149 replies to this topic 2 votes

[+patseguin]

I've been in a dilemma about whether or not to stay with Windows 8 or go back to Windows 7. It then occurred to me, why not just use Linux as my main OS? I don't really game a whole lot anymore and a lot of devs are supposedly shifting to Linux.

My question is two part: How many of you use Linux as your main OS and what distro? Ubuntu and Mint seem like the best right now. What is wants is something that does NOT look like Windows.

[Nothing Here]

Well, it's a personal choice I would think. Recently I tried Mint 14 RC x64 and it was a very stable and fast OS. If you go Mint 14 RC x64, you will have to implement a x86 program fix, or if you go x86, then you may want to implement the PAE kernel if you have more then 4gigs ram. Not sure if they already have it implemented or not in the x86 release. But I personally do not care for Debian/Ubuntu OSes. But I think the majority of people switching would love it. But it is sort of Windows-like.

[+Fus10n]

I have been using Ubuntu since 5.05.. I am using Pear linux right now. You should check that out.

http://pearlinux.fr/

Welcome to the club

[+Asik]

patseguin, on 20 November 2012 - 19:48, said:

I've been in a dilemma about whether or not to stay with Windows 8 or go back to Windows 7. It then occurred to me, why not just use Linux as my main OS? I don't really game a whole lot anymore and a lot of devs are supposedly shifting to Linux.

Windows had worse releases than Windows 8 and kept its predominance just fine. If Windows 8 doesn't succeed, people will just stay with Windows 7 for the next few years, there's no "shift to Linux", never was, never will be (at least in the foreseeable future).

If you really must use Linux though, I suggest Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop.

[Yogurtmaster]

patseguin, on 20 November 2012 - 19:48, said:

I've been in a dilemma about whether or not to stay with Windows 8 or go back to Windows 7. It then occurred to me, why not just use Linux as my main OS? I don't really game a whole lot anymore and a lot of devs are supposedly shifting to Linux.

My question is two part: How many of you use Linux as your main OS and what distro? Ubuntu and Mint seem like the best right now. What is wants is something that does NOT look like Windows.

I use Linux (Ubuntu, Centos, Linux Mint) in a Virtual Machine such as VirtualBox which is free, it allows you to run Linux at the same time as Windows. If all you want to do is have a different looking windows you can try RainMeter and Samurize, they can radically change the look of Windows to where you can't even notice it's windows anymore.

[+Fus10n]

There is sort of a shift to linux with gaming because of Steam.. Hopefully more people will start using Linux.. Just my 2 cents

[psyko_x]

I use Mint and WIndows 7. I've been a linux user for a long time, but only for work and development. The desktop experience still sucks in comparison to Mac OS or WIndows as it's full of bugs, lacks polish and lacks consistency. There's like a million different desktop environments for christ sakes (gnome, kde, lxde, unity etc...I'd recommend using Cinnammon or Gnome Shell with whatever distro you decide to try. Those are my favorites.

Bottom line, try using a distro in VMWare or virtualbox and see what you think.

[+patseguin]

Well, I'm in the position of having 2 256GB SSD's so I could set up a dual boot. Sounds like Linux Mint x64 is worth checking out since I have 24GB of RAM. I an 100% see what Dr_Asik is saying though. I had just wondered if Linux could overtake Windows as a main desktop OS.

[n_K]

you have 24GB of RAM?
Dude just install grub or grub4dos on a USB, copy the extracted ISO files of the distro you want to try there and modify GRUB's bootloader to load the ISO files in memory and give it a try.

[threetonesun]

Devs are moving to Linux based operating systems, like Android. Chrome OS is starting to get more popular as well, but there still hasn't been a great push for a desktop Linux OS. Even if Steam goes over, it will probably be some Linux based OS dedicated to gaming that happens to be compatible with Ubuntu and not much else.

As for using it, an OS is an OS. They're all different, but they all do the same things. The real issue is the software that is compatible, although to be honest it makes more sense to run Windows as the main OS and VM into a Linux environment.

[firey]

I run 7 main, and Arch in virtualbox, however I find I used arch quite a lot.

[+patseguin]

Well I installed Linux mint on one of my ssd's. when done, I instead of getting a boot loader for wi 8 or Linux it went straight to Linux. I entered my username and password and it said I would log in in 5 seconds. This was just an and less loop and I never got into Mint.

[+ViperAFK]

I use it fulltime on my laptops. Only reason I don't use it on my desktop is because I do a ton of pc gaming.

[threetonesun]

patseguin, on 20 November 2012 - 21:12, said:

Well I installed Linux mint on one of my ssd's. when done, I instead of getting a boot loader for wi 8 or Linux it went straight to Linux. I entered my username and password and it said I would log in in 5 seconds. This was just an and less loop and I never got into Mint.

Welcome to the wonderful world of dual booting Windows and Linux.

Seriously, this is why every says VMing in is the way to go.

[xorangekiller]

Although I'm a Debian user, I definitely recommend installing Ubuntu 12.04 if you are a new Linux user. Ubuntu is probably the best supported consumer-oriented distro, and the latest long term support release, 12.04, is fast and super stable.

My only other recommendation is not to approach learning Linux by comparing it to the way things work in Windows. It is not Windows. Many things work differently, and that's necessarily not a bad thing. It will just take some time to get familiar with. The Ubuntu forums and wiki are also an excellent source of information when you need to solve problems or learn how things work. The few Linux users who frequent Neowin are be happy to help you as well (or, at least, I am).