Making the switch to Linux-based computing

[JoeEllison]

Well, I'm thinking about it. I have a plethora of computing options available in my house, and a few months worth of summer vacation to screw around with(we're telling my wife that I'm hard at work though... SHHHH!!), and I was thinking about some of that free Linux operating system goodness.

I have an overall plan to create a massively killer gaming PC out of parts I have laying around plus a few new things like 3 video cards and a new mobo. It is going to be a working work-in-progress, so that I won't have to sacrifice desktop access at any stage. The end result is going to be two working computers: one gaming computer, plus most of what's in this computer now. Since I don't feel like paying Microsoft any money to keep this computer going, I'm going to run it on something Linux.

Can anyone with some experience tell me the potential pitfalls I need to watch out for?

 

[Gate2501]

I thought that windows was free.

Just use Peerguardian2 and some proxies

All kidding aside, I used SUSE Linux for a while in a dual boot setup so I could go over there and code. 3 months later... I downloaded python for windows because I hated Linux.

It was just too much of a pain in my butt to do routine tasks after using windows for so long, however I REALLY liked how the directories were layed out, and how transparent the OS was.

 

[Wudang]

If you check the computing section you'll see a lot of discussion. Most recently about the ease of installation and use of ubuntu.

The main problems are:
- you may have trouble getting a good device driver for a less common device
- some software may not be available on Linux or the available software may lack a feature you can't do without.

 

[grmcdorman]

Something of the reverse holds for software, too: sometimes there are better tools on Linux than Windows. Cases in point: Amarok (audio player) and valgrind (developer's program analysis tool); both, to my mind, appear better than the direct equivalents on Windows. (For valgrind, there are commercial equivalents - Purify or BoundsChecker - but they don't do quite the same thing, as I see it.)

There are also a lot of free (usually open-source) applications that are not free - and often very expensive - on Windows, such as a UML diagram editor (Umbrello on Linux).

[My job is working on software development on Windows; at home I dabble a bit with software on both platforms.]

 

[dudalb]

Well, I'm thinking about it. I have a plethora of computing options available in my house, and a few months worth of summer vacation to screw around with(we're telling my wife that I'm hard at work though... SHHHH!!), and I was thinking about some of that free Linux operating system goodness.

I have an overall plan to create a massively killer gaming PC out of parts I have laying around plus a few new things like 3 video cards and a new mobo. It is going to be a working work-in-progress, so that I won't have to sacrifice desktop access at any stage. The end result is going to be two working computers: one gaming computer, plus most of what's in this computer now. Since I don't feel like paying Microsoft any money to keep this computer going, I'm going to run it on something Linux.

Can anyone with some experience tell me the potential pitfalls I need to watch out for?

One Major Pitfall if you are building a gaming computer: Almost all games are designed for Windows,and getting them to run well on Linux can be a real pain in the butt.

 

[Gate2501]

One Major Pitfall if you are building a gaming computer: Almost all games are designed for Windows,and getting them to run well on Linux can be a real pain in the butt.

I think that he meant his old PC will be used for Linux when he buys his new gaming PC which will run windows.

 

[ddt]

Something of the reverse holds for software, too: sometimes there are better tools on Linux than Windows.
[...]
[My job is working on software development on Windows; at home I dabble a bit with software on both platforms.]

Sometimes? I can't envisage software development without a tool like make; or a decent, free, compiler like gcc; and of course an editor like vi. Don't forget lint, BTW! (and yes, I can see the value of an IDE like Eclipse, but sometimes it doesn't do the things I want it to.

The real strength of Linux is of course its Unix heritage: the great set of command line tools which can easily be combined (in pipes) to form a complex command. Add to this its wonderful shell to create scripts. This is something which Windows fundamentally lacks; its tie-in with graphics and its lack of a decent command shell makes it very hard to automate simple, repeatable tasks.

Just a rant from an old Unix fart

 

[Tubbythin]

Something of the reverse holds for software, too: sometimes there are better tools on Linux than Windows. Cases in point: Amarok (audio player) and valgrind (developer's program analysis tool); both, to my mind, appear better than the direct equivalents on Windows. (For valgrind, there are commercial equivalents - Purify or BoundsChecker - but they don't do quite the same thing, as I see it.)

Gah. Amarok always misses of the start of songs when on shuffle on my computer. Its really annoying.

I have some limited experience with Fedora and Ubuntu and I'd say the latter is a lot easier to use (and looks a lot nicer).

 

[rjh01]

I use iTunes for playing my music. I use Windows
- Free
- Easy to use
- Tells me how many times I have played any tune and when I played it last. This means that I can play all my decent stuff in turn.
- Can have complex playlists
- Two way communication to my iPod.

 

[Evilgiraffe]

... and of course an editor like vi. Don't forget lint, BTW! (and yes, I can see the value of an IDE like Eclipse, but sometimes it doesn't do the things I want it to.

The real strength of Linux is of course its Unix heritage: the great set of command line tools which can easily be combined (in pipes) to form a complex command. Add to this its wonderful shell to create scripts. This is something which Windows fundamentally lacks; its tie-in with graphics and its lack of a decent command shell makes it very hard to automate simple, repeatable tasks.

Just a rant from an old Unix fart

I agree about vi, it's a great editor... darn steep learning curve though.

BTW, it's not only old farts who appreciate the *nix command line. I would have been stuffed during my undergrad research (computational chemistry) without grep, awk, sed et al