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131 Comments
- Philluminati, on 10/11/2007, -4/+53With regards to hardware I wouldn't worry too much. I think it's better than the writer is letting on. And remember theres no harm done with Linux. Stick your original Windows cd back in and your back were you started.
My one tip would be this: Play with it and enjoy it. Click all the buttons, log in at a terminal and type stuff. anything. Look at the games and icons. If your offered the choice of gnome or kde, trying changing and looking at the other one. There are so many options and configurations. try them all out. Go into the software package manager and tick all the boxes and then play with all the games. Create a word document. type Ctrl+Alt and Backspace and see what happens and why it's useful. I hear people with the attititude "I hear linux is secure and I want this machine to be secure for my X project", because if you set yourself targets you won't meet them. Linux IS that different and you have to learn EVERYTHING again. It's a good thing tho. See whats different between windows and linux and think about what you prefer. Just set time aside and play with it. When you get confident, then you can think about giving up windows but in the meantime just think of it as a toy to play with :-) - ATH025, on 10/11/2007, -3/+19I just installed Ubuntu today and I can tell you that I won't be going back to windows anytime soon, unless maybe for a couple of games. The whole installation process was very easy and I had zero problems with hardware drivers.
- atdigg, on 10/11/2007, -3/+18It's not THAT different, and in 1-2 months of using it I learned more and had more control than in Windows after 10 years of using it.
- Phyrefly, on 10/11/2007, -3/+15Ubuntu live CDs saved my ass a couple (online assignments) of times when XP bit the dust.
I'd never use it as a complete Windows replacedment though... it's just not there yet. - schestowitz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12> I learned more and had more control than in Windows after 10 years of using it.
That's partly because it gives user more control and it's also easy to tailor to one's own needs. It's whatever you want it to be, even if you want it to clone Mac OS X or Windows -- something which Xandrosoft and Lindows tried to do. - bruenig, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11This guy clearly has never used anything but ubuntu. He says the distro will be a live cd which is completely untrue for the majority of distributions. He also says that windows dual boot will be automatically set up which is also untrue for a lot of distros. He talks about linux's built-in package manager and such a thing doesn't exist. Most distros have package managment but there is no built-in linux package manager.
It is fun to watch these people who have never used anything outside of ubuntu feel like they know enough about linux as a whole to write a guide such as this. Unfortunately the same is true for the majority of diggers who are unable to see through the serious inaccuracies. - maruchan, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11I knew a guy who had your quote ("Linux is only free if your time is worthless") pinned to his cubicle wall. He was a pretty ordinary guy who tucked in his T-Shirts and wore sneakers and jeans with a braided belt. He used Windows and .NET for everything.
I was never able to figure out what that guy did with his spare time that made it so much more profitable than everybody else's. He played a lot of Ultimate Frisbee, for what it's worth. - Jo9100, on 10/11/2007, -4/+13sudo try linux!!
- km3k, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10I actually like linux because I don't want to waste my time. Sure, I spent more time when I initially learned linux, but now I spend far less time maintaining my system than I did on windows. Plus, installing and setting up new machines is much quicker. I've found the actual install to be around half the time on average (.5 hours on linux, 1 hour on windows usually) and it's much easier to use software repositories than to search google to find all the software I want after an install.
- rejoined, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7Regarding the new comment system, I dont know if anybody else is seeing it...I wish the 'Expand Full Tree' under 'Comment Display Options'..can be enabled by default in the 'Profile' of our user ids/names on the 'Manage Profile' tab, 'Viewer Preferences' area.
Now you have to click 'Expand Full Tree' for all articles, thereby reloading the page again. - DonCarcharo, on 10/11/2007, -8/+15I'll get dugg down for saying this but I really, really wish people would stop astroturfing Linux for the desktop. I use CentOS on my servers, Red Hat for years before that, and readily admit that Linux is a great server OS. It's wonderful and it's free. But Linux on the desktop is an entirely different ball game. There's not enough standards (not even a standard desktop environment), installing applications can be confusing and complicated (don't even pretend the average user relates to the concept of remote repositories and dependancies) and configuring stuff is a royal PAIN. I'll ignore the complete lack of quality software since that's subjective.
The point is Linux is getting much, much better but it's not there yet. And reading dozens of stories about how wonderful it is every single day is pretty transparent. It's free. If you can't get people to use something that's free then maybe the market isn't ready for it yet.
Focus on a better desktop experience and people will come. - VinceNoir, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7Ah... the old lie that implies that spending your time using Linux is worthless. It's easily refuted by the fact the the time is well spent since it allows people to do far more with their machines than Windows ever could. I've had wireless (WiFi based) DVD playback between my laptop's DVD drive and my Linux based media center. Not using some lame hack like Windows file sharing, remote desktop or even the classier VLC though. My approach makes the laptop's DVD drive an actual device within my Linux media center PC via the network (in this case WiFi) thanks to the Linux kernel's support for network block devices. This is NOT file sharing. You could say it's "device sharing". I've been running like this for over two years now with zero cost other than about three or four hours of time learning about network block devices, recompiling my kernel to support them, compiling and installing the NDB user space utilities and then writing a custom script to glue it all together. The end result? A wireless DVD player that looks great on my 1080p HD LCD monitor. Something that only a few companies have alluded to.
In reality, the time you spend learning Linux gives you the complete freedom to build anything you want without needing to be a programmer. This is something Windows is way behind on. - BlackAle, on 10/11/2007, -17/+23it's only free if your time is worthless.
- thinman1189, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Simple yet to the point. Honestly, Linux isn't that hard to use unless you're going to be doing super complicated stuff that you probably aren't smart enough to do on windows anyway.
- 2kude, on 10/11/2007, -5/+11Haha, this is true. I'm glad that Linux's interface allows me to get more done, though. People need to stop thinking of Linux as a free Windows and start realizing that it has different concepts and methods of getting things done.
I just wish pointless articles like this would stop making it to Digg like nobody's ever heard of Linux. I wouldn't be surprised if the Beryl/Ubuntu mafia is one of the main things turning people away from Linux.
But good luck not getting dugg down by the fanboys, LOL. - Gzero, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Indeed, the latest version of Ubuntu is really nice. Last couple times I tried Ubuntu I went back in a few days, this time I've started spending the majority of my time in Ubuntu.
There are a few things that still bug me, but it's a lot better. - inactive, on 02/25/2009, -0/+6Windows isn't free in either 'freedom' or 'price' sense
- PainCompliance, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6I really 'Digg' Linux and have used it for 3 or 4 years now (Ubuntu mostly) but it still seems like anything really critical that I do I still have to do it on Windows. Linux is close, very close, and I want it to succeed and be ready for prime time, but right now it's just a little short. I think it will get there and I try to turn everyone I can on to Linux, but it still does lack some functionality, not all of that is the fault of Linux though.
I have WinXP for games and thats about it, anything else I do is on Linux unless it's just something Linux can't do for me at the moment. i.e. Editing a .pdf form.
But overall I STILL think Linux is superior to Windows. For a lot of reasons, not only because it's free. - P373Y, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6WINE
- MrCorpse, on 10/11/2007, -3/+8Well said philluminati, with the abundance of live Linux distributions out now, you can try it before installation, bear in mind live disk run in the ram not your Hard drive so it is a little slower.
- Sushubh, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4i have switched... and i am pretty comfortable. but then i am used to asking questions on forums and IRC...
- nusuni, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4At least it doesn't say "Take Ubuntu for a test drive..."
- sannm, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I noticed that and I hope digg enables an option so I don' t have to click the "expand tree" button everytime. Greasemonkey scripts anyone?
- syco123, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Coz Linus thinks Gnu/Linux is a ridiculous term and Linux is his baby. Stallman while a free software champion is clinging to the coatails of Linux.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I used to hate Linux and the whole idea of having many different types. But as I type this from my PS3 via Fedora 5 I am glad that I discovered Linux and what it can offer to anyone.
My MacBook is out on Service (USB port not working) so I will definitely get to know this OS in the next week and a half. - neowip, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4It's really not that hard to work with Linux. My 8 year old just finished her paper on it without even a hick-up. Just a 'hey, this is different' then just followed her instincts and got going.
- KungFuJesus, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4the NV driver doesn't yet support 8800s, so you have to edit xorg.conf on the live cd and change "nv" to "vesa"
then install the distro, and then install the closed source nvidia driver.
It was a bit of a pain but worth it in the long run, i just wish that they'd update the nv driver :( - trunkster, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5Probably because it was published on a more major news site then on someone's blog. It's on digg just to show the publicity that linux is getting, which is a good thing.
- ACalcutt, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Or use one of the free Virtual Machine products, like vmware server
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I also hate when people say windows is terrible(I use ubuntu mainly BTW, but I also have a second pc with xp) if it works for what you need it to do then more peower to you, it's your damned computer after all
- kettlechips, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3It will work, just don't expect wobbly spinning windows.
- syco123, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3"Ubuntu it will just destroy your computer. Ubuntu is a Linux only set-up,"
Don't talk crap please!! Try a Wubi install of Ubuntu you can install it like a program in windows, run it like a dual boot and unintsall it like a windows program. nothing is messed with not even the MBR. So please stop being a *****. - daftman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3No, just digg's
If you want people to value your intellectual relevancy, then try /. or osnews.
But then again, are you posting to get digg? Or are you posting to get your point across? - WorldGroove, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3You don't have to change/replace; just add. Dual-boot. If ya don't like it, don't boot into it anymore. You can make a small 10gig partition for Linux, just to play around with and not lose anything in your Windows environment.
- carl25, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4my windows is free, but i have tried ubuntu and probably will again
- bentrop, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3"the screen resolution deal"? You mean the small problems that X.org still has with some more exotic screen resolutions? Well, yes, that should be fixed in X.org 7.3 and therefor Ubuntu 7.10 and most other Linux Distributions that will be released this year.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3It's not there yet for a common windows user, but for those who want to give it a try or those who are interested in it, like newbies, need to hear of it from somewhere. First one I heard of and tried was gentoo. BIG MISTAKE.
- swanny89, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I found One! http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/10098
- mcmlxxii, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5This fatuous comment assumes learning something new is worthless.
- penguinshome, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I have an outmoded (hand me down parts, etc.) pc that has Ubuntu loaded on it. It runs much better than when it had Widows XP.
- mscman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Does it really save that much bandwidth when people sit there and hit the "Show X replies to this comment?" Because it seems to me like this would take more time and resources...
- kettlechips, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Red Hat and CENTOS do not provide a friendly desktop experience. Ubuntu comes very close, though.
- SanjoEel, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Ok article encouraging people to try Linux. I installed Ubuntu a while back knowing nothing about Linux. Now, I have come to think we are seeing the beginning of an enormous Open Source revolution that will change the way we live our lives. I think the possibilities to save money and resources, while simultaneously innovating and improving myriad systems for the benefit of all, is staggering and encouraging. Support Open Source!
- kettlechips, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Good on you
- ShadyTree, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3I USE KUBUNTU
- leszek, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2What is your WIFI chipset ?
- kettlechips, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Chicago Sun Times readers are a different demographic.
- Ignathius, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2absolutely. i installed Vista Ultimate on both my PCs here at the house, and within a week i was back to XP. tho i have to admit, i did *love* the new windows explorer in vista. but all the other problems it had certainly wasn't worth the fancier explorer. hell i had to buy a new sound card because vista doesn't like my integrated sound on my 7 month old mobo.
- pixelate, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I, for one, welcome our new reverse-first-comment-abusing overlords.
- crazybrit, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Have you tried ndiswrapper?
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