Why Linux anyway? - Page 2

Hi. I burned my first CD of Ubuntu on New Year's Day, installed for kicks a day later, and a month later I had deleted my Windows partition.

I'm not saying that to brag; I'm just giving you fair warning.

It's addictive. It's a learning experience. It does everything Windows does and it's free (with some caveats, of course). Then there's the stability, the speed, the reliability, freedom from virus scanners and spyware scanners. ...

If you enjoy working with older machines (such as P3-era machines), you'll find it completely revitalizes them. My father's Inspiron 8000, which shipped with Windows Me, couldn't handle a wireless card to save its life. But install Ubuntu and the same machine does everything you expect the newest, flashiest machines to do.

Another example: I'm posting from a 750Mhz Latitude CPx. When this machine ran Win2K, it took minutes to boot, and Firefox grunted and groaned like it was climbing a staircase. With Arch Linux 0.7.2, I can boot in under a minute, start Swiftfox in under 4 seconds, and listen to streaming MP3s while working in Scribus. All this with only 256Mb inside.

To me, that's the real beauty of Linux -- older machines are no longer irrelevant. You don't need the outlandish system requirements of Vista (or XP, for that matter) just to do the day-to-day tasks most people enjoy.

Give it a try. Pop the Ubuntu Live CD into that old laptop in the closet and see if it doesn't bring it back to life. You never know: A month from now you might be deleting your Windows partition too.

that is so true mohapi.. the laptop in my sig would takes ages to open anything with windows. I popped xubuntu onto it, and it runs awesome. much faster, and I can even multitask now!

i like arch its really nice and fast, although i'll warn you that sourcemage and gentoo (When properly setup) will still blow arch out of the water.

I plan on keeping M$ Products. All crap aside, They wouldnt be #1 if they didnt offer such a good product. I am learning Linux out of curiousity and to broaden my horizons.

ms is #1 because of monopolistic practices. that is, they have contracts with Dell, HP, and 90% of all the other computer resellers that no PC will be shipped without the buyer paying the "Microsoft Tax" (aka Windows Tax) and there will be bloatware called Windows installed on it. of course, exeptiond do apply whereas HP has a laptop powered by SUSE and at one time Dell shipped servers / workstations with Red Hat (still think they do RH on some server models).

that said, my desktop is 100% linux (Mandriva 10.2) and so is my laptop (Arch .72 Gimmik) and although my other laptop is WinXP, linux is just as useful, if not more so.

I'm afraid abf is right. They're not No. 1 because of product quality; they're No. 1 because they bundle their product with every computer and make sure it's the only option when a machine is sold.

More importantly, they've become the industry standard because so many corporations have, for decades, been reliant on using Windows in the workplace.

When a company buys a new slate of computers every year, and they have only ever used Windows, and all their existing machines use Windows, and the IT department has only a vague familiarity with Linux ... well, there's not much space for an alternative to horn its way in.

And be truthful: Is Windows that great?

I was just wondering is there any way to install Linux to mess around on on the same hard drive as my windows xp simultaneously without affecting my windows install or do I need to use a separate hard drive to be safe?

99% of all distros come with a program to allow you to setup partitions in one way or another.

the recommended setup is as follows:
1 - shrink NTFS (windows) to the minimum acceptable size for your needs
2 - create a SWAP partition 2x as big as the amount of ram you have (ie, 1gb ram = 2gb swap)
3 - make a 128mb ext3 partition and mount it as /boot
4 - make a reiserfs partition and mount it as /

now just make sure to install grub (or lilo) and you'll have no problems dual booting win / lin

Most distributions have Live CDs, which boot from your CD or DVD drive and run without ever touching your hard drive. Granted, it's quite a bit slower than a full installation, and anything you do evaporates when you shut down the computer, but it will give you a chance to try things out -- and to see how well your hardware is configured. Some (like the most recent Ubuntu beta) have built-in installation programs, so if you like it and you're willing to switch, you can install directly from the Live CD without burning another CD. Isn't technology wonderful?

Shnake. See my post earlier in the thread. You can install vmplayer, then add the ubuntu image that vmware provide.
If you buy VMWare, you can install anything you want into the virtual partition.

No need to make any changes to windows.

That's also a great idea. It's a good way to start out, without making drastic changes.

thanks guys I will definately give it a try when I get some time