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[wierd]

I just have a cheap WD NAS I grabbed at Walmart. Never took apart.

Did ssh into it once though. VERY min spec. Armv7 core, 512mb ram with zram enabled. Blech.

[CABL]

I'm going to emulate Linux (Ubuntu) on my laptop, using Oracle VirtualBox, and I have some questions.
1.Which Ubuntu version is the best for beginner?
2. How powerful is Wine?

[Thief^]

I'm going to emulate Linux (Ubuntu) on my laptop, using Oracle VirtualBox, and I have some questions.
1.Which Ubuntu version is the best for beginner?
2. How powerful is Wine?

I would highly recommend the latest Ubuntu release (16.04 LTS). It's an LTS (long term support) release, which means it is supported for much longer (5 years for LTS vs 9 months for non-LTS) and has more guarantees around stability. As for server vs desktop... doesn't really matter, both can install the same software (even server stuff), but the desktop GUI might be easier for a beginner (the server version is command-line only by default, although you can install the desktop GUI).

As for Wine... it's "acceptable". You'll always find something you want to run that won't work at all, and some things will "just work".

[Thief^]

Does anyone know of a good alternative to windows backup?

Personally I don't use windows backup, I have everything important in some kind of cloud sync, so between that and my local copies on PC/laptop I have about 3 of everything important (including one off-site!) without having to worry about setting up my own backup.

Windows 10 makes it really easy to set up so your "My Documents" folder is in OneDrive, I would highly recommend that, although I'd move your downloads folder elsewhere unless backing up random patch downloads etc is important to you.

[CABL]

Ubuntu didn't impressed me tbh. I mean, it kinda looks nicer than Win7, and has lots of cool programs for it, but overall it didn't made me delete my Win7 and install actual Ubuntu. Plus i use computer mostly for Internet and vidya gaems.

[Aklyon]

Dunno why you'd delete win7 when you could dual boot instead, croc.
Unless the answer is you don't have the space to do so.

[wierd]

diskpart has a "shrink" option to reduce the size of a win7 partition, freeing space for a linux dual boot deployment.


Unless the drive is really tiny, I don't see a compelling reason.

[CABL]

Well, i use VirtualBox, so my Ubuntu exist only on .vdi file. I have enough space on my HDD (518 GB out of 931), when SSD has only 13,4 GB free out of 119. Oh, and pardon me for "delete Win7" thing, that was a stupid statement. I meant that it's not as mind-blowingly better than Windows as i expected. I completely forgot about diskpart.exe though.

[Thief^]

Ubuntu didn't impressed me tbh. I mean, it kinda looks nicer than Win7, and has lots of cool programs for it, but overall it didn't made me delete my Win7 and install actual Ubuntu.

The problem linux has is that all the really good software for linux also runs on Windows. So why switch?

[CABL]

I never wanted to switch from Windows to Linux. All i wanted is just to have a look on Linux.

[feelotraveller]

The problem linux has is that all the really good software for linux also runs on Windows. So why switch?

There's this thing called freedom.  Guess it's of no value to you? 

I never wanted to switch from Windows to Linux. All i wanted is just to have a look on LinuxUbuntu.

FTFY

I presume for your comparison you were also running Windows through VirtualBox?

[Aklyon]

Ubuntu didn't impressed me tbh. I mean, it kinda looks nicer than Win7, and has lots of cool programs for it, but overall it didn't made me delete my Win7 and install actual Ubuntu.

The problem linux has is that all the really good software for linux also runs on Windows. So why switch?

Well it tends to not whine at you to upgrade to the newest version so that they can throw pointless store apps at you and add an extra settings menu that does nothing better than previous.

But I'm sure that wasn't your point

[CABL]

The problem linux has is that all the really good software for linux also runs on Windows. So why switch?

There's this thing called freedom.  Guess it's of no value to you? 

I never wanted to switch from Windows to Linux. All i wanted is just to have a look on LinuxUbuntu.

FTFY

I presume for your comparison you were also running Windows through VirtualBox?

Nope, Win7 is my host (which means it's a OS with VirtualBox installed on it). I just didn't know about diskpart.exe. Does it really matters if it's emulated Ubuntu or use it  on my HDD hard drive, anyway?

[feelotraveller]

The problem linux has is that all the really good software for linux also runs on Windows. So why switch?

There's this thing called freedom.  Guess it's of no value to you? 

I never wanted to switch from Windows to Linux. All i wanted is just to have a look on LinuxUbuntu.

FTFY

I presume for your comparison you were also running Windows through VirtualBox?

Nope, Win7 is my host (which means it's a OS with VirtualBox installed on it). I just didn't know about diskpart.exe. Does it really matters if it's emulated Ubuntu or use it  on my HDD hard drive, anyway?

Depends on what you wanted out of the test (what you think 'matters').  If performance was one of the things you were interested in then yep, almost certainly.  Not experienced enough to know to what degree with Ubuntu but for various applications (mainly games) or running a couple of other linux distros it tends to be between 'somewhat' and 'much' slower than having them actually installed.  If it was just looks, access to software, etc. how it works, without knowing how well it will function then it probably didn't matter.

[Alastar]

There are subtle things like overall smoothness of operation, rather than performance under load.
I find Windows on a HDD unpleasantly jerky, sometimes even on SSDs... not an issue with Linux.
Modern filesystems available on Linux have their perks beyond performance, if you want to get into them (e.g. snapshots).
Looks are trivial, especially in Linux. There are hundreds of interfaces available, the big mainstreamy ones including Ubuntu's Unity may not seem to different from Windows/OSX, but if you want minimalism or a high degree of configurability you have interesting other options (which will admittedly need some time getting used to).

On the technical side, I have far more respect for Linux than Windows. Linux on the whole is less hassle than Windows... but if you're familiar with the woes of a Windows user and can live with it, getting used to the woes of a Linux user may not be worth the effort. Whether the change is practical depends on your priorities, and what software you run.
Free Software is generally much more pleasant to use on Linux - you have a package manager (somewhat similar to an app store) taking care of installation and maintenance, without hunting for downloads, removing the crapware you accidentally installed alongside, and all the other hassle.
Commercial software often isn't available on Linux or doesn't get the same attention. Windows-exclusive software can often be run under WINE (a compatibility layer), but that can be unpleasant (bugs, goat sacrifices required to get things running, performance hits).

Linux is great, but not for everyone.