Stupid, Dumb questions, yes, but plz help

Hi all,

I will receive my ASUS W3V (Pentium M 1.86) soon. I am thinking of installing LINUX, but there are a few questions that i hope you answer them. I have read many posts here, some PDF files on LINUX, but still don't know what to do.

1. I am not going to use my notebook in a network. I say this since i have heared that LINUX is very good for network and security. Also, I am not going to do special hardware tasks, just a normal user. So, is it still advantageous to have some type of LINUX? (i have not worked with LINUX before). Don't you think that VISTA could be reliable enough (more than XP)? If I go for LINUX, I wan to use the GUI version, not the text format.

2. If you still say go for LINUX, which one has the best GUI for basic (no network) tasks? SUSE, REDHAT, etc.?

3. I have searched the web and found out that almost all programs that I need are available for LINUX too, e.g. MATLAB and ANSYS. Is the installation CD the same for WINDOWS and LINUX or I should BUY new softwares to be installed on LINUX ?

If there are other important things, please mention them too.

Many thanks
Kamran

 

It is advantageous to Dual-boot any two OS. Simple cus if anything happens to one OS, you can always log into another.

The Easiest LINUX to install IMO is UBUNTU or KUBUNTU. It's basically fool proof. Just made sure you Know about Partitions before you install if you plan on dual booting.

I'm currently Dual booting Windows XP & Vista RC2. Vista seems more stable than XP. If it wasn't for the few compatibility problems with some needed drivers and software, I would Dual boot Vista & Ubuntu.


I would say give LINUX a try, but be ready for making a couple of mistakes.

 

Three good reasons to use Linux:
- it's free
- it's more stable than Windows due to it's simplicity
- it's more secure/better adapted for advanced networking (ie servers) than Windows.

Three good reasons for you to leave Linux alone:
- you already have an OS
- Windows is not unstable, just more complex internally
- it's not like you need world-bank level security. Windows can do it too.
- you will have to troubleshoot everything in Linux (drivers for video, wireless, bluetooth, audio, network card, etc)

 

It does sound like you've been talking to Linux aficionados

Linux is neat, and lots of fun, and absolutely well fitted to certain environments. It can work well as a desktop if you're committed to making it work. But if you're going to have a copy of windows anyways (thus removing the monetary gain of a free operating system), I don't think there's any compelling reason for you to use it, unless you want to.

When you say you're not going to use your notebook on a network, do you mean you won't have it on the internet? Also, and this is almost a bit off topic, but how much ram will your computer have? Windows Vista might be a little uncomfortable on less than a gig.

As far as GUI based distros, that's almost all of them these days. I personally have had really good luck with ubuntu, and found that pretty much everything is easy to accomplish with it, compared to what I've had to do with other distributions.

 

If you're going to be using specialized applications like MATLAB and ANSYS, that means you'll probably be running apps like Solid Edge, Solid Works, AutoCAD, MathCAD, Maple and such at some point or another. While MATLAB and ANSYS may have Linux counterparts, those other applications won't. Not to mention, installing MATLAB and ANSYS will probably be much harder in Linux than in Windows, like nearly everything else. And if you won't be using network too much, then Windows should be fine. Between XP and Vista, I suggest XP, at least for a while. Vista will just have a lot of problems with compatibility and such in the beginning.

Speaking of MATLAB, are you going to be programming in it? MATLAB programming sucks IMO.

 

Thank you all,

LivefrmNYC, if dual boot would be the main reason, as you have done, i can use XP and vista. Then, LINUX would not be a big advantage. I am thinking to give LINUX a try, but since others have done it, like you, and i have not even installed it before, i want to know how much does it worth (or how much it is advantageous)

bc135, no advanced network/server needed for me, at all. ok, i got it.

notebook_ftw, wow, are you a mechanical engineer? You know what i should install on my notebook. ACAD, solid works and NASTRAN are other softwares that I use. If they are not available in LINUX, there is no big advantage for me to go for LINUX. (MATLAB has excellent m. file bank on the net, but not good on programming, what else do you suggest ?)

L33t_c0w, ASUS W3W has 1GB of ram and XP Pro, and i will not use internet on my notebook too much (most on my desktop, a PIII 800 one).

I was going to convince myself that using LINUX can be a big advantage for someone like me, that uses different applications, and does not need many hardware controls, but seems it is better for me to stay with Windows, atleast untill applications are available on LINUX too.

Thanks a lot.

 

Linux is an alternative operating system. Linux, Windows, OSX - They all do the job, but in their own way. The thing to keep in mind is that LINUX IS NOT WINDOWS. If you have never ever used Linux before, you need to forget about the 'windows way' of doing things. If you take to learning Linux as you would if you've never used a computer before, you will have a much better time learning it. Otherwise you might get frustrated because it does things differently, without appreciating why.

Linux is great, but it suffers from:

- lack of hardware support out of the box for some printers, network cards, other hardware
- Some programs only run on Windows
- Ease of configuration/troubleshooting. You often end up in text config files manually editing things
- Linux isn't windows. This isn't a bad thing, but it means there is a learning curve if you are new to the OS

The only one that really annoys me is hardware support out of the box. Sure it's not the linux community's fault that Canon doesn't release linux drivers, but for the end user it's annoying. That said, linux does have many advantages over windows.

My advice to you is, don't try and replace Windows with Linux. As you said there are some programs that you use, that you can only get for Windows. What I would do is download Ubuntu Linux. Burn the LiveCD, and boot into linux from the CD. That way you can test drive linux (and a very fine distribution at that), see what it does and how it works, without having to commit to partitioning and reformatting hard drives. You can do that later if you feel that you would benefit from having a real linux install.

As for Windows, one of the most useful things you can have is a decent command prompt. Install cygwin, and use it in place of command prompt. It is a port of the Unix Bash shell, with a lot of the usual tools and utilities you find on linux, ready to go for windows. This will also help you if you decide to install linux later, because you will already know how to use the command line interface.

Michael

 

For hardware support... if you have older hardware, I've actually found Linux works better than Windows. My scanner doesn't have XP drivers, but it still runs beautifully, only under Linux now. I just plugged it in and it worked. Same with many printers, and I don't have to deal with those retarded HP suites that bog down your computer.

FYI, if you get a reasonably nice printer, it will have PostScript support, and that means Linux will support it. Don't cheap out on your hardware, and you'll have better luck running Linux.

But yes, don't try to replace Windows with Linux. Linux is not Windows. It works better for most things for me, but you need to realize that the system operates completely differently, and you can't expect it to do things like Windows.

 

Yes, I am a mechanical engineer. I use Linux for my own purposes, and for further knowledge about computers. I also use it for security, and yes, for fun. However, I still use Windows. Like I said, there is a MATLAB for Linux, though I didn't know ANSYS had a Linux version. But I'm pretty sure to positive there is no Linux version of AutoCAD or Solide Edge/Solid Works. And if there are, you'll run into tons of compatibility problems.

As for MATLAB programming, it's similar to C++ and Lua, but it's so limited, I just don't like it. All I ever use it for is math functions, anything else and it's just easier to go with C++.

 

BRAVO!!!! Absolutely the best encapsulation of what Linux is and is not. I agree with every comment.

XP's stability is top notch - if you're having problems, it's prolly your hardware or you've installed malware.

XP's security has come a long way. If you follow some basic security steps, you shouldn't have any trouble - except for the zero day exploits (Yikes!)

I still like XP for servers.

I have installed a Linux distro annually for the past 10 years, just to see where the state of Linux was. I'm very impressed by the advances that have been made, esp. in ease of use. However, when it comes right down to getting work done, XP works for me. My system is stable, reasonably fast (Morgan core Duron 1.2 w/ 392 MB RAM), and does everything I ask it to do.

I still enjoy playing with Linux, but I work in XP.

Just my $.02 ....

 

Off-topic, but a Pentium M 1.86 (Dothan?) is a little dated. Has Asus not yet embraced Core Duo or Core 2 Duo?

 

I think i will try UBUNTU LiveCd, as MR_CHARISMA said. FISHERDMIN, ASUS has many core duo and core 2 duo ones, but, for example, my W3V with 1.86 centrino, costs 600$ more for core duo and even more for MEROM. I think it will not worth (for me) to go for those models.
Thank you all again.

 

W3V was the previous generation

W3J is Core Duo and W3Jm (I think) is Core 2 Duo