Ubuntu as the Primary OS [No more Win 7]. Has anyone tried it?

[t430]

Hi,

I recently purchased a Lenovo Thinkpad T430. Upgraded the RAM to 16 GB. No Nvidia (Optimus). Just has Intel HD 4000 Graphics Card.

Looking for a Win 7 replacement that will let me -

1) Run 2-3 Instances of Linux (RHEL Clones) through VMWare Player so that I can toy around with Linux Clustering and Networking. My organization has a huge number of RHEL Servers and I need to toy around with the RHEL Clones through VM to get a better understanding of stuff.

2) Scripting - Mainly Perl. Bash/ksh , and some Python.

3) Watching Videos, Youtube, do online bank transactions (Browser based)

And yeah, equally important -

4) Install the BIOS/Firmware Upgrades released for T430.

Is Ubuntu suited for these tasks? Is there anyone currently using it (Preferably on a T430) as a (sort of a) Development Platform?

So is anyone using Ubuntu (12.04 upwards) and a development platform? How's the experience?

5) Heat/Exccessive Battery could reduce the life of my laptop. And I would hate to do that to my T430. I plan to use it atleast for 3-4 years. (Heck, 3-4 instances of VMWare Guests would drive the temp up, but still, I dont want to fry my laptop. I did have a separate thread on heat and Fan RPM, but still I really want to be sure). How's Ubuntu treating your laptops?

Has anyone completely migrated off of Windows and been exclusively on Ubuntu 12.04 upwards?

I have installed Ubuntu on my laptop and its going fine so far, but if I need to make the switch, I better get opinions from some experts here.

Sorry if I have posted this in the wrong forum category, if so, kindly move this thread to the most appropriate forum.

[Martinjo84]

With 16Gb of ram you can just fire up a Windows VM :) if you have to use windows

[jeffce]

I agree...16Gb of RAM should be more than enough to run Win OS....

[grahammechanical]

I have been using Ubuntu and only Ubuntu since 2007. I am now using 13.04. I use wine to run 1 Windows program that does not have a Linux version.

Tell us, does the machine's manufacturer provide Linux utilities to flash the BIOS from within Linux? No. then, like me, you are stuck. But there is another way. Check the motherboard handbook for your machine.

We run virtual machines on Ubuntu. Why would we not? You need plenty of RAM and you have it. And an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is just another kind of program. There are Linux versions.

http://developer.ubuntu.com/

I am not having problems with online banking and I am able to access UK goverment websites and fill in forms regarding taxation, pensions, birth certificates. But it all depends on the web browser that the web site is expecting to have knocking on its door. Some are restrictive because they use proprietary code in the web site. So, I have heard.

Regards.

[t430]

Hi All,

Thank you very much for your replies. Especially....Grahammechanical...Thank you for a very detailed reply.

I had heard that community support is an aspect where ubuntu shines.

From what I see, you don't get people snapping at you (yeah, that happens, I was trying another linux version and people either wouldnt reply or just snap at you, no matter if you follow the guidelines or RTFM first).

Thanks a lot once again.

[sshaddoww]

I started my computer 3 times and every time the screen was black until the operative system Ubuntu showed. The free choice to run Windows 7 operative system, which worked through the "Grub" code, is now gone in my computer system. However the image is displayed fuzzy in Ubuntu so it is bad for human eyes to read text and watch the screen. It is a bad experience.

[Frogs Hair]

Being a student leaves me with the need for Win 7, but for pleasure Ubuntu serves most of my needs except gaming which is a limited activity. I have a dual boot in place, so it makes little sense to remove win 7 only to run in virtual software because either way I am bound to Windows. In my case the bios updates are done via the Asus mother board software and independent of the operating system (home build).

This is not the case for everyone and bios updates that have no benefit to my hardware configuration are not installed anyway. Youtube is no problem and there can be browser related issues when it comes to banking. There is no good Silverlight alternative, the open source version known as Moonlight in no longer being developed and is missing proprietary components which allow it to function on certain web sites.