switching to Ubuntu

[sckeener]

I'm considering switching to Ubuntu.

I know I can get OpenOffice for my office needs (already use it), but I currently use my xp64 as a media server (I have a Dlink DSM-520.)

• Any good websites on how to build a mediaserver that a dlink media server can access?
  
• Then I am going to need to burn DVDs occasionally. After buying three copies of Salome's Last Dance ($180 on ebay,) my wife likes me to burn copies so we don't have to replace expensive dvds when the kids step on them or (now ex-) friends never return them. I currently use DVDShrink.
  
• And last...I worry about viruses. How easy is it to keep up to date with Ubuntu? and are there any anti-virus programs out there for it. The last time I ran Red Hat I didn't update enough and a worm attached itself to my computer. The only way I found out was my cable company doing the right thing and disconnecting me. I get norton free from work but it only works on XP.

Should I just stay with XP? The reason I am thinking about changing is because of viruses. My norton works on XP...and not XP64 which I am running. So my debate is about switching from XP64 to XP or Ubuntu. I like the idea of Ubuntu, but I worry about the media server aspect of the switch.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

One thing to consider Wireless Networking Problems. There are a lot of people who will tell you they had no problem with networking on Ubuntu. But I just couldn't get the wireless to work after I switched, EVER. Regarding virus issues the threat environment for Linux is much lower than Windows and there are anti-viruses available, nothing is perfect of course. You should be able to run DVDShrink in a Windows emulator if it won't run on Linux. Never jumped into the mediaserver thing so I don't know any good websites for it or I would link for you.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Ubuntu is practically virus-free. Yes, it is probable viruses could be written for it, but there really aren't any. For all intents and purposes you don't need a virus scanner, as almost the entirety of viruses you would encounter are for Windows systems.

Since the 7.04 release I've had nothing but smooth sailing with regards to networking on Ubuntu. I'm using it on my laptop, and I've had no problems jumping on and off of networks. Earlier releases (including the 6.06 LTS) I had much more difficulty with, though nothing terribly awful, just inconvenient.

I can't really speak to the media center part though. It's something I've always wanted to set up if I came upon some spare components.

 

[Tharian]

Ubuntu is pretty straightforward to use. I've been using it since 6.06 as a dual-boot system on my laptop, but mostly use the Linux side, switching over very rarely.

I've not used dlink so I'm not sure how that works, but I believe the mediabuntu variant of Ubuntu addresses that. A good place to check would be the Ubuntu forums. If your question isn't already answered there, you can post it and receive a response within a short period of time.

I burn DVDs on an irregular basis, but I've not burned movie DVDs in specific. I tend to burn only data DVDs. However, there are a few programs out there on the Linux side of things that are meant to handle exactly that. Again, the forums would be a good place to check.

I've not seen a virus on the Linux side of things. The main concern is with security and that's why there's a difference between a user and an admin account. That being said, if you plan to use your system as a mail server, there are some anti-virus programs out there meant to strip out those viruses to keep them from being passed on to a windows client.

The forums can be found at http://ubuntuforums.org/ and the people there are normally pretty friendly. I've had a lot of good experiences there when asking or offering help.

And another option to consider is trying out the LiveCD of whichever flavor before erasing your XP partition. Beyond that, you can also look into dual-boot. In both cases, you do not lose your windows information.

Good Luck and have fun with it.

 

[azhrei_fje]

I second the idea of using the Live CD. It's a great way to test out whether your hardware will work with Linux (Ubuntu, in your case).

I teach Linux training classes (mostly system administration, operating system internals, device driver development, and so on).

I have an old Compaq Presario R3000 that has some pretty funky hardware, but it recently had Kubuntu 7.10 installed on it by my wife so she could play around with Joomla (a content management system for the web). It found my Netgear gigabit router (wireless) with no problem -- that was a surprise, because the 6.06 that used to be on that same machine was a bit tricky to set up (it wasn't difficult, but there were a lot of steps involved). She's been using the 7.10 Kubuntu wirelessly for a couple weeks now and loves it.

After installing the machine, I got a window popup that said the machine had hardware installed that didn't have open source drivers and it prompted me to select which hardware devices I might want to use proprietary drivers with. I checked the boxes for the nVidia card, the nVidia soft-modem, and the Broadcom wireless card. It told me I didn't have to reboot, but the wireless didn't work right away, so I rebooted anyway. It came up perfectly.

I also did a bunch of updates. They failed at one point and restarting the update manager didn't fix it. So I ran an update of the update tool (called "adept_updater") and then restarting the update manager worked just fine and it completed successfully. (There must have been some problem with the update tool itself! Not a problem for me, but it was confusing at first.)

Now that the machine is installed and updated, we both love it. She can browse files on the XP desktop and access our laser printer and fileserver without any problems.

Since she's using Joomla, I showed her how to use Adept Manager to install Apache, MySQL, and PHP. I did the Joomla install myself, since there were no pre-configured packages available. Then she did the Joomla configuration herself (the package has a simple step-by-step wizard).

We're not using it for a media controller, so I can't answer that part of your question.

Nero is available for Linux, so you could always use that to do your DVD work. I burn data DVDs only and haven't worked with DVD video. I've been sucking shows off my TiVo and some day I want to create a DVD menu and try burning a regular DVD video, but it's not a high priority for me. I understand that Kino is a good choice for video editing, but I have no personal experience (yet).

I would go for the latest available Live CD first. There will be an icon on the desktop to perform the installation. If my wife can do it, so can you. Allow 20 minutes for the install. My updates took about 20 minutes to download and install once I updated JUST the updater itself.

 

[Thanee]

I get norton free from work but it only works on XP.

Linux without anything is probably safer than Windows with Norton.

Best protection is still using a NAT router (with firewall) and don't execute random programs downloaded from the internet and never open email attachments unless you already know what the attachment is (not even from trusted sources). These few safety measures alone offer 99% virus protection.

Bye
Thanee

 

[sckeener]

Thanks for the ideas and the good general advice for any OS!

I think I'm going to give LinuxMCE a try.

Hopefully I'll get to try it this weekend. I'll post back my experiences.

Thanks

 

[azhrei_fje]

Since you have a specific list of requirements, you might try browsing http://www.distrowatch.com/, where there are short summaries of (literally) hundreds of free operating systems. Not just Linux, but also FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and others.

 

[IronWolf]

... don't execute random programs downloaded from the internet and never open email attachments unless you already know what the attachment is (not even from trusted sources). These few safety measures alone offer 99% virus protection.

And update, update, update. This goes for all the software on a box - the OS, the flash players, Quick Time, Real Player, the other media players, etc, etc. More and more malware is spread through drive-by installs where it just hammers away at a few exploits and if found exploits the vulnerable product and has its way with your system. This used to be confined to the shadier places on the Internet, but a recent ComputerWorld article showed that just over 50% of the sites serving malware were legit sites that had been compromised. The game is changing.

 

[trancejeremy]

Just FWIW, I've been running x64 XP for years without a virus program (since the free ones don't work on it either) and I've been virus free. I'm not sure there are viruses for it, since most are aimed at the regular version.