Thread: Just started running linux

Originally Posted by MickS

Being PC tech illiterate, if I load Ubuntu onto the hard drive of my PC, when I boot it up again, can I still choose between XP and Ubuntu?

If you make the right decisions when installing it, yes. You end up with what is referred to as a "dual boot" installation, and can choose every time you boot the system. Go to the Ubuntu website for descriptions of the procedure, but the installation procedure is easy to follow to get this result.

John

Originally Posted by BBC

Interesting the use of the word Ubuntu. It is a Zulu word. It articulates a world view, or vision of humanity.

Ubuntu regards humanity as an integral part of eco-systems that lead to a communal responsibility to sustain life.

Linux have made a clever name choice.

"Linux" is not an entity that can make a choice, and Ubuntu was chosen as the name for Canonical's Linux distribution because the company is owned by a South African millionaire.

John

Originally Posted by mark2

If my Windows XP is running reliably, is there any performance advantage to using Linux? I did notice it slowed down a lot after installing service pack 2 - would it run faster with Linux?

Can I use my existing software, files etc?

The problem I find with Windoze is it always starts off running reliably and pretty quickly then over time it always slows down whether that is caused by registry corruption, memory leakage or whatever else who knows but in my experience it's always ended up running like a dog. The strange thing is if you re-install it anew on the same machine it will start off all good again. I know I have done this multiple times over the years. I can't see them ever fixing this as the new releases are built on the old code.

Linux will outperform XP on similiar hardware. ie it's resource requirements are lower, an earlier post also referred to a version for old hardware.

I'd suggest you run Linux from CD to see if you prefer it. It definitely doesn't have the issues described above. As for running your old files Open Office (the free open source equivalent to MS Office) will run word, excel and powerpoint files very well. You can also run a program called wine on Linux which is an emulator to let you run your windoze progs. Again check it out first to see if it works for you.

Good luck


Martin

Thanks John....

I been running Kubuntu the KDE variation of Ubuntu ( different desktop) If find the ubuntu desktop a little mundane. just my opinion.
Kubuntu and ubuntu are the same distro, if you wanted to change desktops you just add the deired desktop in the repositories and you can choose either you want to use.
I found that installing extra applications much easier than Windows, a small typed command in konsole or using the package manager GUIs will have stuff automatically installed, much faster than windows programs on a disc and less fuss.
Updates are regular and fast to download.
Tech support is free!!!!!!, and very fast usually from the forums, lots of help for Newbs.
It's fast and stable. I dual boot with XP due to a couple of softwares I use. Xp crashes or bogs down regulary, a couple of times I got the blue screen of death and couldn't boot in to XP, but rescued my files on XP from the Kubuntu then wiped and formated XP , reinstalled it. Then booted into Kubuntu via the installation CD ( live) a couple of typed commands I reinstalled the dual boot menu and all was well again. Never lost any stuff on the Kubuntu partition. Even if you do stuff up something in Kubuntu you can access the files with your live Cd to save stuff.
Linux uses a different file system, so you don't have defrag problems, and if you install and uninstall stuff, delete files etc, it doesn't behave any differently, try that on windows and you'll notice crap left in the registry, and slowing of the system needing defragging. With Kubuntu/ubuntu after so many reboots, it will do a system check just to make sure every thing is ok and it wil tweak itself back to optimum performance.
People are finally realising that Linux does not have to be a geek os, it actully can be user friendly
Another thing, Microsoft employs only so many developers , with Linux, many hundred of thousands of minds are working on it all the time, improving it, open source software.I there is a bug they are on to it quickly.

Some of you might find this interesting. These are the stats from our ubuntu based myth-tv. Keep in mind that it has good power management, so it writes to the bios on shutdown with the time of the next program it has to record, and then starts 5 minutes before. Without this the uptime would be much greater...

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

Some of you might find this interesting. These are the stats from our ubuntu based myth-tv. Keep in mind that it has good power management, so it writes to the bios on shutdown with the time of the next program it has to record, and then starts 5 minutes before. Without this the uptime would be much greater...

Now everyone knows what a big fan of Thomas the Tank Engine you are


Very impressive uptime, was it hard to set it up ?


Regards


Martin

Originally Posted by martinozcmax

Now everyone knows what a big fan of Thomas the Tank Engine you are


Very impressive uptime, was it hard to set it up ?


Regards


Martin

To be honest it was a bit painful. But it wasn't all it's fault!

We pretty much set the hardware up specifically for myth, so we went to some trouble to ensure that all our bits were tested with myth. This was a huge help.. and it would have been great but...

We have an older high def Panasonic tv. It takes a composite input, and our motherboard has a composite output (and was chosen for this). Unfortunately it only supplies 60hz, and the tv only takes 50hz in the high def modes (or the other way around).

So, to enable hi-def we ended up with a vga transcoder and it now works fine That wasn't myths fault at all but it caused much head scratching. If the tv had been newer and had a DVI input all would have been well.

It is infinitely configurable, although some things require you to make changes to config files. This is no problem for me as I just ssh to it from the mac. However I understand for some people this would be a bit much but I do it every day at work so it's easy.

So, in summary it's not entirely turnkey, but once set up it's amazingly reliable. A friend who has tried to use windows media centre reckons he rebuilt it 18 times in the first year, and he's a very smart guy. Without it we would have a kiddie revolt as you can see from the recording priorities of it. Practically, it means we always have fresh kiddie tv from the safe haven of Auntie.

It's guide sniffing ability means we just tell it we like a show once and off it goes. When we got a pvr 6 years ago it revolutionised our TV viewing. This has done the same.