[Dr House]

Typical case of not being prepared, trying, failing, and running back to Windows.

Nah. The Ubuntu setup is still there. I'll give it a go later when I got more time/patience.

Last night I was mighty tired and about to go to bed anyway when I tried that.

[Potemkin]

Am I right in thinking Linux is pretty well bombproof as a tool to surf the interweb? Could I scrap AV and AM programs if I am using Linux?

It's pretty secure, yes. A lot of that security is actually down to obscurity - there are simply very few people writing viruses specifically tailored for Linux (in fact, I'm not aware of any at all). However, Ubuntu has a firewall running by default when it is installed, and there are (free) anti-virus programs available for Linux. I have no idea why you would want to use one, however, seeing as there aren't any viruses for Linux that I know of....

Last night I was mighty tired and about to go to bed anyway when I tried that.

Bad time to start installing a new OS on your PC.

[Douglas]

I have nothing backed up atm because I'm poor and have nothing to actually use. Will any data get lost if I mess things up.

Nope that's the brillant thing about it. And if you don't like it then just uninstall it like you would anything else.

Is this Wubi thing free?

Oh yes.

I fail.

When I booted my computer to Ubuntu, it started on some command line thing, and I have no idea how to get past it.

Really shouldn't unless it wad doing something.

I haven't tried that Wubi thing. But all the Ubuntus I installed were installed with the official CD

Wubi is now included on the official CD.

however, seeing as there aren't any viruses for Linux that I know of

Oh they exist and many more could, but noone cares enough.

[dilpill]

Really shouldn't unless it wad doing something.

I had it installed on an external hard drive, so I thought that that was the problem. It was, and I am now posting from Ubuntu.

[Douglas]

There we go then.

A few things to try.

WINE - Let's you run alot of windows programs
compiz fusion - very nice window manager giving stuff like 3d effects

[Adrien]

Again I say beware with Compiz if you run Intrepid Ibex! Lots of compatibility issues, it will mess up your video players and some other multimedia. I'd say wait till the next release to go all funky with the special effects. From my experience anyway.

[Douglas]

Can't say I've seen or heard of these issues adrien you got a link to a description?

[Douglas]

Oh yes and the live usb maker too. Which is lovely. Install ubuntu via wubi, install ubuntu onto a usb via the live maker, unistall the wubi ubuntu version, run it all of a flash drive.

Why? Because you can.

There are other live usb makers out there but it's built in which is nice.

[dilpill]

Help.

When I try to install Flash Player, it says that my architecture (x86_64)is not supported. I thought that that was the most common type of processor architecture.

[Adrien]

That is if your processor is a 64-bit. If it's not, then you have to go with just x86.

I actually got a similar problem when I installed Flash, the dynamic webpage didn't choose the right package by itself, I had to click 'Choose a different system and language' to get the correct one and then it worked perfectly.

[dilpill]

I think that I have a 32 bit processor. When I download the x86 version of Flash, it says that it isn't supported. Also, I do not see a way to choose which version of flash that I want to download. When I do what you said, it only has a dropdown menu with "Linux". There isn't any x64 or x86 or anything.

[Siberian Fox]

When I try to install Flash Player, it says that my architecture (x86_64)is not supported. I thought that that was the most common type of processor architecture.

By default Ubuntu uses all free open source stuff. To play non-open-source file types you'll need to install the codecs. You'll want to install "w64codecs" I think* (do a search in synaptic package manager).

*Advice given in good faith, but you are forewarned that I know precious little about computers, so I accept no liability for giving wrong advice that messes up your PC.

[Dr House]

I know precious little about computers

[dilpill]

By default Ubuntu uses all free open source stuff. To play non-open-source file types you'll need to install the codecs. You'll want to install "w64codecs" I think* (do a search in synaptic package manager).

Flash comes with all of the codecs built in. I downloaded the pack anyways to see if it works, but when I try to install the player, it still says that I have the wrong architecture.

It's gotten to the point that I have no idea what processor architecture I have. I used to think x86=32bit and x64=64bit, but now with x86-64, I'm super confused.

EDIT: Problem Solved. Sortof. When I was randomly browsing another web page, a yellow bar popped up at the top of the screen asking if I wanted to install flash player, and it worked. I still don't know why it didn't work the original way I tried.

[stalker]

I'm in the Linux club.

[Siberian Fox]

Why the surprise Dr House? I'm just another one of those people that uses computers without really knowing anything about how they work. Proof if you like that one doesn't need to be a computer-junkie to use Linux.

[SpiderMonkey]

I use Ubuntu on my desktop, but I have a mac laptop (long story) which I want to be able to play games on and I haven't had the time to figure out triple booting under EFI (which is by every account I can find, a bit of a buggar)

[Zagadka]

My main machine is Vista/Win7 x64

Another household PC is XP, low RAM

My in-house server and this laptop are Ubuntu

My main servers are a basic LAMP setup

[Todd D.]

My problem with Ubuntu thus far has been finding the more niche products to run. Office, Internet, Torrents, DVD burning, they've all been no problem at all. However, the bane of my existence this last weekend has been trying to find a program comparable to Memorex ExpressIt, which prints DVD Inserts. I can't get ExpressIt to work in WINE, and nothing else that I've tried has worked.

Also, amateur video editing is tough to find. I used TMPGEnc when I am on Windows, because all I really want to do is cut the commercials out of video files, but Ubuntu equivalents like KDenLive or Kino are more like Adobe Premier, and far too complicated.

Stuff like that is the biggest challenge.