Ubuntu or Windows 7 (Please help)

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DrTheMaster

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May 3, 2015
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Hi, I am sorry that I am posting a question that it is already kind of answered, but I actually need a little bit of more courage to do the next step
I am a medical student so my working on my laptop nearly is about browsing the web, reading PDFs, watching videos.. and my laptop is an old one, it's Acer Aspire 5315, it has an Intel Celeron CPU and 2 GB of RAM, 80 GB of HDD.. I am using Windows 7 32bit and I have never used any Linux software before, my question is, should I go for Ubuntu or stick with the Windows 7? and what about the apps? will I find everything I need in Ubuntu? and will my old laptop run faster with the new operating system.. thanks for reading .. please answer me :)
 
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USAFRet


Dualbooting will be a pain if you ever want to go back to 'Windows only'. The Ubuntu boot manager, GRUB, will take over the boot selection process.
If you want to get rid of Ubuntu, you'll also have to undo that.

Do you have your Windows 7 install media? If so, maybe just install Ubuntu on the whole drive. See how it goes. If you want to go back, just...
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napster100

napster100

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The OS is usually determined on what you intend to do on your computer. My general recommendations is Windows for general daily activities such as web browsing, word processing, emails etc... Linux is more for program development, but also make a good free OS, though sometimes native driver support and applications are a bit rarer. And Mac for media production of videos and music.

Hope this helps.
 
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DrTheMaster

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Thank you, yes that really helped, can you please tell me if my laptop would run faster on Ubuntu than Windows in terms of small usage like I mentioned? again thanks for your time :)
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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To see if it will suit you, you can run Ubuntu directly from a DVD, without making any changes to your system.
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/try-ubuntu-before-you-install

It will be slower than if it was actually installed, but you can play around with it.
 
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napster100

napster100

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Yes, take note of USAFRet's suggestion. You can run Ubuntu from a CD known as a Live CD. If you don't have a spare blank CD around, you can always run it from a USB too. It's a good way to see if you like it. :)
 
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DrTheMaster

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yes actually I tried that and it was good but I couldn't really test it, I couldn't download apps or try further than what's already in it.. anyway thanks for your tip.
 
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napster100

napster100

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Have you tried running it from a USB instead? I think it allows you to download and test out applications too because it's not read-only on a USB.
 
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DrTheMaster

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yes actually that's what I did instead of burning a blank DVD, it couldn't install or download new apps, it did offer me to dual boot though, it offered to take 6 GB of the C drive for Ubuntu.. but if I want to remove it and go back to single boot of Windows and get those 6 GB back, will there be an option for that in Ubuntu? and is 6 GB are actually enough for Ubuntu?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Dualbooting will be a pain if you ever want to go back to 'Windows only'. The Ubuntu boot manager, GRUB, will take over the boot selection process.
If you want to get rid of Ubuntu, you'll also have to undo that.

Do you have your Windows 7 install media? If so, maybe just install Ubuntu on the whole drive. See how it goes. If you want to go back, just reinstall Windows.
 
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napster100

napster100

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Hum, sorry it's been a while since I used the live version haha. Well, 6GB is quite a small amount really, and is only a sufficient for Ubuntu itself, if you wish to add more applications to it, then I'd advise increasing that amount if you do decide to dual boot.

If you don't like Ubuntu, its as simple to remove as it is uninstalling a program (I can't remember if Windows reclaims the space back though, if not it's a fairly simple process). However, there is no such option like this in Ubuntu to remove Windows, you'll need to copy all the things you want to keep to a USB and delete that portion of the hard drive known as the partition.

Linux is a bit different to Windows though, especially in the terms of the CLI (command line interface) which you may not use a lot of, but you may need to at various points as not everything is avalible in the software centre. But it can still generally be quite user friendly, so don't let that put you off trying! :)
 
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McHenryB

McHenryB

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Not true. A simple "Repair Install" will reinstate the Windows 7 bootloader. Better still, install EasyBCD and use that as a boot manager. It also allows you to backup and restore the boot sector.
 
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