Linux

[norm]

What flavor are you using?

For my MC Computer I had LinuxMCE. That was fun and I enjoyed it along with the XP MCE I had on the same drive.

I put in an extra hard drive to my main PC and now have KDE (KUbuntu). I tried out the Gnome version too and decided to stick with KDE. I may try Fedora out later.

[keyser28146]

I'm using Ubuntu 8.10.

[Taco_assassin]

I'm using Linux Mint6. It's an Ubuntu child. A bit better in my opinion though. Comes with some codecs already so no need to worry about that. I'm a bit of linux noob though so....
Norm, what makes linux MCE special?

[norm]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcNwnANrCpw"]YouTube - Linux MCE vs Windows MCE (1of2)[/ame]

and

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC-YwwQ1Pkk"]YouTube - Linux MCE vs Windows MCE (2of2)[/ame]

those pretty much sum up what is cool about Linux MCE



I pretty much played with the PVR and Network steaming aspects of it.

With Netflix coming to the 360 and a few other lifestyle tech changes is why I got rid of it. It's a pain in the ass trying to connect the PC to a regular TV. The new TV's with a PC input and other features makes the connections so much easier.

I liked it, but the wife had issues with it. So I took the PC that had Linux MCE and put plain old XP on it and turned it into an office computer for the wife. I took the hard drive out of a computer I had a couple of flavors of Linux on and put it into my main computer. I finially figured out which one I liked and now I don't have to keep switching cords/inputs between PC's. It's nice using Grub to pick which OS I want.


Now I'm messing with the different plamoids (no not from Bioshock) and a few other things to tailor it to me.

[keyser28146]

I'm way noob, and at some point will jump into it headlong... I knew DOS back in the day, but spend so much time learning Photoshop, After Effects, Anime Studio and Premiere Pro that I just don't really have the time to mess with learning too much right now, so I'll use Linux on casual machins because it boots much faster, smaller footprint and it's stable and doesn't require any kind of firewalling or spam or virus crap.

I won't allow an windows or mac based editing machine to touch the internet, ever, and I never ever ever run any virus protection or "internet security" garbage. I used to run them open and reinstall and repartition every 3-6 months, since "virus protection" on a windows machine is akin to using a screen door as a gasmask, only slightly less effective.

When I get some time I'd like to fool around with getting CS3 or 4 rolling in Linux on an editing machine, as I imagine it'd run much better, but it's a big enough pain in the ass to get Magic Bullet running in After Effects in Windows... rendering and de-artifacting a 12 minute HD video clip with twin proc intel duos and 4 GB of RAM with a 512MB video accelerator takes around 90 hours now... any hiccups and I get to start over... so i don't really want to face that nightmare just yet. You don't get 60+ hours into a render only to have it fail TOO many times before you start breaking things in a blind rage. Magic Bullet isnt entirely stable as it is... I can only imagine what will happen when I try it in an OS I dont fully understand...

[EagleOne]

Stupid question,

Can you run linux on a laptop that already has windows and can all the programs that work on windows work on linux. I would like to try a different OS but am afraid of screwing up my laptop.

[keyser28146]

Well,

I can give you the newbie's eye view:

It depends. Linux has software that does a lot of different things and some of it is cross platform... for example, you can download and run Openoffice right now on windows instead of using MS Office, the principle difference being Openoffice is free... but seems to be able to do most everything a single user needs office for, and is compatible. I use Openoffice in Linux and turn in my mileage reports to work, and I can open spreadsheets and whatnot that were created in Excel and they have no problem reading mine creating in Open Office spreadsheet. I also use Celtx for screen writing, which BLOWS FINAL DRAFT PRO away, FDP being $170 to Celtx's FREE price, and celtx also has a LOT of features FDP does not, including wardrobe, scheduling, character, etc etc etc sheets and planning for an entire production, versus FDP's strictly screenwriting approach, though it is more polished than celtx, it just doesnt do anywhere near as much or as easily. Then when I send scripts to actors or people interested in the project, I can simply have them DL cletx for free and be able to read everything, instead of having to either export as PDF's in FDP, or more often than not printing a hardcopy and meeting with them.

There are also good image manipulators and that sort of thing, and WINE (a windows emulation) which can run your windows programs, though I have not taken the time to learn how to use it yet... but I may here before too long...

[norm]

Hey RDaug!


Yep you can use Linux on your laptop. If it's your only PC you may not want to try it out unless you back everything up and are prepared to reinstall in case the worst happens.

Either Ubuntu or KUbuntu will give you the option to try the OS out without installing anything. It will also partition your hard drive and have your current OS in one partition and Linux in the other. If you have the extra free space that might be the way to go for you. If you don't like Linux you can always delete that partition and nothing will happen to your orginial OS.

[Taco_assassin]

Linux Mint also has a live CD if you wanna try before install. One thing to note though Norm is that if you do delete the linux partition you'll wanna have your windows reinstall disc. When you install linux it'll install GRUB, and when you delete that partition you may get an error and find your pc unbootable. Easily fixable with a fixmbr from the repair console on a windows disc.

[EagleOne]

I have install Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10 and it is amazing what you can do with this OS. I still have windows on the laptop but I can boot either one ( Laptop can dual boot). I am still learning about ubuntu but I see it has possibilities. Any software or program that I need to have?

[norm]

How do you like Gnome?

Just make sure you have drivers, codecs and other things installed. If you're having issues with flash or youtube type of things there's a bunch of help out there for that.


Personally I like Open Office and I have installed. I've also got a few cosmetic things such as a dock instead of a taskbar.

http://www.gnomefiles.org/

That should be a fun place for you to try some new themes, applications and other fun things. Also get to know your terminal.


I use

http://www.kde-apps.org/

and

http://kde-look.org/index.php?xcontentmode=38

to find my fun stuff

[Taco_assassin]

Norm do you actually use gnome or kde??? I like gnome but i think K has a more windows-y look to it. If you're using gnome that looks like k, my question is how you got it to look that way.

[keyser28146]

I roll with the Ubuntu just slightly cleaned up (simple flat color background, effects dimmed down), windows seems far too cluttered and (especially in Vista) requires FAR too many steps to do simple recurring tasks, such as changing over static IP to static IP to program radios in my case, or to home in on a certain node and troubleshoot a network. Vista is a nightmare on this front.

I'm no fan of Mac either. There is very little selling points for either OS right now which is probably why Linux distro's are getting more popular. Mac is Starbucks, Windows is a Happy Meal, and neither does anything particularly well.

@ Eagle The must have program for me is Celtx, (Screenwriting software and production management that is just fantastic), but I could get it for Windows or Mac too, but Linux just simply runs better and smoother without the bullshit.

[EagleOne]

How do you get the laptop to go wireless for the internet. My laptop has a built in wireless driver but ubuntu doesn't give me an option of using the wireless setting or to even detect networks.

[norm]

I use KDE. It reminds me of the new Windows 7 (which in all honesty is pretty freaking nice).

I like KDE because it sorta reminds me of my Mac at work, that was the main reason I chose it over Gnome. I figure Eagle was using Gnome though so I wanted to make sure he had some good links for it.


I haven't tried anything wireless yet so I'm at a loss.

http://beginlinux.com/desktop_training/ubuntu/1096-ubuntu-wireless-setup

https://help.ubuntu.com/8.10/internet/C/wireless.html

http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=336

only thing I know to do is look in one of those areas for the help..lol


Taco this might help you with getting a different look

http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=330

Even has some stuff on getting the Cube effect and making a dock!