From Windows to Linux... any gotchas?
 

My XP installation has slowed down to a crawl again, so I'm thinking it's time to wipe clean. I'm kind of tired of XP, but I don't want to move to Vista again (been there twice, not impressed). This has me thinking that perhaps now is the time to cut over to Linux.

So with that in mind, has anyone here made the switch from Windows to Linux recently? Were there any 'gotchas' that you discovered afterwards?

I have some virtual machines set up for doing development tasks in windows, so assuming vmware can still open them once I'm on a Linux host I think that should be ok. Will I have problems reading files from NTFS or FAT32 drives under linux? I'm pretty sure I can read but not write, correct?

Ubuntu hates wireless networks, besides that I loved my dual boot system. Now, I'm stuck with Vista.

It hates wireless? That's not good. Is that still an issue with Hardy Heron or whatever the latest version (8.4) is called?

One of the guys here at work installed 8.04. It was a pain getting him to connect to the wireless network. We had to try several different drivers until it finally would connect.

As for VMWare, yep, the VMs are binary compatible between Linux and Windows, so that won't be an issue moving them. In regards to the FAT/NTFS drives, you should be able to access them read/write, as long as you have the correct permissions.

Writing to NTFS is risky, and I probably wouldn't do it unless it's absolutely necessary. Writing to FAT should be fine though.

These reports about wireless issues are troublesome. Seems like wireless connections should be pretty much PnP at this point...

It all depends on the hardware you are working with. New, bleeding edge stuff will definitely be risky but if your gear is a little older or common, you shouldn't have a problem. I'm running SLED (EDIT: Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop) 10.1 on my IBM T60p without a hitch...but when I tried to get Ubuntu/SLED 9 going on it last year when I first got the laptop I did have a rather rough go of it.

Some of the problem is that hardware manufacturers don't write linux drivers for their network cards. (I ran into this problem when installing my gentoo partition--eventually solved but it was a nightmare getting my wireless card working).

My laptop is about 1.5 years old, so I guess I likely won't have a problem.

If I were you, I'd head over to the distro's site you plan to install and search their forums for "gotchyas" with your hardware. You'll also likely find a tutorial or two about how to install stuff that could pertain to you...especially if you have popular hardware.

Most install cds now come with a livecd option, which will allow you to try it without actually installing anything. You should be able to find out if your hardware is going to work by using that.

And I'll second the idea of checking out the forums. I've found the Ubuntu and Gentoo forums particularly helpful in the past.

Great point.

I'll second the gentoo forums as being helpful. Whenever I have an issue with my Linux box, I surf there and can find the solution 95% of the time. Their howto wiki is very helpful as well.

The LiveCD thing is a good idea, although I had Ubuntu 7.4 (I think) installed in a VPC environment a year or so ago and didn't really have any troubles that I can recall. I'm pretty 'handy' with computers so I think I should be able to figure stuff out, but because this is my work laptop I'm a little paranoid. I'm afraid of all the sudden being unable to do my job for a day or so, which would not be cool.

On the other hand, no risk no reward! :D

Will you be able to use a wired connection when you switch over in case you have an issue with the wireless connection? I've found that wired ethernet cards are easy to set up, while wireless cards may need an external program, like wpa_supplicant, to work correctly. It may have been just the cards I've used, but, while wpa_supplicant has always worked well, it does take a little work to set up.

Ya I'll be able to connect via wired ethernet when I switch if I have to. I'm getting really tempted to make the switch tonight, I just want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row.

Here is a question: I have many virtual machines created via Virtual PC. I can convert these to VMWare images easily via the VMWare Player, but do I have to convert them all before I move to Linux, or will it still be possible to use the Linux version of VMWare to do the conversion? I'd rather not have to do all of them at once, be easier just to do it on an as-needed basis...

Good question...are you planning on leaving XP on your machine and dual booting or are you wiping XP off altogether? If you are dual booting I would just do it in linux on a need basis and if it doesn't work just boot over XP and convert it there. If you are dropping XP, then that is going to be a little trickier. I'd hate to get linux all setup only to find that the conversion process doesn't work for whatever reason...but at the same time I understand your reluctance to convert them all over now. I guess I'd head over to VMWare's site and find out if there are in any issues with the conversion process while using the linux VM application. I would also make a backup of your VMs on some external disk/computer just in case...then you could also convert them on another machine if need be.

I keep all of my VM's on an external NTFS drive, so that shouldn't be an issue in terms of backup, but you make a good point about having the ability to convert with another machine if necessary. I do have another XP laptop that I could use to convert if necessary, so I guess I have a backup plan.

The issue of not writing to NTFS drives opens up a can of worms though. I wonder if I should be buying another external drive so that I can move converted images over to a Linux formatted drive afterwards, since they won't all fit on my laptop at one time.

So many things to consider! :)

Ok, here's a cool feature: with Ubuntu 8.04, you can install it INTO a Windows partition just like any other Windows app. When you boot you are then given the option of which OS to launch (just like you would in a dual-boot partitioned environment).

So I'm currently writing this post in Ubuntu over my wireless connection. I've downloaded VMWare Player and I'm going to try converting a Virtual PC image shortly.

This is the ultimate testbed!

UPDATE:

The Linux version of VMWare Player cannot perform conversions. There also is not a Linux download of the VMWare Convertor, so I guess I need to make sure I convert everything before moving over or else know that I'll need a different PC to do the conversion later.

Well, I made the switch Tuesday night. First day at work went well. I'm cautiously optimistic that this might stick... but we'll see.

Good to hear. I'm sure you'll hit a bump or two but stick with it.

Well, it didn't last long; wiped my machine over the weekend and stuck Vista (ugh) on it.

Final killer: There is no reliable Exchange client software. Evolution crashed on me constantly, and Thunderbird/Lightning wasn't up to par either. Until I can connect to my Exchange server and get email/calendaring with some amount of reliability I just can't make Linux my main work OS.

Boo. :(

Hmmm, odd. I have friends that use Evolution with the Crossover plugin with an Exchange server and have been for a few years with small problems here and there, but definitely not constant crashes.

Actually, just spoke with one and it looks like when they upgraded to Exchange 2007, Evolution had problems. He's using Thunderbird/Lightning now.

Sucks you couldn't keep Linux around. I use it a lot at home. I keep Windows on my work machine for TOAD, mainly.

Relatively simple question, I'm sure, but I have a relatively old desktop with XP I was going to chuck. Instead, I figure I might as well try to install Ubuntu. How exactly to I go about reformatting the hard drive to prepare it for an install?

It is part of the install process. If there is nothing you want to keep, you can tell the installer to clear all partitions and use the whole drive for Linux.

Excellent. Sounds pretty easy.

Installed Ubuntu, not fully but as an application in windows, just to test it out.

I love the speed, not just on boot but on everything so far. Then again when I boot with Ubuntu there is nothing really except the basic stuff.

My problem so far is monitor resolution. My top resolution allowed right now is 800x600. Not nice to look at. I switched back over to Vista to do some work but I will try to fix it later I guess. I started searching for solutions and there seem to be a bunch of different ones out there that all have to do with editing crap. I need to figure that part out first as I have not been out of Windows in a long time. I will find some time to try to work things out I guess. I am thinking I could live with Ubuntu overall, but clearly not ready to jump in 100%

Don't worry it only took me and my linux expert friend 6 months to make debian use my montior's native resolution.

Linux has a looooooong way to go in terms of monitor resolution, which absolutely blows my mind.

Don't even get me started on how long it took to get my wireless network card working.

Well, this is some great sounding feedback so far. :D

Thankfully I am just playing around for now and testing things out. I won't get my hopes up too much.

dola- I get my wireless working in about 60 seconds thankfully.

thats very odd too hear, ive yet to find any flavor that cant run any supported resolution. Ive been running Debian+KDE @ 1685x1050 for a loooong time. Albeit, X has never been user friendly, KDE and Gnome have taken care of that problem gradually over the years very well imo.

Of course they can run those resolutions. The problem was making it actually do it. It took months of trying. The user-friendliness is the point, and I have to say, the last time I tried it, it was not a whole lot better, yet.

Hardware manufacturers need to be more co-operative with the open source community otherwise it's always going to be the usual...the most common components will always work better while the less popular ones may never work at all.

I have a webserver running on a old Pentium II 500 with Windows 2000. A friend of mine just gave me a Pentium III 900 and I plan on making that my new webserver. It is a older Hewlett Packard computer on a wired internet connection and a 1024x768 monitor. Just curious if anyone has a quick thoughts about making the new server Linux instead of Windows 2000.

The things that concern me are:
I have never used Linux so I have no idea what I am doing, but I don't mind spending time figuring it out
Hewlett Packard hardware, can I find drivers?
Transferring files and mysql databases from a Win2k machine to a Linux machine.

What does the server need to do?

It currently runs Apache with a mysql database that just holds fantasy football stats for my keeper fantasy football league. The Pentium II 500MHz works fine, but can be slow when pulling info off of Mysql using PHP. The server rarely has more than 3 or 4 people on it at once. There is also a phpbb message board running on it (with 20 members and 16,000 posts in 5 years. So it is not high traffic at all.

Easiest thing to do is to google the model of computer and linux and you'll likely find your answer pretty quick.

So I started getting closer I think. My problem is having never done this stuff, or anything like it that I have done has been 15 years probably as I got into the Windows groove full time. So basically I know nothing about working with Linux.

It seems like it may not be the hardest thing in the world to work with, and there is a ton of knowledge out there on the inkernets. My problem is the knowledge assumes you know certain things which I don't. Search for answer to problem and answer starts with "oh just run that as the root and you should be good to go," but how the hell do I do that? So I am off on another search.

This is my thing with just trying to see if installing a driver for my video to see if that takes care of my resolution problem. I downloaded it, then couldn't figure out how to even get the thing to start running (nvidia supposedly built in an installer for it for Lunix), I got it running and then had to figure out the 'run as root' and I left it off as having to turn off my X server or something like that which I started trying to figure out what the hell that was and how I do it. I had to leave it though and hope to get back to it late tonight or tomorrow maybe.

Cringer, I hear ya...that's the way I've fumbled through it over the last 4 or 5 years. I've actually ventured away from it over the last several months so I'm sure I've forgotten just about everything I was able to retain during those years of trial and error...frig.

Woohoo. I got it and am posting while using Ubuntu right now. After finally finding (and writing down) the fairly simple 3-4 steps it took to do this it was actually pretty easy. I just had to figure out each step as I said above.

Now that my screen is not giant pixels I can really dive into this thing more and move onto the next challenge and start to use it and play around with it. I must say Firefox and the font here on FOFC is different then what I am used to seeing, and much nicer/cleaner looking.

A bit offtopic, but you might want to try Windows 7 RC1. It's free until 2011 and it runs really well compared with Vista.

I use Linux in my web servers and it's perfect there, but to move to a full linux OS for desktop could lead to a ton of frustrations, specially for a home PC where you also play games etc. In an office environment where the same applications are used all the time, it could make more sense.

I realy tried to become a Linux user, but I don't think it's fully ready as windows replacement for home desktop.

Oh, I am sure I will find out the same thing. I am playing around for the most part and seeing if I could live with it full time. As for games there is probably only one that would make me regret it, FM.

I did have a problem with my resolution again BTW. Once I rebooted it crapped out, gave me trouble getting back in and once I was it was back at 800x600. Took 15 minutes to get in and find by chance that my video card was now listed in the driver update area though, so running that fixed it. My next accomplishment was creating a way to my Vista files, got that done and imported my Firefox bookmarks. And now I just got flash to work finally. I found a program that sucks up a lot of storage space but got the job done for me. I couldn't just download and install it because what you download from adobe is for 32 bit, and I have 64 bit.

Now I need to ignore it and get some work done.

I think it's definitely worth giving linux a shot.

QFT

+1

The goal is to see if I can stay in Ubuntu all day today. If I hit a website for work that requires IE though that won't happen. I tried to install IE 6.0 with something I found online, but it didn't work for some reason that I can't recall right now. I will have to try something else another time. If I could get that done, I don't think I would have any other major problems with this.

I really like working out of it so far, and have enjoyed working through adding stuff and working out each little problem. The plan is a 'long' test period of several months I think, because I am sure things will pop up I have not had a chance to notice as a problem yet. At some point down the road though, if I keep on loving this and want to make a complete move over I will have to start all over and get rid of windows. I only gave myself 24 GB of space to work with and that is down to 16 already. Plus, I just noticed that my connection I had set up to access my Win files now seems to be gone. Oh well. :D

Well, I am not in Ubuntu right now, not because I had to move to Windows though, but because I got frustrated and on a reboot I went with Windows just to get away from it for a bit.

I have not been able to get compiz-fusion to do anything for me, so that means I can't have the nifty little interface going. From what I can tell, the problem is with my video card, which I have never had a problem with before in Vista or in games. It has to be something else, but I can't find it. I will get back to it in a day or so.

If it weren't for iTunes for my iPhone I'd probably be running a distro on my laptop right now.