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Jun 16th, 2007
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Re: Should I give Linux a go?

Click to Expand / Collapse  Quote originally posted by Grum ...
In the past few weeks I've essentially bricked my laptop. XP won't boot any more and in an attempt to sort it i've stuffed the hard drive. I won't go into detail mainly cos i can't be bothered. Anyways, I'm away to go reformat the hard drive but I can't find my disk of xp anywhere so I'm going to have no OS. I'm not away to go buy myself another copy of XP (and of course getting a cracked version would be wrong lol), so I've started considering using linux as my OS (A - because its free, B - I like the idea of having control over my OS, C - XP annoys the hell out of me and D - it would please my inner-nerd). I've read up about linux a fair bit and i'm finding it more and more intriging. My only issues about it are im slightly concerned about using the command line etc (as i've NEVER actually used/seen a linux run machine) and the general difference's compared to XP or OS X in which i have a little experience. I'd like to think of myself as being better than the average XP user but not an expert by any means ie. when something goes wrong on any of my families computers i'm the one who always has to fix it, but i still get very concerned when im made to go into the regstry to do something. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to have a bash with linux and is there any particular distro you'd recommend?
Command lines are your best friend. Don't fear the command line. Just open a konsole or terminal and type in what you want. Here is a link to some command lines that work with mepis and should work with other linux too.
http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Bash_commands

Copy the tips of others into konsole or terminal.
You do not need to understand the text in order to be able to cut n' paste it into the box - so long as the person who is telling you what to type understands what they are doing.

Most new Linux users are reluctant to use the command line at first; it is actually very easy and experienced users will often refer to it as your best friend.

http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Start

I recommend mepis first then pclinuxos, then antiX which is an amazingly fast sub-version of mepis and is like mepislite 'cept it is based on SimplyMEPIS 6.5. After that there is ubuntu, slax,sled and many others to the tune of between 200-400 linux operating systems and versions of systems. More coming all the time too. Try as many live linux cds as you can .
Distrowatch is a good place to see some the more popular linux versions.
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mepnoob2005 is offline Offline
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Jun 16th, 2007
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Re: Should I give Linux a go?

mplayer is kind of dumb, last time i used it, i couldn't get it to play dvd's.
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Jun 16th, 2007
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Re: Should I give Linux a go?

you use SuSE dont you TheNSS?

Novell deliberately crippledd most of the media players in thier repos so that they dont work with LibDvdCSS so they dont get sued.
Last edited by jbennet; Jun 16th, 2007 at 9:19 am.
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Jun 16th, 2007
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Re: Should I give Linux a go?

yeah, i use sled, and LibDvdCSS doesn't work with any player. Even at their site, novell says you can listen to mp3's, watch dvd's,
"if you can think it, you can make it with suse linux"
it's kind of lame.
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Re: Should I give Linux a go?

PowerDVD (pre-installed) and WMp11 do me fine for all my media needs
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Serunson is offline Offline
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Jun 16th, 2007
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Re: Should I give Linux a go?

Click to Expand / Collapse  Quote originally posted by TheNNS ...
yeah, i use sled, and LibDvdCSS doesn't work with any player. Even at their site, novell says you can listen to mp3's, watch dvd's,
"if you can think it, you can make it with suse linux"
it's kind of lame.
That's one of the main reasons I use mepis. All the players will work with libdvdcss2. Mepis plays dvds smoothly when you use the right vid driver and have all the extra needed packages. One of the first things that I do when I install mepis is to get these packages from synaptic package manager. This is for mepis but should work for some other linux too.

To use a graphical method, follow these steps:

1. Open Synaptic by clicking Menu --> System --> Package Manager, and supply the root password.
2. On the menu bar, click Settings --> Repository. Scroll down to the bottom of the list, and check http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ to add that repository. Click OK.
3. Using the Search box, find and mark for install libdvdcss2 package.
4. Install and exit. Now DVDs should play just fine using KMPlayer or another player.

Also grab these.
Dvdauthor, dvdbackup, dvdrip, dvdrtools, dvd+rw-tools, k9copy, K3b,lame, lame-extras, libavifile-0.7c2, libdvdnav4, libdvdplay0, libdvdread3, libmad0, libxine-extracodecs, mencoder, qdvdauthor, transcode ,vlc and vamps.
With these packages you should be able to watch encrypted dvds and more.
Dvd play and back up is one of the main reasons that I prefer mepis. No trouble ripping or burning or backing up dvds. When my 5 year old is watching treehouse channel and the wife is watching a soap or something then I like to watch a dvd on the computer.

If you use kaffeine then sometimes the xv driver in kaffeines settings will play smoother than some other drivers.
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mepnoob2005 is offline Offline
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Jun 16th, 2007
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Re: Should I give Linux a go?

Click to Expand / Collapse  Quote originally posted by TheNNS ...
yeah, i use sled, and LibDvdCSS doesn't work with any player. Even at their site, novell says you can listen to mp3's, watch dvd's,
"if you can think it, you can make it with suse linux"
it's kind of lame.
I have opensuse 10.2 with VLC player and it has never been a problem

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iamthwee is offline Offline
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Jun 16th, 2007
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Re: Should I give Linux a go?

nice background!
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Serunson is offline Offline
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Jun 16th, 2007
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Re: Should I give Linux a go?

Thanx,

You can get a better pic here if you like...

http://www.indigorenderer.com/joomla...pic.php?t=1975
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Re: Should I give Linux a go?

Click to Expand / Collapse  Quote originally posted by TheNNS ...
yeah, i use sled, and LibDvdCSS doesn't work with any player. Even at their site, novell says you can listen to mp3's, watch dvd's,
"if you can think it, you can make it with suse linux"
it's kind of lame.
Google for the site "Hacking Opensuse! (works with SLED too). They have thier own repo where you can download un-novellised media players which work with libdvdcss etc... there is atutorial there.
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This thread is more than three months old

No one has posted to this discussion for at least three months. Please let old threads die and do not reply to them unless you feel you have something new and valuable to contribute that absolutely must be added to make the discussion complete. Otherwise, please start a new thread in this forum instead.
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