I am having an affair...

[Beavenburt]

with UBUNTU. And loving it. First impressions on me are that it's fantastic. So far I find it easy enough to navigate and there's nothing that I do in XP that I can't with ubuntu. The feeling of freedom from the endless cleaning up, defragging, messing with security etc has me sold. This is a very easy to understand distro for a noob like me and i'm very much looking forward to experimenting with others after i've gained some more experience. So far a big :thumb:
I know this isn't a big discussion starter or revolutionary but i just wanted to let the world know that my divorce proceedings with MS have begun.

[Hairy Coo]

When the novelty of the beautiful but shallow Ms Ubuntu wears off,you will return to the comfort of the profound Mrs. Ms with gratitude :)

[Beavenburt]

You could well be right. But for now I will enjoy. Kid with a new toy and all that.

[steve161]

I'll tell you, I'm missing the whole novelty thing. What I am not missing is MS. Although I do occasionally pine for security apps.

[NGRhodes]

-{ Quote: "When the novelty of the beautiful but shallow Ms Ubuntu wears off,you will return to the comfort of the profound Mrs. Ms with gratitude :)" }-

Shallow ?

[Beavenburt]

I'm sure the novelty with ubuntu will wear off. There's so much to learn I reckon it'll take a while. I suppose one of the beauties of Linux is when you get bored of one just try another.

[Huupi]

O Well Yes now get it !!

a) the players
b) suckers for security

Always an underlying misconception about each other,mainly visible in unusefull long threads. ;) :)

[wat0114]

Six agonizing hours last night installing it (ver 7.10) alongside Win Xp, getting the right codecs, installing +200 updates, updating the repository through Synaptic Manager, adding some software, figuring out how to get sound out of my SB Audigy, installing nVidia graphics accelerator driver, setting up mail...etc. Everything I need so far is installed and working fine :)

Certainly it's not as user-friendly as Windoze, but part of the problem is I'm in very early learning mode and making a lot of things harder for myself than is necessary. Nevertheless, I'm quite impressed.

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,

Just a fun question, how long would it take you to:
Install Windows
Install all the apps it doesn't come with (unlike Ubuntu)
Run full update, separately for Windows and each application
Get your codecs and whatnot
Install drivers
Setup email etc...

I estimate at least twice as long.

Mrk

[wat0114]

-{ Quote: "Hello,

Just a fun question, how long would it take you to:
Install Windows
Install all the apps it doesn't come with (unlike Ubuntu)
Run full update, separately for Windows and each application
Get your codecs and whatnot
Install drivers
Setup email etc...

I estimate at least twice as long.

Mrk" }-

Ahh, good question, Mrk :) To be perfectly honest, with my XP Pro, SP2 disk, about 5hrs to get everythiing installed (yes, I have done numerous installs of Windoze over the years), including all updates and most of my programs. However, I have a thorough grasp on Windows as opposed to being a complete noob with Linux, so I would say once I have a similar grasp on linux, I could install everything in half the time it takes me to install Windoze. My main issue was - and still is to some extent - getting used to how things are done in Linux, especially using the Terminal interface.

I do quite enjoy the feeling of surfing away without the need of extra security apps. Where I'm employed Linux Red Hat is going to be used on one of our systems, so I want to learn something about it on my home machine to get a head start, so to speak. I chose Ubuntu because it is supposed to be a nice distro for beginners. I'm far more comfortable with it now than I was earlier at 2 am ;) The web help pages are excellent,

So far I see no reason to remove it. If I need Windoze, the option is there with the dual boot, but for most of my needs, this is great!

[Hangetsu]

Really, the biggest issue with going completely Linux (beyond a learning curve) is gaming. Most other applications (particularly business apps) have alternatives in Linux, or (more likely) are zero-footprint web apps that run in a browser.

The only other challenge is Linux techies who have zero understanding of the business units they support - We're talking about people who don't understand why the 55 year old office manager can't just use vi for writing ;D

Personally I love it, but for practical reasons I'm still using Windows on my home machine (I personally love Vista 64 though).

[HURST]

I was in the same situation... I fell in love with Kubuntu, but the thruth is that I had to come back to windows, because I need some apps for University that I can't run under linux....so I made XP my primary OS again.
I do like the freedom and power I have when running linux, so I go there every weekend...

[Xenophobe]

I'm actually a new Ubuntu user as well. I love it, the only thing I'm missing from Windows is games. :ouch:

[wat0114]

-{ Quote: "I'm actually a new Ubuntu user as well. I love it, the only thing I'm missing from Windows is games. :ouch:" }-

I'm glad I'm not a gamer :) My only real needs are surfing, email, using a word processor (Open Office is nice) burning dvd's, and listening to music. I can do all that on Linux, but I still keep XP when needed for the odd app that does not work on Linux, and I still like XP - alot.

[Beavenburt]

I'm not a gamer so that's not a problem for me. I have now completely migrated to Ubuntu. Stuff the dual boot. I have no reason to use MS on this PC at all now. I can do everything that I ever done in XP. I've just got to work on the missus now and try and get it installed on the laptop. Fat chance I reckon. Shes a slave to Windows!
I am not an MS basher, I really like XP. It's just that I like the Linux philosephy. The freedom,choice and level of customization in Linux is just great.
I'm having a little flirt with PCLOS 2007 on a live CD aswell. I must say i'm impressed with that too. However, I kind of prefer Gnome to KDE so I will stick with Ubuntu for the time being. I don't want to start jumping distros too early!

[WSFuser]

Why not try the PCLinuxOS Gnome Edition?

[Beavenburt]

-{ Quote: "Why not try the PCLinuxOS Gnome Edition?" }-

I will in time. However, I'm just starting out with Linux and I don't want to be uninstalling and installing a different distro too often. I'll give the live CD a run at some point i'm sure. But, I'm going to get comfy with Ubuntu first and take it from there. Also, I like the size and attitude of the Ubuntu community. It seems to be easier to find solutions to any problems I have and a bit friendlier. I've seen fair bit of arrogance in all the communities but there seems to be less in Ubuntu. A bit more noob friendly!

[wat0114]

-{ Quote: "
I am not an MS basher, I really like XP. It's just that I like the Linux philosephy. The freedom,choice and level of customization in Linux is just great.
" }-

-{ Quote: " However, I'm just starting out with Linux and I don't want to be uninstalling and installing a different distro too often. I'll give the live CD a run at some point i'm sure. But, I'm going to get comfy with Ubuntu first and take it from there. Also, I like the size and attitude of the Ubuntu community. It seems to be easier to find solutions to any problems I have and a bit friendlier. I've seen fair bit of arrogance in all the communities but there seems to be less in Ubuntu. A bit more noob friendly!" }-

My thoughts exactly on all your points :) The PCLOS distros are intriguing to me, so one day soon I will give it a whirl.

[Beavenburt]

As i've mentioned earlier in the thread, that's one of the beauties of Linux for me, choice. Once you've used a distro for some time you may get a bit bored of it. If that's the case you have a choice of dozens of others, for free!

[Kerodo]

One of the main attractions of Linux for me is the complete freedom from concern about malware and viruses etc.. After I try all the AVs and HIPS and firewalls in Windows, sometimes it's a huge relief to put on Linux again. But you're right, you can do most anything you need to in Linux.

One thing that keeps pulling me back to Win at times is Outlook, I just love Outlook for email, it's my favorite. Sure, there is TBird and Evolution in Linux, and I can get by with them, but Outlook does it for me. If it weren't for that, I doubt I'd ever return to Windows.

Right now I'm on Suse 10.3, which is very nice. I have been distro hopping for about a year and a half, as well as running Xp. Each has it's pluses and minuses.

Enjoy Ubuntu, it's a favorite of mine as well... :)

[Beavenburt]

I use webmail provided by my ISP so not a problem for me. I'm very tempted by Suse. It's definately on the to do list for the future.

[steve161]

-{ Quote: "I'm actually a new Ubuntu user as well. I love it, the only thing I'm missing from Windows is games." }-

There was some talk about Adobe making a linux version of shockwave if their seemed to be enough of a call for it. But linux does have some decent games. Right now I'm going through an OpenArena addiction.

[wat0114]

-{ Quote: "There was some talk about Adobe making a linux version of shockwave if their seemed to be enough of a call for it. But linux does have some decent games. Right now I'm going through an OpenArena addiction." }-

The majority of the games my kids play work in Linux, since only Flash is required. There must be a few that require Shockwave, because I remember having to install it for them some time ago, so it would be nice if a linux version of Shockwave could be produced. I've no plans to install linux on ther pc, since there's no need to anyways.