What to use Linux for?

[BF04]

Ok, I admit it. I am a MS fanboy

What can I say, they keep me employeed. hehe

I run Vista 64 on my home machine which I do everything on. I do school online/game/web etc.

I would really like to get to know linux. My wife brought home the latest edition of Fedora and a text book.(do not have edition number in front of me)

I have two choices that I can do for loading linux.

1. Duel boot my current pc with linux

2. I have an older pc: AMD Athlon x2 3500, 2gig RAM, 6800GT video card. It is sitting collecting dust so this might be a good option.

Now my real question. What do to in linux? I do all my email/school/gaming on the windows box. I had thought about the possiblity of running a UT server. I now their is alot of UT2 servers running on linux(or that is what I am told), that is option with maybe running a UT3 when it comes out. Other than that, I do not really know what I would once it is built.

If I decide on running a UT server, is their any particular version of Linux that is good for servers?

Thanks


Mod. if this should be under Operating Systems then please move it. My apologies.

 

[Nothinman]

Option #2 would be the simplest, if you go with #1 you'll probably stop rebooting into Linux after a few days since you have no real motivation to use it.

A 3rd option would be to install it in VMWare on your main machine but you still have the problem of figuring out what to do with it.

 

[2canSAM]

I would say use it. Force yourself to boot only into linux for a little bit. I was the same way and have tried the dual boot thing quite a few times, but always ran back to the comfort of windows. I have since moved strictly to linux and actually blew away my XP partition this weekend. Instead of saying man I need (Windows App) to do this I looked at comparable nix apps. I must say I am VERY IMPRESSED with what is out there for free. I can't pinpoint it right now but linux just works for me and works faster than Windows. As a matter of fact whilst typing this I am downloading another disto DVD, copy an DVD Backup ISO to my network share, copy a 20gb music directory to an external drive, and checking email. Not a hiccup one and fast. Windows on this exact same box would choke down when I started the 2nd File copy. Just try it you might like it. If nothing else you will learn something along the way.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Pick up a Hauppauge PVR-150 for $70 and install MythTV + plugins.

 

[doog519]

Option #2
The only thing linux isn't that good for is gaming.
K3B burning software is great.
Open Office get's you by. Price Free.
Multiple desktops
And not having to worry to much about virus.

 

[imported_LoKe]

Originally posted by: Garth
Pick up a Hauppauge PVR-150 for $70 and install MythTV + plugins.

The later revisions of the PVR-150 still don't work under Linux, as far as I know. Unless, of course, there has been a recent driver release.

Might I suggest Debian (Debian/Ubuntu) rather than Fedora?

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Originally posted by: LoKe

Originally posted by: Garth
Pick up a Hauppauge PVR-150 for $70 and install MythTV + plugins.

The later revisions of the PVR-150 still don't work under Linux, as far as I know. Unless, of course, there has been a recent driver release.

Might I suggest Debian (Debian/Ubuntu) rather than Fedora?

I know this much: I purchased a retail PVR-150 about 4 weeks ago and it still works just fine. Since then I bought and returned a PVR-150 MCE, not for lack of compatibility, but rather I decided to take the cash from the 2nd PVR-150 and invest in an HDHomerun.

I followed this how-to here and I did note that one of the steps involved downloading a frimware addition for the PVR-150 and 500.

EDIT: I do recall that there was a period that Hauppauge was shipping their PVR-150 boxes with HVR-1600's inside them. AFAIK, the HVR-1600's do not work in Linux yet. Maybe that's what you're thinking about.

 

[imported_LoKe]

Originally posted by: Garth
EDIT: I do recall that there was a period that Hauppauge was shipping their PVR-150 boxes with HVR-1600's inside them. AFAIK, the HVR-1600's do not work in Linux yet. Maybe that's what you're thinking about.

That's exactly what I'm thinking of. Have they fixed this?

 

[BF04]

Thanks for the responses.

I will look into Ubuntu, seems it is pretty popular and easy for a beginner to use.

Can not use it for watching TV even though Garth that is not a bad idea. My computer is in the family room with my 55in LCD. Wife would kill me if I watch tv on my monitor instead.


I go with option 2 for now and build a box. Im little worried as the only network connection I have in the house is wireless and from my reading linux is having a problem with wireless. Ill keep researching.



thx

 

[skyking]

Originally posted by: BF04
Thanks for the responses.

I will look into Ubuntu, seems it is pretty popular and easy for a beginner to use.

Can not use it for watching TV even though Garth that is not a bad idea. My computer is in the family room with my 55in LCD. Wife would kill me if I watch tv on my monitor instead.


I go with option 2 for now and build a box. Im little worried as the only network connection I have in the house is wireless and from my reading linux is having a problem with wireless. Ill keep researching.



thx

That setup is perfect!
You don't watch TV on your monitor. MythTV is an open source PVR setup. You get an output to that "55 monster and you can pause live TV, record shows by a schedule, and also use it to display your photos, play your audio media, etc. it is like a Tivo, only better.
http://www.mythtv.org/

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Originally posted by: LoKe

Originally posted by: Garth
EDIT: I do recall that there was a period that Hauppauge was shipping their PVR-150 boxes with HVR-1600's inside them. AFAIK, the HVR-1600's do not work in Linux yet. Maybe that's what you're thinking about.

That's exactly what I'm thinking of. Have they fixed this?

Yeah, I think so. There may be a few HVR-1600's in PVR-150 wrappers floating around out there, but I'd feel pretty safe buying one. Maybe limit your purchase to a brick & mortar store so you can easily return it if you get the wrong card.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Originally posted by: skyking

Originally posted by: BF04
Thanks for the responses.

I will look into Ubuntu, seems it is pretty popular and easy for a beginner to use.

Can not use it for watching TV even though Garth that is not a bad idea. My computer is in the family room with my 55in LCD. Wife would kill me if I watch tv on my monitor instead.


I go with option 2 for now and build a box. Im little worried as the only network connection I have in the house is wireless and from my reading linux is having a problem with wireless. Ill keep researching.



thx

That setup is perfect!
You don't watch TV on your monitor. MythTV is an open source PVR setup. You get an output to that "55 monster and you can pause live TV, record shows by a schedule, and also use it to display your photos, play your audio media, etc. it is like a Tivo, only better.
http://www.mythtv.org/

Yeah if youu have a 55in LCD with an extra DVI or HDMI input youu should strongly consider integrating Option 2 with that display and MythTV. You could even look into "Mythbuntu,"' "Knopmyth," or "Mythdora"... al of them distributions somewhat "preconfigured" for MythTV.

Kinda like you, I had a system (A643500, 1GB DDR, 6800GT) that was going unused. So, I picked up a 24" LCD from OfficeMax on the cheap, two 500GB HDDs (for $90 a piece ) and a PVR-150. Now I have a sweet TiVo-like system for my bedroom. You can bet your ass if I had a 55" LCD in my living room I'd have put it out there.

I'd do yourself a favor and pick up one of these keyboards. I just got mine last week and I'm loving it. In fact, if you notice near the bottom of the listt of features for that keyboard, it lists native functionality for the keyboard's media keys in Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. That line was added this week because of my own feedback to the guy at Vidabox.

 

[silverpig]

The 6800 GT has dual outputs right?

Then definitely get a PVR-150, or if you have over the air HD there, get a tuner card from pchdtv.

Install ubuntu, set up the computer on your monitor and have the LCD tv as your secondary display.

Install mythtv and set it to display to your tv.

Use the computer on the monitor as per usual

 

[cker]

If you care about gaming, or have any Windows-only apps that you really care about, don't do dual-boot. The process of rebooting to get back into your other OS is a drag. VMWare or some other virtualization software, or installing Linux on the other machine, is a great way to get your feet wet.

As for what to do... The TV capture stuff is nice. If you have any interest in programming at all then it's a dream environment - lots of libraries, free compilers, programming environments, et c. You could play with web services - especially LAMP (Linux + Apache + MySQL + Perl/PHP) which is one of the sexy application spaces lately. Google around for Ruby on Rails to see another compelling web development environment.

Even if you want to keep on doing most of your stuff in Windows, you could look into Samba for setting up Windows file shares on Linux (or mounting Windows file shares FROM Linux). Or set up Postgres or MySQL and use that for a database backend for Windows stuff.

Wireless access will depend heavily on your wireless access. I normally just run a wire to Linux boxes since it's less hassle.

You could use the opportunity to play with some nice embedded applications, like the above-mentioned wonderful MythTV, or the FreeNAS network-attached-storage system, or one of the firewall-router-gateway software bundles.

 

[BF04]

Lots of good stuff, thanks all

Ill look more into MythTV. We do have a DVR however it is limited in capacity. Maybe I can add some HD space to the linux box and get alot more out of it, besides the fact I am paying for the DVR monthly.

Samba sounds interesting as this might give me a place to backup too.

thanks for the help.

 

[imported_pak9rabid]

I'd recommend using Linux to build a router/firewall/gateway. All you need is any PC with 2 or more NICs. Any popular disto will have all of the necessary software included to do this. There are countless howto's on the web that you can reference. It's a fun project and you'll find that there are endless advantages to having a Linux-based router vs the consumer-level crap currently on the market.