Ubuntu

Hey GS! I've been noticing how a lot of people are running Ubuntu as their OS and had a couple of questions. Can someone here compare it to Vista Home Premium? Is it a good OS?

Also, is my system good enough to run it? I'm DLing the 64 bit version of it.

Thanks!

I would do a lot of research before switching to it. It is a great operating system, but nothing close to xp/vista. It really depends on what you are using it for. Are you going to play PC games on it? If the answer is yes, then do NOT switch to linux. If you are just using it for regular usage (such as browsing the internet, making word documents, etc.) then linux is adequate. It has a lot of great features, but it is still a rough and unreliable OS.

Do not worry about if Ubuntu will run on your machine or not. Ubuntu is designed to run great on almost ANY hardware, and your laptop looks to be a beast, so don't worry.

I tend to hold a slight grudge against Ubuntu because I tried installing it 4 times and each time it crashed my harddrive taking XP and all my files down with it. I have used it for quite a few hours though and I have to say, if you can get it installed and are not trying to dual-boot, then Ubuntu is quite nice. The customization that you can achieve is 10x better than any other OS, and the amount of free stuff that comes with it is awe-inspiring.

My opinion is-

As long as you aren't using your computer for gaming, then I would definitaly try it out. It is a difficult OS to get used to, and the install pisses me off, but if you can get past that, then this is a great OS to use and I don't think you will regret switching to it.

I had it for a few days until i found out it didint upport ANY games(exept maybe solitare:P)

I hated it, im running vista now and its so much better

Well, I got Ubuntu just over a week ago and I now I don't like it when I have to go back to Windows, as for performance it runs quicker than XP with all the extra's enabled (unless I use Amarok, that slows everything down terribly but Exaile works perfectly and is very similar) so it's performance is definitely loads better than that of Vista.

I have to say it takes a while to get used to and figure out how to set things up, but once you get the hang of it (especially using Terminal) it's pretty easy to use.

And anyone who says games don't work is talking BS, they clearly didn't bother doing any research before getting Ubuntu, all you need to do is get Wine from winehq.com and this allows you to use many Microsoft programs. Whereas I know I won't be able to play stuff like Crysis or UT3 under Ubuntu I have played DoW and Dark Crusade and it works perfectly, after a little tweaking Oblivion works (HDR and bloom may or may not work for you but I found that dungeons actually looked more impressive without and you can end up with pink water, but as long as you don't mind losing thsome of the water effects it isnt much of a problem) it also crashes less frequently with Ubuntu and I got all the mods I use in XP to work. Even steam works. If you need to find out what does/doesn't work just go to the appDB on winehq.com and find the game and it will tell you how well it works and any known bugs with the game.