Windows Vs. Linux – The Ultimate Desktop Battle

You guys are probably going through your mind with “Wow!, a Linux blog making a comparison? It’s probably biased!”. That is where you are wrong. I actually dual-boot windows and linux on the same machine. Not only does this give me the best of both worlds, it also gives me a great testing environment. But, lets through a little bit of fun. We’ll make this a point based system. So without further to talk about. “Let the Games Begin!”

1. The System:
HP Pavilion dv2615us
Intel Core 2 Duo 1.5GHz
2 GB RAM
160GB Hard Drive

A Pretty good testing environment. It is more like a “typical system”. Not that great, but not that slow or sluggish either. This system came with Vista pre-installed, but to remove any manufacturer Bias, I am going to start with a fresh install of Windows Vista SP1 (The Most Current Version) and Ubuntu Linux 8.10 (The Most Current Version). I have divided my hard drive into 2 partitions. 80GB Windows and 80GB Linux. Score: Windows:0 // Ubuntu:0

2. Installation

Knowing that installing ubuntu AFTER windows, will overwrite the Microsoft Boot Squence, we are going to install Windows first and then Ubuntu. Popped in the Windows Vista SP1 Disc and began the installation process. Steps were much better than windows XP. Took about 35 Minutes. That’s not that bad. Finished Installing and I put in the Ubuntu 8.10 disc. Loaded the Live CD, which lets me try out the system before installing, and then leads me to install the system with easy to follow steps. The installation took about 18 Minutes. Which is about 50% faster than Windows Vista. The points go to linux in this one for the Live CD capabilities AND faster Boot Time. Score: Windows:0 // Ubuntu:1

3. First Boot

Windows likes to go through all those introduction steps on first boot, but they go by pretty quickly. Then, you reach the desktop. Microsoft has given some great work towards their new Aero interface. It looks very elegant. On the other hand, Ubuntu does all the introduction steps on first boot, so it goes through a normal boot cycle first time around. Ubuntu look besides the wallpaper is basically the same. So for the Aesthetics, this category goes to MS Vista. Score Windows:1 // Ubuntu:1

The Easiest Dual-Booting Solution

If you’re like me, there are some things, that you can’t just let go of windows. for some of you, it could be for warranty purposes, for others it could be for gaming (not saying you can’t game on linux ). Anyway, I’ll now go through a set-up that I found the easiest. This will work for any version of windows. Actually, any version of Linux too. So lets get started.

1. Back up your computer.
I cannot stress enought that this is important. If something goes wrong you should at least have critical files with you just in case.

2. Defragment your disk.
Start Menu > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
Run It. This could take a couple hours depending on your system, so you might as well take a nap.

3. Download GParted
You can google search GParted if you like or download the direct link here.

4. Burn the image to a CD.
I use InfraRecorder (google search that.) Just make sure that you make a bootable cd image.

5. Use GParted
Put the Gparted CD into your computer and reboot. It will start booting a linux kernel and all that stuff, every time it asks you for something, just hit enter. (Basically, it loads all the default configs). Once loaded, on the Gparted main screen, right click on your current xp partition, select Resize. Use the little slider to “shrink” your xp partition. I would keep atleast 4 GB to XP, just in case. After you are finished, click Apply Changes. For me, it took about 15 minutes, but for you it may take longer. Go ahead and make yourself a sandwich (Yum!)

6. Put your Ubuntu Live CD in.
Get your live CD and stick in your computer and boot. When the desktop loads, double click on install. When you hit the partition manager, look for a selection of “unallocated space” or “largest contiguous free space”, from there its a just a regular Ubuntu install. 30 minutes and you’ll be well on your way.

Enjoy

Start-Up Manager

I’ve had about a month to play with ubuntu 8.04, and for the most part, things have been running smoothly, but I’ve realized there are some tweaks here and there that can really make your life even easier. So without further to do, lets begin!

1. Start-Up Manager

Start-Up Manager is an easy way to configure how ubuntu starts. You can change boot splashes, password protect boot, and even change colors and boot order, I found it to be very useful, so I recommend that you give it a try. Luckily this is available through apt, so just pop open a terminal and type sudo apt-get install startupmanager Note: When you start this application it will ask for your sysem password.

Shipit CDs Now Available for Ubuntu 8.04

Finally, the time has come when ubuntu is moving into its Release Canidate stage and the world is preparing for the new release of Ubuntu. But why wait? Pre-Order you’re Free CDs now and they should arrive in 4-6 weeks. Order them at http://shipit.ubuntu.com.

Enjoy!

Say CHEESE!

If you have an intel mac at home, chances are you have photobooth, a webcam application that allows you to take pictures of yourself and also add some effects. In the linux world, photobooth = cheese. Cheese is one of the best apps I have seen in a long time, the design is nice, the effects are even nicer, and best of all you can record videos! To install cheese, follow the following commands.

1. Pop open a terminal and enter the following commands:

sudo apt-get install cheese
Note: You will need the universal repo enabled.

2. You can find cheese in Applications > Accessories > Cheese

Simple as That! Below I have a video demonstration of cheese (that I made )

Compiz Fusion on an X3100 (GMA 956)

Many laptops these days come pre-equipped with an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator and many of you are probably hoping that Compiz Fusion will work on this. By default the GMA 956 driver is blacklisted because of a video playblack issue. This is true. So if you are an avid video watcher (especially on totem or xine) You may not want to install Compiz Fusion until the drivwer has been fixed (Hopefully by Hardy Heron). But if you are like me and just have to have Compiz Fusion follow these steps:

1. Check and Install or Software Updates.

2. Open up the terminal and type in the following commands:
sudo apt-get update
gksudo gedit /usr/bin/compiz Note: You may be asked for a password.

3. add a [#] before [T="$T 8086:2982 8086:2992 8086:29a2 8086:2a02 8086:2a12" # intel 965]
remove the [].

4. Restart your computer.

That’s it. You should now be able to start compiz by going to System > Prefrences > Appearance > Visual Effects.

Setting Up a Web Server in Ubuntu!

Have you ever just wanted a nice web server for perhaps hosting a blog, or even hosting a full time website, you can do it easilly with a) An PC (can be old) b) An Internet Connection (obviously) c) A Router the supports DMZ-Plus (I’ll go into further detail about this later) d) A Copy of Ubuntu.

Step 1: Install Ubuntu (If you haven’t already) on the PC of yours. Any version after 6.10 will do.

Step 2: Open up a terminal and run the following commands:

sudo apt-get install apache2
sudo apt-get install php5

Step 3: I am assuming you have some sort of website that you have planned to put on this website, so with that said move your index.html and the other pages to the /var/www folder. In the terminal you can run this command:

sudo mv index.html /var/www

Step 4: As mentioned earlier, I said I would explain a little bit of DMZ Plus. Basically, It’s a way for your router to forward its ports to a computer of your choosing. That said, it depends on your router how to set this up. If you are unsure check the support documents that came with your router. Enable DMZ-Plus on your router.

Step 5: To access your website on the World Wide Web. You will have to know your IP. If you don’t know just check whatsmyip.org.

That’s it. I will post soon about using No-IP and accessing your website from a subdomain instead of an IP address, I think your friends would find it much easier to remember.

Linux Comercials

I know this has nothing to do with ubuntu, but I saw this video on youtube, and it was amazing.

Ubuntu Studio 7.04 Released

The well awaited for Ubuntu Studio 7.04 was finally released. This is yet another version of Ubuntu, but based on editing, Whether is is graphics, images, or video, Ubuntu Studio has the right program for you. Of course, you could always just download the programs yourself from Synaptic, Add/Remove, but Ubuntu Studio just makes everything easier. I’ll one day try it out and install it. Below is what the typical Ubuntu Studio would look like. I really like the black/blue default theme. Go check it out for yourself at ubuntustudio.com.

Exploring MythTV

Myth TV is the Media Center of Linux. In fact it looks just like Windows Media Center. I like the look and feel of the product,but in my opinion, the program is very not user friendly and requires lots of steps to install. I would not recommend this for install for beginners. Here is a video showing the major aspects of MythTV.