Moving to Linux from Windows 7 - will I miss windows?

Izi

Izi

Izi

Soldato
Joined
9 Dec 2007
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I am thinking of giving Ubuntu a try for a month to see how I get on. I have tried this once before but remember it didn't go well, I don't think I gave it enough time.

Can you let me know if the following are possible:

1) Windows snap to - drag window to top/side and will fill half / all screen
2) Quick search from start - search all files / programs quickly and instantly

Is there anything else I should be aware off? Is this a good idea coming from Windows 7?
 
I believe you can do the quick search. There's no snap to that I'm aware of.

It's a perfectly good O/S, you just need to get used to it for what it is. Ubuntu isn't windows. OSX isn't Ubuntu etc. It's good, I run both on my systems, some things I prefer doing in Linux, some in windows.

Enjoy!
 
Compiz can do snap to, from what I remember. I hate it though so i never use it.

And of course your going to miss Windows, its what your familiar with. When I use windows now, I miss Linux (partly because Windows is awful), but i also miss dropping into a terminal.
 
Ubuntu does both of those by default.
Snap to works the same as on windows.
Unity search on ubuntu is actually better than the windows one in my opinion.

Stop thinking about trying it and try it - you might like it.
 
Thanks for the input guys.

I note many people saying use mint over ubuntu, what would the advantages of that be?
 
Izi said:
Thanks for the input guys.

I note many people saying use mint over ubuntu, what would the advantages of that be?
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I think the main reason for Mint's rise in popularity at Ubuntu's expense is the default Unity interface used in Ubuntu, which is... errr... subject to differing opinions.

I started off by wishing it would go away, but I decided that to give it a fair chance I'd persevere with it until the LTS release (12.04) before abandoning Ubuntu as a bad job, and I have to admit I don't really mind it that much now. :)
 
CaptainCrash said:
I think the main reason for Mint's rise in popularity at Ubuntu's expense is the default Unity interface used in Ubuntu, which is... errr... subject to differing opinions.

I started off by wishing it would go away, but I decided that to give it a fair chance I'd persevere with it until the LTS release (12.04) before abandoning Ubuntu as a bad job, and I have to admit I don't really mind it that much now. :)
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I note you can also just put the desktop back to 10.1 release can you not if you dont like unity?
 
Izi said:
I note you can also just put the desktop back to 10.1 release can you not if you dont like unity?
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AFAIK Gnome 2 as used in earlier versions of Ubuntu has now been abandoned by all the major distros - you can run Ubuntu 11.10 in "gnome classic" mode though, which has a similar look and feel.

You could have course install one of the many other Linux desktop environments, but to my mind that sort of goes against the whole point of Ubuntu, which is designed to "just work" out of the box with minimal tinkering. From what I can gather Ubuntu's future is pretty much Unity-centric, like it or not, and if you really can't get on with it you might just as well go with a different distro altogether.
 
Snap to was in Gnome 2 i think, it's still in Gnome 3 but it takes it a step further in that you can drag windows to the side of the screen and have them side by side (and pretend to be a proper Linux user with a tiling wm ;)).

Mint Menu does that. I much preferred the Gnome 2 version but it still has that functionality afaik. As does the KDE menu.
 
Izi said:
Can you not run windows programs from within linux using a vm?
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You could, but it's a bit inefficient - if you want/need to run Windows-only programs, then there's not much point running Linux as opposed to Windows in the first place, unless the (relatively small) cost is an issue.

The OS is really just a means to an end, it's the applications which are important, as they're where you spend your time if you're actually doing things with a computer rather than just fiddling with it (not that there's anything wrong with that of course). :)
 
CaptainCrash said:
You could, but it's a bit inefficient - if you want/need to run Windows-only programs, then there's not much point running Linux as opposed to Windows in the first place, unless the (relatively small) cost is an issue.

The OS is really just a means to an end, it's the applications which are important, as they're where you spend your time if you're actually doing things with a computer rather than just fiddling with it (not that there's anything wrong with that of course). :)
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Fair point. i need windows for Visual Studio. May just stick with it for now.
 
CaptainCrash said:
You could, but it's a bit inefficient - if you want/need to run Windows-only programs, then there's not much point running Linux as opposed to Windows in the first place, unless the (relatively small) cost is an issue.

The OS is really just a means to an end, it's the applications which are important, as they're where you spend your time if you're actually doing things with a computer rather than just fiddling with it (not that there's anything wrong with that of course). :)
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Spot on. Great post.


I'm a fiddler, hence the endless desire to try Windows, OSX, Linux, Android, iOS, QNX, BBOS etc....

When it comes down to it, most people I know could use any OS these days. Even the people in work that have no clue that the £2k they blew on a MAC is absolute overkill for them because all they do is browse the web, send emails and write a few Word documents.
 
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