Please help an Ubuntu novice

After weeks of tweaking and re-formatting to make XP play nice w/ an old desktop I finally gave up. XP works for me on other computers, but it's though if my copy has some kind of personal vendetta Since I only use simple programs (itunes, word, ff - that's about all I use on it), I thought it would be easier to just switch to Linux (Ubuntu). Though not an expert, I am rather familiar with XP and versions of Windows. I have, however, no clue as to Ubuntu and other Linux distros. I downloaded the iso image already, but I still have a few lingering questions:


1) Step-by-step, how do I dual boot XP w/ Ubuntu? I helped a friend once with dual-booting OS X and XP, but bootcamp made that virtually painless. I'm sure dual-booting with Linux and XP is much more complicated than just loading the two OS on two different partitions - or is it? I have an 80GB HD and was wondering how much I should allocate to each partition? XP will probably be ok with 20 GB. How much does it take for Ubuntu to run smoothly - 15GB? I'll leave the rest to a FAT32 Data drive to share between the systems.

2) Wine. I occasionally may still wish to run Window’s programs while using Ubuntu, and wine seems to do a pretty good job at that. My question is: How do I install it? I went to their website http://www.winehq.com/, but I can't even get the download to start properly. Perhaps some could enlighten me on the downloading and installation process?

3) Anti-virus. I know Ubentu probably has fewer viruses than OS X, but, still, is there a need to install Anti-virus/Anti-spyware/Firewalls on my computer? If so, what are the relatively "good" ones out there?

4) This probably very subjective, but what sites feature the best Linux software collection? I know Ubentu itself came with a number of shareware/freeware, but if I wanted to get more, where should I go?

Those are my four major concerns w/ Ubentu right now, and it would be greatly appreciated if someone could help me resolve them. Other than those, I'm pretty happy with it so far (I booted for a live CD). I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to use all the hardware (graphic card, audio, etc) perfectly on my system – XP require me to install drivers to even get the display to work in a proper resolution.

 

1) Install your Windows OS on a partition and fire up your LiveCD. Let Ubuntu's bootloader, GRUB, do all the work for dual booting...you should be just fine.
2) Via synaptic, add/remove or

Code:

 $ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install wine && sudo apt-get install wine-cfg 

at a Console prompt
3) NO. Simple as that.
4) Synaptic Package Manager has a lot to offer here. You can also go to http://linuxappfinder.com/ for more info.

 

Although this guide is a tiny bit out of date, it's still very helpful in guiding you do creating a dual-boot system. In fact, it's what I used to install Ubuntu on my machine.

http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2006/05/08/dual-boot-laptop.html

 

Im curious as to what programs youd want to run in Ubuntu that are usually windows xp-native but don't exist in ubuntu.

Causeeeeee if you're gonna wine all your windows-native programs, then why dual boot at all? unless for the fun of it.

I thought that was a curious question to ask.

 

This question is really great, I wish you would post a new thread on it. It would be great to have a full conversation about it. I will wait until you do - there is a lot of say on this matter.

 

Once you've got XP installed, boot from the Ubuntu CD, check out that it recognises all your hardware, and then install it. The install will sort out the boot manager (grub) for you and should recognise and add WinXP. The partition sizes you mentioned look quite reasonable.

I've found the easiest way to get Wine installed and working is to use Automatix, a tool for installing many of the common extras. You can get it from http://www.getautomatix.com/. These days though I prefer to use VMware server with a virtual WinXP machine. As long as you don't need fancy graphics or anything > USB 1.1 it might do away with the need for an XP partition and Wine.

I've been happily running an Ubuntu machine for over two years now without anti-virus or software firewall. You can install ClamAV and Firestarter if you wish, but the general consensus on the Ubuntu forums is that you don't need to.

The best software collection is already built in! Once you've got Ubuntu installed, click on System->Admistration->Synaptic package manager. This'll show you everything you've got installed as well as all of the packages available for install. Installation and update is easier than any other OS I've used, bar none.

Hope this helps,

Dave Mac

 

Well, a lot's already been said, I would support Gautam's recommendations. However, here is my input:

1. Dual-booting XP and Ubuntu is as easy as Bootcamp, if not easier since you don't have to use any extra software. 20GB is a little low for XP if you're planning to add any applications, but if it's just light stuff you'll be fine. Ubuntu likes to have at least 10GB, but this is dependent on a few factors. To simplify, though, I would give Ubuntu ~20GB as well, and the rest could be FAT32.

2. Wine can be found in the Synaptic Package Manager; just go System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager and search for Wine. Click it and install... easy.

3. Actually, Mac OS X currently has no successful viruses in the wild; I'm not sure if Ubuntu has any as not many people really keep track of that. But no, there is no need for an AV software in Linux.

4. Synaptic Package Manager. Enable the universal repositories and you literally have millions of programs at your hands.

 

Thanks for the replies! You guys have been very helpful in answering all my questions regarding Ubuntu.

I wanted to see first if wine would run all the programs I use on XP. If it runs fine, I'll delete partition and add the space to the Data Drive.

Is it better to run Windows programs through Wine or install XP in VMware? Which one will have less compatibility problems and run faster?

 

Better depends on how you define it:

Wine is definitely much faster than VMware. Another paravirtualization tool like Xen would be faster (than VMware), but compatibility may suffer a bit. VMware is your best bet for compatibility.

Since installing wine is a relative breeze on Ubuntu, I'd suggest starting with that. If it doesn't work the way you like, try VMware.

P.S. If your XP apps depend on directX or are graphics intensive, VMware likely won't do well with it. Wine, if your app works, usually works well.

 

Yes, I agree using VMware is a better choice. Using Windows apps with wine sucks bigtime.

No need for an Realtime resident Antivirus. But you can install Avast which scans files at request for any virus.

 

Make sure your Internet connection is stable, and isn't dropping when you are downloading.

 

Oh, I forgot to explain, I keep getting problems logging on with my other user name (hehe299792458), so for the time being, I'm using this one.

I'm pretty sure my internet is ok; it's directly connected to the router. Besides, when the time-out message occurs, I'm still able to use FF fine. Also, under Synaptic Package Monitor, it indicates that Wine is indeed installed.

 

Try installing wine via package manager.

If already installed, uninstall it and install again.


OR


the easier way ...... Use the Sudo apt command to copy in terminal from this site Unofficial Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) Starter Guide
the best place to start off at.

 

VMWare for gaming is rubbish. It can't directly access the GPU, whereas WINE can.

And Windows apps DO NOT suck with WINE. F.E.A.R might, but thats about it. I regularly run Photoshop CS2 on my machine, and I just got back from a two day LAN. I don't have Windows installed on my machine, so I used Ubuntu the entire time.

I enjoyed participating in games of Dawn of War, Civ 4, Call of Duty 2, Soldat, Counter-Strike: Source, and Neverwinter Nights. I was really only afraid of going to LANs with Linux until two days ago. Now Windows is definitely not coming back.

 

I tried uninstalling it several times, but it still doesn't work. I also tried using "terminal" to install the program. Every goes fine until the apt-get build-dep wine Step. If you login as myself, it tell me access is denied (13 times or something). If I login as root, it tells the the file cannot be located. I'm still very confused about installing new programs in Ubuntu, and in particular.


However, other than that, my experience so far with Ubuntu is smooth that I'd imagined

 

That was the exact message


I downloaded the package from here: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libjack0.100.0-0, but still got the same message

 

Wasn't referring to games ........ but thats good news if game run smootly with wine. Never tried CS2 on wine eithier. I might see if I can Load Photshop Elements.

But I still think most Windows "Programs" suck using wine on Linux.

 

I would reinstall Ubuntu and Sudo Apt wine FIRST right after the regular updates, before you install packages or sudo anything else.

 

I would go into Synaptic and searching for libjack0.100.0-0 there. (It's there, I searched for it). Install it from there (or reinstall it if necessary). This is often more dependable than downloading from the debian sources.

Also, if you're trying to reinstall Wine, after you run the sudo apt-get remove command, it's a good idea to delete the entire wine folder in case there's anything left over. This will be located in your Home folder, but it's hidden, so you'll have to click View->Show Hidden Files. It will be referred to as .wine. Go ahead and get rid of that, and then try reinstalling.