Two of the main things I use a computer for are work - MS Office and games. So that's a big strike against Ubuntu for me.

I have tried Open office - I must admit I much prefer Microsoft Office. Or at least I have invested a lot of time in MS Office, especially Excel.

Still I am curious. I might try installing Ubuntu on on spare PC at home.

@krellin

Again, agreed.

I would throw ubuntu on my lenovo, but it's a tablet and last time I checked, linux doesn't have very good touch drivers. So, for now, it's windows on my desktop and laptop and ubuntu in the lab.

@TheUnforsaken --- PUH-lease....do NOT compare console gaming to desktop gaming. <sigh.....> There is NO comparison. Desktop gaming is FAR superior to console. THAT is why the console games are never allowed to interact with PC gaming networks....becaue the mouse and keyboard combo is just too far superior.

@Krelin, I agree with you on all of all of your points except the last, I know girls that are into to computers in quite abnormal ways.

@spy

I haven't used MS Office in 6 years. I've never had a problem with OpenOffice for anything.

Also, instead of spending $1800 on a computer, why not spend $1200 on a computer that does the same thing and get 1 (or 2) super-sweet monitors?

@Abge -- OpenOffice ROCKS. Actually has *more* inherent capabilities than Office. far superior...and FREE...product....an it saves in MS format, so it's a no-brainer.

@Ghug....dont' quite understand your comment...girls...computers....but I did get my wife into gaming and built her a rig, too...and gaming into the night with your wife can have side-benefits....

My friend has a wife that doesn't game. She's sleeping after a night of succesful raiding. Mine is still awake and keyed up with me...lol.

@krellin, I wasn't comparing consoles to Desktops, I don't even have a current generation console, I was just saying that there isn't a need to go completely overboard with a gaming rig either.

"The biggest advantage is that it's free and almost any software you can think of has an equivalent free version Office (OpenOffice), Photoshop (the Gimp), Matlab (forget the name).

Some people have bs philosophical reasons for liking it, but I use it at work because it's excellent for coding.
Really, it's only downside is that it is horrible for gaming. Absolutely wretched. If I wasn't a gamer, I'd use Ubuntu on all my computers. But I am, so my desktop runs Windows."

For what it sounds like you use it for you could install Oracle, Ubuntu. It runs pretty well and doesn't strain the system too much. If you're only using it for your coding it's not a bad choice.

@Abge I know, it sounds strange, but it's true.

@jmo

I don't understand what your'e saying. Are you talking about Oracle, the database software?

https://www.virtualbox.org/ or any other VM manager.

Yes, I'm familiar with VM, but why are you talking about Oracle?

because the vm manager is called Oracle VM Virtual Box, and I forgot for a minute about database software with the more popular name, sue me.

Oh, I didn't realize Oracle bought Virtual Box, thus my confusion.

But, in any case, my point still stands that using VM for gaming doesn't work very well.

Anyways, so many plus one's are needed in this thread. Computer major approves, lol

I don't really think that having a small VM on your computer would impact your gaming experience at all, any multi processor computer should be able to handle a small VM set aside for work coding if the rest of your system is devoted to gaming.

Wait...

I'm talking about VM on Ubuntu running Windows for gaming. Are you talking about VM on Windows running Ubuntu for coding? I agree, that wouldn't be a problem. But, I do all my coding at work, where I don't play games.

What I was saying was, if I didn't play games, I'd like to run ubuntu at home, but since I do, I run windows, because I don't want to play games on a VM.

Right, what I meant was that if you are missing the free software and coding tools you can just have a small VM to use them at home. Sorry I wasn't clear. No, haha, I would never recommend a VM for gaming, or anything related to streaming data.

lol OK good : )

When I do need to code from home, I just use PuTTY or WinSCP to ssh into my machine in the lab.

Why don't you just dual boot?

or use Wubi. Oracle bought Sun, and Virtual Box was Sun, so it's Oracle Virtual Box VM or something now. It's improved a lot over the years, and it now supports using multiple processors and you can configure how many processors it's allowed to access upto 32, so you can actually do some serious parallel programming on your guest machine. I like running two or OS'es as guests on my Ubuntu host, alt-tabbing between OS'es is useful when you're doing security work (and fun)

Just to tell you, i use to use open office TILL I GOT A VIRUS FROM IT! AND A BAD ONE, ALMOST WIPED MY HARD DRIVE! Thanks to AVG antivirus it didn't get that far, but still, i never trusted the free crap like that again.

!

Windows is great says I. Of course i'm actually D33 sitting on this account.

I agree with you in full hwh.

@D33

No, you did not get a virus from OOo

I did.