indianacarnie
Saturday, December 4, 2010 3:52:58 AM
Well I just reinstalled windows for like the umpteenth time, and am truly tired of doing it. My question is...... just how hard is linux to learn? Have heard that dual booting with both unbutu and windows is not the happiest marriage in the world so when i do switch i want to do a full switch over and be done with windows for good. win7 is the best of the windows platforms,imho, and i've used them all from 95 on up,but......

I am pretty well versed in computer techniques or at least not a total noob. What is the learning curve to linux/unbutu? Will I be throwing my computer out the window or be smiling the first few days?
An end, even with terror, is better than terror without end. F.Neitzsche
squirrel
Saturday, December 4, 2010 4:20:06 AM
Quote:

quote:


Originally posted by indianacarnie

Well I just reinstalled windows for like the umpteenth time, and am truly tired of doing it. My question is...... just how hard is linux to learn? Have heard that dual booting with both unbutu and windows is not the happiest marriage in the world so when i do switch i want to do a full switch over and be done with windows for good. win7 is the best of the windows platforms,imho, and i've used them all from 95 on up,but......

I am pretty well versed in computer techniques or at least not a total noob. What is the learning curve to linux/unbutu? Will I be throwing my computer out the window or be smiling the first few days?



Linux/*nix is a definite change -- there is just as much that can go wrong and bork your system to where you will be re-installing it.

You will need to become much more versed in terminal / command line usage as well as learn a whole new set of commands. Programs are based on your 'flavor' of linux as well as your hardware, vs. Windows apps are either x86 (32 bit) or x64 and that's about it -- everything will run otherwise. Many things you do in Linux will have to be 'compiled' against your machine before you can use it. Linux boxes are also much trickier to secure and lockdown as much of the configuration of one is 'machine specific' and requires more technical research before you can just plug in an application and go.

I'm not downing it, but if you're making the change from Windows to Linux, be prepared to have a couple weeks at getting your machine the way you want it and usable.

I'm curious why you had to re-install Windows again? I've run Windows installs on machines for many years without issue. Worst I've dealt with is hardware failures or corruption because of a virus or rootkit. Granted it took some time to resolve, but a reinstall was not required. The best benefit of dealing with Windows problems is having an alternative method of getting information when you have a problem -- a second machine to do your research on. A good set of recovery disks. I keep a copy of BartPE on a CD just incase I have to boot from a CD-Rom and fix something. I also always install the "Recovery Console" in my Windows Boot menu -- sometimes the command line helps -- being able to reinstall a file from a backup, disable services that might be causing problems, and so forth...
squirrel
Saturday, December 4, 2010 4:25:50 AM
Some useful programs that I've kept to help keep Windows running right:

<ul><li>Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (get it at download.com)</li><li>Avast Anti-Virus (changed from AVG because it became a 'resource hog' - get it from download.com)</li><li>Registry Mechanic (from PC-Tools - Paid Application though but worth it)</li><li>CCleaner (ccleaner.com)</li><li>Diskeeper (diskeeper.com) - worth the money</li><li>Spybot - Search and Destroy (safer-networking.org)</li></ul>
Pinetar
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Saturday, December 4, 2010 6:31:34 AM
Those look like good tips squirrel. Some of you can see why the Mac platform is so popular while a doze box is a headache.
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squirrel
Saturday, December 4, 2010 8:25:21 AM
One other piece of advice I can give is if you want to try linux, download a 'CD version' of it. Many flavors, including Ubuntu have a version that will run from a CD-ROM so you can try it out and see what you think -- it's a basic linux filesystem with X-Windows and so forth - it will be generic, made to run on many machines, so some 'enhanced' features won't be there - but the basics will be. If you want to go further, obtain a copy of VMWare and create a 'virtual machine' -- then you can download a full copy of Linux to a DVD, install it into your VM and play/learn till you are comfortable. Once you have the knack for it, then you can decide if you want to abandon Windows entirely.

VMWare had a version called VMWare Player - which would allow you to download a 'VM file' that had linux or any other OS installed on it to try. You just can't create new VM files without the full VMWare.

If you try to get a copy of this VMWare online, through P2P, be sure to scan the archive both before and after you unpack it before you run the installer -- a lot of times when getting popular apps online, they are packed with a virus or trojan inside the archive somewhere. Had that happen with a copy of Registry Mechanic once - wanted a utility and got a rootkit at the same time... One of the prices you pay when you don't want to pay... Since then I've gone for the full paid version and so forth...

Anyways -- good luck... and for what it's worth, I can do remote-assistance on damaged/hijacked Windows systems as well. I also do managed server maintenance and so on...

indianacarnie
Saturday, December 4, 2010 10:56:52 AM
avast
threatfire (and no,never had any conflict's)
malwarebytes
ccleaner {with the enhancement)
auslogics disk defragger
revo uninstaller

to be totally honest i dont have a clue what i did this last time to crash my system. i WAS trying to clean up my contex menu's...... guess i deleted the wrong value(s), but as i said i really dont know. and i usually have a pretty good idea at least of what i did wrong.

i am still learning cmd line though. so the linix may be a little daunting at least at first. i am running a 64 bit machine, does that make any difference with the difficulty level?

will i have to mount the iso file before burning? (for the bootable cd-rom)

thank you for the info.



An end, even with terror, is better than terror without end. F.Neitzsche
squirrel
Saturday, December 4, 2010 11:03:24 AM
Quote:

quote:


Originally posted by indianacarnie

avast
threatfire (and no,never had any conflict's)
malwarebytes
ccleaner {with the enhancement)
auslogics disk defragger
revo uninstaller

to be totally honest i dont have a clue what i did this last time to crash my system. i WAS trying to clean up my contex menu's...... guess i deleted the wrong value(s), but as i said i really dont know. and i usually have a pretty good idea at least of what i did wrong.

i am still learning cmd line though. so the linix may be a little daunting at least at first. i am running a 64 bit machine, does that make any difference with the difficulty level?

will i have to mount the iso file before burning? (for the bootable cd-rom)

thank you for the info.






Haven't heard of threatfire or revo - but I don't use 'uninstaller' programs. Remove what you have to if the uninstaller fails, then use RegistryMechanic to cleanup the registry when finished - works for me... Rarely do I ever venture into the registry to remove things unless it's something troublesome -- otherwise it's just fine...

As for dealing with your downloaded ISO - most CD Burning applications can burn an ISO directly. I use CDBurnerXP (it's free - google it) and that handles everything I do -- I believe Win7 has a right-click ISO burn feature, but I'm not sure, because I just use the app above for everything...

64 bit shouldn't matter, but with Linux I would download a 64bit version and go from there... Any apps may require x64 versions at that point because the OS is 64bit. Win7/Vista/XP-64 will detect a 32bit app and run accordingly, but I'm not 100% sure how Linux will handle them as I don't normally run it --
indianacarnie
Saturday, December 4, 2010 11:45:34 AM
threatfire is more behavior based...... sorta like win patrol but faster/more through.revo does the registry delete for you. i am really sold on it, finds ALL the folders and reg. values of an uninstalled program. (it runs the programs uninstaller first, after making a restore point, then scans for missed folders/registry entries and asks if you want to delete them)

anyway, thanks for the tips, i'll be making the plunge in a couple of days. gonna research a little more. think i will try the bootable cd-rom first though. i do have a windows cd in case i screw something up beyond repair [:)]

oh! two more thing's....... i will most likely do this anyway (i'm kinda anal about things like this[:I][:)])should i defrag and optimize my hdd before trying the cd? if i DO decide to try a dual boot system about how much space should i use for the linix partition?
would 100mb or so do? i PLENTY of space on my drive.
An end, even with terror, is better than terror without end. F.Neitzsche
squirrel
Saturday, December 4, 2010 11:52:04 AM
Quote:

quote:


Originally posted by indianacarnie

threatfire is more behavior based...... sorta like win patrol but faster/more through.revo does the registry delete for you. i am really sold on it, finds ALL the folders and reg. values of an uninstalled program. (it runs the programs uninstaller first, after making a restore point, then scans for missed folders/registry entries and asks if you want to delete them)

anyway, thanks for the tips, i'll be making the plunge in a couple of days. gonna research a little more. think i will try the bootable cd-rom first though. i do have a windows cd in case i screw something up beyond repair [:)]

oh! two more thing's....... i will most likely do this anyway (i'm kinda anal about things like this[:I][:)])should i defrag and optimize my hdd before trying the cd? if i DO decide to try a dual boot system about how much space should i use for the linix partition?
would 100mb or so do? i PLENTY of space on my drive.



Defrag is a must (and free space consolidation) if you're going to dual-boot. You'll need to also split your Windows partition and shrink it to open up a block you can initialize in the linux filesystem -- Honestly, I'd block off atleast 10-20 gig for a test linux install if you want breathing room to play with -- most distros now use a DVD installer which can be upto 4 gb installed alone - before apps, etc...

If you had the option, I'd recommend picking up a cheap drive from walmart if your system has the upgrade space to install it, and use it - dualboot on a single drive with Linux/Windows is a pain in the ass and can be problematic, whereas with a seperate drive, you can control which drive you boot from in the BIOS, completely leaving a drive untouched if you wanted.
indianacarnie
Saturday, December 4, 2010 1:01:16 PM
so an external hard drive is recommended? i have two.... ones pretty full but my 1tb has about 500gb free. its not partitioned though, do you know of a good , preferably free but cheap at the least (it IS winter you know), partitioning program that would let me keep my movies/back-ups and make a partition for the linux? again, thank you for the information/advise/help.


An end, even with terror, is better than terror without end. F.Neitzsche
squirrel
Saturday, December 4, 2010 3:51:22 PM
Quote:

quote:


Originally posted by indianacarnie

so an external hard drive is recommended? i have two.... ones pretty full but my 1tb has about 500gb free. its not partitioned though, do you know of a good , preferably free but cheap at the least (it IS winter you know), partitioning program that would let me keep my movies/back-ups and make a partition for the linux? again, thank you for the information/advise/help.





It's hard to do with an external. I'll look into a partition manager that might be able to resize/split a windows partition and allow you to do what you want. Distro's and dual-boot are best done on internal drives, etc --
indianacarnie
Saturday, December 4, 2010 5:30:33 PM
thought so....... but was hoping haha. i do have about 400gb free on my internal. been working on my computer all day except for the time/breaks i've taken to come here. (getting all my stuff and settings back after the re-install. wouldnt you know that i had just erased my back-up system image not a week ago.go figure)

i'm going to take the plunge in the next day or so. maybe monday or tuesday, want to get everything backed up and safe you know. not sure if i could get more copies of my daughter and granddaughters pictures at least in a timely manner. plus i've abandoned my beloved opera browser and am still figuring out firefox and all the extensions i need/want. havent used it for years and its changed quite a bit since then.

again.... thank you for the help and advice.
An end, even with terror, is better than terror without end. F.Neitzsche
squirrel
Sunday, December 5, 2010 3:10:42 AM
Quote:

quote:


Originally posted by indianacarnie

thought so....... but was hoping haha. i do have about 400gb free on my internal. been working on my computer all day except for the time/breaks i've taken to come here. (getting all my stuff and settings back after the re-install. wouldnt you know that i had just erased my back-up system image not a week ago.go figure)

i'm going to take the plunge in the next day or so. maybe monday or tuesday, want to get everything backed up and safe you know. not sure if i could get more copies of my daughter and granddaughters pictures at least in a timely manner. plus i've abandoned my beloved opera browser and am still figuring out firefox and all the extensions i need/want. havent used it for years and its changed quite a bit since then.

again.... thank you for the help and advice.



Not a problem --

Sometimes a copy of WinZip is nice when backing up archives of pictures and other things - just right-click on the root folder and zip them all up -- little more effecient with more options than built-in windows "compressed folders" and so forth.

Still looking into a good partition manager for your task. I really missed "Partition Magic" -- it was the best but old versions can't handle the new partition types that are out there so it's dangerous to use anymore --
indianacarnie
Sunday, December 5, 2010 4:04:04 AM
been looking myself, but will wait for your recommendation before taking action.[:)], as i said when i started this thread, am tired of reinstalling.
An end, even with terror, is better than terror without end. F.Neitzsche
indianacarnie
Wednesday, December 8, 2010 3:04:59 AM
talk about timing!

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easeus partition master 6.5.1. professional

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An end, even with terror, is better than terror without end. F.Neitzsche