Linux Just made the switch :s

So exams are over and I'm taking a week long sabbatical from uni to nail some project work, and I thought I'd finally get around to 'switching' to Linux, as I've been promising myself for the better part of 3 years I would. Just for the banter, as it were.

Well, I stuck all my pr0n stuff onto my external drive and ding-dang-did it.
I talk to you now from day 4 of what I hope to be a long and happy marriage.

I'm using Xubuntu, basically Ubuntu - bloat + faster front end (XFCE4). At the moment I have firefox, mIRC via wine, Skype and Pidgin running, and memory usage is 396mb. After boot, it's about 104mb, so as you can imagine it's a fairly quick OS to boot.

Everything just seemed to work this time -- graphics, wifi, sound (with a bit of persuasion). So far I have not had to 'accept' that I'll never be able to do X. I think Linux is getting to the point fairly quickly where hardware is less of an issue and now the lack of certain software - e.g. things to replace specialist software like AutoCAD - is becoming more of a problem. That, for example, is the only reason my housemates (civil/medical engineers couldn't make the change).
As of yet, the only lack-of-software issue I've run into is lack of working Lightning plugin for the version of Thunderbird I have at the moment. It messes up the UI rather, but I can live without that as I use a Google calendar anyway.

Even the Airpace Wi-Fi card (I 'reviewed' it a few days ago) works very well. All it needs is ndiswrapper and the windows drivers, and it just works (see end for mini how-to). (X)Ubuntu's network admin is a bit primitive for WiFi but gets the job done.
Sound was nearly an issue, but the fix was a single line on the end of a config file.

I didn't entirely ditch XP though, but to conserve on disk space I took a somewhat more cunning approach to having two operating systems.
sda1 is 20 gig, ntfs, mounts to /windows and has windows installed in it. sda2 is 24 gig, ext3, mounts to /. sda3 is 1 gig of swap, and sda4: the remaining 250-or-so gig, is ext2 mounting to /home. This was a trick I cottoned onto after 6 or 7 reinstalls previously; put /home on a separate partition and you can reinstall without loosing all your stuff, or even having to back it up The "cunning" part of this arrangement, is that I got hold of some ext drivers for XP which allow me to share sda4 between both OSs: On linux it is /home, and it is H:\ on XP. Furthermore, using TweakUI on XP, I remapped "My Documents" to H:\, so basically my pr0n stuff is available from both OSs in the "logical" place (My Documents/Home Folder).

SMB was a relative breeze to set up, so I have network browsing and shared folders, Skype worked fine (for the first time in history), and WINE really has come a long way.

Above all, the one difference I think I have noticed, though, is how quiet this OS is. Or rather, the ext filesystem is.
NTFS is a rattly old crate, sonically, at least compared to ext2/3. Installing software is more a subtle clearing of the throat than the barking cough it is on XP.

Maybe it's just me, but Xubuntu seems really... clean [and unlike a Mac doesn't irritate me 105% of the time]. It's fast, and so far has done everything I wanted it to.

Desktop Linux after all, it seems.

-x-
AirPace PCIe Wifi:
In a directory containing AirPace w32 drivers: aw5006.sys, net2425.cat, net2425.inf:
$ sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils-1.9
This will prompt for the Gutsy install CD if not present
$ sudo depmod -a
$ sudo modprobe -r ndiswrapper
$ sudo mousepad /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
Append "blacklist ath_pci"
$ sudo ndiswrapper -i net2425.inf
$ sudo mousepad /etc/modules
Ensure ndiswrapper is listed, or add it [each item goes on it's own line]
$ sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
$ sudo reboot

FP-IN9 onboard sound, add this to /etc/init.d/alsa-base:
options snd-hda-intel model=3stack

 

Glad to hear its all working ok. I switched to xfce a few months ago from fluxbox and was really impressed by the polish and the low foot print. My memory usage is similar to yours, which is lucky since i've only 512mb of ram and no swap.
Sensible partitions, you do learn to keep home separate after the first time you vape your install with a miss placed rm * command.

 

Congratulations and welcome to the dark side, have a cookie.

So what was the last straw for you in deciding to switch? We should have a thread about this sometime.

 

oww ouch. i thought the main benefit was for multple distros.

 

Main benefit of separate partitions is when you hose your install, you just remount everything back and you won't even notice you reinstalled

 

Hmm we should, that would be interesting

 

Just do it here then...

I can't say i had a last straw. I started using specific utility distros, ipcop then geexbox and found they were nice and simple and from there just worked my way up to a full desktop and found my self using windows less and less then tried more advanced features like LTSP and now net booting, i only use windows for games now.

 

yeah ok then, i got pissed off at windows one day (cant remember what in particular it was that day) and i saw a sticky thread "What is this linux thing", and thought well ill give it a try and im glad i did as xp took ages to boot on that machine (even a fresh install would) well here i am a year later trying out gentoo (or looking at compile gentoo-sources (gotta love having a spare pc))

 

Windows wasn't the way I wanted to use my PC, so I looked for alternatives. Mac OSx is (IMHO) just eye candy, and way too expensive hardware wise so Linux was my next bet... And I liked it.

That sticky actually convinced someone to go Linux, WOW!

The fun stuff You'll see you learn much about your PC when configuring your kernel

 

it convinced me to give it a try at any rate, and im still using it.
yeah i was a lil surprised how easy it was to configure, (guessing theres more complex/powerful ways), but thats the other thing i love about linux therers always something to learn

 

You didn't use genkernel I hope

 

no i went manual, but in all honesty i didnt even relise they had an alternative (in the handbook) until i was compiling and wondering what comes next

 

Manual, you don't mean editing the config file... make menuconfig is good enough for me.

 

i used menuconfig, manual was there words not mine, the alternative was genkernel

 

Ahh, never gotten round to gentoo so i'm not entirely familiar with its specific tools. One of these days, i'll give it a go.

 

I didn't really "snap" and think right, sod MS, time for Linux, I just kind of did it because I can

One major attraction, is (and I really never thought I'd say this about linux) the ease of finding and installing software these days, plus the fact that 98% of it is free.
On windows, if you want some little avi->mpeg or mp3->aac or that kind of utility you have to trawl google results (searches like "mp3 to aac converter freeware" still turn up loads of BS shareware), or go to CNet, and either end up with a 30-day trial that'll only convert 30 seconds (err... this allows us to evaluate the software HOW?), or there's spyware/adware/toolbars and so on.
For the moment, on Ubuntu it's just a case of "$ apt-cache search mpeg converter" then "$ sudo apt get install packageName". Or even easier for people a-scared of the command line, you can use the Add/Remove thing (though that seems to take longer for me ), which is at the point where extensions for firefox/thunderbird are starting to be listed. The only way it could be easier would be a distro-independent Mac-like system where you download those .dmg or whatever they are files (little installer "disk image" things)

I have no doubt however that as Linux becomes the greater-than-or-equal popular OS with windows, things like shareware, spyware, virii and so on will gradually start making appearances. Though I think a good virus would do a world of good to the Linux snobs' head size

 

I made the switch about a year ago, Got fed up of Windoze Activation. Phoning them up and getting asked same crappy questions.
Well been using Ubuntu From 6.10 upwards and i wont be going back to MS ever.

(why should i pay for software and then be told by them that I've installed THEIR OS too many times, and that i need to buy a New Product Key) Ha No Way

 

Er… No. There is still oodles of bloat.

Might I suggest X‐Chat or irssi for IRC? mIRC in WINE is just plain silly.

 

l've also made the change to Xubuntu and l'm really impressed..

l still keep W2K on a partition as l often have to de-louse customer's Windows boxes

Almost got an installation that l'm happy with with the exception of watching vid clips on the BBC news site

 

The force is strong in this one...