I finally decided to bite the bullet and go Linux.

There's a few reasons why, I'm hoping maybe someone can agree with my reasoning and kind of give user experience to help support my choices-

1) I want to get back into the habit of learning, and ever since I started playing World of Warcraft (Quit about 3-4 months ago) I couldn't get myself back into the habit of motivating myself to do things. Most notably my huge hiatus from school. I feel like learning how to use Linux will get me into the habit of confronting problems and fixing them with community support because if I want to finish school and succeed in my life alone, I need to learn how to stop relying on user-friendly solutions.

2) I almost bit the bullet and bought Vista, and I still might. The bottom line is, I would rather feel like it's my choice and not like I'm cornered into doing it. I think of Linux as a scenic route to a city I want to move to, that has rocky roads at first but once you get into it, you get beautiful scenery and the ability to deal with issues like flat tires, car trouble and even help other people, which always feels good. Windows is the short, fast boring route that has a fee of $150-300 that you feel like you're being forced to take.

3) I am going to have two hard-drives anyway, so having a separate Windows XP partition will solve my gaming problems, until I can learn how to successfully port Windows games on Linux using Wine on my own, or even see the game support on Linux grow. I also heard there's going to be XSOS that's going to have Direct X10 support. I'm looking forward to that or having the experience with Linux enough to be comfortable to go that route. I figure I wouldn't want to go the Vista route until 2 years from now anyway.

4) It's something I've always put off. I look at people using Linux and the screenshots of their GUI's and I'm honestly envious. I think to myself, "That guy has balls. He dove into it and now he's using it and I'm sitting here using Lame Gates' operating system." I've been wanting to go the Linux route ever since Doom 3 came out when I knew it had Linux support. I thought, "Man I would really kill to use an OS that didn't require so much g** damn security measures". It's not only a pain that you have to pay for Windows itself, it makes it even more hard to swallow that you have to buy everything else when you're homebuilt: Word Processors, Photo Editing, CD Burning utilities, virtual drive programs and on top of ALL those, you have all the security you have to buy. If you're not using McAffee or SpyDoctor, you might as well accept having to reformat every few months, and I'm tired of that.

I figure in the end, you're spending more time jumping through all the security hoops with Windows than you'd have spent total learning Linux, and the pay-off is worth it. 6 months from now I can be fully fledged in Linux and know my way around issues as I come across them, but with Windows? 6 months from now I'll still have to spend 45 minutes every two weeks or so upgrading my virus/spyware security and cleaning out corrupt files.

My questions though:

Since I'm rather new, is Ubuntu the best for the following:
Internet use
Word processing
Wine (For playing games)
Chatting IM Messenger programs
Downloading and watching media via P2P (Bit Torrent)
Good looking GUI
Programs like GIMP(Shop), Krita. GAIM, Mercury, MPlayer, VLC, OpenOffice, mount

I know that with me having a separate XP partition, I'll easily be able to use the Windows equivalents, but I really do want to convert to 100% Linux due to the security and stability.

Also, I have a dual core processor (Pentium D 805). I downloaded the Ubuntu i386 version because I didn't know if the AMD64 version 64-bit also supported Intel 64-bit processors.

My system specs if it helps:
Pentium D 805
Biostar 965PT
1GB DDR2 667 Ram (Corsair XMS2)
EVGA 7900GS - I went with Nvidia because of long-dated Linux support, I feel it's more stable. I also wanted EVGA because of step-up program, so it was win-win for me.
Western Digital SATA 160GB HDD x2 (No Raid) - Is there a problem using SATA drives with Ubuntu?
Onboard audio/onboard LAN

Will I also have to use a USB-converter for my USB mouse? Or will the USB mouse be supported off the bat?

Thanks for any help/suggestions you guys can give out. This rig is being put together over the next 2 week period, so I have roughly 2 weeks to cram everything I can on getting Ubuntu or whatever other version you guys recommend up and running rather quickly.

I would recommend both Ubuntu 6.10 desktop and Fedora Core 6 :-D

Twice the Linux goodness!

Both have a nice GUI, firefox, OpenOffice.org, WINE, gaim, bt, GIMP, Krita, MPlayer, VLC, etc

Both update very frequently and support quite a bit of hardware out of the box and even more with optional stuff.

If you decide you hate one or the other or simply no longer need it after you are done experimenting you can free up the space and give it to the distribution you like best without having to reinstall or otherwise disturbing your OS install.

http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu-r [...] -amd64.iso

http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/c [...] 64-DVD.iso

be sure to check the md5/sha1 sums and gpg keys :-D

SATA controllers / drives are no problem for either Ubuntu 6.10 or FC6.

USB mice also work just fine.

GL :-D

Those are fine reasons to get into trying Linux. Probably the biggest boon in my eyes is that I can do exactly what I want with my system. It's a little more complex especially if you aren't familiar with Unix-like OS's but you get greater flexibility in return.

Well, you most certainly are correct. It will be a learning experience, and learning can be a lot of fun. As for what will happen 6 months down the road, that all depends on how much time you actually spend using linux. I have "used linux" for about almost 2 years, but it has only been in the past few months that I have been learning a lot, so i guess it all depends on how much you devote yourself to it. I once heard that if you put yourself in a completely linux environment for a solid month, you will be ready to handle just about anything. While I don't know that you can do ANYTHING after that, i know that would be a really good way to get your "linux legs" (to borrow from nautical sayings). If you have motivational problems, and games are the only thing you need windows for, I suggest you not play any games for an extended period of time (maybe a month) so that you have no reason to boot into windows.

As for the whole distribution thing, any distribution will run the programs you have listed below, so it is really kinda a matter of personal preference which one you go with. A word of warning however, some distributions have higher learning curves than others. Also, some have support groups that are more tolerant of newbies. I personally like Fedora Core 6 as it seems to be pretty easy to use. Ubuntu is also a good starting distro, although I think maybe it is too user friendly (I happen to LIKE picking which packages i install, thank you very much!). I guess I am biased towards fedora core because it was my first linux OS (my first experience was when i bought Fedora Core 2 for dummies, which came w/ a DVD of FC2), but I really like the simplicity of the yum tool for installing binaries. I am told that installing things in Gentoo is even easier with "emerge", but I think you should start out with a more user friendly distro before wandering into the land of Gentoo.

The 64bit question is really a non-issue. As far as I know, all 64bit versions will run just fine on intel 64bit machines as on amd 64bit.

As for really hot desktop looks, since you seem to have a really beefy graphics card at your disposal, you should install Beryl and bring on the eye candy as soon as you get your graphics driver working! Something worth noting is that if you like the look of vista, Beryl with Linux actually pulls of the look of vista better than vista! (i.e. less resource requirement and less lag) Of course, you can configure your desktop to look like just about anything you want, so if you don't like vista's look, you can disregard that statement .

Also, don't think for a second that just because you are using one distro over another, or one desktop environment over another (e.g. GNOME vs KDE) that you can't make that program work w/o using that distro or desktop environment. All you need to do is just install the proper dependencies and you are good to go. For example, I use K3B while I am in GNOME, and all I had to do was install some of the KDE libraries when i installed FC6.

Good luck to you and welcome to the club!

-Zorak

How do I check the md5/sha1 sums and gpg keys?

I just wasted a DVD trying to burn the Fedora Core 6 DVD. It said failed to burn or something like that. Pretty early in the burn process. The DVD's are 4.7 GB so they definitely have enough space.

Is there anyway I can 100% test the ISO to see if it'll burn before I waste another DVD? DVD blanks are not cheap.

The MD5 / SHA1 sum files are available from http://mirrors.kernel.org/

Many projects also distribute gpg keys ( .asc .sig .sign .gpg .pgp etc )

You can check md5 and sha1 sums using the programs below:

http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/using_md5sums.html

gpg howto:

http://www.gnupg.org/(en)/documentation/howtos.html

http://webber.dewinter.com/gnupg_h [...] Howto.html


Also make sure you are using software which can burn DVD ISOs

Where can I find the MD5 and GPG keys to verify against for the Fedora Core 6 DVD? Mirrors.kernel only has the single CD's.

http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/core/6/x86_64/iso/

http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/c [...] so/SHA1SUM

The SHA1 sum for the 8x64_64 DVD is 550da315c09d8b58d4c80534ce5263d359e479be FC-6-x86_64-DVD.iso


The i386 images and here:

http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/c [...] so/SHA1SUM

Okay the SHA1 passed but the DVD still failed the first time.

I'm wondering if it's because I tried to burn it across the network? (The PC with DVD burner was burning the image FROM my computer instead of copying the ISO to it)

Does your burning software have a verify feature?

If so, did it pass?

K3b does :-D

Most installation media have a built-in media-check / verification function -- have you tried it?

This may not be a very sophisticated reason for failure, but it could be that you have too many programs running at once, and the overtaxed copmuter ends up making a mistake in the burning process, thereby screwing up your burn. When I burn something that big, I try to shut down any nonessential programs to expedite the process and make sure that the program has enough ram to do its job. Also, if you are getting a lot of errors burning at high speed, try burning at a lower speed. Furthermore, if you are using nero, don't check off the "finalize CD/DVD" option as that will mess up liveCD/DVDs. If you read in the forums for liveCD distros like knoppix, those are all recommendations that they make frequently to clear up issues regarding faulty burning.

Also, what Linux_0 said about K3b and it's verify data feature is absolutely right. I think I may actually prefer K3b to nero

-Zorak

P.S. when you start the fedora install process, make sure you run the "check media" test to make sure that your disk is 100% OK to use. You don't want a faulty install because of faulty media (which might happen if the burner doesn't catch it first).

Great suggestions from Zorak


If your recording software cannot handle DVD ISOs correctly you can download and install ISOReconder http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com [...] rV2RC1.msi

Then use that to burn a CD ISO of Knoppix

http://www.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/

After you are done you can use Knoppix or any other similarly equipped LiveCD with K3b to burn the DVD ISO

Then you can use this howto:

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/sof [...] 30767.html


GL :-D

You know, I kinda wish that there was a windows port of k3b. I am a bit wary of using cygwin under windows because it messed up my system one time. Oh well, i guess it isn't so important as I don't really use windows that much anymore. Still, it would be nice to be able to install k3b on my parents' computers at home so they wouldn't have to spend an arm and a leg on decent burning software.

Note: Someday when I get an engineering job, I am either going to give a generous cash donation to one of these awesome free program projects that has given me so much, or I might just take a crack at the code myself and see if I can contribute that way.

-Zorak