OT: How Good is Linux?

[orion]

As the subject says, Is linux any good? I was thinking about downloading it and putting it on my external. I couldn't find any decent images or topics discussing how linux operates or how linux looks for that matter. So, I turn to the GAE community. Should I get linux and which distribution pack should I get?

[titi]

try ubuntu, I like it, and its good for linux beginners

[wciow]

I am by no means a Linux guru but I use Ubuntu. I actually prefer it and would use it instead of windows if it supported games. Games are the only reason I forked out for Vista  

[mictes]

KUBUNTU
The same like ubuntu but with KDE 4.01 (When your Computer is good, try it!).
See the screen (from chip.de)

[orion]

How do I create a dual boot on my computer. I have windows, but I don't want to get rid of it. When I was on the irc, people who had linux would reboot their computers and switch to windows to play with other people who had windows.

How do I do that?
PS: I want linux on my external.

[titi]

Better asks things like this in another forum, for example this one:
http://ubuntuforums.org/

If you install ubuntu on you external device you should tell your bios to boot from usb.
But you better read a bit before you try something like this! Its much more easier than installing a windows system on an external drive ( I think this is nearly unpossible for normal users ).
This kind of installation is not the usual way of using linux ( and it will be slow because most external harddrives are slower then internal ones! ) .

If you simply want to start linux to test it, you can also boot it from cd, without installing it(ok for testing, but its slow)!
I think every installation disk can do this.
Downloads are here:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/
( use the 32 bit version first, there are still some annoying things like missing flashplayer for example in 64 bit linux )

[jrepan]

How do I create a dual boot on my computer. I have windows, but I don't want to get rid of it. When I was on the irc, people who had linux would reboot their computers and switch to windows to play with other people who had windows.

How do I do that?
PS: I want linux on my external.

Ubuntu and other user-friendly distributions should do this automatically.

[titi]

But you probably get in trouble when you do this on an external disk!
If the external is not plugged in, the linux-bootmanager will not be found!
The bootmenu will be stored on the external by default!

[daniel.santos]

How do I create a dual boot on my computer. I have windows, but I don't want to get rid of it. When I was on the irc, people who had linux would reboot their computers and switch to windows to play with other people who had windows.

How do I do that?
PS: I want linux on my external.

w00t orion!! Let go of your hate and come over to the light side!  There is good in you, I can feel it! (oh, sorry, I thought I was Luke for a moment there

Also, keep in mind that once you get the dual boot setup, there are many windows programs & games that will run on Wine.  And jrepan's right, most modern linux distros do this by default when you install.  I haven't used Ubuntu, but I hear more good things about that distro than others (6.06 didn't work on my box personally -- at least the livecd didn't).  You may be able to put a boot partition on your internal hard drive and have the linux boot loader boot from your local hard drive, but then run linux on an external drive and you wont run into the type of problem that titi explained (a boot partition can be as small as 8MB!).  Then again, if you install it on your external drive and you have that set to be the 1st to boot from, that's probably even better, as it will just boot from your windows drive normally if you don't have it plugged in.

Good luck!

[Omega]

I have Kubunta, and I downloaded a linux version of GAE, but I don't know how to use it!

HELP?

How do I play extensionless and .bin files?

[orion]

What about GRUB. I've been hearing about that for a long time. It's supposed to let your choose what OS to boot when I start my computer. If installed this program on the OS that was on my internal (Windows) wouldn't it let me choose which OS to start?

Also, what is this WINE program I've been hearing about? Is it true that it can emulate almost any windows program without speed issues? If so, then I would delete my entire windows os and install linux on my internal.

[mictes]

Is Grub not supported by all linux-distributions ?
When i set up for example Opensuse or Ubuntu/Kubuntu, Grub was installed automatically cause I chased the option during set-up.
I can choose between Windows and Linux now when I boot my computer.

[daniel.santos]

You an use Grub with any linux distro, and I think it's the prevailing choice for the most part these days.  I can't say if the installers and GUIs support it or not.  And yes, with Grub, you can boot multiple OSs.

Wine rocks!  And it's not an "emulator", it executes your windows programs natively, that's why there are no inherent speed problems.  If there is a performance problem, it's due to either a bug in the program that doesn't follow the win32 API specification when they wrote it (I've run into those) or a bug in Wine's implementation of the win32 API.  Your linux distro should have a package manager (apt, etc.) that allows you to install wine. http://www.winehq.org/

[Omega]

And I've heard lots of compiling GAE on linux. Sorry to sound nooby, but how does one compile GAE on Kubunta? I got no clue cause I've only just started using it...

[jrepan]

And I've heard lots of compiling GAE on linux. Sorry to sound nooby, but how does one compile GAE on Kubunta? I got no clue cause I've only just started using it...

See this thread: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3837
SVN command is: svn co https://glest.codemonger.org/svn/repos/ ... ches/0.2.x gae
On Kubuntu you compile same way as on other Linux. Only difference is that you must install also build-essentials package.

[orion]

Thanks, everybody, for your support. This weekend, I will be installing Kubuntu. I decided to just install it on to my internal hard drive instead of my external.

@Daniel.Santos
After this, I'll get to work on the website.

[orion]

Success!!!

Kubuntu successfully installed on my computer and I'm loving it. Linux is MUCH faster than windows and the KDE is so COOL!

@Omega
If you are having trouble with Kubuntu linux, I found the perfect Ebook to get you up to speed. Here's the url:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/7677764/Kubuntu-Desktop-Guide

I downloaded it. In order to download it you need to be a registered user at scribd. If you or anyone else wants this book, but doesn't want to become a registered user at scribd, just reply and I'll email it to you.

[daniel.santos]

congratulations!

[hailstone]

Linux is MUCH faster than windows and the KDE is so COOL!

Yer, I miss Linux as my main OS. Hopefully I will switch back soon.

[Omega]

Can you email me? I really am a member of so many things that I think twice before signing up these days... (Can't remember the username I've used for about 75% of sites, and I probably can't even remember the site either...)

~Thanks!

[Platyhelminth]

Some users experienced problems with glest (and gae) in Ubuntu. I know how to fix it.

If glest/gae doesn't run at all, you might need dependencies to run glest/gae binaries. run this command:

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sudo apt-get install bjam jam checkinstall auto-apt build-essential cvs subversion subversion-tools automake vim libsdl1.2-dev libxerces27 libxerces27-dev libopenal0a libopenal-dev libogg0 libogg-dev libvorbis0a libvorbis-dev
  This installs dependencies and I added packages needed to compile glest/gae (this may be useful . The simplest way to fix is to remove the screensaver. It is somewhere in System==>preferences I think.

  To play with glest/gae, I hope you have the "restricted drivers" needed for your graphic card. You can install more recent drivers (for nvidia and ati) with envy if you want (uninstall the "restricted drivers" before, envy drivers are closed source too but more recent). enter this command :
in gnome (ubuntu)

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sudo apt-get install envyng-core envyng-gtkin kde (kubuntu)

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sudo apt-get install envyng-core envyng-qt  Then envyng program can be found in applications menu , it can install drivers.

[orion]

Sorry it took me so long to reply omega. I'll email you the document today. As for the GAE, I'll start working once I get java to cooperate.