Hi there,
Within the last week I've installed Ubuntu 7.10 on my laptop and it's been very good. I initially had a few issues with it, but that was me fiddling around with gfx card settings trying to get Compiz-Fusion to work - all I achieved was to completely bork it up and ended up re-installing 3 times before I knew what I was doing. That superficiously seems bad, however the install process is very quick and painless. Now it runs fine.
The reasons for installing it my Uni dissertation is to design a streaming media player in Flash which can run on cross-platform OSes. I have a PC and Linux to test it out on now, and the Uni has more Macs that you can shake a stick at - therefore all bases are covered.
I'd recommend Ubuntu, the main reason being you can dual boot your machine alongside XP and still access your NTFS paritions and files:
C: XP (NTFS)
D: Data (NTFS)
E: Media (NTFS)
F: A/V (NTFS)
G: Ubuntu (ext3)
H: Swap (required for Ubuntu, it's like the page file in XP)
etc.
This basically means I can have the best of both worlds - XP and Linux. The transition is then as painless as possible. Ubuntu 7.10 permits read AND write to the NTFS partitions.
I have also ordered the book "Ubuntu Unleashed 7.10" - which seems to be a good reference guide for newbies like myself - with guides for housekeeping, games, networking, setting up servers etc. I'm not much of a Terminal user, but the commands are at the end of the day are necessary, and the book talks you through the crucial ones.
Performance wise it's as good as a stable XP SP2 rig - my laptop runs a Intel dual core 1.6GHz, 2GB Ram, 224Mb shared gfx (Intel 945GM) and its fine. I'm using now as my default OS as I find the multiple desktops sooo useful.
I've also had WINE up and running - and I've had REAPER and Audiomulch working with no hassles whatsoever. I shall attempt to install Flash Professional 8 under WINE soon too.
Defo install these packgages:
Ubuntu Restricted - then you can play mp3s, WMAs etc. in Rhythmbox
VLC - plays most video formats
Compiz-Fusion Settings Manager - then you can run/configure all the sexy desktop fx
Firestarter - firewall
Adobe-Flash - plugin for Firefox to run Flash content
WINE - run Windows appications
Then you'll be set. Any problems and the Ubuntu forums are vast, informative and friendly (like OCUK
). I tried Debian years ago, and even with a book it was tricky - Ubuntu really does seem to be MS interaction-wise friendly. You can even setup Evolution (email client) to access your Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail email accounts etc. - you can also do it in Thunderbird.
Hope this helps.
Within the last week I've installed Ubuntu 7.10 on my laptop and it's been very good. I initially had a few issues with it, but that was me fiddling around with gfx card settings trying to get Compiz-Fusion to work - all I achieved was to completely bork it up and ended up re-installing 3 times before I knew what I was doing. That superficiously seems bad, however the install process is very quick and painless. Now it runs fine.
The reasons for installing it my Uni dissertation is to design a streaming media player in Flash which can run on cross-platform OSes. I have a PC and Linux to test it out on now, and the Uni has more Macs that you can shake a stick at - therefore all bases are covered.
I'd recommend Ubuntu, the main reason being you can dual boot your machine alongside XP and still access your NTFS paritions and files:
C: XP (NTFS)
D: Data (NTFS)
E: Media (NTFS)
F: A/V (NTFS)
G: Ubuntu (ext3)
H: Swap (required for Ubuntu, it's like the page file in XP)
etc.
This basically means I can have the best of both worlds - XP and Linux. The transition is then as painless as possible. Ubuntu 7.10 permits read AND write to the NTFS partitions.
I have also ordered the book "Ubuntu Unleashed 7.10" - which seems to be a good reference guide for newbies like myself - with guides for housekeeping, games, networking, setting up servers etc. I'm not much of a Terminal user, but the commands are at the end of the day are necessary, and the book talks you through the crucial ones.
Performance wise it's as good as a stable XP SP2 rig - my laptop runs a Intel dual core 1.6GHz, 2GB Ram, 224Mb shared gfx (Intel 945GM) and its fine. I'm using now as my default OS as I find the multiple desktops sooo useful.
I've also had WINE up and running - and I've had REAPER and Audiomulch working with no hassles whatsoever. I shall attempt to install Flash Professional 8 under WINE soon too.
Defo install these packgages:
Ubuntu Restricted - then you can play mp3s, WMAs etc. in Rhythmbox
VLC - plays most video formats
Compiz-Fusion Settings Manager - then you can run/configure all the sexy desktop fx
Firestarter - firewall
Adobe-Flash - plugin for Firefox to run Flash content
WINE - run Windows appications
Then you'll be set. Any problems and the Ubuntu forums are vast, informative and friendly (like OCUK
). I tried Debian years ago, and even with a book it was tricky - Ubuntu really does seem to be MS interaction-wise friendly. You can even setup Evolution (email client) to access your Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail email accounts etc. - you can also do it in Thunderbird.Hope this helps.