I’m on Linux
Not totally mind, my laptop came and so did Mandriva Linux, so I dual booted it with the Windows MCE which was already installed, however, because its a present I have to wait until Monday before I can properly start using it. But I did spend a couple of hours playing around with it.
The installation went without a hitch, I followed a very handy video tutorial off of youtube:
When the installation finished after about half an hour (not bad), it booted the computer to a bootloader which allowed me to launch Linux or Windows, Linux is default and loaded automatically after 10 sceconds. Booting of the OS took about 30 seconds.
I tried both Gnome and KDE, eventually I decided on KDE because AIGLX and XGL (Compiz) didn’t work on Gnome for some reason. Apparently my laptop cannot support XGL even though everything points to me been able to run it, my laptop is an Intel Celeron M 1.66GHz, with 1GB RAM and a 224MB graphics accelerated adapter.
I brought Mandriva 2007, but should have brought 2007.1 which is the brand new edition, the version I got has out of date software like Mozilla Firefox 1.5, so is a bit behind the times, but hopefully I will be able to perform and upgrade at some point.
I would however like to install more software on my Mandriva OS, so I will have to learn how to use Shell Script, there seems to be plenty of resources on the internet to help you, plus a big handful of very popular forums.
I can’t tell you much yet, because I have only used for a couple of hours before going back in the box, but as from Monday, I will be a linux convert.
So do I see myself switching completely? Not for a while, I need to settle in and I still need some Windows programs so I will be running Windows XP in a virtual machine. Hopefully I will start to find better substitutes for programs in the Linux environment and with tools like Wine, I could well be moving fully to Linux very soon.
Come back on Monday to tell you my opinions on a whole day of working with Mandriva.
http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/
Well done, man. I have enjoyed tracking progress on your blog. Be aware that all transitions take time to get used to, but once you and your PC are liberated, you never go back.
The prefered way to run Compiz on an Intael card is with AIGLX, XGL is currently only important for proprietary ATI drivers because the don’t work with AIGLX, running XGL is at the moment PITA, so you are quite lucky with your Intel card.
ack! i didn’t know you were planning on running Mandriva…i’ve had nothing but issues with RPM-based distros and yum except CentOS…If you want a real, good distro, try out Debian or a Debian-based distro (such as Debian, Knoppix, Ubuntu, Damn Small Linux, etc)
I haven’t done enough research I dont think, I have now installed Mandriva, but have been for the past couple of hours been looking at Ubuntu 6.10, (I know that isn’t the latest version) and have been impressed with its usability and am considering doing a switch from Mandriva to Ubuntu (hoping it wont mess up my brand new laptop), my favourite part is the Add/Remove Applications program which is so much easier to use than Mandriva’s similar program. The only problem is can anybody tell me if the latest Ubuntu comes with Beryl/Compiz, I really like the effects.
I am currently talking to people on the Ubuntu forum http://ubuntuforums.org/, about how I would go about uninstalling Mandriva and installing Ubuntu.
@simnor: i think that’s a wise decision (except go to 7.04, it’s the latest release). The Ubuntu Forums folks are some pretty good people and Ubuntu’s a good distro…the latest Ubuntu DOES come with Compiz and you can very easily install Beryl. and as for the add/remove applications thing, you may want to look into using the Synaptic Package Manager…it has all the features of add/remove applications (and more) and it’s A LOT more powerful, it just has a slight learning curve…
“so I will have to learn how to use Shell Script”
Not totally sure what you mean by that, but most of what you would likely want is just a couple of mouse clicks away, through the software manager. And as ‘usteveu’ said,
http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/
A few things to keep in mind:
1. You shouldn’t need the command line for installing new software. Mandriva — and most other distros — comes with a software management system that works in the GUI just fine. In the case of Mandriva, you access it through the Mandriva Control Center. It allows you to add new software from any of the standard Mandriva repositories, add new software sources (such as the ones available at http://easyurpmi.zarb.org), update existing software, and so on. All GUI, all easy.
2. Definitely add the PLF repositories. There you’ll find all the tools you need for multimedia, such as FAAC and FAAD codecs, DeCSS for DVD playback (download the libdvdcss package), and the win32 binary codec packages. They’re not included in the base Mandriva distro for legal reasons.
3. Most Linux distros come with a live CD these days, so if you ever want to try another one — Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Debian, etc. — you should download the live version, burn it to CD, and give it a spin. Mandriva, in my experience, is a good beginner distro, but you’ll probably find yourself wanting a more stable, more geeky desktop eventually if you’re as much of a computer nerd as you seem.
congrat man… Simnor right??
i am also fresh man in Linux and i also use Ubuntu Linux…
Anyway i have a problem with my Ubuntu.. I look althouth u are new user of Ubuntu but u look so profesional use Ubuntu. So, i need your help…
My Ubuntu cannot play mp3 song… Need to install codec or watever the system want… I have download some Linux software from the internet..(my Ubuntu do not connect to the Internet).. so i try to install offline… But my installation is failed… Anyway how to install software on Linux…
Help me…