There's this thing going on teh interwebs, where people talk to me and see me as "the type of guy who'd use linux". Now before I figure out whether this is a compliment or an insult, I've had 5 people tell me this, so maybe, just maybe, they might be on to something. So go on, hit me. Hit me with all the Linux shebang that a lifetime-Microsoft (DOS/Windows) user needs to know about. Besides the obvious that "OMG they use path names like \usr\bin" or "NO WAI there's no linux but linux distributions like ubuntu" or "LMAO all my NTFS partitions are inacessible on linux".

don't use linux just because someone tells you to use linux

if you like playing games and using all of msn's features do not use linux or be ready to dual-boot

There's this thing going on teh interwebs, where people talk to me and see me as "the type of guy who'd use linux". Now before I figure out whether this is a compliment or an insult, I've had 5 people tell me this, so maybe, just maybe, they might be on to something.

sorry there broseph

Ubuntu is pretty great though

if you like playing games and using all of msn's features do not use linux or be ready to dual-boot
the majority of MSN's features suck and you know it

sorry there broseph

Ubuntu is pretty great though


the majority of MSN's features suck and you know it

I mean drawing not like winks and nudges and stuff

if you like ... and using all of msn's features do not use linux or be ready to dual-boot

MSN isn't something you dual-boot to. You run it in the background. And personally, I'd as soon use Google Talk in a browser window. At least it can't be nudged.

You can disable "nudges" (obviously the worst feature ever) in the WLM options.

Yes, Ubuntu is awesome. Perhaps I could point CyberShadow in the direction of this thread, considering his recent great first experience with Ubuntu.

Erm, uh... well... I'm no Linux guru but... Ubuntu is easier to install and use than some other distributions...

Well... what's great about Linux, is that.. to install something in Windows you have to go to the program's website, download the install file, and run it, and click Next a few times. In Linux, most free software is all packaged for you - so you just need to enter one command to install everything (or use a GUI front-end to the package manager to pick the software manually). You can also update all the software you have installed in one command (there will probably never be something like that for Windows).

And... I'm no Linux fanboy, but seeing how fast free software is evolving, I wouldn't be surprised to see Linux surpass Windows for desktop systems in 5-10 years... Linux is evolving at a faster pace than commercial OSes, you can easily say that Ubuntu is at the level of (if not above) Windows XP Professional (I mean the software that is distributed with the OS, not any software which runs on either OSes). There's still the issue of games, though.

Here's some nice YouTube videos about Linux:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOlrKH3SmtI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRa6uoE7HLw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na0mYSFPoCU

P.S. It's /usr/bin (*nix systems use the / slash - Microsoft had to make it look at least a bit different when they ripped off Unix to create MS-DOS). Also, you can mount NTFS in Linux. Ubuntu comes with a read-only driver, and you can also mount NTFS drives with write support using Captive NTFS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captive_NTFS) (which is based on FUSE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FUSE_(Linux))).

P.P.S.
http://thecybershadow.net/dump/pics/terror.gif ;)

You can disable "nudges" (obviously the worst feature ever) in the WLM options.

Yes, and then I can disable all the custom emoticons, and the winks, and change all the sounds to less annoying ones, and then I can turn off drawing, because people only use it to send me their own bad handwriting that I can't read, and I can turn off everything else, or I can run Google Talk, and get a nicer interface, character formatting, and email intergration.

There's really no contest.

don't use linux just because someone tells you to use linux

if you like playing games and using all of msn's features do not use linux or be ready to dual-bootI didn't say I was gonna switch, I said I was gonna try it. This, in my terms, means I have left a few 5gb spare in my hard disk for a Linux partition for dual-booting.

Clearly, I'm not planning on replacing Windows. I'm too used to it for that. I'm just planning on using both, depending on which is better for what I want. And to have something to rely on when Windows screws up.

Also, MSN's "features" is not something I miss. I already use Miranda anyways.

Offtopic aside, thanks for the suggestions. I had already been recommended Ubuntu, so I've downloaded the ISO and will burn it tomorrow to try it out, and I'll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, please point me to the Linux equivalents (if any) for:

Opera -> Opera
Microsoft Office -> OpenOffice
Miranda IM ->
Macromedia Dreamweaver ->
Macromedia Flash ->
Microsoft Visual Studio ->
Whatever else you think I might need ->

I would say dual boot isn't really worth it unless you're just trying Linux or you're developing for two systems. It's better if you're willing to spend a bunch of time learning to use it, maybe fixing/initially setting up things (not everything magically works yet and sometimes things magically break), getting your old Windows/DOS software working (tip: the older they are, the more likely they'll work), and you're willing to give up the things that don't work. Otherwise, stick with Windows.

And there's no harm in trying. Unless in the process of repartitioning so you can set up a dual boot you lose all your data. Or ubuntu's installer screws up trying to install grub and you can't figure out how to make it boot any system (but I think that problem only ever affected me and they seem to have fixed it anyway). Then there'd be some harm.

OH, and last I checked there was a bug in the normal ubuntu installer where you can only install on primary partitions, not logical partitions. You have to use the alternate installer if you want it on a logical partition.

Have I scared you away yet? If not, hey, try it.

In the meantime, please point me to the Linux equivalents (if any) for:

Opera -> Opera / Firefox / Konqueror

Opera's look and feel doesn't fit just as well with the rest of the desktop. Although I still use Opera for most browsing, I also often do some quick browsing in Konqueror by reusing a folder-view Konqueror window by typing an URL in the address bar (kinna like Windows' IE, but Konqueror > IE).

Microsoft Office -> OpenOffice

There's also KOffice, but that's not really an alternative.

Miranda IM -> Gaim or Kopete

Kopete seems to have evolved pretty quickly into something usable. Gaim has been around for some time now, and has a larger community.

Macromedia Flash -> Inkscape?
Microsoft Visual Studio -> Eclipse (with CDT) or KDevelop.

Note the KDE applications I mentioned (KDevelop, Konqueror, KOffice). They'll probably not be available in a normal Ubuntu build - and I may not be aware of their Gnome counterparts (if any) - like with Gaim <-> Kopete. It's not because I like KDE over Gnome or something - I just never got to try Gnome for long enough. Kubuntu was the only Ubuntu-like 6.10 release that was available on my local mirror.

I would say dual boot isn't really worth it unless you're just trying Linux or you're developing for two systems. It's better if you're willing to spend a bunch of time learning to use it, maybe fixing/initially setting up things (not everything magically works yet and sometimes things magically break), getting your old Windows/DOS software working (tip: the older they are, the more likely they'll work), and you're willing to give up the things that don't work. Otherwise, stick with Windows.

I'll argue that point. Unless the alternative is a bootable CD (which might keep your attention for about an hour of poking around), uninstallation is as simple as deleting the Linux partitions and running "fixmbr" in the Windows Recovery Console (launchable from the Windows XP setup CD) to overwrite GRUB.

And there's no harm in trying. Unless in the process of repartitioning so you can set up a dual boot you lose all your data. Or ubuntu's installer screws up trying to install grub and you can't figure out how to make it boot any system (but I think that problem only ever affected me and they seem to have fixed it anyway). Then there'd be some harm.

You know, when the installer of Mandrake Linux 5 (or was it 7?) messed up my partition table, and left 10 GB of unexistant yet "partitioned" free space (if you were to add up all the partitions incl. free space you'd get 10 GB more than my actual HDD size), which I naively considered as free disk space for free and proceeded to format + copy my MP3s to it thus thrashing my other partitions, I kind of avoided Linux for a few years... but that was very long ago :P

OH, and last I checked there was a bug in the normal ubuntu installer where you can only install on primary partitions, not logical partitions. You have to use the alternate installer if you want it on a logical partition.

Well I installed it normally on a logical partition in the extended primary partitions. Could have been that I used Kubuntu, though. I think I now have about 8 partitions in all: C: (NTFS), Gentoo boot (ext2), Gentoo Swap, Gentoo / (ReiserFS), D: (NTFS), Gentoo / (ext3), E: (FAT32), K: (NTFS) - I think that's all of them ;)

Macromedia Flash -> Inkscape?

If making vector images is the only thing you need.
It can't make animations (I think. Didn't really try it all that much.) or games or anything.

Microsoft Visual Studio -> MonoDevelop

Macromedia Flash -> F4L (http://f4l.sourceforge.net/) (no idea how much progress has been made on it though)

Macromedia Dreamweaver -> one of these perhaps: http://programming.linux.com/article.pl?sid=05/10/03/1828224&tid=63&tid=47&pagenum=2

There'll not be a good Flash alternative, I'd imagine. flash is one of the best bits of software I've ever used, and I've enver seen another .swf compatible programme even come close to competing.

Opera -> Opera

Though as CS said, it doesn't fit in well with the rest of the desktop. This annoyed me to no end. Major alternatives are Firefox and Konqueror.


Microsoft Office -> Abiword, Gnumeric, OpenOffice if necessary, MS Office using CrossOver if you..really want to use it for some reason..

I find Abiword and Gnumeric are quite good if you just need a lightweight word processor and spreadsheet.


Miranda IM -> Gaim

I believe Miranda IM runs ok in Wine but..why would you want to do that? That's just silly.


Macromedia Dreamweaver -> nvu, maybe?

I don't really do web development.


MacromediaAdobe Flash Player -> MacromediaAdobe Flash Player

There's a native Linux version of this. It works pretty well mostly.


MacromediaAdobe Flash Animator thingy version 8 -> MacromediaAdobe Flash Animator thingy version 8 in Wine

If you need to make SWF files, this is probably the best thing available (not that I use it). So just make sure you have the newest Wine (http://winehq.org/site/download-deb), run the installer, and it'll show up in your menu. No really. I'm looking at the appdb and it says it just works. Is that not cool?

Um, I guess you could use inkscape..for some things..


Microsoft Visual Studio -> not an IDE?

I hate IDEs. They are #13 on the list of things I hate (http://madewokherd.nfshost.com/things-i-hate). When I do development, I use gedit and bash shell. When I do development on Windows, I use jedit and woo shell. So yeah, I'm the wrong person to answer that.

I would say dual boot isn't really worth it unless you're just trying Linux or you're developing for two systems. It's better if you're willing to spend a bunch of time learning to use it, maybe fixing/initially setting up things (not everything magically works yet and sometimes things magically break), getting your old Windows/DOS software working (tip: the older they are, the more likely they'll work), and you're willing to give up the things that don't work. Otherwise, stick with Windows.

And there's no harm in trying. Unless in the process of repartitioning so you can set up a dual boot you lose all your data. Or ubuntu's installer screws up trying to install grub and you can't figure out how to make it boot any system (but I think that problem only ever affected me and they seem to have fixed it anyway). Then there'd be some harm.

OH, and last I checked there was a bug in the normal ubuntu installer where you can only install on primary partitions, not logical partitions. You have to use the alternate installer if you want it on a logical partition.

Have I scared you away yet? If not, hey, try it.I've had PartitionMagic completely corrupt a 40gb partition during resizing. I've had Windows XP break the MBR with a blue screen and having to fix it with the Windows XP Recovery Console. I've had SP2 completely screw up my Windows installation into an unfigurable SP1/SP2 state. I've even had two Windows installations running on the same partition, as hazardous as that is. I think I'm well aware of the dangers, thank you very much.

In fact, as preparation, I have every relevantly important data in a whole different harddisk. I have made the NTFS partitions with the final size I want them to have, already leaving some blank space for a Linux partition, so that there has to be no resizing or any other hazardous advanced operation besides "creating a partition in blank space", which even Windows can do.

Again, thanks for all the advice. (well, the few that actually gave some) I'm now burning an Ubuntu CD and reading up on the site, and we'll see how it all goes afterwards. And apparently, I can try Ubuntu from the CD, so even less to worry about.

I hate IDEs. They are #13 on the list of things I hate (http://madewokherd.nfshost.com/things-i-hate). When I do development, I use gedit and bash shell. When I do development on Windows, I use jedit and woo shell. So yeah, I'm the wrong person to answer that.

Oh, come now. Microsoft can do exactly one thing better than any other company in the world, and that is create IDEs. Visual Studio is just bloody wonderful. Aside from one or two options bein almost impossible to find, it's extremely handy, not least because you hardly have to type anything to use it. It's got a great auto-complete type of thing that knows what variables and functions and keywords and so on you can use in any context and gives you them on a dropdown as you type. It's a fantastic bit of software and it's free.

Mwahahahahahaha!

http://img313.imageshack.us/img313/8784/capturaecranu0.png

I've managed to get this far without reading any documentation. :p I'm also pretty surprised that it can get internet from a Windows network.

I've managed to get this far without reading any documentation. :p I'm also pretty surprised that it can get internet from a Windows network.
yep that's an ubuntu all right

I mounted my NTFS partitions and so far only managed to get this running on Wine.

http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/1256/capturaecracivilizationtj7.png

You know, until now, I've never been so proud about Windows than I am now.

I mounted my NTFS partitions and so far only managed to get this running on Wine.

You know, until now, I've never been so proud about Windows than I am now.

Civ2 is better than Civ ok

I mounted my NTFS partitions and so far only managed to get this running on Wine.

You're REALLY not meant to do it that way. You're supposed to install the programs separately with Wine.

Edit: Also, you did get Wine from winehq.org, not ubuntu, right?

Civ2 is better than Civ okCiv2 worked too. And even Col. I guess Linux has a thing for Sid Meier.

You're REALLY not meant to do it that way. You're supposed to install the programs separately with Wine.

Edit: Also, you did get Wine from winehq.org, not ubuntu, right?Yes, I did.

And I already have to reinstall all of Windows, I'm not gonna have fun reinstalling it all on Wine. In any case I don't even have audio and I just assigned the drive letters to their respective drives, so I couldn't care less. I got Jazz Jackrabbit 2 going though, that entertained me. Though it was a tad slow.