Thinking of switching to Linux

[Huntsman]

Hi guys,
So I've been using Windows for the entire time I owned a PC and I want atleast to try something new. I'm thinking of getting Linux, but there are quite a few things that are worrying me:
*Game and windows apps compatibility:
I don't play games that often, but sometimes I really feel like gaming, and Linux doesn't have a lot of games available for it. I heard of Wine but it seems like it's not really working well.
*Microsoft Office Incompatibility
*I never used Linux before, never even come across one.

So umm... Any ideas?

[Devin]

For the Office part, you can install OpenOffice on Linux which is pretty much equivalent to MS Office on Windows.

[Huntsman]

For the Office part, you can install OpenOffice on Linux which is pretty much equivalent to MS Office on Windows.

Well, I'll need much more input regarding Linux to switch to it than that :S

[Reece]

Why do you want to switch to Linux and just stop using Windows? Simply to try something new?

Many programs can be emulated with wine and Crossover, however compatibility is limited and it depends what games you want to play.

You can even use Office in Linus through emulation.

I wouldn't recomend just diving into Linux as there are a lot of things that are different.

Get yourself a distro of your choice (have a look on youtube and see which takes your fancy, Ubuntu is pretty good for a first Linux experience) and install it on a second partition, or preferably boot it through a USB stick - allowing you to test it within windows without any changes.

[LoHi]

Why do you want to switch to Linux and just stop using Windows? Simply to try something new?

Many programs can be emulated with wine and Crossover, however compatibility is limited and it depends what games you want to play.

You can even use Office in Linus through emulation.

I wouldn't recomend just diving into Linux as there are a lot of things that are different.

Get yourself a distro of your choice (have a look on youtube and see which takes your fancy, Ubuntu is pretty good for a first Linux experience) and install it on a second partition, or preferably boot it through a USB stick - allowing you to test it within windows without any changes.

Good advice, although I would not recommend Ubuntu. Try Linux Mint instead.

[Patton]

Hi guys,
So I've been using Windows for the entire time I owned a PC and I want atleast to try something new. I'm thinking of getting Linux, but there are quite a few things that are worrying me:
*Game and windows apps compatibility:
I don't play games that often, but sometimes I really feel like gaming, and Linux doesn't have a lot of games available for it. I heard of Wine but it seems like it's not really working well.
*Microsoft Office Incompatibility
*I never used Linux before, never even come across one.

So umm... Any ideas?

There's plenty of games for Linux; Steam has a number of games available, some are even free. About using Windows apps through Wine: there are some compatibility problems, that's true, but plenty of applications and work just fine (I'm running an older version of Photoshop, for example). There are plenty of alternatives available for many of applications; I'll even say that some of them are better than the originals. In the end, you're always able to have both Windows and Linux installed if something does not work and there's no suitable alternative.

Office compatibility is somewhat good; not everything works (equations from Office 2003 and all other OLE objects don't work, for example). LibreOffice is getting faster and faster as they continue dropping the shitty dependency on Java. TeX and Lout also work perfectly.

If you're planning to get started, Ubuntu has a nice Windows-based installer so you don't have to mess around with ISO images, plus some neat baked-in options and applications to help you break out of prison. Mint is another great option for beginners.

[Kewlizm]

Linux is actually a very simple and a fun OS once you get the hang of it. Using the terminal you can basically do anything you want.

Since you have no background experience about linux, I suggest you set up a dual boot system with both linux and windows.

[eymas]

Good advice, although I would not recommend Ubuntu. Try Linux Mint instead.

Both distros are pretty friendly for newcomers though.

I myself use RHEL/Fedora/CentOS/Debian however, if ever 

[Huntsman]

Both distros are pretty friendly for newcomers though.

I myself use RHEL/Fedora/CentOS/Debian however, if ever 

Can somebody here please contact me via skype: rliaucys and guide me through the Dual-Boot thing? I've never used it before so I'm kinda confused with how to make it work without loosing data.

[eymas]

Can somebody here please contact me via skype: rliaucys and guide me through the Dual-Boot thing? I've never used it before so I'm kinda confused with how to make it work without loosing data.

If you have a spare harddrive you could use, that would be a lot better due to the GRUB bootloader, which is a pain to remove from your main drive. Also makes it easier to install/remove. But does require you to have access to the BIOS bootloader of your pc/laptop.

Alternatively, I recommend you get VirtualBox or VMware to spare the bullshit 

[Huntsman]

If you have a spare harddrive you could use, that would be a lot better due to the GRUB bootloader, which is a pain to remove from your main drive. Also makes it easier to install/remove. But does require you to have access to the BIOS bootloader of your pc/laptop.

Alternatively, I recommend you get VirtualBox or VMware to spare the bullshit 

I didn't understand a single thing 

[Patton]

I didn't understand a single thing 

The Windows GUI installer that comes with Ubuntu should let you set up dual boot really easy, if you already have an empty partition that you're willing to convert to non-NTFS filesystem.

Alternatively, I recommend you get VirtualBox or VMware to spare the bullshit 

VirtualBox is great, but doesn't allow games to run inside a Windows virtual machine.

[Devin]

You could always consider full hardware virtualization off a Linux VHD, however it will take some time to configure and setup properly.
Various editions of Linux allow you to basically run the operating system off the disk before installing to allow you, the user to test it out.

In simple terms by booting off your optical drive containing the DVD of Linux which then loads the system as if it was installed.

[Huntsman]

You could always consider full hardware virtualization off a Linux VHD, however it will take some time to configure and setup properly.
Various editions of Linux allow you to basically run the operating system off the disk before installing to allow you, the user to test it out.

In simple terms by booting off your optical drive containing the DVD of Linux which then loads the system as if it was installed.

I'm currently doing a dual-boot with Linux, though i'm having problems as it doesn't give me the option to dual boot even though Linux is installed, so Kewlizm is trying to help me fix this problems.

[BojanS]

I'm currently doing a dual-boot with Linux, though i'm having problems as it doesn't give me the option to dual boot even though Linux is installed, so Kewlizm is trying to help me fix this problems.

Which Linux did you install?