[LaW]Maverick July 30, 2008 Share [LaW]Maverick Member July 30, 2008 So I've randomly decided that I want to give Ubuntu a shot. There's no particular reason except the OS looks pretty sweet and supposedly uses up less system resources on a PC, thus lowering the power required to run it...extending the life of my laptop battery. So, I figured I'd see how it works. Now, I used RedHat a long time ago in a programming clss, but I have more or less ZERO experience with Linux based system--so this should be an adventure. I'd also like to see how easy it is to teach myself how to do things--i.e., how intuitive is it. So, I'm going to set up dual-boot on my laptop here...I'm assuming this doesn't cause any performance or compatibility issues? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stutters July 30, 2008 Share stutters GC Alumni July 30, 2008 gl! it's not that hard to install and get around, but unless you have a specific purpose, i'd wager you'll be uninstalling it in a couple weeks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[LaW]Maverick July 30, 2008 Author Share [LaW]Maverick Member July 30, 2008 gl! it's not that hard to install and get around, but unless you have a specific purpose, i'd wager you'll be uninstalling it in a couple weeks... You didn't like it much? I also just want to teach myself a new OS...I'm passable with OSX, very good with any Windows system since Win95, but I don't really know a whole lot about Linux based stuff. So--I figure it'd be good to learn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stutters July 30, 2008 Share stutters GC Alumni July 30, 2008 no, it wasn't a matter of not liking it, i just didn't have a reason to switch. i didn't have anything to benefit from. same with mac; i'd probably still be mainly on windows if i didn't get forced into a mac environment along the way. i'm honestly not trying to make this a mac pc linux thing, i just have a hard time making a switch like that without reason. that's my experience, and i'm not trying to discourage you. maybe set an objective for the process (like making a media center pc, or a mail server, or something), which makes it easier to stick with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroDamage July 30, 2008 Share ZeroDamage Member July 30, 2008 I had a reason when I went to Ubuntu last year. My wife opened an email attachment that had a nasty trojan on it and it infected every executable on the system. Give it a go man and if you have any questions, post up here, Dweezil or myself will be able to help you out. You can install it through Windows with that new feature built in. It still dual boots but acts sort of like an application within Windows. It isn't as quick but it will not mess up your MBR or anything and if you do not like it, you can uninstall it like any Windows application (no trash can needed). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwack July 30, 2008 Share bushwack Member July 30, 2008 I've been fooling around with it the past week too. I'm wanting to use it as a server (i used the server edition then installed the desktop ontop of it) as a free OS instead of buying another copy of XP. If I wasn't a gamer it would be a great OS but there really is no reason for me to change over. I might put it on my sister in laws computer so I can get my retail copy of windows back that she has "borrowed" so long ago. hehe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroDamage July 30, 2008 Share ZeroDamage Member July 30, 2008 Wow oh wow. Check out the new Compiz effects. This one is the one worth noting. Cylinder: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroDamage July 30, 2008 Share ZeroDamage Member July 30, 2008 And here is the Sphere. The Cylinder is actually useful where the Sphere isn't but both are still really cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwack July 31, 2008 Share bushwack Member July 31, 2008 Must be powered by a Physx card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroDamage July 31, 2008 Share ZeroDamage Member July 31, 2008 Nope. Just a supported graphics card and that is all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwack July 31, 2008 Share bushwack Member July 31, 2008 Nope. Just a supported graphics card and that is all. Sorry it was a joke in bad taste: it's kinda useless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Playaa July 31, 2008 Share Playaa Member July 31, 2008 I had a similar experience. I was sick of Winblows so I switched to Ubuntu...but couldn't do anything I was used to. Then I switched to OS X (because I maintained the ability to boot into Windows if I wanted to) and started working with Ruby on Rails (which works in Windows or OS X but better in OS X) and that's what made me stick with OS X. If you use the pc for not much besides web browsing and watching videos and whatnot then you'll probably stick with Ubuntu because it's awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General J July 31, 2008 Share General J Member July 31, 2008 My wife has an older (~6 years old) IBM Thinkpad, and ran into the same thing that ZD had. I use spybot:S&D and one instance of IE opened up pandora's box. Something was running and attempting to change a load of registry settings. I finally got antivirus to run, and found 2 trojans. The easiest way I could think to solve the problem was to reformat. And, since my XP cd was on a moving truck somewhere between Missouri and Idaho, Windows wasn't an option. I couldn't use Ubuntu because of the RAM requirements. So I went with Debian. With the GUI, Debian/Ubuntu should be pretty easy to use, even if you don't want to get into using the terminal. If you do end up learning terminal commands, which I haven't gotten completely into yet, you can pretty much do anything you want with the OS. And, the good thing is that there really is actual documentation on how to use the OS. Also, being cheap, free is a very appealing aspect. The only reason I can see for keeping the Windows installation on my next laptop purchase would be for gaming. There are programs that allow you to run windows programs through linux. One is WINE and the other is VMWare. BUT, last I read, Valve was searching for a highly skilled Linux programmer to port Steam and software over. Good news for CS players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[LaW]Maverick July 31, 2008 Author Share [LaW]Maverick Member July 31, 2008 It's not that I'm sick of Windows or anything--just kinda want to learn a new OS to learn a new OS.... Besides, from what I've heard, the feature set--if you work at it--is now pretty comprehensive in Ubuntu...some people manage to run games on it anyway. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroDamage July 31, 2008 Share ZeroDamage Member July 31, 2008 I got TF2 and CSS to run on my laptop running Ubuntu a few weeks ago. It ran pretty good for being an older Nvidia video setup. (7600) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[LaW]Maverick July 31, 2008 Author Share [LaW]Maverick Member July 31, 2008 Hey ZD, I tried to..well, try the OS without changing my system via the menu on the boot up and my graphics were all screwed up. I couldn't see a thing, and I got the whole vertical line syndrome thing goin' on....in other words my monitor looked like it was displaying flickering bar-codes. Any idea how to get around that particular problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroDamage July 31, 2008 Share ZeroDamage Member July 31, 2008 Try pressing ctrl-alt-f4 or any of the lower numbered F-keys and you should pull up a terminal. You will have to log in so go ahead and do that. Then type this: sudo displayconfig-gtk Hit enter and follow through the steps then reboot. Usually the defaults work but if not, you may have to look up your monitor make, max resolution, vertical and horizontal frequencies, etc. I haven't had this problem since the 6.10 release so it is rare these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZesteR July 31, 2008 Share ZesteR Member July 31, 2008 I'm working on convincing my g/f to give me her old WinME pc to convert it to a file/print server... maybe time to create that linux forums, zd??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwEEziL July 31, 2008 Share dwEEziL Member July 31, 2008 A Linux forum sounds like a good idea to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroDamage July 31, 2008 Share ZeroDamage Member July 31, 2008 I'm working on convincing my g/f to give me her old WinME pc to convert it to a file/print server... maybe time to create that linux forums, zd??? There did not seem to be any interest with linux in the past. Would be cool though. But we would then have to create a (bleh!) Mac OS forum too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[LaW]Maverick July 31, 2008 Author Share [LaW]Maverick Member July 31, 2008 Try pressing ctrl-alt-f4 or any of the lower numbered F-keys and you should pull up a terminal. You will have to log in so go ahead and do that. Then type this: sudo displayconfig-gtkHit enter and follow through the steps then reboot. Usually the defaults work but if not, you may have to look up your monitor make, max resolution, vertical and horizontal frequencies, etc. I haven't had this problem since the 6.10 release so it is rare these days. Only problem is that I can't see anything. All I see is multicolored vertical bars. It seems more like it doesn't like my vid card. I dunno... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwEEziL July 31, 2008 Share dwEEziL Member July 31, 2008 Mav, with linux you can have sessions via different terminal windows (i.e., tty's), the GUI runs under tty 7 (to get to it, you type ctrl+alt+F7). Hit Ctrl+Alt+F2 and wait a few seconds. The screen should eventually go to tty2 where you can log in and run the command zd listed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[LaW]Maverick July 31, 2008 Author Share [LaW]Maverick Member July 31, 2008 (edited) So, though I can't see anything, I hit ctrl + alt + F2 and it will switch display modes so that I can see? I'll give it a shot. I should also note that I'm trying this on my laptop for the time being to see how it works. Does Ubuntu support dual monitors? Edited July 31, 2008 by [LaW]Maverick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroDamage July 31, 2008 Share ZeroDamage Member July 31, 2008 On second thought, a forum for both Apple and one for Linux would be a good idea. Right now, this forum is kind of cluttered with all of the different topics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwEEziL July 31, 2008 Share dwEEziL Member July 31, 2008 So, though I can't see anything, I hit ctrl + alt + F2 and it will switch display modes so that I can see? I'll give it a shot. I should also note that I'm trying this on my laptop for the time being to see how it works. Does Ubuntu support dual monitors? On one of my Ubuntu installs, I use the proprietary video driver so every time there's a kernel update, I lose my gui and have to reinstall the driver. At boot up, I'll come to a blank screen (i.e., the monitor shuts off seeing no signal). If I hit Ctrl+Alt+F2 (anything through F1-F8 excluding F7 (which is the gui tty), then I'll get a new tty and after a few seconds, the monitor detects it and comes back on. From there I can reinstall the video driver, reboot, and I'm all good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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