[reeftool]

he means, you can't watch dvd's or play mp3 songs because the software that allows that belongs to other people. You will need to install things that allow you to watch or listen to them rather than them being present right when you finish the installation of the operating system.

All those programs are readily available in their repositories for downloads. You scroll through the lists and choose what you want. Point and click, as simple as that. You can also run other programs not in their repository, it just requires you to manually do it in the terminal.

[enoeske]

All those programs are readily available in their repositories for downloads. You scroll through the lists and choose what you want. Point and click, as simple as that. You can also run other programs not in their repository, it just requires you to manually do it in the terminal.

I'm well aware. I've been on Ubuntu for 4 years now. My post was for Deiberson, who didn't seem to understand what tuco said.

[rm2]

Precisely due to the issues mentioned on this thread PCLinuxOS is a better alternative for newbies than Ubuntu. No need to add extra repositories or spend time in Google learning how to do this. No need to wait for the next release to enjoy the latest version of applications or libraries. Etc, etc. PCLinuxOS is better in so many ways. I am always baffled at the power of advertisement to mislead the masses. Ubuntu's investment on marketing has sure achieved the desired effect, unfortunately. Not that it is a bad distro, but there is too much misinformation going around.

As for the gimp, it was mentioned already that it has a huge limitation for photographers that want to be able to take advantage of a good RAW worklflow, it only has 8 bit support. Yes, it has powerful tools for editing JPEG images, but if you want to take advantage of the extra wiggle room that RAW affords you will be better off using something else. Several excellent alternatives were already mentioned. My personal favorite is digiKam. I use it for all my photographic needs (even though I have Photoshop CS3 available as well).

Open Source Photo Processing Comes of Age An alien’s viewpoint

You can try digiKam in Windows as well as explained in a recent post of mine.

Amarok and digiKam on Windows An alien’s viewpoint

1 GB will plenty of RAM.

[RioRico]

I shall be contrarian, or maybe discordian. Where I'm at: I am no novice nor moron. I soldered-up my first microcomputer from a kit in 1980, a HeathKit H8, when I was an IBM mainframe programmer. In the 80's I was a CP/M and DOS Guru. Since 1994, I have tried numerous *nix versions on numerous *ntel PCs. I HAVE NEVER EVER OBTAINED A CLEAN INSTALL. I am cursed by the *nix demons-deities. I know that *nix hates me. [/me sobs, turns away, contemplates OS/2]

[rm2]

I shall be contrarian, or maybe discordian. Where I'm at: I am no novice nor moron. I soldered-up my first microcomputer from a kit in 1980, a HeathKit H8, when I was an IBM mainframe programmer. In the 80's I was a CP/M and DOS Guru. Since 1994, I have tried numerous *nix versions on numerous *ntel PCs. I HAVE NEVER EVER OBTAINED A CLEAN INSTALL. I am cursed by the *nix demons-deities. I know that *nix hates me. [/me sobs, turns away, contemplates OS/2]

Go get yourself a copy of PCLinuxOS:

Get PCLinuxOS PCLinuxOS

(I recommend the KDE version.)

Then come back and let us know how you fared.

PS: You will find many experiences similar to yours, but with a happy outcome here:

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/board,45.0.html

[tuco]

All those programs are readily available in their repositories for downloads. You scroll through the lists and choose what you want. Point and click, as simple as that. You can also run other programs not in their repository, it just requires you to manually do it in the terminal.

And to play DVD's on your open source platform means installing the libdvdcss library to circumvent the encryption and its legal standing in countries that honor the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is questionable. The MPAA will, of course, say you are illegal without a second thought.

[VaughnA]

I shall be contrarian, or maybe discordian. Where I'm at: I am no novice nor moron. I soldered-up my first microcomputer from a kit in 1980, a HeathKit H8, when I was an IBM mainframe programmer. In the 80's I was a CP/M and DOS Guru. Since 1994, I have tried numerous *nix versions on numerous *ntel PCs. I HAVE NEVER EVER OBTAINED A CLEAN INSTALL. I am cursed by the *nix demons-deities. I know that *nix hates me. [/me sobs, turns away, contemplates OS/2]

I had the same experiences. Gave up in 2005 and went with a mac. I got tired of having to recompile the kernel to do the least little upgrade.

OS/2 kicked Windows butt...

[rm2]

I had the same experiences. Gave up in 2005 and went with a mac. I got tired of having to recompile the kernel to do the least little upgrade.

OS/2 kicked Windows butt...

5 years is eons in Linux time. The thing about Linux is that it can't go broke. It is always improving, doing so at a relentless and accelerating pace. In my opinion, PCLinuxOS has already surpassed Windows and OSX already in every important way. The only reason to be using any of the proprietary OSs is if there is an application that you absolutely have to use that is only available for those OSs. Many people don't realize that there are excellent programs in Linux that can take care of the tasks most people need to accomplish. For most photography enthusiasts, digiKam is ready to take care of their needs with flying colors. For the rest, it is just a matter of time.

[boriscleto]

I shall be contrarian, or maybe discordian. Where I'm at: I am no novice nor moron. I soldered-up my first microcomputer from a kit in 1980, a HeathKit H8, when I was an IBM mainframe programmer. In the 80's I was a CP/M and DOS Guru. Since 1994, I have tried numerous *nix versions on numerous *ntel PCs. I HAVE NEVER EVER OBTAINED A CLEAN INSTALL. I am cursed by the *nix demons-deities. I know that *nix hates me. [/me sobs, turns away, contemplates OS/2]

Sounds like you need to seek out a Linux User Group. The local UG here in Syracuse holds an "Install Fest" a couple of time a year where there are "Guides" and "Gurus" to hold your hand during the install and tell you what you need and don't need.

I was thinking about tripping them up and bringing in a 68K Mac and asking for help installing Debian.

[tuco]

5 years is eons in Linux time. The thing about Linux is that it can't go broke. It is always improving, doing so at a relentless and accelerating pace. In my opinion, PCLinuxOS has already surpassed Windows and OSX already in every important way. The only reason to be using any of the proprietary OSs is if there is an application that you absolutely have to use that is only available for those OSs. Many people don't realize that there are excellent programs in Linux that can take care of the tasks most people need to accomplish. For most photography enthusiasts, digiKam is ready to take care of their needs with flying colors. For the rest, it is just a matter of time.

Yes. It has come a long way and continues forward. My first Linux install was in 1994. In 2004 I wanted to put Linux on a Mac G5 because I was tired of trying to build a quiet box and thought I'd just buck up for one already made. While waiting to get ready for the migration over I discovered I had a UNIX system on that G5 and support for secret, proprietary formats plus some "pro apps" like Final Cut Pro I use for video editing. Got lazy and just stuck with it. Now I play with OpenBSD for building my firewall/router and wireless access points on small embedded devices.

[jbinpg]

Made the switch from OS/2 (RIP - miss the workplace shell) to linux in about 1998. Went from various flavours to Ubuntu at the first release and never looked back. Does everything I need.

[exwintech]

RioRico - Seems I came from the other direction... I started with a Genuine IBM Twin-Slotter, no HDD, so no TSIs, in 1983 - with PC-DOS, then was given MS-DOS. That was "hobby", via Windows 2.0-286, then Win-3x. I had an injury in 1991 that forced me to give up semi-trailer driving, so did some studies, for Community College Assembler Cert, then Asst. Tech Cert, to get into it, then full Tech, later Cisco and the CompTIA A+ (twice, for NT-4, then for NT-5 / Win2k.)

So - 11 years as a Windows Tech, from late in 3.1, to the first couple of years of Win2k, and NT-5.1/XP. Around 2000, I was getting a little bored with the foibles of Redmond's masterpieces, so another tech introduced me to Linux. Mandrake 7.x.

That led through several years of dual-booting Linux and Windows (usually 98SE, then Win2k, as I found XP to be quite a high-overheads lump), and a steady drift - as Linux for PCs improved rapidly, more towards Linux-only, and by the time Mandraked morphed into Mandriva, and lost the plot for a while, I was ready to hop Distro - and went for PCLOS (PCLinuxOS) - which originated as a fork away from Mandrake, before the Mandriva-events.

So, I've been a PCLOS-er for 6 years, this coming April - and I'm rather pleased with it. Does everything I need to do, from Text to Graphics to Audio to Video - conversion and editing, handles HD in H264/MOV with less CPU (AMD-6000 dual-core 3GHz) and RAM (2GB-DDR2) - than friends need to do similar in their XP boxes. To do those things in Vista or Win-7 - a lot more grunt and RAM again, so I'm relieved I'm not into those...

And it's a long time since I've "blown" a Linux install - never, in the just on 6 years with PCLOS. Format-Partition-Install - all in the easy-to-do instructions on every PCLOS LiveCD. Installs about 4-5 times faster than XP-Pro (I redo friends' ones) - and arrives at Desktop with over 150 Applications, Tools, Utilities, etc, ready to go - and another 12,000 or so ready to auto-download-install with the Synaptic Installer....

When your new install hits Desktop (it only has 4 Desktops by default, but you just click more in - I'm working across 6 here at the moment) - a few clicks in Control-Centre snicks you onto Internet - open Synaptic - click to update the lists, a few seconds - then you Update-All - and from the Repository - Synaptic fully updates the System, and all programs, tools, utilities, etc, running on it. After doing that - install as many new things as you like - half-dozen or dozen at a time. Close Synaptic - and try them out, use them - no reboots needed.

So - I'm a pretty happy Linuxer - and the "bad old days" of "compiling Kernels" - and just about "living in a Terminal" - are long gone for Linux PC-ers... But, the Termy-etc are all there if you need them... Say - to ask a question - maybe, "Uptime" - and the answer is - (how long since last reboot or startup):

(Copy > Paste)

[david@localhost ~]$ uptime
19:23:33 up 30 days, 9:04, 1 user, load average: 0.21, 0.17, 0.17
[david@localhost ~]$

See - pretty 'diffy', isn't it.....

Dave.

[VaughnA]

5 years is eons in Linux time. The thing about Linux is that it can't go broke. It is always improving, doing so at a relentless and accelerating pace. In my opinion, PCLinuxOS has already surpassed Windows and OSX already in every important way. The only reason to be using any of the proprietary OSs is if there is an application that you absolutely have to use that is only available for those OSs. Many people don't realize that there are excellent programs in Linux that can take care of the tasks most people need to accomplish. For most photography enthusiasts, digiKam is ready to take care of their needs with flying colors. For the rest, it is just a matter of time.

It's getting much better. BUt I changed to OSX 6 years ago when it wasn't even close. I worked with ubuntu and fedora last year for some work projects. It's getting closer to being a user OS but it still wasn't there. When it gets to the point that my wife or other typical user can install, uninstall and navigate the OS easily then I'd consider it. And there is still a shortage of polished software.

[rm2]

It's getting much better. BUt I changed to OSX 6 years ago when it wasn't even close. I worked with ubuntu and fedora last year for some work projects. It's getting closer to being a user OS but it still wasn't there. When it gets to the point that my wife or other typical user can install, uninstall and navigate the OS easily then I'd consider it. And there is still a shortage of polished software.

For a newbie, PCLinuxOS is much easier to use than Ubuntu or Fedora. You should give it a try. Whenever someone asks me to help them rid their computers from a virus infestation I always encourage them to give Linux a try first. I promise them that if they don't like it or if they can't get along with it that I will put a fresh copy of Windows back on for them. I have done this for several people and none have asked for Windows to be put back on. In fact, I am getting so many requests now, that I have started to charge for it. So far, all happy campers, and none of them are computer savvy at all.

As for polished applications, it depends on what kind of application you mean. Most people only need a web browser (Firefox, Chromium), music (Amarok, Clementine), video (VLC, MPlayer), office (OpenOffice, LibreOffice, gnumeric, etc.), burning (k3b, brasero), etc, and the Linux offerings are very polished, being top of the class in several areas. Again, for photography, there are plenty of excellent and mature solutions available in Linux (and I don't mean the gimp ).

[magkelly]

Actually if you're going to go Ubuntu I'd suggest Kubuntu, which is one of the variants. It's very user friendly.