As some of you may or may not know, I am building my first system at the end of the month from scratch. I was just going to use Windows XP, as that is what I have now, and i was pretty satisfied with that. I have recently been considering Linux though. I don't know anything about Linux really, so I'm asking a few questions here. First of all, will all Apple and Microsoft programs and Applications work with Linux? Do all games work with it? What version should I get? Should I get Linux over XP? These are the kind of questions I have. I have never seen Linux before, so is there any ways I would be able to see what it's like and it's features? I appreciate all help in advance, and if I have any more quesitons I will ask. Feel free to ask any questions too.

-Pyro

OK, well I will try to adress as many questions as I can for you.

First of all, if you have never used linux ever before, you should go ahead and download one of the versions that has a LiveCD environment that you can check out on an existing computer first. Distributions that have this ability would be ones like Knoppix or Ubuntu (where ubuntu is a little bit easier to use for newbs). As for ms/apple programs working on linux, I can only answer the MS half of that question.

There is a program that you can install called WINE which is a windows compatability layer that allows you to run programs like MS Office under a linux environment. I don't know if there is something similar for OSX programs to run under linux. As for the games, this is kind of a hit or miss situation at this point as there are not many native linux games. You can get some to run with wine, and for others you can always try "cedega" (but you have to pay a $5/month to use that program).

As for linux over XP, if you already own a copy of XP, you could put it to good use by setting up a dual boot system (which is pretty easy to do, provided you install windows first). Personally, I am trying to make a complete switch over to linux and I find myself using XP less and less these days, but in the beginning, it may be useful to have XP dual boot in case you hose your linux OS.

I highly recommend that you try SEVERAL different linux distributions and see which one fits you the best. Ubuntu is pretty good (and everyone and their mom seems to like it), but it is by no means the only solution for you. You should also try others like Knoppix, OpenSUSE, Freespire, Fedora, &c. and see which one will work best for you.

Depending on which distribution that you pick, you may have to use the command line more or less but I haven't seen any distro that completely nixes it (and I hope i never will because it is so useful!). Don't feel intimidated, just dive in, and if you make mistakes its ok because you can ask questions at forums like this one to figure out how to un-hose your system

Also, if you want to see nice linux features in action (i.e. eye-candy) go to Youtube and look up both "Beryl" and "CompizFusion" and you will see things that will put vista/OSX in their place (i.e. in the trash can!) ;D

Good luck to you.

-Zorak

Welcome to the Linux and BSD section

Linux and BSD are great, not perfect but still great

Both are based on freedom of choice and are not encumbered by evil things such as DRM.

In other words you run the OS, the OS doesn't run you.

Some do, some do not. There are legally free and open source alternatives for many major commercial software packages so if there is no Linux version of the program you want to run you can usually find something functionally equivalent.

There are ways for Linux to run windows and Mac programs using various methods including WINE, Cedega ( commercial version of WINE ), Crossover ( commercial version of WINE ), QEMU ( emulator ), VMWare ( virtual machine ), Xen ( virtualization software ), KVM ( virtualization software ) and others.

With WINE you can run some DOS and windows programs under Linux natively. Some programs work great, some work with a few issues and some not at all.

Cedega and Crossover offer good support for many games and apps but not everything will work.

VMWare, QEMU, Xen, KVM and similar software allows you to run DOS, windows and several other operating systems under Linux. The key advantage is you are running a fully functional version of DOS, windows or another "guest OS" on top of Linux when using VMWare, QEMU, Xen or KVM so virtually everything works exactly the way you would expect it to work if you had the "guest OS" installed on the physical computer. VMWare and QEMU are not ideal for the latest games however because their virtual graphics and audio adapters are not as good or as fast and the hardware devices themselves.

There are also emulators for some game consoles which allow you to run some console games under Linux.

Some work as well as or better than they run on windows, some work ok, some work with annoyances and some do not run at all.

For games and apps check out the following links:

http://appdb.winehq.org/appbrowse.php?iCatId=2

http://games.cedega. com/gamesdb/

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxoffice/

I would suggest Ubuntu 7.04 and Fedora 7

http://www.ubuntu.com/

http://fedoraproject.org/

You can install and use both

Also there are Linux live CDs like Knoppix, DSL which run entirely from CD or DVD and allow you to run Linux without having to install it.

Ubuntu is a hybrid Live CD and installable. Knoppix is a hybrid too but is a far, far better Live CD than it is an installable distro.

I would say yes, but I must admit I'm prejudiced -- but hang on there is another option

If you are a heavy gamer and you cannot live without windows-only games I would suggest you Dual or more precisely Triple Boot Ubuntu 7.04, Fedora 7 and XP ( for those very stubborn games and apps that will not run on anything but XP ).

That way you can take advantage of the best Linux and XP have to offer

I will post more on all this later.

PM me if you have any questions

@Zorak

You beat me to it while I was typing that small book

Thanks for the trophy, Linux_0

You always give really complete answers to forums like this, so I thought I would try and help you out for once since you helped me so much in the past

Also, did you notice how they FINALLY have a Linux related article on THG after like a 1.5 year dry spell?

I just wish they would do a comprehensive review of multiple distros, not just Ubuntu. Ubuntu is pretty good, but it isn't THE Linux distro for everyone, and lately it seems like all the attention Ubuntu is getting is drilling it into the public's mind that Ubuntu is the ONLY viable Linux OS

On a side note, I will be building my monster machine soon and then I will wander into the wonderful world of Gentoo...

Wish me luck!

-Zorak

Wow, thanks a lot guys, that helps A LOT. I gotta go to work, but if I think of any more questions I will ask when I get home.

-Pyro

EDIT: Okay, so for the double or triple boot (whichever i decide on) how do I do that? I heard of something called Grub or something? Explanation?

-Pyro

Grub is the name of the boot loader that you will use to do your dual or multiboot system. When the time comes, what you do is you make a partition and use it as your /boot partition and in the Case of Ubuntu, it will install Grub to that partition and add entries to the bootloader for each OS present on your system. I am not sure whether or not Fedora will add itself gracefully or not, so you might want to consult Linux_0 (I never did get a proper setup of grub when I was running FC6).

Good luck.

-Zorak

Zorak nailed it

If you decide to triple boot you would have to partition your drive something like this:

/dev/sda1 /boot ext3

/dev/sda2 no mountpoint LVM

/dev/sda3 /xp NTFS


ext3 = Linux filesystem

LVM = Logical Volume Manager

NTFS = NT filesystem, XP, NT, etc use NTFS by default

GRUB and your kernels would install under /dev/sda1 /boot

/dev/sda2 would use LVM and you could split it into pieces for virtually any number of Linux distributions you might want to try or any other OS that can use LVM for that matter. For example you could create an LV for Ubuntu, another one for Fedora 7, one for Debian, one for slackware, etc. With LVM you can create, delete, grow and shrink LVs ( Logical Volumes -- think of them as virtual partitions ) so if you did try 7 or 8 distributions you could give them each an LV and if you decided to remove some of them later you could easily delete the LVs and then make the disk space available to the distro ( s ) you decide to keep.

the 3rd partition /dev/sda3 would mount under /xp under Linux, would be NTFS and you would install XP on it ( XP will blow away GRUB during the install if GRUB is installed so you either have to install XP first the Linux or install Linux first then XP then boot from a rescue CD and re-install GRUB after XP removes it ).

Alright, sounds simple enough, even to an idiot like me haha. Another questions, will programs like Photoshop, iTunes, MSN, etc run fine on Linux?

-Pyro

Photoshop yes with WINE or Crossover -- GIMP is a photoshop replacement http://gimp.org/screenshots/

iTunes no idea -- gtk-pod is an iTunes replacement http://www.gtkpod.org/screenshots.html

MSN IM no -- pidgin ( used to be gaim ) supports virtually ALL IM protocols including MSN http://pidgin.im/pidgin/home/ http://pidgin.im/pidgin/about/

You never cease to amaze me Another question (surprise!) I was planning on just getting a Seagate Barracude 320gb Hardrive, but would it be better to have 2 or 3 seperate smaller drives, one for each OS?

Don't forget to mention aMSN, although I do prefer gaim myself (which was renamed to pidgin). Also, if you are using KDE instead of GNOME, you can try out kopete (another multiprotocol chat client)

Also, do you have to use iTunes? If you are just using it to play music, then there are WAY better programs than that like XMMS and Audacious or zinf, all of which aren't bloated like iTunes. If you really need an iTunes like program to import stuff on to your ipod (if you have one), I understand that it can be done through a program called Amarok, which is also a media player and can burn CDs for you. I guess as far as windows is concerned, i've always been a winamp guy to play my music and I use a different program to play my videos (like media player classic or mplayer).

Finally, getting more small drives might not be a horrible idea so that if your windows drive fails, at least you have your linux drive functional. Or what you could do is get like 2 or more disks and set them up in RAID (level 1 i believe) which will do an exact mirror copy of everything that is on one drive to the other on-the-fly so if one drive fails, you keep EVERYTHING intact.

Good luck.

-Zorak