After having some recent troubles with my Windows 7 [64 bit] OS freezing up on me, I decided to "DBAN" my hard drive & start fresh with Ubuntu OS [It was free & I heard good things about it]. I installed & uninstalled it the same day & just went back Windows 7. Now, I didn't hate Ubuntu @ all, I actually liked it, but the problem for me was that I couldn't use some of my favorite software programs through it that I really needed [so I thought], so I kind of panicked & went back to what I knew best.

But with that said, if I had two computers, I'd definitely put Linux/Ubuntu on one just because I think it's pretty cool. There aren't many viruses out there written for it, so you really don't need anti-virus for it. & I will also say, my laptop was running a lot faster using it too. I hear that the government & a lot of creators use the Linux OS also. So for those of you fellow orgers who use Linux/Ubuntu out there, what are you thoughts & what are your recommendations for the curious ones [like myself] who are/were thinking about @ least trying it? How much better, or worse, is it than Windows 7?

[for the no-nots] "OS" means "Operating System"

"DBAN" is a free program you can download [google it] & burn to a blank CD that will totally erase your hard drive completely.

Nope. Never used it.

Hope that helps.

imago said:

Nope. Never used it.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for nothing...as usual.

imago said:

Nope. Never used it.

Hope that helps.

Same here.

I INSTALLED it, but I couldn't get it to work...and then couldn't delete it from my computer either. It's STILL on there.

Dren5 said:

imago said:

Nope. Never used it.

Hope that helps.

Same here.

I INSTALLED it, but I couldn't get it to work...and then couldn't delete it from my computer either. It's STILL on there.

I got it to work. I just didn't have the patience to learn how to use it....

OK, let's start at the beginning.

First, is your computer plugged in, and turned on?

I first used Ubuntu a few months ago, and I quite like it too. You don't need 2 computers to use both OS's - you can put both of them on one. Like you, I have programs that only run on Windows so I went for the dual boot option (obviously you can't actually run both OS's at the same time, but you can have both on one machine and choose which to boot).

The Ubuntu install took my computer from behind and fucked it, roughly, and I am only just now finishing the recovery process (recovering all the data from an external hard drive that the Ubuntu installer said it was not going to format but formatted anyway).

So, with some painful lessons learnt, here are some tips:

Do NOT use the Wubi-installer. It's shit, it tells lies, it doesn't work, it will fuck your machine.

If you're going to install Ubuntu but you want to keep Windows (dual boot), then make sure you install Ubuntu on a separate drive - not a separate partition, but a different physical hard drive (the only method that worked for me).

Do not believe anything the Ubuntu installer tells you. Instead, burn an Ubuntu installer disk, then remove ALL hard drives from your system other than the one you want Ubuntu to install to. If you don't do this, the installer will put it's boot loader onto the wrong disk (and the boot loader won't work).

Once your Ubuntu install is complete, you can then reattach your Windows (and other) hard drives. Your bios should then detect the Ubuntu boot loader and automatically give you boot options from then on, so each time you boot up you can choose whether to boot windows or Ubuntu.

(having said all that, I'm not sure how a laptop would react to having it's main drive removed or if it would handle booting from an external drive - I know nothing about laptop bios's. I guess if you want to mess around with different OS's the best bet is to have machine designed for flexibility.)

There are also some sandbox type packages out there that allegedly allow windows based software to run under Ubuntu, but I haven't tried any or done any research on them.

Having tried Ubuntu I have decided that although it has some nice features, there are too many things that should be straightforward and obvious, but aren't. It's a bit too much of a toy for my purposes. So I'm going to try Suze next. I'm planning on preparing for Suze installation this week and hope to do an install next weekend. If you like, I can keep you posted with anything useful I learn.

AsylumUtopia said:

I first used Ubuntu a few months ago, and I quite like it too. You don't need 2 computers to use both OS's - you can put both of them on one. Like you, I have programs that only run on Windows so I went for the dual boot option (obviously you can't actually run both OS's at the same time, but you can have both on one machine and choose which to boot).

The Ubuntu install took my computer from behind and fucked it, roughly, and I am only just now finishing the recovery process (recovering all the data from an external hard drive that the Ubuntu installer said it was not going to format but formatted anyway).

So, with some painful lessons learnt, here are some tips:

Do NOT use the Wubi-installer. It's shit, it tells lies, it doesn't work, it will fuck your machine.

If you're going to install Ubuntu but you want to keep Windows (dual boot), then make sure you install Ubuntu on a separate drive - not a separate partition, but a different physical hard drive (the only method that worked for me).

Do not believe anything the Ubuntu installer tells you. Instead, burn an Ubuntu installer disk, then remove ALL hard drives from your system other than the one you want Ubuntu to install to. If you don't do this, the installer will put it's boot loader onto the wrong disk (and the boot loader won't work).

Once your Ubuntu install is complete, you can then reattach your Windows (and other) hard drives. Your bios should then detect the Ubuntu boot loader and automatically give you boot options from then on, so each time you boot up you can choose whether to boot windows or Ubuntu.

(having said all that, I'm not sure how a laptop would react to having it's main drive removed or if it would handle booting from an external drive - I know nothing about laptop bios's. I guess if you want to mess around with different OS's the best bet is to have machine designed for flexibility.)

There are also some sandbox type packages out there that allegedly allow windows based software to run under Ubuntu, but I haven't tried any or done any research on them.

Having tried Ubuntu I have decided that although it has some nice features, there are too many things that should be straightforward and obvious, but aren't. It's a bit too much of a toy for my purposes. So I'm going to try Suze next. I'm planning on preparing for Suze installation this week and hope to do an install next weekend. If you like, I can keep you posted with anything useful I learn.

This was definitely insightful [Thanks for actually sharing your thoughts ]. I wish I knew this stuff before hand, but hey, you live & you learn. When I had Ubuntu & tried to reinstall Windows 7 over it [with an actual Windows 7 disc], it wouldn't even load the disc up. I had to wipe my hard drive totally clean just for the Windows disc to boot up again. I've never heard of Suze before, so I'm going to have to check it out, & please, do keep me posted. I'm trying to learn as much about computers as possible.

I thought this thread was about drugs..

tinaz said:

I thought this thread was about drugs..

Nope, sorry.

I guess I just make weird titles or something.......

[Edited 4/15/12 6:39am]

Tittypants said:

tinaz said:

I thought this thread was about drugs..

Nope, sorry.

I guess I just make weird titles or something.......

[Edited 4/15/12 6:39am]

tit

Tittypants said:

This was definitely insightful [Thanks for actually sharing your thoughts ]. I wish I knew this stuff before hand, but hey, you live & you learn. When I had Ubuntu & tried to reinstall Windows 7 over it [with an actual Windows 7 disc], it wouldn't even load the disc up. I had to wipe my hard drive totally clean just for the Windows disc to boot up again. I've never heard of Suze before, so I'm going to have to check it out, & please, do keep me posted. I'm trying to learn as much about computers as possible.

You're welcome. Everyone I know (myself included) who has tried an Ubuntu installation has said the exact same thing.

I'll keep you posted on the Suze installation (Suze is a more techy distro of Linux, for the more nerd-like amongst us. It is by far the most popular Linux distro amongst the type of people who love to forage for cables under desks, and for whom an accidentally formatted hard drive is considered a challenge rather than a disaster).

imago said:

OK, let's start at the beginning.

First, is your computer plugged in, and turned on?

This reminds me of Dell's customer service.

KidaDynamite said:

imago said:

OK, let's start at the beginning.

First, is your computer plugged in, and turned on?

This reminds me of Dell's customer service.

Damn Dell!

I use Linux, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone that doesn't have the time to learn how to use it. I'd say you'll need at least two months to understand it better. I did a fresh install with Debian last fall and I had two weeks off between jobs and I felt like I needed that time to just to configure the system to my needs.

However, I don't think it's beyond comprehension for anyone that is more familiar with using the more "advanced" features of Windows. Having some experience of programming doesn't hurt.

My computer boots in less than twenty seconds and I can't say I'd remember when was the last time it locked up. What I use is something of an experimental variant of Linux though.

AsylumUtopia said:

I first used Ubuntu a few months ago, and I quite like it too. You don't need 2 computers to use both OS's - you can put both of them on one. Like you, I have programs that only run on Windows so I went for the dual boot option (obviously you can't actually run both OS's at the same time, but you can have both on one machine and choose which to boot).

The Ubuntu install took my computer from behind and fucked it, roughly, and I am only just now finishing the recovery process (recovering all the data from an external hard drive that the Ubuntu installer said it was not going to format but formatted anyway).

So, with some painful lessons learnt, here are some tips:

Do NOT use the Wubi-installer. It's shit, it tells lies, it doesn't work, it will fuck your machine.

If you're going to install Ubuntu but you want to keep Windows (dual boot), then make sure you install Ubuntu on a separate drive - not a separate partition, but a different physical hard drive (the only method that worked for me).

Do not believe anything the Ubuntu installer tells you. Instead, burn an Ubuntu installer disk, then remove ALL hard drives from your system other than the one you want Ubuntu to install to. If you don't do this, the installer will put it's boot loader onto the wrong disk (and the boot loader won't work).

Once your Ubuntu install is complete, you can then reattach your Windows (and other) hard drives. Your bios should then detect the Ubuntu boot loader and automatically give you boot options from then on, so each time you boot up you can choose whether to boot windows or Ubuntu.

(having said all that, I'm not sure how a laptop would react to having it's main drive removed or if it would handle booting from an external drive - I know nothing about laptop bios's. I guess if you want to mess around with different OS's the best bet is to have machine designed for flexibility.)

There are also some sandbox type packages out there that allegedly allow windows based software to run under Ubuntu, but I haven't tried any or done any research on them.

Having tried Ubuntu I have decided that although it has some nice features, there are too many things that should be straightforward and obvious, but aren't. It's a bit too much of a toy for my purposes. So I'm going to try Suze next. I'm planning on preparing for Suze installation this week and hope to do an install next weekend. If you like, I can keep you posted with anything useful I learn.

I installed Ubuntu a little over a year ago on a dual boot with Windows 7 using Wubi, and it worked just fine for about a couple of weeks, and then after a few automatic updates I had the hardest time getting the OS to work. I pretty much gave up on it until my issues with the Windows 8 Consumer beta, but now it's working just fine again.

Having said that, in the future I definitely would at least put Ubuntu/Linux on its own partition and most likely on its own hard drive. If you have an up-to-date computer I would install Ubuntu or Linux Mint for those who don't want or need a whole lot of techie knowledge to run an OS. If you have an older computer which is no slower than a P3, then I would install Puppy Linux to save on resources, plus it will extend the life of your old computer for at least a couple of years.

I can't stand Ubuntu/Unity so I switched over to Linux Mint on an disk top. I did a full install and minus a lil' bit of issue with internet speed/signal strength as times, I like it.

novabrkr said:

I use Linux, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone that doesn't have the time to learn how to use it. I'd say you'll need at least two months to understand it better. I did a fresh install with Debian last fall and I had two weeks off between jobs and I felt like I needed that time to just to configure the system to my needs.

However, I don't think it's beyond comprehension for anyone that is more familiar with using the more "advanced" features of Windows. Having some experience of programming doesn't hurt.

My computer boots in less than twenty seconds and I can't say I'd remember when was the last time it locked up. What I use is something of an experimental variant of Linux though.

I just didn't have the time to learn it, so I totally understand . I've never even heard of Debian. I agree that the little while I had it, my computer did boot pretty fast too. What experimental OS are you using if you don't mind me asking?

TD3 said:

I can't stand Ubuntu/Unity so I switched over to Linux Mint on an disk top. I did a full install and minus a lil' bit of issue with internet speed/signal strength as times, I like it.

I should have tried Linux Mint. I had the chance to, but I chose Ubuntu......

728huey said:

AsylumUtopia said:

I first used Ubuntu a few months ago, and I quite like it too. You don't need 2 computers to use both OS's - you can put both of them on one. Like you, I have programs that only run on Windows so I went for the dual boot option (obviously you can't actually run both OS's at the same time, but you can have both on one machine and choose which to boot).

The Ubuntu install took my computer from behind and fucked it, roughly, and I am only just now finishing the recovery process (recovering all the data from an external hard drive that the Ubuntu installer said it was not going to format but formatted anyway).

So, with some painful lessons learnt, here are some tips:

Do NOT use the Wubi-installer. It's shit, it tells lies, it doesn't work, it will fuck your machine.

If you're going to install Ubuntu but you want to keep Windows (dual boot), then make sure you install Ubuntu on a separate drive - not a separate partition, but a different physical hard drive (the only method that worked for me).

Do not believe anything the Ubuntu installer tells you. Instead, burn an Ubuntu installer disk, then remove ALL hard drives from your system other than the one you want Ubuntu to install to. If you don't do this, the installer will put it's boot loader onto the wrong disk (and the boot loader won't work).

Once your Ubuntu install is complete, you can then reattach your Windows (and other) hard drives. Your bios should then detect the Ubuntu boot loader and automatically give you boot options from then on, so each time you boot up you can choose whether to boot windows or Ubuntu.

(having said all that, I'm not sure how a laptop would react to having it's main drive removed or if it would handle booting from an external drive - I know nothing about laptop bios's. I guess if you want to mess around with different OS's the best bet is to have machine designed for flexibility.)

There are also some sandbox type packages out there that allegedly allow windows based software to run under Ubuntu, but I haven't tried any or done any research on them.

Having tried Ubuntu I have decided that although it has some nice features, there are too many things that should be straightforward and obvious, but aren't. It's a bit too much of a toy for my purposes. So I'm going to try Suze next. I'm planning on preparing for Suze installation this week and hope to do an install next weekend. If you like, I can keep you posted with anything useful I learn.

I installed Ubuntu a little over a year ago on a dual boot with Windows 7 using Wubi, and it worked just fine for about a couple of weeks, and then after a few automatic updates I had the hardest time getting the OS to work. I pretty much gave up on it until my issues with the Windows 8 Consumer beta, but now it's working just fine again.

Having said that, in the future I definitely would at least put Ubuntu/Linux on its own partition and most likely on its own hard drive. If you have an up-to-date computer I would install Ubuntu or Linux Mint for those who don't want or need a whole lot of techie knowledge to run an OS. If you have an older computer which is no slower than a P3, then I would install Puppy Linux to save on resources, plus it will extend the life of your old computer for at least a couple of years.

I think I will partition my hard drive when I get a bigger one. I only have 250gb in mine right now, but I'm planning on getting a 1tb for it later on. My laptop is only a year old, so I guess it's still cool . I've never heard on Puppy Linux either....damn, I definitely need to learn more about Linux

Tittypants said:

728huey said:

I installed Ubuntu a little over a year ago on a dual boot with Windows 7 using Wubi, and it worked just fine for about a couple of weeks, and then after a few automatic updates I had the hardest time getting the OS to work. I pretty much gave up on it until my issues with the Windows 8 Consumer beta, but now it's working just fine again.

Having said that, in the future I definitely would at least put Ubuntu/Linux on its own partition and most likely on its own hard drive. If you have an up-to-date computer I would install Ubuntu or Linux Mint for those who don't want or need a whole lot of techie knowledge to run an OS. If you have an older computer which is no slower than a P3, then I would install Puppy Linux to save on resources, plus it will extend the life of your old computer for at least a couple of years.

I think I will partition my hard drive when I get a bigger one. I only have 250gb in mine right now, but I'm planning on getting a 1tb for it later on. My laptop is only a year old, so I guess it's still cool . I've never heard on Puppy Linux either....damn, I definitely need to learn more about Linux

I love your nerdy computer talk.

KidaDynamite said:

Tittypants said:

I think I will partition my hard drive when I get a bigger one. I only have 250gb in mine right now, but I'm planning on getting a 1tb for it later on. My laptop is only a year old, so I guess it's still cool . I've never heard on Puppy Linux either....damn, I definitely need to learn more about Linux

I love your nerdy computer talk.

Thank you, baby.

I wouldn't trust anything that says "Ubuntu" lol sorry about that though, I can relate when you install anything and they only wreck havoc.

[Edited 4/15/12 18:11pm]

I have the new Ubuntu on my kids' pc, Linux Mint with KDE on my laptop, Windows XP on a Dell mini, Windows Phone 7.5 on my cell, Windows Vista on my work PC, Windows 8 Consumer Preview on a spare pc I have, Symbian OS on my daughter's Nokia cell, and the wife has a iPhone.

All of these different End User Operating Systems, and I still end up using these same programs:

VLC Player for video playback

foobar for music playback

audacity for audio recording

pidgin for Instant Messaging

Chromium or Chrome for web browsing

MS Office or LibreOffice for documents and such

I can run these on almost any operating system. If I were to choose my next operating system for ease of use, at this point, it would probably be Windows 7.

AsylumUtopia said:

I first used Ubuntu a few months ago, and I quite like it too. You don't need 2 computers to use both OS's - you can put both of them on one. Like you, I have programs that only run on Windows so I went for the dual boot option (obviously you can't actually run both OS's at the same time, but you can have both on one machine and choose which to boot).

The Ubuntu install took my computer from behind and fucked it, roughly, and I am only just now finishing the recovery process (recovering all the data from an external hard drive that the Ubuntu installer said it was not going to format but formatted anyway).

So, with some painful lessons learnt, here are some tips:

Do NOT use the Wubi-installer. It's shit, it tells lies, it doesn't work, it will fuck your machine.

If you're going to install Ubuntu but you want to keep Windows (dual boot), then make sure you install Ubuntu on a separate drive - not a separate partition, but a different physical hard drive (the only method that worked for me).

Do not believe anything the Ubuntu installer tells you. Instead, burn an Ubuntu installer disk, then remove ALL hard drives from your system other than the one you want Ubuntu to install to. If you don't do this, the installer will put it's boot loader onto the wrong disk (and the boot loader won't work).

Once your Ubuntu install is complete, you can then reattach your Windows (and other) hard drives. Your bios should then detect the Ubuntu boot loader and automatically give you boot options from then on, so each time you boot up you can choose whether to boot windows or Ubuntu.

(having said all that, I'm not sure how a laptop would react to having it's main drive removed or if it would handle booting from an external drive - I know nothing about laptop bios's. I guess if you want to mess around with different OS's the best bet is to have machine designed for flexibility.)

There are also some sandbox type packages out there that allegedly allow windows based software to run under Ubuntu, but I haven't tried any or done any research on them.

Having tried Ubuntu I have decided that although it has some nice features, there are too many things that should be straightforward and obvious, but aren't. It's a bit too much of a toy for my purposes. So I'm going to try Suze next. I'm planning on preparing for Suze installation this week and hope to do an install next weekend. If you like, I can keep you posted with anything useful I learn.

This is what I did and I DON'T recommend it. Then if you aren't comp-savvy and don't know how to get it off your hard-drive, you have all that space that it's taking up that you can't use anymore.

Even reinstalling Windows didn't give me that space back.

Tittypants said:

TD3 said:

I can't stand Ubuntu/Unity so I switched over to Linux Mint on an disk desk top. I did a full install and minus a lil' bit of issue with internet speed/signal strength as times, I like it.

I should have tried Linux Mint. I had the chance to, but I chose Ubuntu......

You should give Linux Mint a try after you've recovered from Ubuntu trainwreck.I've upgraded from Mint 11.04 to 12 last week, no issues. I have plans to dual boot Mint on Vista notebook.

Tittypants said:

After having some recent troubles with my Windows 7 [64 bit] OS freezing up on me, I decided to "DBAN" my hard drive & start fresh with Ubuntu OS [It was free & I heard good things about it]. I installed & uninstalled it the same day & just went back Windows 7. Now, I didn't hate Ubuntu @ all, I actually liked it, but the problem for me was that I couldn't use some of my favorite software programs through it that I really needed [so I thought], so I kind of panicked & went back to what I knew best.

But with that said, if I had two computers, I'd definitely put Linux/Ubuntu on one just because I think it's pretty cool. There aren't many viruses out there written for it, so you really don't need anti-virus for it. & I will also say, my laptop was running a lot faster using it too. I hear that the government & a lot of creators use the Linux OS also. So for those of you fellow orgers who use Linux/Ubuntu out there, what are you thoughts & what are your recommendations for the curious ones [like myself] who are/were thinking about @ least trying it? How much better, or worse, is it than Windows 7?

[for the no-nots] "OS" means "Operating System"

"DBAN" is a free program you can download [google it] & burn to a blank CD that will totally erase your hard drive completely.

TVD, prince.org's #1 Liunx-user is HERE!

If you need a Linux distro that is the most user-friendy, check out Linux Mint:

http://www.linuxmint.com/

One you install Mint, you will never use Ubuntu again. And you will definitely stay away from the Microsoft Plantation for good!

TonyVanDam said:

Tittypants said:

After having some recent troubles with my Windows 7 [64 bit] OS freezing up on me, I decided to "DBAN" my hard drive & start fresh with Ubuntu OS [It was free & I heard good things about it]. I installed & uninstalled it the same day & just went back Windows 7. Now, I didn't hate Ubuntu @ all, I actually liked it, but the problem for me was that I couldn't use some of my favorite software programs through it that I really needed [so I thought], so I kind of panicked & went back to what I knew best.

But with that said, if I had two computers, I'd definitely put Linux/Ubuntu on one just because I think it's pretty cool. There aren't many viruses out there written for it, so you really don't need anti-virus for it. & I will also say, my laptop was running a lot faster using it too. I hear that the government & a lot of creators use the Linux OS also. So for those of you fellow orgers who use Linux/Ubuntu out there, what are you thoughts & what are your recommendations for the curious ones [like myself] who are/were thinking about @ least trying it? How much better, or worse, is it than Windows 7?

[for the no-nots] "OS" means "Operating System"

"DBAN" is a free program you can download [google it] & burn to a blank CD that will totally erase your hard drive completely.

TVD, prince.org's #1 Liunx-user is HERE!

If you need a Linux distro that is the most user-friendy, check out Linux Mint:

http://www.linuxmint.com/

One you install Mint, you will never use Ubuntu again. And you will definitely stay away from the Microsoft Plantation for good!

What's the differences between the two [ubuntu & Linux Mint]?

Tittypants said:

TonyVanDam said:

TVD, prince.org's #1 Liunx-user is HERE!

If you need a Linux distro that is the most user-friendy, check out Linux Mint:

http://www.linuxmint.com/

One you install Mint, you will never use Ubuntu again. And you will definitely stay away from the Microsoft Plantation for good!

What's the differences between the two [ubuntu & Linux Mint]?

Linux Mint (Main Edition) is Ubuntu-based. But unlike Ubuntu, Linux Mint will notice your soundcard so you will have sound straight away. And Flash & Java plug-ins are automatically install.

TonyVanDam said:

Tittypants said:

What's the differences between the two [ubuntu & Linux Mint]?

Linux Mint (Main Edition) is Ubuntu-based. But unlike Ubuntu, Linux Mint will notice your soundcard so you will have sound straight away. And Flash & Java plug-ins are automatically install.

I was just looking in their website [the link you posted]. Is the setup similar to a windows setup? It looks that way. With ubuntu, I think the setup threw me off a little bit

[Edited 4/15/12 21:12pm]