Would you say Ubuntu 9.1 is better then Windows XP?

Question

Now I know windows XP came out years ago and Ubuntu 9.1 came out in October but would you say it's better ( if you've tried it) I've tried a Live CD ( running the OS off the cd ) and it seems pretty good but people who actually have it running and using it would you say it's good? I mostly want to get it for a learning experience and also because it's free. I also heard Ubuntu runs well with computers with low requirements ( takes 256MB ram to run as apposed to windows 7 1gb ram).
I also think it's time I upgraded a bit. See what's out their in the Open.

Answer 1

XP is still a good stable platform



Ubuntu 9.10 is as far as I am concerned the worst release of Ubuntu yet. As things stand at present I get better performance out of Ubuntu 7.04 even though long unsupported still offers greater stability.



However it must be said I was saying much the same on the release of Ubuntu 8.10 which was truly awful. Ubuntu 8.10 was pretty much rebuilt from the ground up which has turned it in to an awesome release and places it on par with Ubuntu 9.04 the only difference being is Ubuntu 8.10 does not offer support for ext4



I work on a regular basis with Linux Mint 6 (Ubuntu 8.10) and Linux Mint 7 (Ubuntu 9.04) and both releases at least to me are faultless



Now we come to the real casualties of the Linux distros. and they are those that will be built upon Ubuntu 9.10 not least to mention Linux Mint 8 which at present is a Release Candidate is truly awful and all of this is down to its Ubuntu 9.10 underpinnings



RECOMMENDED



I thoroughly recommend Linux Mint 7 Main Edition which is built upon Ubuntu 9.04 Its easy to install and easy to use plus it comes with much of the software you are likely to need preinstalled



Linux Mint 7 Download

http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=38



Linux Mint 7 User Guide

http://www.scribd.com/doc/15884753/Linux-Mint-7-Gloria-User-Guide



The Perfect Desktop - Linux Mint 7 (Gloria)

http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-linux-mint-7-gloria



You download the ISO. image of Linux Mint 7 then you need to create a Bootable LiveCD for installation



Linux Mint 7 can also be run direct from the LiveCD from Booting up without touching your Hard Drive



INSTALL LINUX WITHIN WINDOWS



Linux Mint has a feature called mint4win based on the Wubi installer (Ubuntu) http://wubi-installer.org/ which enables you to install Linux Mint within windows (Windows 7 run mint4win in vista compatability mode)



You keep Windows as it is, mint4win only adds an extra option to boot into Linux Mint. mint4win does not require you to modify the partitions of your PC, or to use a different bootloader, and does not install special drivers. It works just like any other application.



mint4win like Wubi keeps most of the files in one folder, and if you do not like it, you can simply uninstall it as any other application.



Boot in to windows insert the LiveCD you have just created and you will offered the option of installing inside windows which is where mint4win comes in, you will be asked how many gigabytes you wish to allocate to Linux Mint (I recommend 8gb) then you set a password for your installation then click install and thats it.



Once Linux Mint is fully installed upon starting your PC you will be given a choice of which operating system you want to use Windows or Linux Mint



Installing a dual-boot with Windows without partitioning

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/wubi



CURRENT SESSION



Linux Mint 7 ext3 with switchable Beryl 0.2.1* and Compiz 0.8.3**

http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=38

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl_(window_manager)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compiz

*Beryl 0.2.1 sourced from Ubuntu 7.04 repositories

**Compiz 0.8.3 sourced from Ubuntu 9.10 (Alpha 6) repositories





LUg.

Answer 2

I'm lukewarm on Ubuntu though I did use the live CD on a business trip when my hard drive crashed on the road last week. Normally I prefer more austere versions of GNU/Linux like Slackware and Gentoo. A serious discussion of the relative merits of the OSes would be that Windows is inherently a consumer OS and GNU/Linux, which Ubuntu is as much as Slackware and Gentoo, is not. Therefore there are serious questions about whether the two are even comparable.



I would say that XP is the best of the Windows OSes. Karmic Koala is NOT as good as Edgy Elf through Hardy Heron. I would actually say XP and Karmic are ROUGHLY comparable but I wouldn't say one or the other is better. I would definitely play with it some more. In fact I would open a terminal, open a web browser and type "Unix tutorial" into the search engine. What you will come up with are tutorials about using the shell you access through your xterminal. If you can make it through a few of those, then definitely install it. While Ubuntu and Canonical Software do everything they can to make sure you don't need it, if something goes wrong, as occasionally happens, you would be amazed at how little beyond those simple tutorials, you need to get you out of it.

Answer 3

This question is likely to have a storm of crazy answers following it, so I'm going to try to get my dose of realism in here before the nuts all show up.



There are folks in every camp who are evangelical about their particular OS. Windows, Mac, Linux, there are even those who evangelize about operating systems like BeOS that are no longer in production. Ignore them all. The only person who can tell you if an OS is "better" than another is you. Because it's all preference now. There was a time when MacOS was significantly different from Linux which was worlds apart from Windows. Those days are gone. You don't need to know the command line for Linux any more, Windows can be pretty darn reliable if you don't abuse it too much, and MacOS is now essentially Unix running on an Intel processor. Research them all, try them all, decide for yourself what works for you and then use that one. There is no shortcut, and sadly the only thing you'll get from asking this question in a public forum is a big fat crazy-storm of evangelical preachy geeks.



All that said, I used to be one of those evangelical preachy geeks, and my OS of choice was Linux. I still use Ubuntu today (and Gentoo in a couple places) but I've also got machines (and VMs) running various flavors of Windows, Solaris, BSD, and I've even got an old-school Mac somewhere around here. If anyone has picked one and ditched all others, they're not telling you about their OS, they're telling you about their religion. Please don't buy into it.



-David Perry

http://www.mytechworksonline.com

Answer 4

Ubuntu 9.10 was released a few months ago. XP was released about 7 years ago... There are enormous improvements and differences. I liked XP but I love Ubuntu... and Windows 7 is my favorite right now other than the price tag.



Bottom line is, Ubuntu is free. You lose nothing but some time if you try it out. You'll love it.

Answer 5

It depends on what you do.

I love it,but sadly I have MagicJack. that will not run in ubuntu, even under Wine. Wine lets you run a lot of windows programs on Linux and Mac. Just in case you did not know that. I also like a lot of games like combat arms. that wil not run under Wine. But I can install VituralBox on Linux and install windows that way. So i coul run both ubuntu and windows at the same time. Linux, it is a good thing.

Answer 6

Well I have WinXP SP3 and I installed Win 7 Pro- I was angry with it and went back to XP. I have the same Linux on Cd on Dual Boot- I agree with this Win7 Article: http://winxp76.webs.com/winxpor7.htm



Im using the X-9.04 as a Hobby really.. Ill be staying with winXP for sometime..