Linux seems great, BUT...

I am now trialing PCLinuxOS, & expect to receive a Ubuntu CD in a few days so I can trial that distro as well.

HOWEVER #1... one thing I really enjoy doing with Windows is hanging around sites such as FileForum/BetaNews & Freeware World where I can discover & try-out software of all sizes, shapes, & flavors. In short -- I am a software try-out junkie.

For Linux -- are there sites similar to those I mentioned, where I can read about, download, & try software to my heart's content?

HOWEVER #2... I have LOTS of txt & rtf files, as well as large password files, etc. Is there an easy, fast, practical way to get these files moved from Windows over into Linux?

 

Hello bellgamin,

OpenOffice, which is the office suite that Ubuntu and probably PCLinuxOS install by default, would support RTF files. I haven't tried it myself, though.
To play with software, you would find a lot in the repositories of PCLinuxOS and Ubuntu (http://packages.ubuntu.com/intrepid/).
A more generic place could be Freshmeat.com.
What kind of password files are you talking about? Something to use in Firefox?

Linux is able to access your Windows partition and read (text) files from there, so a transfer would be as simple as a copy command.

And VirtualBox enables you to run Windows as guest.

Hope it helps.

 

Ah: Bellgamin: testing the waters ??
There is a paradigm shift required ( or somewhat of a shift anyway )
*nix is not Windows.
There is a transition to make, but minimal issues really.
Some 'stuff' just not available in Linux.
Many of the utilities you ( and I and others ) love testing with, just aren't necessary in Linux.
I was most sad to leave so many tools:like Sysinternals etc behind.

LOL: boring old Linux just does what you want : with out breaking ( most of the time. )
Think about all the time you spend tweaking, scanning, rejigging etc etc etc
Now you can spend all that time reading the man pages and googling
heh heh.

Let us know how you get on

 

I was trying to stick with a linux only, but I figured why not have the best of both worlds.I have a 250 gig hard drive split partion xubuntu 64 bit and vists 32 bit.This is great when I get board with Vista I boot up linux.Now if I can get OSX on a PC working,I would be in my glory

 

Bellgamin,

Welcome to Linux,

Good place to check from time to time is http://www.getdeb.net/

I would though recommend installing from the repos for most of your apps.

 

Hello,

Linux does make the software quest a little unnecessary, but you can still continue using windows, even virtualized and then test the living daylights out of everything, also try new programs that exist in repositories and see how they work and feel.

Your files can be easily ported and used in Linux, including various text editors or OpenOffice.

Mrk

 

http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

Very nice perspective.

 

You can always use WINE if you want to try out windows software. Sure not everything will work but its always good fun digging around to try and get it going.
Theres also plenty of linux programs out there for you try out. Ubuntu's package manager has a fair amount of software available and makes it easy to install and uninstall. You can also add more repositories to make more available.

Making the move is fairly easy, i've just finished moving my first system completely over to linux and it was pretty much pain free.

 

Hi Bellgamin!

I migrated to Linux-Mint (mint flavored Ubuntu), bout a month ago and I must tell you, it's just terrible, . . . no matter how often I run the AV (Avast for linux) or the rootkit scanner (rkhunter, or chkrootkit), nothing turns up! Ever! They system is clean, clean, clean. No trojans, no rootkits, nothing to submit to the online windows security mavens. Nothing to report on the Wilders forums. Microsoft security advisories bring a chuckle (the poor devils on the Windows torture rack).

However, I didn't have any trouble migrating my WinXP apps to Linux-Mint, because 95% of the apps on my windows partition were security apps. Now no longer needed. Freedom!

With Linux-Mint, I get my work done by lunch time and have the rest of the day free. I've discovered sunlight again, and find that I really like it.

There really IS life after Windows, it's spelled Linux.

Enjoy,

Enthios

 

Funny.

I suffer the same situation with WinXP...

 

Yeah, that is, or was, the main appeal of Linux for me, that freedom from worries about malware and viruses, that is truly a huge plus. And generally, the system runs lighter and quicker without all those 'security' apps going too.

 

Actually the newer high RAM and multi CPU machine has made running the security apps way less painful but in Linux you get all those CPU cycles for your apps and not for background.

 

I used ubuntu for few days and i liked it . The only thing that bothered me was the quality of audio playback. Are there any audio players like foobar or spiderplayer with good equalizer ? And one more thing , which is better environment ? gnome or kde ?
Thanks.

 

Bad question! (excuse me) Like air bed or water bed?, Standard transmission or automatic?
Think of it as a personal preference, I like this, he likes that.
But there is good news! You are able to instal BOTH on the same computer and select which desktop you login to.

 

Amarok has an equalizer and is probably the best audio player. Its in the add/remove applications list under sound & video so its easy to install.
Gnome or KDE is like apples or oranges, whichever one you like. KDE might be more familiar for windows users however i'm a long time windows user and i actually prefer gnome.

 

Hello bellgamin;

Lots of Linux software here.

http://www.softpedia.com/

 

I think Amarok is reason enough to prefer KDE over Gnome

 

Exaile comes close to Amarok with all its features and its for Gnome.

 

i also second that exaile...

 

Forgive my ignorance but what exactly do you mean by this? Amarok works just fine with the gnome desktop.

 

Oh, sorry, haven't used linux for a while, had no idea you could use Amarok with Gnome now.
For what I read, you do have to do some tweaking before.

 

I guess that could be the case with certain distros maybe but at least it works fine on the standard ubuntu 8.10 gnome desktop.

 

With Debian and derivatives, and probably rpm based distros and other package managers, you select what you want to install, and all dependencies are also installed.
You will be shown what those dependencies are, and asked to confirm.
You may however get more that you think you need with some KDE apps on Gnome and vice versa.

 

I kinda like to keep the 2 separate, and stick with traditional KDE apps in KDE, and traditional Gnome apps in Gnome.... I don't much like loading up all the libs and stuff for both on one desktop... But that's probably just me being anal....

 

I do the same for the most part.