How easy is the change over to -nix

[voodoojai]

Hi guys I have just about had it with windows OS but a bit scared of taking the jump to a nix system. I really depend on what I know about the win OS but are scared to make the change. I use dreamweaver to create and edit my web sites MySQL and PHP as well would I find it strange to jump right in and change or should I do another system to get used to it the make the scarey leap. Are there equivalent pieces of software that I could use like those stated above.

I think I am quite knowledgeable about most things but may be still a noob, so what spec would I be best with. I also use I tunes etc for music and Photoshop and Indesign for my graphic work. Is all this change going to be to much to handle or will my head explode. LOL

All help and links appreciated.

VoodooJai

[thedotmaster]

I couldn't just use Linux. It's my main O/S - I spend about 70-80% of my time on it, but Windows is very important to me as well. There is no equivalent of the Adobe suite for Linux (Gimp is not as good as Photoshop).
Amarok is a brilliant music player, far better than iTunes - but I still use both (because my Linux laptop has limited storage).
It might be best to dual boot. You choose when you start up your computer which O/S you want (by pressing F12 or something) and it is easy to achieve - there is a disk partitioning wizard preinstalled with most linux distros worth their salt.
But yeah, it's not a good idea to go straight in and I wouldn't recommend going full in anyway.
I'm a loyal Linux user but I don't dislike MS for being popular like many do and I appreciate the huge range of software available for Windows.

[voodoojai]

I couldn't just use Linux. It's my main O/S - I spend about 70-80% of my time on it, but Windows is very important to me as well. There is no equivalent of the Adobe suite for Linux (Gimp is not as good as Photoshop).
Amarok is a brilliant music player, far better than iTunes - but I still use both (because my Linux laptop has limited storage).
It might be best to dual boot. You choose when you start up your computer which O/S you want (by pressing F12 or something) and it is easy to achieve - there is a disk partitioning wizard preinstalled with most linux distros worth their salt.
But yeah, it's not a good idea to go straight in and I wouldn't recommend going full in anyway.
I'm a loyal Linux user but I don't dislike MS for being popular like many do and I appreciate the huge range of software available for Windows.

Which version of Linux is a good one I don't mind it being a bit technical as well, I get to grips with most things easily.

VoodooJai

[beagle]

I know that there are those that disagree with me, but I like Fedora Core the most.
I like using linux command-line, too. It runs faster.

[nathandelane]

Thinking about it more there are basically four variants or basic flavors of Linux - Debian-based, Red-Hat-based, Slackware-based, and Gentoo-based. There are also UNIX-like operating systems, such as Free-BSD, Open-BSD, Darwin (Open Source Mac OS core), and Open Solaris (from Sun Microsystems). Anyway, I think that Linux is generally more user-friendly than UNIX, but that's just my opinion. Both are good as far as *nix goes and both are very secure. Debian-based Linux is probably the most common as you can get it as pure Debian, Ubuntu, Simply Mepis, Mandriva, and so on. Red-Hat-based Linux is likely the next most common, and I'd throw Suse Linux in there, because Suse uses RPMs for installation, this also includes Fedora Core and CentOS. Slackware is kind of a conglomeration of both Debian and Red Hat, and it can get messy because of that but it is generally regarded as a very useful and good distribution. I can't think of any Slackware variants but I know they exist. And finally Gentoo, which is very much a Jedi (Hacker) Linux, because you build it "from scratch" - you start out with a kernel and a simple shell with a couple of utilities, then you slowly add on to it by choosing packages (it is comparable to Debian's Net installer). My advice is get either Ubuntu or Fedora Core as they both have easy to use installers. You'll probably find that you like one more than the other, but it really boils down to personal preference. I like Ubuntu the best.

[fly3rbug]

I couldn't just use Linux. It's my main O/S - I spend about 70-80% of my time on it, but Windows is very important to me as well. There is no equivalent of the Adobe suite for Linux (Gimp is not as good as Photoshop).
Amarok is a brilliant music player, far better than iTunes - but I still use both (because my Linux laptop has limited storage).
It might be best to dual boot. You choose when you start up your computer which O/S you want (by pressing F12 or something) and it is easy to achieve - there is a disk partitioning wizard preinstalled with most linux distros worth their salt.
But yeah, it's not a good idea to go straight in and I wouldn't recommend going full in anyway.
I'm a loyal Linux user but I don't dislike MS for being popular like many do and I appreciate the huge range of software available for Windows.

I actually find GIMP to be better but thats just a personal preference. You shoot try linux as dual boot first. Its just the only way to make an easy transition. And ofcource its open source so all software is free and can be easily installed.
As for dreamweaver there are many different programs available. I myself use netbeans for my Java, c/c++ and php programming. I made the switch a year ago and i now got rid of windows completely.

For info on ubuntu try http://www.ubuntustory.com

Bythaway most people do not dislike MS for being popular but they dislike the way that windows works. If they could just make an OS cheap, bugfree and secure than i would never have switched.

[thedotmaster]

I know that there are those that disagree with me, but I like Fedora Core the most.
I like using linux command-line, too. It runs faster.

It's not faster, ugh, command lines are fast by default.
*nix systems are faster however.
And as I may have said I'm on eeeXandros (a version of Xandros developed for the eee PC) and I'm perfectly happy with it. I'm partial towards Ubuntu too.

[voodoojai]

I am looking at the various packages and would like to know what the differences between a desktop and server version are. I have a few web sites that I run and already have MySQL and PHP etc running on my local machine as a server for testing, so would I need the server edition. Or would I have to install the development tools again, Apache, PHP and MySql etc

Manythanks

VoodooJai

[thedotmaster]

Very simply the server edition is for servers
It's probably command line - not sure, but most likely.
Get the desktop version - you can still set up a server on a desktop OS.

[fly3rbug]

Very simply the server edition is for servers
It's probably command line - not sure, but most likely.
Get the desktop version - you can still set up a server on a desktop OS.

Installing PHP and MYSQL on a desktop version isn't that difficalt.

How to on "how to install apache php and mysql":
http://www.strdoc.net/ubuntu-apache-php ... hardyheron