New installation, so far so good.

[aatyler]

Well, I'm new to the forum so first off, hello all! My machine's specs are:

Asus M50VM-B1
2.53 Ghz Core 2 Duo
4 Gigs of ram
200 Gigs 7200rpm HD
Intel / atheros wireless router



Well, I decided to make the switch in steps to linux (hopefully completely) from windows vista. After several days of reading I decided on first using a Wubi installation to see how linux works and to adjust to the new environment. I have 4 goals with linux, that if they work satisfactorily I'll completely wipe my hard drive and say good bye to windows for good.

1) Internet / sound / video is a must because I enjoy watching movies with my laptop from online / youtube / internet radio / etc.. .etc...

2) I can put up with a few glitches but the system needs, overall, to run better than windows vista, otherwise what would be the point in switching, right?

3) No glitches with removable media as I am a student and am constanly transfering data around on thumb drives.

4) finally, I need support for 2 windows programs that I must have, and are not native to linux. EDIT: one is a must, the other is a hopeful One is the software required to use a CAC reader with my CAC card and the other is a form filler program that is rather old, but I use it quite often.

Now, on to my experience thus far:

I downloaded the 64 bit iso and wubi to give it a go and I got about 95% up and running within 25 minutes. I was a little worried about wifi after all I had read with my specific model of laptop, but even it was a very small fix, along with the brightness problem. So far I am blown away by the stabiliy and speed of linux. In the time it takes windows to start I could have linux up, running, and allready working, and so far I haven't ran into any major bugs or issues (knock on wood). Now, my only goal is to get a bit more comfortable with ubuntu/linux and import a few things from my windows machine. Also, I need to findout how much windows software can actually be used on Linux.

I only have two questions:

1) Has any one here ever managed to use a CAC reader with linux, and if so, can you point me in the right direction for drivers and the like?

2) If I do decide to dual boot and keep a copy of windows, would I be better off completely wiping my hard-drive so I can partiton without windows being on there (data is all backed up so that isn't a concern) and then re-install? my only concern is that I do not have an actual Vista disk, only a restore one that takes hours to load....


Well, thanks in advance for any advice. I must say, I'm am incredibly happy so far with my Ubuntu exprience.


-Adam

[raymondh]

Welcome Adam.

http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20070701111340544/Equivalents.html You'll notice that there's probably a 3-1 ratio of linux equivalent apps :)

I have not found one for CAC-compatibility.

For your other goals:

1. Yes, you can have the desired multimedia experience/enjoyment. If you run into glitches, check the stickies on the appropriate sub-forums here for possible solutions. This is an example (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205449).

2. My experience is that Ubuntu will run better and more stable than windows. Tweaking ubuntu makes it much more enjoyable. I have fun tweaking my set-up and have developed a good google-fu to search for needed how-to's. Have fun.

3. I brought my Ubuntu-only laptop on a trip recently. I say Ubuntu-only because at that time, windows and OSX were busted and I did not have the time to fix them. With a bunch of removable media (thumb drives) and an external CD drive, I had zero problems mounting and unmounting, copying and transfering files, etc.

Some thoughts:

1. As you know by now, your wubi-installed Ubuntu is limited to the performance given by windows .... and is subject to the same issues as windows. Keep windows clean. Even then, there is some performance loss compared to a partition-installed Ubuntu.
2. I prefer partition-installed (whether dual or triple boot). That way (just like my recent trip), if one OS is hosed, I have the option to use the other.
3. Even if I multi-boot, I usually just boot into ubuntu and use a Virtualized XP for windows-only based apps and requirements. My partitioned installs are minimal in size .... I use a shared partition for data and just move files there. I believe you'll like the convenience of virtualization.

You don't have to wipe Vista entirely. Like I said, dual-booting has its' advantages. Here are some readings for dual-booting.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation
http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/index.html
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_f irst.htm

For problems related to shrinking Vista

http://www.vistarewired.com/2007/02/16/how-to-resize-a-partition-in-windows-vista
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-gparted-to-resize-your-windows-vista-partition/

Welcome again .... Google is your friend .... the forum has been helpful to/for me.

[aatyler]

UPDATE:

Its been almost a month and Ubuntu is more than I could ever hope. Gimp perfectly suits my graphic needs, open office is just fine for being a student, and the OS has yet to crash even when I'm coding / browsing the internet / listening to a radio station / downloading a massive file / printing.

The only issue has been the Wifi, I have to manually turn it on from the terminal each time I boot, but I just setup a script that does it for me, so, linux is the way to go!

I did have to keep a vista partition though so I can use the CAC feature for my job and what not, but other then that I never boot into vista. I'll post in another forum if i can ever find a viable CAC option for linux.

[raymondh]

Excellent news. Congratulations, enjoy and happy ubuntu-ing :)