Ubuntu

Need a couple of queries answered before converting to Linux

Asked by Andrew U

I am a university student in South Australia and want to convert to Linux. I have Ubuntu and Kubuntu on CDs ready to go, have demo'd them and they run fine, but I am still a bit hesitant about the conversion. I want to convert for the obvious reasons- I want to boycott MS before XP kills my laptop. XP is working fine for now, I've only had the laptop for 6 months, but I have started to notice the usual small instabilities in the GUI. If anyone can help with my queries or just give me a bit more confidence it would be greatly appreciated... obviously I still have more research to do before the switch (please forgive my ignorance, I'm still a newbie)...

1) Should I partition my HDD to keep windows on it and have the choice of either before bootstrapping, or just give MS the flick all together and hand my laptop over to Linux? i.e. will I get a better experience out of Linux without partitioning?

2) When running Ubuntu from the CD I get the following message regarding my hardware: "Ubuntu may be running a driver that is not supported. Because the software is proprietary, it may be hard to change the software to solve any future problems". The chip is the standard Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection. I can use the wireless on Ubuntu fine though, even though I am getting this message regarding the restricted driver. I don't get this message on Kubuntu. Should I be worried about this?

3) Running Ubuntu from CD shows a memory usage of 200Mb out of 512Mb. Kubuntu from the CD shows a usage of 507Mb out of 512Mb. Does Kubuntu really use that much more memory than Ubuntu? or is it just because I am using it from the CD?

4) Which is better, Kubuntu or Ubuntu?

5) MSN Messenger on Linux? Is it possible? I googled it and found that there is a clone for Linux. Does it work, or do I need to use a Windows emulator? For that matter, do the Windows emulators work well?

6) Quicktime on Linux? All documentation I have found says that QT 5 works on Linux. Does it work well? The WebCT for the Uni requires QT for watching lecture streaming.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated... I'm am sure that I can find all this out myself, it's just that I want to speed up the research process so that I can get onto Linux asap. Cheers, Andrew

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Cesare Tirabassi (norsetto) said : 		#1

G'day mate,

good to know that an Australian couple is no less than 6 ........

1) Why deleting XP, which you (I guess) paid for? There won't make any difference to Linux if you are sharing your disk with another zillions of OSes as long as it has enough space to operate.

2) Proprietary drivers are what you get in WinXP. We know nothing about them, if they work, they work, if they don't, well, what can we do about it? My wife's computer got an Atheros chip, and the restricted drivers didn't work. Well, in that case I just used ndiswrapper, perhaps it will work for you too.

3) Not used memory is wasted memory for Linux, it will use as much as it needs and then more.

4) You want to start a flame war? You tried both, install the one you like the most. Personally, I have both and use Gnome 99.9% of the time.

5a) Yes, there is aMSN and native solutions too. I use gaim (soon to be pidgin) and I'm pretty happy with it.

5b) They do for some applications, they don't for some other. To get an idea you can scan the db at http://www.winehq.org/ to find out about your preferred applications.

6) You can find instructions here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
You can only use the codecs, there is no native player (even though in winehq they claim QT runs pretty well under emulation).

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David Jones (dj) said : 		#2

  Hello first off no amount of questions and answers will give you more confidence. My suggestion is to run a dual boot and try it your self, I would not recommend that you give ms the flick just yet. As far as which distro to use that is totally a preference thing. Myself I use the studio version simply because my wife makes video's and I am the cameraman and editor lol.
  The one thing you can be assured of is help when you need it from everyone on launchpad that is what Ubuntu is about!!
  Since you have the disk's you can start your ms system wait and wait for it to finally boot up insert the disk of your choice and tell it to install inside of windows just like any other program, the at boot up you will get a choice of which os to use.
  One thing you will notice right away is that there is no need to reboot to regain your resources.
owner@ubuntuowner:~$ uptime
 14:50:39 up 6 days, 23:35, 2 users, load average: 0.02, 0.06, 0.08
 and still as fast as ever:)

   David
   in TN

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Adhika (adhika-rexuss) said : 		#3

1) Yes you should, you might need to go back to your windows when you feel that you can solve a small problem faster in windows whereas in ubuntu (which you might not familiar with at the moment) could take a few minutes or even hours.
having linux only in your PC is also advisable, your learning curve will be very steep, but in the end, you'll enjoy the ride :)

2) no you shouldn't. I've been using ubuntu since ubuntu 8.04 and my laptop also uses the same wireless card. It worked flawlessly until now.

3) Based on my own experience using Kubuntu, it did quite laggy. especially if your laptop is not a gaming laptop.
just install ubuntu, you should be fine, it is fast and a lot less lagging.

4) ubuntu of course

5) I believe you're talking about aMSN. yes it worked on my laptop.
However, I'd rather use empathy or pidgin (ubuntu 9.04) because it integrates my MSN, YM and Gtalk. everything in one client.

6) The most painful thing about quicktime is when you wanted to watch movie from apple trailers. in my ubuntu 9.04 it doesn't work anymore.
but I don't give a damn. I can still go to the website and watch the flash trailer there.
I don't know about your Uni streaming, but you might need to give it a try.

Cheers,
Adhika

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