changing to linux..need advice?

[aussiemac]

I am changing to linux as there now seems to enough support
for drivers...video ...DVD ...that it wont be to much anguish in changeover.

But I have now seen ..in having a look at linux ...there are a few different
approaches or developments....for Linux.

So I am asking for opinions...on whch version should I go with

meaning ...Suse 9.2 or Mandrake 10 or Xandros V3???

These three seem to be most friendly...any thoughts on which is better??

Keep in Mind I am coming from Windows arena ...and therefore am not mad keen on text interfaces...!!
and I also want to use this for Video/DVD..??

I am getting a new machine P4 3MHz + 512 RAM etc..

I also need to be able to have a Dual boot situation...eg Windows and Linux....there seems to be GRUP and LILO ...for making this happen??

Any advice there?? which is less hazardous?? Easier to set up??


Appreciate any advice to make this changeover less painful...

[tekkieman]

There are several linux users here (myself included). Don't kid yourself...while most drivers are available, configuring them can sometimes be trying. If you're not much on command lines, how are you about compiling apps from source? Not as hard as it looks, and not needed that often, just a warning.

I don't use any of the ones you listed, I use Fedora Core from Red Hat. When I was researching which distro to use, I had originally decided on Suse. They say the Mandrake community is a little more closed than most for getting distros, add-ons, etc, but I have no personal experience with that. They also say that Mandrake is probably the most newbie user friendly.

Dual boot is not a problem, and easily configured. I have used both grub and lilo, and prefer grub myself. I use two separate drives, and have XP on the primary master, and linux on the slave. The slave is set up as 50% NTFS for video work in windows, 40% linux, and 10% FAT32 for swapping files back and forth between linux and windows (linux cannot reliably write to NTFS, but can read it fine).

Hope that helps, and when you're ready to tackle video in linux, we'll see you back again. Also, find some good linux forums like linuxquestions.org and fedoraforum.org. Plenty of help here of course, but finding entire forums dedicated to linux can help a lot!

[aussiemac]

In the box I am going to put Linux on ...it has an Asus X300 PCI Express
video card...I saw that ATI have a linux driver ..but it only supports version 2.4 of the kernel at the moment...so I will either have to wait or see if someone in Linux community has developed one..

In reading some of the forums ..including the ones you mentioned ...I
saw this term "Distro" ...thats short for Distribution...or version???

I have a 40GB ATA 7200RPM drive for running OSes ...I was going to
partition in say 24Gb for Windows and 16Gb for Linux...assuming the
Linux OS is a little smaller than Windows monster requires???
Does this seem OK??

As far as compiling ...its something I will have to read up on and come to grips with...I have dabbled in Unix before ...and used command line stuff
with DOS...so we'll see

You mentioned you were going to use Suse ...any reason why you didnt
go that way??
Is the Fedora Core from Red Hat a little less newbie friendly?

I have an 80Gb drive for Video, DVD work...to use this for Linux I assume from what you are saying I would have to set asside say 20Gb partition
for Linux alone???

I have come from a Mac G4 and a Windows box setup...2 boxes linked via LAN...the Windows box had "MacDrive"...an application which allowed
the windows box to read ...and write to most MAC OSX files...

Is there nothing similar in the Linux world???

[tekkieman]

In reading some of the forums ..including the ones you mentioned ...I saw this term "Distro" ...thats short for Distribution...or version???

Distribution. (Flavor, if you will...Fedora, Slackware, Mandrake). All the same kernel, but packaged a little differently.

I have a 40GB ATA 7200RPM drive for running OSes ...I was going to
partition in say 24Gb for Windows and 16Gb for Linux...assuming the
Linux OS is a little smaller than Windows monster requires???
Does this seem OK??

That should be ok, but if you let the installer have it's own way, the linux installer like to create at least three partitions. You can override this, of course, but if you're not really familiar with why the partitions are the way they are, you might do better to let linux do what it wants.

You mentioned you were going to use Suse ...any reason why you didnt go that way??
Is the Fedora Core from Red Hat a little less newbie friendly?

Not really. I just happened to get a book which had the full 4 CD distro of FC2. Since I needed a sort of reference manual anyway, I just used the distro that came with the book. I also have a Live CD for Dyne:bolic. It comes preconfigured with most video editing software already on it. So I can just boot off the CD, and have an instant OS geared for for video work (let's see Windows do that!).

I have an 80Gb drive for Video, DVD work...to use this for Linux I assume from what you are saying I would have to set asside say 20Gb partition for Linux alone???

Ok, here's where it gets a little tricky. That 80 is good for video work. I used to keep an 80 as a secondary, do my work, then just reformat. Ready for the next project. If you start chopping it up, both OS'es are going to lose out. When working with video, 20G fills up too quick. Plus, if you plan on moving the files back to Windows, it needs to be FAT32. FAT32 has a few limitations that make it not the best choice for video work. It's a lose/lose situation. I've chopped up over 400G between Windows and linux, and still haven't found the magic combination that works best for me yet.

I have come from a Mac G4 and a Windows box setup...2 boxes linked via LAN...the Windows box had "MacDrive"...an application which allowed the windows box to read ...and write to most MAC OSX files...

Is there nothing similar in the Linux world???

There's supposed to be, but it's a commercial product from what I understand. Natively, linux cannot write to NTFS, but it can read from it. I don't think MS finds it in their best interest to change that, so it's up to linux. You might need to find someone with more info than I have to guide you on this issue.

[aussiemac]

Thanks for your advice...I noticed this "which one to use question?"
is a common one in this group...I suppose its like cars ...horses for courses...so sounds like I should try one and see!

You mentioned "Live CD for Dyne:bolic" ...I am into video editing
This app is ok?? Another thing to look at ...Yikes

I understand what you are saying about Video Drive...again sounds like i should set up Linux and then gradually ...move down the learning road!

As far as partitioning Main OS drive ...I thought it may have been cleaner
to install Linux in separate Partition...mainly to keep it away from the
ugly one ..Win XP?? Sounds like during install ...it gives you options for
setting up necessary three partitions for linux...I assume they would be for Linux OS ...Fat 32 ..and Linux space ..eg Ext2,Ext3??

Once again thanks for feedback..tekkieman

[aussiemac]

I use CCE for encoding and DVDlab for DVD authoring.
Was using Final Cut for video editing ...but my Mac became to slow for latest versions ...and new mac wasnt option because of money...so new
PC it is ...
thus either use Premier pro or similar app...
or it sounds like this Dyne:bolic is worth trying?? under linux of course...

Thanks again

[tekkieman]

Dyne:bolic is the linux distribution name (like suse, mandrake, fedora). It is the complete OS. Already installed are apps like Kino and Cinelerra. I personally don't care for th gui it uses, but it saves me from installing those apps on my HD, and when I'm done using it, I just remove the CD and reboot.

Live CDs are great to play with before committing to installing a distro on your system. You might want to give it a try. Almost everyone has a Live CD or Live DVD that you can download.

The partitioning is something you really need to figure out before doing an install (that's why Live CDs are so nice). The way linux likes to break it up is some for / around 2-10G, some for temp 2x your ram so 1-2G, and then the rest.

[Sabro]

I've used, and have been very pleased with Mandrake (even since the AIR distro days). However, the pitfall that alot of U*ix users run in to when duel booting with other OSes (mainly Wind*ws) is that they will install U*ix, then wind*ws and poof no more U*ix cause Wind*ws likes to control the partitions and system itself.

So with that in mind, install Wind*ws on the system first, then U*ix and enjoy!

Hope this helps,

Sabro

[Garibaldi]

As far as partitioning Main OS drive ...I thought it may have been cleaner
to install Linux in separate Partition...mainly to keep it away from the
ugly one ..Win XP?? Sounds like during install ...it gives you options for
setting up necessary three partitions for linux...I assume they would be for Linux OS ...Fat 32 ..and Linux space ..eg Ext2,Ext3??

I'm back from Christmas break and ready to help!
First off, welcome to Linux! Let me go over a few things I have done in linux first and then get onto picking the right distro for you and getting video editing stuff setup.

I have a special version of slackware installed called Topologlinux which runs off my windows Xp NTSF partition so there is no need to repartition, which works great for me ( www.topologilinux.com ). I have only been using slackware (or any linux for that matter) for a couple months and its really gotten alot easier, so I wouldn't worry too much about migrating from windows, because once you get moving it really isn't too bad, plus you can get help from the people on this forum. I would personally recommend Slackware or Debian because they are older distros and less bogged down with distro-specific stuff, but that's just my opinion.

When you repartition you will have 3 partitions:
1. Win XP NTSF
2. Linux Swap Partition (probably 512 MB or less)
3. Main Linux Partition, EXT2, EXT3

I would really recommend Ext3 for your linux install because it uses a journeling filesystem, so you are alot less likely to have a problem after an incorrect shutdown.

I'll be happy to answer any other questions you might have!

[Garibaldi]

Keep in Mind I am coming from Windows arena ...and therefore am not mad keen on text interfaces...!!
and I also want to use this for Video/DVD..??

Also I thought the text interface was really complex too but it really isn't that bad. I actually typed a list of common Linux commands, I could send you a copy if you want. Also installing from source code isn't that complex either, usually all you have to do is unzip the folder. Then:
cd \home\[your_username\[Extracted_Folder]\
./configure
make
su (administrator user)
[type your password]
make install

[harjo02]

I've got a comment and then a question.

First, in response to Aussiemac---don't get hung up on the distro. The distro is just the package of software, drivers, etc, that come with the kernel. The kernel is basially the same for all linux distros.

Coming from a Windows world, you should give more thought to your XWindows environment. That is the GUI over the kernel. The two big ones are KDE and Gnome.........these give you your GUI as well as your Control Panels, tools, and access to underlying apps. KDE or Gnome might have more influence on your experience than the actual distrobution you use.

Second, a question for the forum: along these same lines, I'd like to put together a 64bit system for vid encoding, authoring, and editing. Any thoughts about 64bit distros? Video drivers? Apps? Mobos/cpus?

Thanks!

[Garibaldi]

I've got a comment and then a question.

First, in response to Aussiemac---don't get hung up on the distro. The distro is just the package of software, drivers, etc, that come with the kernel. The kernel is basially the same for all linux distros.

Coming from a Windows world, you should give more thought to your XWindows environment. That is the GUI over the kernel. The two big ones are KDE and Gnome.........these give you your GUI as well as your Control Panels, tools, and access to underlying apps. KDE or Gnome might have more influence on your experience than the actual distrobution you use.

Second, a question for the forum: along these same lines, I'd like to put together a 64bit system for vid encoding, authoring, and editing. Any thoughts about 64bit distros? Video drivers? Apps? Mobos/cpus?

Thanks!

There are a few 64 bit distros, I remember reading an article about someone who ran a 64 bit Debian system, he liked it alot. I would look on osnews.com for it in their archives. So I do know of Debian, I think its in the /testing or /unstable branches, but I think its probably safe enough to use anyway.

[spiritraveller]

Anyone who is still testing the different distributions should give Ubuntu a spin.

It is the easiest install I've done so far, and the defaults make sense. A lot of the same people who develop Debian are developing Ubuntu, so it is a sort of "Debian for mere mortals" type of distro.

[Garibaldi]

Anyone who is still testing the different distributions should give Ubuntu a spin.

It is the easiest install I've done so far, and the defaults make sense. A lot of the same people who develop Debian are developing Ubuntu, so it is a sort of "Debian for mere mortals" type of distro.

I like the idea of a Debian-based distro because it means it will be very stable. IMO the one thing I don't like about Ubuntu is it uses Gnome, personally I like KDE. XFCE is even better because its less bloat. However, Gnome or KDE are probably the best for linux noobs to get used to the environment first. I would also recommend (in addition to Ubuntu):
Slax: www.slax.org
Knoppix: www.knoppix.net

[schunn99]

Garibaldi, I am also looking to move to linux, I have played with mandrake 10 little, I was looking at the distro you are using Topologilinux, it looks like a linux emulator for windows, is that basically what it is?
thanks,
schunn99

[courtrrb]

According to http://distrowatch.com thats what it is. Here's a quote from that site:

Linux distributions which are designed to be installed on file systems used by Microsoft Windows (such as FAT, FAT32 or NTFS) are currently excluded from DistroWatch. These distributions are normally designed for evaluation purposes, they suffer from bad performance and package information is hard to come by. If you are interested in one of these distributions, please visit their web sites for futher information.

[Garibaldi]

Garibaldi, I am also looking to move to linux, I have played with mandrake 10 little, I was looking at the distro you are using Topologilinux, it looks like a linux emulator for windows, is that basically what it is?
thanks,
schunn99

Great! I'm glad to help you get started and answer any questions that my might have. Topologilinux is in part an emulator. There are 2 different parts to topologilinux, colinux mode and real mode. First let me explain how topologilinux works. Topologilinux is a slightly modified Slackware (the distro I'm now using) install that installs itself to an image file on your NTFS or FAT32 partition. This is a really great thing because it means you can have a real, fully funtional linux install without having to repartition your drive!! Now back to the different parts. Colinux mode uses the colinux emulator, found here: www.colinux.org to emulate linux from your image file inside of windows. This causes linux to run slower but it does let you have both environments open at the same time. Real Mode, the one I really prefer, allows you to boot your computer directly into the topologilinux install, so its exactly like any other linux install. It boots and runs at the normal speed and allows you the same functionality of a real Slackware install.
I'd be happy to answer any further questions you might have as well!!

[edDV]

I've got a comment and then a question.

First, in response to Aussiemac---don't get hung up on the distro. The distro is just the package of software, drivers, etc, that come with the kernel. The kernel is basially the same for all linux distros.

Coming from a Windows world, you should give more thought to your XWindows environment. That is the GUI over the kernel. The two big ones are KDE and Gnome.........these give you your GUI as well as your Control Panels, tools, and access to underlying apps. KDE or Gnome might have more influence on your experience than the actual distrobution you use.

Second, a question for the forum: along these same lines, I'd like to put together a 64bit system for vid encoding, authoring, and editing. Any thoughts about 64bit distros? Video drivers? Apps? Mobos/cpus?

Thanks!

There are a few 64 bit distros, I remember reading an article about someone who ran a 64 bit Debian system, he liked it alot. I would look on osnews.com for it in their archives. So I do know of Debian, I think its in the /testing or /unstable branches, but I think its probably safe enough to use anyway.

Is anyone producing a 64bit or 32bit MPeg2 encoder that performs? If so I'm all ears So far, I see no current advantage to Linux apps for video/DVD production. But I'm always looking for public domain render engine solutions.

Linux is getting to be adaquate for media playback but I remain unconvinced for editing and authoring.

[Garibaldi]

I've got a comment and then a question.

First, in response to Aussiemac---don't get hung up on the distro. The distro is just the package of software, drivers, etc, that come with the kernel. The kernel is basially the same for all linux distros.

Coming from a Windows world, you should give more thought to your XWindows environment. That is the GUI over the kernel. The two big ones are KDE and Gnome.........these give you your GUI as well as your Control Panels, tools, and access to underlying apps. KDE or Gnome might have more influence on your experience than the actual distrobution you use.

Second, a question for the forum: along these same lines, I'd like to put together a 64bit system for vid encoding, authoring, and editing. Any thoughts about 64bit distros? Video drivers? Apps? Mobos/cpus?

Thanks!

There are a few 64 bit distros, I remember reading an article about someone who ran a 64 bit Debian system, he liked it alot. I would look on osnews.com for it in their archives. So I do know of Debian, I think its in the /testing or /unstable branches, but I think its probably safe enough to use anyway.

Is anyone producing a 64bit or 32bit MPeg2 encoder that performs? If so I'm all ears So far, I see no current advantage to Linux apps for video/DVD production. But I'm always looking for public domain render engine solutions.

Linux is getting to be adaquate for media playback but I remain unconvinced for editing and authoring.

It does have a few good mpeg2 encoders, both of which I'd recommend trying out. First you have avidemux, which is basically a virtual dub with mpeg2 output support for linux. You also have tovid, a great little command line app that produces IMO great results! Linux has quite a few pieces of software for video-editing but not as much as windows, you can run some windows apps in linux for free under the windows api emulator wine, found here: www.winehq.com

[edDV]

Thanks, I'll give them a look.

I'm always in need of a render farm w/o stiff licence fees.

[sammie]

I use Linux a fair bit, but almost exclusively to keep an old under powered computer alive for browsing and e-mail; or to sometimes try out some webstuff before putting it online. Right now I'm using Xandros because I really like the old old Corel Debian distro. Not sure I'd recommend Xandros though for various reasons (none of which are severe enough to get me to move on yet).

Ok, long introduction. I've always wanted to start migrating chores like video work to Linux, but being only a casual Linux user it's a topic beyond my abilities to swallow in a chunk. There are quite a number of guides here for everything else, anyone want to take on assembling a Linux based video work station guide? Should include basics from distro installation, secondary drive mounting, capture cards (especially compatibility!!), installing and choice of tools, configuration, ripping.....etc., etc.

A lot to ask I know, but here your chance to preach to hopefully a somewhat educated bunch of computer users.

[schunn99]

hey all,
anyone running or have played with suse linux 9.2 as far as video editing?

thanks,

schunn99

[vitualis]

I recently moved my laptop to Linux and have a thread here: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=256984&highlight=

I tried Mandrake 10 and was thoroughly unimpressed.

With experimenting with various distros, I suggest that you give Knoppix Live CD a try first to see if most of your hardware gets detected. If something crucial is not detected, it may be time to step back.

I seem to generally like a Debian based distro + KDE and of all the distros I tried, I'm currently most happy with Xandros 3 OCE (open circulation edition). It does limit you a little bit though. If you can live without the inbuilt CrossOver Office, the best Debian + KDE distro I came across was MEPIS. I suggest giving it a try.

Ubuntu is very good too though like Garabaldi, I don't like Gnome. There has recently been released a KDE version of Ubuntu so that may be worth a spin.

Regards.

[disturbed1]

hey all,
anyone running or have played with suse linux 9.2 as far as video editing?

thanks,

schunn99

Works great with Main Actor from Main Concept. http://www.mainconcept.com/mainactor_v5_linux.shtml

But, then again so does every other distro I've tried

[DeeKnow]

Thanks for all the info guys... I'm a complete newbie at Linux, moderately experienced with Video editing and authoring, and a semi-expert at PC hardware and software. Been meaning to get into Linux for a long time, but never had the time (or the money)

Now a friend is letting go of a Sun Blade 100 (Ultra Sparc II at 500 MHz) for a very reasonable $150 and I'm tempted.... I would like to get it anyway to mess about and learn with, but is that a serious platform for any video work ?? I know zilch about Unix, but understand that these Sun boxes were the thing for professionals just a few years ago...?

[schunn99]

Garibaldi,

got another question about topologilinux,
If I am in real mode can I write files to some of my other ntfs hard drives?
thanks,
schunn99

[wmcbrine]

Sun is known for a lot of things, but video? AFAIK that's always been more of a Mac / SGI / Amiga (in the old days) thing.

[Garibaldi]

Garibaldi,

got another question about topologilinux,
If I am in real mode can I write files to some of my other ntfs hard drives?
thanks,
schunn99

Sorry it took me so long to respond, I've been really busy with my site.
Topologilinux still doesn't support writing to NTFS, especially considering that it uses the 2.4 kernel by default. You can, however, write to any Fat32 volume, such as a USB Flash Drive, which you might want to consider getting, they are really nice. You can also access your linux partition in windows via something like explore2fs depending on your filesystem. I would recommend installing with either EXT3 or Reiserfs, EXT2 doesn't support journelling, and believe me its not any fun! Basically if you don't shut down correctly you get an error when trying to boot and have to run a buch of stuff with fsck and its not fun. EXT 3 and reiserfs are both journelling so the chances of that happening are alot less.
Let me know what you come up with!

[outspoken]

life outside Gentoo is not much fun. i've been through many distrobutions in the last 8 years and Gentoo has been the best one I've experienced.

[Garibaldi]

life outside Gentoo is not much fun. i've been through many distrobutions in the last 8 years and Gentoo has been the best one I've experienced.

From what I've heard Gentoo is a great distro! What are the differences that you can see between Gentoo and Slackware?