----------------------------------- Roman Mon Sep 22, 2008 12:04 am Ubuntu/Windows ----------------------------------- Hey everyone. My laptop's been acting up recently. Crashes, fishy things (like sudden changes in resolution), blue screens of death... First of all, I'm wondering if all those things are a problem with software or hardware (specifically blue screens). Secondly, I've been thinking about installing Ubuntu (either dual-boot or all-out) and I'm wondering if it's a worthy choice as opposed to windows. I really don't know what makes Linux better than Windows, but all the "cool programmers" use it so I want to try it out :lol: And I've been on Windows all my life, so maybe it's time for a change. So I'm wondering what the difference between Linux and Windows in general is, and what makes Ubuntu bad/good. Oh, and also, if I want to make Ubuntu my full-time OS, how do I remove Windows :S Thanks in advance! -RZ ----------------------------------- _dude_ Mon Sep 22, 2008 5:50 am Re: Ubuntu/Windows ----------------------------------- Roman, let me tell you from my experience: moving/switching to Ubuntu or any other Linux distribution is worth a try. You have nothing to lose but a lot to gain in terms of knowledge. When I first switched to Ubuntu 8.04 plenty of things were unusual to me: file system, bash commands, installing new software, and so on. But with time I got used to it and acquired deep appreciation of the system. I don't want to start a new "OS war" in this post but temporarily abandoning Windows OS and working under Ubuntu tremendously broadened my outlook and did a good thing to me. I hope playing and experimenting with Linux will broaden yours too. ----------------------------------- jernst Mon Sep 22, 2008 3:49 pm Re: Ubuntu/Windows ----------------------------------- Hey everyone. So I'm wondering what the difference between Linux and Windows in general is, and what makes Ubuntu bad/good. The main difference for me is that windows costs money and is closed source while ubuntu is free and you can modify the source. There's plenty of things that make this either bad or good, for example in ubuntu it may be difficult to get devices working as easily as with windows (with certain hardware, especially if the manufacturers make it difficult for people to provide free code for linux). On the other hand, with the open source aspect, if you are knowledgeable enough you can code your own drivers, or modify any aspect of the OS yourself. In addition this there are the standard arguments that linux is patched more often, is more secure etc. etc... And the usual counter arguments, that is can be difficult to get some windows software working on linux, sometimes setting things up in linux will require command line use where in windows it is more automated... To me either one works fine for certain tasks, its just a matter of preference for most ppl. Oh, and also, if I want to make Ubuntu my full-time OS, how do I remove Windows :S If you want to remove windows, when you start to install Ubuntu using a live CD you can just remove the windows partition or set the Ubuntu install to automatically set up the partitions and fill the entire drive. If you want to dual boot, you would want to leave the windows partition intact, and when Ubuntu installs the bootloader it should automatically find the windows install and allow you to choose which OS to boot into at startup. ----------------------------------- Tony Mon Sep 22, 2008 4:27 pm Re: Ubuntu/Windows ----------------------------------- for example in ubuntu it may be difficult to get devices working as easily as with windows (with certain hardware... It should also be noted that sometimes it might be easier to get certain hardware working with Ubuntu than with Windows (as I have found to be the case on occasion). Such as when the hardware is popular enough to get Ubuntu support, but is also new enough to have trouble with XP (or old enough to have trouble with Vista).