How do I get offa windows and learn something else?

[Biff383]

 { I've had it... I'm an old man and I am sick of figuring out what Microsoft is going to do next .  I am interested in another operating system. How is Linux, and how do I learn how to download and use it? I stuck with Mr. Gates for 15 years or so....there was nothing wrong with DOS, but I had to go and start with Windows, and this would be the end of that it's time for a change. Isn't there a tutorial out there that gets you through the whole switch?

To the Mods. Feel free to put this post in a more proper category.

8.1 on April 8??? I could download it 3 months ago..........Idiots. Feed the masses with bullshit and keep them in the dark.  Oops, I'm sorry I guess they target people that will download their poop ware. That makes some kind of sense I guess.

  I suppose that it's time for me to stop complaining and just get on with it......I guess it's time to end this [close to] a rant.

  I choose to listen to a lot of what you people say, I realize that I don't contribute that much to this forum  but then again the only thing I have to contribute is info on 480 3 phase industrial crap. And maybe some troubleshooting skills. And maybe some mechanical stuff.

Rant}

  Thanks Dave
   

[nctnico]

Buy a MAC with OSX (OSX=Linux which works out of the box) and use Virtual box to run MS Windows.

[Fsck]

tutorials? probably a ton on google. "desktop" linux distros are pretty user friendly. Stuff like *buntu, Mint, Zorin are some of the defacto windows->linux migration OSes. Zorin is claimed to be specifically designed to help transition windows users to linux, but I've never tried it myself. it probably comes with a guide.

My first linux os was Fedora 2, back in high school when I did computer work. Also had to deal with these ridiculously confusing gentoo switches/routers for our ISP functions. (small remote town, typical internet transfer rate <5Mbps)

If you want to stick with windows, you could always cling onto Windows 7 like some people will. (like myself. hell I still have a WinXP laptop I use for certain instrument control)

Buy a MAC with OSX (OSX=Linux which works out of the box) and use Virtual box to run MS Windows.

It's Unix-like, not linux. neener!

[Biff383]

  Still have a 98, 2000, xp and 7......It's outta  f ing control. I need to consolidate. If you could tell me how to put all the PLC programs together in one system I would rule the world. I'm using 5 different languages for the PLC's

[mariush]

Get Oracle's Virtualbox : https://www.virtualbox.org/

Download whatever ISO of Linux you wish and experiment with it in the virtual computer. Easy to go back and forth between virtual computer and Windows to search/ask for help with particular problems.

[Phaedrus]

Buy a MAC with OSX (OSX=Linux which works out of the box) and use Virtual box to run MS Windows.

It's Unix-like, not linux. neener!

Technically it's BSD with an idiot-proof UI on top of it.



I recommend starting with either Ubuntu or Linux Mint. Mint is better if you want something that just works, Ubuntu is better because it has a larger community.

As for learning the guts of the operating system, nothing works better than running a barebones Debian system and configuring it from the ground up.

[liquibyte]

Buy a MAC with OSX (OSX=Linux which works out of the box) and use Virtual box to run MS Windows.

It's Unix-like, not linux. neener!

Technically it's BSD with an idiot-proof UI on top of it.



I recommend starting with either Ubuntu or Linux Mint. Mint is better if you want something that just works, Ubuntu is better because it has a larger community.

As for learning the guts of the operating system, nothing works better than running a barebones Debian system and configuring it from the ground up.

Archlinux or Gentoo FTW!  (Arch is better IMO)

[pa2ees]

Kubuntu is quite similar to windows in layout.  It will be intuitive for someone not familiar to linux.  Plain old ubuntu comes with Unity (which has a very frustrating learning curve to windows-y people), so I don't recommend it as a jump into the linux world. 

As others have suggested, if you're really wanting to get into linux, a more plain vanilla flavor is the way to go, and you'll learn a ton from all the hiccups, configurations, things not working, etc...

kubuntu.org will have a cd .iso to download, which you can pop in your drive, boot from, and try it out without touching your windows install.  After messing with it for a while, and you feel more comfortable with it, you can then install it in place of your windows.  Or, you can get another hard drive, install linux there, and have a dual boot system.

There are tons of tutorials and videos on how to set up ubuntu.  My advice is to jump into it.  I run all linux boxes at home, except for my box that has Altium (get with it Altium!!), which runs 7. 

 - Erik

[Fsck]

Buy a MAC with OSX (OSX=Linux which works out of the box) and use Virtual box to run MS Windows.

It's Unix-like, not linux. neener!

Technically it's BSD with an idiot-proof UI on top of it.



I recommend starting with either Ubuntu or Linux Mint. Mint is better if you want something that just works, Ubuntu is better because it has a larger community.

As for learning the guts of the operating system, nothing works better than running a barebones Debian system and configuring it from the ground up.

BSD is derived from the early Unix editions , so it's unix-like.

[Biff383]

  New opertunities.....I'm liking it. Anyone with PLC experience help me with the twisted, deranged, whys of this crap? I can make something do something at least 5 different ways... How do you  teach someone how to program when you have 100 different programs (exaduratration). 
 

[Biff383]

I would rather not go to Mr Jobs. I am interested in something i can do something with.  It might not be right. ....but I can make it want.

[Biff383]

What I

[Biff383]

Oops...Thank you for all the feedback..

[Biff383]

I'm posting this offa android right now. ......Shouldn't we have 1 form of communication?

I was offa win 8 before that.

[Lightages]

I think I should try a Linux distro again. In 2007 (yes I know 7 years ago) I tried to run on Linux only for the whole year. That experiment was a horrible experience. I have many varied uses for my computer and so I needed many different programs not just email, word processing and web. So I would get to a certain point of getting programs working and then I would add one more and I would end up with 5 programs broken. The reason? Dependencies! Programs would require certain libraries of other programs to work and the programs I needed would need different versions of the same library, or a library that could not exist with another library, etc..

There were 3 possibilities for me to continue.

First, multi-boot different installations of Linux with the different programs I needed in each installation. Needless to say this would be quite a pain to try and use email on three installations as well as chat programs etc....

Second, multi-boot Linux and Windows and only need to manage two installations.

Third, why bother? Just switch back to Windows as the only installation and then only need to manage one OS.

Linux is(was) useful for servers and limited desktop use. Trying to make it work as a one computer do it all machine is(was) futile. Linux is great in that it is open source, free, and flexible. Linux is horrible because it is so fragmented and difficult to determine if something you are about to install will kill a whole bunch of other programs.

Now my experience is not that uncommon but many people are happy with a Linux distro. If you are going to just do the common things with a computer it will probably be great. If you do things out of the ordinary then expect some problems or expect to have a computer for simple things and one or two for more specialized use, or multi-boot.

If anyone has a handle on a distro that will handle 32+bit image editing, video editing in the same league as Adobe Premier or Sony Vegas, sound editing in 5.1 or 7.1, will handle all hardware W7 does, will manage Nvidia Optimus, CUDA, OCL....... and oh yes, gaming, I would like to know.

You get the idea. I am not knocking Linux but just be aware it might not be a total answer for many people.

[G7PSK]

I have been using Linux mint 16 for some months now, first as a dual boot with XP on one machine now it is the operating system on two others with dual boot one still as well which I intend to change to Linux only and have Windows running in virtual box, but only as a necessity for the few programs that are Windows only. I have had no troubles with Linux using programs from the official depository, did bring one machine down after loading a program but not sure if that was due to the program as when I re-installed Linux the machine again refused to boot after two days and I had not installed the program that appeared to cause the first crash.  I installed 64 bit instead of 32 and no further trouble so it might be a 32 bit instability, I don,t know enough about Linux and programming to be sure but as the problem only occurred on the computer running 32 and the others which had 64 bit but otherwise identical programs installed ran fine and after installing the 64 bit version there was no further trouble I think its a far assumption. The really annoying thing is the computer is the one in my workshop and on both occasions it was Wednesday morning and I wanted to listen to the Amp Hour but couldn't.   

[CaptnYellowShirt]

There's only one way to learn linux: The hard way.

Bite the bullet and don't look back.

[cimmo]

I have been a  Linux/Zorin user for nearly a year. After a false start trying Kubuntu (video card/driver issues) and briefly Mint (just a personal dislike) I settled on Zorin. The only other hardware issue was that none of the distros I tried played nicely with a crappy Aldi keyboard I was using. Another generic USB keyboard fixed that.

Experimenting and installation (either dual boot or replacing Windows) by burning the ISO file to DVD/RW is very straight forward. Perhaps you might need to enter your PC bios and alter the boot sequence to look at the optical drive first. An alternative is booting and running directly off a USB stick.

Compared to XP this older hardware is like a new system again. OS memory footprint is half of XP and the complete OS file size runs to less that 12Gb. It is very robust and stable, this machine is on 24/7 and I only reboot once a month when a new kernal is available. I have never had a lockup.

I strongly recommend Zorin as a general purpose OS as it comes with all the typical utilities and is preloaded with WINE for the occasional Windows program you prefer or need. The UI is also deliberately a clone of win7 but I found the native Gnome look and feel more to my liking. But you won't have to learn very much new, except maybe there are no drive letters and filenames are case sensitive.

I have also installed it on a few mates computers with no issues, one of which was a laptop with a Telstra wireless broadband dongle, and even that obscure piece of kit was recognized and installed automatically.

Anyone who was put off by the tinkering needed to set up a linux system a few years ago really should give a newer distro a go. You won't look back.

[Monkeh]

I installed 64 bit instead of 32 and no further trouble so it might be a 32 bit instability, I don,t know enough about Linux and programming to be sure but as the problem only occurred on the computer running 32 and the others which had 64 bit but otherwise identical programs installed ran fine and after installing the 64 bit version there was no further trouble I think its a far assumption.

A far reaching one, certainly.. Assumptions do not get you anywhere in this world.

[casinada]

As you can see in this thread there as many flavors of Linux as there are people. If you jump in the Linux bandwagon, you have to do some research and make sure all your hardware is supported otherwise you'll get lost frustrated and end up giving up.
If you need a popular windows application you can try to use wine hopefully will be supported.
For web browsing and word processing any OS will be fine otherwise stick with the one that supports your applications.

[Dago]

I've been a Linux user for something close to ten years now. It will take a long time and a lot of patience to "learn" it (if you ever do learn it) but if you like to know whats happening under the hood and are willing to learn then it is worth it. If you do not need to do anything really complicated (like install whatever obscure software etc.) then Ubuntu or something might work very well out of the box.

It will not be problem free and it will take a lot of time.

I like to say that all operating systems are crap, just in different ways and you just need to select the flavor you dislike the least.

[Fsck]

I like to say that all operating systems are crap, just in different ways and you just need to select the flavor you dislike the least.

I like to think of it as different tools for different purposes. No such thing as a good all-around OS, and the morons who try to design it as such are the ones who tend to screw up their entire platform.

[mrflibble]

One way to test out the waters would be:
- Get "VirtualBox 4.3.10 for Windows hosts" from this here download page
- Install that on your favorite windows machine
- Pick a linux distribution of your choice (Ubuntu is a reasonable starting point)
- Install linux inside virtual box

That way you can test if it's your thing. If not, no harm done. Delete the virtual machine and that's that.

And to pre-empt that discussion: yes yes, limitations blah blah, I know. With the virtual machine approach you can test out most important aspects, without requiring a bare metal install. Most notably, it allows you to see if you can get along with the desktop & it's applications. Or the lack thereof. Another advantage is you can try out several distro's more or less side by side, assuming you have some spare diskspace.

Or if you have plenty of machines lying around, pick one, plonk in a spare disk, and install ubuntu or whatever distro on that.

That said, I use dual boot. Debian for serious things, windows 7 for games. Stuff like Altium I run in a win7 virtualbox. The one snag is that 3D view doesn't work properly. 

Lots of applications work just fine using wine. For example yesterday I tried Sonnet Lite to simulate a stripline filter, and that worked in wine without any issues.

[at2marty]

{ I've had it... I'm an old man and I am sick of figuring out what Microsoft is going to do next .  I am interested in another operating system. How is Linux, and how do I learn how to download and use it?
 

I have been using Linux for over ten years now.  I've tried different versions of Linux/BSD over the years, and yes the learning process was painful at times.  I currently prefer to use Linux Mint Debian Edition as my primary desktop Operating System.  It may be a bit too "bleeding edge" for some people, but I've never had any problems.

I usually recommend Linux Mint for someone starting out.  99% of the time everything "just works" straight out of the box.  I used to like Ubuntu before they made the switch to the Unity interface.  I wouldn't really recommend it if you want a "windows like" experience.

[Monkeh]

I currently prefer to use Linux Mint Debian Edition as my primary desktop Operating System.  It may be a bit too "bleeding edge" for some people, but I've never had any problems.

hehe, Debian Testing, 'bleeding edge'. I prefer to call that 'moderately current'.