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Best Linux build for noobs?

Started by Davka, March 01, 2013, 05:08:34 PM

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wolf39us

Yes, or you can use the package manager.

Hint:  Steam has released their Linux version.  Just saying :-)

Jack89

Quote from: "_Xenu_"
Quote from: "moog"I have used Ubuntu a lot and agree with those that suggest it.

Lubuntu is better though, it is a trimmed down version with a better UI.
You registered in 2004 and only have 413 posts? Wow man. Having said that, Lubuntu shouldn't make a bad choice. I'm in Xubuntu right now.


Quote from: "Jack89"Wow, Ubuntu is easy to install.  After reading this thread earlier this morning I installed it on my computer alongside Windows 8 and it seems to be running fine.  I'm using it right now.  Very cool.
If you're happy with the interface, go ahead and keep it. If you want another one, let us know. Also, the very first thing you should do with an Ubuntu installation is to bring up and terminal, and paste this in:

"sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras"

This will automatically download and install pretty much every codec you'll ever need straight from the repositories. This is how you install software now.

Thanks

Davka

I guess it's about time to give Ubuntu another try. Haven't messed with it for a few years, so WTF - let's play!

_Xenu_

Have fun. Unetbootin can install from a USB if you don't happen to have any blank DVRs around.
Click this link once a day to feed shelter animals. Its free.

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/ars/home

GalacticBusDriver

Ok. My WinXP (yes, XP) machine seriously needs a reload. I've been toying with the idea of Linux for a good while. Breaking the ties with MicroShaft is a very appealing idea. The one piece of the puzzle that I haven't researched yet is security. What anti-virus and firewall are best for the Linux environment and (since most hackers are computer geeks running Linux) are they even necessary?

On a side note, how easy is it to mod the OS appearance in Linux? It's insanely easy in Winblows with a very small hack that disables the requirement that *.msstyle files be signed by M$ giving you an amazing variety of looks. Certainly not a deal breaker as I've always considered functionality vastly more important than aesthetics, but it would be nice.
"We should admire Prometheus, not Zues...Job, not Jehovah. Becoming a god, or godlike being, is selling out to the enemy. From the Greeks to the Norse to the Garden of Eden, gods are capricious assholes with impulse control problems. Joining their ranks would be a step down."

From "Radiant" by James Alan Gardner

_Xenu_

Quote from: "GalacticBusDriver"Ok. My WinXP (yes, XP) machine seriously needs a reload. I've been toying with the idea of Linux for a good while. Breaking the ties with MicroShaft is a very appealing idea.
Many Linux distributions will run quite comfortably on XP hardware, which is really only obsolete in the Windows world. You might want to try Xubuntu, which is meant to be lightweight.

Quote from: "GalacticBusDriver"The one piece of the puzzle that I haven't researched yet is security. What anti-virus
None at all, unless you're afraid of passing something to a Windows machine. Linux is much more resilient because nothing can write outside your home directory without root(admin) permission. Besides, virtually all your software comes from the repositories, so its been looked at.

Quote from: "GalacticBusDriver"and firewall are best for the Linux environment and (since most hackers are computer geeks running Linux) are they even necessary?
I'm behind a wireless access point, so I never personally felt any need for a firewall. Having said that, I'm sure you could find something in the repositories.

Quote from: "GalacticBusDriver"On a side note, how easy is it to mod the OS appearance in Linux? It's insanely easy in Winblows with a very small hack that disables the requirement that *.msstyle files be signed by M$ giving you an amazing variety of looks.
Extremely. You can add new graphic shells with a single CLI command, then just log out.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/230284/d ... stead.html

Theres no real hack needed.

Quote from: "GalacticBusDriver"Certainly not a deal breaker as I've always considered functionality vastly more important than aesthetics, but it would be nice.
I don't know how much you can change with the *.msstyle trick, but Linux interfaces tend to be vastly more configurable than what Windows users can usually do.
Click this link once a day to feed shelter animals. Its free.

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/ars/home

Colanth

Afflicting the comfortable for 70 years.
Science builds skyscrapers, faith flies planes into them.

GalacticBusDriver

I can't see myself willingly installing Windows 8. 7 maybe, but not 8. What I really want to do is get away from any software maker that assumes every one of it's customers are thieves, which means most of them.

Unfortunately, it will not be linux for a while. Making my current hard drives Linux friendly is not something that's going to happen soon. They're wayyyyy too big (2x2TB) with wayyyyy too much shit on them and Linux doesn't play well with NTFS (unless something has changed drastically, very recently).

So, I guess I'll be re-loading Win XP. It's not that my machine has trouble running it (built it after Vista came out but stayed the hell away from that crap), it's just been running on this install for about three years and has gotten bogged down with crap as Windows typically does. Maybe I'll spring for 7 but I really want to get away from M$.
"We should admire Prometheus, not Zues...Job, not Jehovah. Becoming a god, or godlike being, is selling out to the enemy. From the Greeks to the Norse to the Garden of Eden, gods are capricious assholes with impulse control problems. Joining their ranks would be a step down."

From "Radiant" by James Alan Gardner

Johan

Quote from: "GalacticBusDriver"So, I guess I'll be re-loading Win XP. It's not that my machine has trouble running it (built it after Vista came out but stayed the hell away from that crap), it's just been running on this install for about three years and has gotten bogged down with crap as Windows typically does. Maybe I'll spring for 7 but I really want to get away from M$.
If you're going to back it and whack it, I would go with 7 rather than xp at this point. Its only a matter of time before you'll run into something that won't run or that you can't do because its just not supported on xp. If the machine runs ok with xp, it will do just fine with 7. If you were happy with xp, you won't be sorry about going to 7.
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false and by the rulers as useful

_Xenu_

Quote from: "GalacticBusDriver"Unfortunately, it will not be linux for a while. Making my current hard drives Linux friendly is not something that's going to happen soon. They're wayyyyy too big (2x2TB) with wayyyyy too much shit on them and Linux doesn't play well with NTFS (unless something has changed drastically, very recently).
It depends on what you want to do. Linux is able to read and write to NTFS partitions. If all you want to do is access content on those drives, it shouldn't be a big deal. Simply create a logical partition on one of your existing drives for Linux(format to ex4), or install another drive and format the same way. Install Linux to the partition/new drive and mount the NTFS drives.(once installed, I think Ubuntu automatically lets you access the drives under 'Places,' but that was before Unity) You should be able to read the contents.

Besides, Im not sure why your hard drives would be Linux unfriendly. Ext4 can have individual files of up to 16 T.  And if you're going to install Win 7, I doubt it will even ask you about preserving your existing data. Ditching Microsoft might be more feasible than you think.
Click this link once a day to feed shelter animals. Its free.

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/ars/home

Colanth

I'd try a good registry cleaner before reinstalling the OS. CCleaner would probably give you a lot of the old snap back.
Afflicting the comfortable for 70 years.
Science builds skyscrapers, faith flies planes into them.

Johan

Quote from: "Colanth"I'd try a good registry cleaner before reinstalling the OS. CCleaner would probably give you a lot of the old snap back.
People using registry cleaners on their PC's used to account for about 1/10th of my billable hours every year back when I was doing it for a living. If you're going to fix it, fix it right. If the registry is so far gone that a registry cleaner would improve performance, just back your data, format and install everything fresh. If you're going to do it, do it right.
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false and by the rulers as useful

Colanth

If you're doing it right, don't install crapware in the first place.  Well-written software cleans up after itself.  (Of course Windows itself is crapware, but that's another discussion.)
Afflicting the comfortable for 70 years.
Science builds skyscrapers, faith flies planes into them.

_Xenu_

Quote from: "Colanth"If you're doing it right, don't install crapware in the first place.  Well-written software cleans up after itself.  (Of course Windows itself is crapware, but that's another discussion.)
This. Of course in the Windows world, crapware is difficult to avoid. There's no one screening the Internet for quality assurance. In Windows, you should always back up your registry as soon as you have your most common and trusted programs installed. Of course, there's a way not to have a registry at all...
Click this link once a day to feed shelter animals. Its free.

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/ars/home

GalacticBusDriver

Quote from: "Johan"If you're going to back it and whack it, I would go with 7 rather than xp at this point. Its only a matter of time before you'll run into something that won't run or that you can't do because its just not supported on xp. If the machine runs ok with xp, it will do just fine with 7. If you were happy with xp, you won't be sorry about going to 7.
I use 7 at work and am terribly underwhelmed. The features I liked best about 2000/XP have been dumped, broken or otherwise crapped upon. I may still do it to get to 64-bit (since WinXP64 sucks major ass), but Linux will get me into a 64-bit environment at a much better price point without treating me like a thief as every legal version of Windows (including my current install, damn them) for home use will. Of course then there's the idea of giving M$ more of my money. Something I really don't want to do. As for something coming along that WinXP won't run/can't do, I'm not terribly concerned at this point. Unlike the change from Win 3.11, 16-bit to Win 95, 32-bit M$ did not force the issue, therefor software developers have been forced to make their software 32-bit compliant. Besides, if I do run into something I can always upgrade or (more likely) jump ship to something else at that point with nothing more that a few hours on a weekend spent.


Quote from: "_Xenu_"It depends on what you want to do. Linux is able to read and write to NTFS partitions. If all you want to do is access content on those drives, it shouldn't be a big deal. Simply create a logical partition on one of your existing drives for Linux(format to ex4), or install another drive and format the same way. Install Linux to the partition/new drive and mount the NTFS drives.(once installed, I think Ubuntu automatically lets you access the drives under 'Places,' but that was before Unity) You should be able to read the contents.

Besides, Im not sure why your hard drives would be Linux unfriendly. Ext4 can have individual files of up to 16 T.  And if you're going to install Win 7, I doubt it will even ask you about preserving your existing data. Ditching Microsoft might be more feasible than you think.
Making the drives Linux friendly is more about getting them partitioned to a Linux native format (yes, I know about ext4. and it's large file friendliness, me likey) and not an M$ proprietary format. Yes, Linux can read and write to NTFS, but the risk of data corruption is too high for me to be comfortable with. But, after further review, I currently have less than 2TB (barely) total data on the large drives (system runs on a 32gig SSD and application/working files on a 500gig drive). Moving stuff about so that I can completely strip down and re-partition the large drives (one at a time, of course) is do-able. Now I just have to consider the time investment of moving, essentially, 3.5-4 TB of data around on top of a clean install.

Win7 won't ask about saving my old data but that wouldn't be a concern since it would be going on the SSD anyway.

There are a couple of other issues of switching to Linux that give me pause, but most of them can be handled by my old clunker if I can't find reliable Linux methods.

Anyone know how big a pain in the ass getting dual screens running in Ubuntu is and are more than two possible? I've heard it can be "challenging." That is the one thing I will absolutely not give up. No-way, no-how! Multiple monitors are my greatest (computer geek related) weakness and if I had the desk space I'd have three, four or even more. :-D
"We should admire Prometheus, not Zues...Job, not Jehovah. Becoming a god, or godlike being, is selling out to the enemy. From the Greeks to the Norse to the Garden of Eden, gods are capricious assholes with impulse control problems. Joining their ranks would be a step down."

From "Radiant" by James Alan Gardner