Trying to break with M$

[spazdaddy]

Hello. I am a longtime microsurf trying to finally break with Redmond after 20 long years of dealing with Wintel "issues" (incl most versions of DOS). I've also been complaining about it for about as long. Laziness and complacency has kept me there I'm ashamed to admit.
In any case, I have a lot more extra time now and I thought that this might be a fine time to make the switch. I've been playing around with an Ubuntu 10.04 Live CD (32 bit) and I really, really like it. Looks like a great jumping off point.
I am using a somewhat proprietary machine, an HP Pavilion a6319fh desktop with a dual Pentium e2180 2.0 GHz and 2GB of DDR with an Intel G33 graphics chipset. I have a very fast internet connection at about 50Mb hardwired to a Netgear WNR3500 router-firewall.
The Live CD ran flawlessly, internet, audio and video seem to work perfectly so far. As soon as I backup my music, documents and graphics I'm all about nuking this turkey and installing a good Linux distro. So in anticipation of making this change, likely this weekend...given the hardware info, is anyone aware of any issues I may encounter? I would like to be very well prepared to make the transition as painless as possible. Or - would it be prudent for me to contain my disaffection and go for the dual boot intead? So many questions...
I tend to be a bit impulsive especially given my disenchantment with M$, so I want to make sure I don't get in over my head and end up without a functioning PC. The machine came with Vista SP1 preinstalled and all I have once I nuke my partitions are the HP recovery CD's I made when I first got the system.
Kind of a funny aside, but almost everything on here is open source except for the OS and firewall - go figure huh?.
Any advice or insights will be very much appreciated. Thank you.

[jayd512]

Hello and Welcome!

Answer: Dual-boot.

Get used to Linux before you commit to it 100%.
If you dual boot your machine, you'll find yourself using Windows less and less.

Enjoy it, and ask your questions... We'll be here to answer them

[firbolg]

I'd go for the dual boot as well - it's what I did when I first started.

Once you've made a decision and want to leave win behind you can format the partition and add it as a data partition or even resize the linux one to include the space.

[spazdaddy]

Hey, thanks for the replies! Dual boot it is....er kinda.... actually what I'm doing at the moment is using an install I made with Wubi to kind of get my feet wet. Already I have hundreds of questions. I love Ubuntu so far and have been using it about 95% of the time already, I need a permanent install for sure, This stuff kicks ***!
What I am planning on doing next is removing the Wubi installation and installing Ubuntu as a permanent dual boot, makes sense seeing as I have about 230GB of free space on this drive so disk space isn't really a premium.
Some questions right off, is the Ubuntu 10.04 Live CD adequate for a full install?
I did a system test (kernel) and it gave me some rather important sounding security recommendations which I would love to implement if I knew how.

# Ignore ICMP broadcasts
#net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1
#
# Ignore bogus ICMP errors
#net.ipv4.icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses = 1
#
# Do not accept ICMP redirects (prevent MITM attacks)
#net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0
#net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0
# _or_
# Accept ICMP redirects only for gateways listed in our default
# gateway list (enabled by default)
# net.ipv4.conf.all.secure_redirects = 1
#
# Do not send ICMP redirects (we are not a router)
#net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects = 0
#
# Do not accept IP source route packets (we are not a router)
#net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0
#net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0
#
# Log Martian Packets
#net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 1

Help! :O How do I do that?
I elected to use gufw for a firewall, I've been playing with desktop firewalls for quite some time, adding and editing rules and so forth, but I find myself confronted with a somewhat alien language. The raw configuration, which I have set to reject incoming connections seems rather limited. In other words. Physically I understand how to help keep bad guys out but I don't know how to do it inside of Linux. Well, I'll leave it at that for now. Like I said, I have hundreds of questions.
Thanks again and as always, any help will be very much appreciated!

[oxf]

Hey, thanks for the replies! Dual boot it is....er kinda.... actually what I'm doing at the moment is using an install I made with Wubi to kind of get my feet wet. Already I have hundreds of questions. I love Ubuntu so far and have been using it about 95% of the time already, I need a permanent install for sure, This stuff kicks ***!
What I am planning on doing next is removing the Wubi installation and installing Ubuntu as a permanent dual boot, makes sense seeing as I have about 230GB of free space on this drive so disk space isn't really a premium.
Some questions right off, is the Ubuntu 10.04 Live CD adequate for a full install?
I did a system test (kernel) and it gave me some rather important sounding security recommendations which I would love to implement if I knew how.

# Ignore ICMP broadcasts
#net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1
#
# Ignore bogus ICMP errors
#net.ipv4.icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses = 1
#
# Do not accept ICMP redirects (prevent MITM attacks)
#net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0
#net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0
# _or_
# Accept ICMP redirects only for gateways listed in our default
# gateway list (enabled by default)
# net.ipv4.conf.all.secure_redirects = 1
#
# Do not send ICMP redirects (we are not a router)
#net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects = 0
#
# Do not accept IP source route packets (we are not a router)
#net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0
#net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0
#
# Log Martian Packets
#net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 1

Help! :O How do I do that?
I elected to use gufw for a firewall, I've been playing with desktop firewalls for quite some time, adding and editing rules and so forth, but I find myself confronted with a somewhat alien language. The raw configuration, which I have set to reject incoming connections seems rather limited. In other words. Physically I understand how to help keep bad guys out but I don't know how to do it inside of Linux. Well, I'll leave it at that for now. Like I said, I have hundreds of questions.
Thanks again and as always, any help will be very much appreciated!

The live CD has all you need for an install! Anything else is optional and can be added through Synaptic

Enjoy !

[spazdaddy]

Thanks again for the advice everybody. I just wanted to say, I am very glad I did the preview install with Wubi, although I am discovering Wubi's limitations. I didn't realize exactly how much I actually need to learn to be a safe and effective user. Completely different thinking from the beginning. Working through some apparmor profiles and iptables how-tos right now. I love it but it's very humbling. I'm definitely making the switch. Its kind of cool being a newbie again, I haven't had this much fun with a computer in years!

Overall opinion of Wubi - it makes a nice tutorial or classroom for those of us who's minds have been atrophied and numbed by the Redmond train wreck but I can't wait to get rid of it and do a real install.

[elija]

I'm a little bit late to this party but again have to agree that dual boot is the way to go. Unless of course you have multiple machines, one running an operating system you are familiar with.

It's good to have a way of getting to fora when you have borked something

[mickle026]

I concur, dual boot for now.

Linux is fantastic when you get used to it. I have been using it now for 3-4 year but still run into small problems that seem to affect just me. It would be a hard core Linux geek or guru that would say ditch windows completely. Its always best for you to provide yourself with a cushion if you get into difficulty with something. What you don't want is to be in need of doing something just to find out it is very complicated or you don't know how, when its a few mouse clicks with programs you are used too.

The way things work are quite different from windows and sometimes windows tools are just too convenient to give up.

[impert]

I did a system test (kernel) and it gave me some rather important sounding security recommendations which I would love to implement if I knew how.

# Ignore ICMP broadcasts
#net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1
#
# Ignore bogus ICMP errors
#net.ipv4.icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses = 1
#
# Do not accept ICMP redirects (prevent MITM attacks)
#net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0
#net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0
# _or_
# Accept ICMP redirects only for gateways listed in our default
# gateway list (enabled by default)
# net.ipv4.conf.all.secure_redirects = 1
#
# Do not send ICMP redirects (we are not a router)
#net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects = 0
#
# Do not accept IP source route packets (we are not a router)
#net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0
#net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0
#
# Log Martian Packets
#net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 1

Help! :O How do I do that?
I elected to use gufw for a firewall

How do you do that? By leaving things as they are. Ubuntu is telling you the way it has set up your system. You don't have to change anything to be safe, and for most people it's not necessary and perhaps not desirable to set up a firewall.
You can test your security with Shield's Up!

[hatebreed]

I would say that dual boot is the way to go also unless you have windows on another system, If you do have windows on another system I would use linux solely. Ubuntu is definately the way to go when you first start out. Just about everything works out of the box without having to tweak. Your firewall should be good security wise out of the box, if you want a gui front end just go to synaptic and install firestarter.