# Switching to Linux... tips?



## digibucc (Jan 17, 2011)

OK - it's finally time.  I will be keeping a Win7 installation ready, entirely for gaming.
For work and everything else though, I will be using Linux from now on...

I've got Ubuntu Maverick (10.10) installed, along with openoffice obviously, and a 
number of other programs.  I am current looking through osalt and some other sites 
to find alternatives to windows apps.  it is going well.

I have installed and used Linux many times before, going back to red hat 6 and even 
older.  I just never stuck it out with an installation for very long.  I always wanted to 
get back to my windows apps.

Well not any more.  I am really starting to appreciate all that is available in Linux, 
and starting to take advantage as well  

*tl;dr *- so my question is, after all that: got any tips or cool things to check out for me?
anything that you wish you had known when you first started?  really anything you guys
consider useful would be great.!

thanks in advance!
-kyle


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## Easy Rhino (Jan 17, 2011)

linux is fairly easy today thanks to canonical pushing the limits of usability. i would say to get familiar with the command line so if needed you can edit config files for certain installs that dont go smoothly. also, be prepared to read a lot of old guides. the problem with google search is that it always brings up solutions for really old distributions.


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## Peter1986C (Jan 17, 2011)

I agree with Rhino.
For music I recommmend Rhythmbox (should be installed already) and for photo-editing GIMP. VlC is my recommendation for video (plays audio as well), and when you want some Linux games too you should get _Tremulous_ and _The Battle for Wesnoth_.


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## Kreij (Jan 17, 2011)

Learn how to recompile the OS from source code. 
There is nothing more awesome than being able to tweak anything in the OS and recompile it.


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## WhiteLotus (Jan 17, 2011)

Get it to auto connect to the internet when you turn it on
Make sure flash is installed
Install VLC from the MASSIVE software bank that it has

The three things I do all the time whenever I reinstall Ubuntu for whatever reason.


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## Peter1986C (Jan 17, 2011)

Install "ubuntu restricted extras" as it contains Flash support, fonts like Arial and Times New Roman and such.


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## hellrazor (Jan 17, 2011)

CTRL+ALT+F1 through F7 (or maybe F6?) will bring you to the terminal (note that each one is seperate). Pressing CTRL+ALT+F8 (or maybe F7? I cannot for the life of me remember) will bring you back to the desktop.

Only useful if crap is breaking, so basically it's really useful.


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## Easy Rhino (Jan 17, 2011)

also, if you have issues with open office you may want to switch to libre office.

http://drupal.txwikinger.me.uk/content/libreoffice-now-available-ppa-ubuntu-1010-and-1004


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## blobster21 (Jan 17, 2011)

Should you experience weird things or odd behaviours, then you're not alone.

My first suggestion would be to add http://www.googlubuntu.com as an alternative search engine into firefox.

That way you will benefit all the help the linux community has to offer.

Also, don't hesitate to recreate some of your favorite keyboard shortcuts (if any), it's important to feel at home, whatever home it is.

I know how you feel right now, it took no less than 2 years and a dozen attempts to adopt Ubuntu as my primary O.S. 

Keep microsoft OSes near you using a dual boot and you will feel more and more confident.


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## johnnyfiive (Jan 17, 2011)

Fedora 14 is pretty nice btw, I'd definitely look into it. Sometimes Ubuntu isn't as easy as we'd all like it to be.


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## Easy Rhino (Jan 17, 2011)

the only thing i warn against fedora is SELinux. even when i turn it off it still gives me all sorts of issues when it comes to web and ftp servers.


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## remixedcat (Jan 18, 2011)

Servers and Enterprise---->CentOS
Home and desktop use---->Ubuntu


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## Frick (Jan 18, 2011)

It's pretty fun to dig around in Wine as well, se what you can get working and not on your system.


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## exodusprime1337 (Jan 18, 2011)

i too have just made the switch to linux, in more of a server environment as we're moving all of our webservers to linux machines.  It took a week to figure out the minor details but i think my biggest friend here was google and the command line.  I did not install the gui even though i wanted to and after a week or so digging through the command line things were far easier to do and it helped me understand structure and organization.  I have ubuntu desktop on my laptop and i have ubuntu server with ampache, apache, samba and a mail server at home.  

one tip i have is to find projects, i made a home router with an old linux box and that turned out to be a fun project and helped me learn a lot too, just a thought.


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## digibucc (Jan 18, 2011)

exodusprime1337 said:


> one tip i have is to find projects, i made a home router with an old linux box and that turned out to be a fun project and helped me learn a lot too, just a thought.



funnily enough that's EXACTLY the conclusion i came to.

I enjoy it and learn SO much when i just pick a new project to accomplish, and read until i understand it.  learning the pc is fun again


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## remixedcat (Jan 18, 2011)

I love customizing linux for different purposes. I have tried a linux router distro it was fun. I also tested a lean, mean home theater machine setup as well. Played videos really fast and good on only a P3 machine! (1.0GHz, 512MB RAM 200GB HD Geforce 5 GPU) Tried the same with xp MCE and it would chop a lot specially with HD. I was happy to bring new life into an older system.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Jan 18, 2011)

Kreij said:


> Learn how to recompile the OS from source code.
> There is nothing more awesome than being able to tweak anything in the OS and recompile it.



Don't you mean the kernel? But some distros like Gentoo allow you to compile _everything_ or some things which is nice obviously for the flexibility and customizability. Also you can add flags for your hardware such as specific CPU architecture which will obviously help performance and functionality even further.


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## Peter1986C (Jan 19, 2011)

Gentoo is like that indeed, though manually configuring the GRUB etc. can be a real pain in the backside if you are not an experienced user. At least, I always get stuck at the boot loader, as there seems always a bit of a problem with it. I only reccommend that distro if you are an experienced user.


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## Imhoteps (Jan 19, 2011)

Look for Linux Mint (I prefer KDE instead of Mint main edition (gnome)). It`s second most pupular distro in Page-Hit-Ranking chart @ distrowatch. Simply brilliant 1.
Mint LXDE, Mint Fluxbox and Peppermint On, PPmint Ice are also great lightweights for weaker puters.
Anyways - Mint is that distro which Ubuntu should be, cuz Mint is usually being released after *buntu`s official release and Mint-team has time to fix bugs and issues.
Read some rewievs @distrowatch.


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## alexsubri (Jan 20, 2011)

Imhoteps said:


> Look for Linux Mint (I prefer KDE instead of Mint main edition (gnome)). It`s second most pupular distro in Page-Hit-Ranking chart @ distrowatch. Simply brilliant 1.
> Mint LXDE, Mint Fluxbox and Peppermint On, PPmint Ice are also great lightweights for weaker puters.
> Anyways - Mint is that distro which Ubuntu should be, cuz Mint is usually being released after *buntu`s official release and Mint-team has time to fix bugs and issues.
> Read some rewievs @distrowatch.



I couldn't agree more. MINT looks amazing and is like a cousin to Ubuntu. I miss my Ubuntu 9.10 ..it was so much fun once I got the use of it. The best part is 99% of the stuff is free. 

Just be careful because if you happen to mess up something in the terminal , it will crash your OS and it's a bitch to get it back (I had to reinstall Ubuntu like 3 times because I kept messing up tweaking and what not.)

Get Compiz Fusion, Flash, Firefox, Wine (You can play some games via steam, I've played CSS without any problems). Think of Wine like Apple's Bootcamp (without running the whole other OS) Or just go here and choose for yourself 

Here is my old screenshots:


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## caleb (Jan 20, 2011)

I have very good experience with openSUSE and I would strongly suggest it as an OS for work.

OpenWRT and a router is really a nice learner with all the configs. Current versions of linux don't really need that much knowledge in console as the config tools like Yast are very well made. The downside is that when something goes wrong or some hardware doesn't auto install you will start loosing your hair.


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## digibucc (Jan 20, 2011)

yeah i've noticed terminal has become less and less necessary.  which is good i guess, but that was always the most fun  
it sounds stupid i know, but that was what attracted me to linux in the first place:

the idea, that you can do all these things by just typing in words. BUT, YOU have to KNOW the words.  

once i get accustomed to what i'm using now, i will definitely give mint a try   right now i am using maverick (ubuntu 10.10) , 
with Gnome desktop and some kde apps.   and the customization is where it is at.  i am having fun learning computers again!  
it's been awhile


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## Hybrid_theory (Jan 20, 2011)

One tip I can give you is dont uninstall python. I did that on my workstation at work to try and fix something, I basically had to fresh install ubuntu eventually. My desktop was never the same.

Reading this thread has interested me in dualbooting at home. But at home all I typically do is web browse and game which windows does fine. I like linux for working, which I dont do really at home.


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## digibucc (Jan 20, 2011)

see it was the opposite for me - mostly.  i like to do casual stuff on linux, and to 
customize it to exactly my casual uses : browsing, forums, videos/music, etc.

gaming i need windows, obviously.  but for work i always have needed it as well.

I'm finding a number of Linux apps i can work with, but have yet to find anything to
replace adobe fireworks, adobe acrobat for creating pdf forms, and adobe flash.

luckily i do not use them THAT often.  but at least once a month, so i have to keep 
windows around for that as well.

I wish i could do all of my work on linux - but i would need to sacrifice the ease of
using the programs i am used to, and am not fully ready to do that yet.  
I am making strides though


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## remixedcat (Jan 20, 2011)

Meh,on linux some things are easier then windows to restore. Most really broken things in windows you gotta reformat, linux at least has fallbacks and more tricks to get things working. 

windows seriously needs more recovery stuff. 

but seriously the uptimes you get on linux tear the hell out of windows. http://www.uptimeprj.com/toplist/index/en/0-30/UZD/   will show yah.


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## exodusprime1337 (Jan 21, 2011)

remixedcat said:


> I love customizing linux for different purposes. I have tried a linux router distro it was fun. I also tested a lean, mean home theater machine setup as well. Played videos really fast and good on only a P3 machine! (1.0GHz, 512MB RAM 200GB HD Geforce 5 GPU) Tried the same with xp MCE and it would chop a lot specially with HD. I was happy to bring new life into an older system.



Those are all awesome things to try... But if your new to linux, like i am.. i think the best possible thing you can do is do it on your own.  I started with ubuntu server and LAMP... i knew nothing, by the end of the first day of tinkering i had ampache going(btw my flash player still doesn't work in the browser if anybody has a clue??), it's an awesome music streaming platform that easily hosts some 200000 of my songs at the moment.  then it was the apache server, i created a basic joomla site that gave me access to all of my servers webmin/ssh/telnet/pix information so i didn't have to remember them all.  i go to the site(can't show you cause i don't need it hacked) type in my credentials(.htacces ftw) and bam, access to all server tools(limited cause i'm still an IT nub). 

The router i did from scratch as well.  You could dl a prebuilt, but your not really learning all the nitty gritty.  I moved 40 joomla sites.. it took 20 of them for me to learn about permissions and the difference between 777,644,755.. who would've knew what those meant just by looking, next was virtual hosts... i always thought a website had 1 server... how stupid of me lol, my linux server at work now has 40 sites on 1 BOX!!!! ZOMG!!!


I'm just saying, if you prebuild a distro, you basically won't learn much, i could've gotten some decent prebuilt stuff, even with ubuntu i could've just chosen lamp at the installer.. i chose not so i could learn how to install them, "apt-get" ftw and it's easier than windows lol, and also to learn where things go.. i was backing up all my mysql databases in phpmyadmin.. when i had an ftp link where i could just move the files directly and be done with it.  

Sorry bout the long post, and i'm definately not bashing you, my new exposure to linux has gotten me seriously facinated in not just the linux community, but IT in general, i found myself asking my boss to let me do some of the active directory work because it's a good skill to have, and i'm learning some php which i find to be a friggon diesel language, just a beast for web.  

my 2cents over 
root@localhost: shutdown -time now -h


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## remixedcat (Jan 21, 2011)

exodusprime1337 said:


> Those are all awesome things to try... But if your new to linux, like i am.. i think the best possible thing you can do is do it on your own.  I started with ubuntu server and LAMP... i knew nothing, by the end of the first day of tinkering i had ampache going(btw my flash player still doesn't work in the browser if anybody has a clue??), it's an awesome music streaming platform that easily hosts some 200000 of my songs at the moment.  then it was the apache server, i created a basic joomla site that gave me access to all of my servers webmin/ssh/telnet/pix information so i didn't have to remember them all.  i go to the site(can't show you cause i don't need it hacked) type in my credentials(.htacces ftw) and bam, access to all server tools(limited cause i'm still an IT nub).
> 
> The router i did from scratch as well.  You could dl a prebuilt, but your not really learning all the nitty gritty.  I moved 40 joomla sites.. it took 20 of them for me to learn about permissions and the difference between 777,644,755.. who would've knew what those meant just by looking, next was virtual hosts... i always thought a website had 1 server... how stupid of me lol, my linux server at work now has 40 sites on 1 BOX!!!! ZOMG!!!
> 
> ...



I've done both methods actually.


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## exodusprime1337 (Jan 21, 2011)

remixedcat said:


> I've done both methods actually.



gg, try ampache man.. probably one of the coolest programs next to beryl lol.


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## remixedcat (Jan 21, 2011)

cool will do when I get a dedicated linux box again.


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## exodusprime1337 (Jan 21, 2011)

remixedcat said:


> cool will do when I get a dedicated linux box again.



lemme know via pm or aim if you need help whenever you get around to it.. aside from setting up the flash player(broken in ubuntu 10.10) it's pretty easy, and fun as hell to use when it's all setup


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## remixedcat (Jan 21, 2011)

thanks  will do! what problems in flash player you havin??


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## exodusprime1337 (Jan 21, 2011)

remixedcat said:


> cool will do when I get a dedicated linux box again.



to be honest i don't know.. it just doesn't work.. i'm off at 5:00 eastern time.. perhaps i could get you ssh'd into it and you could take a look at it with me..


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## remixedcat (Jan 22, 2011)

I think it might be adobe at fault I googled for that issue and there were quite a few with it. adobe likes to break stuff.


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## Peter1986C (Jan 24, 2011)

digibucc said:


> I'm finding a number of Linux apps i can work with, but have yet to find anything to
> replace adobe fireworks, adobe acrobat for creating pdf forms, and adobe flash.



- Flash: 
	
	



```
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
```
- Adobe Acrobat: make the forms in OpenOffice and export them as PDF. Should work. If the process of making forms differs to much from the same in MS Office, the help in OO should be a good place to look in.
- Fireworks: I am not sure about this, because I just heard of Fireworks and only took a peek at the Wikipedia page about it, but I suggest testing whether OpenOffice.org Draw is meeting your requirements (as an exeption, you will find this under applications --> graphics, instead of ...-->Office).

BTW, it can be handy to install "ubuntu-restricted-extras" as well, for some codecs and fonts like Times New Roman and Arial. Best just add it to the line in the first line of my post with a space in between.


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## Frick (Jan 24, 2011)

remixedcat said:


> Meh,on linux some things are easier then windows to restore. Most really broken things in windows you gotta reformat, linux at least has fallbacks and more tricks to get things working.
> 
> windows seriously needs more recovery stuff.



I once trashed xfce's window manager (Xfwm) when trying to get some GTK libraries to work. If you would've done anything similiar in windows you'd been f**ked but I just used Lynx to surf the web in text format and I reinstalled xfce completely and it worked. Lovely.


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## remixedcat (Jan 24, 2011)

this kinda awesome sauce is why linux leads the server market!


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## Red_Machine (Jan 24, 2011)

Have you ever considered ReactOS?  It's an open source OS that is binary compatible with Windows XP.


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## remixedcat (Jan 24, 2011)

Heard of that one! Looks awesome so far. Hope they improve! Wishing them lots of luck.


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## NinkobEi (Jan 24, 2011)

3 years without rebooting? even linux needs a reboot after an update, right? at least, ubuntu does


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## remixedcat (Jan 24, 2011)

there's ways around it.


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## Peter1986C (Jan 24, 2011)

Ninkobwi said:


> 3 years without rebooting? even linux needs a reboot after an update, right? at least, ubuntu does



Only for driver or kernel updates. So basicly you can continue using your Ubuntu install without rebooting, because all other updates are "done" once installed. You would only need to reboot if you immediately wish to load the newest kernel that Ubuntu comes with. And really, you don't need to.


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## Easy Rhino (Jan 24, 2011)

i dont plan on rebooting my linux server anytime soon. and it is on a UPS for adding comfort


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## digibucc (Jan 24, 2011)

i think i'm going to put my server on linux soon... it's just simple SMB sharing, and auto-backup(daily incremental) of specific folders on the network.

any suggestions for distro and software? thing is all of my stuff is currently on NTFS drives, will that cause a huge problem?
I can get files moved around to format a drive at a time, but that might take awhile and i'd like to have full access to files in the meantime.


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## Easy Rhino (Jan 24, 2011)

hrm, i have always wanted to mess around with network backup software. you could always give FreeNAS a go.


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## Peter1986C (Jan 24, 2011)

as long as ntfs-3g is installed, it is not a problem to have NTFS. However, in Linux there is no disk defrag tool available for NTFS so I suggest transition to ext3 or ext4.


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## Frick (Jan 25, 2011)

I read an article about a software called Fog Server. It's for cloning over network and backup and stuff like that and appareantly it's pretty good. Don't know if it can clone Macs though, but supposedly it does anything Windows and some Linux. I have not tested it so I don't know.


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## remixedcat (Jan 26, 2011)

Awesome! Many thanks for the link!


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## bim27142 (Feb 17, 2011)

guys! i just installed ubuntu 10.10 too on my acer travelmate 6291. so far i think it's good! im a total noob too with linux, and i think i'm already behind adopting but better late than never i guess?! 

anyway, i will use it mostly for browsing, music, and some movies... so far i just used whatever was in it already... so a few items:

- what's the best music player and video player out there?
- is there an equalizer or sound enhancer i can use?
- i saw a screenshot earlier about the desktop looking transparent? how'd you do that? 

by the way, a fresh 32bit install as i saw on the system monitor has a very small footprint (about 200mb RAM and almost 0% cpu activity when idle)... am i seeing it correctly or what?


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## hellrazor (Feb 17, 2011)

A)I'm a fan of Audacious
B)I'm not aware of one. Audio on Linux kinda sucks
C)Probably used Compiz or some such crap
D)Yes


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## bim27142 (Feb 17, 2011)

thanks! noted...


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## Champ (Apr 29, 2011)

So I have a multimedia machine I'm doing and I want to run an easy to use/flashy Linux.  I've read about the latest Ubuntu 11.04, heard about Mint 10 from here and I've used an older Fedora (I think there is about to be a 15).  I need one that I can get on a CD since I have a "low-speed" connection (56ker).  Can I get a recommendation?  I'll probably buy on eBay.


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## digibucc (Apr 29, 2011)

never buy a dist on ebay, go to the dist's site and order a cd if necessary.  open source on ebay is a scam.

as for what dists, most offer cds/dvds in the mail for $1-3.  I use ubuntu, but i am sure someone else
can recommend the perfect fit for your application...


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## Champ (Apr 29, 2011)

Made a decision.


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