I want to switch

[WillT]

I want to switch I think

Im getting tired of windows Xp with all the crap I get with faulty drivers.

What is the best OS out there?
I do alot of programing in java, c and c++
Sometimes i do model rendering and a little gaming.
I want something that wont give me errors when I leave my computer up 24/7


Like I said I'm tired of mircoshit what OS should I use in my new build?

 

[linux_0]

The best OS doesn't exist.

Linux and BSD are almost perfect for programming, check out eclipse, kdevelop, etc

For 3D try Blender, K-3D, etc

I recommend Ubuntu amd64 and Fedora x86_64 on Linux friendly hardware ( post your hardware so we can make sure it works )

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora

While you can run some windows games on Linux, I reluctantly suggest using XP for those that do not run on Linux.

GL

 

[Pyroflea]

Well if you don't want errors, etc., then you'll probably want one of the more main-stream OSs, such as Ubuntu or Fedora. Linux in general is pretty good for programming, and usually doesn't take up too much harddrive space, or processes. Ubuntu is a fairly user friendly, straight forward OS, and you can choose between 3 different GUIs. Ubuntu uses Gnome, Kubuntu uses KDE, and Xubuntu uses XFCE. It depends if you want it to be flashy, or not take up all your RAM and Processes. There are LOTS of distros out there, and I suggest you just do a little research. There is a great guide on choosing Linux on this forum. Feel free to ask any questions you may have.

EDIT: Ahh, Linux_0 beat me to it , pretty much what I said.

-Jesse

 

[WillT]

I know there is no such thing as a perfect os its just i want something that will work good with what i do

I already use blinder

Is there like a 64bit version on linux or something?

hardware
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (CPU)

Foxconn mobo ill find the exact one if it matters

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB (HARD DRIVE)

SIGMA ORCA ORCA-WB Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (CASE)

ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT 500W (POWER SUPPLY)

A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 (RAM)

LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD (DISK DRIVE)

 

[Zorak]

Yes, there is a 64bit version of linux and there are also distributions of Linux that support many many architectures including PPC, SPARC, SPARC64, MIPS, etc. The same may be true for the various BSD Unicies, but I haven't tried so I can't say for sure.

For programming, Linux has often been called the programmer's dream OS because there is a metric sh*t ton of free tools available for programming. Bear in mind though that a lot of those tools are cross platform so they may also run on windows (if you feel you need to stick w/ windows).

Basically, from what I've heard, eclipse is the premier java development environment and it has a plug-in to support c/c++, but if you want you can opt to be hard core and use straight up vim and gcc like me

All kidding aside, Linux is a great platform for programming, but you should try several different distros, and even several differen OSes to see which one fits you the best. Nobody can tell you what will be best for you, only you can determine that.

-Zorak

 

[Zoron]

Then ditch XP and go with Vista...

 

[bmouring]

Ah, Blender. Reminds me of a project for college where I finally got to flex the muscle of my machine, setting up 4 blender sessions to render a quarter of the entire animation then stitching the results together. I believe it took about 7 hours total to render the movie, which I set up and then left as it heated up my room.

To echo the comments posted earlier, there's tons of dev tools for linux, for many different languages and platforms. I personally do kernel work and embedded dev in Linux because of the nice toolset (it'd be difficult at best to debug an embedded app over JTAG while keeping the codebase under source control all from one framework, yet under Linux you have several choices to do just that)

 

[WillT]

Ok well i think i have to go with linux for now

My xp disk is an upgrade disk (i guess another way for microshit to rip you off)

My friend is out of town and i plan on using his disk but he wont be back for about 2 weeks


Questions:
Can I dual boot (i think that is the word) linux and also microsoft)

Can I do it with a 1gb flash drive

Can someone find me a guide

 

[linux_0]

Ok well i think i have to go with linux for now

My xp disk is an upgrade disk (i guess another way for microshit to rip you off)

My friend is out of town and i plan on using his disk but he wont be back for about 2 weeks


Questions:
Can I dual boot (i think that is the word) linux and also microsoft)

Can I do it with a 1gb flash drive

Can someone find me a guide

Yes you can dual boot. You can boot several Linux distributions, BSD, Open Solaris, FreeDOS and xp on the same computer as long as you have enough disk space. It is pretty easy to install Linux and xp on a system.

Yes you can but it may be a lot better to use a Linux live CD or DVD like Knoppix, Ubuntu or Fedora Live and use a flash drive for storing your files. A DVD would be faster and cheaper than most flash drives and it won't wear out as fast as a flash drive might.

GL

 

[linux_0]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_boot

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Dual_boot

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_linux_and_windows_xp_linux_installed_first.htm?page=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVOsHrYF9XI

Try Ubuntu / Fedora and XP or all three

GL

 

[Zoron]

It's better to have a separate hard drive for each OS... you might want to keep that in mind. I had a dual-boot set up on my old rig... Fedora and XP Pro. I didn't get much use out of Fedora, as I didn't really have the time to dedicate to it that I wanted. I was trying to teach myself Linux and did have success with some things and not so much with other things.

Perhaps if I had the time to dedicate to learning it, I'd be using it more right now.

 

[Ijack]

It's better to have a separate hard drive for each OS...

Could you elaborate on that a bit? I'm quite happy with 5 OSes on just two drives.

 

[WillT]

Im planning on getting another hard drive later

There is no way in hell im going to spend $200 on an os (xp full version)

What is a good version of linux?

I want something i can use:

Im pretty sure all of these programs have a linux version

Eclipse
FireFox
SimpleMP
Winrar
CavaJ
Netbeans
Gimp
Aim
Apache
and of course java

I also have an ati 4850 if that changes anything

Also i can not find a guide anywhere on how to install linux with out an other os already installed

 

[Zorak]

Well, like Linux_0 said before, Ubuntu and Fedora are good distributions to start out. You might also like to try openSUSE or Linux Mint or others to see which one works for you.

Eclipse should have Linux support since they make a big deal about it being "cross platform"
Firefox is the bread and butter browser for pretty much the entire Linux community, but then again there are also those who use epiphany, konqueror, and opera.
I have no idae what SimpleMP or CavaJ are so i can't say whether they have support or not.
Netbeans is another cross platform IDE so it should have support (according to wiki they have it in ubuntu 8.04)
GIMP was originally developed for Linux before being ported to other platforms, wasn't it?
Pidgin will cover you for AIM/MSN/GoogleTalk. If you don't like Pidgin, there are plenty of other AIM clients to try such as Kopete and others.
HAH! If you have heard of Apache, then you already know the answer there
Java... Here is a good one, there is some support via GCJ to compile Java to native machine code instead of byte-code, and then I think Sun is only just now making Java fully open-source software via the OpenJDK (Sun) and IcedTea (Red Hat) projects. I haven't programmed in java for literally years, so you will have to look into it more yourself.

As for the GFX card, I believe AMD is now offering better Linux support for their cards, but I haven't bothered to check the state of AMD/ATI linux support since I switched to NVIDIA (although if they turn out to be better i'll switch back). AMD/ATI support was REALLY BAD in the past, which is why I switched in the first place, but the word 'on the street' is that their drivers have gotten much better since AMD took over.

As for your last question, I am not sure I understand. If you want to install just Linux, or install Linux first, you really shouldn't need a guide to do it as the installation process for distros like Ubuntu and Fedora have friendly wizards that step you through the entire process. The only part that requires any sort of configuration would be partitioning the disk, and if you are a java/c/c++ programmer, then you probably either already know how to partition disks and install OSes or you have way more than the minimum required computer ability to figure out how to do it with the installers these distributions provide.

If you still feel like you need a guide while you are installing, you can always make a run to google or to the distributions IRC room while you are using the liveCD to install Linux. In case you don't know, a liveCD is a CD that contains a copy of the OS that will just run and connect to the internet without writing anything to your hard drive. That is to say, the entire OS runs solely off of the CD and RAM! Pretty neat, eh?

-Zorak

 

[Zoron]

It's better to have a separate hard drive for each OS...

Could you elaborate on that a bit? I'm quite happy with 5 OSes on just two drives.

I'm sure you are... but I prefer having a separate drive dedicated to each OS. That way, if you lose a drive, it's no big deal. No waiting for a replacement drive before your computer is usable again. Now, with 2 drives, you definately have very little chance of losing everything... though I only ever dual-boot... I just don't see the need (or have the time) to set up 5 OSes and make use of all of them. I'll use the current version of Windows on one drive and Linux on the other... usually Fedora Core.

 

[linux_0]

Also i can not find a guide anywhere on how to install linux with out an other os already installed

The installation process is quite simple and most distributions have built-in help.

You do not really need another OS.

What you do need is a CD-R or DVD-R with a Linux ISO recorded on it.

The ISOs can be downloaded for free from download servers around the world

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/downloadmirrors

http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora

If you do not have access to a computer with a fast internet connection, an operating system, a CD or DVD recorder and CD or DVD recording software capable of burning ISO disk images, you can order Linux CDs or DVDs online for free ( limited availability ) or you can spend $2-10 on a DVD plus shipping from various companies.

I found a vendor that sells fedora and ubuntu installation DVDs for $5.95 plus shipping on http://distrowatch.com/

http://www.osdisc.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi/products/linux/fedora

http://www.osdisc.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi/products/linux/ubuntu


I have never dealt with these guys, there are various others all over the internet, you can google for them.

If you can get access to a Linux computer with a recorder you can use "cdrecord" or "K3b" to burn the ISOs. Both "cdrecord" and "K3b" are free and open source :d

K3b is point and click and very easy to use.

You should also be able to use "cdrecord", etc on *BSD too.

On windows you can use http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm to burn the ISOs to a CD or DVD. isorecorder can only burn CD ISOs on XP, I think it can do CD and DVD ISOs on vista ( vista sucks )

Alex Feinman's ISOrecorder is free ---- thanks Alex! but not open source


GL

 

[Ijack]

Zoron - Thanks for the clarification. Personally I would go for RAID, or a cheap 2nd PC, if I was worried about reliability rather than multiple OSes on multiple disks. As it is I go for redundant computers. If there's a problem with my main PC I can always use the spare one, or the Mac, or the old laptop, ...

Nobody needs 5 OSes, of course (actually, if you include those on other computers and virtual machines I have a number more), but studying OSes is my passion. I like to look at the source, where available, and investigate the APIs that each supply. Luckily I do have the time to mess about.