A Microsoft XP Geek switching to Ubuntu 7.10 Gusty Gibbon

[Alexander215]

Have you tried any other distros?

[tomgallagher]

Sounds like a lot of trouble.

[frostillicus123]

I gave up on it, i think ATI doesn't make drivers for my card and ubuntu so that was the major malfunction.

[Alexander215]

I gave up on it, i think ATI doesn't make drivers for my card and ubuntu so that was the major malfunction.

Whats your card? If you dual boot it you can get it to search your windows installation for the drivers. Both my gaming and work system have ATI cards.

[Spleener]

I thought about going with Ubuntu because of the overall crapfest that Vista Home Basic turned out to be. I burned a CD and ran it on my machine as a test drive, and it seemed to be OK; however, in terms of accessing files that are already on the hard drive, it seemed like that was going to be a pretty major undertaking.

[IRONHORSE]

Wow... seeing this topic really blew me away. Just yesterday, I requested a copy of Ubuntu after researching "Dual booting Windows XP and Ubuntu." I am doing this in preparation for the day when Microsoft discontinues support for XP.
From the research I've done online, and the people I've talked to, I will go kicking and screaming into upgrading to Vista (even though I have a Vista ready PC, with an Athlon 64 processor.)
So I have my copy of Ubuntu coming, and will be familiarizing myself with it and the programs associated with it in the meantime, and only doing the things I absolutely must on Vista *spits* 

[Alexander215]

Wow... seeing this topic really blew me away. Just yesterday, I requested a copy of Ubuntu after researching "Dual booting Windows XP and Ubuntu." I am doing this in preparation for the day when Microsoft discontinues support for XP.
From the research I've done online, and the people I've talked to, I will go kicking and screaming into upgrading to Vista (even though I have a Vista ready PC, with am Athlon 64 processor.)
So I have my copy of Ubuntu coming, and will be familiarizing myself with it and the programs associated with it in the meantime, and only doing the things I absolutely must on Vista *spits* 

You can download the distros and burn the iso's for free. Jaunty Jackalope is coming out mid next year as well. Read up on Wine, you can use it to run alot of windows based programs.

[IRONHORSE]

You can download the distros and burn the iso's for free. Jaunty Jackalope is coming out mid next year as well. Read up on Wine, you can use it to run alot of windows based programs.

Yeah...but my dang CD burner's on the fritz right now So... I'll just have to wait for my copy of Ubuntu to come by mail 

Will be getting new CD burner, graphics card, and adding more cooling fans, pretty soon - But patience never was my strong suit 

[tomgallagher]

What makes you think MS is going to stop supporting XP.? I use Vista Premium and IE8 and everything is running smooth as silk.

[TheSlyBear]

What makes you think MS is going to stop supporting XP.?

They've said so.

I use Vista Premium and IE8 and everything is running smooth as silk.

Consider yourself fortunate. From my exposure to many who have had endless problems. you may be in the minority.

[tomgallagher]

No, I don't think they said that but I'll double check. I do know that they are going to stop all the support for systems that pre-date XP. It can't go on forever.

[IRONHORSE]

No, I don't think they said that but I'll double check. I do know that they are going to stop all the support for systems that pre-date XP. It can't go on forever.

At this point, I think Microsoft has temporarily caved to the pressure they were getting from users NOT to discontinue support for XP, but as you said, nothing lasts forever. In the not too distant future, Microsoft will be looking to get everyone using Microsoft programs on a 64 bit operating system, and while there IS a 64 bit version of XP available,  I believe it was only a stop gap measure by Microsoft to allow those who had 64 bit processors to take advantage of some of the perks of a 64 bit OS before they released Vista. Not to mention, those who write the myriad other programs we use in conjunction with Windows will cease writing them in a 32 bit format, and cease supporting their programs that are in a 32 bit format. So yeah, it is inevitable that my XP will become defunct. Microsoft will continue to release newer and newer versions of Windows, and heck, I mean...Who knows what's to come? a 128 bit format?

Anyhow, I will spare you my myriad issues with Vista and sum it up by saying I resent the level of control that Microsoft is attempting to exert on my personal computing experience with Vista, and that switching to Ubuntu for the majority of my computing needs is my personal "screw you" to Microsoft.

[bubbadave3]

Why don't you get a Mac?  I have a Mac and have been very happy with it.  (Unfortunately, I have to use Vista for grad school, as the school's system doesn't work well with Mac).  So, I use both.  I can tell you that I use my MacBook much more often than my other laptop.

[TheSlyBear]

For people who are Unix fans, a Mac running OS X is great system. For people who could care less about Unix, it's still a great system because the Unix underpinnings aren't shoved into your face unless you want them to be.

I use OS X, Windows and Linux variants daily. OS X is by far my favorite and the system I run at home.

[FR8TRAIN]

This thread has been quite an insight for me.  I have been out of the direct software world since retiring from CA in 2004. But I will tell you that I am getting ready to dual boot my Sony Viao laptop with WinXP and either Ubuntu, SimplyMepis or PCLinuxOS. I have not decided which one yet and am downloading the .iso's for them as we speak.

Being a former IT Project Manager, I am completely done with MS. The flaws an lack of adequate support  boggles the mind. So thanks to this thread and the opinions of some others, I have decided to, if nothing else, create a dual boot system and test drive the latest, user friendly distro of Linux. If I can get everything converted, one way or another. MS is HISTORY in my life.

Thank you.