Linux Newbie.

Atomic · 15 Feb 2006 at 16:01

I've been with XP for a year now, and it's nice and all that, but I want to try Linux. I'm downloading the 2.9GB DVD ISO, which I think is also the livecd which I can try out the O/S.

I have questions:

1) What are the advantages over XP?

2) Disadvantage to XP

3) What's the best internet browser for Linux Ubunto? Does Firefox work?

4) Will my applications like Photoshop run on Linux?

5) Does it comes with any media players? If not can you recomend any?

6) Are there any hardware incopabilities with Netgear dg834 ethernet router?

7)Is it easy to set up a duel boot O/S? So I can use XP for games and Linux for Internet and general applications.

8) Any good games out there that work on Linux?

9) I've heard of WINE, can that run games on Linux in a good way or isn't it very good?

10) Does openoffice work on Linux?

Sorry, am new to the Linux...but as Microsoft go ever more Nazi with their O/s I feel the need to start getting into open sourced more and Linux.

Borris · 15 Feb 2006 at 18:06

1) It's free, as are most of the apps, and bad things tend not to happen

2) It's fiddly and not very friendly for the casual pooter user

3) Plenty to choose from - FF leaks like a geriatric - try Opera

4) Not on their own - You will need Wine or similar

5) Totem, Xine, Kino plus others

6) There can be DNS issues (in Ubuntu at least), but they are easily solved

7) Easy-peasy and yes

8) Doom 3?

9) You would be better off on XP

10) It originated there

The Unofficial Ubuntu 5.04 Starter Guide will be your bible (unless you went for Breezy, in which case, downlaod Hoary

)

Mikesoft · 15 Feb 2006 at 18:27

If you want to play computer games then stick with windows xp. WINE the program that is meant to run .exe programs is still in the early beta stages and does not run many up to date games very well or even at all.

Atomic · 15 Feb 2006 at 18:32

Question about FF on Linux...I have it on Windows, and yes it leaks, but I can accept those. Is it worst under Linux, and does Opera ahve adblocking capabilities similer to Firefox?

Also thanks for your replies...I'm downloading a version of Ubunto now and going to test it out later. Thank god for ADSl.

mortals · 15 Feb 2006 at 21:20

I've been running firefox on linux for ages now, never had any problems at all. Same with thunderbird.

For games you can get cedega. Just look on the transgaming site for the list of games that are supported. Up until the latest patches I was running World Of Warcraft at 75fps using cedega so it's not rubbish as many would let you believe.

Native games I have: Quake, Quake2, Quake3, Quake4, UT, UT2k3, UT2k4, Neverwinter Nights, Savage.

Programs like photoshop - Gimp

Advantages over windows: free, secure, faster

Disadvantages: possibly can't play all games, some apps don't work altho there are loads of different versions of wine. eg: codeweavers office wine.

Dual Boot is pretty easy, most installers sort it out for you with LILO or grub.

cb_linus · 15 Feb 2006 at 21:23

4) Will my applications like Photoshop run on Linux?

If you want you could try the GIMP (also available for Windows, free) which is a really good image manipulation programme

I prefer it to P/S for most tasks (I used to use P/S quite a few hours a week in a previous job).

5) Does it comes with any media players? If not can you recomend any?

Xine for dvds & mplayer for many other movie files. You can also play any region dvds on Linux (you may have instal libdvdcss).

8) Any good games out there that work on Linux?

I quite enjoyed Quake 4 and still play UT2004. There's a load of quality free games for Linux too (Tuxracer, Supertux...) and you can run some point'n'click games such as Day of the Tentacle with Scummvm (also available, free, for Windows).