How many of you use Linux?

[Mike1]

Ardchoille, I do believe a certain Feisty Fawn will be the end of me , but I hope to live long enough to dump off Windoze for good.

If anyone is wanting to give Linux a test-drive, you can download a Live CD and then boot your box off the CD. It's a bit slow, but it will let you get a feel for how things work. if you like it, there is an icon you can click to install the OS from the Live CD. If you don't like it, you're out a CD-ROM and a bit of your time. Give the CD to someone else and let them give it a test-drive.

I liked it enough after a few hours that I wanted to set up a dual-boot, where I could choose between Windoze XP and Kubuntu. I was pretty nervous about it, so I took a chicken's way out <cluck, cluck, cluck> and used the Wubi installer, which is Windoze-based. You run Wubi from Windoze and tell it what flavor Linux you want to set up (I went ahead with Kubuntu 7.04.) Wubi downloads your selection and installs it. When you boot your computer, you choose which OS you want to use.

I hope you won't let the stories about Linux scare you away. Obviously I cannot speak for other versions, but Kubuntu has been pretty easy to configure. I think most people grimace when they hear the term Command Line Interface, but I've not had to use it very much. Trust me, this thing has enough GUI to keep you from pulling out your hair. I did just download and install a program, by typing in a single-line command in a terminal window. None of this surfing to a Web site, downloading an .exe, then running it to set up the desired program. I typed in one line and Kubuntu did the rest.

I've never been a fan of IE or Outlook. I've used IE for testing purposes, but have never used Outlook for anything. So I don't miss either one. My first software grabs for Kubuntu were Firefox and Thunderbird, so all that feels just like home. As for anything else, this is no different than my first introduction to Windoze, back in the 3.1 days. I learned that OS and I am going to learn Linux.

I was one of those people that thought only geeks ran Linux boxes. Uh-huh, have any of you noticed that Dell is now offering boxes with Ubuntu installed? If one OEM is offering Linux, how long can it be until others are doing the same? I purchased an XPS410 last December, and if I had that to do again now, it would be an XPS410N, the Ubuntu box, rather than XP.

I'm a bit grumpy that Creative Labs doesn't have a Linux driver for my sound card yet, but that has been the only shortcoming I've discovered. I'm not getting the near-constant reminders that my firewall and anti-virus software have been updated and I haven't run Adaware SE or SpyBot Search & Destroy all day. I used to run both, twice a day. What's Micro$oft getting for a full edition copy of Office, these days? $450-$500? This free Kubuntu download has an office suite clone already installed. Breaks my heart. Not!

If you have a bit of time to wait and don't want to download Kubuntu, you can request the CD-ROM be mailed to you. And there's no charge for that one, either. They even pop for the postage. LOL, try telling Bill Gate$ that you want a copy of XP and Office sent to you for nothing.

If you're thinking about giving Linux a try, I can strongly recommend it. I look forward to the day when I can finally say, "I don't do Windoze!"

[James MacMillan]

Believe it or not, but unbuntu is really user friendly. If you are old enough to remember DOS, Unbuntu is a snap!

[ardchoille]

I was one of those people that thought only geeks ran Linux boxes. Uh-huh, have any of you noticed that Dell is now offering boxes with Ubuntu installed? If one OEM is offering Linux, how long can it be until others are doing the same?

One?! There are several OEM's selling computers with Linux pre-installed.. and there are more jumping on the band wagon. One of the reasons is that Linux has come far enough to be extremely user-friendly and easy to install.. not to mention it's free.

By the way.. I have an 8 year old niece who runs her own computer, all by herself I might add, and Kubuntu is the only OS on that computer. She threw Windows away last year and hasn't had any problems yet. That should tell you how easy Linux has become these days.

For anyone who is thinking about using Linux.. here is a page I wrote up for a friend and it helped her make the decision to switch.

[Andrewson]

Ardchoille, I do believe a certain Feisty Fawn will be the end of me , but I hope to live long enough to dump off Windoze for good.

Welcome to the Linux clan, Mike1.

I converted about three years ago (and at the age of 66, since that was an issue earlier in this thread) with Mandriva but I have found Kubuntu even easier to live with. I have just overwritten the last remaining Windoze partitions on my AMD64 X2 with the Fiesty Fawn version so there is no going back now.

It really is great being in charge of what happens to your system rather than being subjected to the constant blizzard of security updates etc.

Enjoy!

[Surly Dave]

My server runs Redhat, my wife's pda runs cacko (zaurus distro), my router runs dd-wrt which is also linux. I have occasionally ran linux on my desktops and hope to add a larger hard-drive to my laptop to dual boot either Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Unfortunately, many applications I use (Live6, SoundForge, Adobe CS3, some Cad/Cam stuff) have no comparable linux replacement, so even if I dual boot in the future, all my 'work' will be done in XP. I've played around with Ubuntu on virtual machines too.

HAHAHA That's not even English! Admit it: You just made that up!

[ardchoille]

For anyone who is interested in getting their KDE desktop to mimic OSX, I found this tutorial. It has sections for mimicking Jaguar, Panther, iTunes, Tiger and Milk. I spent 30 minutes following it and I now have a beautiful OSX-looking KDE desktop - but I can't decide between Jaguar, Panther, iTunes, or Tiger. One of my Mac-loving friends said he had a hard time telling the difference. Thanks to Arnaud for writing the tutorial

Here is a screenshot of what I ended up with

[pbpersson]

I have been using Kubuntu version 7.04 for several days now.

After installing several apps and getting it all configured......there is NO WAY that I am buying Vista.

Someone at work who loves Ubuntu just told me that Microsoft is having so many problems with Windows Vista......that users who install Service Pack 1 will be installing a full version of Windows XP on their Vista machine to help Vista with backward compatibilty. Oh my gosh......what a joke......well, and a sad one at that.

I think Linux is light years beyond Windows but that's just my opinion. Instead of just one company working on Linux you have developers all over the planet striving to make it better. That in my opinion is the real difference.

[Mike1]

I have been using Kubuntu version 7.04 for several days now.

I have been using it since the weekend and it's amazing at how easy it is to get comfortable with it. I booted XP for a couple hours, one evening, but other than that, I've been using Kubuntu.

I agree with you, I think Vista is already a bigger mistake than ME was and it has tremendous potential for attracting people across to Linux.

[Mike1]

Well, I've made it half-way to no more Window$.

One computer is dual-booting Window$ and Ubuntu 7.04. On this one, I was dual-booting Window$ and Kubuntu 7.04. This morning, I decided it was time to wipe Window$ off and set up a full Ubuntu 7.04 install. I can't put my finger on exactly why, but the Gnome environment feels better than KDE.

I played around with Gutsy a bit before making the switch, but decided to hold off on it until it goes Gold. I set the drive up with a 10 GB root partition, a 1 GB swap partition and alloted everything else to a /home partition. I'm hoping this combination will allow the Gutsy upgrade without losing any data.

I will have to say I am amazed at the willingness to help others that I've found on the Ubuntu forums. I've learned a lot in the last couple of weeks.

I've even managed to locate a 'Braveheart' Tux avatar.

[walkerk]

This morning, I decided it was time to wipe Window$ off and set up a full Ubuntu 7.04 install. I can't put my finger on exactly why, but the Gnome environment feels better than KDE.

I set the drive up with a 10 GB root partition, a 1 GB swap partition and alloted everything else to a /home partition. I'm hoping this combination will allow the Gutsy upgrade without losing any data.

Congratulations! Feel free to affix a Tux case badge to your machine now.

Red Hat provides a "switchdesk" command. For others there's a simple way to do this. Instructions here:
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/quick-...viceversa.html

10 Gig for everything but home? If Ubuntu installs Apache web content in /var/www you might be tight for space soon. Regardless, soft links can be used to allocate space when needed.

Note for those who may not know: Red Hat Enterprise Linux is available for a nominal yearly subscription to anyone associated with academia. Details here: http://www.redhat.com/solutions/education/academic/