Switching To Linux Checklist

[JJDinsay]

I wanna see what this LINUX woo haa was all about so I'm switching Win2k Server to LINUX Redhat. I'm compiling a check list and doing research. Need some personal recommendations for an MP3 Player as the box I'm converting has all my MP3's stored and is connected to my soundsystem. I currenly use ITunes to do everything and what I'm seeing so far on the Web for ITune hacks seems buggy. Also, I just bought an LG DVD/CDRW burner that worked fine in WIN2K but no driver for it currently exists for LINUX. I am pretty much screwed here or is there some kind of generic DVD RW driver that I could use?

thanks,

[Tywais]

I wanna see what this LINUX woo haa was all about so I'm switching Win2k Server to LINUX Redhat.  I'm compiling a check list and doing research.  Need some personal recommendations for an MP3 Player as the box I'm converting has all my MP3's stored and is connected to my soundsystem.  I currenly use ITunes to do everything and what I'm seeing so far on the Web for ITune hacks seems buggy.  Also, I just bought an LG DVD/CDRW burner that worked fine in WIN2K but no driver for it currently exists for LINUX.  I am pretty much screwed here or is there some kind of generic DVD RW driver that I could use?

thanks,

Check this url out, you may need to rebuild your kernel if you just installed a generic one.

http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/

[Tywais]

I wanna see what this LINUX woo haa was all about so I'm switching Win2k Server to LINUX Redhat.  I'm compiling a check list and doing research.  Need some personal recommendations for an MP3 Player as the box I'm converting has all my MP3's stored and is connected to my soundsystem.  I currenly use ITunes to do everything and what I'm seeing so far on the Web for ITune hacks seems buggy.  Also, I just bought an LG DVD/CDRW burner that worked fine in WIN2K but no driver for it currently exists for LINUX.  I am pretty much screwed here or is there some kind of generic DVD RW driver that I could use?

thanks,

Check this url out, you may need to rebuild your kernel if you just installed a generic one.

http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/

Forgot about another useful site:

http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialVideo.html

[francois]

hi'

you normaly don't need specific driver for cd or dvd, even burner, just check out that the kernel provided with the disro support dual layer burning... should be.

my 2cts here

francois

[grrr]

As for a Linux mp3 player, I used XMMS with success. However, I still prefer iTunes (on a Mac)...but Crossover Office now supports Windows iTunes quite well under Linux. It may seem like a step backward using Windows programs in Linux, but Crossover is a good bridge...especially with Photoshop.

[francois]

As for a Linux mp3 player, I used XMMS with success. However, I still prefer iTunes (on a Mac)...but Crossover Office now supports Windows iTunes quite well under Linux. It may seem like a step backward using Windows programs in Linux, but Crossover is a good bridge...especially with Photoshop.

hi

crossover, another type of wine or winex?

can you give details, and/or and address for further info

thanks

francois

[francois]

As for a Linux mp3 player, I used XMMS with success. However, I still prefer iTunes (on a Mac)...but Crossover Office now supports Windows iTunes quite well under Linux. It may seem like a step backward using Windows programs in Linux, but Crossover is a good bridge...especially with Photoshop.

hi

crossover, another type of wine or winex?

can you give details, and/or and address for further info

thanks

francois

hi'

I went to visit this site and disapointed the home version isn't free

whatever the version you choose you have to pay for, not very in line with GNU

Wine seems to be the only free prog that make win-applications works under X.

francois

[yuyi]

As for a Linux mp3 player, I used XMMS with success. However, I still prefer iTunes (on a Mac)...but Crossover Office now supports Windows iTunes quite well under Linux. It may seem like a step backward using Windows programs in Linux, but Crossover is a good bridge...especially with Photoshop.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

hi

crossover, another type of wine or winex?

can you give details, and/or and address for further info

thanks

francois

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

hi'

I went to visit this site and disapointed the home version isn't free

whatever the version you choose you have to pay for, not very in line with GNU

Wine seems to be the only free prog that make win-applications works under X.

francois

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Crossover and Wine are a family. Wine is the basis, the free part of it. The Crossover guys are guys from the wine developers, which responded to the demand of having wine customized to get certain apps running or running better with Wine.

They did develop Crossover office, which lets you quite comfortably install MS Office and a few other Windows apps on Linux, based on the wine technology.

So these guys are helping the Linux users in need of certain apps, and they did not look that out as a clever business opportunity, but they responded to a demand, and this demand was more than they imagined, keeping them quite busy.

The better news is that all what they add to Wine to make Crossover products working is given back to the wine project. So these guys do help the wine development a lot.

On top of that corporations which want to use wine but demand also some kind of support commitment do get helped here as well.

So it is a win win for everybody involved. And there is a free version of crossover, it is wine!

For you that means that you can get almost all what crossover offers by using wine, but you might have to manually configure often, which crossover would do all for you automatically.

I used crossover and I used/use wine, and yes, crossover was nice and easy to use for the supported apps.

[yuyi]

As for a Linux mp3 player, I used XMMS with success. However, I still prefer iTunes (on a Mac)...but Crossover Office now supports Windows iTunes quite well under Linux. It may seem like a step backward using Windows programs in Linux, but Crossover is a good bridge...especially with Photoshop.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

XMMS is very nice, and available for a long time.

Now there is also Linspire's Lsongs, which comes with Linspire, but the source is freely available.

And now there is AMAROK, which is a KDE application, but it should run with Gnome also.

And Amarok, well, it rocks!

http://amarok.kde.org/

It is a fresh and new concept, and very userfriendly. It made me forget XMMS. And it is under heavy development, getting even better every month.

It usually comes your distribution, if it contains KDE. But it makes a lot of sense to update to the latest version.

"Easily the best media-player for Linux at the moment. Install it now!"

AMAROK FEATURES

* Quick and simple drag and drop playlist creation

* Music library (built-in sqlite, MySQL or PostgreSQL)

* Multiple backends supported (GStreamer, xine, NMM, MAS, Helix and aRts)

* 10 band equalizer

* Automatic cover art download using Amazon services

* The unique and powerful context browser

* Automatic play-statistics generation (iRate style)

* Full lyrics download

* Full Audioscrobbler support

* Integrated Wikipedia support

* Visualisations with libvisual

* Streaming from any KIO source

* Crossfading

* Fully configurable OSD for track changes

* K3B (CD-burning) integration

* KDE integration

[billd766]

I am going to buy a new laptop when I come home next month and I was thinking about changing to Linux.

I am reasonably comfortable with Windows Office etc and thought that it should be fairly simple to cross over to Linux, HOWEVER looking at this and other threads about Linux makes me realise that I will have to learn a whole new language and work my nuts off just to do something different.

Unless there is some fairly easy way about setting Linux up and transerring all my stuff from Windows I will stay where I am.

[yuyi]

I am going to buy a new laptop when I come home next month and I was thinking about changing to Linux.

I am reasonably comfortable with Windows Office etc and thought that it should be fairly simple to cross over to Linux, HOWEVER looking at this and other threads about Linux makes me realise that I will have to learn a whole new language and work my nuts off just to do something different.

Unless there is some fairly easy way about setting Linux up and transerring all my stuff from Windows I will stay where I am.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Don't worry, it is easy.

You could even continue using your MS Office, by getting crossover.

Or even better switch to OpenOffice. It reads and writes most MS Office flawlessly. Thus transferring your MS office documents will be an easier thing to do. (Except if you make heavy use of macros in MS Office. These macros might not run unchanged in Open office.

You could even start using Open office while still using windows, there is also a windows version of it.

Don't let our discussions intimidate you. We are just discussing about the best way to Rome, and some prefer the easy way, some the pure way, some the high speed train, etc. but all ways are fine. Just not identical. With Linux you have the choice. Some like it green, others brown, then others again blue.

Being able to participate in this forum shows already that you can use also Linux.

As long as you do not have some exotic hardware the switch should be smooth.

A good idea is to start by trying a "Live CD" version of Linux. This let's you see how Linux might feel on your PC, without that you actually have to install it. Just don't judge the speed at that pint, running from CD is obviously slower than running from harddisk.

[billd766]

Hi yuyi

Sorry to ask questions but I am in Pakistan at the moment but I will be back home in a couple of weeks.

As long as you do not have some exotic hardware the switch should be smooth.

I don't have any exotic hardware.

A good idea is to start by trying a "Live CD" version of Linux. This let's you see how Linux might feel on your PC, without that you actually have to install it. Just don't judge the speed at that pint, running from CD is obviously slower than running from harddisk.

Where could I get a CD.

You could even continue using your MS Office, by getting crossover.

Where could I get a CD.

Or even better switch to OpenOffice. It reads and writes most MS Office flawlessly. Thus transferring your MS office documents will be an easier thing to do. (Except if you make heavy use of macros in MS Office. These macros might not run unchanged in Open office.

Where could I get a CD.

You could even start using Open office while still using windows, there is also a windows version of it.

Where could I get a CD.

Thanks

billd