Operation: OS ClusterF***

[Mannix]

Yeah, so I switched from XP to Ubuntu this Friday. Not entirely of my own choice, though. I was trying to set up a partition so I could mess around with it and see what I could see but it didn't quite turn out that way. I chose the partition option that wipes your hard drive and installs Ubuntu as your only OS. I lovingly refer to that option as "Fuck you, newbie." I only noticed this mistake after playing around a little and deciding to boot back into XP. "Hey, why is Ubuntu the only option on the boot list? ...Son of a Bitch." My only saving grace in all of this was that I had the foresight to buy an 80gig external hard drive the day before and back up all my irreplaceables.

Not that my computer didn't need the wipe; it had all kinds of crap on it that was really starting to bog it down, and now it's pretty much as crisp as the day I bought it 2 years ago.

So I spent the day installing the stuff I need to survive - bit torrent, a decent media player, etc - and now I pretty much have it where I want it for daily use. The only real adventure I have yet to embark upon is seeing just how useful WINE is for installing games. I'm not looking forward to it.

In terms of the OS its self, it's actually not too bad. Now that I'm starting to get the hang of how things are laid out I feel like I'm going to like it better than XP. Ubuntu's layout is very Mac-esque which initially made me hesitant, but after fighting with the Kubuntu variant's (the Windows style version) lack of plug-and-play capabilities (and lack of stability, for that matter) I decided to just bite the bullet. One of the very very handy features is an auto-loader/installer that's attached to an extensive library of open source software. So now I have Open Office, GIMP (like Photoshop), a Linux version of Winamp, and a few other handy things I grabbed after looking around a little.

So, that's the story so far. I'm not expecting any major catastrophes, but now that I've said that out-loud I'm sure I'll have more to post in a little while.

[synkr0nized]

Wine won't be very useful for gaming. My Linux box has a small Windows partition so that I can install games on it in case I needed another machine or something to play, and Wine has proved ineffective in getting any of them to do anything within Linux.


Also, being "for everyone," they seem to like to offer you the choice of either formatting and using your entire disk or manually diving into partitioning, which can seem daunting at first. It's not that bad, actually, but might require a gander at a few "guides" or recommendations written by others who have been through it. It's a shame that they did not take the time to offer a guided install that makes use of partitioning a disk (though, to be fair, this often requires re-sizing of existing Windows partitions, a process that always carries with it the opportunities to create inappropriate sizes and erase existing data).

[Mannix]

Yeah, I tried installing a thing or two with Wine before getting to the games and I decided I didn't like the cut of its jib. I'll probably try something like Cedega before I try to track down an XP disc (mine's in the States while I am not). Oh, and a tip: activating the wrong video card driver can screw your system to the point of needing to re-install the OS. I discovered that last night. Luckily it only takes me about an hour now to get everything installed on and updated. At this point I know pretty well how to do at least that.

[Eltargrim]

Yeah, I'd totally run a dual boot on that, if only for the games.

Congrats for getting into Linux; explore the possibilities.

[42PETUNIAS]

"Doing important stuff on your computer" needs a save function.