Vista has ticked me off enough...now I'm starting to think about Linux.

You heard me...I'm thinking about installing it. But I'm curious to know the direct equivalents to these programs and comments about user experiences. I'm starting to read the Linux "first timer" sticky so we'll see what I find there. But I just wanted to get this out there for some advice.

Well, just out of curiosity...
MS Office (under Wine or just OO)?
PDF Creator?
Foxit Reader?
Acronis True Image?
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005?
Anti-Virus and Firewall that actually works?

I know the rest of my stuff has direct Linux equivalents...an example is MATLAB: the install CD supports both OSes. If it doesn't have an equivalent, then VM Ware solves that too I think.

Also, what about NTFS? Can Linux read that file format yet?

I'm also concerned about my hardware...can anyone see any driver problems with the following?
ATI X1600
Lightscribe External DVD+/-RW
Hauppauge HVR 950
Canon CanoScan 60
HP Deskjet 6940

The scanner and printer scare me the most...I've never heard about them working. Currently, VM Ware (I think) allows for USB 1.1 passthough...but for goodness sake why run a parellel OS for two pieces of equipment.

I posted a thread about this a while ago, but my needs have definitely changed since then. I honestly like Vista, but if MS continues to accuse me of pirating software I just might abandon them forever. I don't pay for a service they refuse to provide.

 

Greg, Glad you want to try out Linux. There's no harm in spending time to see if you like it. I would guess that you will actually enjoy it....as many do. Here are some equivalents:

Office > OpenOffice 2.2
PDF Creation > In OpenOffice 2.0+, and other programs available for conversion.
Foxit Reader > There are at least 5 alternatives, including the default Document Viewer. Remember there's also Adobe Acrobat Reader for Linux.
Imaging Software (Acronis) > g4u and others
AntiVirus > None needed, but ClamAV and others exist
Visual Studio > Wine, VMware, or do a dual boot with XP

NTFS is already readable/writable, and Feisty (April 07) will have native support, I believe.

WINE handles a lot of your WIndows apps in Linux.

XSane will handles all your scanning needs. GIMP replaced Photoshop and is very powerful. Printing is fine in Linux, usually many drivers exist...and all your hardware will work as well. Lightscribe will work as well...there isn't much that can't be done in Linux now.

Interesting in Printing? > http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting
tells you all about drivers, etc.

Interested in Program Equivalents? >
http://www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/table-eng.html
has a big list.

I realize I wrote this with Ubuntu in mind, but remember that it applies for any distro that you choose.

 

Well, there's Crossover Linux, which is basically a version of WINE that has professional support behind it, and one of their big things was running MS Office in Linux. I think it costs about $40. Here's a compatibility list for MSOffice.

I've always used OpenOffice to create PDFs, although I don't know of one that will allow you to make a fillable form type thing.

Foxit is a lightweight PDF reader, right? The default for the GNOME desktop environment is called Evince, it's very lightweight and works well from my experience, although some have said that it doesn't support the very latest features available in Acrobat.

I personally don't run any AV or firewall software, but you could check into ClamAV and Firestarter.

Your printer should be fine. It's supported through the HPLIP driver, which comes with most if not all distributions.
http://hplip.sourceforge.net/index.html
http://hplip.sourceforge.net/supported_devices/inkjet.html (do a search for your model number here)

Your scanner should be fine. I'm assuming it's a Canon LiDE 60? I couldn't find info on a CanoScan 60. Anyway, the LiDE is supported by SANE, which is the standard scanning stuff on Linux.

The TV tuner should be fine: http://lunapark6.com/?p=2682 (scroll about a third of the way down, past the first batch of screenshots)

Lightscribe tools are also available for Linux. http://www.lightscribe.com/downloadSection/linux/index.aspx

 

ATI GPU.. wanna ask this oso.. the LINUX now would have more problem running ATI to Nvidia?

 

I think if you were to look at all the distros and how they deal with ATI cards compared to NVIDIA, you are right about NVIDIA being more supported.

With the major Debian based distros out there (Debian, (K)Ubuntu, Mint, Xandros) ATI is supported just as well as NVIDIA. However, I think the eye candy still performs better on NVIDIA gpus.

 

Linux doesn't really have problems running ATI cards, it's just that they're not as well supported in terms of drivers. This doesn't really affect too much... because no one in their right mind would do serious gaming on a linux machine. This also comes into effect if you want to run Beryl as you need to run Xgl instead of AIGLX (which is recommended...)

 

No, perhaps even less trouble running ATi. It's very easy to install the fglrx drivers. However, ATi don't have a complete feature set in their drivers. They don't support the composite extension, so Xgl is your only avenue to the fancy effects.

 

As many have said, you should be able to get support for everything you need, and if the programs you listed are the only programs you have to stick to, you should be fine in Linux. Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty also makes it a breeze to install your graphics drivers. Simply go into the Add/Remove Applications program, search for "ati radeon" in all available applications, check the box, and you should get accelerated graphics drivers. As of the last time I checked (this weekend), these drivers supported the x1600. I'm not sure if there's any terminal commands required to activate them as there are with the nVidia drivers, but they shouldn't be too bad either way. And Xorg 7.2 (included with Feisty) should have AIGLX and Xgl included, making Beryl easier to use than ever before. Switching to Linux (at least Ubuntu) has never been easier.

 

That's funny... I just installed Doom3 and am playing through it on my desktop machine. Seems pretty serious to me. There aren't a ton of games out for Linux, but you can get some pretty high-end ones that play quite well. (I even have Beryl running, and just start up Doom3 and it runs)

 

I play Quake4 in Linux as well. I've yet to try any other games, but I'd imagine newer OpenGL based games would work pretty well through WINE, and if you have a new popular game, you can bet that the guys at Cedega are working on it. You can even play WoW on Linux through Cedega (and possibly WINE?), and gamers don't get much more hardcore than WoW gamers.

 

I'm running linux native versions of all the Dooms, all the quakes, and all the Unreals. I've also been able to get quite a few of my games running through Wine, including WoW. That is until I finally decided not to put up with the epic fail that WoW is

 

The problem with telling people to use Cedega and Wine is that it generally doesn't work the day the game came out, if ever. There are loads of VERY popular games that have serious issues running in linux. I've had and cancelled by cedega subscription because even when games were voted high enough to get pushed to the dev's, no improvement. Infact, the last few newsletters are so focused on WoW it's not even really about gaming anymore and just racking in all those WoW players.

Battlefield 2 needs to work better, Battlefield 2142 doesn't work at all even though it's mostly on the same engine as BF2... Supreme Commander is having issues, waiting to see if that gets "over ruled" by the cedega dev's. Anarchy Online has only had good support for about the last year.. (basically since the free basic accounts opened)... how many years has that game been going on? I know I had capped characters long before this support. To alot of people.. that game is old news. Planetside barely runs on windows.. so I won't judge that title

I get an impression that alot of people that say linux is great for gaming are people that are happy accepting comparable products rather then the real thing, or people that aren't really into gaming and don't care that stuff they play takes hours to get running or weeks/months/years for support. When I want to play from the BF series, I'm told to play america's army, or quake 4, or doom 3.. I'm sorry folks but that doesn't cut it..

Now why in the world would I want to do this when I can boot up my trusty copy of XP and do it out of the box 90% of the time. There are enough glitches from the games themselves that sometimes require work arounds, I don't want to add the complexity of getting it on linux to that. My gaming hours are precious to me since they are few and far between, but when I've got them I don't want to mess around.

 

Why should you deal with Linux instead of XP? If you have to ask that, then you're using Linux for stability and not philosophy. That's fine, as it's a completely understandable position to take, and it's the reason I initially got into Linux. However, those that agree with the Linux philosophy (a free and open system that doesn't treat its users as criminals) will gladly deal with the headaches of running games in Linux in order to support their ideals.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with what you're saying. Hardcore gamers really shouldn't be looking at Linux as an alternative to gaming because few games natively support Linux, and even when they do, it can still be a pain to get them running (I'm looking at you, Quake4). And this is the very reason I relied on XP so much before. But if you asked me now, I'd give up PC gaming in a heartbeat if it were the only thing tying me to Windows. Gaming is hardly a reason to compromise my beliefs in a free and open (not to mention more stable) OS, but that's me. Different strokes for different folks, you know; I'm not going to criticize you for not agreeing with my ideals. Linux gamers are just trying to get as many people on board with Linux as possible, because for them, Linux and FOSS is often more important that gaming. For others, gaming is more important. It's just the way it is.

 

Haha..I saw your thread title and wondered if that was one I made. I'm in the EXACT same boat as you only, I'd keep Vista just as a backup, as I see soooo much potential for it in the next few months. Operating Systems are like wine, I guess. They get better with age, but if it gets too old, it can be extremely disgusting to dabble in.

 

I fully dig FOSS, but about the only thing I do in my life for recreation is game. I don't watch TV, or movies.. I need more interaction then that. I've tried hard since ubuntu 6.06 came out to get back into linux (used to be pretty hardcore SUSE fan till XP came out and being a network / pc technician person for a living kills linux mentality). Back in the days of SUSE I played console games, but I'm not interested in the price of console systems or the games for them.

It's just not coming together for me right now.. I can do EVERYTHING I need in linux but game (the games I want to play) and teamspeak while using any other audio enabled software (I've tried fixing it.. and I think it's a Feisty bug because I've not had the problem with other distro's). I'm pretty sure one day I will be able to say linux does everything I want well.

What the point of my post was I'm not happy with the answer that linux users generally give to Windows people, especially with gaming. It's generally dual boot, or your games aren't all these games, without reguard to the fact that some people REALLY like the game they are playing, and they are playing it with friends.

Let me also add that I'm not a fan of MS releases by any means, but you can't knock the fact that I can run my games and everything I want to do (which most people can) and I've never had to tweak config files and drop to consoles to get it done. While I don't mind learning how to do this stuff, it's more an issue of time for me.. if I only have 2 hours a night to get in some gaming, I don't want to need that 2 hours for an entire week just to get the game running when in XP I install it and patch if necessary and off I go.

 

TeamSpeak has been the one program I've had the most trouble with. Stupid dodgy OSS using program.

Unfortunately, those are about the only answers we can give. Dual Boot or give up. With the exception of a few games, commercial games are a no-go, especially newer ones. When I switched fully to Linux, I chose to give up the majority of my video games.

I think the strides the WINE mob have made in gaming is amazing. Imagine what they could achieve if given commercial backing by game makers.

 

Wine has been pretty good for games that I have played to death years prior =P

I've tried the cedega thing and been sadly dissapointed when all the news coming from the voters money is more and more WOW support. I've got nothing against the game, but it's not the only game that has been promoted up, or had "high dollar" users... Infact, they were making pretty darn good efforts for BF2 and BF2142 until this WOW stuff took over.. There is even support for some stupid manga porn simulation games..

I don't get it.. let's support pornographic titles that I never saw a single vote for, but not work on something that has been elevated to the dev's every month since it came out? yeah.. well... I don't consider this money well spent.. or good effort on Linux getting more users.

 

That's why I don't spend money on it.

 

You may would like to give PCBSD and DesktopBSD a try, they are based on FreeBSD unix OS.