Is it worth it installing Linux?

H

Hadesdude

New Member
Hi,

I've heard Linux is a pretty safe, fast and easy to personalize OS.
On the other hand, I also heard it is not suited for most games and if you use a Virtual Envirenment, the framerate could drop (drastically), which I'd rather not deal with.
And last but not least: I'd like to just have one OS to "choose" from, just for comfort. My TV-screen takes as long as the PC to boot.

I only occasionally play games, but when I do, they usually are pretty demanding!
I currently have Windows 7 64 bits running on a pretty powerful desktop.

Are there also other things to take into account? Like software compatibility?

Thanks in advance!
 
I love using Ubuntu on my desktop. Games are not supported as well as on a Windows desktop but it is growing with Steam moving to Linux. VMs are not good for games because for the most part you will not get full hardware support in the VM. VBox Graphics adapter will not perform nearly as well as your GPU will in Windows.

What do you mean one OS to choose from? Do you want to dual boot or are you looking to pick the best of the two and run with one on the desktop? If you only want one, I would stick with Windows but try out an install of Linux in a VM.

Software compatibility is a big thing to consider. Linux has loads of free to use programs that will do the same things as Windows programs, but it is likely not to be the same program as what you have used before. So if you need a program to run on your PC, check if there is a Linux version of it, or whether or now Wine will support it (with some configuration).

I have been dual booting for a few years now and I barely go back to Windows. I have a few games installed in Ubuntu but for the most part I just have it for work.


If you want to try it out use virtualbox
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/virtualbox/downloads/index.html

and install any version of Linux you want to try. Personal favorite is Ubuntu but I would also recommend Linux Mint or OpenSUSE. You can download any of them for free.
 
salvage-this said:
Personal favorite is Ubuntu but I would also recommend Linux Mint or OpenSUSE.
Click to expand...

Mint and openSUSE are great recommendations, also could try manjaro, that is what I have been using for a little while now on one of my machines, based on Arch but made easier to install and use, got to say I now prefer rolling release over the interm release.
 
Thanks, I installed Linux Mint yesterday with dualboot, but there is a little problem:
I have a DLink DWA-140 Wireless Adapter, and no option for a cable connection for the Internet.
Whenever I try to connect, it doesn't recognize the password so I guess it needs the driver. I can't acces the Internet on Linux, but on Windows I can, so at least that's that.

It's really not helping when they always say you need that cable connection in Linux!
 
Check that what wifi connection is auto selecting the correct security when connecting. If the wireless is prompting for a password there is a good chance that it is working, there is just a configuration change that needs to be made.
 
If what salvage-this does not work click on menu and search for the driver tool, that might have a proprietary driver or firmware and if available for Linux that tool can find it and install it for you. If all else fails then we will go with nswrapper but this is a last resort.
 
Well I totally messed up at first! So badly actually I had to reinstall both windows and Linux, now I went for Ubuntu instead of Mint since that actually worked. I'm a newbie to programming.

But anyway I managed to get both running again. All that trouble was because I couldn't get Flash Player to work.

Sometimes it seems to hesitate a bit (like shortcuts for documents and images not working the first 2 times), but now that it cooperates I like it better!
 
yeah The first few steps can be a bit troublesome. Bummer that you needed to re install Windows to get it working again.

Just a heads up Flash player is built into chrome for Ubuntu. You can either use the software center to install it. Or go to google and download the .deb file yourself (just choose 32bit or 64bit)

To get the other codecs working you can run this in the terminal

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

that should clear up most of the incompatibility problems for different file extensions.

If you have any trouble feel free to post back with questions. There are usually ways around problems in Linux. It just depends on how hard you want to look :P
 
Well yes I do.
Whenever I reboot into Linux, it seems my keyboard settings are reset, which means I can't put signs onto letters, which is pretty frustrating, since I also write in Dutch and French...
And actually there's more to it but like shortcuts not working anymore or sometimes the system being slow to connect to wifi...
 
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Hadesdude said:
Well yes I do.
Whenever I reboot into Linux, it seems my keyboard settings are reset, which means I can't put signs onto letters, which is pretty frustrating, since I also write in Dutch and French...
Click to expand...

Not too sure how to work with multiple language settings but I did see a few threads talking about changing the default keyboard settings. Might want to look down that route.

Hadesdude said:
And actually there's more to it but like shortcuts not working anymore or sometimes the system being slow to connect to wifi...
Click to expand...

What shortcuts?

Wifi can be a bit troublesome in Ubuntu. My laptop takes a bit to get the wifi running, but it has a good connection after that.
 
About the keyboard settings: I can't seem to find the exact problem on the forum, just keyboard related in Ubuntu.
The current setting is "English US International with dead keys", I use this setting for all languages I write.
But every time I want to do AltGr+"some letter" I get a menu instead (like with the Alt key only) and when I enter i.e. an apostrophe to add an accent on a letter it just enters the apostrophe right away!
I managed to solve this by changing some special options and then setting it back to default, but after some reboot it was back as it was.
If this persists, it might be a reason for me to stick to Windows.

About the shortcuts: I deleted the images- and documents folders in my personal folder, to replace them with the shortcuts to my files in my Windows-user folder. Now they appear to be broken.
So much for shared files :/

Thanks already btw for your help!


PS: and last but not least: I've yet to find a way to get my gmail-account working in Skype together with the skype-account!
 
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Sorry about the delayed replies, it's been a crazy weekend.

Windows links will not work in Linux. Shortcuts are just small programs. If they are designed to run on Windows, it will not work on other systems. However, you can make shortcuts to files in Ubuntu just like any other OS.

Right click the file or folder that you want to link to and select make link. Move the link wherever you want (Desktop, Home Folder etc...) it should work just fine.

What files were you trying to link to?

I am not sure what you mean with the Gmail and Skype account. I have always had one account for Gmail and one for Skype. A bit safer that way too.
 
Well actually they are shortcuts made in Linux, and I tried now with Windows shortcuts and both just work fine the first time, but after a reboot they get broken again.
Those link to special folders: "Images" and "Documents", since I can't collect items from multiples sources like in Windows. So they link to the personal folders "Documents" and "Images" from Windows. I have no password on either OS for logging in at startup.
Apparently I just can't replace the folders by shortcuts in Linux.
This is an error message I get: This link cannot be used because its target “/media/hades/D670666E706654F1/Users/Hades/Documents” doesn't exist.

About Skype: in Windows, the Skype version had the possibility of adding multiple contact sources, like from gmail, facebook, hotmail...
It's that feature I'm missing in the Linux version ;)
 
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Hadesdude said:
Well actually they are shortcuts made in Linux, and I tried now with Windows shortcuts and both just work fine the first time, but after a reboot they get broken again.
Those link to special folders: "Images" and "Documents", since I can't collect items from multiples sources like in Windows. So they link to the personal folders "Documents" and "Images" from Windows. I have no password on either OS for logging in at startup.
Apparently I just can't replace the folders by shortcuts in Linux.
This is an error message I get: This link cannot be used because its target “/media/hades/D670666E706654F1/Users/Hades/Documents” doesn't exist.

About Skype: in Windows, the Skype version had the possibility of adding multiple contact sources, like from gmail, facebook, hotmail...
It's that feature I'm missing in the Linux version ;)
Click to expand...

Things breaking in Linux is probably fault of Ubuntu, a lot of things are not working like they should in Ubuntu anymore. They are more focused on building a mobile platform these days, this is why I recommend Mint or Manjaro since I have been having so many problems with Ubuntu.

The reason why the skype version in Linux is different is because Skype for Windows will be replacing all other chat clients in Windows, MS is just unifying the product lines. In Linux Skype is just a video chat client and honestly for how much longer I do not know as I keep seeing on numerous Linux forums people moving to google hangouts. If you need skype for video call and the rest for I/M then use skype for the video calls and using Empathy for everything else.
 
Well I'm trying to switch back to Mint actually.
I made a bootable USB, a trial version of Mint boots succesfully, then I hit "Install Linux Mint" on the desktop and it opens an invisible window for 5-10 seconds, then stops.
I can click it again but it does the same every time.
I did not uninstall Ubuntu, since a tutorial on the net didn't request it...But I still want to replace Ubuntu by Mint.
 
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Never mind! The install was succesfull after two more attempts! It's difficult to know when to remove the USB stick...best thing is probably to really shut down the pc, remove it and then reboot, because it's so quick! :)
 
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