Something that I'd love to do is make the switch to Linux, but the one thing that is holding me back is my internet connection. In order to get internet access, I use a USB dongle. Having created a bootable Linux disk with a flash drive, there isn't a way to let me browse the web because Linux doesn't recognize my WiFi dongle. If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to switch over to Linux from Windows 7.
Yeah, can you give me some info about your computer?
Ubuntu and ubuntu derivatives are REALLY good about giving you out of the box wifi and internet. The fact that you are having issues is probably more of a hardware related issue rather than a linux related issue.
Edit: now that I think about it, just go ahead and make it a new topic. That way I/we can help you without messing up this topic. : )
Changing to Linux is not only about freedom or free stuff, as Wendell said in his video it's about learning. (A lot if you are up to it) As others have said, for new people I’ll advise to first try VM's, then next step would be dual-boot and see how it goes.
I'm personally in the crossroads where I can choose the conventional Windows road (with Linux VM, ocasional dual-boot) or the Linux road (with Windows VM in case of need). And I've been through the first one for many, many years... Hence my lack of interest in dual-boot anymore.
I see the Linux path full of joy and many cool things to learn.
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This is one of my first posts here so I'm not too sure how to create a new topic. Do I just go to the main page of the forum?
Go to Categories and in Linux, upper right, new topic. ;)
I've personally never had any issues with manjaro (my daily driver on my laptop for school and on a secondary HDD in my desktop. I know a lot of people do though. I've been looking at antergos, too lately, glad to see you're liking it, I might give it a try if I have some time soon.
I have been using linux for just about a year now.
I have used it in the past with varying degrees of success. I never felt like the documentation on the various operating systems was good enough for me to go from a total idiot to being comfortable with the system. And what I mean by that is that the information that was out on the web was generally too technical. Everything seemed to be written with a sense that the reader knew something about the OS.
I think it was when ubuntu 13.10 released that the community really started to take off, which gave way to more digestible information on and about linux.
I read up on linux for about two months and then I finally I got one of those calls from "windows" telling me I needed to hand my system over to some dude in india that really pushed me to make the switch.
I gotta say that the switch was really easy and painless. So much so that I really never stopped. I have been distro hopping for about the last 8 months or so and I finally found a home with openSUSE 13.2 with KDE's plasma 5.2 desktop.
For those of you who are thinking about trying out openSUSE 13.2, I really recommend that you give it a shot. It does not have a live CD, and the installation is pretty advanced, so I recommend that you take a look and an install video before you try it out, but holy freaking crap. It is the only STABLE operating system that I have found that feels like a complete system.
Fedora is close behind, but it is a testing ground for red hat's beta software which leads to a lot of issues if you do not know what you are doing.
Perhaps I can collect the names of those who are taking the challenge and provide a link to their blogs for interested people, in the first post?
Check this thread out on the Arch forum if you want to figure out how to get it up and running.
I really wish I could switch to Linux completely but I can't because i'm a gamer.
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You could always set up a virtual machine with PCIe pass through to play all your games in a linux environment.
That way you are not constantly dual booting.
BTW I think hardware pass through is what Windel (IDK how to spell the name... sorry if it is incorect) was talking about.
i have been using linux exclusively for nearly 2 years now, only installing windows 7 once to unbrick my note 3, and quickly abandoning it.
ETS 2 is a fantastic game on linux.
i currently use porteus and arch
porteus is a great distro that can "live" on a flash drive and has many GUI's available for someone who wants to try linux in a few flavors without installing it
What games are you looking to play?
I could, seems like a lot of work though. I don't even have Linux on my gaming rig. I only have Linux on my laptop.
I play a lot of games, the Batman Arkham series, Battlefield 4, H1Z1, I pretty much play anything.
I’ll take the challenge
If it hasn't been ported to Linux then this is your best bet https://www.playonlinux.com/en/supported_apps-1-0.html
I had used Ubuntu as my daily driver at work from about 2008 up until 12.04 or 12.10 (when ever they brought out unity) Work gave me a new laptop and had been to lazy to reinstall linux again. also working in IT in a mainly windows environment made it hard to admin servers with no way to use MMC without remoting into windows PC first.
I still have an esxi server running a few Ubuntu servers on my home server. I picked esx as my VM host because that is what businesses use and I support it at work(might as well learn what I have to use/use what I have learned)
I had been using FreeBSD for my home server needs in the past but installed Ubuntu Server and have not really had the time to switch back. So I still have my fingers in linux on a daily basis just not as much as before.
I would switch my main home desktop to linux if I didn't game as much as I do. sure linux is about 1000x better on the desktop now then it was even 2 years ago but its still not there. as soon as I can play 80% of my PC collection on linux I would use that as my main OS.
with all that said. I agree with Wendell that people should learn it now because it will make life easy for them later. I would even add that most of the skills you have learned using windows translates over to linux (like how to an OS works in general terms) so learning it takes a lot less time then when you first learned windows.
My advice for people who want to dual boot, install windows first. My advice for people wanting to get their toes wet first is to install virtualbox and then use that first.
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Well.. I do have a desktop with Ubuntu-Windows dual-boot, but since I am always on the move, 90% of the time I spend on my Linux only machine. I've got everything I need on it - Gimp, Darktable, Android Studio, Netbeans, Popcorn Time, Steam... When I want to play Skyrim, I run it in Wine (PoL) with great success.