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Ubuntu Noob, Help opinions please.

Spec-Kie

Well-Known Member
Jan 17, 2013
244
7
North East UK.
Hey guys,

Not really posted any thing in this section. Been using the HTC desrie forum alot recently, Well i thought i would introduce my self in here also, As i am a really big Computer Hobbist, (been away for a while) Kids and stuff and not really has much time to read up or do any thing, Thing is i have my Laptop Win7 all that stuff on it, But recently i dug my AdventT9 out and built it all up got it all running smooth with P4 3.00ghz, 1.5gig RAM, WinXP HESP3 thing is i want to use something else on it as this machine is just there for burning and messing about on, as the wife uses laptop for more day to day tasks, Have been seein alot of people using Ubuntu and rating it quite high, Have done a little bit of reading but not much, But i was wondering if any one on this forum uses and what pros does it have to XP?. Can i still burn download? any opinions or help would be great thanks.
 
Well here's the thing. There's a learning curve involved with Linux vs Windows, as you're so used to Windows.

Ubuntu has a TON of free software available, which is great. Its open source and people are constantly adding things, fixing things, etc. So you're always up to date. Which again is neat.

There are times though (Which this MIGHT be fixed in Ubuntu now) where you need to find your driver though and enable it in a sources list and install it through terminal. Which is a minor detail, really. It's worth it for me. (Though I don't use Ubuntu...still a linux fan though...as seen by my title ;))

Really your best bet is to download a copy, burn it to a disk (Or if you have a 4gb or more flashdrive and your bios supports it, use the program unetbootin to make a live USB) and boot into the Live system. Play around with it, see if you like it. Its a live system, so no install, your files stay in tact. Unless, of course, you love it and delete your hard drive. (As always, backup to another location if you have anything you don't want to lose ;))

Just my opinion.

OH. Before I forget. Yes. You can download/burn things with Linux. Use Brasero. It's what I use and it works like a charm.
 
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right so, Thats had helped me out a bit, When you say drivers have to be installed from a list does this mean every componend i have has to be manually installed?. I have a spare HDD that i am going to play about this thats is just sitting there i will keep my Windows xp hdd in the machine and just use both at the same time if that is possible, ( MAster + slave), Been a long time since i messed around lol,
 
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Sometimes you have to seperately install the drivers. If you have a wired connection, that would be best for Ubuntu until you know that your wireless works out of the box. (Ubuntu is pretty good at that these days, though)

Worse comes to worse, ubuntuforums.org will definitely be able to help you out as well. Usually its a simple sudo apt-get install (your driver names here)
 
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Ubuntu is fun. The good thing about Linux is most drivers are added quite quickly and generally, old hardware doesn't go out of support. I've been using Ubuntu for a copuple of years (And Fedora) and I've always been fine for drivers. The only driver I had a problem with was a 3rd party wireless card (Cheap one) that I couldn't get to work.

The most compatible computers run Intel everything. Intel drivers have loads of support. So if you have a laptop with an Intel CPU, chances are the Wireless card, NIC, Video, sound and chipset are intel too.

As Prinny suggested, a Live CD/SUB is the best option.,
 
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everything worked out of box for me (on a previously Windows 8 computer, even the proprietary LAN/WLAN driver worked). the Unity theme that comes with Ubuntu is great for newbies, and if you meant CD burning, it works great. i think it includes a program known as 'Brasero' which is an excellent Nero clone. it also has an 'App Store' if you're familiar with Apple, called Software Center. it works in quite the same way. most of your common apps are available through it. if you got a Windows program you really need back, the binary 'Wine' is in the Software Center. install it, then download your Windows app and simply double click its setup like you would in Windows. it will take a bit and you will see a pop-up saying Wine is being updated, then it will load up as you remember it would.

i must disagree with Intel chipsets, especially Intel video chipsets(i.e., Intel 810). these are still flaky in Linux and such for gaming. most of the time you're stuck in VESA (no acceleration) and low resolution compatibility mode. performance with them is horrid. i get my best performance out of AMD CPU and ATI Radeon cards
 
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i must disagree with Intel chipsets, especially Intel video chipsets(i.e., Intel 810). these are still flaky in Linux and such for gaming. most of the time you're stuck in VESA (no acceleration) and low resolution compatibility mode. performance with them is horrid. i get my best performance out of AMD CPU and ATI Radeon cards


I only really meant that they work out of the box.

However, (although obviously I know the ironlake GMA that I use is part of the packaged as a core in its own right, packaged onto the substrate of the first generation core ix CPUs) mine works flawlessly.

My department at work tests compatibility with all Intel graphics and network interfaces (admittedly on fedora) and we class them all as working. Our business is supported by Linux build environments though, so the quality of graphics is not important. Never had an issue with being stuck in VESA though.

We test Fedora 8 to 17 (currently) on all new laptops purchased. We have tested hardware compatibility going back 10 years or more
 
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i must disagree with Intel chipsets, especially Intel video chipsets(i.e., Intel 810). these are still flaky in Linux and such for gaming. most of the time you're stuck in VESA (no acceleration) and low resolution compatibility mode. performance with them is horrid.

Don't know much about the Intel 810, other than it's rather old, and how long ago did you try Linux with Intel graphics? Because these days Intel tend to be very good with the GMA series for Linux, e.g. GMA950 and GMA3100. And will often work straight away with Linux, without having to download and enable proprietary drivers.

The Intel supplied drivers are completely open source and fully accelerated. for 2D and 3D. In fact better than Nvidia and ATI, because their Linux graphics drivers are closed source and proprietary(binary blobs). Which means if there's a problem with them and something breaks, because of a kernel change or something, only Nvidia and ATI can fix them. There are open source X.org drivers for Nvidia and ATI, but these are 2D only, no 3D acceleration.

AFAIK the only Intel graphics that require proprietary drivers for Linux are GMA500(Poulsbo) and GMA600(Cedartrail). Because these were not developed by Intel, they're actually PowerVR.



i get my best performance out of AMD CPU and ATI Radeon cards

It will be the same in Windows. Intel graphics generally are lower performance than AMD/ATI or Nvidia. Intel designed their graphics for low power and low cost, rather than for high performance and power hungry gaming.
 
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I only really meant that they work out of the box.

However, (although obviously I know the ironlake GMA that I use is part of the packaged as a core in its own right, packaged onto the substrate of the first generation core ix CPUs) mine works flawlessly.

My department at work tests compatibility with all Intel graphics and network interfaces (admittedly on fedora) and we class them all as working. Our business is supported by Linux build environments though, so the quality of graphics is not important. Never had an issue with being stuck in VESA though.

You might not be using VESA, could well have the correct open source Intel drivers by default.
 
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VESA graphics are also a pain if you have a wide screen monitor. I doubt that the VESA spec will ever be updated to include 16:9 aspect ratios.

TBH I think using VESA in Linux these days with modern graphics chipsets, is like the equivalent of Windows Safe Mode. It's something you might have to use in the event of problems, like a proprietary video driver doesn't work with a particular kernel version and/or build.
 
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TBH I think using VESA in Linux these days with modern graphics chipsets, is like the equivalent of Windows Safe Mode, 800x600 256 colour. It's something you might have to use in the event of problems, like a proprietary Nvidia driver doesn't work with a particular kernel build.
I still have reasons for eschewing a full-on X desktop and sticking to curses-based utilities, like on my old server box. I've been using it recently to test new hard drives, copy the contents of its old RAID array to my mew, larger ones and some other things. It was originally set up with LXDE and a 1280x1024 monitor, which doesn't display well on the 1080p monitor that I'm currently using.

I'm too lazy to spend much time reconfiguring it for the new monitor, since the existing Linux install will be gone shortly. But it did get me to think about how I could no longer use a "vga=" boot argument to good effect any more.
 
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