Thanks for the advice. Well if it were for personnal preference I will stick to Windows since I'm used to it. But I'm really tired of having virus or that it stops operating.
I know what you mean. I had to force myself to use Ubuntu for a few months before I really got a hold of it. Now I go back to windows and I am confused on how to do simple tasks.
If you want to keep windows more secure try
Avast! anti virus and
Malwarebytes. I use both. Avast for the live protection and Malwarebytes to do a full system scan every month or so. You can also use
ccleaner to clean up registry errors that will hopefully stop some of those pesky BSOD's.
Anyway I will try Ubuntu as you said. I think I saw on the webpage that I can download to a pendrive or CD and boot it from there. I'll try that.
You can use either a usb drive or a cd. I would use the cd just because it is there permanently and if something goes wrong later down the road you will have it in order to rescue your system. Rather than re downloading it again.
One more note. 10.10 is out but I would use the 10.4 LTS. I have been hearing a lot about stability issues in 10.10
I wrote this for someone else here a bit ago. So I figured it wouldn't hurt to throw it in.
Ok there are two ways to do this.
**before you do anything check how much free space you have to install Ubuntu on your computer. If you want to shrink your partition of Windows to make free space that will be nice later on but you can do it from the Ubuntu install menu.
1. Easier but not my prefered method. More for trying Ubuntu
Use the Wubi Installer to install Ubuntu as a program in Windows. This will create a dual boot for you and if you want to get rid of Ubuntu you can just unistall it from programs and features in Windows. (Ubuntu first, then Wubi) It is not hard to install Just follow the instructions that Wubi gives you.
2. A bit harder but a better experience if you plan on using Ubuntu full time.
Download the Ubuntu ISO from
www.Ubuntu.com or releases.ubuntu.com I would recommend downloading the 10.04 version since it is the latest LTS(long term release) so it will be kept well updated for another year and a half I think.
If you want the 32 bit version get the version called ubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-i386.iso if you want 64 bit get the one labeled ubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso Don't get confused with the Alternate install versions they are for server/RAID installations.
Ok once you have the ISO burn the image (not as data files, the actual image) to a CD. Insert the CD into your computer and reboot **Make sure that you have boot priority set to CD-ROM in your bios.
This will take you to a Ubuntu splash screen (purple-ish loading screen) while it loads the full os off the cd. This will bring you to a screen that gives you a few options for Instillation, Try Ubuntu will just boot off the cd and you can play around but it will not change anything to your system. The option that you want it Install. This should bring you to a few screens that are just general options like keyboard layout time, zones, language, etc... Once through those it should give you three options
1. Erase and use the entire disk (NO!)
2. Install side by side (dual boot probably what you want)
3. Specify partitions manually (dual boot more for advanced users.)
For a first time at Ubuntu, option 2 is your best (and easiest) option
Right now your hard drive should be completely formatted in NTFS (windows). Partition out a portion for Ubuntu. If it is a test to see if you like it something like 40gb is more than enough. That will still give you about 30gb for files/programs. In option 2, you just need to specify what space to put Ubuntu in and the installer takes care of the rest for you.
So if you want to take things a bit more into your own hands here is how to accomplish option 3:
**Be sure to have HDD space partitioned for Ubuntu before you boot the Live CD on this option! you do not want to destroy anything written in NTFS This will destroy windows!
Now that the warning is over... take the free space and partition out something over 8gb (I use 12gb for mine) for the Boot files the mount point that you use is "/" This will be a Primary partition, formatted in EXT4.
Next is the SWAP space. Take the amount of RAM installed on your computer and multiply it by 3 this will give you the gb of SWAP space in needed. This formatted as a logical partition as SWAP.
The last partition that you need is your home files (like documents, pictures...) this will be formatted just like the boot files (EXT4, Primary) but the mount point is /Home.
One last thing keep the GRUB instillation on the default values. Otherwise you will have to reinstall GRUB.
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Ok well now you should (provided that I didn't forget anything) be able to hit install and get through the final menus (username, password...) let it install and once it reboots you should be good to go.
I hope I got everything. Feel free to ask if you have any questions.
*PS: I'm kind of new at this, so can you explain what are the developing enviroments for Windows or OSX, please.
Integrated Development Environments (IDE) are what you use in order to write the code of your program. For example, I use Bluej to program in Java. I can use it in Windows Mac or Linux. Relating to your previous question, as long as the IDE is available for your operating system you should be able to program for other operating systems.
Thanks for the help salvage-this I appreciate it. Are you also a Systems Engineer student?
Not exactly. I am majoring in Management Information Systems. It is split between business administration and computer science. with a computer science minor.
No problem. The other menbers have helped me a lot over the time that I have been here. I should probably start helping others some time
