before i drop windows

[Carpo]

will/does wine work on all programs - or most ? should i dual boot splitting drives 50/50 and give it a trial run - or should i just bite the bullet and go full linux.

main pc use (this one amd box) using dvdrb using newsleecher/newsbin, quickpar, watching vids, email, irc, burning dvds - the usual stuff

which i have found linux native versions for most, reason i am concidering dropping windows is a) cost b) viri and such c) upgardes somwtime cause issues, now im not saying linux is perfect, im still going to use av on linux - and thats mainly to catch any win32 viruses which i dont wanna poss onto people ;)

[Sharktooth]

wine does not run all programes but it does run most of the useful ones.
there are 3 versions of wine: wine, winex and cedega... (and crossover office).
and if you're lucky and configure them correctly, you wont have to get back to windows.
however, even if i abandoned windows, i still have a dual boot for some stuff i cant still do with linux without getting some real major pain in the a$$ (on the other hand i cant easily do some other stuff using windows...)

suggestions: sabayon (http://www.sabayonlinux.org/) (gentoo based with lots of eye-candy, a huge software repo, toons of good stuff and excellent HW support. relatively easy to use) or linux mint (http://www.linuxmint.com/) (ubuntu fork with multimedia stuff and some other cool things. really easy to use)

[lpn1160]

Check out these links, virtualization will let you run that "Redmond" OS inside of linux

http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/about.html

http://www.virtualbox.org/

[Carpo]

think i will dual boot using 15GB for xp sys disc and use 100GB from the 2 400GB drives should i need to do any video/audio work

Thanks

[Tack]

If you're just starting with Linux, I'd suggest not using a fringe distro. Ubuntu or Fedora would be fair choices. I'd recommend Ubuntu as its repositories likely have everything you'll want, and there is a large community behind it.

A dual boot would be your safest bet. An alternative might be to download a trial copy of VMware Workstation and try a few distros in virtual machines and see which ones you like, and which ones solve your problems best.

[Sharktooth]

no need for trials. vmware server is free. however, virtualization softwares do not support 3d acceleration and that's the only reason why i have a dual boot.
linux mint shares the repos with ubuntu... so if you're not concerned about non-free softwares (or better non-patented), mint is really the smarter choice coz it comes with a bunch of useful things like mplayer, video card drivers, etc...

[Carpo]

i have been using slackware since 9.0 on laptop and server so i know it very well - just have never had it on main pc due to the things i used the pc for - now there are linux versions of near all the progs i use and from what i have read wine should cover the rest :)

[mitsubishi]

I used slackware for a while, really liked it. I tried Linux a couple months ago again and the nVidia drivers kept locking up my system, Suse & Kubuntu. so I left it :(

[Sharktooth]

sabayon works pretty fine with nvidia latest drivers.
there is a small problem with latest release: some missing USE flags (including "opengl") that should be manually fixed (editing make.conf adding the missing flags and emerging the nvidia drivers - search the sabayon forum). Once you're done with that you wont come back to windows nor change linux distro ;)

[mitsubishi]

Thanks Sharktooth, I'll look into that.

[Carpo]

i have heard that the nvidia drivers have been locking some systems up, although atm (touch wood) i have had the server pc running kde all day while burning dvd isos and have had no lock ups, i am using (on server) 2.6.21.5 - recompiled to suit p4 cpu, and it didnt lock once, although i am going to move up to the latest kernel later, which at the time of writing is 2.6.22.5.

both p4 system and amd64 x2 system are running fine with nvidia 100.14.11 drivers - maybe i am just lucky ?

laptop is fine as its an ati card for which ati make no drivers so i have to rely on the in built ati kernel driver - works well, thinking of use cedega 6 later on laptop to see if i can get real myst playing ;) although i think there are a few extra steps you have to take

[Sharktooth]

Sabayon 3.4f (f stands for FAST coz there were many performance optimzations) is going to be released soon so i guess you may want to wait few more days before nuking wind0ze

http://planet.sabayonlinux.org/?p=66

[Shinigami-Sama]

Sabayon 3.4f (f stands for FAST coz there were many performance optimzations) is going to be released soon so i guess you may want to wait few more days before nuking wind0ze

http://planet.sabayonlinux.org/?p=66

ohh
thanks for reminding me about sabayon, I knew there was I distro I was forgetting, need to see if it'll work on my laptop

[echo]

May I suggest Zenwalk? Since you already have Slackware experience Zenwalk will feel like home.

[Carpo]

all the pcs have slackware 12 on them so it not a question of which distro to use more me making sure that me moving over to linux in genernal is the right move - making sure i have all the apps i will need and so on, have decided on a dual boot eviroment for now and see how things go

[nafetS]

Well I switched completly. The few programs I use that only run in windows, I run in a Virtualmachine with WinXP using current Virtualbox. You can rip with any dvd ripper directly to your linuxpartition which is mounted as a share in the VM.

As long as you don't want to play the latest and greatest computer games you can switch with a VM at your site.

Oh and Virtualbox is free for personal use: www.virtualbox.org

[Sharktooth]

i forgot to report sabayon 3.4f is available for download since friday 7th.
here's the changelog:
Live boot is now 3 times faster thanks to our improved OpenGL configuration tool
Beagle only runs on-demand
Portage has been updated with performance patches
Entropy stack has been updated to the latest SVN (intended as technology preview)
- Dependencies resolution code completed
- Removal dependencies resolution code in testing (not completed)
- etc-update alike tool needs to be written
- Pre/post install/remove scripting functions need to be written
- Branches support need a rewrite
- Multi source download support completed
- Query tools almost completed
- Code split is on the way
- Database API is almost complete (and will be extended with extra functionalities)
- 3rd party interface structured
- ETA? End of the year.
Installer updates:
- Vim is on the Core Install along with groff (man pages issue fixed)
- Better release handling
- Initial Entropy integration
Bluetooth stack updated
Ext4 support improved (new e2fsprogs)
ATi video drivers updated to 8.40.4

[snherbst]

If you are new to Linux please consider a more simple Linux distro like Ubuntu or Ubuntu-studio. I've used Kubuntu and its a good starter system.

[mousemurder]

if you still have a windows liscense then my recommendation is to keep it and duel-boot.

if you are not that familiar with linux i recommend a live-cd/dvd/usb distro (knoppix)

[shevegen]

"or should i just bite the bullet and go full linux."

Well, I think it depends which linux distribution. If you can, try one of the smaller ones... Archlinux, PCLinuxOS...

Also it helps if you know ruby or python at least, so you dont have to write those ugly shell scripts as glue for stuff

Most windows stuff works with wine actually, that is my experience
sometimes you have to set-it up a little bit, but wine is really really great

[Adub]

Okay, guys, here is a question for you.

I am relatively new to linux. I don't have a distro installed, but I know how to get around in it's environment. At least basically.
cd
ls
less
head
pwd

all of that fun stuff.

Now, my question is, should I go ahead and install ubuntu as my first linux install, or will it be okay to install Sabayon or Linux Mint? Both look pretty cool.
I want to be able to work with all of my video stuff, encoding, ripping and what not, with maximum speed and all of that.

In short, for a new user, Ubuntu or Sabayon?

[Sharktooth]

Mint is ok, since it's basically very similar to Ubuntu. If you're not scared by the gentoo core and a few small glitches you have to manually fix (fixes are in the forum though), then Sabayon is for you.
There's even PCLinuxOS, but to access to the latest packages you have to donate 20$ or more and get a PASS account.

[Adub]

Nah, I am all about the bleeding edge. No old packages for me.

Well, I may just get Sabayon running then. I will have to looks at Linux Mint again, but thanks a lot for you input, Sharktooth. At least the fixes are in the forums, which is totally cool with me.

Just need to do a little more research.

[lpn1160]

PCLOS does not require a $20 donation for anything. If one donates they get access to the pass server, and the public mirrors are updated a couple of days after the pass server is.

[Sharktooth]

my post wasnt clear. yes, the PASS server is not "required" at all.
you can always get the latest stuff after a couple of days.