Why aren't you running Linux?

[darxus]

It's a sincere question. I'm curious what I can do to help reduce dependence on closed operating systems.

And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with not running Linux, I understand it's not best for everybody. I'm just curious about making it best for more people.

Ubuntu is the most user friendly Linux distribution. It's also the one I use for both desktops and servers. You can download and burn a CD image, and boot into it off the CD without installing, to try it out without installing it. It is very slow that way, because CD drives are slower than hard drives, and everything in the image needs to be decompressed as it's read.

cathijosephine did the install herself when Windows etc. got too slow on her computer.

http://www.ubuntu.com/ (CD image link is right at the top - download.)

Let me know if you would like me to burn an install CD for you or look over your shoulder while you install.

Freeing up hard drive space under Windows and then repartitioning it for Linux will probably be the hardest part.

Comments

Re: Happily running Windows 7

[darxus.livejournal.com]

I haven't needed a command line to get an Ubuntu box working... possibly ever.

Did you file a bug report?

If you still lived in the area I'd want to come over with an Ubuntu live CD to get the output of "lspci" (video card), your monitor model, and details of the problem.

Zeph's laptop's sound actually didn't work automatically. I was really surprised. I pretty easily found a button I needed to click. I submitted a bug against Ubuntu, with the output of lspci, and the sound card got added to the list of sound cards of its type with a glitch that requires some extra attention which had already been implimented. Fixed in the upstream kernel.

I'm sorry your experiences have been so bad. I'm sure it's no consolation that the first time I got X to work took a year, of active use. That was around 1995. Now everything magically works, and it's great.

I'm very curious what would happen if you tried to boot the current Live Ubuntu CD (the install CD). I honestly think it would work. And if it didn't I'd be very interested in getting a bug submitted.

Re: Happily running Windows 7

[darxus.livejournal.com]

If your raid array is using a hardware controller then it'll show up as a regular single SCSI or IDE device, and will work. If it's software raid, I would expect it to be OS specific and not work.

I have only ever had custom built machines.

Photoshop might be a good reason not to use Linux. How many years has it been since you tried Gimp?

Re: Happily running Windows 7

[darxus.livejournal.com]

Hah, that's harsh.

What would it take to make you like Gimp as much as Photoshop?

Re: Happily running Windows 7

[darxus.livejournal.com]

I'm happy with Gimp, but I never got very attached to Photoshop.