Tips When Switching to Linux?

[flow.of.soul]

So it appears that there are alot of knowledgable Linux users so I thought I would post this topic here. So I am going to attempt to use Linux as my main os (I will be using ubuntu). So I'm looking for advice on what apps are essential or on what you wish you knew when you switched to Linux. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

[Lupin]

Learn to use the terminal.

[kureshii]

Learn to use the terminal.

And when you do that, know what you're typing before you press enter...

[bloody000]

Read docs. Don't just google, copy and paste.

[fohfoh]

Learn to use the terminal.

And when you do that, know what you're typing before you press enter...

lol.

But seriously. Dual boot first. You never know when there's something you can't resolve on a tight schedule. Then a quick hack at ms can save your life and you figure out a work around when you truly have time. (No sense in freaking out because wine isn't being nice to the program you need for school because it's in dire need of windows)

Other than that... expect to screw things up and reinstall ubuntu a bunch of times to "get an easy fix".

Also... compiz is fucking sweet.

[halfelite]

No reason to even run wine now with vmware or install dual boot.

[kureshii]

lol.

But seriously. Dual boot first. You never know when there's something you can't resolve on a tight schedule. Then a quick hack at ms can save your life and you figure out a work around when you truly have time. (No sense in freaking out because wine isn't being nice to the program you need for school because it's in dire need of windows)

Other than that... expect to screw things up and reinstall ubuntu a bunch of times to "get an easy fix".

Also... compiz is fucking sweet.

Before dual-booting, VMWare it first

[Lupin]

I'd say use a live CD first.

[razirazo_90]

live cd is too slow. A single simple task will take forever to load.

[dankles]

I'd go with the dual boot option personally. If you wanna get dirty, no sense just walking on mud, You need to roll around in it. That is how I learned linux, and it really payed off.


Some tips for an anime geek such as yourself:

For video, use mplayer (or mplayer with a frontend like smplayer). The stock version in ubuntu is an old one. You'll wanna get a newer svn copy as it has better ssa/ass support along with improvements to its built in ffmpeg to speed up h264 video watching.

Also, if you have an Nvidia GPU along with the right chipset. You'll wanna know how to work with vdpau in mplayer. Vdpau basicly means you can watch your 1080p h264 rips with only 2%~ cpu.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDPAU <-- a list of supported cards among other things.

for an ubuntu repository with need packages:
https://launchpad.net/~nvidia-vdpau/+archive/ppa

You'll also wanna set this up (first):
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu


If you need any help with linux, feel free to PM me here on the forums or message me on rizon/irc. My nick on rizon is dankles too.
I'm one of those crazy fanboys, so I really dont mind helping at all. It helps my e-peen.  

EDIT:
Oh yeah, don't use framedropping in mplayer when you play h264 stuff, because it has a weird effect. If ur system is slow, there are better config options to speed things up. Let me know and i can help you with that too if needed.
I only mention the framedropping thing because it seems to be turned on by default in smplayer and gnome-mplayer.