Should I dual boot with Ubuntu?

[Sessions]

Hehe I dual booted my computer with Ubuntu at home, at school, and on one of my teachers laptops.
and the only reason I dual booted it at school is because that computer is pretty much mine for the next year and a half, and the other reason is cause I had to put another computer at my station, It's a dell optiplex 210L, and he had me reformat and install windows xp on that one and on two more of my friends computers. My computer operating systems teacher loves me and I just started the class in august so I'm only in the first semester class and know more than the people that have been in there for about one to two years now. But I self taught myself at most things and I did research on the internet and that's how I found Ubuntu, and I like it I can't wait to try out the others.

[forrestcupp]

Originally Posted by saltynay

you do know about "wine" right???? you can use most windows software and games on linux now. Some games are also designed and retailed for linux aswell but you have to pay for the big titles obviously

Of course I know about Wine. I've used it as much as anyone. But when you make people believe that they can run any Windows app or game using Wine, you're misleading them. Some apps work with Wine out of the box, some apps require tweaking with dll's etc., and some apps just do not work well at all. Games are hit and miss. You can't just tell someone that we have Wine, so you don't have anything to worry about. I've been through my share of problems getting certain popular games to work with the latest version of Wine, and usually after all of that work, it ends up not working as well as it does in Windows. You can mostly forget about running any of the latest and greatest games with Wine. I also know about Cedega. You pay a monthly fee to be able to play the games that you already payed a high price for and it ends up not being much better than the free Wine.

It's best to just be up front with people and tell them that they can run any of tens of thousands of games and apps that are freely available for Linux without trouble. And also there is a chance that their Windows program may run in Wine. I don't like misleading people just to make them mad when they find out otherwise and it's too late.

Originally Posted by Makaveli213

GParted is teh best way to do this.

The Ubuntu installation process actually includes GParted to partition your drives for you. You don't really have to do anything separate.

About the argument against Ubuntu. Linux Mint is just Ubuntu with all of the codecs, etc. already installed for you. The reason Ubuntu doesn't have them installed up front is for legal purposes. It is actually illegal to use some of that stuff in the US. The good thing about Ubuntu is that they have evolved to the point that those things aren't installed by default, but when you need them, it gives you the choice to have them automatically installed for you. Linux Mint looks cool, but I prefer straight Ubuntu because it's still easy to use and it's less confusing when you are looking for support, etc.

But I primarily use Vista now anyway. Why are we having this discussion in the Windows part of the forum anyway?

[Mak213]

Originally Posted by forrestcupp

Why are we having this discussion in the Windows part of the forum anyway?

I think cause the Linux forum is dead?!? Plus he asked it here.

[saltynay]

The latest and greatest titles do work in wine and the opengl drivers are often better then the vista alternatives and just to prove it I shall linky a lil review
[Phoronix] ATI: Linux vs. Windows Vista

[Mak213]

Well i dont know much about Linux. So i haev to ask about this opengl compared to beryl. As for Wine well i dont have alot of latest and greatest titles. So i guess i will ahve to try and figure it all out.

[grkbar]

Not to be dumb but I have never heard of Gparted. Can you elaborate?

[forrestcupp]

GParted is software that can resize or create hard drive partitions without losing any of your data. You can either get their LiveCD and boot to that just to do partition work, or if you are installing Ubuntu, just use the GParted that is already part of that installation process. If you do it the Ubuntu way, you don't even have to know or care that it is called GParted. It's just part of the installation process where they ask you how you want to partition your drives.

[forrestcupp]

Originally Posted by saltynay

The latest and greatest titles do work in wine and the opengl drivers are often better then the vista alternatives and just to prove it I shall linky a lil review
[Phoronix] ATI: Linux vs. Windows Vista

Reviews and specs don't mean anything to me when I've experienced differently. If you think you can play Bioshock or Crysis when it comes out by using Wine, you're crazy. Maybe 3 years after they are released. I know that Linux has the potential of being at least as good at gaming as Windows, but Wine isn't the answer. Getting people to program cross platform games is the answer.