[dooms982]

ok i wanna switch from vista to gnu/linux the thing is when i ever i try looking around for it or read about it i hear a little about it here and there, so what i wanna know is: what would i need to do to switch to this OS, with version should i used, is it easy to use, what would be the importing things i should learn before switching, how do i get it, one of the reason i want to switch is because im using the maya software and it requires a lot of power, and over the summer im planing to start learning to use 3ds Max.

[Advertisements]

I actually recommend a dual boot, as simple as the program listed below: Wubi.

http://wubi-installer.org/ -- Ubuntu Linux installer for Windows.

[DragonMaster Jay]

I actually recommend a dual boot, as simple as the program listed below: Wubi.

http://wubi-installer.org/ -- Ubuntu Linux installer for Windows.

[hawklord]

there are a few ways to try various linux distro's, quite a few have live cd's which run from your memory,

http://www.livecdlist.com/

all you need is the time to download, a burning program and a few empty cd's (i use re-writable)

another way is a virtual machine

http://www.virtualbox.org/

very easy to set up and use (the microsoft virtual pc does not support linux),

another way is installing linux on a spare hdd and dual booting, a little fiddly but in my opinion, safer (no need for the recovery console commands when removing grub from the mbr of windows),


you may want to look here

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

its a sort of test to see which distro may suit you

and finally this is distrowatch, it probably lists all flavours of linux

http://distrowatch.com/

i myself use mandriva linux and pclinuxos, ubuntu would not run on my machine, i have mint, zenwalk, suse, fedora, mepis and solaris (unix)
as most linux are free, there is no limit on how many you can have or try, or how many times you can install,

as for power (cpu + ram ?) i have 2gb ddr400 which is transfered to 6gb because of the swap space that is allocated, 3.4ghz cpu which is never stressed under linux,

maya (or any .exe's) will not run in the linux filesystem so you would need to keep windows for that program, but i read somewhere that it will run a version in redhat linux

[thenotch]

I agree with hawklord, using Sun Virtualbox is the best way to test drive Linux OS's.

You can boot/install straight from the ISO with VBOX. The kicker is enuring your system has enough RAM and hard drive space (for the virtual hard drive that it creates). If you only have 512 you will run into some slowness issues. 1GB is enough for basic testing.

[DragonMaster Jay]

I know about VirtualBox. I test Windows 7 on it currently!

[dooms982]

ok so MAYA would possibly only run for Red Hat thanks ill probably go for that one then and before that look it up. what if maya already installed be linux is could it still read it?

[dooms982]

yeah so far im hearing about that also. it would seem Red Hat was made to run Maya.

[dooms982]

yeah so far im hearing about that also. it would seem Red Hat was made to run Maya. i wounder can adobe run on any version of linux, but hearing gimp is better for Digital imaging for its smaller file size.

[DragonMaster Jay]

What Adobe product are you speaking of? There is a lot of Adobe products.

No, Adobe products are not made to work on Linux. Since Linux is a small/secure OS, it is simply not possible.

Gimp is the best alternative, being able to use 65-70% of the same abilities Photoshop can.

[hawklord]

what if maya already installed be linux is could it still read it?

linux can read and write to ntfs partitions, if ntfs-3g is enabled, so you can view anything you create in linux,

maybe another option here is blender (its the opensource competitor to maya), but i guess it depends on your level of usage,

blender

maya and blender comparison chart

[dooms982]

what if maya already installed be linux is could it still read it?

linux can read and write to ntfs partitions, if ntfs-3g is enabled, so you can view anything you create in linux,

maya and blender comparison chart

What is ntfs and ntfs-3g partition??

maybe another option here is blender (its the opensource competitor to maya), but i guess it depends on your level of usage,

maya and blender comparison chart

i was think of that cuz i have some files made in maya that are not done, and theirs a learning curve lol, i was just hoping i could used both programs

[hawklord]

ntfs is the file system for windows nt systems, first released in 1993 on nt3.1 and following nt systems up to windows 7, its the New Technology File System, it took over from the fat (File Allocation Table) format,

ntfs-3g is the linux file system driver which allows linux full read and write access to ntfs partitions,

linux cannot read and write to windows without it

[Titan8990]

linux cannot read and write to windows without it

It can read without ntfs-3g using the ntfs module: http://cateee.net/lk...db/NTFS_FS.html. Most users want the write support of ntfs-3g though.

Edited by Titan8990, 31 May 2009 - 08:16 PM.

[thenotch]

What Adobe product are you speaking of? There is a lot of Adobe products.

No, Adobe products are not made to work on Linux. Since Linux is a small/secure OS, it is simply not possible.

Gimp is the best alternative, being able to use 65-70% of the same abilities Photoshop can.

Actually, this isn't true... You can run Windows apps on Linux using the Wine utility. Adobe Photoshop is one that works quite well with Wine.

Gimp is a great product however.

[DragonMaster Jay]

No, Adobe products are not made to work on Linux. Since Linux is a small/secure OS, it is simply not possible.

I do not mean to seem rash in any way, but I said they were not made to work on them. Yes, Wine will run them, but Adobe apps are not made to run on Linux builds.