a Linux GUI environment.
What would you mainly be solicitous about if you were to move to a *nix desktop GUI?
Like do you have specific concerns...(e.g.: will MS Office work, will all my movies play, etc)?
 
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Ubuntu is awesome, I have it on my work PC, my main and server at home. It beats the ever living crap out of XP, in Phases' humble opinion. I was on XP (regularly, I'm an IT guy) for years and years.. and 3 months ago finally went full Ubuntu and virtualized XP on my work and main home computers for the few things I still need it for.

I tried Suse 9.2 a few years back and after a few weeks ended up going back to Windows, but Linux has come a long way since then.

However... and I don't care what anyone tells you... any Linux distro, even Ubuntu, requires a huge amount of dedication on your part. You have to be willing to spend the time it's going to take to get it all setup to your liking, get it to do the things you want, and get down into the nittiest of the gritties to fix the problems. And if you use your computer regularly, there will be problems.

Hell, even just the regular security updates from the other day broke both foo and my work computers and took us two hours, working together, to fix. Turned out it was an easy fix but we didn't know what the hell it was when we were faced with two un-login-able (to X) computers out of nowhere.

You will have to be good, good friends with ubuntuforums.org and google. Need to be a tech savvy enough person to be comfortable with command line and always mindful of making backups of files you're modifying. And you will be modifying. Unless you are the most basic of basic users who just load it, use one account to get on, get online, get off and be done for the day, you will be modifying.

With that said. I love it and I think you should at least give it a try if you're willing. :)

One BIG plus is any time I've needed something, for whatever, any type of program, I haven't had to search long. The package managers and repositories are awesome. Search, select, install.

Edit: I could edit and revise this post a million times so I'm going to stop here.

Ok, I used to be tech savvy I have a degree in network engineering and data communication was at one point certified with CNA, CNE, A+ and MCSE however that was nearly 10 years ago as I am now a mailman if you can believe that switch... so I no longer consider myself SAVVY per say more like proficient... Hence the reason I asked... I believe that I can function with it fairly well but since I am not nor have I ever been a "linux" guy it'll take time but I don't think it'll be any less than the time I have put into Vista since I got it the day it was released and have had nothing but conflicts and issues since..... Like I said I used Ubuntu for 10 - 15 minutes but it was enough for me to ask the question and consider the switch seriously....
 
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Everything Phases said.
There are just too many pros n cons, mostly pros though, to list about using a Linux GUI environment.
What would you mainly be solicitous about if you were to move to a *nix desktop GUI?
Like do you have specific concerns...(e.g.: will MS Office work, will all my movies play, etc)?

No I'm not to concerned with things like MS Office I already use Open Office half the time as far as browsers I use Firefox and Chrome probably Chrome more once they fix it to allow the extensions but as for as utils I'm not worried... my concern is more function.... Vista gives me issues with everything and I keep waiting for it to get better and it hasn't made the progress that it should have by now and if I am going to have to tweak and fix something it might as well be something that works... besides I can run the emulators correct? or should I just partition my drive and run both for the time being?
 
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Like what exactly? (that vista is giving your trouble with) ..just curious.

There's Wine and one other program designed to allow you to run windows apps/games, but they don't work for everything.

You can dual boot, sure. Lots of people do that. I believe foo here does.

Or you can virtualize windows in a virtualbox or vmware environment.. which is what we both do - both at home and at work. Which is great. However, accelerated video doesn't translate through so.. it wouldn't be good for games really or whatever. But for whatever else it'll work.

It's tricky, and will require tweaking and modifying (wink) but you can get other devices (like USB drives) to work in virtual environments as well as the sound to come through, and as I like to do it, a shared folder that's right there on ubuntu's desktop that you map to from within your virtual xp, so you can easy move files back and forth.
 
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Like what exactly? (that vista is giving your trouble with) ..just curious.

There's Wine and one other program designed to allow you to run windows apps/games, but they don't work for everything.

You can dual boot, sure. Lots of people do that. I believe foo here does.

Or you can virtualize windows in a virtualbox or vmware environment.. which is what we both do - both at home and at work. Which is great. However, accelerated video doesn't translate through so.. it wouldn't be good for games really or whatever. But for whatever else it'll work.

It's tricky, and will require tweaking and modifying (wink) but you can get other devices (like USB drives) to work in virtual environments as well as the sound to come through, and as I like to do it, a shared folder that's right there on ubuntu's desktop that you map to from within your virtual xp, so you can easy move files back and forth.


Hard for me to nail down and give you just one issue as to why I just don't like it.....It's been a progressive thing for me.... Honestly I was so excited when it came out I got my copy brought it home and went WOW it looks great almost MAC like with the graphics love the new search for programs etc.... you know had that "NEW CAR SMELL" but then the annoying security protocol with the pop up window asking permission every thirty seconds needed to deactivate that with in 5 minutes of my original install or I would have thrown the damn thing out the window...I tried running my staples NERO gone... wouldn't work right until 8.0 so that's kind of fixed, anti-virus waste of time still have conflicts here and there.... firewall that came with it what a joke... and the list goes on and on....If I listed everything that has annoyed me with Vista and continues to annoy me it would be 5 pages long....
 
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I switched out of XP about six months ago and haven't looked back (for my desktop). With the release of 8.10, they fixed a lot of nitty things, but the big issue that seems to have been resolved from 8.04 is multiple applications running sound (I could only get one program at a time in 8.04). I run WINE, and have played everything flawlessly from WoW to GTA:SA to Max Payne, yeah that game is still gangster.

Do yourself a favor, install Ubuntu, make an iso of your XP cd, shred it, and force yourself to really learn Ubuntu, you'll thank me.

btw, new GTA IV (for PC) should be out VERY soon :D

it's good to hear you got gta:sa & maxpayne to run flawlessly. a lot of people seem to have trouble getting it to run properly..
 
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Do 8.04, then upgrade to 8.10 if you are feeling feisty(pun?). It takes about 1 hour to upgrade, as opposed to a full reinstall to go the other way.

Well either way I am going to be asking ALOT of questions probably some really dumb ones too.... So if you guys don't see me on the board this weekend you know I had some problems with the install going to give it a whirl on Saturday night so....
 
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Well, it's much higher than 80%, from what I understand.

I've never used any virus or spyware protection with linux.. though I'm sure there's some out there....

No worries any thing else I should download or install? Anyhow I have been running the test version off the CD for about 20 minutes now and I had forgotten how quick computers can be.... it is at LEAST 5 times faster than Vista and VERY easy to navigate... felt weird for about five minutes but as soon as you figure out where things are it is just not even close.... I think with about a month of true usage and tweaking it could be unreal.... I feel like I have been missing something it's sweet should have thought of switching instead of upgrading to Vista....
 
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way harder to get spyware, adware and viruses...so in fact that as a linux user...you can download AVG for free from their site.

I have used Ubuntu since Drapper....unfortunately my wife broke her laptop so we are sharing one, and she cannot stand it...so I switched back to XP until we get her a new one.

You can always do the dual boot option as well so that when you turn on the machine...you will be asked which operating system you want to boot. You can only do this if installing linux onto a windows machine...not the other way around.
 
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Hmm. I don't use wireless.

What version, 8.04?

Right click your networking icon by your clock.. have "edit wireless networks" there?

I did not on 8.04 for some reason so i installed 8.10 now and i do have the edit options but does not allow them....
i am going to network icon by the clock then to network connections from there edit wirless connection 1 then i enter the ssid and mac i have temporarly disabled the wep to ease my installation so i skip wireless security then to ipv4 click auto dhcp address only enter my dns search domain and dhcp client id but from there i can not continue the only way out of the edit screen is to abandon my settings and close it???
 
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