Ubuntu... How does it work?

it is a user face friendly, Ubunto is one of the nicest Linux put together with a nice GUI

down load the demo CD to get a feel of it see if you like it or not. any reason why you hate Vista ? driver ? compatible issued ? or too slow ? I was a beta tester for Vista and used it after it was release for about 1 months, I didn't like it because it was driver issued, slowness so I switch it back to the XP. I would used Ubunto too, but because I play game and Ubunto can't run all the application I had like VPN to Nortel switch so I stick with the good old XP.

I just got me a nice desktop rig, I load in a Vista 64 and been using it, it is a resource hog but the hardware I had is far more advance then Vista 64 can eat up, it turn out awesome to use Vista now.

it is all depend what you want to do. are you gaming ? if you are stick with XP, but if you must use Vista , then make sure you are update with all the patch and search for some stand alone patch that not include in the update, look at this article to get the stand alond update http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2177716,00.asp

if you like to try out linux and have no interest in play game, then it will be a good choice also, but be warn, it won't run all application from the windows unless you want to install something like Crossover to emulate the windows binary.

basically the program is install as Linux binary and it will emulate the API for windows which allow you to run and install certain windows application with in the program. you can get more information from here http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxoffice/ but if you are a geek type you can try free try WINE http://www.winehq.org/ if you must use game on Linux and don't mind pay for monthly services you can also try Cedega from Transgamer http://www.cedega.com/ with that said, none of the technology or Linux distribution is impress me. Came from Unix back ground as Sun Solaris, Digital Unix, HP unix. I think Linux still have a long way to go before it really make into the mainstream for every day use desktop. Working on the Unix all day long, at the end of day I need to install some application or game on the desktop and the last thing I need is sit there play with all this geeky stuff on Linux to make it to work is a no no to me. for the last 10 years Linux make alot of noise but the market share for it on the server side not pick up as was predicted 10 years ago. Let alone, there are tons of distribution Linux out there, every body want to be the best, but none is the best. I may get flame for this from Linux fan boy, but the true is, no one want to sit there and play with this just to get one application work. Don't get me wrong, it is stable and working, it all depend on what you want to do with it. For me, windows work well and I will stick with it for the desktop.

You will get much more valuable opinions in the Linux section of these forums imo. If you like a certain program, we can recommend alternatives in linux rather than an emulated program. The point is to start fresh right?

And I'd say that its more driver-friendly than XP.

look again where the thread's located

(just moved it)

Ubuntu works really well for everything but gaming - that's probably doable, but not if you want it to just work. At least not yet. I did get steam to run using wine, but no sound, and some of the textures are off.

Personally, I boot to windows only when I want to game now, and find things seem to work more easily than they did in windows, but as xccess21: said it depends on what you want to do.

dont wanna scare you off linux (hey...all 3 of my computers at home are exclusively linux right now) but maybe ubuntu (at least pure ubuntu) is not the best way to go. stop and think about that one for a sec. i recommend you give PCLOS2007 a run as well.

Must correct one statement from the above about "emulator" Wine Is Not an Emulator. And wine actually works surprisingly well for most things. As drlouis said above i was able to run Steam via Wine but can't get any games to load though..i assume it has something to do with my sound configuration. That said though, there are quite a few native linux games which are fun....for instance Enemy Territory and Americas Army both have Linux clients and are very good games.

For games I would have a look at Ubuntu Ultimate Gamers' Edition, it has more software included as standard (bigger install) but if you need help getting a game to run under ubuntu its forums and howtos are useful.
http://ubuntusoftware.info/ubuntu_games.html

EDIT; Forgot Wine Doors which has good games support, Quake Wars, Call of Duty and GTA San Andreas are all in the pipeline with EVE and Half life already working.
http://www.wine-doors.org/wordpress/
Also have a look at introversion software's games (DEFCON, Darwinia, Uplink) as they all have Linux version available to download when you buy the windows CD at no extra cost.

As others have said, download Ubuntu's desktop CD to try it out, just turn on a computer with the cd in it and it should start on Ubuntu, this way you'll be able to test it. Be advised though that it will not run as fast as a fully installed operational system so don't be scared if it takes a while to run most applications because it's running directly from the CD (after that it goes into RAM for a while so it will be ok)

If you're new to Linux I also recommend trying out Fedora (7 or 8 which will be out in 2 weeks) which is my sole OS now.

Both Fedora and Ubuntu are using GNOME desktop environment so will "feel" the same, the only differences are package manager, configuration tools etc... Both are very nice all-purpose OS and very pleasant to use in everyday stuff.

If you want to play games though forget about Linux, it will not run most games unless your computer is superior then the recommended system requirements as you have to emulate them, and some will not run at all on WINE or anything else. Your second option is installing both XP and Linux so you could boot on XP only for gaming (I'm planning on doing that on the future), but that's only if you want Linux as your everyday OS, which you will after you try it for a while

While parts of this statement are true, the part about system requirements and emulation is not. First of, there is what WINE stands for, Wine Is Not an Emulator. Secondly in some cases your system performs BETTER on games in Linux through WINE than on Windows. Specifically this seems to be the case with OpenGL compatible games, such as WoW. Performance tends to vary, some games run slower, some run faster. Seablade

The other thing to remember about gaming on Linux is that a lot of window manager shortcuts are the same as game commands. If you are playing a UT series game and hit F1 to see the score, but you also have Tilda (a Terminal emulator that drops from the top of the screen Quake-style; Yakuake on KDE) installed, hitting F1 will also activate Tilda.

The same problem can occur with Windows, but far less often.

You'll find that some games simply will not work with WINE, but will work with Cedega. City of Heroes/Villains is one of these. Check both apps' compatibility lists to see where you want to go. Cedega can run everything that WINE can run, keep that in mind.

What I meant is that if the guy wants to try linux exclusively for gaming it will be better to run them on windows... but if there is a minimum of general interest on linux you should give it a go, even though you might have some problems with games, you really should, as most people spend their lives "addicted" to windows and never turn their mind in another direction, I am myself one of them who has since then got out of the cave