devcon101
March 18th, 2008, 01:17 AM
I've been toying around with Ubuntu for the past couple months. I found that I enjoyed my experience a great deal more with Ubuntu, but there are always those key Windows applications that make the switch very difficult. Having a dual boot system is easy enough, but when I'm on my computer I glide between work and curious diversions rather frequently, thus, it can be a pain to reboot many times a day.
First my old computer..; Dell Inspiron 8200, 2GHZ P4, 768MB RAM, GeForce Go 440. It took awhile to work out some kinks in Ubuntu, but everything is now very stable. Compiz still gives me some trouble with black windows, but I put up with it not because I need the fancy effects, but because it seems to render windows and switch between work spaces faster. It took me a bit to realize I needed to switch of ACPI and use ADM otherwise I would get random hard freezes. And of course, the other main problem consists of Windows applications, the most essential of which, Microsoft Office.
Open Office is good, but I like to toy around with Access, and it is much more compatible. Also, I guess I am kind of a software hobbiest. I like to try out new software just to see how it ticks. So, then I discovered VirtualBox. After trying it out in Ubuntu running Windows as a guest OS, I immediately deleted my windows partition and opened up my entire disk to Ubuntu. With VirtualBox, I can run any type of office applications at the same (basically) speed as with a non-virtual installation. So, now I can work on Access as well as have a 'protected' sandbox to play with different programs. Now it is even better, because I can easily take snapshots, then quickly revert if I went on a software testing spree. All the while, my Ubuntu installation stays untouched and just as productive.
That being said, it is still not perfect. Obviously virtual boxes do not work with 3D. I don't really game especially considering this clunker can't handle it, but certain programs like Google SketchUp are not as fast as a native install. Related programs like AutoCAD suffer from the same predicament. I realize this is one of those things you just need to wait on as virtualization software improves. Also, I like to have a virtual test network in VirtualBox, but it still isn't quite set up right. I installed windows server and a couple other xp virtual boxes, but I can't get the networking right. I can only get one computer at a time to have host-networking enabled. I've tried making multiple taps to no avail. I will continue to play with it.
Anyway, after a few weeks of running only Ubuntu (with Windows virtualized), I've been very happy. Any time I screw something up, I can just enter the console and undo what I did. I feel quite secure that I won't have all my data self destruct because I played with xorg or something too much. Compared with windows, Ubuntu is slower, primarily noticable in searching the file system with nautilus. But, the desktop management features trump all in my book. I love being able to have 4 or 5 different activities going on at the same time. I do need a better computer though, so I can stop biting so heavily into the swap.
I don't really know why I felt compelled to make this post, but there it is. I'm looking forward to hardy and hope it will include some big improvements. I'm eager for a couple features such as the new file copying window (I like SuperCopier). I think the OS is already very good, but if there is one thing I could wish for the most, it is to optimize the code to make it faster. I know this is gnome related, but it would be nice to have a super bare-bones option that still has a GUI but is completely performance focused. Kind of like in XP simply deactivating all themes and special effects. Oddly in Ubuntu, it seems slower when I disable all effects... Ah well
Additionally, it's a good thing Ubuntu has these active forums... It makes the transition a whole lot easier.
First my old computer..; Dell Inspiron 8200, 2GHZ P4, 768MB RAM, GeForce Go 440. It took awhile to work out some kinks in Ubuntu, but everything is now very stable. Compiz still gives me some trouble with black windows, but I put up with it not because I need the fancy effects, but because it seems to render windows and switch between work spaces faster. It took me a bit to realize I needed to switch of ACPI and use ADM otherwise I would get random hard freezes. And of course, the other main problem consists of Windows applications, the most essential of which, Microsoft Office.
Open Office is good, but I like to toy around with Access, and it is much more compatible. Also, I guess I am kind of a software hobbiest. I like to try out new software just to see how it ticks. So, then I discovered VirtualBox. After trying it out in Ubuntu running Windows as a guest OS, I immediately deleted my windows partition and opened up my entire disk to Ubuntu. With VirtualBox, I can run any type of office applications at the same (basically) speed as with a non-virtual installation. So, now I can work on Access as well as have a 'protected' sandbox to play with different programs. Now it is even better, because I can easily take snapshots, then quickly revert if I went on a software testing spree. All the while, my Ubuntu installation stays untouched and just as productive.
That being said, it is still not perfect. Obviously virtual boxes do not work with 3D. I don't really game especially considering this clunker can't handle it, but certain programs like Google SketchUp are not as fast as a native install. Related programs like AutoCAD suffer from the same predicament. I realize this is one of those things you just need to wait on as virtualization software improves. Also, I like to have a virtual test network in VirtualBox, but it still isn't quite set up right. I installed windows server and a couple other xp virtual boxes, but I can't get the networking right. I can only get one computer at a time to have host-networking enabled. I've tried making multiple taps to no avail. I will continue to play with it.
Anyway, after a few weeks of running only Ubuntu (with Windows virtualized), I've been very happy. Any time I screw something up, I can just enter the console and undo what I did. I feel quite secure that I won't have all my data self destruct because I played with xorg or something too much. Compared with windows, Ubuntu is slower, primarily noticable in searching the file system with nautilus. But, the desktop management features trump all in my book. I love being able to have 4 or 5 different activities going on at the same time. I do need a better computer though, so I can stop biting so heavily into the swap.
I don't really know why I felt compelled to make this post, but there it is. I'm looking forward to hardy and hope it will include some big improvements. I'm eager for a couple features such as the new file copying window (I like SuperCopier). I think the OS is already very good, but if there is one thing I could wish for the most, it is to optimize the code to make it faster. I know this is gnome related, but it would be nice to have a super bare-bones option that still has a GUI but is completely performance focused. Kind of like in XP simply deactivating all themes and special effects. Oddly in Ubuntu, it seems slower when I disable all effects... Ah well
Additionally, it's a good thing Ubuntu has these active forums... It makes the transition a whole lot easier.