Installing Linux on my main computer... Would it be wise?

[NuckingFuts]

I've started to get really frustrated with Windows now, And I am starting to feel like moving over to Linux (Most likely Ubuntu)

 

 

 

I have used Linux Ubuntu in the past, and I am currently using Linux Mint with fluxbox on my laptop, so I am fairly familiar with the way it functions and such, the one thing that always hangs over me though is whether I want to fully devote my system to it. Just now however, I was looking into VM's, and this has got me pondering yet again... on the idea of getting it.

 

 

 

The way I see it, is like this...

 

 

 

• - Most of my games could/should be able to run under Wine (I could even set up a partition if they didn't - which might be a could idea seeing how I have a problem dedicating my time to work)
   
   
   
  - Photoshop/Dreamweaver/Flash/Illustrator should also be able to work under Wine right?
   
   
   
  - I could use VirtualBox to run Windows XP inside of Linux, I'm not sure how far I can go with this though...
   
   
   
  - The rest of the applications I use are also, either working on Linux (Firefox, Thunderbird) or they have other programs that do the same task (Open Office, Pidgin, Amorak)

 

 

 

So here are my questions that I would like some help with :)

 

 

 

• 1) Does Wine really keep up with being able to run application and games? For example Battlefield 2 / Photoshop CS3 / Sony Vegas
   
   
   
  2) Will I be able to share my External HD from Linux? Would it allow a windows machine to use it?
   
   
   
  3) How functional would a VM Windows XP be? What could I use it for?

 

 

 

I know some of these questions are dependant on hardware, so here are a few specs that might be needed. / 64bit X2 Dual Core / 2.31GHz / 4GB Ram /

 

 

 

I'm ready to make the swap over, I just require an extra push from other people who could recommend it to me.

 

 

 

Thank you in advance :)

[dsavi]

 

• 
   
  [*:9907p5ml]The rest of the applications I use are also, either working on Linux (Firefox, Thunderbird) or they have other programs that do the same task (Open Office, Pidgin, Amorak)

 

 

Firefox and Thunderbird were written for Linux. :P And later ported to Windows.

 

 

2) Will I be able to share my External HD from Linux? Would it allow a windows machine to use it?

 

 

Yes. However, you may need a special program to mount an ext3 partition. (But that's nothing difficult)

 

 

3) How functional would a VM Windows XP be? What could I use it for?

 

Here's what I would do: (Answer to question #1 also) Keep Windows, but shrink the partition and devote a large portion of your HDD to Linux. That way you don't need to worry about functionality. It's a pain to reboot I know, but right now WINE isn't exactly the greatest (Even though it can do some pretty cool things) and it will save you a lot of headaches in technical problems and compatibility issues.

 

 

 

As for a Linux distribution, I agree that Ubuntu is for you. Excellent hardware compatibility and easy to learn on, huge software repository and very difficult to break. (Although I have managed to do it :P )

 

 

 

I hate to be nitpicky like this but please don't call it "Linux Ubuntu", rather "Ubuntu" or "Ubuntu GNU/Linux". It just annoys me so. :P

[NuckingFuts]

aha, The master dsavi himself has responded

 

 

 

Well that sounds good enough to me. Tonight, I shall be installing Linux Ubuntu Ubuntu GNU (Close call :P)

 

I'm actually really going to enjoy this, I hear the stuff you can learn from using a Linux OS is both beneficial and helpful. That, alongside the fact there is a greater sense of freedom while using it.

 

 

 

Thanks dsavi for your response, much appreciated. :thumbup:

[Jernlov]

Ubuntu is horrible. Maybe I'm making a schoolboy error somewhere but whenever I've used it, something has always screwed itself because of bad drivers and bad compatibility with hardware. I had more success with Arch, SuSE and Debian than Ubuntu. Also, unless you strip it of all the bloat, you'll get an OS that runs no smoother than Windows.

 

 

 

My suggestion: read a howto of installing Arch or even Gentoo and run it in a VM. No need to switch from Windows if you need Photoshop and games.

[dsavi]

^ I have had the reverse experience. Ubuntu is running right now on my laptop, 366MhZ/256mb/no graphics right now. I use it as a small LAMP server. I hold the truth to be self-evident: Ubuntu is not bloatware. Install Fluxbox and it's even faster. I have had to search for one particularly weird driver, but other than that compatibility has been flawless.

[NuckingFuts]

Well I installed it, I installed Ubuntu 9.04 Beta to be exact, and I have to say, so far so good.

 

 

 

I've got my music and videos playing through the applications I want, I also have installed Virtualbox / Wine so I can play around with that (And I left a 60GB empty partition on the HDD so I can install a copy of Windows) Already the system seems much more stable than the Windows XP I had before, even when I was installing AA, setting up my 3D desktop and themes,and transfering 20GB of data from the ExHD while downloading a bunch of application from the repository's, it was still running smooth.

 

 

 

This is proving to be one of the best moves I have made in a while. Thanks dsavi for helping me with those Q's, they were all I needed to make my decision firm :D

[Makoto_the_Phoenix]

It looks like I got to this thread just a little bit late, but I suppose I can echo or further reinforce what dsavi said earlier.

 

 

 

 

1) Does Wine really keep up with being able to run application and games? For example Battlefield 2 / Photoshop CS3 / Sony Vegas

 

 

 

 

I haven't had any problems with PS2 in Wine, but to err on the side of caution, I'd have a separate (and aptly sized, probably nothing bigger than 8% of a 500GB hard disk) Windows partition specifically geared for those applications (especially BF2 and Sony Vegas). Your mileage may vary, and it's relatively safe to run PS in Wine, but being sure is better than being shaky.

 

 

2) Will I be able to share my External HD from Linux? Would it allow a windows machine to use it?

 

 

As long as the partition on the external is FAT or FAT32, you'll be fine.

 

 

 

3) How functional would a VM Windows XP be? What could I use it for?

 

 

 

I use a VM Windows XP for tiny applications (ARM emulator). Typically, VM emulation isn't used to play intense games or run intense applications, as there's little chance that the VM would be able to sustain it without some decent portion of RAM assigned to it. If you had something relatively undemanding or moderately small (I think you could get away with Starcraft in VM, but that's only my guess), using a VM would be pretty good.

 

 

 

I personally recommend Sun xVM Virtualbox; it's been rock solid for me over the last six months with my Windows-mandatory applications, and fits very nicely with the (Ubuntu) Linux OS.

[waex370]

- Most of my games could/should be able to run under Wine (I could even set up a partition if they didn't - which might be a could idea seeing how I have a problem dedicating my time to work)

 

 

 

Wine or Cedega, which is a fork of Wine specifically focusing on DirectX applications. Check Wine's application database first, and if there's no support for what you want, check Cedega. Years ago I was a heavy EverQuest player, and got EQ running in Slackware via Cedega with better performance than Win98SE. Back then though, vanilla Wine had little support for DX, and they've come a long way.

 

 

 

- Photoshop/Dreamweaver/Flash/Illustrator should also be able to work under Wine right?

 

 

 

I don't do anything with most of those, but do look into Gimp as a native Photoshop replacement.

 

 

 

Does Wine really keep up with being able to run application and games? For example Battlefield 2 / Photoshop CS3 / Sony Vegas

 

 

 

Varies widely by software. Check the app databases linked above, or a search of their forums for other people's experiences.

 

 

 

2) Will I be able to share my External HD from Linux? Would it allow a windows machine to use it?

 

 

 

Sure. Mount it and make it available as a Samba share, then any Windows machine can access it like any other networked drive.

 

 

 

3) How functional would a VM Windows XP be? What could I use it for?

 

 

 

Very functional. What would you need to use it for?