A leap of faith.

[Temor]

My HDD broke down yesterday, and subsequently, so did I.
So I'm taking this opportunity to fling Windows, well, out the window, and instead try my hand at Ubuntu.

I will be going for the 12.10 build.

Any tips on things to do that would make this easier for me? I've only spent a few hours or so with Ubuntu previously, so any tips are very much appreciated.

[EcazS]

Any tips on things to do that would make this easier for me?

Install Windows

On a side note, I don't find it very complicated, for everyday use and programming and such it's not like you have to mess around in the terminal all day. So really, when you have a MySQL, PHP and Apache there shouldn't be a whole lot of terminal things unless you feel like messing around. Designing is much harder, Photoshop works through wine but it's rather slow and then you have Gimp which I never liked. It felt very odd for me.

And I my HDD might actually be "broken", more on that later (perhaps).

[Fidbeck]

You can try Mint.
I really don't recommend Ubuntu since its a bit slower

You should update your system
sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade
install ubuntu restricted software and flash via software center

Go to Software sources and mark everything
Install java
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer

jockey-kde to see graphic driver installed..

If you have nVidia you can install this
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-settings

and that's all I did in my Ubuntu and Mint
and you can install lamp stack or just follow wide_load's tutorial to install Apache, MySQL and PHP separately and have everything updated

You can always find good tutorials browsinf through google.

[Temor]

I'm having some trouble installing Ubuntu unfortunatetly. It has a fatal error installing "Grub". I'm going to by an optical reader tomorrow and try with a live cd install.

If anyone has any other quick fix for this error, feel free to post them

[Fidbeck]

As I said... Go mint xD

[jacek]

I'm having some trouble installing Ubuntu unfortunatetly. It has a fatal error installing "Grub". I'm going to by an optical reader tomorrow and try with a live cd install.

If anyone has any other quick fix for this error, feel free to post them

I had that with my old laptop every time, try the alternate installation CD.

Biggest tip I have is learn to love the Terminal and don't be scared to break things. Linux in general is much more technical than windows and you have to be pretty daft to fatally break anything. Experimentation is the best way to get to grips with things.

[EcazS]

Linux in general is much more technical than windows and you have to be pretty daft to fatally break anything. Experimentation is the best way to get to grips with things.

del system32

[jacek]

del system32

In Linux talk that is

[syntax=text]rm -Rf /[/syntax]
although I heard a crazy rumour that the kernel will stop you doing that. Too scared to try it

[Temor]

I decided to give up, for now. I will attempt to do this again today until I succeed, but as a secondary OS instead of primary.

[Kamal]

del system32

In Linux talk that is

[syntax=text]rm -Rf /[/syntax]
although I heard a crazy rumour that the kernel will stop you doing that. Too scared to try it

Had to try it (Ubuntu 12.10):
[syntax=text]root@derp:~# rm -rf /
rm: it is dangerous to operate recursively on `/'
rm: use --no-preserve-root to override this failsafe
root@derp:~# rm -rf --no-preserve-root /
rm: cannot remove `/dev/pts/0': Operation not permitted
rm: cannot remove `/dev/pts/5': Operation not permitted
rm: cannot remove `/dev/pts/4': Operation not permitted
rm: cannot remove `/dev/pts/3': Operation not permitted
rm: cannot remove `/dev/pts/ptmx': Operation not permitted
rm: cannot remove `/run/user': Device or resource busy
rm: cannot remove `/run/shm': Device or resource busy
rm: cannot remove `/run/lock': Device or resource busy
.... and thousands of these[/syntax]
(couldn't have done it without https://www.digitalocean.com)

[Fidbeck]

lol Kamal xD

[jacek]

although I heard a crazy rumour that the kernel will stop you doing that. Too scared to try it

Had to try it (Ubuntu 12.10):
[syntax=text]root@derp:~# rm -rf /
rm: it is dangerous to operate recursively on `/'
rm: use --no-preserve-root to override this failsafe
root@derp:~# rm -rf --no-preserve-root /
rm: cannot remove `/dev/pts/0': Operation not permitted
rm: cannot remove `/dev/pts/5': Operation not permitted
rm: cannot remove `/dev/pts/4': Operation not permitted
rm: cannot remove `/dev/pts/3': Operation not permitted
rm: cannot remove `/dev/pts/ptmx': Operation not permitted
rm: cannot remove `/run/user': Device or resource busy
rm: cannot remove `/run/shm': Device or resource busy
rm: cannot remove `/run/lock': Device or resource busy
.... and thousands of these[/syntax]
(couldn't have done it without https://www.digitalocean.com)[/quote]

Well now I know You are much braver than me