The Campaign Builder's Guild

As announced in the Tavern, I'm getting a new hard drive through the mail next week. One of my plans with this hard drive is to make the switch over to dual booting with Linux and Windows (most likely, XP).

Before I make the switch, though, I'd like to hear from this community what their thoughts are on Linux. Who uses it? Who doesn't? What distro do you use? Do you have any advice, suggestions, warnings?

Talk :)

I am also seeking Linux advise. I am much in Sdragon's situation and would like to hear some suggestions.

Have you decided yet on what distro you want?

Nope. I was down to 2 or something a while ago, but I completely forgot about them, and have no idea which ones they were. I think one may have started with a "G".

The latest version of Ubuntu, I think, is called Gutsy Gibbon. Is that it?

And by the way, one bit of advice is to stay away from Damn Small Linux, unless that's the only thing your computer can handle. Which, in this day of computer tech, I sincerely doubt.

No, it was one word. I want to stay away from Ubuntu. And if my setup can handle Crysis, it can handle Linux.

You're probably thinking of Gentoo. It is not a very good distro for beginners, because you have to compile just about everything yourself, and compiling binaries yourself invariably never goes as smoothly as you want.

What distro you pick depends largely on the answer to the question: Why do I want to use Linux?

If the answer is "because it's cool," then stop right now. :P
Otherwise, Ubuntu tends to be good for desktops, Red Hat for servers.

Try getting Live CDs/DVDs for various distributions and try them out.  You need not install the distro; instead you can run it off of a CD or DVD (or even a USB thumbdrive, for some distros.)

I personally use Fedora.

Ubuntu installs flash at the click of a button now. In  linux terms, i'd say that's pretty much magical.
Really though, i'd say you just have to be willing to uninstall and try a different distro if the one you're using isn't working for you.

QuoteAnd by the way, one bit of advice is to stay away from Damn Small Linux, unless that's the only thing your computer can handle. Which, in this day of computer tech, I sincerely doubt.

I've had very little success with Damn Small Linux. It booted up slow and then didn't recognize my harddrive. Puppy Linux has the same goals (small linux distro that can run on anything) but Actually Worked. The only trade-off is that it's much, much tackier. (seriously, the desktop background is a photo of someone's dog)

Slow for it's requirements, maybe, but I wouldn't say it was exceptionally slow. Then, I'm not really an expert on these matters, so it could've been slow and I just didn't realize it. It didn't recognize my hard drive, either, though.

I haven't tried Puppy Linux, and most likely won't, but I saw quite a bit of tackiness, too. The "commercial" for it looked pretty cheesy, as well as the site, so I expect that's relfected in the OS itself.

Also, I agree with live distros. They make things a LOT easier. I'm just nervous that an actual install might be much more difficult, and I want to try to limit difficulties as much as possible.

Where can I find the CDs and DVDs?

I've used Ubuntu on an older laptop. It worked pretty well for me. It was slow but that was probably because the laptop was an old iBook, lol  :D

Quote from: Higgs BosonWhere can I find the CDs and DVDs?

I had this recently explained to me, so hopefully I can help. Apparently, if you go to the website of the distro, there should be a FTP section where you can actually download the CD/DVD. These come in special files called ISO files, an they're "disc images". It's almost as if the computer has a special camera that managed to take a photograph of the data that's actually on the disc itself (as opposed to the programs and files that it would ultimately translate out to). Once you have the ISO file for the distro you want, you should be able to use just about any burning software to burn the file as an image (remember, this is an image of the data on the disc itself, not the files that the data translates to; you do not want to burn it as a file), and you'll have the disc for that distro.

If that's too advanced, I know some distros offer to send you a free disc through snail mail (Ubuntu does this), so it's possible you could get a copy that way. If you're not comfortable yet burning disc images, and the distro you want doesn't give away free discs, I'm pretty sure there's some sites that sell discs for very cheap, usually only a buck or two (USD), just enough to cover the costs of materials, labor, and running the site.

Also, I have Vista on the first hardrive on my computer, would I need to do anything special to add a second hardrive running a Linux distribution? Also, for burning as an image, the only option was to "Send to CD Drive." I then get a message saying the file is waiting to be written to the CD. Should I click "Write this file to CD"?

A lot of times you can get a book for beginners to Linux with a CD bundled in. It costs a bit more, but this is often very helpful as an all-in-one solution, as you don't have to scrounge the net for isos and tutorials and such things.