How to: Dual-boot Windows and Ubuntu Linux

[Dastrn]

I don't use much Compiz stuff. It was fun when I was new to Ubuntu back in like 6.10 or 7.04 or whenever it was, but I've gotten bored with zing. I just enjoy the overall OS experience. I like how much I can customize, and how easy it is to run software the way I want to. I love using the CLI to automate tedious file tasks, but I know that's not a huge seller for most people.

More than anything, I like the stability and safety that the platform provides.

Werekill, what were your issues with 11.10 specifically? I didn't like it either when I first switched from 11.04, but I think they ironed out most of the smaller issues that bothered me during the 11.10 cycle.
12.04 seems more polished. Unity is a little better. If you set up MyUnity (ubuntu software center has it), you can customize the launcher completely. Made me LOVE unity, when I used to not like it.

One feature that's growing on me is the HUD. Instead of clicking on menus looking for a function, I can just hit Alt and then start typing what I want. It's a smart search, and will even start searching the web if it can't find what you want locally. Pretty cool idea, and I think it's one that will expand over time to other OSes.

Gnome 3 was fun, but it always felt a little slow to me.

 

[John2k4]

The biggest issue I had with 11.04 was that it would kill the GRUB boot every time I tried to upgrade to 11.10 from within the OS.

I'll see about trying this new release.

 

[Thino]

11.04 was the time where I couldn't bear with Unity and I would often switch back, but I had no technical problems with it.

But that's prolly because I tend to do fresh installs instead of upgrades, I had bad experiences with upgrades usually

 

[John2k4]

That's why I make drive images before I upgrade. Even though it killed the GRUB I was able to revert back to a perfect setup via a Clonezilla image.

 

[Kal]

I recently installed 11.10 and, while I certainly enjoy Ubuntu, I hate Unity. I reverted to gnome 2.x for a while, but decided to try KDE. While it certainly is great after you have it set up to work how you want, it's a hell of a lot of trouble to get working.

I will install 12.04 next Thursday and see how MyUnity helps. I appreciate the suggestion, Dastrn, as I had never heard of MyUnity before your post.

 

[Dastrn]

Yeah, no prob. I really didn't like Unity at all until I discovered MyUnity. Now, I think it's pretty sharp. Combined with the HUD, I finally feel like I have that control over my UI experience that I want.

 

[Thino]

I'm liking the batch of updates that has been released yesterday for the beta prolly because the final release is tomorrow:

-much less applications crashing so far

-GRUB recognizes Windows 8 Consumer Preview as Windows 8 loader on Boot screen instead of naming it Windows 7, it's a detail but it's nice that it's taken in account

-When you set the launcher color to completely black 0,0,0 RGB, the launcher, the top bar and the notifications colors match your wallpaper

-Logon screen fades to your wallpaper as opposed to brutally changing to it before these patches

 

[joe.]

I've been considering this, since it seems that if I don't reboot my Linux (Ubuntu 11.10) server every week or so, the desktop will freeze up, and the computer will ignore any input, forcing a hard restart. :/

Just out of curiousity, why exactly are you running a full GUI install on a server?

 

[John2k4]

I switched it to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS a while back (withi no GUI), but at the time I needed a simple way to access the programs that were needed.

 

[Kal]

Just torrented 12.04, creating a bootable flash drive now. Looking forward to trying out the new distro soon.

 

[joe.]

I switched it to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS a while back (withi no GUI), but at the time I needed a simple way to access the programs that were needed.

Oh. Well, if you have a few days free, and want one helluva learning experience, I'd recommend taking a bare-bones server install, and installing "X" (The windowing system) on top of it. It will default still be completely CLI, but when needed you can start up X, and run GUI programs. It's quiet an interesting and frustrating process to install and setup, but definitely worth it to learn about.

 

[Dastrn]

Joe, that sounds kinda fun.

I ought to put a media server up at home just for kicks. I've got like 9 computers sitting around in my basement that would all easily be strong enough to do so.

 

[joe.]

Joe, that sounds kinda fun.

I ought to put a media server up at home just for kicks. I've got like 9 computers sitting around in my basement that would all easily be strong enough to do so.

Oh. It's all fun, up until the point where you need to use proprietary drivers. That's the main issue. When you implement the Nvidia drivers, the xorg.conf file decides to just completely **** itself; even if you use the nvidia provided one. (Which gets created at the install of drivers to suite your setup)

I've got a nice media server set up though; based all around a server install, built from the ground up to provide exactly what is needed. It was a great learning experience for my roommate, who hadn't had much linux experience at that point.

 

[adumbrodeus]

Screw ubuntu, arch is where I'm at.

Currently installing arch, wish me luck.


Edit: Realizing I'm not quite expirienced enough for this lol, gonna go back to an easier distro.

 

[Kal]

Really not liking Unity. Man, why are they trying so hard to force this terrible UI? Ah well, I'll either go to Gnome or KDE.

 

[joe.]

Screw ubuntu, arch is where I'm at.

Currently installing arch, wish me luck.


Edit: Realizing I'm not quite expirienced enough for this lol, gonna go back to an easier distro.

Try crunchbang. (aka #!) Its not as "put it together yourself" as arch or gentoo, but it is very minimalistic, and light. It makes use of open box, which provides a thin and super flexible DE/WM. You can really do TONS of customization, just with a few configuration files. It's pretty sick if you get into it.

 

[John2k4]

Planning on putting Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on my desktop sometime tonight. Guide is very helpful. =)

 

[joe.]

Be sure to let us know how it goes. :D

 

[John2k4]

I'm planning on putting it on a secondary hard drive, since my drive C is a SSD with only 25.5GB free at the moment, and I'd like to keep that space available for games/what have you.

Made my USB drive bootable with it, so once I get back from a couple errands it shall begin. =)

 

[John2k4]

Install was successful, and quite easy.

 

[joe.]

Install was successful, and quite easy.

I'm not sure if it was an option or anything during installation, but depending on what video card / chipset you are using, you might want to look into installing the proprietary drivers for it. It should be under System->Additional Drivers. The generic ones aren't that bad, but can cause some slowdown on a wide variety of things. (Proprietary could already be in use though; I'm not sure how the newest versions of ubuntu do things)

 

[John2k4]

Proprietary drivers are in use for the graphics card; that's what the little PCI card icon in the upper right is for. =)

Been running solid. I'm really liking it.

 

[Lore]

Oh god, I ****ing hate Unity. Does it ever get better? I'm way too used to the old Gnome, and the new Gnome isn't too good, even on classic mode.

 

[Dastrn]

Unity will grow on you.

I totally hated it when I first made the switch. Took some time away and came back to it with 12.04 to discover that it's rather good. There's still some adjustments that need made to it down the road, but it's honestly not bad at all.

 

[Lore]

My main problem is the lack of a bottom bar where you can see what windows are open instead of seeing that as part of an entire program list. Is there any way to set it up where I can at least have open programs seperate from the full list?

 

[Dastrn]

They are indicated in the Unity bar with a little icon. It's barely visible.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/12/how-to-customise-unity-like-never-before/

This might help you out.

 

[Lore]

So hiding the bar on the side and making it so that the square for each icon only fills with color when the icon's program is running is nice...

But it's not like I like Unity or anything.
>_>
<_<

 

[John2k4]

I'm really liking Unity. It vaguely reminds me of the dock on Macintosh systems.

 

[Thino]

Unity is ok now, I really couldnt stand it in the 11.04 -11.10 days

 

[Lore]

Unity is ok now, I really couldnt stand it in the 11.04 -11.10 days

Yeah, which is why I had huge initial reservations against using it in 12.04. I... kinda like it now, actually. It's not on Gnome 2 levels, but it's still good.

 

[Dastrn]

 

[John2k4]

I laughed; that is too true.

 

[Praxis]

I laughed; that is too true.

Not at all, actually >_>

Name one example for the Mac case.

 

[John2k4]

I was mainly getting at the Linux/Windows one.
Macs I don't want to get started on. =P

 

[Praxis]

Those two are pretty accurate. xD

 

[Dastrn]

Not at all, actually >_>

Name one example for the Mac case.

Snow Leopard

 

[Praxis]

Snow Leopard

The new OS that was $29 for a full install (not "upgrade" edition), and then received 8 major free revisions over the next two years?

 

[Dastrn]

I'm sorta torn right now.

Steam for Linux is in beta right now, and I've got it set up. But most of my library isn't set up for it yet. This is kinda nice.

But Canonical is moving towards more and more purchasing apps through the OS, which sort of goes against the whole FOSS movement that has always liked Ubuntu (to some degree).
I can see them shedding FOSS purists for debian or something similar while picking up more casual users and gamers. But it's hard to say if this direction is good for them long-term or not. I suppose they are trying to move into the mobile market too, which might just be doomed anyways because Android is everything they want to be and more.

13.04 doesn't really look all that impressive to me at all, so I don't know if I'll bother. I'm still running 12.04 on this laptop, since I didn't see anything in 12.10 that I wanted and it wasn't worth upgrading.

I spent 90% of my time in Windows 7 these days, which is a complete flip-flop from where I was a year or two ago. 7 has everything I need on a day to day basis, and I mostly only use ubuntu for manipulating hard drive partitions, rescuing data from other drives that people need when their laptops hit the wall, and stuff like that.

I guess I should learn more bash scripting so when I'm doing longer data migration projects and file-parsing, I can save a lot of time.

Meh, too busy with real life stuff to spend much time caring.

 

[John2k4]

Steam for Linux has been great. I use my Ubuntu 12.04 for pretty much just playing around with that and ROS.

 

[Thino]

I have yet to install Ubuntu 12.10 on this new rig, but it's working great on my laptop but I do admit the only game from my Steam library I tried on Ubuntu was Cave Story+ which worked great.

I have yet to try the other games.