Last few weeks; hearing people's opinions on Ubuntu, looking at videos and some other things, it seems Ubuntu is the "alpha OS".

So, what I want from this thread is simple. People who have installed Ubuntu, people who know a lot about Ubuntu, people who have any opinions on Ubuntu to mark me the pros and cons of it.

And one thing that worries me the most about it is; will most of my software work on it?

Software like Dev-C++, Notepad++, MSN Messenger (doubtful, but MSN isn't essential to me), Firefox, iTunes, Adobe products (Imageready, Photoshop, etc).

And I'm not that big on online games, but there are a few which are essential to me - For work and home.

Thanks in advance.

Maybe this will be of some help~

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28Linux_distribution%29

'Kay,'Kay.

God, you suck -.-

But I still love you :D...

Last few weeks; hearing people's opinions on Ubuntu, looking at videos and some other things, it seems Ubuntu is the "alpha OS".

So, what I want from this thread is simple. People who have installed Ubuntu, people who know a lot about Ubuntu, people who have any opinions on Ubuntu to mark me the pros and cons of it.

And one thing that worries me the most about it is; will most of my software work on it?

Software like Dev-C++, Notepad++, MSN Messenger (doubtful, but MSN isn't essential to me), Firefox, iTunes, Adobe products (Imageready, Photoshop, etc).

And I'm not that big on online games, but there are a few which are essential to me - For work and home.

Thanks in advance.

You'll find there are plenty of alternative solutions to the above software, all of which are completely free. If you do want to run the windows versions there is an app called Wine which will help with that.

After a damn good fiddle with it for a while, you'll have it running at your standards, dont just try it for a day and judge it from that, took me months to get my linux distro working the way I wanted.

Well, it's not like I'm at big risk.

I have 2 computers with Vista Home Premium, and the other with XP Office Edition.

I'll put the Ubuntu OS on to one of the Vista systems, as I use XP quite a lot for work and school.

And Wine...is that any good? I'm researching it now.

Ubuntu has almost all the programs you need, but probably of different names or ones that are similar in nature.

Ubuntu looks kinda annoying don't you think? I mean moving your mouse everywhere and u see puddles everywhere.. that's just annoying.. and wen u gotta click a program off screen, you gotta drag ur whole desktop around to click on it. Although these ideas are really smart

Ubuntu has almost all the programs you need, but probably of different names or ones that are similar in nature.

:)
If Ubuntu's programs don't prove to be as much use to me as the Windows programs, I'll just use the Wine implementation.

And I think most of the software on my computer has a Linux equivalent.

I think Dev-C++ does, if my memory serves...

I think Dev-C++ does, if my memory serves...

There is Kdevelop, and alot of others.

I just use the command line tools to program.

nano and gcc. ;]

I have like an Ubuntu boot disk, were you put it in and it has the OS on it for you to try out before you install. I'm kind of a noob at this, and that probably is what Ubuntu was made for.

Never mind. It's done :D

Ubuntu looks kinda annoying don't you think? I mean moving your mouse everywhere and u see puddles everywhere.. that's just annoying.. and wen u gotta click a program off screen, you gotta drag ur whole desktop around to click on it. Although these ideas are really smart

What the **** are you talking about?

all I saw in that sentence was ****

well anyway tell me how ubuntu looks I may try it out

Okay, I'm getting a shit load of problems when trying to burn it to disc.

I keep on getting errors.

Yes, my discs are blank and they are at a required 700mb.

I've tried the recommended burning software 'InfraRecorder' and my Nero but I get problems.

I don't want to order the disc, because my internet connection is more than capable of downloading it, and I don't want to waste time.

I think it might be the file, it might be corrupt. I'm unsure.

I'm trying to burn it from another computer now, as until now, I've been using my laptop, which isn't that great with burning...

You need to burn it as an image, not just a simple data disk.

It's an ISO file, DeepBurner is great at burning ISOs.

Prepare for alot of frustration now, Ubuntu is nothing like Windows. The terminal will be your best friend from now on, the official Ubuntu forums are a great place to learn how to use it, they are a really helpful and friendly community.

Ubuntu comes with most of the software you asked for, GAIM (a brilliant IM client), RhythmBox (a media player), OpenOffice.org and thousands of other packages. (All of which can be obtained from the Repositories).

And WINE (albeit with some configuration) can even run WoW, which is exactly what I'm doing now...

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/7845/screenshothu5.png

Good luck.

Thanks :)

And yeah, I managed to burn it to disc, I decided to download a previous version (6.06 - i think. The original one which has problems was 6.1).

Only thing now is, when I access the boot options, changed it so that it runs from CD drive, I think it crashes on the loading screen:

I get the logo etc, and i get the little loading bar underneath it, but as it says "Loading" nothing's happening. Nothing's progressing. It just stays the same. The loading bar stays on one bar, and it still says "Loading". I kept it on for about 5mins until aborting and then changing boot options to hard drive (Windows).

So I'll have another go later.

I assume you're using the Live CD then?

If you don't need to "test drive" Ubuntu, you should just download the installation files directly. But because I'm nice... Have the latest version, via BitTorrent. This is the Live CD too, as it helps if your PC goes "belly up", so to speak.

http://mirrors.gigenet.com/ubuntu/edgy/ubuntu-6.10-alternate-i386.iso.torrent

Burn this to disk using DeepBurner, and boot. Should all work.

I assume you're using the Live CD then?

If you don't need to "test drive" Ubuntu, you should just download the installation files directly. But because I'm nice... Have the latest version, via BitTorrent. This is the Live CD too, as it helps if your PC goes "belly up", so to speak.

http://mirrors.gigenet.com/ubuntu/edgy/ubuntu-6.10-alternate-i386.iso.torrent

Burn this to disk using DeepBurner, and boot. Should all work.

Aha thanks :)

Your teh secks :D

http://www.testcentercontrol.com/imagemacros/computerjokes/031.jpg

http://www.dashboardwidgets.com/showcase/data/57/BSOD-0p6b.png

I win in the fight of witty forum images...

And to prove it actually does work, here it is! WoW on Linux!

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/5615/screenshoteu6.png

And it's running better than it did on XP...

http://www.testcentercontrol.com/imagemacros/computerjokes/031.jpg

Person that made that never saw a Kit Car I guess..

GAIM (a brilliant IM client)

I wouldn't worry about GAIM. There is an MSN client for Linux.

It's called aMSN. Try looking in Synaptic.

As soon as i get a hardrive cati for my laptop aim going to put Ubuntu.

offtopic: If anyone knows a place where i can buy a Harddrive cati for a "solo 1450" gateway note book PM me.

This is going to sound kinda nooby but im trying to learn as much as i can about this.What are the advantages to having a linux based OS,and what exactly IS linux.

This is going to sound kinda nooby but im trying to learn as much as i can about this.What are the advantages to having a linux based OS,and what exactly IS linux.
Linux is a powerful, free open source operating system that was based off of Unix, an industrial based Operating system.
Linux is actually one of the most common operating systems, and in many houses there are more systems running Linux than Windows.
Because of how powerful linux is, and that anybody and modify and easily create their own version of linux, you will find it running on more than just computers.
Your Cable box? Runs linux. The router or modem runs linux. Modern microwaves, cellphones, refigerators, cars, and so much more.
But don't think that it's a small operating system that can't do much.
NASA's whole computer system runs Linux and only linux.
IBM, US Defense Department, Google, Cisco, and so many more.
In fact, I found this little thing just today:
http://www.3till7.net/2005/11/01/everyone-uses-linux/
Linux is the only OS that will run on the PS3 natively. The largest super computers in the world don't have much of a choice other than a *nix based OS because of limitations set into windows.(ie: the most robust version of windows can only detect 8 CPU cores, a *nix OS can detect an unlimited number of CPU cores)

The reason why linux is used so much is because it is the most stable operating system ever made.
To put it lightly, a windows OS would HAVE to be re-booted atleast once a year, even if it was a server simply because it gets booged down and will crash. That, and you got to reboot for updates.
There is a box that has had linux running on it near to ten years now, never was turned off. Ever. And it's had updates installed and everything.
It's also the most secure. Viruses simply don't work and one can't make any. The only "viruses" that existed for Linux are ones that are on paper, but when tested in the real world environment, failed. Trojans? Don't work.
The one thing that you do need to look out for is Root-kit, but you must manually install that yourself, something that EVERY operating system has a problem with.
They can protect you from your own stupidity only so much

But short of that, it's not going down.

Now, because the kernal of Linux is completely free and it's open source, that means that anybody can make their own version, and even distribute their own version.
That means that there thousands of different versions of linux. This means that no matter what kind of computer user you are, there is something that fits how you use your computer.

Now, one major complaint is that games don't run on linux. Ofcourse many people think that this is Linux's fault, and fail to realize that many game publishers simply restrict their game to windows only. It's not impossible to make your game linux compatible. All of the DOOM series run on both linux and windows.
But there is also wine that can emulate a window's environment and will allow you to play games on it. They are constantly improving it and making more and more software work on it.

Done for now, read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux

Wow thanks a lot.Im going to try ubuntu,and if i don't like it after a couple weeks or so i will re-install XP.

Wow thanks a lot.Im going to try ubuntu,and if i don't like it after a couple weeks or so i will re-install XP.

Dual boot.

That link was fabulous, Fabian.