You can actually down load Ubuntu and put it on a disc - and reboot your computer with that disc in the drive. From there Ubuntu will load up as your operating system without writing any files to your hard disc - that way you can try it and see if you like it before you decide to wipe out Shitsta (or create a partition for it.)

I having been using Vista for 6 months, I know that Internet Explorer *can* in some configs have major problems and crash...lots

Vistas not s bad, I like it but I use Firefox (www.firefox.com) or go to www.apple.com and try safari

try a different browser and see if that fixes the crashes

Otherwise ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) is a good linux, although I have little linux experience, but that might be one to try

either that, if Vista in general is doing your head in, then shuffle back to XP

Mullet... goatee... anime... Ubuntu user... overdue on laundry... good god, man. I'm pretty sure I'd never want to be standing downwind from you.

Here are snipes's responses to the survey:

1. What do you do when you are not at the computer?
I'm a hockey ref so I'm basically at the rink or running on call for the Red Cross. Last week was 16 games so I haven't had much online time.
2. What is your favorite of your posted videos?
It has to be The Myth of the Liberal Media since I have a republican family or The Award Winning Boondocks Gas Station Robbery for it's reference to Iraq.
3. How many avatars have you had since being a member? What were (are) they?
Just the one of Inuyasha, I love anime.
4. What non-self-involved site do you visit most often?
Most likely CNN or Flickr.
5. If you had a time machine would you keep it clean?
What the hell? No I'd just let it sit and collect dust like most of my electronics.
6. What is your ratio of pairs of shoes to underwear?
1:20
7. Is that underwear boxer, brief, or birthday?
Only really boxers, but since I'm overdue on laundry I went commando today.
8. Do you run a Mac OS, Windows, or Linux?
All 3, an OSX emulator, XP and Ubuntu
9. Would you most prefer to be involved in a monumental one-of-a-kind hiking expedition, working on a breakthrough cure for a debilitating illness , or presenting the discovery of a revolutionary new way to parse data?
Hiking, I love the outdoors and camping, I'm a survivalist buff.
10. What is your favorite ice cream topping? Favorite (non-ice-cream-related) spice?
Whipped cream for various purposes.
11. Are you a tits, ass, or legs man?
Face really, if you haven't noticed I'm obsessed with Scottish girls like KT Tunstall.
12. What kind of pet(s) do you have? Include name(s).
Goldie, my pooch from '99 who's a mix of husky, lab and chow.
13. What kind of pelt(s) do you have? Include name(s).
Rabbit, from some weird Indian chick.
14. What is your favorite kind of soup?
None
15. What is your most frequented source of news?
Usually CNN or <a rel="nofollow" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.app.com> my local news paper
16. What is your beverage (poison) of choice?
Rootbeer schnapps, cream and vanilla vodka, yeah yeah it's a chick drink.
17. Have you ever been arrested?
Detained, yes, for street racing.
18. What’s your go-to move for making a good first impression?
I skip movies, I'd rather have a dinner to talk about, however horror movies score some close intimate time.
19. How would you describe your coif: bangs, balding or rug?
Bangs with long ass hair, you've probably seen it.
20. Is your face clean-shaven or do you have a beard, a goatee or a mustache?
goatee, although most people hate it.
21. List your five most cherished possessions.
Friends, Computers, my Tiburon, cell phone and does videosift count?
22. What religion, if any, did you practice as a child?
As a kid I was grown up Catholic, I've developed my own sense or religion though, no churches and that crap.
23. What about now?
I'm a mix of Christian and Buddhist if you had to pin it down.
24. What is your favorite memory?
Let's call it college experimentation.
25. What was your favorite childhood television show?
Fraggle Rock!!!!!!!!!!
26. How would you describe your personal style/sense of fashion/taste for life/artistic flair?
More a mix of Punk Dressy type stuff and H&M fashion.
27. What is a reason not to go to Burning Man?
Airfare
28. Who is your favorite Sift Hero?
Hero? Dag and lucky, the champions of the sift.
29. Do you have any image(s) of yourself online that you're willing to share?
Sure, you've seen it, working and rocking videosift.
30. What goal to you have while a Videosift member?
Add new members!!!
31. Do you upvote comments more for their originality, sense of humor, or self-deprecation?
Most likely if it makes me laugh or hits on a huge point.

>> ^K0MMIE:
WHAT!? She has trouble with that? Uck, I can only imagine, thats no fun at all man. Be strong.
Don't worry, there are plenty of good looking women who find geeky-ness adorable. Just ask my girlfried after I go off on a rant about how Cyclops could kill Wolverine if he wanted too. 20 minutes later and after the nerd dust settles she'll just say "you're so cute, and I love you."


Well 3 months later, we have worked out our differences and are still married. After 16 years we figured we had something worth holding on to.

Poor linux. I've been using linux for a number of years now and am really impressed with what it can do. It's largest flaw is that it is free. You heard me. If it's free, people assume it's not as "valuable" as an OS you usually have to pay hundreds for.

As far as games go, there are a lot of great commercial and free games that are ported to linux (not through wine). One great example is NeverWinter Nights and it's sequel. For a a list of games that run on linux, check http://www.icculus.org/lgfaq/gamelist.php?license=free .

And for video editing? The problem here is not the linux shell. The problem here is that the commercial grade programs for video editing are not written in or ported to linux. Because linux has less overhead resources than Mac's or Windows (configured properly of course), video editing could be as much or more effective on linux than the other operating systems. It's also worth mentioning that many 3D rendering farms (the masses of computers that render animations for studios like Pixar) often run linux.

Excel Spreadsheets? Really? openoffice.org people. Even on windows, as good as MS Office and $200 less.

Conclusion:
Use linux. It's very good and everything you've been assuming about linux is probably wrong. With the addition of Wine, linux can be very effective for gaming and there is almost no function that can be preformed in Windows or Mac OS that cannot be performed in linux. I dare you to at least try it.

http://www.ubuntu.com/
http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php <-- these are OS's that run right off the CD.

"I don't really like games" -- proprietary game designers don't like linux, but I play tremulous all the time. and half-life engines apparently runs fine under wine.
edit movies : many professional grade movie edit/render packages run on unix, some are even free(as in speech) or have free derivatives.
excel spreadsheets: ??? I only have 3 apps that do this.

I think the tux, the fact that he is pale, the ridicule, and that he crashes the other two, are funny commentaries, but since ubuntu, the "only servers" claims are no longer true. Linux personified would not take that crap.

>> ^arvana:
Very cool! I'll have to see if it runs under Wine on Ubuntu.

Even better it runs native
Edit: segfaults native
Edit: but there is a fix in the readme

Very cool! I'll have to see if it runs under Wine on Ubuntu.

WHY would any school under universities need Windows or Macs?

If you don't NEED it for some software get Ubuntu or some other Linux distro. Schools are spending way too much money sponsoring Microsoft!

MarineGunrock < If I could run OSX on my PC and be able to play my games, rest assured that it would have been done by now.>

This is actually possible it's called the OSX86 project. I had Tiger running in VMware (so Tiger is running above windows) quite slow but almost workable. Some one had it install native on the same computer as mine (a Gateway duo-core 1,6ghz, 1GB ram) and it work just as fast as any mac. You can have it with multi-boot P, Tiger, Ubuntu, or whatever you want.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79AC1NWvlkc

Not running Ubuntu, but... The easiest way is to have separate drives for each OS, and just use the computer bios to pick which one to boot with. I currently run XP, Vista and OSX86 Leopard on my machine and use the bios option to select the boot device at start up, simply select the drive that has the OS I want to use and poof. YMMV. good luck.

karaidl, you may want to try burning a GParted Live CD -- that's what fixed me up with the partition issues I was having a while back.

I built myself a new computer about a month ago, and it is proudly microsoft-free. I haven't got absolutely everything running the way I want it to under Ubuntu yet, but I know that I will, because there are no restrictions on how much things can be tweaked.

I'm still not recommending Linux to everybody, because it can take a LOT of time to get things working just right. But for me, it makes me very happy.

Man now I'm really screwed. I was messing around with installing Ubuntu and I've seriously messed up on my partitioning. Both Linux and Vista are recognizing my whole hard drive, but XP is only seeing 132 gigs of it. I tried installing XP on that 132 gigs and then extending the partition, but that didn't work - instead I got a boot error. So I tried wiping the whole drive with Killdisk, but that didn't work either - still reading the drive as 132 gigs. I'm using Vista right now cuz that's the one that installs the fastest, but I'm trying to figure out what could be doing this.

All I did was download the DVD version of Ubuntu. (Maybe that's Microsoft's defense system against Linux.)