Second issue I've had: All the file sharing/network location awareness stuff seems to clog up the network stack, meaning I get massively increased pings. Disabled it all and it's fine. (I don't want people poking around my stuff anyway, so it's not too bad that it's all disabled)
FUSE is userland by definition, so no you can't include NTFS-3G in a kernel image (Maybe you could include the read-only driver in a kernel image then pass over later on in the boot process?). FAT32 is bootable under certain circumstances but is certainly not recommended. You're much better off sticking to the native filesystems.
And Wubi will slow it down a bit, yes, but only on filesystem-intensive stuff. General usage should be fine with it.
Last edited by JohnUK89, .
Well, this is a shock to me - it's actually pretty good! I installed it a rather unconventional way (inside a VM but using an actual partition) then booted it natively, all my hardware got recognised and drivers installed. The only thing I needed to do was update the nvidia drivers since there's still no OpenGL support in the Microsoft ones. App compatibility is pretty good, the only thing so far that has caused trouble is Chrome, but that was solved by a command line argument in a shortcut (and probably fixed before RTM anyway)
The "Action Centre" isn't really obtrusive at all. It's only bugged me once about the fact that I've not been bothered to check for spyware yet (well, scanning now) and that was right on boot.
And I like the new start menu and taskbar. Really, I do. It's rather intuitive, you hover over one of the window previews and all the rest of the windows become transparent except for the shadow to show placement.
It's got a bit more eye candy too - transitions etc, but it's actually performing a lot faster than Vista ever did on this machine - the hard drive isn't mashing about all the time (I have 8GB RAM - I should hope it's not). RAM and CPU usage are both down on Vista and it actually feels like a much more polished and finished product. IMO this is what Vista should have been to start with.
The "Action Centre" isn't really obtrusive at all. It's only bugged me once about the fact that I've not been bothered to check for spyware yet (well, scanning now) and that was right on boot.
And I like the new start menu and taskbar. Really, I do. It's rather intuitive, you hover over one of the window previews and all the rest of the windows become transparent except for the shadow to show placement.
It's got a bit more eye candy too - transitions etc, but it's actually performing a lot faster than Vista ever did on this machine - the hard drive isn't mashing about all the time (I have 8GB RAM - I should hope it's not). RAM and CPU usage are both down on Vista and it actually feels like a much more polished and finished product. IMO this is what Vista should have been to start with.
I'll head out tomorrow and photo my walk to Uni (well, part of it) since I'll be in the area anyway (lovely sarnie shop on the way in to Uni, I wanna go there tomorrow)
Using Wubi is the best idea until you're comfortable enough to install it in a real partition. If you want to transfer your Wubi installation to a real partition then I'd read up on LVPM (Loopmounted Virtual Partition Manager), which can automate the job of doing so.
A mount point is where the partition will be shown as on the system - similar to how you have a C:\ partition in Windows, Linux has / as it's "root" folder. Everything else is under that, including other partitions, which Ubuntu typically mounts under the /media folder. If you're still unsure, have a look at http://www.freeos.com/articles/3102/ - it may still be slightly over your head but it covers all the basics of how the Linux (and other Unix-based stuff) hierarchical mounting stuff works
Your partition layout is simple - only one drive actually has partitions on it. Use the partitioning tool in the installer (click on Manual partitioning) and create an ext3 partition (make sure it's a logical partition, it should automatically create the Extended to contain it inside), give it mount point / and then create a Linux Swap partition. The size of the swap partition would depend on the amount of RAM you have - if you have over 2GB then realistically you shouldn't need a swap partition at all, but if you plan to hibernate you'll need one that's at least as big as the amount of RAM you have
Ideally if you didn't already know the layout of your drives you should have written it down when you created the partition (Note: a partition created by Windows is not bootable by Linux usually - especially NTFS. You'll want to create an ext3 one usually as well as a Linux swap partition unless you have heaps of RAM)
Actually, Migz is right in one sense, in that it is possible to emulate a PC and that it would be slow as hell - but the "simply" bit is wrong. It's an incredibly hard job to do and totally not worth it, hence so far it hasn't (unless you count Bochs, which is really really slow and unusable for anything intensive at all)
On startup it'll ask you which OS to boot. Uninstalling is as simple as using Add/Remove Programs - there'll be an entry for Ubuntu in there.
Yes, you can use Wubi - makes life easier in terms of dual booting. If you like it enough you can always use LVPM to transfer it to a real partition instead of the loopback (ie - inside a file) one created by Wubi
I hate to say it, Jack, but an external drive is actually faster than the SSD on the Eee in terms of read/write speed. Sorry to burst your bubble and all that
Is that an "in order from not for newbies to totally insane batsh*t crazy" list?
Which, no offense to the ones that do, most can't be - even though the documentation is rather excellent.
Gentoo's another not for newbies distro - Sabayon is based upon it but does all the config for you so is a bit more suitable. I've always seen it as a showcase than a full desktop distro though.
Slackware is NOT for Linux newbies whatsoever. You generally have to do all your own dependency checking and certainly all your own configuration of things like X. I say use Ubuntu and get used to the basics, then if you want to move on from that (like I did to Arch on my main PC) then do so at a later stage.
And Debian is nice, although again not for newbies. You choose what you want to install in terms of environments (yes, you can have GNOME, KDE or whatever) but the configuration is text files, not the pretty GUIs that Ubuntu provides. Also, Debian stable is pretty much guaranteed to have old software but is rock solid. The testing branch is much better for having up to date stuff, but you can expect breakage.
Last edited by JohnUK89, .
Ubuntu is really excellent for people just getting started with Linux. Its GUI configuration tools are great and most hardware is autodetected and set up for you, no extra drivers needed. If help is needed there are always the Ubuntu Forums (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/) where you can go for help regarding any trouble you may have with an Ubuntu (or Xubuntu/Kubuntu) installation.
PS: I'm typing this from an Ubuntu installation on my EeePC - works rather well even on something so slow
PS: I'm typing this from an Ubuntu installation on my EeePC - works rather well even on something so slow
It's on Windows Update AFAIK - and I'm going to be copying any MP3s before Windows can touch them anyway
I bagged the ISO last night and managed to get a key a few minutes ago - now I need a blank DVD and a burner 
From what I've seen video drivers for Vista work with 7, and all other Vista drivers work, with the 64 bit ones requiring driver signing.
In which case you hold down the alt key and drag the window around (assuming Compiz is disabled, yes...another window bug)
Not when you can have several GUIs installed at once
Use the hardware driver tool to install the nvidia drivers then nvidia-settings to do the legwork with xorg.conf. Rather easy.
I don't use wobbly windows on my machines, I prefer them being rather more solid. It's true that bug is still going around though...
Anyway, back to the original topic. I recently got rid of Windows totally from my machines, but will be trying Windows 7 to see if it's actually any good. If it's not much of an improvement I won't bother getting it when it's final, and it'll have to be damn good to replace Linux on my machines. (I'm someone that needs to be able to set up a system exactly how it's wanted, not having to stick within silly limits given by vendors).
I have phone numbers, I have Skype names etc, but I still find talking to people on the phone difficult (that's regardless of whether I know them or not). I agree it's not the same as "just sitting in front of a PC" but to anybody that is observing it may appear to be just that.
EDIT: Just thought I'd add that when I'm comfortable with talking to someone (which usually takes a while) then I'm pretty much ok, it's people I don't know too well that I'm like that with
Some people (me included) really cannot do socialising too well, so we do all ours on the PC. It's not "normal" since humans are meant to be social creatures, but not all of us are capable of having the same sort of social lives (going out etc). I, for example, find it rather uncomfortable to talk to people I don't know, and getting to know them through the internet before meeting them helps with gaining the confidence to talk to them face to face. (I'm not saying Marco is like that, but it's a possibility and could explain the 7 PCs in 5 years - people with obsessions can often find they want more of the thing they're obsessed with)
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