Desktop Linux For The Windows Power User

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Ubuntu gurus can install and run it on their middle of the road machines and they are happy, good for them.

I have an Alienware m15x laptop with 8GB of RAM, 9800GTX that crashed hard at the first sign of Ubuntu install.

My i7 920, 12GB of RAM and QuadSLI dual 295GTX, did the same thing...,

Nope, this OS is LAME.
 
I have Doom3, Quake4, ET:QW Running flawlessly on my Linux box.
With my geforce 6600 I actually notice a performance improvement using Linux, although it could be just my perception or fanboyism.
Also Guildwars on the same system had betterperformace on Linux via Wine, though there were some minor transparency issues.

What I found:
Linux games run flawlessly on linux.
Windows games ran with compromises on linux with wine.
Linux games do not run at all on windows.

I think Windows should be improved to run Linux games =p
I also think developpers should compile games for multi-platform.
If MS doesn't open up DirectX, then it should be scrapped. (In which case, it should just be scrapped)

 
warezme: You don't even have drivers for all that. I bet your hardware will be supported in 9.10. Except maybe for quad SLI.
In any case, if you have 7 000$ to spend on hardware, I don't see why you wouldn't have 150$ to spend on windows and dual boot once your system gets support.



 
Ok but before you continue to flame the driver developers you need to remember that linux kernel changes constantly force driver recompiles and modifications. The kernel changes on a fairly regular basis, whereas a windows 2000 driver worked in xp, server 2003, and in some cases vista as well without any changes.

Most people think of linux as free and don't really understand the gpl and lgpl etc. Once you get that it's only half about free and half about the open source movement (maybe more so) I think you will start to understand the problem. Open source drivers are part of the kernel so kernel developers will keep them working and build them with the new kernel builds, but nvidia and ati and creative labs etc actually want to their keep their drivers closed source and their patents and intellectual property private. I think they have a right to do so if they want to but it goes against the philosophy of many linux programmers and companies. These companies aren't charities, they know if they open source their drivers that they may be opening up the doors for a smaller company to build graphics hardware that is compatible with theirs or that users alot of their driver code.
 
I notice your article says partitions have to be changed to install Ubuntu GNU/Linux. This is one way to install, but another way to install is with the "Windows Ubuntu Installer" or wubi. This allows you to install Ubuntu inside Windows like it is a program, you can then choose to boot to Windows(default) or Ubuntu on startup(entries are in the boot.ini).

To install Ubuntu using wubi, put the Ubuntu LiveCD in AFTER you have booted into Windows and then after the cd "autoruns", follow the on screen instructions.

Here's a video of the process:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5x9iJWXbUY

humans enabled - that's what technology is for...

Shannon VanWagner
humans-enabled.com
 
Reading though the article and some of the comments I was struck by the same arguements, look it is hardware, you should run what works for you. Each OS has its strengths and weaknesses, everyone of them has work arounds, like OS X running WINE like Linux, since it supports X11 and therefore many of the Linux free apps. There are virtual machine software for all the OS's so if you want to go that route you could also.

I also found the users buying gaming consoles and running Linux on their new or powerful PC interesting, why would you spend several hundred dollars to buy a PS3 when you could multiboot your PC with Linux, Windows or OSX and run anything you want?


And Adam, the /dev/sda would be more like the c:\ drive, you partition a linux system then you slice out your file system. UNIX is different that way. The advantage is that you could easily use different formats for different file systems. /root could be ext3, /home could be fat, /usr could be rieser. Why you would do that is up to you but it woudl be similar to creating a c, d, and e partition in windows to run NTFS, FAT32 and FAT partitions. I am sure someone out there can explain it better than me but I hope I got the idea across.
 
Linux has better driver support than Windows
Linux has more games than Windows
Linux is more stable than Windows
Linux is easier to run than Windows
Linux is virus proof, Windows isn't

The only reason that most computers are delivered with Windows, is that Microsoft has agreements with most of the computer manufacturers which block the use of other operating systems. The computer manufacturers know how good Linux is. They'd use it, but right now they are being paid not to use it, because Microsoft's real cash cow is Office. If you aren't running Windows, you aren't going to buy office (except for a few, poor deluded OSX users, who don't know better, and have more money than they know what to do with).

Did you know that Microsoft pays Apple to install a demo version of Office on each Mac that's sold? They do, and even if the consumer buys IWork, or installs Open Office for Mac, Microsoft Office will still own the file associations. You'd think that Apple would know better.

The only way that Microsoft can sell software, is by blocking anyone else from competing. At present Microsoft is 5-10 years behind Apple, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. in technology, and getting further behind every year. If the USA seriously enforced anti-trust law under the Obama administration, Microsoft will be dead.

 
Good article...while Ubuntu may not be right for hardcore gamers, I do believe that it IS right for 95% of all other users. I work at a IT company in the financial industry, and while we support ~95% Windows desktops and servers, in the past year over 50% of our staff has converted their Windows workstations to Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (newer versions have issues with NVIDIA/ATI quad cards...especially ATI) with Windows XP running in Sun VirtualBox because we run a Microsoft Exchange server. Most people's interest is peaked when they see my 2x2 monitor desktop rotate with my Compiz Desktop Cube and pretty soon they're ditching their native Windows operating system. While there are still occasional glitches, rather than rebooting the whole system, I need to either reboot my Windows virtual, or hit ctrl-alt-baskspace to restart the GUI (gdm/xorg). As for average users who need yahoo/google email and facebook (which is the majority of the real market IMO), Ubuntu is just as fine IMO. My girlfriend's hard-drive took a dump recently, so I gave her an old one of mine, and since she couldn't find her Windows media, I decided to install Ubuntu. Installing her super-old printer was easier than **** (installing printers w/ Ubnutu/Linux is a million times easier than w/ Windows), and she's been fine for months. And now she carries around a Dell Mini 9 running Jaunty Jackelope... 🙂
 
[citation][nom]smlong[/nom]Oh yeah - and I have to really say this:I was a loyal Amiga user from 1990 until about 1998. I gave up the Amiga for a few reasons. The MAJOR reason, though, as software. Software for the machine had dried up. I looked around me and everything was Windows based. This solidified my decision to start using Windows 95/98.This is one of the main reasons I will probably avoid Linux. I want to be able to run 99% of the software out there without issues or worrying about compatibility. 99% of the software out there has versions for Windows. I don't want to fight with dual-booting, a VM, or WINE. I did it once with Linux as my primary OS, and I always came to the conclusion that it just wasn't worth the hassle.[/citation]

There's far more software available for Linux, than there is for Windows, and most of it has a far better cost benefit ratio. I'm talking native stuff, no need for Wine, virtualization, or Dual Booting.

And that's another thing that's going to kill Windows. Other than game programmers, all the exciting development work is being done for Linux/BSD/Solaris operating systems (and thus is also usable on a Mac). Steve Ballmer has lost the Developer race.

Microsoft should get rid of Ballmer, As a manager, I wouldn't trust him to run a Lemonade stand.
 
@ap90033: If your ATI card is one of the latests models, maybe is not supported yet, but I assure you it will be soon. I use Ubuntu 9.04 on a very old Pentium M laptop with ATI 9200 with 64 MB RAM and I can work and play a lot of games (even Windows games) so be patient and research on your ATI Chipset (get the name of it) post it here I'll try to help.

@add2700 : Ubuntu 32 bit & Windows 32 bit only recognize 3 GB RAM, Ubuntu 64 bit and Windows 64 bit support 4 GB and up to whatever your money can get.

AFAIK all the RAM in all the computers in the world put together don't reach the top limit of the actual 64 bit processors (as Daggs explains or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exabyte)

@lbarriau: You don't have to type one single line to install anything. Open Synaptic package manager, and install what you need from the list. All free, you don't have to go download nothing, it's all done for you. You don't have to open a terminal or edit any code, no more. It is like a Mac as I said, but better because it's all free, all the software you might need to work everyday. Is not like on Windows (but you can if you want) that you need to search all over the internet for software to install. Not anymore, is all done for you on no more than 3 or 4 clicks of your mouse.

@warezme: If you can buy that hardware for play, man, buy Windows too. Anyways you got that machine to play Windows games. Go Windows and pay so you can play. Ubuntu is for normal people. If I had that machine... I would install Gentoo and it would be awesome! But then again I'm a power user in many OS's as I said b4.

@xx66xx: The only company left with closed drivers is NVIDIA. ATI and Intel have open source drivers, meaning the code is available for you to use and modify if you need it (and if you know how of course). The only thing I can explain about the free software movement is, it's FREE as FREEDOM, not only as free of charge. All the licenses it might contain (BSD, GPL, etc) are there for your protection, so you don't have the FBI on your door because you are using a pirated version of XP or Vista, that are not free, of course.

My best advice to you all is, give it a try, if it works on your computer, congrats! You will fall in love I'm sure. If it doesn't work on your hardware, then you have to wait maybe a couple of months (maybe more if it's too new) so try it later if you still have that splinter in your mind.

Don't be ashamed if you feel ignorant or afraid to try something new. This is like free pizza, it might not have the ingredient you always ask for, but if you don't try it you won't know. Remember that saying about "Nothing is really free"? Well, this IS really FREE :) How can you say NO to FREE! cmon!

I still like Windows, I'm waiting to see how Windows 7 works (right now it might not work on warezme hardware because is still too buggy) but looks promising. I won't buy it, but I might recommend it to any of my Windows customers. I love Mac OS X, it's so beautiful, but I won't buy a Mac. Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer will always find a way to get more money out of your pockets, and I ain't giving them nothing. My 2 cents.


 
Great article, I have been using Linux as my primary OS for about 4 years, I have used many distro’s. Ubuntu is defiantly one of the starting Linux OS’s once you get accustom to Linux you can move on to the other ones> Fedora (Red hat based) for instance is far more powerful than Ubuntu (debian based), but you need to know what you doing to get it working right. For all the people that are trying to run games on Linux…try Cedega, it’s a paid service, but worth every cent, and …wait for it! There is about a 10% performance increase in 90% of the games. I’m currently running COD4, Quake 3 and 4, Need for Speed, and CS 1.6 with no problems. I like the fact that Ubuntu is challenging Windows, and as free software, no one has any excuse to complain, bare in mind this software was built and developed in a 3rd world country, in South Africa by The Mark Shuttle worth Foundation! Anyone one knows what it means in English? It means “together” or “a community” a free giving community is better than one you have to pay your next salary to just to get software!
 
Great article, I have been using Linux as my primary OS for about 4 years, I have used many distro’s. Ubuntu is defiantly one of the starting Linux OS’s once you get accustom to Linux you can move on to the other ones> Fedora (Red hat based) for instance is far more powerful than Ubuntu (debian based), but you need to know what you doing to get it working right. For all the people that are trying to run games on Linux…try Cedega, it’s a paid service, but worth every cent, and …wait for it! There is about a 10% performance increase in 90% of the games. I’m currently running COD4, Quake 3 and 4, Need for Speed, and CS 1.6 with no problems. I like the fact that Ubuntu is challenging Windows, and as free software, no one has any excuse to complain, bare in mind this software was built and developed in a 3rd world country, in South Africa by The Mark Shuttle worth Foundation! Anyone one knows what it means in English? It means “together” or “a community” a free giving community is better than one you have to pay your next salary to just to get software!
 
You might want to try the Evolution email client. I believe it can be used to connect to Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003.

[citation][nom]heavyheaded[/nom]Good article...while Ubuntu may not be right for hardcore gamers, I do believe that it IS right for 95% of all other users. I work at a IT company in the financial industry, and while we support ~95% Windows desktops and servers, in the past year over 50% of our staff has converted their Windows workstations to Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (newer versions have issues with NVIDIA/ATI quad cards...especially ATI) with Windows XP running in Sun VirtualBox because we run a Microsoft Exchange server. Most people's interest is peaked when they see my 2x2 monitor desktop rotate with my Compiz Desktop Cube and pretty soon they're ditching their native Windows operating system. While there are still occasional glitches, rather than rebooting the whole system, I need to either reboot my Windows virtual, or hit ctrl-alt-baskspace to restart the GUI (gdm/xorg). As for average users who need yahoo/google email and facebook (which is the majority of the real market IMO), Ubuntu is just as fine IMO. My girlfriend's hard-drive took a dump recently, so I gave her an old one of mine, and since she couldn't find her Windows media, I decided to install Ubuntu. Installing her super-old printer was easier than **** (installing printers w/ Ubnutu/Linux is a million times easier than w/ Windows), and she's been fine for months. And now she carries around a Dell Mini 9 running Jaunty Jackelope... 🙂[/citation]
 
I've been using Linux since 1998, and it has come a long way. I'm an Unix system admin and security consultant, so my personal experience is not necessary applicable to other, less specialised people. But I've also been helping non-technical people to switch to Linux on the desktop, and I haven't had any serious negative problems or complaints. People are generally happy with Linux on their desktop. These are people that are not going to fix any problems with their systems anyway, be it Windows, Mac OSX or Linux, so the actual specifics of the underlying OS don't matter to them anyway.

In recent years, hardware support and vendor support have picked up considerably, so much so that often hardware will work better out-of-the-box in Linux than in Windows and run in a more stable manner, especially when Linux developers themselves have had a say in the code or even developed it themselves, rather than giving every hardware vendor "administrator" access to your Windows machine and letting them run buggy beta driver code straight in the Windows kernel.

The only major difficulty with Linux is software availability: in case some specific (commercial) software is needed and there's no Linux version or variant available, switching is going to be a problem. Note that this isn't a Linux-only problem; there is plenty software that solely runs on Windows, Mac OSX or Linux.

Finally, I'm not one of those "everybody should use Linux" extremists. I personally wouldn't touch Microsoft software with a ten foot pole, but I make no statements about other people's choices – it's up to them. I just wish people would give it a fair chance, and see if they like it. Some things might be worse, some things might be better, but either way, modern Linux distributions are definitely a valid and less extortionate alternative to Microsoft Windows.
 
Linux has captured quite a portion in Corporate world... I myself have been with 2 companies in Philippines where I deploy linux based desktops for office work and call center purpose
 
Very Good! The whole proccess is indeed way easier than installing Windows XP, then MS Office, Then Anti-virus-spyware-younameit, then codecs, apps, and all the small things.
 
good article. but you did not explain where you got the appleisque
theme.
 
[citation][nom]Milleman[/nom]How can I make the Desktop look like OS-X, just like in the screenshots att the first page?[/citation]
[citation][nom]ajay10330[/nom]good article. but you did not explain where you got the appleisquetheme.[/citation]

The dock is call "Avant Window Navigator" or simply "AWN" and is available from Add/Remove and Synaptic. The wallpapers were found in the "wallpapers" section of gnome-look.org Warning: There are TONS of wallpapers there, it may take some time to find these exact ones.
 
No, dont use AWN for a mac like doc, it works ok, but it lacks very important features like grouping windows together and the OSX effects. Use cairo-dock. It has .deb packages ( cairo-dock useed to be a joke as far as stability and usability but now it works extremely well)
 
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