headphase wrote:
I am currently in a dual boot setup with Ubuntu and XP Media Center. I am a n00b with Linux, so I would apprecaye it if I can get a few pointers.
I set up a dual boot on my home PC with XP-Home and Xubuntu, the XFCE desktop version of Ubuntu. I've had to set up alot of things on it that would have run on Windows right out of the box, but overall, I like it. Xubuntu runs faster than Ubuntu or Kubuntu because of the lightweight desktop environment.
I spend alot of time in the
http://www.ubuntuforums.org trying to figure out how to do things. I also frequent the IRC channels for the various Ubuntu distos as I find alot of helpful people there.
In Xubuntu, I can surf the net, do email, IRC, instant messaging, do Office stuff, and so on with it. One thing I haven't found yet is a good CD/DVD authoring suite, so I still have to burn DVDs on the Windows side using Nero. However, I found a program called DeVeDe for Linux which allowed me to convert a downloaded MPEG4 file in PAL to a NTSC DVD, and it came out pretty clear. It didn't work well in Nero.
I haven't tried to get my scanner or webcam working yet, but I've read the webcam will work and the scanner will work, but support for it is limited under Linux. I still have to use my GPS unit under Windows because GPS/Geocaching software is scarce for Linux.
Can't say the system is 100% stable, as I have had some crashes from Firefox and MPlayer, the latter crashing usually due to some unsupported CODEC that hasn't been loaded into the system. Even with these crashes, once I kill the program the system keeps running the way it did before I started the program. Sometimes when a program crashes in Windows, it brings the whole system down with it or if I do get the program shut down, the Windows system still behaves erratically and I have to reboot. If I want to try and use the program after a crash, I still have to reboot. I haven't had to do that in Linux.
When I saw the requirements for Vista and found my 2 year old PC wouldn't run it, I decided to give Linux a shot just to see if it was a viable alternative, and I'm finding it is. I'm not sure when I'm getting a new PC and I want to use this one as long as possible. I also don't like what I read about DRM in Vista, so I'm not sure I want to try it.
My only real concern about Linux is hardware support. Although it appears most of my hardware has some support in Linux, my hardware isn't by any means new. In other words, what do I do if something quits on me tomorrow? Will the latest printer/scanner/video card/etc. work under Linux? I know Nvidia has started providing support for Linux, but what about other manufacturers? I wish more companies would support their hardware under Linux, so we could have options instead of waiting for the open source community to attempt to make a driver for something.
If anyone knows of any other hardware manufacturers who are actively supporting their hardwar under Linux, I'd like to hear about them.
Overall in spite of these things, I think Linux is a great alternative to Windows if you don't want to buy new hardware for when XP support finally goes away. It's stable, secure, and will probably work alot better on your existing hardware than Windows does.
Just my opinion.
_________________
PrisonerSix
"I am not a number, I am a free man!"