How many of you completely switched to Linux?

[foxy123]

There are a few websites i can't use; ebuyer have lost my custom as a result and my electricity supplier will be ditched soon - but that is their lost for insisting their customers use IE/windows set-up.
it is quite strange... I am using ebuyer on my Ubuntu box and laptop without any slightest problem.

[jimw1956]

My primary OS is Mac OS X, and now Ubuntu as a strong second. The only reason I own a Windows OS at this point is that I like to play poker online, and the downloadable software works better than playing at a site using java or flash for me.

If I can get WINE installed and running the programs I want to run....goodbye Windows.

[xequence]

I think I posted on this like 10 pages back or something :P

Well, my updated situation... I dual boot but only because my little brother uses windows and my mp3 player is windows only. (Sony is mean!). I am gonna get my little brother to use linux soon but that still leaves my mp3 player and some games (Age of empires, age of mythology) and I dont have cedega and wine only gets simple things like the windows calc and notepad to work.

[remin8]

I want to erase Windows but unfortunately, I'm still a gamer at heart.
I have switched completely. I use ubuntu as my desktop and ClarkConnect as a home server. I also am a bit of a gamer but thats to Cedega and a growing number of games I do just fine!

[sx460]

I was done with Windows back in April. I was sick and tired of the constant updating just to protect your PC from viruses and spyware. Besides the fact that the whole operating system was a piece of crap to begin with and very insecure. I'm not into PC gaming, so Linux is fine with me. I do basic Internet functions and I like to download and burn CD's. But, the only thing that I really haven't been able to do in Linux that I could have easily accomplished with Windows is burning VCDs. It's just so damn complicated that I really haven't bothered with it. With Windows, I would load up Nero, let it convert my files and burn the disc. I also liked to burn emulators for my Dreamcast, which is another thing I cannot do with Linux. Oh, and I used Windows as a video editing platform with my Dazzle DVC USB capture card. I can't do that with Linux because I cannot find the module or program that can detect the capture card and actually capture video with it. Other than those pet peeves, I'm loving this Linux thing.

Linux needs a killer app like Nero. K3B is good, but it not as good as Nero. Since I've migrated to Gnome from KDE when I installed Ubuntu about a month and a half ago, I've been using X CD Roast to burn my data/audio CD's.

The best part about Ubuntu: my mother can get on-line to check her e-mail and surf the web without any help from me. I don't have to worry about her opening a malicious link in an e-mail or downloading some spyware crap or contracting something through ActiveX. For my mother, everything just works.

I find it annoying how people bash Windows left and right and say it's a "piece of crap" and so insecure and unstable. I dislike Windows because of it's price, the fact MS creates it and tries to take over the world by it, I'm not running a legal copy of it, and that losts of the software that runs on it and is great software costs money. I want something less expensive to legally own. I want something that doesn't support the evil MS empire. While everyone is saying how instable Windows [XP] is, I find that hard to agree with. I run it now and it runs great for me. Yes, I have a virus scanner and have to be careful where I surf and have to scan for viruses/spy/adware every once and a while, but being careful I rarely if ever get infected which I believe is what most of you all are complaining about when you describe Window's insecurities.

For a moment get off your Linux high horses and take a second to not lie to yourself about how hard it can be to install video drivers, get the network to work, remove installed programs/track ones you've installed, the cumbersomeness of having to use to the console to fix some (not all) setting/problems. Windows has the beauty of the double-click where you can double click your downloaded video drivers to install them as well as any other program. I'd say a big problem with people not wanting to adobt Linux is because of the initial and ongoing frustrations that occur because it's an ubber-geek centric OS. I'm planning on switching over to Kubuntu 100% (and have an old PC running Windows for seldomly used, non-ported apps like DVDShrink and the different Xbox interoperability software).

I love Linux because I respect it's "let's take a stand back" approach to enhancing security and features. Most importantly I love the strong communities that are built up around it and the grassrootness. It gives warm fuzzies to use and support it, and it gives hope in a time plauged with Windows monotany. It's helped the l33t g33k to become cool. But let's not get on our high horses about the ease of use of Linux and it's ability to answer all of life's questions because when we do that, we hinder Linux's great development with of our Linux arrogance.

[pmj]

I'm fully switched now. :)

[cmh_ubuntu]

I am now using Ubuntu 100% at home. I have been dual-booting or playing around with linux since RedHat 5 or 6, but this is the first distro that had the stability, ease of use and graphical appeal to draw me in...

...PLUS, I lost my Windows XP Certificate of Authenticity when moving (discovered this when trying to rebuild my XP machine with only the data, and not OS, backed-up). I suppose I could call Gateway or Microsoft to see if something could be done, but this was a good excuse to dive in headfirst.

The experiment has been going on for about 2 weeks with good results so far. Having to learn linux to get a job done (as opposed to rebooting into Windows) has made me learn a lot!

There are still a few things I am missing:

- iTunes - I will try amarok with my iPod, having trouble installing it so far (but that is for another thread)

- DVDShrink - Supposedly this works under WINE, but I haven't tried it and have heard mixed reports

- Craxtion - this is a xbox game backup tool that uses .NET, I'm not sure something like this even exists on linux

[aysiu]

I find it annoying how people bash Windows left and right and say it's a "piece of crap" and so insecure and unstable.... While everyone is saying how instable Windows [XP] is, I find that hard to agree with. I run it now and it runs great for me. Yes, I have a virus scanner and have to be careful where I surf and have to scan for viruses/spy/adware every once and a while, but being careful I rarely if ever get infected which I believe is what most of you all are complaining about when you describe Window's insecurities. I totally agree with this. Sure, Windows ME was garbage, but I've had very few problems with Windows XP, and I find it to be a very stable OS. Control-Alt-Delete works about 99% of the time when the computer freezes up or a program hangs.



For a moment get off your Linux high horses and take a second to not lie to yourself about how hard it can be to install video drivers, get the network to work, remove installed programs/track ones you've installed, the cumbersomeness of having to use to the console to fix some (not all) setting/problems. Windows has the beauty of the double-click where you can double click your downloaded video drivers to install them as well as any other program. This is where I start to disagree. My experience with Windows drivers has been difficult. First of all, when I search for drivers, I get weird sites with lots of hyphens in their URLs (i.e., not that trustworthy). Plus, I usually have to track down some weird .inf file. And I've had several issues with programs not having an uninstall entry in the add/remove programs dialogue, or having an entry when it's already been uninstalled (in which case I've had to go to the registry to edit out that removal entry). When Windows works, it works extremely well. When it doesn't work, it's a real pain.



I'd say a big problem with people not wanting to adobt Linux is because of the initial and ongoing frustrations that occur because it's an ubber-geek centric OS. Actually, Linux isn't an OS. I'm not just being nitpicky with words here. Ubuntu is Ubuntu, but it's definitely not Slackware or Linspire. No one can argue convincingly that Linspire is an "uber-geek-centric OS."



But let's not get on our high horses about the ease of use of Linux and it's ability to answer all of life's questions because when we do that, we hinder Linux's great development with of our Linux arrogance. On the contrary, we do nothing of the sort. Ubuntu has a new version that comes out every six months. A lot of other Linux distributions also have a similar (if not totally consistent) development cycle. I can prance around all day saying, "Hey, Linux is easy. Hey, Linux answers all of life's questions," and it's not going to stop Gnome developers from developing or Ubuntu developers from developing.

Why don't you get off your own high horse?

[Lord Illidan]

I haven't switched 100% but almost.

The only thing I use Windows for is gaming and Dreamweaver, as I haven't mastered nvu as yet. Otherwise, I use Ubuntu for almost everything, though I haven't tested the printer...

[Corlian]

I want to move to Linux-only, but I'm still struggling to get basic things to work. I'm knocking them off one by one, but any one of them could send me back to XP licking my wounds.

I think once I can get sound to work in Flash (preferably in Konqueror) and I get the system to find my ATI tv-in broadcast, I'll be set for 100% Kubuntu. Well, and I haven't tried CD/DVD burning yet (first things first...), so that would have to work as well.

I love how I've set up my KDE interface, I love the idea of repositories, and in my experience, most tasks work better and faster under Linux (when the programs don't crash). I'm so happy with that part of the experience that I'm trying with everything I've got to get it to work.

[skatedawe]

As soon as i get my lacie 250gb usb 2.0 hdd.

[jackryan]

i'm just about the final 2 steps away from fully turning to ubuntu oon all my home machines..

1) my skype is having problems making calls
2) i need to get a better download manager (similar to leechget or net transport on windows).

[pet]

Just switched to linux about 2 months or so ago. Ubuntu is the only thing I have tried so far because out of all the distros my partner showed me it looked easiest for me to learn/adjust to. If I ever get a better and faster comp I would consider dual booting linux and windows but the only reason being so that I could play some games.

[fredricsolstad]

I started using Linux last year, switching from WinXP to Mandrake (now mandriva). I tried SuSE aswell, and Fedora Core, but I fell for Ubuntu, parttly for the community, partly for its philosophy, but the two main reasons are: I love using it and it has 100% support for my laptop, my scanner and my printer.

now all I have to do is figure out how to get my webcam to work.. But, no more WinSlows for me

[greywolf73]

I have completely switched to linux. Kubuntu is doing almost everything I want and need to do on a computer :) except that I cannot get it to play dvds ](*,) but other than that I loved the fact that I have switched. :grin:

[mstlyevil]

I have completely switched to linux. Kubuntu is doing almost everything I want and need to do on a computer :) except that I cannot get it to play dvds ](*,) but other than that I loved the fact that I have switched. :grin:

I had the same problem with DVD's until today. Here is a link that might help.

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=30949

I have completely switched to Ubuntu. I did it at first for the challenge of using a linux only system. I can do everything I like to do with this computer just like it is so I am considering not reinstalling my copy of Win XP Pro. I like the fact that ther are more features avilable that will not cost me a arm and a leg to use.

[racecat]

I have XP and Win2000 on puters that I rarely boot up. I am taking the time to get more proficient with Ubuntu before working on getting everything moved over.

I've only been at it for a couple of months. I'm running Ubuntu with KDE also installed under the XFce environment so I can pick and choose favorite apps from each to use.

It's been surprisingly easy to make the switch, considering where I started. I'm probably at about 95% now.

Bill

[Wolki]

I can't remember when I removed Windows... 1-2 years ago I'd say but I forgot. Didn't use it at all for quite some time before that (like booting it up once every six months to see if something was working there) but since the partition was only 1 gig (i tend to keeps my OS partitions small) I left it there. I didn*'t really remove it, but exchange the harddrive and just didn't install it again. Spend that much time for that little usefulness? Easy answer :)

Some time ago I even stopped dual-booting since my harddrive crashed and I had to use a smaller one. Once I have more space, I think I'll dual boot Mandriva again, nice to play around with once in a while due to the excellent support for alternative WMs/DEs. Or maybe triple-boot with development ubuntu... The possibilities are endless :)

[lrnzcpmn]

I had Win xp until 2004, the I switched to Mandrake 10.0 but besides the easy daily use it had urpmi ](*,) (stupid stuff) and then I heard about Ubuntu - how great&good it was :)

[ThatWeirdGuy]

I once completely switched to SuSE 9.1, but there was something about it that I can't remember at this time that I hated. I then switched back to WinXP.

I've just formated my box last night though and put Ubuntu on it, it's looking sweet and as far as I can see I like it, but I just need to get my damn wifi configured before I can put it to use. :P

[gravestone]

I went from DOS to OS/2 Warp, and in 94/95 started using Slackware. Still using Slackware today, along with Suse 9.1 Pro and Kubuntu, which I just installed on my brand new laptop.

I tried Windows once for 2 days. It's a stupid unreliable game!! ;)

[skatedawe]

Now i'm a compltely user of linux.

Ubuntu, wiiiiiie.

Only problem i have is my external hdd freeze. ( Lacie 250gb, im working on it... )

[angkor]

Linux only in my house :)
o Wait, maybe I've got an old pentium II gaining dust in the attic somewhere... \\:D/

[John.Michael.Kane]

Edit: I must amend my post i have now completly switch to linux..

[Brunellus]

I would be totaly switch to linux if only for the fact that help is no ware to be found when you have software issues.. it comes down to diy and post the fix for the rest.. or break the os figuring out how to do something..
...and that's different from windows how?

;-)

With Windows, you have a larger installed base, but not much control over what's really going on. Take your pick.

[John.Michael.Kane]

.........post above edited mods remove thank you

[John.Michael.Kane]

......Mod please delete: post above edited..

[neighborlee]

I would be totaly switch to linux if only for the fact that help is no ware to be found when you have software issues.. it comes down to diy and post the fix for the rest.. or break the os figuring out how to do something..

help IS to be found, you just must look in the right places..IF you can't find help here on these forums ( unlikely but it could happen),,you can find help in IRC in many places..

irc.freenode.net | #lemmings < for starters...lots of decent knowledgeable people hang there and all willing to help at any time you need it...tiny example but thats one place ;( I should know I hang there all the time with good solid friends ..longtime linux veterans)

I can't quite switch completely until I find a way to replace this stupid msaccess, but hey my bad for choosing it to begin with ! .;-))

cheers and good luck
nl

[John.Michael.Kane]

removed and post above edited:

Mod may delete this..

[blastus]

I've been using Linux now for about two weeks but I still need Windows XP for games. I only play RTS games like Age Of Kings, Europa Universalis II, SimCity 4 Rush Hour, Civilization 3 Conquests, The Sims 2 etc... I can't get anything other than solataire to run in Wine and I don't have the knowledge/expertise/patience to try Cedega/VMware and I don't want to spend money on something I don't even know works.

The problem is, is that RTS games (with the exception of The Sims 2) have not and will never be ported to the gaming consoles, which means I'm pretty much stuck with MS-Windows INDEFINITELY. For example, I want Civilization IV when it comes out and know sure that it will never be released on a console. I think gaming consoles are good for FPS games and that's it.

Furthermore, I need to be able to mod games but I've heard console games cannot be modded--which is probably another reason why RTS games are not made for consoles because EVERYONE mods them. Even if they could be modded, they probably don't share the same data structures (like EA Games DBPF) which means that a mod made for a PC version of the game won't work with a PlayStation version of the game. This is a huge problem because I play heavily modded SimCity and Civilization games.

Getting rid of Windows is like a toilet that won't flush. :mad: :mad: :mad:

[foxy123]

I don't have the knowledge/expertise/patience to try Cedega/VMware and I don't want to spend money on something I don't even know works.
I guess it does not require any special knowledge... You can always look into Cedega game database to make sure that the game is run fine under Linux...

SimCity Rush Hours
http://transgaming.org/gamesdb/games/view.mhtml?game_id=3222
Europa Universalis II
http://transgaming.org/gamesdb/games/view.mhtml?game_id=2735
Civilization 3 Conquests
http://transgaming.org/gamesdb/games/view.mhtml?game_id=3238
The Sims 2
http://transgaming.org/gamesdb/games/view.mhtml?game_id=3284

As you can see some of the games a playable but some are still pain in the neck....

Frankly speaking if you have a valid MS licence I do not see any reason to go into all troubles with Cedega, while you can dual-boot. Keep Windows for games and Linux for anything else...

[blastus]

I guess it does not require any special knowledge... You can always look into Cedega game database to make sure that the game is run fine under Linux...

SimCity Rush Hours
http://transgaming.org/gamesdb/games/view.mhtml?game_id=3222
Europa Universalis II
http://transgaming.org/gamesdb/games/view.mhtml?game_id=2735
Civilization 3 Conquests
http://transgaming.org/gamesdb/games/view.mhtml?game_id=3238
The Sims 2
http://transgaming.org/gamesdb/games/view.mhtml?game_id=3284

As you can see some of the games a playable but some are still pain in the neck....

Frankly speaking if you have a valid MS licence I do not see any reason to go into all troubles with Cedega, while you can dual-boot. Keep Windows for games and Linux for anything else...

I've heard of Cedega, but I've heard some bad things about it--like exagerated claims the company makes, like people not being able to get a single game running, like needing a no-CD crack for most games, like the company being unfriendly to Debian Linux and so forth. But I will eventually check it out though. But I feel I need to learn a lot more about Linux before I'm ready to venture into something like that.

I do have legit copies of all my games. So yes, I can run everything I want to run right now in Windows XP and yes it is the most practical solution right now. But I'm looking into the future to the possibility of completely getting rid of Windows and sooner or later I'm going to buy a new PC so...

1. Windows XP may not be able to run on the new computer for whatever reason...it is guaranteed that sooner or later Windows XP will be too old to run on newer hardware. For example, Windows 98 cannot run on my current computer because Windows 98 only supports 512Mb of RAM while my computer has 1024Mb of RAM.

2. Even if Windows XP can run on the new computer, it may be too old to be able to run the games that I want to run. There will be newer versions of SimCity, Civilization etc... that I need to consider and if, by that time, game companies have discontinued support for Windows XP then Windows XP is no longer useful to me for the latest games.

3. If Windows XP can't run on the new computer, then I need to either buy the current version of Windows (whatever version that may be) just to play the games I want OR by this time I've found a solution for running the games I want to run on Linux without Windows--therefore I wouldn't need to buy Windows with that machine. And since Windows is always significantly cheaper when bought with a new PC as opposed to buying it seperately, the decision to get Windows has to be made when I buy a new PC.

[bogoliubov]

I erased Windows about a year ago. I started out with Fedora 2, which was really good. Then I switched to Fedora 3, which was worse than #2. After a while I tried Fedora 4 which was better.

When a friend asked me to installd some linux distro on some old computer to give him, I tried Ubuntu since I had heard that it was quite easy to use. I liked it so much that I now use it instead of Fedora.
The only pain so far is Matlab which won't even begin the installation...

I have tried Ubuntu on my iBook, but I'll stick to OSX for the time being... :)

The only thing I miss about windows is games, but since I try not to play to much, Linux is actually better for me!

[ssck]

I find it annoying how people bash Windows left and right and say it's a "piece of crap" and so insecure and unstable. I dislike Windows because of it's price, the fact MS creates it and tries to take over the world by it, I'm not running a legal copy of it, and that losts of the software that runs on it and is great software costs money. I want something less expensive to legally own. I want something that doesn't support the evil MS empire. While everyone is saying how instable Windows [XP] is, I find that hard to agree with. I run it now and it runs great for me. Yes, I have a virus scanner and have to be careful where I surf and have to scan for viruses/spy/adware every once and a while, but being careful I rarely if ever get infected which I believe is what most of you all are complaining about when you describe Window's insecurities.

For a moment get off your Linux high horses and take a second to not lie to yourself about how hard it can be to install video drivers, get the network to work, remove installed programs/track ones you've installed, the cumbersomeness of having to use to the console to fix some (not all) setting/problems. Windows has the beauty of the double-click where you can double click your downloaded video drivers to install them as well as any other program. I'd say a big problem with people not wanting to adobt Linux is because of the initial and ongoing frustrations that occur because it's an ubber-geek centric OS. I'm planning on switching over to Kubuntu 100% (and have an old PC running Windows for seldomly used, non-ported apps like DVDShrink and the different Xbox interoperability software).

I love Linux because I respect it's "let's take a stand back" approach to enhancing security and features. Most importantly I love the strong communities that are built up around it and the grassrootness. It gives warm fuzzies to use and support it, and it gives hope in a time plauged with Windows monotany. It's helped the l33t g33k to become cool. But let's not get on our high horses about the ease of use of Linux and it's ability to answer all of life's questions because when we do that, we hinder Linux's great development with of our Linux arrogance.

i agree completely.i had no problems with win xp.we should not bash windows but instead focus on improving linux.

[Qrk]

I dual boot. I used to only use MEPIS, but then I bought XP pro for 15$ and office for 7$. I had to really think about whether it was worth the expense to buy them, but I needed to run Chemdraw. But after I installed Windows, I discovered Ubuntu and then xdrawchem. So I'm back to using Linux pretty much exclusively. Any chance of porting apt-get to XP? ;-)

[blastus]

I dual boot. I used to only use MEPIS, but then I bought XP pro for 15$ and office for 7$. I had to really think about whether it was worth the expense to buy them, but I needed to run Chemdraw. But after I installed Windows, I discovered Ubuntu and then xdrawchem. So I'm back to using Linux pretty much exclusively. Any chance of porting apt-get to XP? ;-)

Exactly where do you buy a legal and official copy of XP Pro for 15$? Last time I checked, XP Pro was something like 399$ and XP Home was something like 249$. I live in Canada.

[Eric P.]

exactly yesterday i made a new partition to ubuntu 5.04 but i dunno how to use it completly and i need internet connection to it but cant, my adsl haves dynamic ip and i cant configure it, help me here:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=61991

[bjweeks]

I dual boot. I used to only use MEPIS, but then I bought XP pro for 15$ and office for 7$. I had to really think about whether it was worth the expense to buy them, but I needed to run Chemdraw. But after I installed Windows, I discovered Ubuntu and then xdrawchem. So I'm back to using Linux pretty much exclusively. Any chance of porting apt-get to XP? ;-)
You got scmmed there is no way you can get a new legal copy of Windows XP for 15 $ the cheapst you can find it for is 80$. Its more than likely that yours is pirated copy.

[zugvogel]

My computer's 100% ubuntu, and this is for 3 reasons:

1. Principle. I disagree with the barely-legal immoral business tactics of microsoft. I like the freedom of linux, even if it can sometimes be much more work to do something.

2. I've only got a 20gb hard drive and couldn't really have both linux and windows on there at the same time anyway!

3. Ubuntu is my choice, because paying to upgrade Suse was not an investment I wanted to make at the time, and also my laptop was having trouble running KDE without overheating. Gnome is much better in this respect.

[Eric P.]

You got scmmed there is no way you can get a new legal copy of Windows XP for 15 $ the cheapst you can find it for is 80$. Its more than likely that yours is pirated copy.
he didnt said it was legal, if he want use pirated thingees, let him do it, i got roller coaster tycoon 2 for $4 and its pirated. big deal, now i can do cool roller coasters

[Eric P.]

cant find the difference between KDE and Gnome.

[slade_slater]

God if only... I wish I was there (windows free, that is)--almost though!

[new2ubuntu]

I have always been a fan of "alternate OS's". I was a fan of OS/2 and BeOS before they died tragically. Right now the only reason I still use Windows is for games and audio editing. If I could find a Linux app that more or less duplicated GoldWave or CoolEdit, that would be one less reason to use Windows.

Os/2 is not dead, it's EcomStation now :)

[The Warlock]

You got scmmed there is no way you can get a new legal copy of Windows XP for 15 $ the cheapst you can find it for is 80$. Its more than likely that yours is pirated copy.
He might have gotten it used or something. Maybe even from someone who switched over to Linux.

[Brunellus]

He might have gotten it used or something. Maybe even from someone who switched over to Linux.
reselling under those terms violates microsofts licence agreement, I think.

[Wolki]

reselling under those terms violates microsofts licence agreement, I think.

But that part of the license agreement is not valid in many countries.

[petr]

I have. Problems are people now send me powerpoint. I can use open office, but something light weight like antiword would be very useful.

Petr.

[perseus]

I'm still a windows user, because of UT2004!

For all the other things, I can say I made a complete switch to Debian. I've got a fully functional nVidia 3D, timidity midi, PCM audio volume control, with Alsa. And programs like Rosegarden, Firefox, Thunderbird, various games, and also old dos games, that were in my very very old 386, played with Dosbox!

Then I use GNU solfege, and many, many applications, like Gimp (of course).

There's only one last thing to do. I've got a bluetooth adapter to link my Nokia mobile phone. I made a link between my linux box and it, but I still have to learn to download/upload files, and my work is finished!


Then... I'm the "administrator" ](*,) of the very small net of my father's shop. Well' after years of "amazing" win98 (viruses and continous crashes... of course!), I finally made a switch to linux. The only matter are some win only programs that sometimes are required in SOHO, like catalogs, and small specialized apps.
Well, now it's all ok! After a good dose of qemu, very limited windows install, windows can be played in linux, with very low boot times (to be honest, less than the normal win boot) and those few apps that don't run in linux/wine can be used in a true (even if virtual) win environment.

Ah! I also used a old pentium I 75, with 32 megs of ram, small hd, with an old isa 10Mbps, and a low cost 100Mbps network adapters to run IPCOP, with Copfilter. Fully functional and free firewall!

There's only 3 words: LINUX IS GREAT!!!

[metadocks]

I continue to use my Mac and Linux (Red Hat, SUSE and Ubuntu).

[XDevHald]

Hmm, I think I answered this one before. I've switched because I have nightmares of Bill gates knowing I have his OS on my HD. He welcomes all to the Gates of Hell :twisted:

[lucid]

I like to keep my options open when I can so I'll keep dual booting for a while with Windows XP. There are apps which I like/need to use which require it. The reason I'm trying Linux is that I'm excited by the possibilities it allows for greater freedom, sharing, and communication. Programs like Firefox and OpenOffice caught my attention, and made me realise that open source had evolved to a point where I could join, and hopefully participate. I had tried Fedora Core 3 briefly, but didn't get into it. Once I've a handle on Ubuntu I'll likely explore a few other distros, try KDE, etc. Though, I've naturally synced with Ubuntu, and there is a sense of recognition that this distro has simply got it right, certainly right for me, and that it will remain the main os on my comp. So will I completely switch? In three weeks of using Ubuntu I already spend 80% of my time using Linux, and I'm learning about apps such as WINE to increase that time as much as I can. I love it.

[[pl]ice]

Moved to kubuntu fully 6 months ago;after 98 didn't want to install correctly....
big difference! but what a adventure!!! there is so much to learn/explore that it's really devastating ;)

now got it on 2 pc's. I guess same as others, problems with video conversion.

I have to agree also that ubuntu is much easier to use that other linux systems!!!

[TimelessRogue]

Since finding and installing Ubuntu on my HP laptop I have basicly switched entirely over from Winlose 2000 Pro aside from a few documents and such that I am in the midst of converting from Lotus Wordpro and Lotus 123. At the moment am dual booting in order to have access to all of that 'til 100% converted at which point I may or may not leave the "Other" system installed on a much smaller partition as an emergency backup since I don't really need the room for Ubuntu.

By the way, the download and install went flawlessly with the minor exception of my modem, which is requiring some tweaking. But since I generally use wireless for my internet connection this is not really a problem, though I would like to have it as a backup.

Looking forward to Breezy when it's finally released as a full-on stable release.

[chajuram]

Hi Everyone,

I moved to linux about three months back. Since then I have booted into windows may be three times. I absolutely love this system. If you spend a few nights, it works like a song.

I still need windows for my scanner an HP 3970. And a streaming music site that I love can't play on linux. So I sacrificed that site for linux.

I installed ubuntu on my laptop (an old laptop) and removed windows altogether. and i am loving it.

Chajuram.

[jeffreyvergara.NET]

Hi Everyone,

I moved to linux about three months back. Since then I have booted into windows may be three times. I absolutely love this system. If you spend a few nights, it works like a song.

I still need windows for my scanner an HP 3970. And a streaming music site that I love can't play on linux. So I sacrificed that site for linux.

I installed ubuntu on my laptop (an old laptop) and removed windows altogether. and i am loving it.

Chajuram.
just moved to Ubuntu from WinXP... hehehe.. but I think it will only be temporary cuase I cant mount my 2nd Hard Disk... if only I could make it work.. ehehe

[Christopherius]

I have said goodbye to windows for now and switched to Linux only because I cannot play newer games on my pc.

[down2one]

a friend of mine gave me an ubuntu copy a month ago...

i tried the live CD but some files couldn't be copied, so i went ahead and installed the whole thing anyway...

microsoft = evil empire...

sidestory: MS made a scouring of bootleg windows copies here just the other day, caused most of the shops to close down... hehe...

days before that, i kept telling my friends to switch to linux/ubuntu...
they told me they were fine... until the 'raid'...
i went to a friend's shop yesterday and they were installing ubuntu all over the place... :grin:

can you say "i told you so"?
\\:D/ \\:D/

ps: the only thing we won't be able to do with ubuntu is play online games like Ragnarok, or GunBound... but what the heck, i don't play those, as long as i can play war3...

[seiflotfy]

I want to erase Windows but unfortunately, I'm still a gamer at heart.
i think with time more and more games are goign to be released for linux
http://www.linux-gamers.net

[dangman4ever]

I've completely moved to Ubuntu Linux. In fact I've deleted my windows partition as well. LOL. Been a Linux user for 4 months now and I really haven't seen the need to go back to XP.

Thanks to the makers of Ubuntu Linux!

[dtfinch]

I still have Windows on an older system. Linux and even dos games using vesa have always had garbled video. I rarely turn that system on though.

My newer system is a cheap cheap Dell Dimension 2400, sold without Windows (came with FreeDOS instead). On this I've installed Slackware, Mandrake, Fedora 2, Suse, CentOS 3, Warty, Hoary dev, CentOS 4, Hoary final, and finally Breezy dev. I've probably missed some. This system has been through a lot, but the most MS software it's ever run is the w32codecs package for mplayer.

Most of the ubuntu upgrades were preceded by gnome (nautilus in particular) automagically f*cking itself, such that even creating a new profile or reinstalling parts of gnome wouldn't fix it. Warty was fine though, except that I needed to upgrade to Hoary to get an important driver fix that was in X.org but not XFree86.

I really do miss Visual Studio. I've long been pampered by seamless integration between form designer and code editor, but my big reason for switching to Linux was to gain better cross platform development skills. The other parts were flexibility, a better understanding of Linux, MS investments in SCO, and Get The Facts. I still run Windows at work though.

[chimera]

I never intended to "completely" switch to linux-I have been playing with the LiveCD ubuntu for the past two months-nothing serious,I just wanted to try something different.Recently,I accidently deleted my windows partition,and since I can't install windows back because I don't have the CD,I installed ubuntu(which a linux zealot friend of mine provided),you I guess now I "completely switched"

In ubuntu,I can do just about everything I did in windows - I can surf the internet,write stuff&print it,and play nexuiz.


chimera

[bdash]

Linux only for about 3 years. I just realized that I never booted up Windows, so it was useless to keep it on my disk.

[zugvogel]

Recently,I accidently deleted my windows partition,and since I can't install windows back because I don't have the CD,I installed ubuntu(which a linux zealot friend of mine provided),you I guess now I "completely switched"

chimera

I wonder for how many people, the final push to 100% linux is the fact that they've killed windows in one way or another?

The final push to linux came for me when I "chmod -R 555"'ed my FAT32 windows partition... somehow this caused Windows to run very slowley with the CPU constantly at 100%. Setting permissions in a none-permissions-based format is obviously a bad thing. The only thing to do was to copy the data off it and do a clean install, but this time 100% with Ubuntu...

[Goober]

I use Windows for 2 reasons:

1 - I am taking a "Software Applications" course at College, and it teaches us how to use Micro$oft Office, Word, Excel, Access, all that crap. Needless to say, I detest the course, just like I detest Word with a passion, and I especially detest having to use Office, but, well, 'tis life. Of course, OpenOffice is suitably close to Office that I can use most applications like I can in Office.

2 - Gaming. I don't want to buy Cedega or something, and WINE doesn't work for games that I want to play, so I must use Windows for playing games. Of course, now that I am in College, I really dun have the time for it . . .

Aside from those 2 things, especially the first, I use Ubuntu for everything, and have happily been doing so since the beginning of this June. I am 95% completely switched to Linux. Oh, and my parent's new Printer, HP PSC100, works with Linux which is awesome.

[markmark]

I've tended to throw linux on my machine every year or so, then I'd play with it for a while and end up ditching it because I couldn't play the games I wanted to. About six months ago my XP install was starting to really chug, and the way it was going to harddrive cache whenever I even clicked a menu was driving me nuts. So I figured I'd try out Ubuntu, and I haven't looked back.

About two months ago I had to replace my motherboard. After the replacement the XP partition wouldn't boot, so I just formatted it and haven't missed it since I don't game much anymore.

My only remaining windows usage is that I run an app that flashes my GBA flash cart under vmware.

[mstlyevil]

I tried for 2 weeks just linux. I had some games I missed and some internet sites that I wanted to go to. So I put XP back on and I am now dual booting again. Also even after I got my DVD issues worked out, I still had a few DVD's that refused to play on linux. Linux is getting close though. I bought a new book called Running Linux from O'Reilly to help me better learn to configure linux so I can completely ween myself from Windows. So in the future I will try single booting linux again.

[bob_c_b]

I'm cut over completely to Linux now, the only reason I was still using XP at all was gaming, but I hardly have time anymore so I am free of MS.

[geearf]

Now I have a dual boot on both desktop and laptop, but I never run Windows anymore, except when I was at my school in Paris, cause only Windows is supported to get WiFi there ... Else, if the game does not run under wine / cvscedega, then I drop it :)

[casperl]

I have been using Ubuntu full time on a new box since April 2005. I have a second box running Windows. That box was still switched on for April - July. Since then it has remained switched off.

Maybe the follow-up question should be "What Windows Applications do you miss the most." There lies the rub.

Believe me it is not difficult to forget Windows for ever.

My favourite Windows Apps that I miss primarily because I had bee productive in them and I am still finding my way with the Linux counterparts:

Windows software I pine for....

Paint Shop Pro v8/v9 - The GIMP may be better but the P in PSP should have stood for 'Productive'
Natural Media Filter for the above PSP
Windows Commander - Linux has imitators with limitations....
NoteTab Pro - The all time productive text editor that can do things that chokes Kate / Gedit / GVim / Bluefish, even VIM and everything else I have tested.
Macromedia Freehand - Still the drawing software I prefer - maybe in a few versions Inkscape may arrive. Currently Inkscape delivers 90% of my requirement in any case.
Quickbooks Pro - GNU cash currently does the job but ....
MindManager - The only Mind Mapping program worth considering on any platform.
HTML Editor - can be made to work with WINE but is not the same though...
Palm support - the Gnome desktop tries it's best, but the state of Linux Palm support is lamentable..
Delphi - I miss the ability to quickly start Delphi and put together a custom program in an evening using the Pascal I already know. Ubuntu should do serious work with Borland to make the personal version of Kylix (the 'free' and limited version) available in the .deb format. I know Kylix is not GPL but this is what 'this' market wants!
Irfanview - a no nonse, immensely powerful and adaptable graphics viewer.
Autoplay Menu Studio - Interactive CD & Presentation Editing Suite

I have wine installed but my experience is of wine just not being quite stable enough.

I have had to install PHP based project management, trouble ticket/helpdesk and invoicing software to fill the gaps.
I have had to install proper Sun Java (NOT GPL!) with Java software to fill the gaps in web editors, outlining and presentation software.

Were it not for Mind Manager, Autoplay Menu Studio, PSP plus its filters and Macromedia Freehand, I would never ever have to switch my PC on again!

It should not be impossible to port Paint-shop Pro, Irfanview, Notetab Pro and Windows Commander to Linux...

Maybe just maybe a few more messages such as this would give the Linux coders an idea of where the need lies.

[j2r7]

At work it is Windows XP and 2000/2003 servers - and that is work, I have snuck a couple kubuntu workstations as kiosks there. At home all linux for 4 years, dual booting longer than that. PPC and amd64. Linux for me is not work - it is gametime- I play OS's.

[dtfinch]

Lazarus seems to be doing a good job at cloning Delphi on Linux, but I don't use Delphi so I'm not sure how far they have left to go. The executables it produces are huge, because unused parts of the libraries aren't getting stripped, but supposedly it'll be easy for them to fix, just not a priority at this stage in development. I messed with Kylix but never got it to work, and it's unmaintained by Borland.

[jeffreyvergara.NET]

I was a not too sure before if I really want to switch to Linux. I used several linux distro, installed it and after a few days... reinstalled Window$ again and again... then I found our Ubuntu, I was not really sure about switching to Ubuntu and I was thinking to go back to Window$ because I can't figure it out how to configure my internet... I only used window$ so I can configure my Internet, then I finally figured it out. After that, I forgot about Window$... I'll never use it again.

[mjkey]

Well, quite by accident was my switch to Ubuntu. Wanted to try Linux for a long time and after running the "live" distro I was impressed. To make the story short, I wanted to dual boot so I already had Partition Magic and Boot Magic loaded in my XP. Thinking(?) that I would remove Boot Magic and let Grub do my partitioning for Ubuntu. It DID NOT work. As soon as I removed Boot Magic XP became unaccessable. So here I am trying to understand Linux and liking it!

[rodgreenwood]

I have completely switched to Ubuntu. I had so much trouble with Windows and was glad that Linux came on the scene.I endeavoured to load many Linux os and liked Fedora 1, However, Ubuntu came on the scene and I now use this as my main one. I have a dual boot system so that I can use Xandros when I need to. I cannot get Realplayer to work other than as a stand alone radio player with Ubuntu and Xandros
does the job. Any thoughts from anyone on this?
The most effective video player has been Noatun. I have also replaced Open Office & Abiword with later versions of the same. I cannot seem to get Gnucash to work on Ubuntu so any thoughts on this one?
Meanwhile I am more than pleased with Ubuntu and I can't see myself changing again!

[Velox Letum]

Have been using Linux on my desktop off and on since Redhat 7...interesting times. Been using Linux on servers constantly since about that time as well, and in July I completely switched to Linux as my primary OS, though stayed dual-booted until last week when I reformatted my Windows drive and made it into my /home partition.

[debian_n00b]

I run only GNU/Linux at home. Have been free of Miscrosoft for about 2 years now. In fact, I only support friends/family these days if they allow me to install Linux on their machines and be retrained.

In my personal experience, I find GNOME-Linux-OSS to be more classy, reliable, functional and sturdy than anything i've ever used on a desktop system. And it's free. Free of charge.

Ubuntu is a remarkable Desktop PC solution. I am smitten with it. Granted, to do some stuff you do require a more intimate knowledge of the OS than your average beginner. But that's only because some of the stuff we install is required for optimal use that aren't included by default. Shouldn't a COMPLETE repo list be available on install so that the user is prompted and given a disclaimer during install that would require permission to install non-free software? That would be perfect.

Alas, until some widespread global vendor support is gained by OSS creators and distributors, Us, the users, will have to spread the good word and do the leg work of installing the OS.

[cvmostert]

I have a slow machine and use ubuntu on it... have a laptop with XP, dont use it much though...

my skype works fine... i use it as my mail system... Linux is getting there... i will allways have it from now on... :-)

CIao

[Sirin]

Did it yesterday and i'm very happy. Went from 20GB on my harddrive to 40GB, just for Ubuntu. I have my restore discs in case I want to go back to XP, but they won't be used anytime soon.

[andrewsawyer]

I have been using Hoary on my laptop for a good few months now, and I have wiped XP off completely. In fact, I couldn't go back even if I wanted to, as I've lost the first disk of my Tablet PC recovery disk set. The one thing I miss is the touchscreen. I've been told it's possible to get it working, but I've not been abe to... yet.

I am also proud to announce that as of yesterday, I wiped Windows off my media server, and installed Hoary - I just couldn't wait any longer for Breezy to come out. I think I will upgrade about a week or so after release and then install MythTV over it. In the meantime, I'm copying 300Gb of data from an NTFS drive over to my Ubuntu drive, so I can format the drive out of NTFS and then start all over again with another 300Gb onto that one - oh the fun of it!

On a side note, my girlfriends laptop is away for repair at the moment - dead hard disk. So she has been using my machine. She's got so used to my layout that she doesn't want to go back to Windows anymore. She's asked me to 'upgrade her' to Ubuntu the minute her machine is back. Spread the word - Ubuntu is good.

[Greyfoxwolf]

[for the ppl not intrested in my story to linux and kubuntu just read the last part]

i am a "full" linux user for about 4 days now
my first experiance with a linux distro was suse (about 8-12 months ago), wel it was ok, but didnt feel right, i dont know, i never realy got comfortable with it. ended up deleting it.

Then a few months later a friend recommended me Debian, well you can feel this one comeing, the install was daunting and i just gave up, i needed alot of help and this friend wasnt so friendly afterall........

a few days ago i went totaly balistic @ windows and its crappy....almost everything, constant security patchwork, spyware (even with all the extensive precautions, firewalls, anti spyware) slowdowns, task manager full with active **** i didnt issue and thats just the tip of the iceberg. most of the time i get angry but after counting till 10 i always feel relaxed, but this time it had gone far enough, i gave my pc a firm lowkick which almost totaly destroyed the casing (no hardware damage luckly).

After searching for a while i found ubuntu and its kde version kubuntu, so i decided to give it a go. The first time i ran it for about 2 days and ended up destroying it, i did learned a lot by doing that :razz: . i couldnt get any help so i reinstalled it, because it was a piece of cake and with synaptic it was configuered to my liking, installed a few other debs manualy and i was done.

Anyway im runing kubuntu for about 4 days and believe it or not i have booted windows for only 2 times for about 5 minutes total.
It is totaly difrent than windows, it has been (and still is) quite an interesting learning journey. The cool thing is i can atleast teach my dad the stuff i learned, we are now both linux noobies, and its good that he doesnt lag behind.
While i learn all of this stuff about command lines, mounting, the directory system, package system, root and so forth and start getting the hang of it. I always seem te think: hey hmmm....well....uuuhhm.....thats such a logical way to do it...why doesnt windows implement it.
The longer i stay in kubuntu the more i start getting anoyed by windows.

To make a long story short: I love my linux-distro, im all for it
(though still need to get raki and my printer working, must be me doing something wrong :) )

[A few thanks would be in good order now
i would like to thank: the whole ubuntu/kubuntu development team for making such a good linux-distro, from install to everyday use and the ubuntu/kubuntu comunity for beeing so supportive for eachother. If ubuntuforums.org and its exelent members didnt exist i would have dropped kubunto too.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THANK YOU ALL FOR FREEING ME]

[stevenaleach]

I was a DOS and occasional Windows (Windows 3.1, not 95 or later) user until 1995, I had already played with Linux a bit (Mini-Linux which lived on an MS-DOS file system and was booted using a dos executable) and finally switched over to Slackware completely once I finally managed to download all of the floppy images from a BBS. I have used various Linux distributions since, as well as BSD, Sys-V Unix on an old AT&T 3B2, and Mac OS X. I have no use for a non *nix operating system, and have not run Windows in over a decade. Prior to Ubuntu, I have run a number of distributions, most recently Gentoo, and ArchLinux before that. I can honestly say that installing Ubuntu was quite an experience - this is the first time that I have ever installed any distro and not had to manually configure X or my sound card on any machine. In fact, I have only had to edit a configuration file once on my laptop - xorg.conf to turn off mouse tapping for my touchpad.

[Tinuz]

I have tried a few distributions before, but everytime i had to configure X myself and put up with poor hardware support. I have tried Ubuntu before, but then it nuked my windows install so i didn't use it anymore.
About 4 months ago i tried ubuntu again and had instant support for everything on my comp. Since then i only booted into windows once or twice, so i think i can say i have completely switched.

[urbandryad]

I have to connect to the net on Windows Machines at the University. But my computer is only running linux. And it has all the games I like already in the OS: Majong, solitaire, etc. :3

Just need to get some of my online games to work on it. Highly unlikely, but there's a Furcadia for Linux project in the works apparantly. RO will never be ported to any non Windows OS. And thats about that. XD

I'm really enjoying the Gnome desktop. :3 So much fun!

[Gandalf]

After being with ubuntu for more than 6 months i completely switched to ubuntu now... i formatted yesterday my laptop and now i'm using breezy and gotta say it rulezzzz :D :D :D

[christooss]

Im using Ubuntu from Dec 2004. And every new version supprises me ina good way. Breezy is fabolus. Since Dec 2004 I am only Linux user to. Im glad that Ubuntu is based on GNOME. Its far more usable for me than KDE :) I alredy sad that I will stay with Ubuntu till the bitter end. My bitter end. Till death do us part (or something like this). I must say that I was a real newbie when starting Linux conquest. But you guys made me almost profesional. i have recieved a lot of useful help on this Forum. And now I can contribue back. In Slovenia we are building a Ubuntu comunity and I can really help those people beacause of all the knowledgement I recievd here. Thank you UBUNTU FORUMS.

P.S I can't wait for the new version off Ubuntu Drapper Drake :) I love all new "****" coming from Ubuntu :)

[Pete051]

There's only been linux on my machine for about 3 years now, various varities. Mandrake nice but too buggy, gentoo beautiful once you get it installed but for the last year only ubuntu but I think I'll wait for the stable release before I upgrade from hoary to breezy. :smile:
Pete

[darkmatter]

Linux only for several years now (except for the odd time I've had to install Windows to help people troubleshoot problems).

Breezy is awesome. If only GNOME had the eye candy of KDE 3.5 beta 1.:( (GNOME is better desktop in general, IMHO. But KDE has more polish)

The good news is that things keep getting better. Now if the devs could only start integrating search and database services into the file system...

[Gandalf]

Wat is the "eye candy of KDE 3.5 beta 1" ?

[darkmatter]

KDE 3.5 beta 1 has better (read faster and more stable) compositing, with an option for 'glass' windeco effects. There are also many other small improvements graphically.

http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=29557
is a good visual example.

[Gandalf]

Ah ok that's so cool i hope Gnome will add these graphical improvement too
Thanks for the info

[darkmatter]

The sidebar shown in Konqueror is a modded version of metabar. It would be nice if Nautilus implemented the display of metadata in a similar fashion.

The current view just doesn't give enough info.

[flibble]

I fall into the 'completely switched except' category. Been using linux for 5 years now, gentoo for most of it but as a grad student I found I didn't have time for all the compiles... Ubuntu suits me very well and it's getting better all the time. Ubuntu shares something I value highly with gentoo - an excellent user community and forum. I would love to completely dump windows forever except I'm required to use a statistics package, SPSS, and I can't get this to run under wine. I've had it running under vmware though, so I'll try qemu during the semester break...

[Nego]

I still have a windows partition for games and my scanner. I think once my scanner starts to work on linux I'll switch, but untill then Ill have to waste 10GB

[laforge]

Still keep windows on desktop for gaming. Probably will dual-boot when i get my new computer though. Ubuntu is on laptop, only one that has "worked" so far. Still having trouble with wireless.

[cobelloy]

I have been using Ubuntu only on my main computer ever since a windows virus ate my MBR early this year, and also now it is the only OS on my daughters cool little iMac, my husband just swapped back to windows from Mepis on his lappy though - linux isn't really for him.

On a side note though, I was disgusted yesterday to be told by a brain-dead Telstra rep (Telstra is the biggest phone/internet carrier in Australia) that if I wanted to have sattelite broadband (only kind I can get as I am in a remote place) that I would have to have windows2000/XP on my computer, she had no idea why, ie-which peice of hardware was the culprit so I could get my own, and clearly had never heard of linux, so I told them to shove it. Luckily for me Bordernet (1300 730 302) have a linux solution for sattelite broadband, so I have decided to get rid of all my Telstra services and have VoIP+broadband with them.

Ubuntu has been great at our place so far, it does all the things we want our computers to do, except that I would like to get gcompris on my daughters imac and the version in the repositories is not the same as the data set version - and it won't install!!

[charlyee]

I have gone back an forth with Ubuntu and XP. Presently I am using Ubuntu, I still miss occassionally some of the programs in Windows, specifically Quicken and Activesync for my PDA, ( I have never been able to get my Toshiba to work with SYNCE) yet all in all Ubuntu is every bit as viable as Windows. It works and being free makes it doubly nice.

[vehyla]

After a day or 2 of battling with cedega I gave all the game support I need. Which for me only really consists of Counter-Strike and WoW. But I have official killed my windows (gaming machine) and gone full linux in my house. And one Solaris server.

[swerner]

I want to erase Windows but unfortunately, I'm still a gamer at heart.
My 2 cents worth: I've been using Linux exclusively on my own PC since 1998. However, I am forced to use Windows at work and other times.

[feloc]

I'm having problems getting tv-out (Intel I380 chip) to work in Ubuntu. That's about the only reason I sometimes use XP.

[daniel49]

Linux is a novelty a trinket for me I have duel boot installs of fedora and ubuntu.

In the rare instance I have a problem in windows I can usually fix it fairly quickly.
Usually a linux problem means hours or days of google/hacks/ and or whining to my linux buddies for help.

adware and virus are making good inroads to mac and linux its not under full scale attack like windows but at least if I get hit in windows I know what to do?

It takes forever to get everything set up in linux the way you want but once you get it there it is stable.

I am finding the ubuntu guide is all ready out of date or oversimplified on many things..I may try a distro next like blah blah where many of the things you have to hunt down in linux are already there and waiting.
Although I don't mind learning as I go it means your not exactly getting a whole lot done in actual work a lot of times.

[loksipan]

I have recently completely switched.

I started several months back with Openoffice, Firefox and Thunderbird running parallel to MS Office on WinXP. On finding MS Office unnecessary I uninstalled it. Finally, I switched to Ubuntu with my original WinXP drive stuffed into an external USB enclosure. Now finally that usb drive has been scrubbed and I feel clean.

PC: Fujtsu Lifebook P7010
Installation smooth, on the whole it works like a charm.
Problems: cannot use built-in SD Card reader, finger-printer scanner or modem, haven't tried the PC card reader though.
Sound doesn't always work - eg some video clips, Skype etc.
Cursor jumps all over the place just after boot up unless I leave it alone. Sometimes jumps during typing.

Had difficulty configuring Ubuntu to use an Ricoh Aficio 2022 printer via LAN - following linuxprinting CUPS advice I didn't get anywhere, using UNIX printer setting plus printer IP address it is ok.

All-in-all the experience has been very satisfying - I was expecting worse.

[dis-abled]

Ubuntu rocks as far as i am concerned. I can't stand Windows any more, I don't even bother with my vmware windows setup that I had in case of emergency. I tried a whole lot of Linux before (slack - fun but lots of work, Mandrake -seemed great then seemed to reconfigure things automatically and screw them up, Redhat yuck, SUSE - Kind of nice, BSD - Rocking stable but X-Windows was a pain, Debian, nice, lots of X-Windows probs. Overall the biggest problem was printing, as soon as that first Ubuntu test print page came out after 2 min of configuring I thought, hey, they seem to have worked things out, I'll try it a while. So far it has been a dream with the exception of a couple of packages.

I still don't trust the webserver packages, esp Plone but tonight I got that running under zeo and just finished compiling Apache. Fun to get real work done rather then messing with printers, sound and other fairly basic stuff...ahhh now if they can just get the accessability stuff going I will be in computing heaven...

Yea ha!

[asipi]

I am completly switched to linux 2 years ago. I found opensource softwares for all task, and the most of them are better for me then the others in ms systems, and also it is free...

I am using Opera as webbrowser and mail client (in windows also at my workplace)
OpenOffice as office suit
and mainly Gnome and gtk softwares for other purposes.
Mysql as database system

that's all in my mind at this moment... :cool:

[NikoC]

Not completely, still have a small windows partition of about 10 gb... need windows for some applications @ university... for now ;)

[blastus]

I have recently completely switched.

I started several months back with Openoffice, Firefox and Thunderbird running parallel to MS Office on WinXP. On finding MS Office unnecessary I uninstalled it.

I must say that the Firefox-Thunderbird-OpenOffice triangle is a force that Microsoft cannot reckon with because anyone who uses these programs on Windows will find it easier to migrate to Linux. I know I did and the above poster is also a witness.

I just switched to Linux recently also. I started using Firefox and Thunderbird back in the summer of 2003 and OpenOffice several months ago migrating all my data to these applications.

[Iandefor]

No more Windows for me! I've been using Ubuntu exclusively for about two months now (and before that, Xandros for about half a year). Thankfully, I've been able to find a replacement for all the applications I used under Windows.

[brt]

i started with Debian Potato in 2001 as a server, my workstation followed 2002 when Woody came out, some time later i switched to Sid until Ubuntu came... :razz:

[wzzrd]

I've been using Linux as my primary OS since, oh, at least 2001. Can't remember really. Every time I have to use Windows at work or something it ticks me off a little more.

Laptop at home runs Arch, desktop runs a zillion distro's in multi-boot. I always have Gentoo and Ubuntu on there though, those partitions never get mke2fs'ed. I like playing with different distro's. There's so much to learn :)

Anyway, dunno if you guys are aware of this, but broken laptop ACPI-BIOS code can be fixed relatively easily. Just check the acpi.sf.net site and you're battery monitor on your laptop will be running as smooth as... something frolicingly smooth.

[chinaski]

on 20th of september I installed Ubuntu 5.04, on 25th I ran XP for the last time, last week I removed it totally.

good luck to me!:D

[civilwarlord]

I keep a small partition for XP on my laptop for games, and as a reference to when people come to me for help on their Windows-based computers (and they do come for me for help). The rest goes to Ubuntu. I've tried at least 20 different distrobutions in the past few years, and settled on Debian (mainly because of apt-get), but I got tired of the outdated packages, so I switched to Ubuntu, I have a Toshiba A35-1593, and everything works.:D

[mit]

I still have XP dual booting with Ubuntu (even though i haven't used it since installing Ubuntu!)- but not for much longer.
As soon as i know more about this great OS that's me converted 100% :KS

[luckyaba]

Went without linux for 6 months until i built my new computer and sli'd my graphics cards together. Nvidia doesn't have a driver supporting it yet so i use windows for a couple games. Other than that i got 64bit breezy with the SMP kernel for my dual core and i think it runs faster than windows does.......

[joanverde]

In my case:

No windows games = full switch. Done!

Runnign smooth and nice, though it feels a bit a hard to learn unix in
a couple of weeks but with this forum I seem to manage. :smile:

[strawman]

i have a dual boot HP nc8000 laptop. i like to play doom3 and half-life2 occasionally and it's much easier (for me) to do this in XP. Now that i got suspend to ram going i haven't used xp for some time.

it's all good :D

[sean.smithson]

I switched over to GNU/Linux when I first installed Redhat, that was a long time ago though, back in the 4.2-5.0 days... And that's when windows left my trusty Pentium 166MHz for good. Soon after the Redhat 5.1 days I switched to Slackware, then came the Slackware 4.x to 7.0 jump, changes that I didn't like. Since then I've been in a perpetual distro hopping stage, used Mandrake, Gentoo, Archlinux, Debian, Fedora, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and pretty much any other opensource OS (haven't given Dragonfly a chance yet), until I settled on Ubuntu.

[justmehere]

wots windows? don't look back.

[Nomearod]

I installed Suse in my desktop but i did something wrong and deleted the windows partion, but now i'm happy because of that mistake ^_^

In my laptop I have WinXP and Ubuntu 5.10. Sometimes, I need to use some app of windows because of school, so I can't use only Linux : (

In the desktop I have Suse 10.0 and Ubuntu 5.10 with duall boot.

[Drakx]

100% Linux on the pc and Laptop, then if thats not enough mac os x for the mac too

[bluck]

I want to erase Windows but unfortunately, I'm still a gamer at heart.

Let go of your safety blanket! :)

you can play games on linux.
Im relatively new to Ubuntu (coming from FreeBSD), and i gotta say, i like it.
I'm going to use Ubuntu to convert all my windows friends. ;)

though, FreeBSD is still my fav OS. This might be the familiarity, and the resultant finer grain of control.

I've played with just about every flavour of linux out there, certainly all the popular ones. Nothing beats Ubuntu for ease of use. I've installed it on a few laptops and desktop machines and it loves all the hardware, with little tweaking needed. good stuff!

debian is a close second, but the reasons should be obvious ;)

[Greyhair]

Nearly 2 years ago, McAfee subsciption came up for renewal.

That was the day Bill Gates lost another source of revenue \\:D/

.........next best decision was moving from SuSE to Ubuntu.

[JimmyJazz]

I keep windows for 3 main reasons.

1. Music production software.

2. Debugging websites in IE and all around giving tech support to people who use windows (my first solution is always "switch to linux")

3. Flash MX

[yage]

I was dualbooting untill 2000, after that i used mandrake, redhat, slackware etc. before the switch to Debian... Used that until i turned over to Ubuntu about 6 mounths ago... Wanted a cutting edge distro that wasnt named unstable...
The change to ubuntu came from my brother whom i have been helping for ages with debian and setting it up.. he stubled over ubuntu and told me about it. Did a try with a live-cd and fell in love...

[nasar2k2000]

i just love linux...and specifically ubuntu...i did not get around to learning all the tricks of the trade...as in some advanced trouble shooting and/or tweaking....but i can hold my own in a light linux conversation...i do revert to WindowsXP from time to time because of my Extigy Soundcard and 5.1 surround speaker system....but i think that LINUX would be my OS of choice by far:KS

[Pathogenix]

I find it annoying how people bash Windows left and right and say it's a "piece of crap" and so insecure and unstable....

For a moment get off your Linux high horses and take a second to not lie to yourself about how hard it can be to install video drivers, get the network to work, remove installed programs/track ones you've installed, the cumbersomeness of having to use to the console to fix some (not all) setting/problems.


<kudos />

I've made the switch for personal use, but my job keeps XP on my desktop two days a week. I've fallen in love with Ubuntu and find XP incredibly irritating in many ways, but I'm not encouraging most of the people I know to migrate.

Why? Because most of my friends are middle-tier users. They can install programs, troubleshoot and fix common ailments, they don't download unsolicited attachments or wonder why their machines don't work during power outages.

For the geek, Linux is a god send - an OS that will let you do what you want and when you want. I'm having enormous amounts of fun writing a script here, configuring a new windows manager there, compiling a new kernel, hacking up a gDesklet ... it's just like the good old days.

For the complete novice with a technically literate friend, Linux is a god-send: they can use Open Office, Firefox and Thunderbird, Beep and Xine, perhaps a genealogy program or two (!) - what more do they want? They won't try and install too many things, or look too deep under the covers and Ubuntu makes those few tasks attractive and simple, shields them from malware and script kiddies, and hides the dangerous toys out of their way.

But for the middle-tier user, technically savvy but not inclined to read too deeply, Linux is a bewildering minefield. I grew up on command lines; I wrote BASIC on a commodore, played endlessly with batch scripts under DOS, and always popped back to the prompt when a task would take too long by hand under Windows - but my god, trying to read through a Linux how-to is an exercise in frustration for the unwary first-timer.

The first time I installed a wireless card took two sleepless nights of misery, I only persisted because I didn't have a Windows disk and I needed my laptop back from the grave.

To be fair, the Ubuntu community is a cut above most of what's out there, but Wind0ze has come a long long way, and so have Microsoft - my beloved 2K box ran for months at a time without reboot and that was working as a *development box* with DLLs flying in all directions. My Ubuntu laptop is yet to make three consecutive days owing (I think) to some kind of graphics problem that intermittently causes it to hang. I'll fix it, and I'll enjoy doing it, but most of my friends wouldn't.

</rant>

[bhursey]

I have been windows free since 2002... But I still have to trouble shoot it at work on the phone so I use vmware. At home I do not have windows on any of my systems. :p

[Canary]

I am a 58 year old retired grandmom and I love dabbling with computers. I tried Linux about 1 year ago and went through Mandrake, several versions of Fedora and then found Ubuntu. I gave WinXP the permanent Boot about 5 months ago. I had to get a new scanner, but as a previous poster said I found a realy good refurbished Epson that works great. Laugh if you may but the only thing I miss is being able to print a greeting card from time to time. The satisfaction I get from being Windows free is well worth it.

I was helping my neighbor get connected with my ISP and mentioned Ubuntu to the ISP technician, I ended up mailing him 8 Ubuntu CD's and he and five other tech reps are now Ubuntu fans too.

[Brunellus]

I am a 58 year old retired grandmom and I love dabbling with computers. I tried Linux about 1 year ago and went through Mandrake, several versions of Fedora and then found Ubuntu. I gave WinXP the permanent Boot about 5 months ago. I had to get a new scanner, but as a previous poster said I found a realy good refurbished Epson that works great. Laugh if you may but the only thing I miss is being able to print a greeting card from time to time. The satisfaction I get from being Windows free is well worth it.

I was helping my neighbor get connected with my ISP and mentioned Ubuntu to the ISP technician, I ended up mailing him 8 Ubuntu CD's and he and five other tech reps are now Ubuntu fans too.

I think we're going to adopt you as Grandma Ubuntu. You are remarkably adaptible, and this is something I don't see every day.

[Simon Bridge]

I switched completely to linux in 2003 when windows died taking my thesis and 6 months worth of baby photos with it. It meant I had to buy a CD drive - which had only just come down in price (this is New Zealand).

The university (of Auckland) physics dept. had switched to linux only a year before - in protest at the licence fee microsoft was charging. The change had been in the sir for years as open source is often the only solution for scientific applications. You have to be able to show that your results are not an artifact of the software ... which you cannot do if it is proprietory.

Most recently I installed ubuntu hoary to a laptop - which I had purchased on the vasis that the live cd will detect and configure all the hardware. It was the second one I tried. The first, a compaq, would have worked had I used the kernel parameters suggested in the cd.

However, I couldn't buy a laptop without windows.

I considered keeping a dual boot - which gives me the windows licence dosn't it? Or do I have the licence by paying the redmond tax? So I can use all those dll and codecs and so on? Anyway - winXP-home came pre-installed on 5 vfat partitions! The "c" drive was actually two partitions. This pretty much killed the idea of a dual boot (where whould I fit it in?)

I have only one win box - dual boot with ubuntu - for historical reasons. I used to use it for scanning and syncing my pda but my main linux box does that now.

I'm considering reinstalling ubuntu as a server and using it to share scanning, printing, and so on. Or, maybe I'll just give it away and save the space. But these are things I wouln't have considered in my windows/dos days.

Like many of the older linux folk, I grew up with dos command-line, pre-structured basic programming (trs80, zx spectrum, anyone?) - and even scratch built my first computer (1802 cmos processor, 4k RAM, 4k EPROM, hand-etched/soldered PCB) which I had to program in machine code.

However, I don't see linux as for hackers and technical minded folk at all. ust for anyone who would benifit and is prepared to give things a go.

[hekata]

I use Windows XP to store things. Don't even let it smell Internet connection.
Started at about 1.5 years ago with Slackware. I've been testing different distributions since.
Favourite for now - SUSE. It just works without any problem on all machines I have, and I'm very happy with Yast.
I like Kubuntu but it has some problems which are really irritating. Once I get used to it and I have the system working the way I want it to, I guess I'll be using it a lot.

[kellemes]

I'm working and having fun with computers for almost 20 years, completely switching to one OS will never happen, I will always be interested in new developments and Windows is developing for sure. Comparing Linux with Windows is like comparing appels and orranges, it's a matter of taste.
Personaly I like 'm both.

I earn my living developing for Windows, developing for Linux is just starting, just for fun though..

[singlecell]

I've been a serial Linux installer for years, but never really used any installation.

It all started with a slackware version of the back of a book in 1995 on a 286. Since then I've installed just about every SUSE from 6.0, tried redhat, and coutless live CD's from various distributions.

Every time I would play with them for a week or two, and then leave them sleeping in their own partition until the next install. I had everything I needed on windows and I was comfortable with how it all hung together. I once even tried setting SUSE as my default boot OS, just to try and force myself to use it, but the rest of my family freeked out, so I defaulted to XP again.

Ubuntu is my latest attempt at a switch, and for some reason, I keep coming back.

Still havn't completely switched OS yet though - ubuntu hasn't been installed on the main family machine. My wife only needs email and browser, so could be converted easily to Linux. My son, on the other hand, absolutely has to play the latest games - and that means windows!

As for me, I still need to leave the comfort zone of the applications I know. Most are opensource (I always try the open alternative when available), but programs like adobe premiere don't yet seem to have complete alternatives.

[tschweg]

Switched to Linux about 8 month ago now. I started using Fedora Core, but it felt slow and bloathed, so I gave Ubuntu a try.
Never looked back since.

Windows still resides on a smaller dedicated HDD, but only for games. But since I don't play that often anymore, it sometimes takes weeks, till I start up Windows. And almost every time I have to update it and - can you guess it - reboot it a few times till it's actuallly ready and safe to use. :rolleyes:

[haddog]

I have two Linux boxes running Ubuntu as their primary OS. My wife's PC is still a M$Win XP box. I'll get her converted eventually. :cool:

[NewWithoutClue]

Downloaded, installed and started loving Ubuntu 2 weeks ago.
I have windows 98 still, but i have reason.
Reason: i currently have a windows application in production with a team of people; i am not the type to run out on my friends, although, Ubuntu is now one of them (friends)

Right now i'm learning Shell programming/scripting; knowing this will greatly help me understand the wonder that is linux more productively.

Reguards,
Paul.

[Triste!]

I stopped using (XP that is) about two months ago :) . However my husband still has it. I've had some crazy problems, but my laptop doesn't have panic attacks and I don't have to worry about losing all of my data, which happened to me three times in two years.

[jpkotta]

I have been completely switched since summer 2005. I've been using Linux as my main OS since Jan. 2004, when I bought my first (e.g. not my parents') PC. That was Mandrake, which was OK, but left something to be desired. I had to use Windows this summer because it took me forever to get a wireless card working. I had to get the stupid card working because the apartment I was in had free wireless internet, and the apartment was paid for by my employer. I only got it working after I installed Gentoo (mainly because by the time I got it installed, the wireless thing was cake). I used Gentoo for the summer and got sick of maintaining it. It's been Ubuntu all the way since then. I never even booted Windows when I got my laptop in August.

Unfortunately, at work and school, I've had to use Windows. For example, TI's Code Composer Studio is Windows only.

[BLTicklemonster]

I'm a gamer at heart, but I script and map in UT. I'm new to Linux, but I do know that it's possible to at least use ucc.exe in wine; whether I can use unrealed is another thing. That and that alone would keep me with a hard drive with windows on it.

Other than that, I see no reason (once I iron out a few niggling things) to keep windows.

Once synaptic is perfected, and there is the ability to never use the command line, you will see Ubuntu move out to total legitimacy in the eyes of the users of Windows who dare not venture out from under the curtains.

Once this happens, I suggest you all sell off your microsoft stock asap.

[groovywombat]

What keeps windows on my machine: 1 thing, my IDE RAID0 array. I can't get it to recognize as a RAID which drains me of 160gb of data. Alas noone has been able to even speculate on anything involving my RAID, and every howto i find is irrelevant( i don't need to boot from the raid just access it) or the one i did find that was relevant doesn't work. And that's it. I'm begining to wonder if there even is an answer to my problem...
this isn't even just an ubuntu problem, i've never in the last 5 years of dabbling in linux been able to get a RAID array working under any distro (redhat, mandrake, suse, slack). i've managed to get the computer to boot with the devices plugged in and even show up. But regardless there appears to be no help for me.
well it's that and the upcoming releasse of AoE:3.

[Marcos.Rufino]

I'd been exclusively using Fedora for more than a year. Now, I decided for Ubuntu Breezy Badger.

[Simon Bridge]

I'm a gamer at heart, but I script and map in UT. I'm new to Linux, but I do know that it's possible to at least use ucc.exe in wine; whether I can use unrealed is another thing. That and that alone would keep me with a hard drive with windows on it.http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=30457&page=5

consensus seems to be that unrealED will run under linux - perhaps with wineX or cedega. It dosn't seem trivial though.

[Simon Bridge]

OTOH: you can now develop the app cross-platform. This way the development need not rely on windows machines. This is especially useful if the features of linux development environments better suit the needs of the project.


Downloaded, installed and started loving Ubuntu 2 weeks ago.
I have windows 98 still, but i have reason.
Reason: i currently have a windows application in production with a team of people; i am not the type to run out on my friends, although, Ubuntu is now one of them (friends)

Right now i'm learning Shell programming/scripting; knowing this will greatly help me understand the wonder that is linux more productively.

Reguards,
Paul.

[Simon Bridge]

I had everything I needed on windows and I was comfortable with how it all hung together. I once even tried setting SUSE as my default boot OS, just to try and force myself to use it, but the rest of my family freeked out, so I defaulted to XP again.

My son, on the other hand, absolutely has to play the latest games - and that means windows!

As for me, I still need to leave the comfort zone of the applications I know. Most are opensource (I always try the open alternative when available), but programs like adobe premiere don't yet seem to have complete alternatives.

Your son may like the online games via cedega. More and more cutting edge games have linux ports and there are native linux games too. However, he could probably use his own machine.

When considering bundled suites like Adobe premier, you should consider exactly what it is you need to do with it. It is often possible to acheive the same results more efficiently using a collection of OS programs.

OTOH: it sounds like you have no compelling need to change. Your main issue seems to be to satisfy your family with productivity being a close second. You will experience a productivity drop in the short term under linux - and you will be gambling on a productivity increase as a result of the shift. How you go depends on your needs.

Chill. Not everyone should shift.

[Eight Bit]

I want to erase Windows but unfortunately, I'm still a gamer at heart.

Yeah, this is pretty much the only reason I keep Windows. I have a ton of maps in WarCraft III that would be a pain to get back, so until I get an external hard drive I am keeping XP.

[BLTicklemonster]

http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=30457&page=5

consensus seems to be that unrealED will run under linux - perhaps with wineX or cedega. It dosn't seem trivial though.
Cool. All I have to do is take the plunge. I think I have wine (I just made a submersible craft for UT, and a flying one that will slow down and hover so you can pummel the enemy, so yeah, I'm on the XP machine so I can compile in ease. funny thing is, all I wanted to do was make a stinking boat that you could ride on water in, and I end up with a submersible and an aircraft.) so I'll check it out.

[TimelessRogue]

Well, now I've gone and done it ... make the switch. Entirely. Took the first step with Hoary ... dual booted with Win2000 Pro ... a couple of months back. Wasn't really convinced enough to drop the other OS, but it didn't take long for that to change!

Last month I "upgraded" to the pre-release of Beezy and all went well ... the download and install went far easier and much smoother as well as faster than Hoary and, well, ******* was no comparison in any respect ... particularly when you consider that no outside programs had to be installed (or paid for, by the way.)

Things have gone so well that I have made the commitment to stick with Ubuntu so this week I updated the pre-release Beezy via the repositories. The only problem I have encountered with updating the pre-release is in regard to wireless and eth1, but that is being work out as we "speak".

So the long and short of it is: I've made the transition ... totally ... and willl not look back ...

[geo13]

speaking of QUAKE... (the threader..)
QUAKE IV ===> http://vip.netsurf.ru/browse/?r=20684

[jeffreyvergara.NET]

i've been using pirated copy of Window$ + Windows softwares (bundled when i bought my PC.. LOL) Im running Ubuntu now for about 3 weeks without thinking to go back to my pirated window$ + softwares... LOL and Im proud to say that im a piracy free PC user.. w00t (i just don't know about the mp3 and other codecs.. ????)

anyways, I only play commercial MMORPG on my window$ but I stopped because no more cash to spend... LOL, Im playing now ET: TrueCombat-elite and I can say that it's really good to be free...

I just love my Ubuntu!

[rlwelch]

I switched completely.
I use Gaim, the Gimp, Openoffice, RhythmBox, GTKPod, Skype, DVD::Rip, Firefox and GFTP. Printers, 3D, samba, sound and all that tricky stuff work like a charm! No need to dual-boot. :cool:

[bionnaki]

100% linux here with a few win apps running via wine.
I am even moving away from encoding mp3...flac/ogg for me.

[Big Venus]

I still use windows, can't help it because I have no choice to use it at college and I use it at home because I am not convinced that my mother could handle linux. I on the other hand use Linux when I want to play around with new things or work in the console or write programs. Linux for me is the best platform other than MacOSX to do that on. And the only other time I use linux is when I want to feel geekie.

[noppie]

I have been using linux for about 3 years now. I started with red hat, then mandrake. and now trying ubuntu,, I have both the gnome and kde desk top installed.

we have an ebay business and my partner uses windows and the only reason is we do the online mail printing and ithe company we go through requires ms.. and I know I should change but we have been using them for a while and they have a great affilitate program
noppie

[dpdt1]

this is the first time i decide not to install windows along with linux. i'm sick of em for various reasons. (not all of them computer-related).
since i can do anything with linux, why use windows? doesn't make much sense, i know.

during the past 2 years i tried various linux dists (always along with winxp), and i must say i liked knoppix & kanotix very much (mostly because of their excellent hardware support).

anyway, i'm really glad to be in ubuntu linux, permanently this time i hope.

Dimitris.

[nolan43]

Yeah, I've made the switch; thu I feel like I'm walking blindly. But today I found a lot of how-2's and other stuff, so before I go back to school I'll no what I'm doing (?). Ubuntu is great, much better than the other 2 -3 I dualed with XP; yep she a keeper.

[PhilR]

Hello!

I made the 100% switchover this weekend. Reformatting my 3 hard disks for ext3 was a royal pain I can tell thee. I had to back up something like 120Gb of data onto DVDR....

I've toyed and tweaked Linux countless times over the years, so I'm hardly a newb (hell, the first *nix OS I ever installed was FreeBSD and to this day I wonder what crack I must have been smikong at the time. Got it working though). But only recently do I think that Linux software development has reached the stage when I can happily move to Linux for my day-to-day computery stuff. I'll be installing XP on my spare PC for the sole purpose of running Photoshop and possibly any hardware that Linux doesn't support, but thats pretty much it.

Ubuntu have done an awesome job in creating a spot-on user friendly distro. :)

[BLTicklemonster]

I'm still trying, lol. Just got to be able to back up dvds efficiently, and be able to map and edit script in UT.

[kawinter]

I switched completely to Linux at work September 2004. I used Debian. At home I gave my son a Debian computer last year for Christmas and my own computer is an AMD64 running Kubuntu. I do have an XP machine that I have one piece of software on that I need to use once a month for business. So at the end of each month the old XP box gets fired up for 1/2 an hour. The rest of the time I'm Linux at home and always Linux at work.

[Naglfari]

I completed the switch just about 10 minutes ago...I just dicovered that the control software for my DSL modem will run under wine....so, that was my last windows hanger on. The old, semi-retired PC that I had windows on for my modems sake is now having Kubuntu installed as I type this (I have Ubuntu on my new desktop and the laptop, but I wanna see what Kubuntu looks like):rolleyes:

[christooss]

Welcome in the club :)

[Diod]

I will be keeping ubuntu as the only OS on this pc if i get wine to work and when my sound works correctly (:@)

[niko_]

i switched completly to linux since i was 13 :)
well sometimes i still simulate windows under wine or under vmware in my linux, just because of games or msn..

[Darrin]

I would really love to switch to ubuntu and ditch windows. But the Bible software out there for it just is not that good. I use logos and have also used Bibleworks in the past. They are top notch. That is the only thing that is keeping me from removing windows all together. I would be happy to pay for a linux version if it were available. :(

[SpEcIeS]

If you are looking for bible software you could use bibletime (KDE) or Gnomesword (GNOME), which are both supported by the sword project. I have used both and found them very good, but if you are looking at using a windows based piece try installing wine. A lot of software for windows runs under this environment.

Just a passing thought. :)

[Darrin]

I have tried gnomesword. Its just to basic for me. I might try the wine when I get a little more hang of ubuntu. Im too much a newbie right now to mess with it. Im just surprised I havent messed up ubuntu already with me messing with it. :razz:

[SpEcIeS]

I have tried gnomesword. Its just to basic for me. I might try the wine when I get a little more hang of ubuntu. Im too much a newbie right now to mess with it. Im just surprised I havent messed up ubuntu already with me messing with it. :razz:
In general, I think it is pretty hard to mess up linux, but it is possible. :)

Wine is pretty easy to use, if you use just the straight installation. Using synaptic install the packages for wine and try out your program. If you need to install a windows program type in 'wine setup.exe', or whatever the setup command is. The software will be installed into the .wine directory, which is a simulated windows partition. Not all M$ software works with wine, but it is getting better.

Also, winetools is a good program to get the backbone of windows installed, but it does not work well with all versions of wine.

In case you are interested, wine is now 0.9 beta, which is a big move for this previous alpha project. Perhaps, if you are adventureous, you could download the tarball and compile it yourself. :D


Update:

I almost forgot, regarding wine, you will need to install the winesetuptk to configure wine.

[billputer]

I switched over when Breezy came out. At that time I was running an old Windows installation and was just getting sick of it. I had just installed Breezy because I wanted to see how the latest Ubuntu release fared. It seemed like the new release has a lot to offer, but I had never switched to Linux because of my very large collection in .m4a format (I have a Powerbook as well, I'm tied into the Apple brand...but that's a whole different story). Apps like Rhythmbox and XMMS were not cutting it, and amarok didn't have support for .m4a tags. I finally was able to compile amarok with .m4a support (well, the taglib library) using a patch I found online was finally able to use amarok with my library (apparently the latest development versions have a patched taglib by default), and now I've deleted my Windows installation. I'll probably install some of the Windows Vista betas, but I don't think I'll ever go back to Windows.

Linux is a much better place to be. Recently there was an article posted on Slashdot that hypothesized that if the Internet were born in the current legal climate, then it would become over-regulated and commercialized, and would have failed to become such an integral part of all our lives. I think that Linux, and the open-source movement in general is much more than just a movement for software, it is a model for a cultural movement which could change the world we live in.

That's my two cents.

Billputer

[greathoj]

The thing that has kept me from removing Windows entirely is that some of my coursework requires me to hand in not only source that compiles with Visual Studio .NET (2003), but also the VS project files to make it easy for the TA to grade. Most of my code compiles and runs fine with any decent compiler, but I don't know of any way of creating VS .NET project/solution files without VS .NET. So yeah, once I have my MS in Computer Science, I'll be removing Windows, probably the same night I graduate!

As for games, that's what consoles are for. I've always been a console gamer (can't wait for the X-Box 360 and the PS3!). I can't stand playing games on PC's (except for RTS and RPGs). I'm constantly having to upgrade hardware to keep up. I spent just over $400 upgrading my system to something that could run Doom 3, but I could have just as easily waited for the 360 and only spent $300 for that hardware, or just accepted slightly lower quality visuals and bought the game for the X-Box that I already have (and got for free).

Like I said, as long as I have consoles, I'm fine with leaving my PC game library the way it is: loaded with BioWare & BlackIsle RPGs that run fine in Cedega.

[Pablo_Escobar]

Today I'm ditching Window$ for good. I've been dual-booting for some time now, but the last time I've booted into Win was 2 months ago (and it was a horrible experience).
From tommorow I'll be Micro$of-free man :D

[trinaryouroboros]

I'm a real skeptic when it comes to switching to Linux. Back in the day, I was playing with Slackware, Mandrake, Redhat - and even though they were interesting - I had nor the time nor effort to push and switch completely to Linux. I also was concerned because emulations stunk back then.

So not too long ago, I upgraded and got myself into 64-bit, which Windows XP Corp handled "okay" - but nothing else above worked (x64 - longhorn/vista). So per a friends suggestion, I tried out Hoary Hedgehog while Breezy was still in development. I couldn't believe my eyes! It took a bit of time to get back into linux (I had been away from it for years) but after configuring what I wanted...I had no real interest in Windows or anything else for that matter. This was it!

I was also stressing when Breezy Badger was in development, and being released, only because I heard of the bugs involved and the instablity. Then, I heard about Dapper Drake, and said the heck with it. Fear gets you nowhere, I upgraded to Breezy, upgraded to Dapper...perfect! Nothing wrong! If anything, there are some older stuff I still have yet to convert to the new system of Dapper Drake...but otherwise everything's green and mean!

:mrgreen:

This new development has inspired me to open my dusty old linux guru books and start crackin on some programs to assist in the next release!

[janiocarvajal]

(my english is bad) I use Ubuntu but in the company in Caracas, Venezuela, I job on windows because nobody know linux in 40 km. In the company all programs have been maked on windows and its migration I has intented on a period of 2 years within sucess and they are very thinking that I am crazy because programs old need powerful machines for run on linux...

God help me for use Ubuntu... And HE will help me in the future...

[larch]

I gave MEPIS a try for a while but I liked the predictability of a the regular release cycle of Ubuntu.

The I was trying to put Linux in on an older IBM T23 Thinkpad and MEPIS had trouble with the screen resolution but Ubuntu got it right on the first try. Since then I have been using Ubuntu as my primary desktop OS.

[terrien]

I've waffled back and forth between Windows, K/Ubuntu, and a dual-boot with them for the past year or so... I'm on one of my pure Kubuntu phases, but I'll probably be staying simply because this time, my printer (a HP PSC 1210) was actually properly detected by hpoj and KDE Print actually got it installed correctly so that it acutally prints...

Now if Macromedia could release a Flash Player that resolves the audio sync issues, I'd be switched for good (I use my laptop that still runs WinXP when I'm in a Flashy mood). :D

[BLTicklemonster]

Since I found the thread about using xp in vmware, I have done what I had wanted to do before deciding to switch completely.

http://www.hawkwinds.com/tickle/unrealedinubuntu.jpg

Now that I can edit maps, I'm good to go windowless.

THANK YOU UBUNTU FOR LIBERATING ME!!!

[Third Thoughts]

Started dual booting XP and FC3 winter of last year. Erased the XP partition when I installed Ubuntu beginning of this summer. Dual booted FC4 and Ubuntu for a while until I realized I wasn't using FC4 any more. Now I run Breezy and I plan to use my other partition to experiment w/ another distro during winter break.

~Andrew S.

[nrwilk]

I REALLLLLLLLLY want to erase my Windows partition. But, alas, my girlfriend won't stand for it. I already made her learn OS X, so she doesn't want to learn a third OS. I can't wait until we build another PC for me so that we can each have our own non-Apple machine.

[Darrin]

I really dont like windows. The more I stay in ubuntu, the more I cant stand windows. Being new to linux, I get frustrated when I have a problem and If it wasnt for this great forum I would have probably dumped ubuntu, because I didnt understand a lot. The problem was of course with me, not ubuntu. I have wanted to get a mac but cant justify the high prices they want but the mac mini is looking good. I may end up in the future running two computers, one with ubuntu and another with mac os on it so I can run my logos program.

[Pablo_Escobar]

Yesterday I wiped the XP partition clean :)
It was a great feeling, and I enjoyed it very much.
I was dualbooting for a couple of months, but the last time I booted Windows was a month ago. That realise that the disk space that freeloader used can be used to feed Ubuntu :D

[nybble]

i've been using linux off and on for about 8 years, i completely switched at home to linux about 3 1/2 years ago.

[BoyOfDestiny]

Just did the full switch 2 days ago (my desktop is no longer my dual boot machine). In a way it was the sony drm that was the last straw (I didn't actually have it... since I haven't bought an audio cd in 5 years or so).

Anyway, I made a little post in the testamonial section:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=87903

if you are bored, go and read it :)

[mdsmedia]

I installed Ubuntu about a week ago. I'd only used the live CD of Ubuntu the day before and chatted in x-chat for a while.

I'm a GNU/Linux/FOSS fan for what it stands for, and I don't like windows for what it stands for. I have used firefox/thunderbird/OOo as standard apps in XP for a long time now.

This is all very new to me and I've tripped up a lot in the last week. But I find myself wanting to boot into Linux whenever I'm in Windows. I just want to get things to work in Linux rather than go to windows where it's comfortable but unbearable.

I'm a tax accountant in Australia so some things I have to run in windows. My tax software isn't ported to Linux.

I'm an operator in a mIRC help channel in IRC. Although I like x-chat and I'm just learning it, it's not mIRC and it's hard to help in a channel when you don't use the software. I've been there among friends for 9 years. Maybe I'll convert a few to x-chat and Linux :)

I'd love to be free of Windows. What I've seen and experienced so far in Ubuntu I've really enjoyed and loved.

[Madpilot]

My XP Pro install went under in May 2005; I'd intended to dual-boot XP & Ubuntu, but had to go Ubuntu cold-turkey - which steepened the learning curve more than a bit!

I can't see any reason to go back, ever. Scribus alone is enough to keep me in Linux - there's no comparable Free DTP app for Windows! (not until the Scribus Windows team gets moving, that is...)

Everything just works(tm) for me.

[Jeconais]

I've used Linux since Red Hat 6.something, but always dual booted, and spent much more time in Windows at home, at work, I was pure Linux.

Then Ubuntu came out and I realised I had finally found what I was looking for. I installed it and was very happy, especially after getting all the codecs working. Finally, I had an operating system that I could both use and develop on comfortably.

I meant to keep using Windows for games and word (there are some features in word that I use daily that are not in OO.o), but as I was redoing my harddrive to reisntall everything, I manage to break something - and I still don't know what - that innoculated my computer against windows. No matter what I did, windows would not recognise that I had a harddrive after the first few minutes of the install.

Ubuntu, of course, had no problems - and this was after Mandrake and Red Hat had both failed to actually be able to use my network card - so I had little choice but to go fulltime Ubuntu. I paid for CXOffice, and since then have never looked back.

My system just works, I have everything I need to code, listen to music, surf, chat, and write. It's secure and I'm always finding new things of the forums to make life that little bit easier.

I've never regretted what ever I did to my hard drive, and am happier than I ever thought I would be in an alternative OS.

[nagarjuna]

I am sure power users like y'all could give a flying fornicating under common knowledge rat's nether region's whether or not some noob like me has an opinion. That being said. I made the jump bare belly first; formatted the whole drive and installed this completely foreign and at first utterly confusing os. . .

As an ex xp user who only used my system for collecting spyware and popups whilst downloading low quality films of female exploitation; the choice of operating systems on my stand alone system isn't going to shut down any business networks thereby destroying some poor fool executive's pension.

I have found that ubuntu is the most fun I have had tooling around a hard disk in a while. Even if I have had to reinstall and reformat. . .

I do love having access to everything. . .

[bulldogzerofive]

I am also just a home user. I left XP on the first 5 gig of my hard drive, then got an external USB drive that i left in FAT32 to share stuff between the OSs.

I started GNU with mandrake, but did not end up liking it. While i understand that users are part of the GNU development process, filing a bug report that says "my computer screen goes black when i log out and the computer appears to be entirely frozen; the event leaves no log files" does not help anyone and is really frustrating to me. But there were no such catastrophic events in Ubuntu and once i messed a little bit i even learned that the Mandrake problem probably had something to do with drivers for my ATI card; i installed them under Ubuntu to get 3D acceleration, but without them my computer was at least usable. Don't get me wrong, Mandrake (mandriva now) is a great learning distro, but just too buggy to really use (for the noob anyway).

After that I moved to Ubuntu (love it) I never removed windows, but i honestly do not remember the last time i booted windows. I think i did it once to go get updates and that is it. Ubuntu just works too well for me to want to bother with windows. I find that although there is a somewhat steeper initial learning curve in GNU, once you have a few basic concepts down it is much easier to use, safeguard, and update than windows on a daily basis.

I have already reformatted the former "shared" USB drive to ext3; i just have been too lazy to reformat the internal drive to leave Ubuntu as the only operating system. I am planning on doing a fresh install of Kubuntu when i finally get around to upgrading to breezy (Hoary still gets great support and updates, just like promised, btw), and will probably remove XP entirely at that time.

So, although i still technically have windowsXP installed on my computer, you can say i have made the switch entirely, and i must say it is an exciting one. I was the kind of person who knew nothing about how computers, and in my opinion windows is not designed in a way that allows you to learn your computer as you use it as they claim. Rather, it encouraged you not learn anything: "if it is not intuitive you can't do it, but you can pay for this great program to do it for you" seems to be the message. Now i know more about how my computer works (and the basic concepts behind networking and so on) and i am not afraid of the boxes. I am even enrolled in a beginner's Linux administration class now at my local community college (not because i have IT career dreams but because the stuff is interesting and helpful in any career) and this is directly because of the empowering nature of GNU and Linux.

In short, thanks Ubuntu! I will be a contributor someday.

[Ubuntist]

I'm afraid I still have XP. My other half is not into Linux (yet!), and even if it were just myself, I'd hold on to it for bringing work home (particularly Excel) and, I have to admit, for the amazing freeware Orbiter spaceflight simulator.

[heftigrat]

Still workin' on it, switching from W2K to Breezy. Finally got the Nvidia legacy drivers working thanks to jdodson (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=25723&highlight=jdodson), so now RTCW runs. My only reservations are that formatting is just slightly different between MS Office and OpenOffice docs, and sound is a little tricky as well. Otherwise I've been pretty happy with Ubuntu, and *NIX/NUX in general. So far I've experimented with FreeBSD, Red Hat, Mandrake, and Ubuntu. I'm sure you all can guess which I like best! ;-P

[justinjstark]

I had been using gentoo linux for over a year pretty much exclusively. I had windows xp installed just for when gentoo would take a **** on me (which gentoo really liked to do ;) ). But when I switched to ubuntu (just a few days ago in fact) I completely erased my ntfs partition (I'm hoping ubuntu won't let me down). I am now not only 100% microsoft free but I am also 100% paid software free. OSS is a beautiful thing!

[hyg53]

I have used Linux for the 1st time 2 years ago, to see what it looked like. First with mandrake. Easy to install, it worked quite well with the softwares provided on the CD, but I was quite unable to install additional softwares. Some features were not available also (devices). So I began to use WinXP again. I still wanted to find a different OS, mainly because of those virus problems.
6 month ago, I discovered Ubuntu. Then, my dreams became quite true, since I then was able to install so many usefull softwares easily.
However, I still keep WinXP, because I cannot find the linux version of all the software I need. I have already wasted a lot of time, trying to make wine replace WinXP, it is easier for me to reboot for 30 min.

[mad_alfred]

happier than ever with linux!

[quietglow]

I have been a mac user for years and really dug the switch to X. In the past few months I've become more and more uncomfortable with the turn apple has been taking with the focus on iPods and pleasing the masses. I've been mac free at home for 6 months now, though I still have a g4 on my desk at work. Windows? Blech.

[emil|act]

I'm only using linux. Gentoo for my three servers, and Ubuntu on my workstation and laptop.
Haven't used windows in four years now. Never EVER going back

[dosed150]

well ive only had ubuntu since thursday but i dont have windows on my pc anymore i couldnt be bothered to do a dual boot because the only reason id keep windows around would be for games and seeing as this pc cant really handle modern games i got rid of it but my sister still has xp on her laptop

[apjone]

i need windows for my vpn to work , philiphs mp3 , moto v3 phone software and a couple of other things . so i need duel boot even thou windows is so ****

[Darrin]

I have been a mac user for years and really dug the switch to X. In the past few months I've become more and more uncomfortable with the turn apple has been taking with the focus on iPods and pleasing the masses. I've been mac free at home for 6 months now, though I still have a g4 on my desk at work. Windows? Blech.
I have heard of others out there with the same feelings towards macs as you do. Your not alone.

[enzobelmont]

i've used windows since 3.1 but right now fortunately i'm usin a lot my ubuntu & gentoo distros, i've not used windows since 3 week ago.

sorry my english... ;)

[ironwoodcarver]

Only Ubuntu for me it does all I need and my cats like so I will keep running it:D

[salva]

As an ex xp user who only used my system for collecting spyware and popups whilst downloading low quality films of female exploitation; the choice of operating systems on my stand alone system isn't going to shut down any business networks thereby destroying some poor fool executive's pension.

I have found that ubuntu is the most fun I have had tooling around a hard disk in a while. Even if I have had to reinstall and reformat. . .

I do love having access to everything. . .

I couldnt have put it beter myself...... exactly my sentiment...

I have been using Ubuntu now for 1 year, and i have learned more in that year about computing and software that in 10 years of dos/windows (well.... almost :P ). I find that my work process is getting more and more structured as i get to grip with the excellent code management practices and tools in Linux. Bash is beautiful..

All in all..... more power and more fun to the OSS and Ubuntu community.
:D

[oudent]

I have been switching between linux and WinXP for years, because I have a Sony Minidisc player that requires XP, and I need MS Office desperately!

About a month ago Windows XP stopped working and I lost my XP CD while moving about 3 months ago, so Linux is now all I have...though I use Crossover Office to use MS Office and other Windows software.

Ubuntu is the first distro I've used that is competetive with Windows for what I want to do with it.

[adamb10]

I'm trying to switch to Linux but it's so hard knowing Windows is on my other hard drive. I need it too for iTunes.

[tasulo]

I am completely Linux and have been for some time. I too use Crossover, i need it for school. I love Ubuntu. Linux wins hands down in my book.

[brj]

i need windows for my vpn to work , philiphs mp3 , moto v3 phone software and a couple of other things . so i need duel boot even thou windows is so ****

i still need windows to run ms-access (still better than open-office db), some games for the kids and the canon scanner that does not run well under ubuntu.

[gabhla]

Howdy! I've switched, although I still have Windows on both of my computers, I haven't used Windows in two months. Not since I've installed Ubuntu.

I'm simply a plain vanilla user; and, as an older (late 50's) user have never gotten into games or other of the more convoluted applicatons. I spend alot of time online piddling with my computer, listening to internet radio (I'm Irish and like to listen to Irish radio), keeping up with politics and email. Hence, I have all I'll ever need, and more.

Interestingly, I put Xandros on my other computer, which I rarely use myself, as it's for my wife and Grandson. I've yet to get Xandros configured completely, but had no trouble at all with Unbuntu on my computer. It's unfair to compare Xandros to Ubuntu, but I prefer Ubuntu because of the information available to help configure everything, (Ubuntu forums are unsurpassed).

I started with linux in September, having little or no prior linux experience with linux and never looked back. The secret is Ubuntu. It's great and I have no real need for anything in Windows.

So, why is the Windows partition still there at all? Well, I'm lazy (remember I'm an old coot), it's not hurting anything (got more than enough room for it) and eventually I'll get rid of it.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Darrin]

I dont use windows a whole lot. I will probably run dual boot for awhile. I have a canon scanner that doesnt work with it, and Im not going to buy a new one just for ubuntu. I still edit and upload weekly audio files for a website and I havent figured out exactly the best and easiest linux app that does this. Some apps in windows just dont have a linux comparable for it. I would eventually like to run Ubuntu on one computer and windows on a seperate.

[regular]

I switched to Ubuntu completely after my XP (I had a dual boot before) crashed :o I'm pretty satisfied with Breezy even though it still needs some fixes. Yeah, too lazy to recover Windows :razz:

[mikexgough]

I have on my main machine, been on it since 2001, fed up with the kids grabbin virus's off of the web n chat, my new Laptop is XP but have tried Ubuntu live and it all works even the centrino stuff.............so thats next for me.........I started with Mandrake and was on Fedora, I had an old Laptop that could only run Debian so as soon as Ubuntu arrived I tried it, never looked back since...........it's the only Linux distribution

[Chayak]

The only computers that have non linux OSs on them are my XPS laptop that I play games on in ******* (games only and a firewall/antivirus) and my powerbook which has OS X on it. My Desktop, Mini mac, and server are all linux.

[Darrin]

My Desktop, Mini mac, and server are all linux.
Never thought about putting ubuntu on a mini mac. Hows that working out?

[siorai]

I'm seriously thinking about it. I do game, but not as much as I used to so I might be able to scratch that off as a reason not to do it. There's always Cedega which looks like it's making some good headway. About the only other issue is whether or not I'll be able to rip DVDs and convert them to AVC MPEG4s for my PSP. As well as being able to copy the finished files over to the PSP. So the research into that is going on right now. Hopefully I can do that and be free of Windows entirely.

[Jeremiah85]

I use Ubuntu exclusivly at home but I have to use Windows at school (although live CD's are a wonderful thing ;) )

[charles woodward]

Not yet - but I've only had Ubuntu for just over a month - main problems I have is that everyone else uses windows, and I am the network printer - there seems to be a bug in the samba

Also I cannot yet get the scanner or the digicam to work - and I haven't yet found a pdf creator like Adobe (on windows you can just drag and drop)

However with those few provisos I'm working to get rid of windows (currently I have dual boot - but rarely use the windows bit)

I'm getting there - but to be honest although I am an old Unix/Aix techie, I can't be bothered to spend all my time fiddling about

[Brunellus]

cheap print servers are your friends, Mr. Woodward. the windows machines can use them as SMB printers, while unix machines use lpd. it's neat!

[endersshadow]

Instead of studying for a microeconomic theory exam, I uninstalled Windows off of my second computer and installed Breezy. I am now 100% Windows free, and possibly failing my class. :KS

[BLTicklemonster]

I have

http://www.hawkwinds.com/tickle/xpoem.jpg


Heck, even my Windows has changed to Ubuntu!!!


:cool:

[yaraju]

I've spent about 15 years using everything from Win 3.11 to Win XP.
I've been using GNU/Linux for about 3-5 yrs now. (Since RedHat 6.0 or so).
Well, since March 2k5, I've been using only GNU/Linux! I've tried many common distros. And I guess I've more or less settled on Ubuntu and Fedora, but it really looks like I'm gonna stop giving Fedora a second look now, after checking out Ubuntu Linux 5.10! Yippie! I love it!

[dubz]

ive been clean(from *******) for +2 years now.been using linux for 6 years (redhat 5.2). In the great words of Tony the Tiger , I Feeel Grrrreeeeaaaat.

[CTSLICK]

I have not switched but mostly because I am not that motivated to switch. I like my Powerbook and OS X...a lot ;) But I have made some progress. ;)

Ubuntu was the first Linux distro that actually worked on my well aged HP laptop...including the wireless stuff. Recently, I picked up my in-laws old 500 mHz AMD based desktop which they had given up on due to some hideous Norton, spyware, Windows induced nightmares. Then again...it was still running Win98 SE. I wiped it and did a clean 5.10 install...very impressive. I didn't mess with anything, just gave it the basic info and let it do its thing. Everything was recognized and its now a nice email/browser/IM capable machine for my kids.

Our Windows machine still lives on because of some lingering dependence on MS Access for my job and the pathetic state of Quicken for Mac. So its powered up about 2 hours a week. Maybe I'll get brave and go dual boot with it.

Someday I may actually pick up some modern hardware and give ubuntu a real test. But not just yet.

[flipkick]

I'm using Linux Ubuntu from the beginning. Tried few other distris. I don't have XP installed because I quit gaming awhile ago.

Now I'm working....

Happy Linux User. Poor people fighting Windows and it's failures :rolleyes:

[ade234uk]

Windows free for three weeks and lovin it. Downloaded CXOffice 5 and running dreamweaver MX, photoshop and filezilla without any problems. I would go as far as saying that dreamweaver mx is running as good as it does in Windows these days. Cant wait for CXOffice 6 with game support.


Ubuntu is the best distro I have used my miles. Everything works and its very very fast. Still shuts down in about 15 seconds as well, try doing that in Windows.

[Darrin]

Windows free for three weeks and lovin it. Downloaded CXOffice 5 and running dreamweaver MX, photoshop and filezilla without any problems. I would go as far as saying that dreamweaver mx is running as good as it does in Windows these days. Cant wait for CXOffice 6 with game support.


How does CXoffice work. I was checking it out. The main reason I have not switched is because I must use Logos Bible software. I see its listed in Codeweavers (http://www.codeweavers.com/site/compatibility/browse/cat?cat_id=47) but states its untested. Does this mean that it should work, but nobody has reported it so?

[Brunellus]

CXoffice is essentially an implementation of WINE. Read the docs over at

http://www.winehq.org/site/docs/wine-faq/index

[jsmidt]

I have a dual boot system, but I have only used ubuntu for the last 9 months, exept about a week where I tried Debian.

[Darrin]

CXoffice is essentially an implementation of WINE. Read the docs over at

http://www.winehq.org/site/docs/wine-faq/index

Darn... I cant get logos to work with cxoffice. Oh well, I guess im stuck with windows for now, or maybe a mac in the future.

[dragonfoundry]

I ran the live cd on my laptop. Was impressed. I installed Ubuntu and got rid of windows xp.

Ran the Live CD on my desktop.

Pondered for a month. Do install or not install that is the question. My Windows XP instalation had gone wrong so it was either reinstall Windows XP or try something new.

Thought to hell with it.

I installed Ubuntu.

There are things that i need to learn but im getting there and im not going to walk away if something takes time to sort out.

I have been running Ubuntu now for about a week on my desktop and im still impresed. Just wish i had swapped to linux years ago or at least tried it.

I wont be going back to windows.

Free your mind and your operating system will follow! :D

As for games well i can wait for a playstation 3... :P

Now.... if only my workstation at work was linux and not (growls) windows 98

[BLTicklemonster]

I ran the live cd on my laptop. Was impressed. I installed Ubuntu and got rid of windows xp.

Ran the Live CD on my desktop.

Pondered for a month. Do install or not install that is the question. My Windows XP instalation had gone wrong so it was either reinstall Windows XP or try something new.

Thought to hell with it.

I installed Ubuntu.

There are things that i need to learn but im getting there and im not going to walk away if something takes time to sort out.

I have been running Ubuntu now for about a week on my desktop and im still impresed. Just wish i had swapped to linux years ago or at least tried it.

I wont be going back to windows.

Free your mind and your operating system will follow! :D

As for games well i can wait for a playstation 3... :P

Now.... if only my workstation at work was linux and not (growls) windows 98



Heh heh heh I(dio)T is going to have fits if they catch me, but I'm taking my computer to work with me next week, and setting it up and trying to use XP in vmware on Ubuntu to log into our network, and try to do a day's work with it from there. I can burn all my documents to a cd from my work machine, then put them on my computer after it's hooked up and go at it like that. I'm hoping that the networking on XP in vmware will jibe with our joke down at I(dio)T.

[e^e]

I've been windows free for 7 months now and couldn't be any happier. linux is a good programming environment, gives much flexibility and customization. I'm not a hardcore gamer, but i enjoy playing gta:vice city and mk4 in cedega and it runs quite well. Plus Ubuntu has been very stable for me, specially the Breezy release. :D

[foska]

I find it annoying how people bash Windows left and right and say it's a "piece of crap" and so insecure and unstable. I dislike Windows because of it's price, the fact MS creates it and tries to take over the world by it, I'm not running a legal copy of it, and that losts of the software that runs on it and is great software costs money. I want something less expensive to legally own. I want something that doesn't support the evil MS empire. While everyone is saying how instable Windows [XP] is, I find that hard to agree with. I run it now and it runs great for me. Yes, I have a virus scanner and have to be careful where I surf and have to scan for viruses/spy/adware every once and a while, but being careful I rarely if ever get infected which I believe is what most of you all are complaining about when you describe Window's insecurities.

For a moment get off your Linux high horses and take a second to not lie to yourself about how hard it can be to install video drivers, get the network to work, remove installed programs/track ones you've installed, the cumbersomeness of having to use to the console to fix some (not all) setting/problems. Windows has the beauty of the double-click where you can double click your downloaded video drivers to install them as well as any other program. I'd say a big problem with people not wanting to adobt Linux is because of the initial and ongoing frustrations that occur because it's an ubber-geek centric OS. I'm planning on switching over to Kubuntu 100% (and have an old PC running Windows for seldomly used, non-ported apps like DVDShrink and the different Xbox interoperability software).


I could not agree with you more.

I am new to Linux and I will be honest. My reasons for switching are not because I see MS as evil (although they may warrant such a description for some of their business tactics). Like SX460, I too am running an illegal copy of Windows XP and I was getting a bit concerned of MS's recent efforts to eliminate piracy of their products. In my opinion the writing is on the wall, get a legal copy of their software or you'll have problems. At this time I don't think I can afford to buy the Office XP package nor can I spring for a legal copy of their Operating System (which will have to be upgraded at an additional cost in a few months time). The cost of going "legal" with MS is just too high! When I found out about Ubuntu, I was glad because, I will still be able to do most of the things that I did with my computer at little of no expense.

I think we have to honest about our reasons for switching to Linux.

[mjkelly]

I keep my windows xp around for gaming. I havent booted into it since i quit playing WoW like 6 months ago. Im prolly gonna have to use it soon tho for the business im opening up cuz i cant find any suitable Linux Point of Sale software.

O well, everything else works great :)


BTW i converted my brother to Ubuntu because his pirated version of windows didnt come with office or any spreadsheet program. I know OO is ported to windows too, but i convinced him to go with Ubuntu and he loves it too. He really likes the quality of the games he always says.

[cuboconojos]

My Windows installation in my laptop has even spiderwebs, I happy to say that I'm using Ubuntu like 99% of the time....my only problem, my scanner (CannonScan FB330P), I found some drivers for it, but cant get it to work. Oh!, and I would love to have Google talk for linux (with voice support), I talk to my girlfriend with it and I have to use Windows to do it.
I know there's Skype too, but sometimes I just feel that G-talk works better.

Well, greetings to all from Chile. There are many happy chilean linux users.:cool:

[joris.brus]

No windows installed, but use it lots at work.

Xp is easier for me to get it to do what I want (video/audio drivers, codecs, flash) This is mostly because I run AMD64. Ubuntu howerve, takes no maintenance.

Besides, I think open source is important. Software patents shouldn't exist.

[zorba64]

Me.
Bugger Windows and Sony and all the B.S. associated with it.

Ubuntu Linux is all I need, other people can adjust to the way I work, not the other way around.

Michael

[migo]

I want to erase Windows but unfortunately, I'm still a gamer at heart.

What kind of games? Xbox 360 is fairly cheap and it'll play better games than anything except the most high-end desktop PC.

[Bladerunner]

The only thing holding me back from using linux 100% is my lack of success in getting my HDTV cards (airstar hd5000 & divico fusion 5) setup and working.
The more guides and howto I read the more lost and confused I get.
Until then I need to dual boot with xp.

[marksi]

I run a dual boot machine, but if my Canon LBP800 would print on linux I would just run ubuntu (using xfce).

[nab]

Until now I haven't ereased winXP from my m30x, because there are some things I like to/have to use:
- wireless Lan with WPA (upto now it's just working with 64bit-WEP)
- specialised simulation tool (exits only for win ;) )
- backup/ syncing my palm
- power management (on win the battery lasts about 2 hours longer than on linux :( )

So I start win about once a week (to get all the security updates and) to do my bit in win that I can't do in linux ;)

Until I get all my hardware properly working in linux, I will keep dual boot.

[alpopel]

for 3 month i'm windows-free :D
but i'm thinking about reinstall windows because of Age of Empires 3...

alpopel

[obx-jdt]

My main box has been windows free for 2+ years.

The only thing I thought I'd miss is a linux version of Quicken. I tried many things to compensate for this from win4lin to codeweavers.

I think it's called GNU-Cash.....let me check, brb......
ok, in synaptic, do a search for "cash";)

[Sagrath]

my harddisk got broken so now im using a 12GB Hdd and i can say that im using only Linux...well at least im learning it...i'm not really used to Debian (used mandrake a couple of weeks...)

[kjkrum]

Ubuntu owns my entire hard drive both at home and at work. I was finally able to sever my last tether to Windows after Mythic raised the suckage of Dark Age of Camelot to previously unthinkable levels.

[bonjun]

we have a cafe all with ubuntu,,, but costumers are windows user, that's why sales are low,,

[fourhead]

I'm exclusively using Linux for more than three years now, I first had Mandrake installed besides WinXP and after a few weeks playing with it I realized I hadn't booted into Win for a few weeks, so I decided to delete it. Then I was on Gentoo for over 2 years, and now I'm on Kubuntu for 2 days, and I feel fine so I guess this will be my distro for at least a few years :-)

My girlfriend is also most of the time using Gentoo (now also Kubuntu) on her iBook, sh's switching to MacOS only if she has to do photo editing or video editing (MacOS just beats all other OSes hands-down here)

Tom

[Minyaliel]

When installing Ubuntu some time ago (well, the day before I registered at this forum), I was "unfortunate" enough to erase my Windows XP and all that was on it. I still mourn the loss of some of my artwork, but my laptop feels a lot more comfortable to work with now that it's 100% Ubuntu. And - no need to pay annual fees for programs there really shouldn't be a need to use, like AV/ AS/ etc. I'm still forced to use Windows at school, but since I'm using my laptop 98% of the time... *shrugs*

[arphe_el]

We in the office already switch to linux since there is a pressure in the government to eradicate the piracy in the Philippines. It is to our advantage to switch to linux to learn new things as challenges arises. I thank GOD that there's a community of linux who's willing to share their knowledge for good deed, and for the benefit of humanity in which I believe the vision of ubuntu.

I also promote and encourage to share this to other partner organizations since of its convenience of installing and I find it user friendly and easy to install packages using synaptic.

Thank you and may the good LORD richly blesses all of you for all your hardwork for the sake of others.

[dunder]

Ubuntu is great, but ... there's no program for nokia 6610 that will work (I still can't connect it using com cable(phone is flashing and nothing is happening)/usb irda (no module for kingsun ma-620 :/ ) - in win i've got oxygen phone manager), there's no corel draw but I MUST have something to open cdr files (i'll try to install corel 9 on crossover office/wine, cause corel 12 won't work) ... I'm using Windows only for this two things now :)

[DiscoKiller]

I`ve been forced into the world of linux. after setting up a dual boot with hoary & Win2kPro, Win2kPro decided to jettison one of its files rendering it unable to boot up.....oh well....breezy is an absolute dream for me being a veritable linux newbie....i dabbled in red hat 9 a couple of years ago but never really settled into it, now i`m a permanent user of ubuntu and besides the fact that i cant use skype i`m not really that bothered being in a windowless world.....feels quite good actually :D

[Mr_J_]

On my home computer I only have Ubuntu.
I don't play a lot of windows games. I got tired of them.
I kept getting games I got disapointed in and I slowed down the purchase until I didn't give a crap.

Now my favorite games are Chromium, TuxRacer, PowerManga, Wesnoth... In no particular order.

Just because some Wmv's don't play correctly I don't mind, besides it's nothing important.

On top of all that I now have GIMP, Inkscape, and Amarok to keep me entertained.

Ubuntu is easier and saffer in most things than windows. Besides being free.

[fadumpt]

Ubuntu 5.10 rapidly took over as my OS of choice on my desk, and is trickling down into the other systems as well.

I do have a windows 98 system on the workbench, it's not networked and basically just used for PIC development, etc

I do however have to use Windows XP at work (and fix Windows as a living) but just being able to come home to an enviroment that 'just works' is good enough.
(I did dump a linux install on an old HP at work though :) )

[phanboy_iv]

Gahaha... Just deleted my WinXP partition...100% Linux now, baby!

[siorai]

I have

http://www.hawkwinds.com/tickle/xpoem.jpg


Heck, even my Windows has changed to Ubuntu!!!


:cool:

Possibly a stupid question here, but is that VMWare? How capable is it? I'm specifically looking for a way to encode videos for my Playstation Portable and the only way I know how to right now is to do it in Windows. If I could just run Windows like that in Linux just to do the encoding, and not even have to reboot into Windows, that would be perfect.

[kook44]

Possibly a stupid question here, but is that VMWare? How capable is it? I'm specifically looking for a way to encode videos for my Playstation Portable and the only way I know how to right now is to do it in Windows. If I could just run Windows like that in Linux just to do the encoding, and not even have to reboot into Windows, that would be perfect.

Yeah I'd like to know what that is, too. I'd also like to run Win apps from within ubuntu. Wine works pretty good, but the widgets get a little screwy.
Probably not VMWare. Looks like VNC or remote desktop into an actual windows box, but that ubuntu-style menu bar at the top of the window (w/ Player, CD-ROM, Floppy, etc) and the ubuntu logo in the MyComputer are throwing me off.

Maybe it's just a photoshop (er, GIMP) and we've both been had ;)

[christooss]

Maybe quemu is solution for you

[buddhagui]

I have been trying to make the complete switch since I used Slackware in 2001. I found everything so much easier to maintain. Instead of the cryptic registry entries and meta-base things to learn, it was all conf files, so much easier to script against. Now since I've been using Ubuntu, I have completely made the switch. There is nothing that I need from Windows. On my slower machine, Linux makes it much more bearable.