Lonely Rolling Star wrote:I'm still having problems, and it seems that Explorer is taking up more kilobytes than usual to run in Task Manager. The sad thing is this is the first time I downloaded a file such as this, and it did this. :/ Lesson learned.
I'm downloading Ubuntu right now, actually.
Can you tell me a little more about it James? Will I still be able to run the OHR from it? How secure is it? Will all my Windows program work, and will it be able to also use Mac and Linux ones? How does it with Dos programs?
Registered solely to respond to this thread.
Ubuntu, or any Linux Distro for that matter, is not something you should just jump into without doing a bit of research.
Ubuntu is an OS replacement. While distros such as Ubuntu and Fedora have made Linux much more accessible to novice users, in my opinion, they are still not quite at the level of Desktop Replacement Solution. The hand holding done through the Package Manager and various System Configuration GUIs makes it very hard to transition from a Novice user to an Expert User (and with such an enormous potential configuration, an expert in one system is a novice in another). There is very little middle ground here. Either you're entirely reliant on the gui, or you know what config files need updating, where they reside in YOUR filesystem (yes, this isn't always standard), and you know which logs you should be checking in case you run into problems. Not knowing one of those vital pieces of information and you're potentially spending hours, even days, trying to fix something trivial. Even worse if you just bricked your only web browser capable machine.
To plug one of my favorite online comics:
http://www.xkcd.com/349/ and
http://xkcd.com/196/ aren't too far fetched, actually (well, minus the whole middle of the ocean ending in the first comic). When it comes to trying to fix something, you can spend hours, even days, only to end up with a system more broken than when you started. I've done hours of research on some opensource quirks that still really bug me but I can't quite find a proper fix for (my terminal always opens with it's title bar behind the top Gnome panel, forcing me to use ALT+click to move it into a usable position, when Compiz (3D Desktop Effects) is enabled).
To further illustrate my point, as an "expert" user (I use the term loosely even though I've been primarily Linux, and now Mac, for over 7 years), I spent over an hour trying to "fix" X (essentially the Linux Graphical Frontend) after updating to Fedora 9. Luckily, I knew how to manually configure xorg.conf, knew how to drop myself into a terminal, and knew where the logs were stored on the system. After restarting X numerous times and changing I don't even remember how many configuration options, trying various hacks that had worked for me in the past, I realized my graphics card was not properly outputting over DVI and everything was always working over RGB. Swapped my DVI cable for your standard RGB cable and finally got a screen using the original configuration. I still haven't gotten my DVI cable to work in this release.
Right now, you're looking at wiping your machine. You need to wipe it to install Ubuntu or you could wipe it and reinstall Windows. Obviously, the third option is to continue trying to clean your system, which may be a futile effort. Before firing up Ubuntu and praying for the best, I really suggest you do a bit of research, as it's apparent you don't know much about the system.
How old is your machine? Does Ubuntu support all your devices out of the box or will you need some 3rd party drivers? Have other users ran into any problems with your devices on the Ubuntu version you're downloading?
What do you use this box for? What are your current MUST HAVE apps? Do they have a Linux version (like OHR and Firefox)? Is there a potential equivalent Open Source app (like OpenOffice as a Microsoft Office replacement and The GIMP as a Photoshop replacement)? If not, has anyone successfully run them via wine?
Linux will not magically run Mac or Windows programs without a little bit of effort on your part. If you're lucky, someone has already tried it and has successfully succeeded, or has written an Open Source equivalent version that will meet your needs.
ALL of this research should be done before you even waste your time downloading the installer and reformatting. If you want to get a feel for what you're getting yourself into, download the Live CD instead, which will boot your system into Ubuntu off of the CD, leaving your HD in tact.
I'm not saying don't take the plunge, Linux is a wonderful, powerful OS, but you get what you pay for in terms of Support and Documentation. Make sure you know what you're getting into before you waste your time setting up a system that doesn't meet your needs.
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