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Geek Culture / I may be about to do something drastic to my computer...

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 04:13
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Okay. So, I've been running Ubuntu 10.04 on my computer on its own partition for a few months now. The more I use it, the more and more I end up loving it. With some tweaking, it can do just about everything Windows can, except run DarkBASIC.

Windows has honestly been giving me a TON of problems recently. It likes to freeze, it likes to crash, it likes to take forever to find my internet connection, it likes to install updates when I click "Shut Down" and it takes forever to install, then takes forever to configure the updates the next time I boot up my computer...yeah....

The point is, Windows annoys me anymore. And I'm getting sick of it.

I'm thinking about possibly installing Ubuntu as a single OS on my laptop TONIGHT. The only thing I would miss from Windows is being able to program in DarkBASIC, and that's something that is a "maybe I'll miss it, I'm not sure yet" sort of deal.

I've been running Ubuntu exclusively for the last couple of weeks. Right now I'm in Windows, but that's only because I was glancing through it, wondering what I'd miss...nothing really. Now I'm looking through files I want to keep. That's a little challenging; you never realize how much is on your computer until you want to do something drastic to it!

Now for my main question....

Suppose that I do eliminate Windows, and in a couple of months decide that I need to reinstall it for whatever reason (not likely to happen, but you never know). It's my understanding it requires a serial number to be activated, right? I don't seem to have the serial number for Win7 ANYWHERE; it's my suspicion it's located in a hidden directory either in the recovery partition or on the self-made recovery discs, or on the actual hard drive right now. So would I have to purchase a new license from Microsoft?

Also: Should I just do a complete reinstall of Windows, give it its own (small) partition, create another partition and make Ubuntu my main OS? I wouldn't give Windows more than 40GBs. Would this be the smarter thing to do, in case Windows wouldn't let me reinstall it after completely wiping it off my drive?

Thanks to any and all who advise!

-CoffeeCoder

Click here to go to my blog!
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Toasty Fresh
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 05:07
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Shouldn't you have the serial on the box you bought it in? If not, google it and see where it is in the registry. So long as you have the key, all you'll have to do is ring up Microsoft and explain to them that you're installing Windows on the same machine it used to be, and they'll take off the 30-day no-serial thingy.
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Grog Grueslayer
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 05:35 Edited at: 23rd Jul 2010 05:40
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If it's a computer you bought off the shelf and not a frankenstien it should have a recovery partition that's used to restore the computer back to the way it was when you first bought it including a Windows with the key already in it. But if you destroy that partition when you reformat your out of luck.

You could download a key finder to see what your Windows key is (and any other keys). I use Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder since it's a stand alone program that doesn't need to be installed and theres a free version.

http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 05:39 Edited at: 23rd Jul 2010 05:40
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Thanks Toasty!

It's not on the box (at least that I can find), but a Google search yielded some promising results on using a key finding program to decrypt the serial key from the registry.

Unfortunately it got too late for me to do anything on my computer tonight, so it will have to wait until after the weekend. Oh well. This gives me time to make sure I want to run Ubuntu full time.

EDIT: @Grog:

Thanks for the link! I'll look into that.

And yes, this is a computer I bought off the shelf. It's an HP laptop (or should I say craptop? (I hate HP)) that runs Ubuntu better than it runs Windows (which is what it was designed for...go figure).

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bitJericho
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 06:42 Edited at: 23rd Jul 2010 06:42
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Most boxes run better with linux nowadays (which couldn't be said a couple years ago!)

Yay for linux.

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The Slayer
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 09:08
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@Coffeecoder:

If it is a computer of the shelf, than you should have the option of making a recovery disk (DVD) to reinstall everything if needed. You should look into that. Wasn't there a book with it that mentioned that?

Cheers

Slayer rules!!! Yeaaah, man!
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TheComet
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Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 12:42
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@ CoffeeCoder

If you have a fast enough computer, use VirtualBOX for Windows. Like this you can have ubuntu as your primary OS, and Windows is then part of ubuntu.

TheComet

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Shadowtroid
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 13:46
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Quote: "It's an HP laptop (or should I say craptop? (I hate HP))"


Agreed. I had an HP laptop and it didn't last 2 years.

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David R
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 13:55 Edited at: 23rd Jul 2010 13:56
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I ditched Windows in 08 and don't miss it at all

Dev'ing on a non-Windows OS seems to be far easier too. You can target generic UNIX boxes (Linux, OS X etc.) quite easily without much change, and then build inside a VM with Visual Studio when you want to make the final win32 distrib.

The reverse is more difficult, because MSVC cheats and tries to keep your code not portable (Those _s functions for example). Also there are tons of Windows equivalent methods for POSIX/UNIX methods Windows lacks, but very few the other way round.

09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0
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Metal Devil123
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 16:04
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Quote: "Agreed. I had an HP laptop and it didn't last 2 years."

That's why you don't get a laptop. Get a real computer!

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thenerd
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 18:40
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Quote: "That's why you don't get a laptop. Get a real computer!"

unless you get an Alienware, their laptops are extremely powerful and not that expensive either...


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Aaagreen
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 19:05
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Quote: "not that expensive"


lol


I'd love to see things from your point of view but I can't get my head that far up my bum.
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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 19:31
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Quote: "I had an HP laptop and it didn't last 2 years."


Bummer. I'm sorry to hear that.

Yeah, I'm never buying another computer from HP. It was a very rash decision when I bought this one. But I really did need a laptop and it was the cheapest one...meh....

If I ever buy another PC laptop, it'll be one with an aluminum casing, a higher resolution screen (at least 1440x900), it will run full GNU/Linux, and it will be DURABLE. I've heard good things about Lenovo, but I don't know if they have ThinkPad's made out of aluminum. Oh well.

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Indicium
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 19:41
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Mate, the amount of times i've dropped my lenovo :p

Only thing i can fault it on is that the mouse button is kinda broke right now.

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 20:20
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Hmm...shopping around, I didn't find any particular Lenovo I liked.

It doesn't sound like their performance is particularly good for the price, either. Pretty much the only thing they have going from me right now is their known durability.

Oh well. I know for a fact the next laptop I buy will be a MacBook Pro anyhoo. I was just tryin' to get ideas for a future PC laptop.

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Melancholic
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 20:29
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Check this link note HP is the most unreliable

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charger bandit
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 20:31
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Yes,HP laptops are horrible,I had to drill a hole into the plastic underneath my HP 6735s and mount a custom fan to keep the CPU cool. But my HP Pavillion still runs like new. It never broke down,ever.


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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 20:55
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@Melancholic:

Thanks for that link! Wow. I had no idea HP was that bad.

I think I'll look into Asus and Toshiba then...they're eben above Apple!

@charger bandit:

Yeesh. Yeah, I'm not at all happy about where the fan is on my laptop. It seems my CPU heats up (not sure to what, I haven't ever checked the temps), and I think it starts to underclock it after an hour or so of use because things like to slow to a crawl, except on Ubuntu. But having to drill a hole to put your own fan in? Yowza. That's some good modification there!

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Melancholic
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 21:13
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Quote: "@Melancholic:

Thanks for that link! Wow. I had no idea HP was that bad.

I think I'll look into Asus and Toshiba then...they're eben above Apple! "


No problem, though one point id like to make is that apple products are not as high quality as everyone likes to think. Apples parts are made in the Foxconn factory, Shenzen. The working conditions at this factory are notoriously poor, in fact so bad numerous employees have committed suicide. Though don't think I'm bashing Apple, Dell are also guilty of using this factory. Also Apple's design is some of the best.

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 21:33
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I love Apple's design. They know how to make things look good, that's for sure!

That factory sounds awful though.

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Satchmo
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 22:02 Edited at: 23rd Jul 2010 22:02
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My comp came with a free 3 year warranty and 1 year accidental. My sister had to pay 300$ for a slightly worse warranty on a less powerful, but more expensive computer (lol macbooks).

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 22:59
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O. M. G.

I want this Asus laptop now.

What does anybody know about installing Mac OS X on a PC laptop? Is it possible? I'd like to do that for this laptop....

It has a full HD screen (1920x1080) on a 15.6" screen,

6GB OF RAM!!!

500GB Hard Drive (most brilliant for video editing/games)

Intel Core i7 processor at 1.6GHz

Dedicated NVidia Graphics Chip (omg omg omg)


So yeah. Is it possible to install Mac OS X on a machine like that in place of Windows?

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Melancholic
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 23:15
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Quote: "What does anybody know about installing Mac OS X on a PC laptop? Is it possible? I'd like to do that for this laptop...."


There is a sort of hack called osx86 but other then that I don't know any more about it

Also, nice laptop!!, Asus also also make another performance laptop with dual ati cards(not laptop graphics, real pci cards!)

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 23:20
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It is a nice one, idn't it?

I didn't mean to turn this into a laptop buying thread. But I figured while I'm here, why not?

I'll check out osx86. Something tells me Google shall be my friend in this case.

Mac OS X + Ubuntu on that little laptop with full HD power just sounds like pure win to me right now. And with a 500GB hard drive I might even keep Windows on there for casual game development.

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Satchmo
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 23:41 Edited at: 23rd Jul 2010 23:44
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That asus is over priced and under specced. Take a look at this msi, it has a much beefier graphics card and will get much better battery life, too. I bought one about a two months ago and couldn't be happier. Processor and ram are a bit less but can be upgraded later on, and anyways the GPU is where the real speed comes from in games.

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2010 23:44
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That link doesn't appear to work. Nothing's loading off of that page except the top navigation bar and bottom links....

Could you tell me the model number so that I can find it on there myself?

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Aaagreen
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Posted: 24th Jul 2010 00:55
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Asus make good laptops.


I'd love to see things from your point of view but I can't get my head that far up my bum.
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The Wilderbeast
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Posted: 24th Jul 2010 00:55
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Quote: "It is a nice one, idn't it?

I didn't mean to turn this into a laptop buying thread. But I figured while I'm here, why not?

I'll check out osx86. Something tells me Google shall be my friend in this case.

Mac OS X + Ubuntu on that little laptop with full HD power just sounds like pure win to me right now. And with a 500GB hard drive I might even keep Windows on there for casual game development. "


Check out either hackint0sh or osx86project. I'm building an i7 hackint0sh beast as a DAW (digital audio workstation) for my studio. You can actually get one up and running now with a minimal amount of jiggery pokery
http://lifehacker.com/348653/install-os-x-on-your-hackintosh-pc-no-hacking-required.


I seem to remember the last time someone started up a hackint0sh thread here it got locked, or maybe I'm thinking of another forum


Blitzwerks | Indie Development Team
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Satchmo
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Posted: 24th Jul 2010 01:08
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It's an msi G-series gx 640.

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 24th Jul 2010 01:16
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Ooh, that does look like a nice one...*bookmarks*

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 27th Jul 2010 01:55
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Apologies for the bump and double post.

I just wanted to say that I did it; I wiped Windows off of my computer and installed Ubuntu.

So far (after a couple of hours), I really don't miss Windows at all.

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zapakitul
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Posted: 27th Jul 2010 02:15 Edited at: 27th Jul 2010 02:16
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CoffeeCoder, I went through the same thing a few years ago with Windows. The only thing I kept on missing was DarkGDK. I must admit, that I cheated for a while, and had Windows installed on my own laptop to do some dev-ing in GDK, but it didn't last long until I installed Linux on the laptop.

Game Dev on Linux isn't as hard as some may think. There are a lot of game dev libraries out there to help, like Allegro, SDL. I for one use Panda3D for my 3D app's and games, and I managed to port all the games I ever did in DarkGDK with it.

You can actually feel the difference between using Windows and Linux. For starters I feel that I can 'navigate' freely, without full system freezes, without to many crashes and without my AV eating most of the memory.

At first I missed the games I could play on Windows, but WINE proved to be a miracle. I can run all the games I have on steam perfectly using WINE, and hey, there are some neat FPS games for Linux too.

What I'm trying to say is that Linux opens up new barriers for you, widens your horizon, and gives you a howl new experience in dev-ing.
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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 27th Jul 2010 03:13
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Quote: "Game Dev on Linux isn't as hard as some may think. There are a lot of game dev libraries out there to help, like Allegro, SDL. I for one use Panda3D for my 3D app's and games, and I managed to port all the games I ever did in DarkGDK with it. "


I'm not too interested in game development anymore, to be honest. I'm more interested in web development. Thank goodness that's truly a universal thing.

However if I do want to try my hand at game dev on Ubuntu/Linux in general, I'll definitely consider Panda3D. That looks really promising.

Quote: "You can actually feel the difference between using Windows and Linux. For starters I feel that I can 'navigate' freely, without full system freezes, without to many crashes and without my AV eating most of the memory."


Mhmm. I agree. It feels easier to navigate through as well and feels like a logical layout.

Quote: "At first I missed the games I could play on Windows, but WINE proved to be a miracle. I can run all the games I have on steam perfectly using WINE, and hey, there are some neat FPS games for Linux too."


What games did you get to work in WINE? I haven't used WINE yet, but it's something I want to look at in case I need it in the future.

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Aaagreen
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Posted: 27th Jul 2010 16:21
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I wouldn't want to ditch windows. I don't seem to get any of these freezes, crashes, slowdowns and bluescreens people keep mentioning. And I don't see much point in sacrificing proper DirectX support.


I'd love to see things from your point of view but I can't get my head that far up my bum.
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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 27th Jul 2010 20:24
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It was a somewhat difficult decision to ditch Windows.

I'm not sure why I kept getting freezes, slowdowns and crashes (I never got a BSOD but I'm sure I was close a couple of times), but after a few months of dealing with it and finding no proper solutions to fix the problems, the decision wasn't as difficult.

I was never a gamer really, so I don't miss DirectX.

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Metal Devil123
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Posted: 27th Jul 2010 20:49
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Quote: "I wouldn't want to ditch windows. I don't seem to get any of these freezes, crashes, slowdowns and bluescreens people keep mentioning. And I don't see much point in sacrificing proper DirectX support."

Me neather. I got blue screen a long time ago, and that was just once and it didn't annoy me that much.

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BearCDP
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Posted: 27th Jul 2010 20:57
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Usually when I get BSODs, it's my own fault. I've caused OS X, Windows, Ubuntu, and Redhat all to come to screeching halts once I get cranking with them.

Check out this WIP flash game from the Global Game Jam!
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jeffhuys
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Posted: 28th Jul 2010 01:45
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Quote: "Usually when I get BSODs, it's my own fault. I've caused OS X, Windows, Ubuntu, and Redhat all to come to screeching halts once I get cranking with them.
"

Yupyup, +1!

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Toasty Fresh
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Posted: 28th Jul 2010 03:00
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I get at least one BSoD per day.
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