hey

I am basicly in the same boat as you. I made my switch to linux about 3 weeks ago.
And tbh im impressed with how good it is.


Im using ubuntu 6.10 ( edgy edge ). ( www.ubuntu.com )
The forums is great, and if you want some infomation it is almost always on google :)

edit: forgott to mention one of the best places for a quick lookup:
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Edgy


For deving im using code::blocks ( with glfw and boost::python ) and it works like a charm.
I am also running wow under ubuntu with great success.

Just wanted to wish you good luck and remember you dint learn windows in a day...
ubuntu rocks!

I used to use Ubuntu as well, but I got badly burnt by Edgy's instability. So, I ditched Edgy and installed Debian/etch instead.

Sure. Aside from the occasional bad updates that it had (such as X.org) I've had problems with cupsys, windows shares, VPN, unmounting network shares, switching networks (wireless to wired and back again) and occasional desktop freeze-ups. Also, sometimes it would hang booting up or shutting down for unexplained reasons.

Don't get me wrong, Ubuntu is pretty good overall but I have the impression they are having some QA problems. Nothing I wouldn't except running a development version (which I do now with Debian/etch) but Edgy is supposed to be a stable version. Personally I prefer Dapper LTS over Edgy but there were a couple of packages that I needed for development that I could only get with Edgy.

All Linux-es are development versions, as far as I can tell.

I've tried Fedora Core, CentOS, Ubuntu, that distro where it compiles everything locally, and others, and even run a system that I built myself from source (without package managers). In the end, the self-built system is smaller, faster, and stays up longer. Couldn't have done it without 20 years of Linux experience, though! (VAX-11/BSD 4.2, I still love you!)

If you want a simpler install and set-up, Ubuntu or possibly Debian is probably the way to go. Stay away from Fedora/RHEL/CentOS.

My Reviews:

Fedora Core:
For some reason, this distribution always leaves a bad taste in my mouth if I ever use it for anything more than a no-X server package. From init-3, I find it's easier to configure services through chkconfig. From a desktop perspective, though, it just feels half-baked. Though I imagine any X11/Xorg instance you have up and running is only as good as the amount of time you put into it. But, "out of the box", Fedora doesn't impress.

IDE of choice: VI and makefiles. Then again, I wasn't in X11 for long in this distro before I got rid of it. Now I only use it for servers.

SuSE:
SuSE was my desktop of choice up until a few months ago when Novell partnered up with Microsoft. I thought that to be a good opportunity to try a new distro; but up until that point, I was extremely impressed with the distro. Novell has obviously spread its influence into the distribution, and the desktop variant was only improved by its touch. Xgl worked out of the box for me. Services are a bit clinky at times, though Yast2 is a wonder management utility.

IDE of choice: KDevelop.

Ubuntu:
Apt-get is a beautiful thing. Absolutely beautiful. How did I survive in the linux world without it?

This distro has been all I've wanted, except for the focus on Gnome. I've tried Fluxbox and installing KDE as an afterthought, but both seem out of place. While I doubt Kubuntu will be much different, that's next on my list.

IDE of choice: Codeblocks OR Gedit + makefiles.