I have been looking into using Linux for quite some time. I experimented with a few different distributions, but after spending a large amount of time in Knoppix and Fedora and still not having a 100% usable computer I became frustrated and usually installed Windows again. I had experimented with Ubuntu, but I didn’t have the time to spend finding all the software I needed and then configuring everything.
I’ve decided that I want to switch to Linux permanently, so about a week ago I installed Ubuntu on a dual-boot with Windows XP. I would like to be able to get rid of Windows completely, but there a few things I still need it for that aren’t supported in Linux. I have an iPhone so i need iTunes, Netflix instant watch doesn’t work in Linux at all yet (boo…), and neither does NBC.com for episodes of The Office.
There is the option of installing Virtualbox so I can run Windows XP inside of Ubuntu. I plan to do this eventually for iTunes, however I haven’t had any luck with video working out from inside a virtual machine. I think it is simply the age of my laptop I’ve had for 4 years. Once Netflix and NBC get their act together, I will get rid of the dual-boot completely and go just with Ubuntu.
The main kinds of software I need are music notation, recording, video & photo editing. The best part is the standard of open-source software, and that I have several different options, all which are free and usually easy to install.
I am going to be outlining the software I find that I think deserves a mention and detailing how to get a few other things done as well.