[Charlug] Windows Abandonment Roadmap

[Dennis Clark]

On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 1:45 PM, C. Michael Pilato <cmpilato at red-bean.com>w=
rote:

>
> In general, I'd also like to be able to exchange ideas around what I call=
 a
> "Windows Abandonment Roadmap".  I want to get myself, my wife, my parents,
> my church, and everybody else I can off of Windows and onto Linux.  Today,
> many open source software programs can get us some percentage of the
> desired
> freedom, at some interesting costs in terms of still being to interact wi=
th
> a Windowsful world.  I'd like to share/hear ideas about what softwares
> (either installed or Web-hosted) are best closing that gap.


Indeed. Despite being savvy with Linux, it has not been my primary desktop
OS at home for over 10 years now. I hope to change this situation soon as I
recently wiped my previous Debian 4.0 installation and replaced it with a
fresh Debian 5.0 installation. I also switched from x86 to amd64 which is
why it had to be a reinstall instead of simply an upgrade.

So why do I believe I will switch my primary desktop OS now after putting it
off for so long?  Well, for three reasons:

   1. Lenny (Debian 5.0) is the first Debian release to include compiled
   packages for non-free NVIDIA drivers that support my GeForce 8800 GTS 51=
2.
   Compiling the NVIDIA packages on my own is possible but seriously painfu=
l.
   The free drivers worked, but did not seem to support independent screens=
 for
   my two monitors (it would only clone them). Furthermore I have quite a f=
ew
   Windows games so I want the 3D acceleration support in the non-free driv=
ers
   so I can use Cedega.
   2. I recently upgraded my RAM to 4GB, and my Windows Vista cannot use
   more than 3.5GB (since it is a 32-bit OS without PAE support). My new De=
bian
   install is 64-bit so it can use all the RAM I can throw at it. More
   available RAM makes it more feasible for me to run the few Windows-only
   applications I still need in a Virtual Machine.

One obstacle for switching to Linux as my primary desktop remains. I like to
use my GeForce card to do GPGPU crunching with the GPUGRID.net project, and
although GPUGRID.net has a 64-bit Linux client it requires the CUDA 2.0 SDK
and NVIDIA doesn't provide a Debian installation package for it. This will
soon become a moot point though as GPGPU crunching on my 8800 GTS generates
too much heat for me to do it in my apartment during the warmer months. I
expect to have a solution to this before it gets cool enough again to resume
my GPGPU crunching.

I may ask for advice here and there as I get more into using Linux as a
desktop OS. I'll RTFM whenever I can so my questions shouldn't be too
stupid.

Cheers,

Dennis
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