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jonnyl888
May 15th, 2009, 04:19 PM
I was thinking. I have vista and ubuntu on a dual boot configuration on my laptop. Is there any point having both? Or would it be possible to do most things with ubuntu?

coldReactive
May 15th, 2009, 04:19 PM
If you're stuck on gaming, then you'd best keep windows.

Maheriano
May 15th, 2009, 04:29 PM
I have 3 computers and all 3 have only Ubuntu. The only reason to keep Windows is to play games.

kanikilu
May 15th, 2009, 04:30 PM
Is it possible? Sure. Can you? Maybe, but it depends on what your needs and expectations are.

As already mentioned, if you game, there are some options (native games or Windows games via Wine), but in general you'll probably be happier in the long run to just continue to dual boot. If you rely heavily on things like iTunes, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, or AutoCAD (just a few examples) and cannot make do with alternatives, then again, dual boot.

There's certainly some things that you can't (or can't easily) do on Windows. I can have an up-to-date and working LAMP server up in about an hour or so - the same task would take me probably 3-6 hours on Windows. To me, that's important. Is it important for everyone? Probably not.

If you're willing to adapt, and sometimes compromise, you can get by.

Fingers & Thumbs
May 15th, 2009, 04:45 PM
It really depends what it is you want to do. For all general purposes just one os would do, which one is a matter of personal preferences. Games developers are slow to get on board with linux. Myself a musician, Ubuntu is my first os, for everyday tasks and quite a lot of music making, but still use windows for certain instruments and utilities.

StOoZ
May 15th, 2009, 05:53 PM
im using only linux/ubuntu. no windows whatsoever.

Vadi
May 15th, 2009, 05:59 PM
I am.

SuperSonic4
May 15th, 2009, 06:02 PM
Possibly but be aware of "Distro Hopping" and simply getting bored with a distro

doas777
May 15th, 2009, 06:04 PM
I was thinking. I have vista and ubuntu on a dual boot configuration on my laptop. Is there any point having both? Or would it be possible to do most things with ubuntu?

no you cannot survive only on ubuntu. you also need beer.

but seriously, if you only have one computer, then dual boot. I'm down to 1 windows PC (all the others are linux) but it took some time to get there, and yes i still use windows whenever I need to write .net code (monodevelop is not quite there yet), configure my router (Why won't Cisco SDM run on open java?), and play games that wine won't do.

if all you need is light windows tasks than a virtual machine may do the trick for ya, but remeber, games will never run right virtualized, and most will require 3d Accelleration that you cannot get via virtualbox (you'll have to use vmware).

good luck

Copernicus1234
May 15th, 2009, 06:04 PM
Im using only Ubuntu but I dont play Windows games. I play a lot of Urban Terror on Ubuntu however (Counterstrike-like shooter that is great fun).

Windows feels like crap after using Ubuntu for 6 months. No way Im going back to that world with its 100 message boxes and every program putting itself into autostart etc... the computer just gets slower, slower and slower... until you do a format. Worthless.

pfungstadt
May 15th, 2009, 06:04 PM
I think the best answer is; it depends. Some things are better done in windows and some software (games) only work well in windows. I prefer ubuntu for my normal web browsing and such. But still, some things don't play in ubuntu like my NFL game pass.

lakersforce
May 15th, 2009, 06:08 PM
no you cannot survive only on ubuntu. you also need beer.

Quoted for truth :)

It also depends on what your job/college etc. requires!

uidb4056
May 15th, 2009, 06:11 PM
If you not have to deal with windows games, you can try having Ubuntu and inside you can install virtualbox. Doing this you can have Vista or XP or other Linux Distros running inside Ubuntu the benefit is that you can try to do as many as you can with Ubuntu but you can easily run windows or other linux for test or for solving what you can't do with Ubuntu without need to reboot.

lakersforce
May 15th, 2009, 06:12 PM
If you not have to deal with windows games, you can try having Ubuntu and inside you can install virtualbox. Doing this you can have Vista or XP...

What's the point? It makes more sense to run it native! (Ok, granted, you don't have to reboot. But this solutions seems like a Nerds idiotic, no-sense solution to me. *No flaming intended*)

crl0901
May 15th, 2009, 06:19 PM
I also have Vista and Ubuntu in a dual-boot. For the majority of the time, I use Ubuntu. I'll fire up Vista if I want to play some games.

maflynn
May 15th, 2009, 06:22 PM
What's the point? It makes more sense to run it native! (Ok, granted, you don't have to reboot. But this solutions seems like a Nerds idiotic, no-sense solution to me. *No flaming intended*)

Makes a lot of sense to me, because I need to run some windows only programs and I use vmware, I'm a newbie here but I think I'm not alone given the number of threads stating the use of virtualbox/vmware to run windows.

As for my usage, I'm 80% there. I have a number of OSX programs (I have a MacBook Pro) and until I can get a VM of OSX I'll need to boot into OSX. I run XP within a VM to execute those handful of programs that are windows only. FWIW, I rarely need to do this, because in all honestly I loaded ubuntu to do away with windows. I have two applications that I don't think are duplicated in linux so I'm stuck with running windows in a VM

The same goes for OSX, I have a number of applications that are not easily replaced in ubuntu so I'll boot into OSX (or figure out how to create a VM) and run them that way.

Tipped OuT
May 15th, 2009, 06:23 PM
If you're stuck on gaming, then you'd best keep windows.

Agreed, I tried having Ubuntu as my only operating system, until I found myself craving to play a game, then I had to pop in the old Windows XP installation disk..

donkyhotay
May 15th, 2009, 06:24 PM
I've been windows free for about 3 years or so and don't even dual-boot. I enjoy games but I content myself to whats available natively and ignore the hype about the 'hottest' new games out there. Although I do use wine, the program I most consistently use it for is starcraft.

uupreti
May 15th, 2009, 06:29 PM
I was thinking. I have vista and ubuntu on a dual boot configuration on my laptop. Is there any point having both? Or would it be possible to do most things with ubuntu?

Install VMware server and make Vista as guest OS. Problem solved. :);)

kanikilu
May 15th, 2009, 06:30 PM
What's the point? It makes more sense to run it native! (Ok, granted, you don't have to reboot. But this solutions seems like a Nerds idiotic, no-sense solution to me. *No flaming intended*) What? There are plenty advantages to virtualization.

The main one, as you pointed out, is no reboot. This is a lot bigger of an issue than you make it out to be. While you are saving and closing what you are working on, rebooting, starting Windows, logging in, and finally getting to what you need to do what you need to accomplish in Windows, and then repeat all that again to get back to Ubuntu, I will have fired up my saved XP session in VBox, done what I needed to get done, and closed it by the time you have even shutdown...

Other advantages are:

- No partitioning or modification of the boot record
- Ability to take snapshots
- Test out other operating systems before installing, Windows 7, for example and of course other Linux distro's, BSD, etc.

// Edit - sorry, kind of getting off topic here...

Rainstride
May 15th, 2009, 06:40 PM
I was thinking. I have vista and ubuntu on a dual boot configuration on my laptop. Is there any point having both? Or would it be possible to do most things with ubuntu?

i went to full ubuntu during 8.04beta, its better than windows for me. but if you play windows games i would check wine to find out if you can play them.(i wish wine would play fallout 3...:()

evermooingcow
May 15th, 2009, 07:41 PM
If you have some high performance software that is critical to getting your work done and the software only runs natively on Windows then I would say you need to keep a Windows install but if this was the case you probably wouldn't even be asking this question.

Small Windows only apps can be run in a vm or wine.

Stuck on gaming? This is a simple one to solve. Quit gaming.

hanzomon4
May 15th, 2009, 07:42 PM
I actually haven't used windows since 2005

Tristam Green
May 15th, 2009, 08:00 PM
I dunno. Food, water and shelter come somewhere as a close second for me.

Gaming? I've actually just kinda...gamed less, or taken up console gaming more than anything since my switch - if I could get 3d acceleration properly working on 9.04, I'd be playing more Guild Wars on Linux.

Phreaker
May 15th, 2009, 08:02 PM
WoW runs good on wine, so I ditched windows xD