Windows to Linux Transition

Classic

So I've been considering moving to a Linux distribution, most likely Ubuntu. I got a Live CD for the Gutsy Gibbons and it crashed beautifully on my laptop. Still, it hasn't discouraged me about using Linux. However, if I'm going to put Ubuntu on my desktop box, I need to know that i wont have to go back and forth, to and from Linux and Windows. I need a competent music player on par with Winamp, a torrent download application and a video player that simply works.I tried the google gods but since I don't really know what I'm looking for/want opinions on what actually works, asking here makes the most sense. Also . . . does iTunes simply not work on Linux at all?

Omnutia

Install a program called Amarok. You will forget iTunes ever existed. Use Deluge for a bittorent client. SMplayer is the power of Mplayer with the interface of VLC for your video.

Neito

with the interface of VLC for your video.

There are few insults so damning.

...

Mplayer with the interface of VLC

MURDER! Poor MPlayer. What's so hard about GMplayer is you so badly want a gui?

I need a competent music player on par with Winamp, a torrent download application and a video player that simply works.

XMMS = Linux winamp. Wine + µTorrent for your torrents. Best torrent client out there that I know off. Very, very small memory and CPU footprint. Makes Azureus (the other good bittorrent client out there) look pathetic. Poor Azureus, build upon java hogging your resources all day long. And Mplayer for your vids. And Amarok is ugly imho, very much so. Just use GTKPod or throw Rockbox on your iPod. Once you get used to Rockbox it's hot and blows iPod firmware out of sight. And if you want a fast Amarok you have to set up a MySQL database, which I am not yet able to do.

Apreche

XMMS = Linux winamp. Wine + µTorrent for your torrents. Best torrent client out there that I know off. Very, very small memory and CPU footprint. Makes Azureus (the other good bittorrent client out there) look pathetic. Poor Azureus, build upon java hogging your resources all day long. And Mplayer for your vids. And Amarok is ugly imho, very much so. Just use GTKPod or throw Rockbox on your iPod. Once you get used to Rockbox it's hot and blows iPod firmware out of sight. And if you want a fast Amarok you have to set up a MySQL database, which I am not yet able to do.

Wow, so wrong. First off, XMMS is obsolete. It has been largely replaced by audacious, which is a fork of the old beep-media-player. The original beep-media-player developers are now working on BMPx. I recommend a combination of audacious and Amarok usage.

Secondly, I still recommend using the default bittorrent client. In Linux I actually use a command-line bittorrent client that works very well called btdownloadmanycurses. It's easy to get in Ubuntu if you just apt-get install bittorrent. Here is how you use it. First make a directory where you want your torrents to go. Now open a terminal and go to that directory. Type this command. btdownloadmanycurses .Leave that terminal open, always. Now, if you want to download a torrent, just put the .torrent file in that directory. When you don't want to seed the torrent anymore, just remove the .torrent file from that directory. If the torrent program messes up, which can happen after lots of heavy use, just close the terminal, open it again, and start the program again.

mplayer without GUI is the way to go. I know it can be hard, but it really is worth it to learn the keyboard shortcuts and command line arguments. You can do so much stuff, like fixing subtitles or audio tracks that are delayed. It's totally worth it.

Also, for Amarok, you do not need a MySQL database. You can use a MySQL database if you want, which I do, but you can also use sqlite. If you choose to use sqlite, there is basically no additional setup on the part of the user as there is with MySQL. You can use sqlite and not even realize you are using it.

...

Hmmm, never heard about audacious, but he asked for a Winamp replacement, which is XMMS. As for Amarok, I said if you want a fast Amarok you need a MySQL database, or a small music library. Also, it loads very slow, too slow for my tastes. Though Wine + µTorrent is also slow, I love it. Just like Bash, Oh bash, how I love thee, let me count the ways. No wait, let me ls the ways. (poem still being made)

As for MPlayer, I still can't get styled subtitles in my fansubs to work. *pokes Mplayer* Why be it so hard for me to harness your power?

Apreche

Hmmm, never heard about audacious, but he asked for a Winamp replacement, which is XMMS.

Use audacious, and you will see it is pretty much the same as XMMS only better in every way.

As for Amarok, I said if you want a fast Amarok you need a MySQL database, or a small music library. Also, it loads very slow, too slow for my tastes.

Every single media library application I have ever used is slow if you have a lot of music. iTunes is slow, banshee is slow, Amarok is slow. They are all slow. Amarok is the least slow. the difference between sqlite and MySQL with Amarok is not much.

Though Wine + µTorrent is also slow, I love it. Just like Bash, Oh bash, how I love thee, let me count the ways. No wait, let me ls the ways. (poem still being made)

As for MPlayer, I still can't get styled subtitles in my fansubs to work. *pokes Mplayer* Why be it so hard for me to harness your power?

man mplayer

Omnutia

Above is one of the biggest problems with the linux community.
Can we just pick a set of programs based on ease of use and overall goodness (no command line!).

xenomouse

Does anyone have any input on what the best cross-platform CD ripping software is?

Apreche

Above is one of the biggest problems with the linux community.
Can we just pick a set of programs based on ease of use and overall goodness (no command line!).

This is not the problem with the Linux community, it is what makes Linux an amazing platform. It's not like Apple where your choices are iTunes, iTunes, or iTunes. On Linux there are many different applications that are all very different from each other. Each person can choose for themselves which one is best for their purposes. Since they are all free, you can try each and every one of them at no cost. If one is close to what you want, you can modify it to make it exactly what you want. The system adapts to you instead of you adapting to the system.

Does anyone have any input on what the best cross-platform CD ripping software is?

I've always used CDex and/or grip.

Jain7th

This is not the problem with the Linux community, it is what makes Linux an amazing platform. It's not like Apple where your choices are iTunes, iTunes, or iTunes. On Linux there are many different applications that are all very different from each other. Each person can choose for themselves which one is best for their purposes. Since they are all free, you can try each and every one of them at no cost. If one is close to what you want, you can modify it to make it exactly what you want. The system adapts to you instead of you adapting to the system.

That's really good for experienced users but when a beginner switches to a new OS he/she wants everything running as good or better than before as quick as possible. Otherwise the reboots are just going to be a huge pain. Package managers make it really easy to find and install software, trying it all out can be fun but for me it has proven to be mostly annoying when you just can't get one thing to work properly.

...

mplayer -ass -embeddedfonts /file/location/somewhere/on/hard/drive/file.mkvHow come I didn't see that the first time. Stupid noobie me, but yes, I agree with Scott, Linux's choice is great. And audacious... looks like XMMS... but, has a way nicer right-click menu, andandand, icons O.O *glares at XMMS and kicks it away* Why didn't you tell me you had a better looking twin-brother!?

Otherwise the reboots are just going to be a huge pain.

Which reboots?

Jain7th

Otherwise the reboots are just going to be a huge pain.

Which reboots?
When you need something to work and you can't manage to do so in your new OS, you reboot and go back to your old one.

But then again, as Rym and Scott stated, when you want to switch to Linux force yourself to use it for a week/month.

Classic

Just use GTKPod or throw Rockbox on your iPod. Once you get used to Rockbox it's hot and blows iPod firmware out of sight.

Rockbox is a completely different firmware thrown onto the iPod? Which iPods does it work with?

Omnutia

Says which ones it works with on the front page

Apreche

That's really good for experienced users but when a beginner switches to a new OS he/she wants everything running as good or better than before as quick as possible. Otherwise the reboots are just going to be a huge pain. Package managers make it really easy to find and install software, trying it all out can be fun but for me it has proven to be mostly annoying when you just can't get one thing to work properly.

For those people who are not power uses, they will use the default applications that come with their distribution. For example Ubuntu comes with Rhythmbox already installed. Most people who don't know better will use that.

...

Rockbox is a completely different firmware thrown onto the iPod? Which iPods does it work with?

It's even dual boot. The original firmware will still be on the iPod. The bootloader (the apple logo on the black background) is just slightly modified, same bootloader, though it loads into the .rockbox folder you put in the root of your iPod. Works only with Windows formatted iPods though. Also, even if you're a mac user, there's no sense in formatting your iPod to that other filesystem for that'll only limit you in where and when you can use your iPod and modify files on it.

Oooh, and don't forget to put an awesome skin on your rockbox. That turned me away from rockbox when I was still using Windows 100% of the time. I use this on my nano:

When you need something to work and you can't manage to do so in your new OS, you reboot and go back to your old one.

Ah true, but then you have not tried hard enough. I am 99% sure you can do everything with Linux as you can with Windows, if not better, easier and faster. (the 1% = gaming). Linux = Everything - Gaming. Windows = Gaming. At least, that's my usage nowadays.

EDIT: @Mr Period: see? *blinks* What was it saying before needed edits?

Andrew

EDIT: @Mr Period: see? *blinks* What was it saying before needed edits?

You said "How come I didn't saw that the first time".

Omnutia

So what's the battery life like with the current version? I'm thinking of getting a 60gb 5th gen and rockboxing it but I have heard bad things about usage times.

am_dragon

My post from last night didn't show up.. wierd, I'll blame it on the Vista machine I was using... I agree 100% about Mplayer. In the post last night I said man mplayer. How many applications do you use on Windows that you don't fully understand? Here is an application that works well and has full documentation to set it up exactly how you want. Plus you may find a few things you want that you didn't know you could do.

I don't listen to much music on my PC so I just use Rhythmbox it let's me add music to my MP3 player and downloads podcasts. It's not very shiny but that wasn't something I needed. Ubuntu is Gnome based, unless you install Kbuntu. I don't like installing a bunch of KDE stuff just to get Amarok working. I have used Amarok and it is nice, it just depends on what you need.

That's really good for experienced users but when a beginner switches to a new OS he/she wants everything running as good or better than before as quick as possible.

I think this is an unreasonable expectation. If you never used a product before there will always be a learning curve. If you are willing to invest the time to learn how something works it will work just as good if not better than what you had before. Depending on the level of user that may be a short time "Where's the Firefox icon" or a bit longer "How do I install a Kernel module for my wiimote".

Classicdms: if you are serious about staying with Linux I would highly recommend two books - Linux Phrasebook and Teach Yourself Regular Expressions it's a very powerful combination.

Jain7th

@Apreche: Well I fell in between those types, the onboard Applications felt strange and I just wanted t get rid of them but then again I was overthrown by the sheer amount of available software (at least for the media you can't go too wrong with VLC until you figured out where to get the codecs and which player to use).

But that was one year ago, by the time Gutsy Gibbon got released I already was using my Mac, so I'm not sure how the default Applications are like now.

@Nineless: Well I was totally new to Linux and just wanted to give it a try (really the next day a friend explained the package management to me). It kinda worked for me until I would have had to reinstall Grub (damn you Windows boot loader *waves hand in the air* ) but I was busy at that time and already planned on getting a new Laptop.


On another note (or the lesson I learned) always get basic information on a new OS, which you want to switch to. That gets one over the first days of solely googling and makes you feel more comfortable when you start. That way, after some reading, I already knew more about OS X when I started, than my father, who had had his Mac for more than year by that time.

...

Hrm... I made a 'mplayerhelp' file before. *hits forehead* Oh yes, that was the man page which output I dumped in there. I run around between things to do too much. e.g. fully moving all my files from Windows to Linux... and then nuking the Windows partitions to make place for more Linux awesome. I need a fifth star name... *grumble*

@ Classicdms: Listen to the Geeknights episodes about Linux. Or grab a seat and start listening to Linux Reality. Best to start at the beginning.

And why did I type saw... hmmmm... I seem to be a mystery, even to myself.

EDIT: @ Omnutia: My nano with the fancy skin lasts for 8 hours something. It has a build in battery benchmarking tool, which basically means, put all your music in a playlist and let that repeat continuously till the battery runs out of juice.

Classic

Ok, I'm prepping everything I need to make the transition to Linux and I'm going to do it all in the next 3 days. I have a laptop so I will most likely be referring back here to ask questions when they pop up.

Also, I have a question. Since I probably won't be able to load my iPod through Linux easily, I'm thinking I'll make a separate partition for my music so it can be accessible by both Linux and a Windows partition. Is this possible?

I need the Windows partition for my Steam games. I see there's no Ventrilo for Linux . . . kind of annoying when I use it like most people use Skype. Meh.

@ Nineless: I did the iTunes thing and subscribed to Linux Reality. I'll start listening sometime tonight.

Ilmarinen

Also, I have a question. Since I probably won't be able to load my iPod through Linux easily, I'm thinking I'll make a separate partition for my music so it can be accessible by both Linux and a Windows partition. Is this possible?

Yes, as long as the partition has a file system that is readable by both OSes. FAT32 is probably the best choice for this, as NTFS is not yet fully implemented on linux, and may be unstable.

...

Also, I have a question. Since I probably won't be able to load my iPod through Linux easily, I'm thinking I'll make a separate partition for my music so it can be accessible by both Linux and a Windows partition. Is this possible?

Yes, as long as the partition has a file system that is readable by both OSes. FAT32 is probably the best choice for this, as NTFS is not yet fully implemented on linux, and may be unstable.

You will be able to load your iPod on Linux easily. Just search for 'iPod' in the Synaptic package manager. GtkPod is a nice start for the Linux starter. And NTFS is supported. I run utorrent on a NTFS partition through wine, and then seed numerous things on NTFS partitions. Read and Write works perfectly and without flaws in Ubuntu. Though keep in mind, ymmv

Apreche

In the newest Ubuntu NTFS read/write works out of the box. At least it does with my Windows XP NTFS partition. I don't know if I can say the same thing for a Vista NTFS partition, they might do something differently in the Vista. Also, if your NTFS is encrypted, you won't be able to read/write it from Linux.

Omnutia

Amarok has iPod compatibility out of the box. Exaile should too.
On the partition thing: are there any good drivers for reiserfs in windows? I would not recommend FAT32 for large file systems. Windows and Linux don't like how the other handles FAT32.

am_dragon

Vista NTFS works out of the box with Ubuntu 7.10 as well. I've not had a problem, however I am a bit cautious and most of the time I just read from the NTFS partition under Linux. I've got a 4GB SD card in my laptop, I use that for transferring files between OS's most of the time.

AbZ

I recently moved to Ubuntu as well and I was just wondering what messenger client you guys preferred.

Omnutia

I use Kopete. Some people use Pidgin which is ok but I just like Kopete.
Good resource for this kind of thing here.
After though: I had a look at Adium and Kopete is pretty much the same. Lacks some of the polish all OSX apps get but I could get Kopete looking pretty similar if I tried.

Apreche

I use Kopete.