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Linux Gurus and those who use Windows programs in Linux (a few questions)
Dalboz
Resident Puppy EaterRight behind you...Registered User regular
Resident Puppy EaterRight behind you...Registered User regular
I want to convert my laptop to a full Linux machine. I tried this a few years ago, with mixed results (basically, I had trouble with a few programs, mostly iTunes, even in WINE, and I had an issue where the screen would flash black at me periodically). I've decided to try again after installing the latest LTS release of Ubuntu successfully on my girlfriend's ancient laptop, which I don't think actually meets the system requirements it's that old. I plan to wipe out XP altogether and run it as a virtual machine inside Linux for the rare time that I need to use something that simply will not work on Linux no matter how much I try. However, I have a few questions.
Before anyone says it, I would prefer to just have Linux installed and not dual-boot. I find boot loaders kind of annoying.
For the record, I have a nearly five year old Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop. Intel Centrino Duo 2 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 120 GB HDD (which seems to get smaller, as Windows is saying it's around 91 GB now), nVidia GeForce Go 7900GS. I am not a programmer. My knowledge is more than the average user, but I'm not a computer expert by any means. My chosen flavor is Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, possibly upgrade to 10.10 after, maybe 11.04 if they work out a few kinks first. I've had good luck with Ubuntu in the past, and it's the only distribution I'm actually gotten to fully work, and it worked really fast.
Questions:
1) I'm not familiar with Linux filesystems for partitioning the drive. Which do I use? I want something that's stable and efficient. Not a resource or power hog. But one that works really well. In my short examination, it would appear that ext4 or maybe ext3 is the way to do, but I think I would rather get advice on this. What the default that Ubuntu installs? If I use the basic install, it doesn't just write to the NTFS, does it?
2) How easy is it to virtualize XP inside Linux? I'm looking at using VirtualBox, but again, I would like advice on this. I don't plan on using XP often, is why I'm wiping out the XP partiition. It might be used only for iTunes and IE (see questions 3 and 4).
3) Speaking of iTunes, can it be run in Linux with any ease yet? That was a major sticking point for me before. It didn't work right, even in WINE before. My main use for iTunes will be to update podcasts and since with my 3rd Gen iPod Touch, as well as manage music that I put on the iPod Touch (I'm still ripping all my CDs to put on the iPod). Can this be done, either through a virtual machine in VirtualBox or some fancy tricks in Linux. Or is there an alternative program that can do what I need it to do.
4) As for IE, that's mostly for my girlfriend to be able to check her email. Firefox seems to have issues using Live.com webmail, and from what I remember, it's not great to connecting to an Exchange webmail system either, which is what she uses to connect to her work email from home. Unless I'm mistaken. Can Firefox work comfortably with these? Is there an alternative browser that will work in Linux if Firefox doesn't, or will she need to load an XP Virtual Machine every time she wants to check her email.
5) Adding this because I forgot one thing. DVD authoring. I'm working on some basic movie files (old home movies digitized), but I'm going to need to encode them to a DVD friendly format and burn a DVD. I've used DVD Flick on Windows so far, as it's so easy to just plug the movies in, create a menu and let it run. How easy is this going to be in Linux? Is there an equivalent to DVD Flick?
Again, keep in mind that I'm essentially a Linux newbie. Nor am I a programmer. However, my previous experience with Linux was generally good (damn, did it run fast when I used it before!).
Before anyone says it, I would prefer to just have Linux installed and not dual-boot. I find boot loaders kind of annoying.
For the record, I have a nearly five year old Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop. Intel Centrino Duo 2 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 120 GB HDD (which seems to get smaller, as Windows is saying it's around 91 GB now), nVidia GeForce Go 7900GS. I am not a programmer. My knowledge is more than the average user, but I'm not a computer expert by any means. My chosen flavor is Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, possibly upgrade to 10.10 after, maybe 11.04 if they work out a few kinks first. I've had good luck with Ubuntu in the past, and it's the only distribution I'm actually gotten to fully work, and it worked really fast.
Questions:
1) I'm not familiar with Linux filesystems for partitioning the drive. Which do I use? I want something that's stable and efficient. Not a resource or power hog. But one that works really well. In my short examination, it would appear that ext4 or maybe ext3 is the way to do, but I think I would rather get advice on this. What the default that Ubuntu installs? If I use the basic install, it doesn't just write to the NTFS, does it?
2) How easy is it to virtualize XP inside Linux? I'm looking at using VirtualBox, but again, I would like advice on this. I don't plan on using XP often, is why I'm wiping out the XP partiition. It might be used only for iTunes and IE (see questions 3 and 4).
3) Speaking of iTunes, can it be run in Linux with any ease yet? That was a major sticking point for me before. It didn't work right, even in WINE before. My main use for iTunes will be to update podcasts and since with my 3rd Gen iPod Touch, as well as manage music that I put on the iPod Touch (I'm still ripping all my CDs to put on the iPod). Can this be done, either through a virtual machine in VirtualBox or some fancy tricks in Linux. Or is there an alternative program that can do what I need it to do.
4) As for IE, that's mostly for my girlfriend to be able to check her email. Firefox seems to have issues using Live.com webmail, and from what I remember, it's not great to connecting to an Exchange webmail system either, which is what she uses to connect to her work email from home. Unless I'm mistaken. Can Firefox work comfortably with these? Is there an alternative browser that will work in Linux if Firefox doesn't, or will she need to load an XP Virtual Machine every time she wants to check her email.
5) Adding this because I forgot one thing. DVD authoring. I'm working on some basic movie files (old home movies digitized), but I'm going to need to encode them to a DVD friendly format and burn a DVD. I've used DVD Flick on Windows so far, as it's so easy to just plug the movies in, create a menu and let it run. How easy is this going to be in Linux? Is there an equivalent to DVD Flick?
Again, keep in mind that I'm essentially a Linux newbie. Nor am I a programmer. However, my previous experience with Linux was generally good (damn, did it run fast when I used it before!).
Dalboz on
0
Posts
1) You can use either ext3 or 4, and no, it won't use the NTFS as a partition, but if you happen to have one, you *can* read and write to it, filesystems are not resource hogs except in the most exotic of applications, so I wouldn't worry about it.
2) Virtual Box is easy enough, if your processor has virtualization extensions, it will run very smoothly. I'd be most comfortable with at least 1.5 gigs of RAM, so I could give it 700 mb of virtual RAM.
3) I don't know about iTunes in WINE, however, there are alternatives that do everything you describe (banshee, rhythm box, amarok). You might want to try converting to these applications instead of forcing iTunes, which honestly, I don't think will work.
4) I would recommend trying Chromium (the open source version of Chrome) to use instead of IE, it should work with her webmail. Failinng that, IE support in WINE is actually pretty good.
5) Bombono DVD, DeVeDe, K3B, and Cave Media Factory are all touted as being equivalent to Flick (though I haven't used these myself.)
I need to know how to do this in Linux (Ubuntu; running GNOME 2) immediately! If I can set it to do this automatically at startup, so much the better. Please help right away! I'm seriously concerned about damaging the hardware, especially the GPU, which can sometimes act funny as it is.
FYI, I might need to have my hand held through the process of setting up the fan control, as I'm a complete newbie at Linux. Other stuff won't be quite so vital important right away, but like I said I'm concerned about damaged hardware.
I will also concur with VirtualBox. Thing is fucking amazing. Pretty fun to do the "fusion" mode they have too.
I would go further than that: there should be a series of screws on the underside of your laptop that, when loosened, will let you pull off a large part of the cover off, giving you access to the vital parts of the laptop.
Once that cover is removed, you can blow canned air wherever you see dust.
Then, you can use some Q-tips to wipe off any remaining dust on any fans you see -- a fan with dust stuck to it is way less effective than a clean fan. You can even dip the Q-tip in rubbing alcohol before using it, rubbing alcohol, used in this fashion, is safe. I've done this with an older (5+ years) laptop in order to recondition it before giving as a present to my father.
It goes without saying that the laptop should be shut down, and not plugged-in, when you do this. And do a proper shutdown, not just a "hibernate" or "suspend". If you want to be doubly careful, remove the battery, too, although that is not 100% necessary.
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