I’ve recently run into some crippling Windows problems. And it was, worst of all, effecting my Internet access when I need it so desperately, like so many fellow South Africans. Moving to mac has crossed my mind, but I opted to go to a free place. A place where operations and function, roam freely. Linux.
I’m glad to report that today, I got one of my old systems up and running with Ubuntu. Being only shown the basics just one night ago by a friend and far more superior user, I must say I’m digging it. My first few hours has been an easy and relatively flat learning curve.
Finding a easy alternative to ALMOST every thing I do on Windows is merely a search away. I have gotten my internet up running on USB without a hitch and as for the typical uses Windows gives me like Photoshop for starters… Windows will just have be a close at hand.
If you wanna run Windows, check out VirtualBox (from virtualbox.org, I don’t think apt-get has it available). I ran XP inside kubuntu on my old machine at a decent speed, so it might work for you too. Don’t know about Photoshop, though.
And if you’re lucky, and photoshop is listed at appdb.winehq.org, you can install WINE and simply run Photoshop on Ubuntu as you would any other program.
~ Wogan
Thanks Wogy. I have indeed checked out WINE. but is does not run CS3. So I might need to downgrade for the sake of simplicity. Not really in the mood for virtual boxes. Time will tell. All i know is that Ubuntu is really blowing my mind.
Problem is tha Ubuntu tend to go a bit pear shaped when you upgrade it. You often end up having to reinstall stuff or if its bad re-install everything.
Use a virtual machine. I got a 140 gig laptop drive. 120 of that is partitioned with Ubuntu 20 gig is left spare for Photoshop.
If I only need to make a quick graphic or compression change I boot Photoshop CS2 in Ubuntu using WINE. For larger scale tasks I boot a virtual machine running Windows, do what I need to do in Photoshop or Illustrator and transfer it over, as most Linux distros support reading of NTFS partitions.
Only problem is transferring files from Linux to windows as NTFS write is still buggy and can really screw things up. In that case you use a FAT32 formatted pen drive or USB hard drive.
Make sure you give Ubuntu a good go. It took me a good 4 tries to relive me of my dependency.