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Making the move to linux
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
Hey there guys
My computer is full of junk and is in need of a format. I've only got a moderate thing really, but with an 80gb hard drive I was thinking, I could partition that up couldn't I?
So how feasible is a dual boot linux / windows XP system, and how good would it be? Fed up with windows being a bit crap for me really, would like to just go completely linux but wouldn't get it.
And wouldn't be able to play TES Oblivion and the like 
.
I know there are some linux junkies on here, so advise away
. I know absolutely nothing, btw. Dont know what a shell is, what KDE is, anything. I dont want to be a guru, just get to know how to use it as an equivilent system to windows. Then hopefully, if all works well, it has the capability to expand where windows doesnt.
Thanks!
My computer is full of junk and is in need of a format. I've only got a moderate thing really, but with an 80gb hard drive I was thinking, I could partition that up couldn't I?
So how feasible is a dual boot linux / windows XP system, and how good would it be? Fed up with windows being a bit crap for me really, would like to just go completely linux but wouldn't get it.
And wouldn't be able to play TES Oblivion and the like .I know there are some linux junkies on here, so advise away
. I know absolutely nothing, btw. Dont know what a shell is, what KDE is, anything. I dont want to be a guru, just get to know how to use it as an equivilent system to windows. Then hopefully, if all works well, it has the capability to expand where windows doesnt.Thanks!
0
Comments
As for learning, the way I learned was to simply try. I did get a guide at first, but I ended up only reading the basics out of it and learning more by being a user.
About partitioning a drive, remember that you need two partitions for linux, and one of them should be at least twice your RAM (unless your RAM is 1GB or more, in which case 800MB should be plenty).
As for distros, you're going to hear many different opinions... Although I've not tried many (about 3 or 4) I suggest trying ubuntu or kubuntu.
I don't know what else to say, there's much to tell...
So many files to back up though. Should be fun!
Is installing programs and drivers on linux tricky?
And should I have it set up like so:
Windows OS Partition
Linux OS Partition
Programs
Files
Or won't that work? Cos I think that linux programs and windows programs are installed / run differently.
Thanks for any info
I don't know how you partition your windows, but for linux you'll need at least a swap and a main (root) partition. It's also a good idea to make one more for your user files (/home, the equivalent of "Documents and Settings" on XP).
I don't really know about wireless cards, try researching it a bit. Like, find a message board for the distro you want to try and search it or ask.
As for programs and drivers, that depends largely on the repositories of each distro. Most programs/drivers should be there already, but there might be some you'll need to compile yourself.
Hope that helps any...
I'd have a
windows OS partition
Linux OS partition (/)
Linux apps partition
Data partitions (ntfs/fat32 depending on what your chosen kernel will support)
swap (2GB)
Linux app installs are generally painless.
One thing to note is that audio and video play back probably won't work out of the box due to licensing so you'll need to download and install the necessery codecs etc.
C: Operating Files - Windows and most of the essential stuff (10gb partition, not full though)
F: Local Disk - All my documents, games, or programs I'm just playing with (67gb ish partition)
- 13.6gb in my documents
- 2.41gb in downloads (that includes torrents / porn / game patches / anything downloaded basically)
- 38.2gb in games! :shocking:
-3.5gb of 'random' programs, daemon tools, emule, autograph, cd burner xp pro, Hijackthis etc. etc.
And that's about it!
But I am seriously looking to cut down that a lot. Want my computer to be a lot more slick. It needs it!
What about something along the lines of:
/root 10gb
/swap 1gb
/winxp 20gb
/home whatevers left
That will give me a good bit of space to play with on the XP partition to install games, but also enogh on the root partition if I want to install linux things. I'm sure I'll get the wireless sorted anyway
Thoughts?
So it should be ext2 or preferably ext3 for /root,
then ntfs for /winxp
and fat32 partition for files you want to be able to access through windows and linux
All other partitions are mounted on a directory under / (examples: /winxp, /home, /blahblah, /dir/files/ret). You can, for example, mount your windows C: partition on /winxp. BUT: The directories used by linux for its system (like /usr, /home, /dev and many more) HAVE to be linux partitions (or simply parts of the / partition).
So you can have windows partitions somwhere, but not in any position that linux will need to use.
BUT you can read/write to fat32 and ntfs from linux.
So, do I need a / partition and a /root partition. Basically wanted one partition for linux OS + programs, one for windows OS + programs, one for docs, and a swap partition.
No! You need a / partition. /root is simply a directory, which can be on a different partition but it's pretty pointless to do that.
I'd probably prefer to have docs seperate anyway. I've found when your computer cocks up, its nice if you've got a partition with all your non-executable files on that are 'safe' so to speak
Very true. I've stuck with that line of thought for a good few years now - I keep all my media and files on one drive, and install the OS on another. Works well for me
I'd go for Kubuntu over Ubuntu, purely because KDE feels so much nicer and more complete than Gnome. But it's a personal thing. If all you want to do is experiment with Linux(as you're a game player, you couldn't switch 100% as Linux won't play your Windows games) then a 5gb partition for the OS, 512mb swap, and the ability to read/write your data storage partition with both Windows and Linux should see you good.
Apologies if I've gone over already-covered ground, it's late and I'm tired. And I've spent the last few days converting my brother-in-law to Linux - I didn't think he'd take to it, but he seems to love it! Was most impressed that we could just ssh into my box from his house(sounds rude...) and copy my repository listing
I'll do a remote login to his machine one day, and just pop his CD-ROM drawer in and out a few times. He'll think I'm god
If you have more than one machine (you said you had a laptop), then I'd put windows on one machine and a linux distro on another. Dual boot has never worked for me, I ended up using windows almost all the time.
If you're a gamer, then I guess you might want to keep the desktop with windows, I'm assuming its a more powerful machine than the laptop.
Its been about 3 months now, and I've been using linux as my only operating system. I can honestly say that linux is very powerful, and you can do anything you like to the system. But it still has the habit of going wrong like any software system, so having more than one machine is a life line.
If you need detailed help with linux, use google a lot, and linuxquestions.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/
It's a very good forum. The number of posts each day puts thesite to shame.
I wish you luck.
Simply put, can't be arsed
Also, I found a script that will setup firefox will all the tools needed to stream drm'd content & there's even an itunes port for linux!
I have it on a partition with XP on too, so i can switch between them.
All you need for wireless is your .inf driver from XP and then you inject it into ndiswrapper
Screenshot attached
Pity you haven't installed KDE yet though
Check this out, Clicky , called XGL, gives vista "glass" effects to nix. Looks sexy but I don't think that'll run on my laptop as it requires 3d acceleration =(
I wouldn't call KDE ugly - it is far more functional than gnome, and very customizable. Go check out my screencaps in 'The Desktop Thread. Fair enough if you don't like it, but to me it's simple and perfect - taskbar at the top, most commonly used applications at the bottom - just how these things should be