Obligatory intro :) (WARNING: can be very wordy hahaha)
 

Greetings

I never thought I'd be back on an online forum, but given that I'm getting myself prepared for a transition from XP to Linux (most likely either Mint Julia, Ubuntu Karmic Koala or Ubuntu Studio 9.10), I figured this would be the place to make my transition as painless as possible. I have used Windows for many years since W98SE up through XP, and while I liked it well enough, I never liked how Microsoft would release a new, "improved" OS just as the current one finally becomes workable, then leave the users of the old one in the dust (I loved Windows 98SE, personally).

I had heard about Linux back in 99 when I first started surfing the web, but didn't start seriously thinking about it until my computer started becoming bogged down with XP's last death rattles. I realized that the only way to keep my computer going was to pay hundreds of dollars either for Windows 7 or just cast aside my computer and buy a new one (I'm gonna have to do the latter anyways since this laptop's physically on its last legs, but I have a dinosaur desktop that can be refitted). I'd read how people breathed new life into their old computers with this free operating system that was supposedly more reliable than the timebombs Microsoft keeps excreting onto the public. Then I heard about Ubuntu Studio. As a musician looking into building up a home studio, Linux became irresistible.

The distros that I've tried are Ubuntu 9.10, Bodhi, Kubuntu 9.10, and Linux Mint 10. I definitely like Ubuntu and Linux Mint, but have run into some problems which I'll delegate to their appropriate forums.

Sorry, I do get wordy from time to time. Anyhoo, I figured I'd say hello and tell y'all how I discovered the penguin :).

Best wishes!
~K

Welcome to LQ!

Just a warning, you will run into issues when you begin with using *buntu 9.10, this version is no longer supported since April 2011. Use a more recent version like 10.04 LTS.

I appreciate you mentioning that. From what I've read though, upgrading from 9.10 up to something more current isn't exactly something terribly taxing on one's hardware or sanity. Plus, I'm not Command Line phobic since I have fond memories of working with DOS back in the mid 80s (dammit I miss DOS... now THAT never crashed), so the idea of changing up the desktop to something I'm comfortable with in command line doesn't vex me (I WILL need some texts written with n00bs in mind, though).

Out of the distros, however, the one I'm most fond of is Mint, and I do have a recent copy of that. That said, I KNOW I'll get a lot out of Ubuntu Studio. However, I will say that the lack of a low-latency kernal concerns me a bit. I only mentioned those particular runs of Ubuntu because those are the ones I have, thanks to a coworker and some burned discs he gave me :).

Anyways, thank you for your welcome!

Ubuntu's policy is to release every 6 months and to include recent software. They derive their code base from Debian testing (or is it unstable?) and then modify it with the intention of creating a very easy distro to use. That is not a policy which results in the most stable system; if stability is important to you then you may be better served by a distro which is not Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based.

Another side-effect of Ubuntu's heavy modification to the Linux+GNU etc. core components is that it is not standard so it is harder to customise; while Ubuntu Studio includes a lot of software that you want, you could equally add the same software to another distro yourself.

I did notice that, since Mint Katya was released soon after I had the CD-ROM of Julia. But even then, the CD-ROM only set me back about $3, while Win7 would set me back a hundred times that.

Still, I'll keep your stability warnings in mind with Ubuntu. And as far as adding the same or similar software as U-Studio to Mint, I've already thought of that and am still thinking of it.

Mint is based on Ubuntu.

I know that, which is why I mentioned its update.