Dumping Windows.

[Liberty]

I ordered a new computer today Well the parts to build a new computer. Because I'm about to retire this machine, which has served me well for 7 years. I am believe I'm going to attempt to install Linux and so far I've gotten advice to go with Ubuntu.

My motherboard will be an Intel and will be using a 2.2 gig Dual core. I wonder how difficult its going to be to get my direct connect HP930 and my network connected HP 6310 All in one to work. Is Ubuntu the best way to go? Any suggestions on great software? Should i install a 64bit or the x86 version Ubuntu ? How much heartache can I expect to get the new computer up an talking to the printers and on the internet. Any suggestions will be most welcome.

[KC5AV]

It's been my VERY limited experience that most new Linux distributions will detect most standard hardware with little difficulty. Your network will probably be one of the easier parts to get up and going. As for the rest, I can't really say.

I've got a few spare machines floating around. I really should give Linux another try.

[G.A. Heath]

it should be relatively easy for your printers to work under Ubuntu, HP is one of the best at providing open source support for their products and has contributed plenty of code to ensure their products work well with open source operating systems. If you are a first time Linux user I would suggest you go with Ubuntu as it is very intuitive to use. I would suggest you download an Ubuntu live CD for both 64 and 32 bit versions and try both. Some closed source add ons to open source applications still do not play nice in 64 bit mode (Java and Flash player for example) but there are solutions for these issues such as "nspluginwrapper" which allows you to use 32 bit plugins with a 64 bit browser. You can also use the live CDs on your current computer to test compatibility of your chosen distribution with your printers and other hardware that you absolutely have to plug into your current machine without ever having to install the OS. Feel free to PM me or any of the other Linux guys on here (Linux guys are like shooters in that we are always willing to help new comers).

[KBCraig]

Ubuntu really reached what I would consider to be "mainstream user friendly" with Hardy Heron. Other than a slightly different user interface, any entry-level Windows or Mac user can easily figure it out with no instruction, other than the requirement to log in.

I haven't researched if there's a solution to this yet, but I didn't have any luck accessing streaming Windows media (*.asx) on our Heron 'puter. (It's just a spare for kids/visitors.) If anyone knows offhand a way to listen to *.asx on HH, I'd appreciate it.

[Liberty]

I think i pretty much made up my mind, I'm not as concerned about getting programs to to do what I want (There is wine after all) but the hardware seems to be the big gotchya. I just realized that I'm going to need a serial/ printer IO card card. Its very difficult to know before you buy whether the card will be supported.

[Daltex1]

Should get a mac..

[G.A. Heath]

Why do you need a serial/parallel card? I use my printer via USB and CUPS (more info available at http://www.cups.org ) works well with most network (and any other) printing solutions. I haven't used a serial port in ages although I do have a USB-serial device for my GPS (war driving, Navigation, ect). If you need a specific port you can always get a usb converter that will work.

[rokclimbertx]

this might help... ubuntu is really easy to install, i've done it several times just fooling around with my laptop... hope this helps...

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport/

[KD5NRH]

I've had some issues with a few pieces of software that didn't like Ubuntu, but worked fine in Debian. Since Debian is Ubuntu's underlying distro, and it runs faster on my ancient laptop, I've pretty much dropped Ubuntu.

[Liberty]

Why do you need a serial/parallel card? I use my printer via USB and CUPS (more info available at http://www.cups.org ) works well with most network (and any other) printing solutions. I haven't used a serial port in ages although I do have a USB-serial device for my GPS (war driving, Navigation, ect). If you need a specific port you can always get a usb converter that will work.

I'lI need a serial port because I have an AVR (tiny cpu) programmer that works on a serial port. Fortunatly last night I did find that my board actually does have a serial port. I then started looking at my printer a little closer it does support USB!! I was surprised. It is an HP930C and was supported by Win 98 and NT4 not 2000 and up. So I won't need to worry about the parallel port.
I guess I'm worrying about things to much and should just wait until the hardware gets here. I do have a networked All-in-one but there seems to be lots of debian support for it.

I think I'm going to stick with 32 bit because I don't want to get bogged down with incompatibility issues, even though I found out the OS will be incapable of using all the available memory.

[G.A. Heath]

How much memory are we talking about? also I forgot to mention you can run the 32 bit applications with the 64 bit distribution if you install the 32 bit libraries. Another option is dual booting (64 and 32 bit distro's and you choose the one you want at boot up).

[Liberty]

How much memory are we talking about? also I forgot to mention you can run the 32 bit applications with the 64 bit distribution if you install the 32 bit libraries. Another option is dual booting (64 and 32 bit distro's and you choose the one you want at boot up).

2 each 2 gig sticks for 4 gigs. It was cheap.
I am pretty much a newbie at this and wouldn't know where or how to install the 32 bit librarys so I figure once i get my feet wet I'll do a reinstall with 64 bit

[Rugrash]

Good to see we have some LINUX nerds carrying guns!!!! I thought I was the only one. I've tried many different flavors over the years (Red Hat, Mandrake, Fedora, Gentoo etc) but I've really grown to like Ubuntu. It's very comforting to install an OS and everything just works right out of the box. This should be the case for most users on desktops. Laptops are another story and may require some work to get soundcards and wi-fi working but for the most part you just install it and go. The Ubuntu forums are a great place to look for answers to questions on hardware compatibility as well as general use (much like this forum for guns). I only have windows for gaming, but use LINUX for everything else. Ubuntu is also great in an enterprise environment as I work for HP as a sysadmin and use it all day long.

Here's a link for a wine alternative:
http://www.linux.com/feature/144167

Also for those of you who want to try something a little different than running LINUX from a live disk you could install wubi. It basically installs LINUX onto your existing windows partition (as a file) which gives you dual boot capability w/o the hassle of traditionally carving up a partition just for LINUX. The cool thing is that if you decide to get rid of LINUX, you can simply remove it from windows' control panel->add/remove programs.

http://wubi-installer.org/

Good luck with it!

Rug

[russ]

Dont forget if you want to just take a look at Linux with out installing it there is a couple of
live CD versions my favorite is http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
Download, burn, runs from your CDrom drive and will mount your windows partitions

[G.A. Heath]

I started out using Slackware then I moved on to trying other distributions of Linux and BSD, however I always found myself coming back to Slackware. I remember being confused when Slackware's version number jumped to "7". I eventually moved into the 64 bit world and my beloved Slackware had not so I looked around and found SLAMD64 and was somewhat happy. I eventually tried Gentoo and decided that I would dual boot between it and SLAMD64 on my 64 bit machines. I also would like to point out that Linux can see/use the full 4G of ram, however each individual process can only see/use something around 3G.

Here's my Linux creds:
12+ years of use and experience.
I have significant (albeit a bit rusty) knowledge of C, C++, and other programming languages.
Have used/installed Slackware, RedHat, Caldera, SuSE, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Knoppix, Debian, SLAX, SLAMd64, ect.
I have even gone so far as to experiment slightly with Sorcerer Linux (bad idea on my part)
I have compiled GNOME by hand on Slackware. contributed comments, suggestions, code, and patches to a few projects.
I have some *Nix, but non-Linux experience, with FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Xenix, Minix, Mac OS-X, UnixWare, and PC-BSD.

I guess when I wake up I will post a thread in general on how to spot Linux users on a Firearms forum.