What's new
By:
Filters
Christian Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Windows 7 or Linux?

T

tiberiu

Member
I have two choices, not sure which one to choose.

First is to leave my laptop the way it is, with windows 7 installed. The problem is I have font trouble (IE: fonts appear italic, in Firefox... bold), and I had several crashes.

Second is to put linux (probably Ubuntu), but this will require a lot of work to set up my environment for software developing, and so on...

I also do video editing, so I use Adobe software that isn't available on linux. But I also do OS developing which is not very efficient on windows. I don't want to dual boot, it's really annoying, waste of disk space, and don't like it.

And another problem I need to take into account is the software I use. 99% of windows programs are commercial, and I don't buy software, I use torrents. This is kind of worrying for me... is this a right thing to do? Isn't this stealing, and wrong, and against the Bible? I'm downloading so many programs, movies, music from torrents that is has become like eating breakfast.

Linux however is 99% free & open source. But another worry about linux is... will I have internet filters for this OS?

And I also like to play games, racing and FPS are my favorites, but I think they are waste of time and I shouldn't play them any more.

These are just some of my concerns about which OS to choose. What is your suggestion?
 
There is no absolute best OS. There is only what is best for you and your needs. If you use a lot of Adobe products and games, then I would suggest staying with Windows. If you feel a little more brave and want a more open and development envrionment then go Linxu, if you feel compatibilty shouldn't be an issue.

From what you've said it's a hard choice. Luckily if you choose Linux it's free, so no loss really. I suggest a dual boot - there are many advantages, the main one being that you don't have to pay for another computer as you have to OS's on one computer. Obviously disk space can be an issue if you have less than 500GB, depending on what you use it for.

I have a 500GB HDD and dual boot Vista and openSUSE. It works pretty well, but I stuffed up the initial partitioning a bit and gave openSUSE more disk space than I need, so that's annoying and openSUSE won't change the partition size, but that's ok I guess. It's my only gripe with my dual boot. I say go for it!
 
Even though you say you don't like it, dual-booting is a good way to try out a new OS without throwing your old one away when you're not sure which one you want. If you have enough memory, you can also try using a virtual machine for Linux. I haven't tried it myself, but I'm told that VirtualBox is a good program for that and it's free. Try one of those methods and see which OS you spend more time using.
 
I faced this choice last year and decided to go Mac. So glad i did. Last week my daughter wanted me to fix her pc problems and I had to remember how to use a virus scanner and malware remover. I wish i ditched windows years ago. using something that requires much less maintainance wil make you happier. i would pick linux of the 2 of them. If you use linux you wil be less likely to be sharing your personal details off your computer with the whole of the internet. In noticing your coments about video editing Mac osx is great for that and comes with inbuilt programs for doing that included in snow leopard. lots of people that do that sort of thing use macs for some reason.

Il bet you dont need to download a Linux update every time you turn your pc on like you do with windows.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for your suggestions.

I think I'm going to try a dual boot, and set windows to boot by default, but I want to try the distros before choosing one, see if I'm more comfortable with something other than Ubuntu.

I have 300GB hard disk space, and on D: I have 160GB out of 182 free, so I have plenty of space.
I use virtualisation software a lot, and even found dozens of bugs in Microsoft Virtual PC. But I won't bother calling them, there are alternatives. It is not the same as trying it for real, with live CDs... so I'm going to use a rewritable CD to find the right one.
 
Hey,

Ubuntu has an option to install it within Windows! Yup...it will install itself inside of a directory it creates. You can "boot" it from within Windows and when you exit it, you're back in Windows again.

How's THAT for an open source solution? :D

Drive space isn't much of an issue these days. At work I run a dual boot XP/Ubuntu on a 160 GB drive and have plenty of spare room. Linux apps aren't resource hogs like the Windows bloatware and it handles memory more efficiently.

I wouldn't worry about filters anyway, but there are a few good anti virus and firewalls available for free. Actually, viruses and spy-ware aren't much of an issue with Linux. You still might want to opt for a firewall though.
 
Vic C. said:
Hey,

Ubuntu has an option to install it within Windows! Yup...it will install itself inside of a directory it creates. You can "boot" it from within Windows and when you exit it, you're back in Windows again.

How's THAT for an open source solution? :D
Click to expand...
Since when? I never knew about this and thought I"d researched it pretty well.
 
Well not really that awesome. It "installs" itself in a Ubuntu folder on the drive of your choice and creates a virtual partition and environment for itself. But it doesn't run within Windows. Only Portable Ubuntu and VirtualBox will do that for you.

It sets up a boot manager for you so you can boot to whatever OSs you have installed. It does make the installation a breeze. You don't have to fool with partitioning and such.
 
Vic C. said:
Well not really that awesome. It "installs" itself in a Ubuntu folder on the drive of your choice and creates a virtual partition and environment for itself. But it doesn't run within Windows. Only Portable Ubuntu and VirtualBox will do that for you.

It sets up a boot manager for you so you can boot to whatever OSs you have installed. It does make the installation a breeze. You don't have to fool with partitioning and such.
Click to expand...
Ahhh, I see. I would prefer the partition then.
 
tiberiu said:
I have two choices, not sure which one to choose.

First is to leave my laptop the way it is, with windows 7 installed. The problem is I have font trouble (IE: fonts appear italic, in Firefox... bold), and I had several crashes.

Second is to put linux (probably Ubuntu), but this will require a lot of work to set up my environment for software developing, and so on...

I also do video editing, so I use Adobe software that isn't available on linux. But I also do OS developing which is not very efficient on windows. I don't want to dual boot, it's really annoying, waste of disk space, and don't like it.

And another problem I need to take into account is the software I use. 99% of windows programs are commercial, and I don't buy software, I use torrents. This is kind of worrying for me... is this a right thing to do? Isn't this stealing, and wrong, and against the Bible? I'm downloading so many programs, movies, music from torrents that is has become like eating breakfast.

Linux however is 99% free & open source. But another worry about linux is... will I have internet filters for this OS?

And I also like to play games, racing and FPS are my favorites, but I think they are waste of time and I shouldn't play them any more.

These are just some of my concerns about which OS to choose. What is your suggestion?
Click to expand...
I have Windows 7 on my Dell 220 desktop ,and on my hp G61 laptop. If you are having trouble like you are, why don't you do a factory restore on it. I have did it once on my desktop and once on my laptop, I am not talking about a system restore, I am talking about a factory restore, which you can do with ease in Windows 7 and on the norm it will clear up all problems except sometimes you will have to update drivers. And if you are not having a hardware problem you will be good to go.
 
Lewis W said:
I have Windows 7 on my Dell 220 desktop ,and on my hp G61 laptop. If you are having trouble like you are, why don't you do a factory restore on it. I have did it once on my desktop and once on my laptop, I am not talking about a system restore, I am talking about a factory restore, which you can do with ease in Windows 7 and on the norm it will clear up all problems except sometimes you will have to update drivers. And if you are not having a hardware problem you will be good to go.
Click to expand...

If you do that, make sure that you back everything up first, as that will clear everything off your hard drive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top