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Want to set up Linux on my new computer. Any suggestions?
Posted: 2012-05-23 02:10pm
by WesFox13
Hey everyone, I've been thinking about trying out Linux on my computer. I've already ordered a 500 GB Hard Drive to set it up on my computer. Do you have any suggestions as to which kind of Linux I should use? I've been leaning towards Ubuntu or Mint Linux.
The way it will work is that I have one Hard Drive for windows and a separate hard drive for Linux so I can dual-boot them both on my computer.
Re: Want to set up Linux on my new computer. Any suggestions
Posted: 2012-05-23 04:41pm
by Alferd Packer
Don't bother with that. Get VMware Player (it's free) and create all the Linux VM's you want. There's absolutely no reason to dual-boot anymore. As a plus, you never have to fuck with your boot sector.
Re: Want to set up Linux on my new computer. Any suggestions
Posted: 2012-05-23 05:33pm
by Sarevok
On topic of VMware do you need a reasonably powerful computer to use it smoothly ?
Re: Want to set up Linux on my new computer. Any suggestions
Posted: 2012-05-23 08:26pm
by atg
I run VMWare workstation on a 4-yr old laptop and with a single VM its OK. The biggest killer is the amount of RAM you have. i.e. Running the host machine and a pile of VMs in 4GB of RAM is going to get tight rather quick, unless you only allocate 512MB per VM...
Re: Want to set up Linux on my new computer. Any suggestions
Posted: 2012-05-24 06:51am
by evilsoup
Why would you run more than one VM?
As for what distro, as you seem to be trying it out to play around I'd definitely recommend giving Ubuntu 12.04 a try, since they're doing some interesting stuff with the UI.
Re: Want to set up Linux on my new computer. Any suggestions
Posted: 2012-05-24 08:24am
by atg
I admit that I'd be a non-standard case 'cause I work in IT so I'm regularly playing with multiple VM's. But if you're going to be trying various OS's why not run them simultaneously?
Re: Want to set up Linux on my new computer. Any suggestions
Posted: 2012-05-24 09:24am
by Alferd Packer
Sarevok wrote:On topic of VMware do you need a reasonably powerful computer to use it smoothly ?
A dual-core CPU is the bare minimum, as you might suspect. RAM is the other large bottleneck. You should ideally have a 64-bit system with at least 4 GB of RAM. On the other hand, I've run VMs on Windows XP machines with 2 gigs of RAM and had no difficulties, as along as I kept the RAM allocated to the VM reasonable.