Trying to switch to Linux

[VenomParticipant 310]

What do you guys prefer to use as your main system if you use Linux? I’ve tried everything from Arch to Debian and I love most of the popular distros out there. However, I’ve been trying to stick to just one distro. I hate distro hopping, but I can’t stop.

It also doesn’t help that whenever I’m trying to switch to Linux, it just feels like I’m out of place. I grew up with Windows, but I’m getting sick of Microsoft’s bulls~~~ with their metro interfaces, OneDrive, and all around adware in their operating system.

I would switch to Macs, but I don’t have enough money to get a Macbook right now.

[TheroniusParticipant 975]

I have 3 different flavors installed, and don’t really like any of them for general hanging out on the computer. Ubuntu’s not bad, and it’s free. For work stuff they are all OK.
I use Ubuntu on my old server for various stuff. I have Oracle’s Red Hat in various VMWare snapshots for some from some database security auditing stuff I was doing a while back.
I have the Raspian version of debian on a raspberry PI too, but I mostly just do minor noob python stuff on there. I learned Unix without a gui, so I hang in the shell a lot anyway, or in some tool.
I must confess I am still on Windows 7 for the browsing and games and stuff. It came with the laptop. I don’t plan on getting any new Windows upgrades anymore, and am planning to go Linux for my next browsing unit, so the topic interests me.
You might want to get one of the free virtual machine packages out there, like vmware player, or windows virtual machine, and try different versions of free linux virtually. Lets you play with them without fracking around with your partitions. Something to do for several hours.

"I am is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that I do is the longest sentence?" - George Carlin

[sidecarParticipant 35837]

Ubuntu is good for beginners. It’s also good for easy maintenance if you’re putting it on family computers and don’t want to spend all your time troubleshooting them. As you get more into linux (and unix in general) you’ll probably want to get away from it to something more like raw Debian or even Gentoo (if you’re the sink or swim type). Eventually you reach a point where you are sufficiently linux (and unix) savvy that the distro ceases to matter, because at the core they are all just linux.

[SpacemonkeyParticipant 1481]

Windows 8 came with my laptop and I hate it, they took a perfectly good os in windows 7 and turned it into a mobile phone os. Complete crap. I had ubuntu installed on a previous machine and liked it a lot but then the machine crapped out and I suspect ubuntu had something to do with it, maybe it wasn’t controling the fan or something. But I’m not that technical so I’ll give ubuntu the benifit of the doubt.

That was several years ago and I have looked at newer versions of ubuntu but they seem to be big and heavy and slow although anything must be better than windows 8.

“Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.”

[VenomParticipant 310]

@theronius

Thanks, I’ll look into it. I’ve done it quite a bit before on VirtualBox when I was getting my associate’s degree, but that’s been a while back. I don’t plan on upgrading Windows either. I reverted back to 7 after trying Windows .8.1 and Windows 10. I hated them both.

@sidecar

I like Debian, I just hate how old the software is. It works great for purposes on servers, but for every day use, not so much. Unless you just really prefer stability over newer software.
I actually have no problem with Ubuntu, but if I do go that route, I’d rather use Kubuntu or Xubuntu. Even though I have no problem with the interface of Unity, it bogs down your system or lags even on newer hardware sometimes.

Some distros I’m looking into are:

Manjaro

Netrunner

LinuxLite

Linux Mint

Fedora

____________________________

I also know that distros don’t matter that much in the long run, but there are minor differences.

Such as Pacman for Arch/Manjaro.

[TheroniusParticipant 975]

sidecar wrote:

because at the core they are all just linux.

Yep. Once you’re under the hood there’s not much difference. I spent many, many years on SCO Unix, SunOS, HPUX, and Sequent Dynix and most of that stuff is not really much changed on Linux when you’re in a shell. Back then we were excited to get X-windows instead of ascii terminals. Better graphics now, more GUI stuff, but the core remains much the same.

"I am is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that I do is the longest sentence?" - George Carlin

[TheroniusParticipant 975]

There are some real differences in the GUIs and such with the different distros. That’s why, for your daily-use computer, it makes sense to try different ones and find one that doesn’t p~~~ you off. There’s not any real difference in what they’ll do at the core level, so if you’re just running stuff and not living on the box like you might on a windows laptop, it makes little difference. For your daily driver you have to be comfy.

"I am is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that I do is the longest sentence?" - George Carlin

[VenomParticipant 310]

@theronius

Yep. I do a lot of stuff in the terminal, but for my daily driver I do want an awesome interface to go with the power of the terminal. Something like Elementary OS.

[hellraiderParticipant 2837]

Well i think vmware player is a good virtual machine.

And Ubuntu is a reasonable distribution.

[AttonParticipant]

I have been using Linux more and more but I still use win7.

A MGTOW is a man who is not a woman's bitch!

[RoyDalParticipant]

I have not tried these, but some fellow ham radio operators swear by:

* FreeBSD
* PC-BSD

I messed around with linux (mostly ubantu) and ended up back with Windows and Chrome. Programming is not my hobby. I just want the computer to work.

Society asks MGTOWs: Why are you not making more tax-slaves?

[BudtaoParticipant 293]

Having been building my own linux distro from source I think that I ahvea slightly different view of this. Distros are nice since they are prebuilt. Unless you know what you are doing, by distro hopping, you will probably end up in a place of saying, “Hmm, I really like this desktop environment, but I really don’t like the package manager.” I ran into the same place eventually, then I realized that I could alter the distro to suite my needs. So I took a mint distro, unbolted all the annoying Gnome DE s~~~ and bolted on the Openbox/Tint2/guake(I really recommend guake if you work a lot on the commandline) development environment I got used to under Crunchbang Linux. That is actually a good reason to go Mint linux, it does have a ton of support for 4 or 5 different DEs.

Now though, I am building my linux system from source, for one its giving me a better understanding of the mechanics under the hood. The more important benefit is that I can more precisely design the whole of the distro’s systems. It will just be a much cleaner build, without all the extra crap that I never use.

Nirvanna is never having to worry about a woman ever again.

[TheroniusParticipant 975]

I figure that once I commit to the changeover for my general-use appliance I’ll end up exploring many different builds before I’m done, and customizing a lot. So far I mostly use Linux for work related stuff, like running Oracle, or doing web stuff. For that the GUI is mostly irrelevant compared to just getting the work done, and I’ve been using Microsoft and remote connections for most of that.
I hear there are now some good games ported to Linux. That was always one of the things that bugged me about other-than-Microsoft systems. No fun! I ended up having POV-Ray as the only “fun” app I spent much time in on Linux (and damn it runs fast!). Man does not live by utility alone.

"I am is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that I do is the longest sentence?" - George Carlin

[BudtaoParticipant 293]

Theronius wrote:

I hear there are now some good games ported to Linux. That was always one of the things that bugged me about other-than-Microsoft systems.

Ohh yeah, I think half my steam library is on linux now, it is actually getting harder and harder to justify dealing with Winblows anymore.

Nirvanna is never having to worry about a woman ever again.

[VenomParticipant 310]

The thing with Windows is, is that I love 7. However, I hate the stupid ad they placed for “get Windows 10”.

Once I decide on a distro though, I’m definitely going to customize it to my needs. And yep, Steam has a bunch of games ported over to Linux now. Such as Dota 2.

The only reason to use Windows anymore is for work related stuff. Unless you have a printer/scanner that’s not compatible with Linux. But, I don’t really need a printer or scanner as it is. I just go to UPS and use their devices.

The thing I like the most about Linux is that you can change anything you want that’s on it. With Windows, you can’t do any of that. Hell, even when I disable Internet Explorer, it still pops up when you uninstall certain programs that brings up web pages such as surveys or “we’re sorry to see you go!”

Honestly, the only reason to even use Windows anymore is for gaming or certain programs for work such as AutoCad. Otherwise, you shouldn’t need it for anything.

[RennieParticipant]

RoyDal wrote:

I have not tried these, but some fellow ham radio operators swear by:

* FreeBSD
* PC-BSD

I messed around with linux (mostly ubantu) and ended up back with Windows and Chrome. Programming is not my hobby. I just want the computer to work.

I can speak for them. PCBSD is good for those who want an instant desktop. FreeBSD is raw material for designing the system you want. The later is of a professional quality not often seen in open source projects. I hope it can maintain that.

I did have various Linux distros for about 3 years. I got rid of it once it got too annoying to deal with. Looked at other projects like Icaros, but they are still years from being production quality.

Learned to be thankful for Windows and proprietary even though they have their issues.

[Anonymous 3]

I think Linux Mint Mate edition is pretty good for most people. Games are still a bit of an issue, but if you don’t play modern games you’re fine with that. And Steam and GOG both are moving towards Linux releases. Microsoft is scrambling with DX12 to try and keep games on Windows, and I’m sure both Intel and MS primarily want to destroy AMD’s Vulkan, but since it’s open source now it might be too late.

While Mint is good it still needs a bit more improvement. I suspect within 5 years it will be the far better choice and MS will really decline. 2 years is the shortest time line I can really see to Linux being viable for most people. Maybe something better than Mint does it though.

I mostly use Win 10 as I play a few modern games. But I keep an eye out to see when I can fully make a switch. I only even use Win 10 because it was a free upgrade from Win 7 that I’ve had 5+ years. Win 10 is good but it has some spying issues and the fact that I really don’t think Windows is worth the $100+ price tag they usually charge.

[TheroniusParticipant 975]

Venom wrote:

I hate the stupid ad they placed for “get Windows 10”

Put this stuff in a batch file and you can lose the GWX nag.
Notes: I didn’t write this, but have run it.
Yes, the last line is in there twice, and needs to be.

REG ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Gwx” /v DisableGWX /d 1 /f
REG ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate” /v DisableOSUpgrade /d 1 /f
REG ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade” /v AllowOSUpgrade /d 0 /f
REG ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade” /v ReservationsAllowed /d 0 /f
TASKKILL /IM GWX.exe /T /F
start /wait wusa /uninstall /kb:3035583 /quiet /norestart /log
start /wait wusa /uninstall /kb:3035583 /quiet /norestart /log
exit

"I am is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that I do is the longest sentence?" - George Carlin

[VenomParticipant 310]

@theronius

Thanks, I’ll try to remove it if I end up keeping Windows 7. Sometime this week though, I’m going to try to switch to Linux for good.

[RennieParticipant]

Anonymous wrote:

And Steam and GOG both are moving towards Linux releases.

That’s for new games right? I couldn’t see them releasing say Interstate ’76 for Linux – due to lack of source code.

[Author]

Posts