Noob Ubuntu question

well Ive given a lot of thought about switching back to Win7 because that to me 'just works' but at the same time i really would like to experience something new...

Im gonna trial Linuxmint for a week or 2, If i still cant work it then I will go back to Win7

 

Its pretty easy to work - with most things being the same as other operating systems. And if you get stuck, just like on Windows, you can ask here

 

I find that Ubuntu almost always works out of the box. It's when I want to change how it works that it takes more effort. What exactly isn't "just working"?

 

Unfortunately I couldnt get around it so I reverted back to Win7. It wasnt so easy to straight out customise and i had no idea how to change things because Im not totally familiar with the syntax and everything surrounding it and that. Maybe I'll put together and old system and revisit it again sometime otherwise Win7 is the more straightforward 'direct' approach that I know my way around

 

I would recommend a virtual machine or a separate partition so you can run *nix next to Windows. Either way, you shouldn't need another box to play around with it. VirtualBox is a good, cheap option if VMware Workstation isn't an option.

 

I dont mind having an older machine to run it. I might put it on a HTPC for the front room at a later date. but i think learning the code and customise it will always be the worst part about it unless someone theres to hold my hand through it.

Or i could just got to my library and get a linux for dummies book....

 

Be interesting to know what it was you couldn't get around, especially as I find Windows to be the confusing (and annoying) one! It still confuses me why I can't resize some windows in windows I guess it depends on which OS you tried first.

 

my wife and kids use debian on most of the home computers. we have a windows 7 laptop for when someone 'needs windows'.... luckily it goes unused most of the time. i hate cleaning spyware off of windows. my wife likes to say she prefers windows, but she gripes about the laptop more then anything so i must assume she says she prefers windows just to irritate me.

 

no spoon-feeding

Go to a search engine like ixquick and type in "Linux command line tutorials".

No one "needs" windows any more than one "needs" GNU/Linux or Android or another OS.
But, don't expect spoon-feeding from a linux forum!

 

I have been playing around with linux in vms for a while now... the easiest and most productive distro to me has been opensuse. Very easy to configure the way you want. Of course, as with any linux distro, you will have to pop open a su term box. Just not as often as with some of the other distros. And of course, research, research. I found out the hard way linux users don't like giving answers all that much....

 

Us Linux power users and system administrators expect you to know what you're talking about before we try to use those blocks to build a pyramid. If you don't know how to use regex or sed, I'm not going to want to have a discussion with you about it.

 

Yes, if you can't open a term box and issue su, probably should stick to windows. Even suse has peed me off to the point I forced myself to learn command line syntax for basic stuff. Linux isn't windows, although it does have a buttload of power when you learn how to use it. I'm still struggling with it... got full codecs installed under opensuse now, can play dvds ect, what a pain.... had to go to a term session just to do that.

 

For me, it is Windows that has a steep learning curve and is limited. Another quick and recent example - customising my logon screen. I didn't even have to think with Linux as everything was just intuitive; a couple of clicks and I had my cool new logon screen. I've been trying to do the same thing in my Windows vm and... well. I've looked in just about every menu possible and I can't find anything.

For me, Office and a media player just came with Linux, no setup required. Like you say, its all there "out of the box." Nothing came with windows, so I figured I'd just go with what came with my Linux - LibreOffice. At least that was easy enough, though quite long-winded without a way to easily install software like in Linux. I tried the usual way; I searched for "programs" and then selected "Add or remove programs", but couldn't see any way to add LibreOffice. Eventually I had to go outside what the OS gave me and grabbed stuff from the website. Pretty sure they've fixed this with Windows 8, but for now I'm stuck on 7.

The media player with Windows sort of works, I suppose. Can't switch it out of American though, so I'm stuck with things like "organize" instead of organise. Localisation settings just don't seem to work.

(TL;DR) And the moral of the story? I still think that whatever you start on, whatever you have the most experience of, to you that is the one that seems easiest and best. Switching to something else requires getting into a new groove, and that means learning to dance to a new beat. Of course, once you've learnt both you can go on to do and learn more!

 

Google is your friend. 2 minutes search. i know, its not standard capability but it works.

http://tweaks.com/software/tweakslogon/

 

Linux Lover

Quite a few flavors of Linux have made vast improvements over the years. I had actually found a rare gem of a program and had to sit and contemplate what I needed to do to compile a installer. Mint and Ubuntu hav made it super easy to do everything i used to do in Windows with far less crapware syware and junk. It's exactly the reason I prefer the Android phone OS as well. Microsoft Phone OS is crap. Sorry I apologize to all of the Microsoft Fan Boy




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Windows has brought the PC to common people, before it was something only business folks had. So I disagree with the second picture, MS has done a lot for the industry. A more neutral position and a more objective look on things might be better.

Edit: Thanks Black.Raven for the tip.

 

Now Thats just funny

I apologize if I offended anyone who is a Microsuck fan. I have been in the I.T industry for a long time and have done Desktop Support as well as Networking and Server support for Microsoft and Linux. There are some good things Microsoft has done but the future is fast becoming more Linux based and not just like the past where Linux was only though of as a Network Operating System. I was just having some fun poking at Microsoft

 

I agree they have done a lot for the industry, but they are screwing it over now.

 

I think the thread has served its purpose - I might be going back to mint again seeing as I don't use this DM1 for anything other than web browsing and surfing the internet. I do have a few games on it though but this thing is so weak and the resolution is so small it makes it a waste of time playing games on.

you may close the thread if you wish or keep it open for more noobuntu tips

 

Interesting read. I'm in the same position as the OP as I want to try Linux for the first time. I'm willing to learn the more complicated stuff needed to customize, but for now I want to just experience the most complete distro out of the box without the need to tweak or install, ie web browsing (preferably Firefox), Open/LibreOffice, PDFs etc, and a media player. I'm still researching but so far Ubuntu, Mint, and Kubuntu are at the top of my list.

Ideally, I'd like to run my HTPC (FM2 system with an A4-5300 Trinity APU) on a Linux distro, hopefully one with decent HD playback without to much of a headache on my part. I'd also like to have a copy alongside Win7 on my desktop to try it out.

Looking forward to it. Windows doesn't always make sense to me so maybe that's a good sign.