OT - new Ubuntu release -

[Dekonick]

Anyone using it? fonts look weird when I post using it. There must be a source for more fonts...

[vqdriver]

been thinking about going with a linux desktop.
is it very difficult to get started? special hardware needed or do most of the big boys have drivers?
what about apps?

[JER3]

I've been using Ubuntu on all of my machines now for several years. Its solid and easy to use.

If you have certain windows programs that you can't live without then get VMware and convert your existing windows machine to a virtual machine. So you can run Windows within Ubuntu. You'll want a fast single or dual core and 2 GB RAM for that but it works great.

Look closely at your hardware before you jump in. Some things aren't well supported in Linux yet. I've generally found nVidia cards to be well supported. If you're hardware is not supported in Linux directly but its on a SCSI or USB bus then you can use VMWare and still access the hardware in Windows session hosted within Ubuntu.

Ubuntu isn't perfect but I've yet to find anything better for my needs. BTW: There are some gotcha's with the current 10.04 Lucid release. I'd recommend using 9.10 Karmic until they come out with a point release of Lucid.

[130R]

hated windows, hated ubuntu.

mac osx is 100 times better than both.

imo

[vqdriver]

How does it do with novell client?
Can it run a dos window?

[xjoex]

I use Fedora on my travel laptop, but I have had more luck using VirtualBox instead of VMWare, its free and is not as much of a pain with the kernel driver rebuilding that VMware makes you go through.

But I agree with above OS X is a much nicer user experience.

I believe SUSE has the best Novell support, being owned by Novell.

-Joe

[Dekonick]

Linux is easy to install - easier than windows.

Back to my question - who knows a source for fonts?

[Brian Smith]

Linux is easy to install - easier than windows.

Back to my question - who knows a source for fonts?

I haven't used the current release yet, but for some earlier releases there were a set of windows-looking fonts downloadable via synaptic called "truetype fonts." Check your package manager for those if you want to mimic the windows fonts. Additionally, I suspect that within Firefox, you can select, from the (Edit) menu, (Preferences); category (Appearances), then (Fonts.) By selecting differing fonts within that box, you'll be able to select another from the fonts already installed by default, and perhaps one of those will look better to you. Choosing DejaVu Sans as the Sans Serif font looks fine from here while posting on the forum. If your desktop fonts and the like all look good, then perhaps is simply within your browser (Firefox) that you want something different selected than you now have.

Hth

[palincss]

Can it run a dos window?

Do you really mean MS-DOS or do you mean a terminal window? If the latter, there are several you can choose from. If the former, there's DOSBox that might work for you.

[Dekonick]

the processors today can pretty much handle anything thrown at them. THere is a windows solution known as 'wine' that will run just about anything. My personal issue deals with fonts and getting them (they are out there - it is just a matter of finding the source)

Linux is as powerful as windows, or 'Apple' especially when you consider that 'Apple' OS is really running on a linux shell - it IS LINUX.

Thanks for the input - pretty much what I already knew - what I am looking for is the microsoft fonts - if they are available (and somehow I doubt they are - bastards)

Thanks again!

[palincss]

Linux is as powerful as windows, or 'Apple' especially when you consider that 'Apple' OS is really running on a linux shell - it IS LINUX.


I thought Apple OS was BSD underneath.

[spamjoshua]

System V out of berkeley and then a reworked Carnegie Mellon Mach kernel.

Linux started as a Minix clone.

They have much in common once you get to GNU/Hurd software, but they are very different in their history and their core. Posix compliance will get you a long way.

I love my OS X desktops.

I only run linux on my servers, and I, and the people I do work for, are all using Ubuntu as our server OS.

Linux on the desktop remains lacking for my needs: near guaranteed stability and convenient entertainment. My OS X acts as a portal to my work horse linux boxes and I love them both for their roles.

[sg8357]

hated windows, hated ubuntu.

mac osx is 100 times better than both.

imo

They're both Unix once you open the command window,
Mac just has a better graphic designer.

Unix/Linux are really just a full employment scheme for geeks,
OS as Latin Mass.

Now an OS/400 that is a real O/S. :)

Scott G.
Who misses the good old days when IBM and Ma Bell ruled the world.

[yotman]

Am very happy with the new Ubuntu. Loads and closes much faster than the prior version and seems stable. It has breathed new life into a pretty old laptop. The new Chrome browser running on Ubuntu is sweet, as well.

As for fonts, as mentioned earlier, Ubuntu will load truetype fonts, and since Windows uses them, there are many from which to choose. There are lots of places to get them free. Google is your friend for that. While I mainly use licensed fonts, I've heard good things about dafont.com as a place for free fonts.

[Dekonick]

Am very happy with the new Ubuntu. Loads and closes much faster than the prior version and seems stable. It has breathed new life into a pretty old laptop. The new Chrome browser running on Ubuntu is sweet, as well.

As for fonts, as mentioned earlier, Ubuntu will load truetype fonts, and since Windows uses them, there are many from which to choose. There are lots of places to get them free. Google is your friend for that. While I mainly use licensed fonts, I've heard good things about dafont.com as a place for free fonts.

Thanks! Just the answer I was looking for!

[johnnymossville]

OS X at work, Windows 7 at home. both are good.

OS X is a nicer user experience, but windows machines are more fun to play with. overclock/watercool/mod etc,...

I've run linux for awhile, even ran an SGI IRIX server at home for awhile. It was fun, but ultimately fell short in key ways. Software choices mostly.

As far as fonts, I would look around for the fonts (or clones) that come pre-installed with windows and on the mac and install those, they'll make your user experience much more enjoyable. They did mine.

[Dekonick]

OS X at work, Windows 7 at home. both are good.

OS X is a nicer user experience, but windows machines are more fun to play with. overclock/watercool/mod etc,...

I've run linux for awhile, even ran an SGI IRIX server at home for awhile. It was fun, but ultimately fell short in key ways. Software choices mostly.

As far as fonts, I would look around for the fonts (or clones) that come pre-installed with windows and on the mac and install those, they'll make your user experience much more enjoyable. They did mine.

Yeah - it is fun to tinker. I have several hard drives that have power tied to a switch so I can change to whatever OS I feel like using at the moment. The best part, each drive is completely isolated and thus its own 'computer' with the need to only have one nice rig. Why you ask? Why not? Drives are cheap, and this way you can hose your system and not worry about it. I presently have win 7 dual boot 32bit and 64 bit on one drive, vista 64 on another, and Ubuntu on a third, with win 7 64 dual boot on that drive. I primarily use the Ubuntu system for surfing cuz it is pretty impervious to critters... and keep a clone clean copy on a separate drive to reinstall fresh from time to time. Just a way to kill time when weather is nasty.

[Dekonick]

Yeah - it is fun to tinker. I have several hard drives that have power tied to a switch so I can change to whatever OS I feel like using at the moment. The best part, each drive is completely isolated and thus its own 'computer' with the need to only have one nice rig. Why you ask? Why not? Drives are cheap, and this way you can hose your system and not worry about it. I presently have win 7 dual boot 32bit and 64 bit on one drive, vista 64 on another, and Ubuntu on a third, with win 7 64 dual boot on that drive. I primarily use the Ubuntu system for surfing 'cuz it is pretty impervious to critters... and keep a clone clean copy on a separate drive to reinstall fresh from time to time. Just a way to kill time when weather is nasty.

Agree on the software choice issue, that's why I keep both a 32 and 64 bit win 7 dual boot drive - that has all of the required crap the lemmings use like office etc...

Try it - fun and easy. What do you do with your old drives anyway?

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2341666,00.asp

http://lifehacker.com/5160614/build-your-own-sata-switch

You can get fancy if you want and power 2 SATA at a time to run a raid array, but I don't bother with that.

Enjoy!