Advantages of Linux?

[MasterMoogle]

Compared to Windows XP and Vista, is there much of an advantage for general usage on a Linux OS? And is there any good emulation software for gaming etc? I have been thinking about Linux, buy I have never used it before. I'm fairly competent with this kind of thing using Windows but would don't know if Linux would be overly complex or anything.

[MONKEY050]

I have experience with only the Ubuntu LiveCD which uses the Gnome interface.

Linux is a very interesting operating system, and can actually be very complex at times unless you are really good with the terminal thing.

It took me a while just to figure out how to open a PPPoE connection but eventually I did it with a little searching around in other parts of the OS. I went through the Help system which helped me find some kind of thing that lists the OS components which led me to a folder on the CD in which I found the PPPoE Configuration thing.

I guess it has certain advantages, but for me, it doesn't seem like it would fit. Others will like it more than Windows, and others will say they could ONLY live with Windows.

As for me, it's fun to tinker around in, but when it comes to serious bidness, I have to stick to Windows mostly because I'm more familiar with it and I know my way around.

[Bewildebeast]

I use a lot of Windows-only tools and I'm pretty happy with it so I've never really had a reason to jump ship to Linux. I've started dabbling with it though, playing with the Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) and Kubuntu (http://www.kubuntu.org/) LiveCDs. I've now got Kubuntu running in a virtual PC in Windows for testing sites in Konqueror and general dicking-around-with

[retardedhell]

On a related note, I've decided to download kubuntu linux onto a 10gb partition on my external HDD (i'm not using the live CD because I know I'll lose it and I like it to be there ready for me to muck around with).

Is there any vital information I should know about the install and about general usage so that I dont cock up?

[The Grim Reaper]

WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) is in the simplist terms, even though it contradicts its name, an emulator. It will let you run a lot of windows programs on linux easily. To see what it supports, search for apps in the appdb: http://appdb.winehq.com

Cedega is a commercial program built off wine, which is designed to run almost any popular windows game on linux.
http://www.transgaming.com/products_linux.php

Crossover gives major support for microsoft office, and a few other applications.
http://www.codeweavers.com

[Timmeh]

On a related note, I've decided to download kubuntu linux onto a 10gb partition on my external HDD (i'm not using the live CD because I know I'll lose it and I like it to be there ready for me to muck around with).

Is there any vital information I should know about the install and about general usage so that I dont cock up?

Your GUI will probably do most of this stuff for you, but it never hurts to learn this stuff from the off (shell sessions are something you'll soon be coming into no doubt). A few commands explained as simply as I can:

cd - change directory. Pretty self explanatory really. cd / takes you to the lowest level, cd /usr/local would take you to the "local" directory up from usr. The initial / basically means that you'll be going from the lowest level.

ls - ls will show you what's in your current working directory. So, carrying on from the example above, you could do

server:/# cd /
server:/# ls
aquota.group aquota.user bin boot cdrom dev etc home initrd initrd.img lib lost+found media mnt opt proc root sbin srv sys tmp checkraid usr var vmlinuz

As you can see, ls lists all the files and folders in a directory. So, taking it on a bit further, we can do

server:/# cd usr
server:/usr# ls
bin doc include info lib local man sbin share src X11R6
server:/usr# cd local
server:/usr/local# ls

now... when you're navigating above the bottom level, you do not need the beginning /.

mkdir - creates a directory

rm - delete a file. rm -r to delete a folder.

wget - web get, download to a specific location. So you could, for example do

server:/usr/local# cd /
server:/# mkdir downloads
server:/downloads# cd downloads
server:/downloads# wget http://www.whatever.com/filetar.gz

. - executes a script

tar - a lot of things you'll want to install come with a tar.gz extension. This is like a Windows .zip. So how do we unzip (or untar in this case) the file? Well, the simple command is tar -zxvf [file]. There are other switches and commands for things like bz2, but you can go into that later... mostly you'll be working with tar.gz.

VI [file] - opens a text editor. If the file already exists, it'll open it for editing, otherwise it'll create it. Basically, a to type, x to delete... simple. Plenty more commands explained on google.

As I said, your GUI will probably do a hell of a lot of it for you... but it never hurts to understand what's going on. And when you come to connect to other computers in command line, you'll already know what to do :).

[MasterMoogle]

I might make a partition and put Ubuntu or something onto it in the near future, but right now I'm trying to get Windows back to how it should be after a major crash. All of my files were corrupted and I had to use a system recovery disk, which left me with fresh Windows. Apparently it was caused by a fatal error between the motherboard and eTrust Security Centre.

[retardedhell]

Does anyone know why, when trying to format my harddrive during the installation, it says "the ext3 file system creation in partition #1 of SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sbd) failed" ?

It's an 80gb samsung external hdd and it failed when creating a "/" partition.

/edit - it's fine, I didn't realise I already had a partition on there, so I deleted it and let linux installer do it's thing :D

[TX_101]

Honest opinion ?

Don't bother with it unless:

a. You want a local webserver or something to test php or the like on;
b. There's a specific program you want/need that will only run on a *nix;
or, c. You intend it as a learning exercise, and you're curious as to how to use it;

If none of them are true, stick to Windows.

And don't rely on a linux box as a general desktop OS, keep Windows on another partition or computer.

Also consider taking a look at FreeBSD if you're really interested in other OS'es (it's a little more difficult to install and get running satisfactorily than most beginner's linux distrobutions, but it's good, and the documentation/handbook is excellent).