I have been playing around with Ubantu but am still not sure. I know there are several other distributions out. Is there an easier way to test them out other then actually downloading them and trying them out? Just what exactly is the difference? What is the difference between a distribution and interfaces like GNOME and Corbitz?
A distribution is a whole operating system, from the low-level code all the way up to Firefox and other applications. GNOME, on the other hand, is just an interface that can run on multiple distros and even multiple operating systems provided certain prerequisites are met. GNOME gives you the desktop environment and a good deal of applications, the distro gives you everything.
Not really. You pretty much always have to download something, even if it’s just a few-hundred-megabyte CD image for a Live CD.
(For anyone who doesn’t know, a Live CD is a whole distro put on a single CD that you can run without changing anything on your hard drive. This is a good way to test things out without committing to anything (although things run a lot slower than they do in ‘real life’) and a good way to use a computer without a functional hard drive.)
Usually not very much, but it’s very difficult to generalize here. Most ‘mainstream’ distros will work a lot like Ubuntu, only (sometimes) without as easy a way to install new software. Other distros (such as Slackware) focus very heavily on doing things via the command line and don’t provide much in the way of graphical tools to automate things. Some distros (Damn Small Linux, for one) focus on fitting as much as possible into as small a package as possible and so don’t have recent or full-featured applications. There is a huge field, but starting with Ubuntu was a good choice.
In case you’re not aware of it, you might want to examine the entries on DistroWatch.
Huh. They have PCLinuxOS listed as #1 page hits, which I’ve never heard of. Ah, I see…it’s a LiveCD of Mandrake. Probably worth checking into, although I’ll personally stick with Debian (or some other Debian-based distro, as Ubuntu is).
Being an Ubuntu convert, I’d strongly recommend this as a starting point at the very least.
I used to use SuSE but find Ubuntu superb and the price could hardly be better.
If you are going to order CDs from Shippit, they do advise that delivery can take around six to ten weeks. My Gutsy disks arrived (from Holland) in four days.
However, I updated online to Gutsy from Feisty, mainly to see what would go wrong. Nothing did. Took ninety minutes to download the packages, thirty four minutes to install them, two minutes to clean out all unrequired packages and fifty seconds to reboot. I still have all my previous settings and configurations intact (created a “/home” partition prior to the last install that had all my personal bits and bobs in it, including configuration files).
Although it is not an essential item by any standards, Ubuntu easily out-pretty’s Vista by a mile (still have Vista on the laptop).
I played around with the live cd last night of ubantu. couldnt really do much with it since it was running from the CD. how do those interfaces work? just download them and install them and they act like window blinds?
Not at all. It is not skinning Windows to look like Ubuntu, the live CD boots the Linux kernel from the CD rather than the hard drive, any time it needs to access system files it has to read them from the CD, which is slow. The live CD can be useful to see how well a distribution works with your hardware, and how well you like it. I would recommend putting some typical work you would be doing on a USB thumb drive and working with the linux applications. You will be able to read from and save to the thumb drive.
You can also re-partition your hard drive and install Ubuntu alongside your Windows installation. When I did this a while ago the hardest part was changing a file for the bootloader so that the machine would restart in Windows by default rather than Ubuntu.
If you do that. it’s apparently advisable to get Windows to defrag the drive first to minimise potential problems downsizing the windows partition.
I still have fun and games with that - if you leave Windows at the bottom of the menu and set the default choice to 4 (or whatever), it gets messed up temporatily after a kernel update, as the menu gets new items added, pushing Windows down. If you tweak the menu to put Windows at the top, the option disappears altogether when you install a kernel update. There’s probably a way around it, but I haven’t worked it out yet - I have to edit my menu quite often.
No, they are already there, just click on the one you want and it will switch to it.
For the transparency, hold ALT and roll the scroll-wheel.
You can get the windows to roll up like a roller blind when you click on the title bar, set it in the windows properties-behavior options.
I’m currently running Gutsy from the live CD on my laptop. Connected wirelessly without issue, can read the info from the NTFS drive and have just sent an email to a friend with an mp3 attached - from the hard drive. Just played some mp3s and Mpeg videos too.
I have an oldish machine here that dual-boots XP and Dapper (must get round to updating that one day) works very well indeed. We only really use XP for the iTunes installation to shift stuff to my daughter’s iPod. Must get that transferred to a Linux machine soon too.
The advice about running defrag before repartitioning is sound. Windows chucks stuff all over the place and you could easily lose or corrupt some of your files if you don’t.
That might have been my problem. Even though I put Ubuntu on a separate partition from where Vista is installed, Vista started acting wonky after that.
I have 2 Ubuntu problems.
1.) My Acer Aspire L100 is a small form factor, which means you’ve pretty much got to use what came with it. It came with both a VGA and a DVI port. This works fine in XP and Vista with 2 monitors. However, Ubuntu will not even boot up right if both are plugged in at the same time. So I have to unplug the 2nd monitor before I reboot to Ubuntu.
2.) I was told that Starcraft and Diablo II would work flawlessly in Ubuntu, but I don’t know how to install them. I get a message along the lines of “I don’t know how to open an .exe file”. I’ve only used programs that got installed with the distro, so I have no idea how to install others.
Thanks. And if I need to visit another messageboard, please direct me to it.
Have you tried enabling the ‘non-free’ repositories in the package manager? - it may be that the best drivers for your hardware are in there. (‘non-free’ doesn’t mean you have to pay for it, in this context, it just means they’re not necessarily open source)
I have never used a two monitor setup but coincidentally I had to tinker with monitor settings a couple of hours ago, after installing Gutsy onto the ancient Duron machine and saw there the options for setting up two monitors.
I did also fleetingly notice setups for two graphics cards.
.exe files would have to be run under an emulator, Wine, VMWare or a third one I have seen named but forget what it was.
Never heard of either but you may be disappointed if they are games, unless there is a Linux version.
An invaluable source of information is the Ubuntu Forums and for new users, Psychocats
I’ve always had to fight the ATI drivers and use safe graphics mode with Ubuntu until the latest release, Gutsy Gibbon. A couple clicks after I booted up the first time and everything was working. I’d definitely recommend this to a new Linux user.
myglaren, you’ve never heard of starcraft or diablo ii? What planet have you been living on?
chrisbooth, for your purposes the distributions are the same, use ubuntu. The “interfaces” like GNOME are the most important part of the OS (if you’re not a geek). They’re the windows, toolbars, everything. They’re much more than a windows blind skin, they’re the entire engine (skins are possible too). GNOME has gotten really good recently, i’m very impressed. All the distributions use the same small set of these guis (with GNOME being the most popular). Hence, distributions are mostly more of a fine, under-the-hood, distinction (but there are distributions that look/act different, e.g. for slow pcs or for really tiny cds).
Incidentally. many people aren’t aware of this but distributions of Windows also exist. These come with many customizations and pre-installed apps. You can also make your own using nLite.
This may or may not help, as it sounds like the issue might be beyond simple configuration. I just set my wife’s computer up to use two monitors; there was a bit of hassle involved. Two things: (1) Try the “Restricted Drivers” settings (available from the “System” menu); I know nVidia drivers are available, don’t know if this is applicable to your system. (2) I followed the instructions found here, which worked for my wife’s computer (nVidia specific, sort of; the driver installation is nVidia specific, the TwinView setup most likely isn’t). I found this to be a good basis for the different dual monitor options. Whether or not it’s clear enough for you is another matter entirely.
It seems as though although Ubuntu has greatly improved X configuration, it doesn’t “just work”. I’ve had issues with hooking up a single external monitor to my laptop (a seizure inducing screen), but haven’t really put in any time to figure out the root cause (e.g., driver, monitor/hardware, configuration files, or something else). Hope that helps, at least a little.
Drat, forgot to add this: if you’re not satisfied with Ubuntu’s look and feel, you might want to try Kubuntu, which uses the KDE GUI set rather than Gnome. KDE tends to be more Windows-like, although it’s much better than what MS puts out (just MHO).
Is KDE still more windows-like that GNOME? That was my impression circa RHEL-4, but trying out RHEL-5 or ubuntu it seems GNOME 2.18+ is better than winxp itself (and winxp has a damn good, thought-out shell that linux struggled to match for a long time). I haven’t tried the latest KDE, but unless it’s made the same leaps as GNOME, I’d think it’s fallen behind.
I was thinking about adding an edit saying that I didn’t endorse one over the other, nor do I pursue the latest and greatest updates of either. In fact, I have to admit that I’ve not looked at Kubuntu myself, being quite satisfied with Gnome (as a Debian user, on my desktop and a recently installed Ubuntu on my laptop). I’ve found that KDE both “looks” and “feels” more like Windows, and yet is distinctly Linux; again, that’s purely my opinion.
I’m pretty sure I prefer Gnome myself; at least, for the most part, I’ve had few enough issues that I’ve never really wanted to pursue KDE. However, I did want to point out to ChrisBooth12 the fact that there is an offshoot of Ubuntu that specifically focusses on a non-Gnome GUI set, which may be more similar to the Windows interface he’s used to.
I don’t do games, of any variety and certainly not computer games which is one reason Linux suits me. I have heard that there are one or two Linux ports now but couldn’t say what they might be.
Like Digital Stimulus I don’t really have a preference and stick with GNOME due to inertia, just a few KDE tools thrown in but not the whole shebang.
Re: KDE. Once you have Ubuntu installed it is but a few minutes work to install the KDE tools and you can flip between KDE & GNOME desktops at will. Not worth getting the KDE specific disc if you already have the Ubuntu vanilla one.