Complete Switch to *NIX and Linux: May 17, 2015


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Three days into it and going strong! I can't believe I'm finally at this point. I dual booted my MacBook Air with Ubuntu 15.04 Gnome + OS X 10.10 and my desktop running only Ubuntu 15.04 Gnome. 

 

Steam gaming is great! I'm currently playing Bioshock Infinite, Metro: Lastlight, Killing Floor 1 and Outlast - all native and Skyrim running on WINE. All running on Ultra Graphics at a minimum of 60+ FPS. 

 

I do however have a couple of questions: Do you have any recommendations for me? (Tips, Tricks, Hacks, Stuff to avoid, ect.) Are there any books I can read or activities i can perform to further my knowledge? 

 

Thanks! 

 

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What's your reason for going full Linux?

 

Good question. The main reason why I made the switch is the ability to customize and hack my OS to the way I want it. With other platforms, you can do the same, but in my experience, mileage will vary. Other reasons include the ones we've all heard before: performance, security, hardware compatibility (all 3 of the printers I use worked out of the box as well as my sound card and my webcam.) 

 

I also found myself using OSS 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time was games. All games I'm currently playing are available on Linux or work very well under WINE so I said why not. 

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 hopefully not productivity in real world environment  :D

 

 

I actually submit all of my work for university and documents for coworkers using LaTeX (PDF sent to them of course) and LibreOffice. Seriously Evolution > Outlook. The only app that I really miss is Photoshop, but that can be done on my Mac partition. 

To make a forum post about it.

 

You caught me. All I wanted was a stranger's satisfaction on the internet and you ruined it for me, God damn it.  /s

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You're not alone :) I have almost 8 months since I've been using Linux exclusively. But I plan to use Win 10 when it's out, I'm not giving up on Windows yet. 

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Good question. The main reason why I made the switch is the ability to customize and hack my OS to the way I want it. With other platforms, you can do the same, but in my experience, mileage will vary. Other reasons include the ones we've all heard before: performance, security, hardware compatibility (all 3 of the printers I use worked out of the box as well as my sound card and my webcam.) 

 

I also found myself using OSS 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time was games. All games I'm currently playing are available on Linux or work very well under WINE so I said why not. 

To be honest, this isn't a great reason to use Linux. With Ubuntu, you're getting something similar to a much less polished form of OSX with Gnome. It's honestly a pain in the royal ass to get some of these desktop customizations (and terminal customizations) that you see people posting images of. I would honestly just use OSX on your MacBook as you will get a much better experience.

 

That being said, if you really want to learn Linux and customize, I would suggest installing something other than Ubuntu. Ubuntu doesn't teach you much unless you seek it out and getting updated packages can be a pain. I would install something like Arch Linux that forces you to learn the terminal.

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I actually submit all of my work for university and documents for coworkers using LaTeX (PDF sent to them of course) and LibreOffice. Seriously Evolution > Outlook. The only app that I really miss is Photoshop, but that can be done on my Mac partition. 

 

Photoshop CS2 works fine in Crossover, and PlayonLinux claim that CS4 works fine there too. So you can do it. :)

 

 
 

 

To be honest, this isn't a great reason to use Linux. With Ubuntu, you're getting something similar to a much less polished form of OSX with Gnome. It's honestly a pain in the royal ass to get some of these desktop customizations (and terminal customizations) that you see people posting images of. I would honestly just use OSX on your MacBook as you will get a much better experience.

 

That being said, if you really want to learn Linux and customize, I would suggest installing something other than Ubuntu. Ubuntu doesn't teach you much unless you seek it out and getting updated packages can be a pain. I would install something like Arch Linux that forces you to learn the terminal.

 

That's why elementary OS exists :) I wouldn't change it for any other distro, ever.

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To be honest, this isn't a great reason to use Linux. With Ubuntu, you're getting something similar to a much less polished form of OSX with Gnome. It's honestly a pain in the royal ass to get some of these desktop customizations (and terminal customizations) that you see people posting images of. I would honestly just use OSX on your MacBook as you will get a much better experience.

 

That being said, if you really want to learn Linux and customize, I would suggest installing something other than Ubuntu. Ubuntu doesn't teach you much unless you seek it out and getting updated packages can be a pain. I would install something like Arch Linux that forces you to learn the terminal.

 

 

I'm taking it really easy. This is a production system after all. I would actually argue Gnome 3 is more polished than OS X. The last time Apple software was polished was 10.6.8. Arch is something I am working on. I've been testing it in a VM. 

Photoshop CS2 works fine in Crossover, and PlayonLinux claim that CS4 works fine there too. So you can do it. :)

That's why elementary OS exists :) I wouldn't change it for any other distro, ever.

 

Thanks! I grabbed a copy of it when Adobe gave it away for free so I'll give it a try. I've had some good luck with WINE. 

Photoshop CS2 works fine in Crossover, and PlayonLinux claim that CS4 works fine there too. So you can do it. :)

That's why elementary OS exists :) I wouldn't change it for any other distro, ever.

 

I'm using Windows in a VM for now. I may tri boot my Mac if worse comes to worse. I'm not backing down off switching over. :)

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I'll be staying Linux for 3 years this October. I never looked back to Windows, I even got my dad into using Mint 17 now (started with 15), with all his virus issues. He can't believe the speed of it.

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My experiences are that in the not too distant future ( less than a month maybe) you will tire of Ubuntu or other Linux Distro's and just go back to stock OSX. You'll realize that there really is no reason to switch. You'll tire of any type of "customization" you can do and just say "screw it" and switch back.

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Thanks! I grabbed a copy of it when Adobe gave it away for free so I'll give it a try. I've had some good luck with WINE. 

 

Don't just use Wine. Use PlayOnLinux if  you want CS4, or Crossover Linux if you want CS2. Using just wine is much more problematic, you need a lot of additional stuff installed, tweaks, etc. PlayOnLinux is free, so this is your best bet. Crossover is not free, but you can try it for 15 days and see how it goes for you. I had a major success with Crossover just a few days ago, by testing FL Studio 12 on it, it works flawlessly and this if the first time a FL version gets a gold status. So I'm happy with Crossover :)

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My experiences are that in the not too distant future ( less than a month maybe) you will tire of Ubuntu or other Linux Distro's and just go back to stock OSX. You'll realize that there really is no reason to switch. You'll tire of any type of "customization" you can do and just say "screw it" and switch back.

Yep. I used to be big into customization and stuff. It gets tiring constantly tweaking it. The only things I keep customized now are my terminal cause I use an Arch VM for programming at work which is one area Linux truly excels at. Otherwise I have a near stock Gnome install because I can't be assed. OSX is a much better system (and you can still do most of the stuff you can in Linux). Literally everything he is doing can be done on OSX already and the apps are much better.

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 Yep. I used to be big into customization and stuff. It gets tiring constantly tweaking it. The only things I keep customized now are my terminal cause I use an Arch VM for programming at work. Otherwise I have a near stock Gnome install because I can't be assed. OSX is a much better system (and you can still do most of the stuff you can in Linux). Literally everything he is doing can be done on OSX already and the apps are much better.

But you're forgetting the most important thing: the hardware. If you want OSX, you gotta pay the price. Or go Hackintosh, if your hardware allows it.

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But you're forgetting the most important thing: the hardware. If you want OSX, you gotta pay the price. Or go Hackintosh, if your hardware allows it.

You missed the part where he's dualbooting on a MacBook Air.

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I'll be staying Linux for 3 years this October. I never looked back to Windows, I even got my dad into using Mint 17 now (started with 15), with all his virus issues. He can't believe the speed of it.

 

That's freaking awesome, dude! You run Debian right? Is that more stable and faster than Ubuntu when it comes to games? Reason I ask is because SteamOS is based on Debian. I was debating before I wiped if Ubuntu was the best choice...

 

My experiences are that in the not too distant future ( less than a month maybe) you will tire of Ubuntu or other Linux Distro's and just go back to stock OSX. You'll realize that there really is no reason to switch. You'll tire of any type of "customization" you can do and just say "screw it" and switch back.

 

Only the future can tell. We shall see...

 

Don't just use Wine. Use PlayOnLinux if  you want CS4, or Crossover Linux if you want CS2. Using just wine is much more problematic, you need a lot of additional stuff installed, tweaks, etc. PlayOnLinux is free, so this is your best bet. Crossover is not free, but you can try it for 15 days and see how it goes for you. I had a major success with Crossover just a few days ago, by testing FL Studio 12 on it, it works flawlessly and this if the first time a FL version gets a gold status. So I'm happy with Crossover :)

 

Ah, that's what I meant. I got crossover for free as well for Flock The Vote a year or so back. 

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But you're forgetting the most important thing: the hardware. If you want OSX, you gotta pay the price. Or go Hackintosh, if your hardware allows it.

 

The reason why I'm going Linux is because I'm not spending 5 grand on a Mac Pro. Screw Hackintoshes. That's even harder than Linux. LOL!

 

You missed the part where he's dualbooting on a MacBook Air.

 

I have a non mac desktop I built as well. I'm not getting a Mac Pro right now. 5k is a lot of money. Only that can replace the desktop I built myself. 

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Best of luck. 

 

I lasted about a year on Linux...

 

until I'd had enough. 

 

Thanks. I'll probably report back yearly. I'm going to try my hardest to not give in.  

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Thanks. I'll probably report back yearly. I'm going to try my hardest to not give in.  

 

Enjoy, though!

 

All in all, I did have a good time with it, up until a point. Learned a lot. 

 

This was years ago, though. It's probably gotten a lot better since then. 

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