Any Linux Users here?

[Kistilan]

Hi-

I just got a dell mini with SS Drive & loaded to the max with power that a dell mini can afford. Now I need recommendations.

First, updates: I have Ubuntu preloaded via Dell. I think it's version 8.04. What's the best linux Ubuntu I should be using on a dell mini?

Second, software: I need lots of editorial, ftp, sql and php softwares. I'd really like some good wordprocessing capabilities and a great graphical editor comparable to adobe photoshop or Paintshop Pro CS.

Third, I'm going to make a boot/jump drive for a windows-based secondary OS. Should I do this with WinXP or Win7? Skipping Vista. The programs will be accessed by a passport once the boot sequence initiates off a jump drive in the USB flash stick.

Thanks again! Trying to get this rig ready to go to Oz with me and to the desert in the Fall.

[MrWizard]

I am thinking of a dual boot system too.
I hear if you put linux in first windows will overwrite the grub and you have to save/replace it after install.


I think many prefer to install windows first.

I really wanted linux with windows running in a virtual machine, but sadly found that linux will limit what windows can do via things like directx and stuff as windows can only use and see what linux can use and see....

the other one was to make a windows computer and add a virtual machine with linux, but yuck.

so dual boot seems to be right. I would highly recommend spending a lot of time searching for threads and articles about it first.

ubuntu has tons of programs on their site you can check out and there are some very highly recommended linux program sites that have downloadable programs for the different versions of linux...just do some searching.

[Bolo_Grubb]

why not run windows and then install linux in a VM? We have several machine that we have set up that way on campus. Seems to work well for the users

[blitzschlag]

Hi-

I just got a dell mini with SS Drive & loaded to the max with power that a dell mini can afford. Now I need recommendations.

First, updates: I have Ubuntu preloaded via Dell. I think it's version 8.04. What's the best linux Ubuntu I should be using on a dell mini?

Second, software: I need lots of editorial, ftp, sql and php softwares. I'd really like some good wordprocessing capabilities and a great graphical editor comparable to adobe photoshop or Paintshop Pro CS.

Third, I'm going to make a boot/jump drive for a windows-based secondary OS. Should I do this with WinXP or Win7? Skipping Vista. The programs will be accessed by a passport once the boot sequence initiates off a jump drive in the USB flash stick.

Thanks again! Trying to get this rig ready to go to Oz with me and to the desert in the Fall.

you might wanna check this:
http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr

but read this first:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UNR


2. graphix: gimp www.gimp.org (can install via ubuntu)
word processing: lots of free stuff to choose from. openoffice, koffice and many more

3. i don't think the hardware is strong enough to have win7 running properly. most netbooks get shipped with a preinstalled winxp anyway. so that might be your best choice.

[Depravity]

Welcome to the light side. We have cookies too.
###I have no idea which version you should be using on a netbook. I'm using 9.10 on my desktop, and aside from the issues with pulseaudio, doing pretty well (pulse wasn't very well integrated in this version, and they made it the default). I'd check the ubuntu forums and see what they have to say. Honestly, all the components of any given distro get updated constantly anyway, so it's not anywhere near as static as a windows install. You'll still get the latest versions of the kernel and most of your installed software.### deprecated due to blitzschlag's faste response time. :D

As far as software goes, just fire up Synaptic (ubuntu software goober in the application menu is friendlier, but less complete) from under the system-->admin menu and go to town. All the webserver bits you want are literally a handful of clicks away, since anything that runs under apache is already compiled for your kernel.
Word processing/etc - Open Office comes installed and works well with pretty much everything, although you may have to wait a month or so after a microsoft release for them to reverse engineer the new file formats. If doing any sort of programming/scripting/html/php etc, just fire up the default text editor and tell it what you're writing in, and it will happily highlight away.
Graphics - The Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/) is your friend. The Gimp comes installed. The Gimp loves you, and will love you whatever you do, but you may wish to avoid bringing up the lack of a liquify tool. For vector graphics, the usual is Inkscape. Just a heads up, but longtime photoshop users often have a hard time switching to Gimp and vice versa. They both have their own little quirks and ways of doing things.



the other one was to make a windows computer and add a virtual machine with linux, but yuck.

Iirc, the current install disks include Wubi, which does just that. I've always stuck to putting ubuntu in after windows, in a dual boot. Only real trick there was hitting defrag a buttload of times so that windows compressed its filesystem down to the point where I wasn't losing files to the repartitioning. Better partitioning software will handle it with less trouble, but I don't trust the ubuntu install disk partitioner quite that far.

No recommendation on windows version. My dual boot is win XP pro, but I've fired it up once in the best part of a year. I still feel a little unclean.

[Anderei]

why not run windows and then install linux in a VM? We have several machine that we have set up that way on campus. Seems to work well for the users

why not run linux and then install windows in a VM? We have several machine that we have set up that way on campus. Seems to work well for the users.

[Anderei]

.
I hear if you put linux in first windows will overwrite the grub and you have to save/replace it after install.
I think many prefer to install windows first.

yes windows does this, and yes if you have a choice its typically a good idea to install windows first if going for dualboot.

But if you've linux already installed its not a drama if you are a bit savy. Just install windows, (it will remove grub (the linux bootloader) and always boot windows. Then put the ubuntu or debian CD in your drive, boot from that in the install-desktop, open a terminal and run `grub-install´ possibly you have to specific which drive like /dev/sda or something like that.

I don't know whats default nowadays, if grub doesn't install into the bootsector (like most used to do), but into the linux boot partition, then all windows does is setting the boot partition to windows, just reset the linux partition as boot partition with a tool of your choice, so grub comes up again when turning it on.

[Depravity]

One more thing:
You're going to want the ubuntu forums' Multimedia Guide (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=766683). All those wondrous little codecs have commercial licenses on them, so they avoid the legal/financial hassle and have you install them separately in order to avoid all of said legal/financial ramifications.

On the bright side, if you're only used to acrobat, opening your first .pdf is going to be effin' amazing. Unless you usually used that time to go find a muffin or something, then you're going to be hungry and disappointed.

[Khimberlhyte]

You're getting a Dell Mini. Hrm. That means a netbook with an Intel Atom cpu. I have an Acer Asipre One netbook, and I wouldn't want to try virtualization on it - they're slow enough running native code. Also, unless you have an external USB CD/DVD drive, you'll need to install from a USB flash drive.

If it comes with Linux from the factory, I would stay with that for now. Linux is very flexible, very configurable, and very easy to get in far over your head. It can be overwhelming, just like how DDO character configuration and building is for a new player. Stick with the equivalent to the Turbine default paths for now.

There are more ftp programs and code editors than you can shake a stick at. It takes no time at all to install Apache web server, any version of PHP you want, and a SQL server - MySQL and PostgreSQL are the most common ones. Configuring the servers is more of a problem, and figuring out where the default settings and config files are stored, how they are handled, and what to change will take 100x longer than installing. Installation is as simple as typing something like "apt-get install apache mysql php" on the command line or in a terminal window.

If you want the latest and greatest instead of 2 year old software, go with the Ubuntu Netbook Remix (http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download-netbook). The most recent version is 9.10, next version is 10.04 which comes out in April (beta is available now). The Netbook Remix should be set up to minimize writes to your SSD, and have some optimizations for netbooks. The two most common desktop environments are Gnome and KDE. Gnome comes as the default in Ubuntu, but there is a KDE netbook edition (https://wiki.kubuntu.org/LucidLynx/Alpha3/Kubuntu) that will be released in April as part of Kubuntu 10.04.

A minority of people run really light window managers for the speed boost - Gnome and KDE take a lot of resources compared to blackbox or xfce. Blackbox and xfce are fairly minimalistic, and you might need to know how to get around on the command line, so there is a tradeoff.

You can try most Linux distros out as Live versions, turning the ISO image into a bootable flash drive (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick). I would do that for two reasons: (1) see if you like the desktop environment; and (2) see if your hardware works properly. Proprietary wireless cards with closed firmware are problematic in Linux.

I'll probably be trying out KDE/Kubuntu on mine in a month once it is released. I've been using Linux since 1997, so I'm prepared to deal with any odd behaviour and can sort out problems I might encounter without too much trouble. YMMV.

[Kistilan]

On the bright side, if you're only used to acrobat, opening your first .pdf is going to be effin' amazing. Unless you usually used that time to go find a muffin or something, then you're going to be hungry and disappointed.

Awesome and funny! *L*

Seriously thanks for all the tidbits about installs, virt machines, variations of Linux, software recommendations, etc. The links are super-appreciated too!

I'll probably dual-install win xp pro then so I have some access to DOS Games on an external HD. I'll definitely check out the variations of linux using an ISO image and determine if I like anything better than ubuntu. I'm going to see about the dual-boot being loaded on the external passport with a "boot disk" being the flash drive. Think that's possible? I'm fairly certain it is (somewhat going back to the DoS & Windows dual-loads in 3.11/95 daze).

[vhortex]

i am not having any issues with PDF files loading or any other possible issues except for some hardware vendors that Microsoft force to write a windows only driver under a binding contract of distribution.. etc.. etc..

the only issues i am having is to load DRM files.. this is windows video security encryption which is also the source of viral attacks. and loading some codecs that are licensed, it easy to find alternatives depending on your UNIX/LINUX flavor.

think about UNIX/LINUX as your character in DDO. how gimped it is was based on how you create the initial stats :D

There are some other versions other Ubuntu that you can install which can be more compatible to your Dell. Good thing is that you can fetch the things you want with UNIX/LINUX and that includes UBUNTU. This means that you can fetch those missing codecs and missing PDF support on the fly but may also require the hassle of having a component compatible issues when installing from the ubuntu resource servers.