Confession Of Ubuntu Fanboy...

[lonny]

Good read.

http://www.starryhope.com/linux/2010...ubuntu-fanboy/

[Anupam]

Very interesting, certainly a good read.

[wdhpr]

I for one would never tell my friends to ditch windows and use linux instead. The article you linked to explains the pitfalls. I do have Linux installed (mepis) For now its a way for me to learn linux but at this moment there is no way I would delete Windows.

What I do is show my friends linux by booting Kubuntu off my usb stick. This impresses them straight off. Then I get right into the brass tacks of the issue and show them that linux is not windows. The problems highlighted in the article does a great job in that area.

By telling someone to get rid of windows and run linux instead just sets them up for failure and will result in another user running away from linux forever.

What I suggest instead to my friends is a dualboot computer to learn hands on with linux while still allowing them the ability to boot back into windows.

Cheers
Wdhpr

[HeWhoRocks]

An interesting article.
It more or less sums up why I've never used Linux, except briefly on someone else's machine. I use high end commercial multi-tracking software for my home studio setup, and while the low latency ALSA driver for the Linux OS looks loke a better, more organic solution than Stienberg ASIO driver for windows, and although Ardour DAW for Linux looks like the real deal, I just can't bring myself to go through all the hassle of learning how to use an entirely different recording suite, not to mention a new OS, and not when I know the stuff I use gets the result I want. That said, I am leaning towards trying Ubuntu on my old machine (which is now used almost exclusively for gathering dust), so if I do I'll definately give Ardour a look.

[Jojoyee]

Originally Posted by wdhpr

What I suggest instead to my friends is a dualboot computer to learn hands on with linux while still allowing them the ability to boot back into windows.

Dual booting to Windows and Linux is a good solution.

Just last week during a visit I was told by a friend who bought two notebooks, one for working with Office files in Windows and the other for surfing using Safari in Mac OS. Why? Because she said surfing (with IE) in Windows always hanged and was slow.

It was a short visit. Otherwise I would recommend trying other browsers, and dual-booting with Linux. She could have saved some money without the need to keep two notebooks.

[Anupam]

Originally Posted by grf

That said, I am leaning towards trying Ubuntu on my old machine (which is now used almost exclusively for gathering dust), so if I do I'll definately give Ardour a look.

From what I have read, Ubuntu is very bad on giving support for old machines. Chances are, you won't be able to run Ubuntu on it. You might have to go for other Linux distros. There are many good ones available, besides Ubuntu.

[HeWhoRocks]

Ah. Thanks for the heads up. The machine in question has a Sempron 2400+, a gig of 333mhz ram and Nvidia 6200 gfx. Do you have any suggestions as to which distro would be best for this setup?

[wdhpr]

Do you have any suggestions as to which distro would be best for this setup?

Simply Mepis will work fine on your system. It also has built in drivers for your nvidia gfx. If your sempron is 64 bit. Mepis also has a 64 bit distro.
Mepis uses KDE by default and can be setup to look like windows if that is what you wish. Been using Mepis for almost two years and it simply fly's on my machine AMD Sempron 64 bit.

Wdhpr

[Anupam]

I don't know about Sempron, but you have enough RAM. Some distros might have problem with Nvidia, if its old... like Ubuntu.

I have also asked for suggestion on this thread :

Distro for an old PC?

Really good suggestions there by our fellow users, check the thread out.

[HeWhoRocks]

Thanks. I'll have to spend a bit of time reading up on all things Linux. The cpu is a Sempron 32 bit 1.63ghz. It's pretty solid little machine and a full installation wouldn't be a problem with the 250 gig hard drive. Also has an Audigy in it.