Internal Battles vs. An Awesome Distro

[jakeslife]

So, I am very impressed with Ubuntu. Back when Suse 8.1 came out is when I first started playing around with linux. I was on a 256 DSL so I bought the install DVD's from a store, and over the next few weeks I was both pleased and displeased with linux.

I browsed Distrowatch for hours, trying to find a distro that fit me. Since then, I've played around with Slackware, Mandrake, and Suse, and lots of Live CD's; Mandrake Move, Linspire Live, PCLinuxOS, Slax (and it's offspring), Beatrix, and week before last I found Ubuntu. I have to say that it is the most pleasing linux experience I've had so far.

My main gripes with other distros isn't just one thing, it's many: GUI (or lack thereof), package management, gaming, hardware support, and media support being the predominant woes.

The GUI's are either extremely bare (which I know some people love), or extremely bloated. Honestly, this is the first time I've ever played with Gnome. I always liked the tasty GUI of KDE, but I find that the Gnome desktop in Ubuntu is the right combo of minimalism and slickness for me. Hardware support has always been hit or miss for me (from my nVidia video card to my wireless keyboard/mouse and Bluetooth devices).

I am one who doesn't mind having to use the command line for certain things--it's the repetition that I hate. It's the same fight between Notepad enthusiasts and WYSIWYG people. I will do it if I have to in order to make something work just the way I want to, but overall I shy away from it. From system configuration, to hardware issues and program installation, this is something that has turned me off from Linux in general. :-({|=

The reasons I am primarily using Windows is because of the things I must have: Adobe and Macromedia software, media support (dvd, wmv, avi, divx, asf, mov, mp4, etc.), and program installation. I know that with the right amount of tweaking, you can play most if not all media types on linux, and when I started learning more about package management I saw how easy it could be, albeit a few minor things here and there. Obviously, Ubuntu has opened my eyes a lot to the gripes I had about previous linux experiences.

The one thing I am not comfortable with though is leaving the programs that I love. Dreamweaver is what I use in my design business (I've used NVu and Bluefish before, but they don't quite hit the spot for me), Photoshop (most likely because I am most comfortable with it and not the Gimp), and lots and lots of games.

This has turned out to be an interesting post! I guess I am more cautious about my system now because before my apartment building burned down this year I had four computers, so who cares if I throw linux on one of them and screw things up--all my important files are on my Windows box. I really want to switch to linux--and I think Ubuntu is what I have been waiting for--but there are those few things still nagging me. I am all for spending an hour or two backing up all my data and reinstalling Windows, but not when I don't have to.

[jdodson]

The reasons I am primarily using Windows is because of the things I must have: Adobe and Macromedia software, media support (dvd, wmv, avi, divx, asf, mov, mp4, etc.), and program installation. I know that with the right amount of tweaking, you can play most if not all media types on linux, and when I started learning more about package management I saw how easy it could be, albeit a few minor things here and there. Obviously, Ubuntu has opened my eyes a lot to the gripes I had about previous linux experiences.


if you didnt know, you can have all of that media functionality in ubuntu by installing the w32codecs and mplayer. check this site for more information:

http://www.ubuntuguide.org

[gheorghe_pop]

...and for your windows software you could allways use wine.And for your games you could try to find a linux version or you could use winex.

[JsPr]

Check out:

www.codeweavers.com.

Crossover Office just might be your key to Linux.

[ubuntu_demon]

Check out:

www.codeweavers.com.

Crossover Office just might be your key to Linux.
Just curious about crossover Office :

Is it 100% compatible with MS office ? Or do you still have occasional artefacts ?

Do you have to own ms office to make it work ? Or is it an emulation of ms office ?

[gheorghe_pop]

Crossover Office it's just a emulation tool like wine.You still have to own MSOffice.
Try to search with google about it and see what more it can do.

[Rancoras]

Crossover Office it's just a emulation tool like wine.

WINE stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator. It's a reimplementation of the Windows API. Crossover Office is an extension of WINE and they submit their changes back into the WINE project. The same goes for Cedega.

[ubuntu_demon]

Crossover Office it's just a emulation tool like wine.You still have to own MSOffice.
Try to search with google about it and see what more it can do.
okay cool
I was just curious.

[jakeslife]

I've read up on Wine and Crossover before, but would I still have to have a Windows partition? And Wine is another story for me...I can never get it to work right.

[jdong]

No, no Windows partition required. It CAN work with one, but it's absolutely optional.

[jakeslife]

If there's no partition needed with the software already installed, then through Wine can you install a Windiws program in linux and it runs from there? I'm just not familiar with Wine and it and I have a bad history together.

[jdodson]

If there's no partition needed with the software already installed, then through Wine can you install a Windiws program in linux and it runs from there? I'm just not familiar with Wine and it and I have a bad history together.

yes you can, wine and cedega have made some really good progress since i first used them years ago. the only thing i could get working was notepad(WOW) and now i can get Warcraft 3 and many other games working, it is getting much better.

[jakeslife]

I'm trying to think of any other concerns I have for running Ubuntu as my main OS. So far I've been using my Live CD at home and at work (I ordered some cd's to give out to the folks who are like 'ooh, ahh').

How is the USB and Bluetooth in Ubuntu? I haven't much played around with that yet...but eager to see how others have experienced it.

[poofyhairguy]

Just curious about crossover Office :

Is it 100% compatible with MS office ? Or do you still have occasional artefacts ?

Do you have to own ms office to make it work ? Or is it an emulation of ms office ?

A: You need the CDs

B: You need an older version for it to work well. Like Office 2k.

[Quest-Master]

Check out:

www.codeweavers.com.

Crossover Office just might be your key to Linux.

The main reason I got CrossOver was for Photoshop, and it didn't work (I've gotten support from everywhere and it doesn't work no matter what. )

[jakeslife]

Were you trying it with PS7 or CS, because I didn't notice support for CS with it, but I guess it also does depend on what distro you use, etc.

My big things are Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, Adobe PageMaker, and Acrobat Professional.

[natefish]

I would be interested in learning if anyone has been able to get Dreamweaver to work with the precompiled version of Wine for Ubuntu.

I installed the Ubuntu wine with synaptic (directions are on WineHQ) and after following directions at FranksCorner I was able to get Photoshop up and running. It works great except for the known bug with using the color picker in some instances.

I have not had as much luck with Dreamweaver and Flash MX and it seems to be eluding a lot of people.

If anyone has gotten Dreamweaver MX up and running under Wine it would be worth hearing about.

[jakeslife]

I haven't been able to get much to work under wine, but CrossOver office says that it allows you to install and run DW. This is probably the single application that will end up making me keep an XP partition...

[Quest-Master]

I have Dreamweaver and Flash but haven't bothered to try installing them since I barely use them anymore.


Were you trying it with PS7 or CS

I tried with PS7 and Crossover continuously tells me my serial key is wrong (which works just fine when installing in Windows).

However, if I can get Photoshop to work in plain Wine, that'd be awesome. Thanks for the tip natefish.. heading to Frankscorner now. :)

EDIT: Same error as usual. Gives an error that I am missing personalization information, and then it exits.

I really am having the same "internal" problems you do. Lack of Photoshop is an absolute killer to me, and me being a game engine developer, the lack of ActiveX is horrible as well.

But really, this is how it pairs up for me.

Windows: Awesome apps, everything set up. Slow as hell, freezes constantly, and wants you to pull your hairs out.
Ubuntu: Amazing stability, and a smooth ride as always. Lack of lovely Windows apps, and some odd freezes when trying to shutdown.

:( It sucks to have to reboot into seperate OSes to do various tasks too. Rebooting takes forever.