Posted on 10/01/2010 1:50:14 AM PDT by Ancient Drive
I just dumped Windows 7 and went with Linux. I got it all configured for multimedia and other good bits. Man exciting! Watching movies, youtube etc... no worries about viruses. Thank the open source community! It's a very beautiful OS, very clean and functional none of the bloatware and all of the eye candy. woooohooo!
> And ther is no way I could run a Windows virtual machine on top of Linux,
I think you would be amazed.
If you’re running quadcore i7, it already has CPU-level optimizations for virtualization. All you need is to be sure the CPU virtualization support is enabled in the BIOS, and you’re good to go!
If you like, you can try it the other way around for now.
Enable the virtualization support in your CPUs.
Install a Linux guest. You can use Sun VirtualBox, though not the most effective, one of the most easy to use VM interfaces.
Run a movie on the Linux guest while working on your Windows host. That should be a decent test of whether virtualization will work for you.
If it doesn’t work out, delete the Linux VM, uninstall VirtualBox, and you’re none the worse for the wear.
Gimp 2.2 is better than Photoshop and I like it better than Creative Suite (huge resource hog because of "bridge").
If you are a happy Windows user and work with graphics, do not overlook opensource software. For batch processing of images Imagemagick is amazing. I used it to create and maintain web images for years. At one point I did this for about 80,000 items.
Yes, there are a few holes in applications available. Largely CAD and publishing programs like Quark. Although Scribus is making great headway and is also available for Windows.
I have used Linux for over 10 years and love it.
>How hard is it to find drivers? I have an old eMachine that I’d like to convert to Linux but I’ve never done it before.
If you want to try Linux, download one of the Ubuntu “Live CD” iso files, burn it to a CD and then pop it in your machine.
You will be up and running in Ubuntu Linux without touching anything on your current system. This is a really nice way to check out whether your drivers and hardware are supported without making the full commitment. If you like it, there should be an icon on the Ubuntu desktop that lets you do the full or dual-boot install.
I've installed and tried out just about all of the other major Linux versions on my motley collection of ex-office computers, and openSuse gets my vote as the best all around choice. Other "spare" clunker computers here have Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc, on them but openSuse is what's on the best 4 computers.
I have a Windows XP Home computer but don't even turn it on very often. There's a few things that some Windows software packages do better than the equivalent Linux packages, but not very many.
I don't have to bother with software firewalls and antivirus programs with Linux, where ALL my Windows boxes have been taken down and required a complete re-install at least once.
Don’t know Crossover. Sounds great.
Yeah, lots of audio on Mac.
It used to be the primary OS for audio.
That’s changed quite a bit over the years.
I’ve been doing audio on Windows for almost 15 years, which was pretty much its infancy.
I really hate the Apple Cult, though I am posting from my iPhone.
I wouldn’t want another Apple product. Owning one is more than enough.
whoa dude.. I have the same config. quadcore cpu 2.8 ghz 4 gb ram with a one terabyt hd!it is beautiful! lol
Welcome to Linux. Still a newbie myself and love it.
It's incredible to me how much power/capacity you can buy these days very cheaply compared to earlier times. I remember $800 Atari 800 computers and $5000 first-generation IBM PC's with a 5MHz 8088 and 64K of ram.
Linux actually supports more hardware than does Windows, although this might have changed with Windows 7.
Perhaps the best way to determine if your computer can support Linux is to get a Live CD of your preferred Linux distribution, and run it before you attempt an installation. True, it will run slower, but at least you'll get an idea how the system would run, and what difficulties if any you may run into.
Thanks to you and the others who answered my question.
yum install gimp audacity
very nice. my kind of theme. how did you do it?
Easy, Just used the following settings and set my taskbar to center. Added the widgets I want.
The Splash screen fits into the same blue glow mood. All of the theme/styles are available on the online update option of the settings tool. The widgets adopt the same theme as the desktop.
Have fun!
thanks!
I tend to agree with you regarding audio and MIDI on a PC.
The only opensource options that can work in Linux are Jack http://jackaudio.org/ and downloading and compiling a Real Time Kernel - the Ingo Molnar PREEMPT patched real-time kernel (for more information about the real-time kernel, take a look at the RTWiki FAQ https://rt.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions ). This helps to reduce the amount of latency, which is extremely beneficial for audio work. The low levels of latency that can be achieved in Linux with the real-time kernel can also surpass those available under Windows and Mac.
When they say “can also surpass” they are being modest... you will reduce latency by 50% or more against a stripped down audio-workstation specific windows 7 installation on the same hardware.
I do like that. Thanks
“I really hate the Apple Cult, though I am posting from my iPhone.”
No cultists are very appealing, IMO. They come in flavors for all computer environments and hardware.
“I wouldn’t want another Apple product. Owning one is more than enough.”
I see that as cutting off your nose to spite your face, myself. Modern Macs are sweet! Most versatile computers around...
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