I`m thinking of switching to Linux and I need advice.

Ive been always thinking of switching to LinuxOS these past few months...

Im getting tired of windows security issues..

I can't sleep anymore...



1.Im a gamer..

2.Im using XDA mini.. (which is windows mobile, that's why im planning to replace it with

Motorola E680 that uses linux)

3.Im a newbie.. (in Linux World)



I really need some expert's advice...

Edit: Please use proper thread titles from now on. Thanks.

Ive never used Linux but persoanlly have never had any problems with windows... If you tell us your problem, we may be able to solve it for you.

Regards,

Korrupt

i don't think that linux is quite right for you.
If you are a gamer, then you might want to stay away from linux, cause it doesn't really support games that much, or the other way around, games don't support linux much.
Linux is pretty secure, cause most people use mac or windows, and viruses and other programs target those people more.
Linux is pretty complicated too.

My suggestion, you should get some internet security, antivirus, antispyware, and some sleeping pills.

Like korrupt told you, you should contact us, if you have any problems.

confused that's pretty much bull, i don't mean to get banned on my 1st post but Linux is more secure because it has its code checked by more people it, it has the sort of security measures that are being introduced to vista. the Linux isn't wide spread enough to get attacked isn't correct at all because most web servers run Linux, i mean Microsoft have even conceded this and added Linux support for their virtual machine

i was in a similar situation to you,
if your prepared to mess around with config files and the sort then i recommend you have a look at your games at winehq.com. and choose the distro with the best support, probably gentoo
otherwise Ive found (k)ubuntu doesn't need much messing around and supports a lot of hardware out of the box, but i gather this is the case with almost all modern distros.
for gaming support id keep a dual boot system tho
install windows xp 1st (probably needs 10gig mines at 8 but isn't fully operational)
then install Linux (probably needs another 10gig although mine has three interfaces and is still only at 8)
keeping shared files and on a fat partition

this means u minimise the amount of time your in windows so less chance of catching anything, also re-installs if anything does go wrong reinstalling xp will be less painful (well apart updating to sp2 and activating everytime)

alternatively if your windows is still running fat u may be able to use the ubuntu install disk to resize your existing partition and install ubuntu in some spare space

if you need any more advice try #ubuntu on freenode

1 - Being a gamer doesn't cut you off from Linux, it all depends on what games you play. Since Linux is not monolithic like Windows, it's more difficult for game houses to write for & port to. The user base is also much smaller. I do recommend dual-booting though.

2 - Is this the device you want to install Linux on, or do you just want to be certain your desktop OS supports it?

3 - You can rub the noobness off through research, manuals and practice :haha:

Choice of distribution is pretty close to talking religion. I personally run SuSE. It's less popular here in the states, but (last I looked) is more popular than RedHat/Fedora in Europe. For me the choice is part comfort & part the fact that I like KDE better than GNOME & SuSE is more natural for KDE, while RH is more natural for GNOME. For a Windows-like install & experience, Ubuntu (or even KUbuntu, which is Ubuntu w KDE) is a very good choice. Gentoo, Ubuntu, Mandriva, RH/Fedora & SuSE all practically setup themselves in most situations.

I know SuSE will resize NTFS partitions, having done it. I'm certain most of the distros I've listed above will also. No need to cripple your install with FAT-32 anymore. All of the above distros will also boot from EXT3 partitions now, so I recommend using it for anything that Windows doesn't need access to. EXT3 is a very robust journaling file system - will even recover from minor disk crashes as long as the data can be reconstructed.

The only things that currently keep me in Windows are higer-end games & MS-Money. Evolution is an excellent Outlook replacement. Open-Office can replace the rest of the Office suite unless you commonly run things that have embedded macros. Mozilla Firefox for the browser.

Security is as good as you're willing to put up with, and you can set it to anywhere in between very lax & totally locked down - it all depends on your preference and the effort you're willing to expend.

I would suggest you install your Windows system, leaving a full disk for Linux, plus a 10-20G space on your primary drive. Experiment with some distributions, and find what you like. Here's an excellent starting point:
http://www.linux.org/

Yep, jump in and see how goes it, I use ms os to game but have found Linux perfectly capable to do what I wanted. If I took the time, I could probably get most all my games to run on Linux.

If you want to switch to linux then by all means go ahead.. i myself am starting to poke around with ubuntu (6.0) on my other machine..

If the pc you're installing it to your only pc, like the people before me have said, set up a dual boot system so at least you can have something to fall back on if you've messed up something bad..

Ubuntu is free and probably one of the most easy-to-use/transition into a linux distro coming from a person most accustomed to Windows and a newbie..

As said above, not much games have much support for the linux OSs but not all hope is lost.. There are those that are widely played like WoW and others that have support for the linux, or whome kind people have published the "tweaks" needed to get it to run at least.. and there's also the Wine app that emulates windows (however not perfect) as much as it can, but you'll still need to fine tune it a bit depending on what you try to run on it, if you get past the startup screen that is. But trying to make something work by yourself is a good satisfying challange when you do suceed (another addition to your "wall of acheivements" ). I'm still tweeking one of my games still but when i have free time.

Google is your friend, and will rarely let you down if you know how to use it