Ubuntu or other Linux OS

Cycrow · 13 May 2011 at 13:58

Streamlining isn't really needed with Linux

The install does everything you need and your system will work straight away

No need to I stall drivers or anything. These are done for you as well

Don't really need recovery disc or anything either
You can get a lot of livecd versions that boot and run off the CD without having to install anything

paradisiac · 13 May 2011 at 14:03

Cycrow said:
Streamlining isn't really needed with Linux

The install does everything you need and your system will work straight away

No need to I stall drivers or anything. These are done for you as well

Don't really need recovery disc or anything either
You can get a lot of livecd versions that boot and run off the CD without having to install anything

surely they cant have all the drivers preinstalled?

also what about things like programs people use, or do these pretty much come with Linux OS's too?

Semple · 13 May 2011 at 14:15

I use Ubutnu's software centre to get popular software.

Huw · 13 May 2011 at 14:24

paradisiac said:
surely they cant have all the drivers preinstalled?

Ya wanna bet?

Most Linux drivers are built into the kernel. Unless you have some obscure or exotic hardware then yes, believe it or not, all drivers are pre-installed!

You're about to discover some of the many reasons that Linux is a superb OS.

also what about things like programs people use, or do these pretty much come with Linux OS's too?

Virtually every distro out there pre-installs most commonly-used apps. On a clean install you will almost certainly already have a full-fledged office suite, browser, PIM etc. And when you want something that isn't there, you can open up your distro's package manager (or in the case of Ubuntu and Mint, a Software Centre) and have a good old browse - you don't even need to visit the developers' websites.

This thread is reminding me why I think Linux is awesome.

paradisiac · 13 May 2011 at 14:35

Huw said:
Ya wanna bet?

Most Linux drivers are built into the kernel. Unless you have some obscure or exotic hardware then yes, believe it or not, all drivers are pre-installed!

You're about to discover some of the many reasons that Linux is a superb OS.

Virtually every distro out there pre-installs most commonly-used apps. On a clean install you will almost certainly already have a full-fledged office suite, browser, PIM etc. And when you want something that isn't there, you can open up your distro's package manager (or in the case of Ubuntu and Mint, a Software Centre) and have a good old browse - you don't even need to visit the developers' websites.

This thread is reminding me why I think Linux is awesome.

its also making me wish i didnt play games so i could ditch windows

Hairybudda · 13 May 2011 at 14:50

You could always check out http://www.winehq.org/ and see if the games you play are supported in any way. It's not ~that~ bad gaming under linu, you just need to give it a bit of time for wine developers to catch up

Semple · 13 May 2011 at 15:02

Any new games don't really run under wine very well. I even tried having win7 on my WM but bfbc2 wouldn't run.

.

paradisiac · 13 May 2011 at 15:13

Hairybudda said:
You could always check out http://www.winehq.org/ and see if the games you play are supported in any way. It's not ~that~ bad gaming under linu, you just need to give it a bit of time for wine developers to catch up

most of my games are through steam, is this supported in Linux?

Huw · 13 May 2011 at 15:29

paradisiac said:
most of my games are through steam, is this supported in Linux?

Sadly not. Valve decided to begin Mac support but not Linux, even though supporting Linux would be trivially easy if they're going to support Mac. :mad:

paradisiac · 13 May 2011 at 15:33

Huw said:
Sadly not. Valve decided to begin Mac support but not Linux, even though supporting Linux would be trivially easy if they're going to support Mac.

that sux.

cant wait to have a play with it, see how it runs and prey that everything is pretty user friendly. if im going to be selling pcs with it installed then i need to be confident customers will be able to work out the basics pretty quickly else i will get a lot of returns

Huw · 13 May 2011 at 16:03

With regard to gaming; bear in mind that to a lot of non-savvy people gaming means browser-based games or Facebook stuff. All of which works fine on Linux.

paradisiac · 13 May 2011 at 16:06

Huw said:
With regard to gaming; bear in mind that to a lot of non-savvy people gaming means browser-based games or Facebook stuff. All of which works fine on Linux.

lol yeh. i think if i just market them in 2 categories :
Media PC
Office + Web-browser PC

then i should be ok. im assuming they use firefox and thunderbird, or something else?

uv · 13 May 2011 at 16:12

Beerbaron said:
Im sure you cant really game on a Linux OS due to the lack of directx

That's like saying you can't game on a PS3 due to the lack of DirectX.

paradisiac · 13 May 2011 at 16:16

well im running off of mythbuntu cd now and it seems to be pretty good. firefox as i thought is the default browser so thats good. found wireless connections straight away, awesome. now just need to play with it and see if everything works.
is there something similar to device manager which will tell me if a driver isnt installed?

paradisiac · 13 May 2011 at 16:17

uv said:
That's like saying you can't game on a PS3 due to the lack of DirectX.

but thats like saying a ps3 game would work on an xbox or pc surely?
games for pc generally use directx, without it the game wont run. so as linux does not support it then most games surely will not work.

Huw · 13 May 2011 at 16:29

With regard to browsers, I haven't heard of a single one that doesn't run on Linux. All the major browsers have native Linux versions. Hell, you can even use IE on Linux via Wine if you really want to!

There isn't anything directly comparable to device manager that I'm aware of, although I dare say Linux Mint or any *buntu will have something if you browse through the system menus. Actually there is something...look up 'hardinfo' in your package manager. The last version of Ubuntu I used had hardinfo installed already but it was called something else, whose name escapes me.

There is command-line stuff to get the info you want but I assume you want to use GUIs wherever possible. I'll have a think (or undoubtedly someone else will chime in with an answer).

paradisiac · 13 May 2011 at 16:34

Huw said:
With regard to browsers, I haven't heard of a single one that doesn't run on Linux. All the major browsers have native Linux versions. Hell, you can even use IE on Linux via Wine if you really want to!

There isn't anything directly comparable to device manager that I'm aware of, although I dare say Linux Mint or any *buntu will have something if you browse through the system menus. Actually there is something...look up 'hardinfo' in your package manager. The last version of Ubuntu I used had hardinfo installed already but it was called something else, whose name escapes me.

There is command-line stuff to get the info you want but I assume you want to use GUIs wherever possible. I'll have a think (or undoubtedly someone else will chime in with an answer).

cheers. i was running off of mythbuntu cd so not sure everything was available to me as it seemed very limited and no software manager i keep reading about.
i had full screen res, internet connectivity, didnt test sound so not sure if it worked, but overall it seemed to find things (better than windows 7 did :mad:

). only thing i wanted to try was the webcam but couldnt find out how.
how is Linux for printers, webcams etc? do they pretty much plug and play? does it have webcam software integrated as my laptops built in webcams software isnt Linux compatible.

if i install to a pen drive or external hdd will it mess up windows bootmanager or do i just select removable media as first boot device and if its plugged in it boots if its not it jumps to windows and windows is none the wiser?

Huw · 13 May 2011 at 16:52

paradisiac said:
how is Linux for printers, webcams etc? do they pretty much plug and play?

Yeah, but support will differ for each model. There's no way of knowing except to do your research first unfortunately. I know that HP maintains its own driver suite which is generally available in the repositories but I can't speak for other printer manufacturers.

does it have webcam software integrated as my laptops built in webcams software isnt Linux compatible.

Not integrated but lots of distros come with a little app called Cheese which doesn't seem to be for anything other than testing webcams.

if i install to a pen drive or external hdd will it mess up windows bootmanager or do i just select removable media as first boot device and if its plugged in it boots if its not it jumps to windows and windows is none the wiser?

If you install to a device like that your bootloader shouldn't be touched. So yeah, set your BIOS to boot from the device first and internal disk second, and like you said, if the device is plugged in it'll boot, and if not your PC will boot the same way it always did.

paradisiac · 13 May 2011 at 16:56

Huw said:
If you install to a device like that your bootloader shouldn't be touched. So yeah, set your BIOS to boot from the device first and internal disk second, and like you said, if the device is plugged in it'll boot, and if not your PC will boot the same way it always did.

ok kool, this was my biggest concern, dont want to mess up windows as i will only use it for testing for now until i decide if A)i think customers would be able to get on with it and B)it will support enough to give me confidence to install on machines to sell without people coming back because stuff doesnt work properly.

Hairybudda · 13 May 2011 at 17:00

Yeah, unfortunately I can't help you with a lot of the GUI admin stuff since I tend to use the terminal for most of my admin tasks, I'm sure there's a device manager in ubuntu.

If you wanna do a pendrive install, grab unetbootin ad just pick your distro from the dropdown (or choose an iso) and you're golden