linux users

theshadow2001 · #1 11-19-2008, 12:54 PM

I'm thinking about going over to Linux and I'm wondering about compatibility in a world dominated by Microsoft.

To those of you that use a distribution of Linux almost exclusively. Do you find that since the rest of the world uses either Microsoft or mac you run into many compatibility issues. Some one gives you a microsoft office document for example. I know there's work arounds for a lot of this non open or free software eg playing MP3.

Is there stuff that you encounter that requires one of the other operating systems to run it. If you do find something that won't run on linux how often does it happen. Or have you encountered anything at all that couldn't be ran on linux some way or another.

I'm aware that most games that are sold for PC won't run on linux, but I'm talking about more day to day, internet, bring work home or media playing uses.

I'm also aware of dual booting. and linux is great for not getting viruses etc. etc. I don't really want to know which O/S is the suxors or just too easy for haxors. Just the compatability issues encountered in daily use.

mjolnir · #2 11-19-2008, 12:59 PM

What exactly do you do on your computer?

Speaking generally, there are several linux distros that work very well as basic media viewing and day to day operating systems. The three I'm most familiar with are OpenSuSE, Ubuntu, and PCLinuxOS, and all of them have all the programs you'd need to play music, surf the web, and even open Microsoft Office files right out of the box. Driver configuration is generally automatic, and if you're willing to dig into a program like Wine (a bit of emulation software) you can get a good deal of your PC games running as well.

For a first-time linux user, I'd suggest going with the newest distribution of Ubuntu. It's incredibly easy to install, basically pop a disk in and a couple clicks later you're done. It'll also configure a dual boot configuration with minimal fuss.

theshadow2001 · #3 11-19-2008, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjolnir

What exactly do you do on your computer?

Speaking generally, there are several linux distros that work very well as basic media viewing and day to day operating systems. The three I'm most familiar with are OpenSuSE, Ubuntu, and PCLinuxOS, and all of them have all the programs you'd need to play music, surf the web, and even open Microsoft Office files right out of the box. Driver configuration is generally automatic, and if you're willing to dig into a program like Wine (a bit of emulation software) you can get a good deal of your PC games running as well.

For a first-time linux user, I'd suggest going with the newest distribution of Ubuntu. It's incredibly easy to install, basically pop a disk in and a couple clicks later you're done. It'll also configure a dual boot configuration with minimal fuss.

I don't stress my computer that much. pretty much the usual things, play mp3s, surf the web, sometimes silly online flash games, emails, microsoft office, skype etc.

it's just I know it would annoy the hell out of me to be running into compatibility issues on even an irregular basis.

mjolnir · #4 11-19-2008, 01:09 PM

Ubuntu can do all that just fine. Granted, the basic nature of computer software is to hiccup a little at first, but once you get everything tweaked you'll be sitting pretty.

Here, give it a shot:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Try it on a dual boot system for a bit and see how it goes.

**Vorago** · #5 11-19-2008, 01:11 PM

I installed Ubuntu on my laptop.

Worked great, then I tried installing my external modem...

12 hours, many searches on support forums and 13 patch-ons later I gave up.

My idea; if you're lucky, it's great, if you have bad luck and a hardware component refuses to work you could be in for a long ride...

Atoz · #6 11-19-2008, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vorago

I installed Ubuntu on my laptop.

Worked great, then I tried installing my external modem...

12 hours, many searches on support forums and 13 patch-ons later I gave up.

My idea; if you're lucky, it's great, if you have bad luck and a hardware component refuses to work you could be in for a long ride...

My experience is similar. Unavailable drivers are the one thing that'll get you; most often graphics card/wireless network cards.

I use Kubuntu (which is Ubuntu with a KDE frontend rather than GNOME). In order to use my wireless card, I had to fabricate a kernel kludge with ndiswrapper and the windows driver. That was rough. While the card works, it only works intermittently with WPA encryption unless I assign a static IP address to my laptop (OK at home, worthless for travel) due to issues with wireless encryption and the DHCP client. My graphics/sound cards work, but still not completely. I cannot for the life of me get my laptop mic to work, so I have to boot into Vista to use Skype. Not good.

That being said, I still use Linux quite a bit at home despite the inconveniences, and eventually those will get ironed out. Until that happens, I have still kept the dual-boot option.

As far as incompatibility with documents is concerned, I haven't had that problem since I have Open Office for Linux, which is compatible with Microsoft Office, and it's free.

**Vorago** · #7 11-19-2008, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atoz

My experience is similar. Unavailable drivers are the one thing that'll get you; most often graphics card/wireless network cards.

I use Kubuntu (which is Ubuntu with a KDE frontend rather than GNOME). In order to use my wireless card, I had to fabricate a kernel kludge with ndiswrapper and the windows driver. That was rough. While the card works, it only works intermittently with WPA encryption unless I assign a static IP address to my laptop (OK at home, worthless for travel) due to issues with wireless encryption and the DHCP client. My graphics/sound cards work, but still not completely. I cannot for the life of me get my laptop mic to work, so I have to boot into Vista to use Skype. Not good.

That being said, I still use Linux quite a bit at home despite the inconveniences, and eventually those will get ironed out. Until that happens, I have still kept the dual-boot option.

Plus, you really have to know your stuff computer-wise, as you can tell from reading this post

Quote:

As far as incompatibility with documents is concerned, I haven't had that problem since I have Open Office for Linux, which is compatible with Microsoft Office, and it's free.

Indeed, just be careful with copy-pasting between Word and Open Office. Word really starts acting up then.

bhass · #8 11-19-2008, 01:59 PM

I always use Linux and always have. I have always being able to navigate around compatibility issues.
If you miss .exe's then you can always install WINE, WINE Doors or Crossover. All of them work fine as an emulator.

theshadow2001 · #9 11-19-2008, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vorago

Plus, you really have to know your stuff computer-wise, as you can tell from reading this post

I understood most of that. It's the linux jargon that threw me. While I'm not a computer expert I'd be willing to learn about the system properly.

gdthomas · #10 11-19-2008, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theshadow2001

To those of you that use a distribution of Linux almost exclusively. Do you find that since the rest of the world uses either Microsoft or mac you run into many compatibility issues. Some one gives you a microsoft office document for example. I know there's work arounds for a lot of this non open or free software eg playing MP3.

I am running CentOS and have not had two many issues with it. Star/Open Office will handle most MS Office documents. For audio/MP3 playback I use an app called XMMS. Web browseing firefox, Instant messaging pidgen. The only real issues I have had have been with java/flash and wireless.

bhass · #11 11-19-2008, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gdthomas

I am running CentOS and have not had two many issues with it. Star/Open Office will handle most MS Office documents. For audio/MP3 playback I use an app called XMMS. Web browseing firefox, Instant messaging pidgen. The only real issues I have had have been with java/flash and wireless.

I agree, although Flash isn't much of a problem, it can be downloaded in .deb .rpm or source for Linux, and works 99% of the time for me. Java is a bitch on Linux though. It's installable, but not great.

Atoz · #12 11-19-2008, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhass

I agree, although Flash isn't much of a problem, it can be downloaded in .deb .rpm or source for Linux, and works 99% of the time for me. Java is a bitch on Linux though. It's installable, but not great.

Oh yeah... Java. I forgot to mention that in my above post.

Kenbuntu · #13 11-19-2008, 04:53 PM

Im running Ubuntu hardy, and the only complaint i have is Playing videos of youtube and similar sites Cpu use goes to 50% :|. Fullscreen = 100% :| :| :| :| :| . and i'd like to think i have a pretty good computer. Anyone know a fix for that?

gdthomas · #14 11-19-2008, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kenneth Faria

Im running Ubuntu hardy, and the only complaint i have is Playing videos of youtube and similar sites Cpu use goes to 50% :|. Fullscreen = 100% :| :| :| :| :| . and i'd like to think i have a pretty good computer. Anyone know a fix for that?

Flash has allways been a pain under any UNIX system I have used. It is getting better but has a ways to go before it is really usable. One thing that I have always noticed is that in a X Windows setup Firefox caches a lot of things in memory. If you clear out your browser cache before hand it might help out some. Also you can fire up a terminal session and run top watch the following:

Cpu(s): 0.2% us, 0.0% sy, 0.0% ni, 99.5% id, 0.3% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si
Mem: 1034564k total, 949668k used, 84896k free, 78384k buffers
Swap: 1052216k total, 208k used, 1052008k free, 736968k cached

If you see that the swap used is increasing, you can start to tweak your desktop environment to free up resources.

gdthomas · #15 11-19-2008, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atoz

Oh yeah... Java. I forgot to mention that in my above post.

Yeah, gotta love it. Sun managed to get it working good in the Java Desktop Environment, but it has other features that are resource hogs.

Kenbuntu · #16 11-19-2008, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gdthomas

Flash has allways been a pain under any UNIX system I have used. It is getting better but has a ways to go before it is really usable. One thing that I have always noticed is that in a X Windows setup Firefox caches a lot of things in memory. If you clear out your browser cache before hand it might help out some. Also you can fire up a terminal session and run top watch the following:

Cpu(s): 0.2% us, 0.0% sy, 0.0% ni, 99.5% id, 0.3% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si
Mem: 1034564k total, 949668k used, 84896k free, 78384k buffers
Swap: 1052216k total, 208k used, 1052008k free, 736968k cached

If you see that the swap used is increasing, you can start to tweak your desktop environment to free up resources.

Thanks for the tip!

theshadow2001 · #17 11-29-2008, 02:04 PM

Well I've finally managed to setup a dual booting ubuntu/windows. Didn't find the guides overly intuitive but pieced enough info together to get it setup right.

So tomorrow I'll see about downloading the updates. Use it full time and see and how it goes there.

But right now I'm going drinking

Kenbuntu · #18 11-29-2008, 04:15 PM

Im using it full time on my latop now. Pretty sweet, though its a bit of a pain to set somethings up such as flash, tuxguitar and thats about it. Sure windows deals with these things fast and easy, but linux = no more missing startup errors, viruses, fast boot up times, pleasent GUI without hogging resources, multi workspaces that runs smooth with 1 gb of RAM ( :O

),no lag, audio preview with just having the cursor over the icon, the ability to change your theme without getting hefty programs, and that's all i can think of right now. Frig, even my wifi worked the first time.

That just about sums up my ubuntu experiences.