First time Linux user.

2010-07-18 14:44:22

#1

CammRobb: Banned; +1,510|6388|Carnoustie MASSIF

My laptop has a 2.1Ghz Sempron, 3Gb Ram, and an Nvidia GFX card (can't remember which one exactly)

I wanna put linux on it, primarily to learn about it since I'm away to do computer software development at college, and I want it to run fast.

What would be the best one to use?

2010-07-18 14:48:17

#2

bugz: Fission Mailed; +3,311|6570

VMWare would be your best bet if you want to try it out. That way you can keep Windows as your main OS.

Fedora's what I use in my program at school. We run them as virtual machines (single core, 900MB of RAM, 12GB of HDD space iirc)

Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/ebug122

2010-07-18 14:49:45

#3

CammRobb: Banned; +1,510|6388|Carnoustie MASSIF

ebug9 wrote:
VMWare would be your best bet if you want to try it out. That way you can keep Windows as your main OS.

Fedora's what I use in my program at school. We run them as virtual machines (single core, 900MB of RAM, 12GB of HDD space iirc)

Mm, I'm thinking about using it as my main os.

2010-07-18 14:52:24

#4

Winston_Churchill: Bazinga!; +521|6997|Toronto | Canada

Ubuntu is likely the easiest for a starter. I have it as a dual boot on my main computer.

2010-07-18 14:53:25

#5

13urnzz: Banned; +5,830|6755

Winston_Churchill wrote:
Ubuntu is likely the easiest for a starter. I have it as a dual boot on my main computer.

are you using a bootloader, or does ubuntu do that for you?

2010-07-18 15:01:50

#6

bugz: Fission Mailed; +3,311|6570

Do you want a desktop oriented distro or something more streamline with less visuals?

Last edited by ebug9 (2010-07-18 15:02:22)

Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/ebug122

2010-07-18 15:07:44

#7

CammRobb: Banned; +1,510|6388|Carnoustie MASSIF

ebug9 wrote:
Do you want a desktop oriented distro or something more streamline with less visuals?

I still want to use it on a day-to-day basis, if that's what you mean.

2010-07-18 15:14:00

#8

Uzique: dasein.; +2,865|6728

i give it one month before you're back to windows.

you're doing a college course in computing... you don't need to be a linux geek.

_{libertarian benefit collector - anti-academic super-intellectual}. _{http://mixlr.com/the-little-phrase/}

2010-07-18 15:37:20

#9

Miggle: FUCK UBISOFT; +1,411|7000|FUCK UBISOFT

burnzz wrote:
Winston_Churchill wrote:
Ubuntu is likely the easiest for a starter. I have it as a dual boot on my main computer.
are you using a bootloader, or does ubuntu do that for you?

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/

i have an ubuntu boot on my secondary computer.

2010-07-18 15:48:33

#10

Winston_Churchill: Bazinga!; +521|6997|Toronto | Canada

burnzz wrote:
Winston_Churchill wrote:
Ubuntu is likely the easiest for a starter. I have it as a dual boot on my main computer.
are you using a bootloader, or does ubuntu do that for you?

i just put in the cd and it magically did it all for me

2010-07-19 06:00:50

#11

CammRobb: Banned; +1,510|6388|Carnoustie MASSIF

Gonna read into it a bit more before I take the plunge, but what are some websites I should read? And where do I download from when I commit to it?

2010-07-19 08:28:10

#12

TheEternalPessimist: Wibble; +412|6878|Mhz

Uzique wrote:
i give it one month before you're back to windows.

you're doing a college course in computing... you don't need to be a linux geek.

TBH most web servers run linux so it's pretty handy knowledge to have if you want to get into that sort of thing.

Ubuntu is probably the easiest to get along with, if you're in any way interested in the server end aspect of it all you'll need to get to grips with command line stuff, most server distros don't come with a desktop environment (you can install one if you want but, it'll run better without one). It's really not that difficult, I got dumped with a linux server 5 months ago having never used it before at all really and it didn't take long to get my head around most of it.

If I were you I'd slap Ubuntu Server + some sort of gui on a VMware install for now and see how it goes, they're both free so nothing to lose.

2010-07-19 11:05:59

#13

signa: ~~~~~; +50|6987|Michigan, USA

CammRobb wrote:
Gonna read into it a bit more before I take the plunge, but what are some websites I should read? And where do I download from when I commit to it?

I would have to agree with the others about ubuntu, right now its probably the most popular and noob friendly. It takes you right into a desktop environment with a menu similar to windows. Not to mention ubuntu has a huge app repository, just about any app you want they have available. One thing to note though is Ubuntu doesn't include software thats non-open source, so to get codec and flash support you have to manually add that on after install (see my 2nd link). you might also check out Mint9, which is basically ubuntu that comes with all the addons, codecs, etc, but looks slightly different with its mint theme.

For reading I would suggest the following:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/linux-c … -software/ (a very helpful community)
http://www.my-guides.net/en/guides/linu … tion-guide

If you want to play with linux a bit before doing a install I would suggest getting a 4gb flash drive to boot off of and install to that using linuxliveusb. Download the linux .iso cd of your choice, and try it out. don't like that distro? try another one, its fun and easy to try out different versions.

2010-07-19 11:19:51

#14

ghettoperson: Member; +1,943|6907

I run Ubuntu on my netbook. It's great. Providing you're capable of using Google every so often when you want to try something tricky, you'll get along with it fine.

2010-07-19 12:30:01

#15

signa: ~~~~~; +50|6987|Michigan, USA

Also if your laptop has older specs you might want to consider using a desktop gui that uses less resources if you find regular ubuntu is not snappy enough.

Gnome (desktop gui) is used in the standard ubuntu and is very nice and probably has the most features but is the heaviest.
KDE is a lighter gui and is used in Kubuntu.
Xfce is even lighter yet and is used in Xubuntu.
Lxde is a light interface too and is used in Mint9 and Lubuntu.

I've heard good things about kubuntu and would even look at some of the mint9 variations. those added with the Avant or similar "dock" would be nice.
any of the ubuntu or mint version all use the same huge ubuntu App repository, so you have access to all the same apps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_en … nt#Gallery

2010-07-19 12:49:52

#16

Sydney: 2λчиэλ; +783|7101|Reykjavík, Iceland.

signa wrote:
Also if your laptop has older specs you might want to consider using a desktop gui that uses less resources if you find regular ubuntu is not snappy enough.

Gnome (desktop gui) is used in the standard ubuntu and is very nice and probably has the most features but is the heaviest.
KDE is a lighter gui and is used in Kubuntu.
Xfce is even lighter yet and is used in Xubuntu.
Lxde is a light interface too and is used in Mint9 and Lubuntu.

I've heard good things about kubuntu and would even look at some of the mint9 variations. those added with the Avant or similar "dock" would be nice.
any of the ubuntu or mint version all use the same huge ubuntu App repository, so you have access to all the same apps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_en … nt#Gallery

Standard ubuntu works fine on my lappy

1.7 GHz Pentium M
1.5GB RAM
Intel GMA 855

2010-07-19 15:13:44

#17

SonderKommando: Eat, Lift, Grow, Repeat....; +564|6917|The darkside of Denver

you should learn fedora/redhat. Also, programming is rough cammy. I took two semesters of C++ and one of Java and hated it Good luck.

2010-07-19 15:15:27

#18

jsnipy: ...; +3,277|6780|...

Winston_Churchill wrote:
Ubuntu is likely the easiest for a starter. I have it as a dual boot on my main computer.

This.

2010-07-19 15:16:26

#19

SonderKommando: Eat, Lift, Grow, Repeat....; +564|6917|The darkside of Denver

jsnipy wrote:
Winston_Churchill wrote:
Ubuntu is likely the easiest for a starter. I have it as a dual boot on my main computer.
This.

Fedora is what is is most likely to be working on in a professional environment though.

2010-07-19 15:17:34

#20

CammRobb: Banned; +1,510|6388|Carnoustie MASSIF

Downloaded Xubuntu, stuck it on a disk. Gonna spend tomorrow getting used it.

2010-07-19 16:01:12

#21

Winston_Churchill: Bazinga!; +521|6997|Toronto | Canada

SonderKommando wrote:
jsnipy wrote:
Winston_Churchill wrote:
Ubuntu is likely the easiest for a starter. I have it as a dual boot on my main computer.
This.
Fedora is what is is most likely to be working on in a professional environment though.

Yeah, I used RedHat at school. Ubuntu is still easier though

2010-07-19 16:03:34

#22

jsnipy: ...; +3,277|6780|...

SonderKommando wrote:
jsnipy wrote:
Winston_Churchill wrote:
Ubuntu is likely the easiest for a starter. I have it as a dual boot on my main computer.
This.
Fedora is what is is most likely to be working on in a professional environment though.

I agree its the distro i used the most, but for a beginner Ubuntu will be a bit more forgiving

2010-07-20 02:45:26

#23

CammRobb: Banned; +1,510|6388|Carnoustie MASSIF

Posting from Xubuntu

2010-07-20 03:53:18

#24

Tdog2007: Giggity Giggity; +25|6971|US

I am interested in this also. always toyed with the idea, figure i should take the plunge, but have 4 questions (atm, heh)

First off, using Win XP.

I read on the ubuntu desktop download page about installing it while in windows. would installing it to the same disk windows is on screw windows up or would it be fine? and would uninstalling ubuntu do anything to the disk/windows?

Also would the documents (mp3s, videos, pics, etc) that are in windows be accessible on ubuntu doing the above install, or would I need to do some sort of disk check in it to add those files to its documents? (really weird way to put it but hope you get it) and would uninstalling ubuntu delete the files in windows too?

Can I use microsoft office on ubuntu? (o.0)

Last edited by Tdog2007 (2010-07-20 03:55:16)

2010-07-20 04:57:49

#25

jsnipy: ...; +3,277|6780|...

Tdog2007 wrote:
Can I use microsoft office on ubuntu? (o.0)

I'm sure there *might* be a way with something called Wine, but unless you are doing any MS Office development or taking advantage of its advanced features, Open Office will do more than fine. It can read all popular office formats.

You can install open office on windows as well.

http://www.openoffice.org/

BF2S Forums First time Linux user.

ebug9 wrote:

Winston_Churchill wrote:

ebug9 wrote:

burnzz wrote:

Winston_Churchill wrote:

burnzz wrote:

Winston_Churchill wrote:

Uzique wrote:

CammRobb wrote:

signa wrote:

Winston_Churchill wrote:

jsnipy wrote:

Winston_Churchill wrote:

SonderKommando wrote:

jsnipy wrote:

Winston_Churchill wrote:

SonderKommando wrote:

jsnipy wrote:

Winston_Churchill wrote:

Tdog2007 wrote:

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