Ubuntu and chess.

Windows 10 is no good at all, too unstable. I have switched over to Ubuntu. Ubuntu is much more stable. We need a stable machine for chess because we don't want our chess games deleted if the machine crashes. I was hesitant at first about switching to Ubuntu because I was afraid I couldn't run my two favorite chess programs Lucas Chess and Scid but guess what, they both work fine with Wine, Wine is a program that enables Windows programs to run in Ubuntu. So lets all switch over to Ubuntu which is a much better program chess players and if we all do this, Ubuntu will be our standard,developers who write new chess programs will write them for Ubuntu, not Windows and we will all be much better off!  

I agree that Linux is much better than Windows.  I have been using Linux for several years now and mostly Ubuntu based distros like Mint.  However, I have been using

Once one has tasted the awesomeness of open source software its almost impossible to go back.  If you ever need to run a windows program try Oracles virtualbox, its pretty easy to use and windows runs like a charm on it.

I have tried using "Virtual Box" a couple of times but can't seem to get it running.  If I download a Windows ISO will I be able to run Windows?  Do I need to burn an image of the ISO for running in Virtual Box? 

You have to install windows under Virtualbox, just like you would do in a new PC. And no, no need to burn the windoze ISO- you can mount it via the VirtualBox media manager. Unlike WINE (full speed performance, but tricky to set up, actually impossible for a few windoze apps), almost every windows application runs under VirtualBox- but you have to pay a significant performance handicap.

@ the O.P: Any good reason to run scid via WINE, and not natively?

Hi try this video tutorial. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4R2mDlIEKo

and like the IM said you simply need to download a Windows ISO image and use that, no need to burn an acutal disc.

My laptop is set up for dual boot. I may get round to doing the same with my tower.I'm just put off by the (seeming ?) lack of software.....Does chessbase support Linux ?

Up to v.10 Chessbase is running perfectly under WINE. The newer versions have some (very) annoying visual glitches.

Chess Assistant, Aquarium, Arena and most other chess software is running perfectly well.

You can run your physical windows dualboot installation under Virtualbox, if you have windows 7 or newer. The way is not trivial, but not so difficult, either. The only issue might be about windows activation (since there is much difference between physical and virtual hardware), but there are a few workarounds for this.

Thanks

My idea is to get away from Windows altogether. If everybody could agree on one flavor of Linux it would be a great help.  I chose Ubuntu because it seems to be the most popular one. Also there is a lot of help available for it in terms of videos and blogs and even whole books making it easier to learn. I have been warned away from dual boots because Microsoft screws up your whole system when it downloads its "improvements" to Windows. There are only 2 Windows programs that I really need, SCID and Lucas Chess and both are working fine under Wine. If we all had the same operating system other than Windows,  instead of coming out with programs that only work under Windows they would in addition make them work under an os of our choice, namely Ubuntu. 

OK, but scid, as well as scid_vs_pc are TCL/TK based, and have native Linux versions which are running perfectly... no need for WINE.

yes just run them from the terminal :D

Scid is in the software center. I was mistaken when I said it needed wine. I have not found scid vs pc, where is it and how do I run it from the terminal? I am new to Ubuntu and have just started learning how to use the terminal. What is TCL/TK? I have actually just started using Ubuntu a few days ago and am amazed at how much better it just runs than Windows!

I just have SCID too but my verion of Linux I need to run from the terminal, I just type in scid and it works :D  If you have SCID no need of SCID v PC which I think is just a fork.  Download a database for SCID from here, 

http://katar.weebly.com

Does anyone like thieves. It's good to be remembered as such.

I use an Archlinux clone (Manjaro Linux), where installing scid_vs_pc is as simple as typing "yaourt scid_vs_pc" in a terminal. Actually you will have the options to install either the latest release (4.16), or the latest devel snapshot from subversion. You can do more or less the same under Debian. Ubuntu... ummm, probably there too, I do not really know and I don't care, either, Ubuntu is not my cup of tea.

Oh... and any properly built application should have XDG menu entries, no need to use the terminal to launch them.

I downloaded Scid vs PC and rightclicked the icon. I chose "open with Wine" and I got a working copy of Scid vs PC. Scid vs PC is a fork that has some features that plain old Scid does not have. Now I have both versions. Ubuntu and Wine work better than I thought. 

How would you rate v10 chessbase as of today? Is it severely lacking since it's so old?  

It's working perfectly well, and it's not lacking something serious. The only thing missed is access to the online chessbase database, since support for CB10 ended a few months ago. Not such a big deal though. The real problem is that CB10 isn't available for sale any more!

given that I remember way back when SCID was written by "Shane" and was ONLY found in  linux, not windows, I'm suprised folks are running it in linux by using a windows version under WINE.
I know "Shane' has moved on many years ago,  but unless things have changed dramatically, it should be very available as a native linux application, as that was where I'm pretty sure it was born.  Check your distro's repositories, it should be there!