Ubuntu users

Is anyone out there using Ubuntu for their main or only OS? Or some other version of Linux? If so what chess software do you use, and do you know if Fritz and/or ChessBase can be run using some sort of Windows emulator?

Any info here would be appreciated, as after reading about Windows 8 a bit it appears that MS has finally forced me to switch to Linux after support for XP and W7 ends in 2014.

https://readmystuff.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/why-windows-8-sucks/

Fritz and Chessbase work just fine in VMWare. And, just because support ends doesn't mean you have to stop using an OS you like. Look how many Amiga fans there still are :)

Kingpatzer, thanks for the info and actually when support stops for a Windows based OS it does mean I have to stop using it once it needs to be reinstalled because there will  no longer be anyway (I know of) to add all of the hundreds of necessary security updates

Fair enough ;) 

Anyway, I use VMWare Fusion on my macbook pro to run Win 7 for my chess programs. I have absolutely no problems with the programs. I allocate 2 Gig of ram which is more than sufficient to get very good performance out of the programs. Now, if I were trying to have a computer play on ICC I'd need more, but for doing analysis of my own games or interesting positions, or doing database searches it works great. 

I do highly recommend one of these guys Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 32 MB Cache 2.5 Inch Solid State Hybrid Drive ST750LX003 to really make ak HUGE difference in performance across the board, but one which is especially noticable in the virtual machine. 

I just got mine last week and am blown away by the difference it makes.

Of course VMWare is a virtual machine environment, you still need a copy of the OS underneath it.  But from a security perspective it's far superior to just having an OS on the desktop, particularly if you'er going to use only a limited number of programs and know exactly where you want them to connect to. 

Thanks again all this info is very interesting to me but your HD info is confusing are you referrring to 1 or 2 different HDs? - funny I'm currently using a Seagate 500 GB HD which is filled up thanks to my totally sloppy carelessness - it's filled up with duplicate/triplicate/etc backups I don't really need but am wary of trying to weed out, so maybe I'll buy another external HD (sigh) - Costco has 'em up to 3 TBs now!

I will look up VMWare which is all new to me but the bottom line is I need a new PC for W7 or W8 (I'll always need Windows for something or other I'm sure) and more RAM - 2 of my 4 RAM slots on this PC have "burned out."

I have a single HD. I replaced the stock HD in my machine with the Seagate SSD hybrid drive. Because it's a solid state hybrid, frequently accesssed data is kept on the SSD portion of the drive - which makes access to that data super fast (about 90x faster than HD access). And the HD itself isn't a slouch with 72000 rpms. 

I know what you mean about drives filling up with crap. Spending time housecleaning can really make a difference. 

I do pretty much everything on Linux.  I use Ubuntu as my primary desktop and CentOS for web development (anything that's got to be deployed in server land).  For running Windows programs they will usually run fine under the latest WINE, or if they don't then I use Virtualbox for running Windows 7 or XP.

I used to use VMware but switched to Virtualbox some time back.  It has pretty much the same features but it's free.

I have no idea why you'd use Windows for chess programs.  Because Linux (e.g. Ubuntu) handles inter-process communication better you'll find things like the communication between GUI front ends and chess engines runs much more smoothly in Linux than it does under Windows.  In fact it should run better in MacOS than it does in Windows, it's just a shame that the major chess engines haven't found a port into MacOS land yet.

Actually running a chess UI and a UCI chess engine (e.g. stockfish) on an android tablet is pretty snazzy too.

Q:I have no idea why you'd use Windows for chess programs. delatbabel

A: Uh,maybe  because you've used Windows going back to Win95 and have never used another OS in your entire life besides DOS?

BUT, thanks for the info about WINE, Virtualbox and VMWare!

I switched from Windows to Ubuntu a few years ago, now days I use Lubuntu and think Linux is the bee's knees.

Haven't found a reason to use a Windows emulator and don't miss Microsoft.

For chess software I use SCID with Stockfish.

The reason to run chess software in Windows is that the only chess databases available in Linux are pale immitations of commercial products at this point in time, and training programs like those available from Chessbase are non-existant. 

I'm a Mac guy for my home computers, but the simple reality is that unless I'm willing to saddle myself with 1/3rd of the functionality of ChessBase, there's no software I can use. And Linux folks have the same issue. 

This isn't the case in terms of many areas of softare, from browsers and office swuits to mathemetical modelling tools. But in the realm of chess software, it's a Windows world. 

Chessbase runs fine under Linux using the most recent versions of WINE.  Chessbase databases can be imported into SCID and vice-versa (through the PGN format).

Shredder makes chess software and engines that run on Mac, Windows and Linux.

I use "SCID vs PC" as a substitute for chessbase and the likes, and it satisfies all my needs. I use Chess Hero (the latest version) as training software, it works flawlessly with wine, and use komodo engine for linux as the main engine.

I would suggest the linux version of shredder classic to people looking for a substitute of Fritz. It's actually better anyway.

A pal sent me the following info:

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) will be a Long Term Support (LTS) release. Unlike previous LTS releases that have been supported for three years for the desktop version this release will be supported for five years.

Canonical announced that the default download for 12.04 will be 64-bit, with 32-bit still available as a user choice. Other planned changes for this release include a much faster start up time for the Ubuntu Software Center and refinements to Unity. This release will replace the Banshee media player with Rhythmbox and drop the Tomboy note-taking application and the supporting Mono framework as well.

In January 2012 Shuttleworth announced that Ubuntu 12.04 would incorporate a new Head-Up Display (HUD) feature that will allow hotkey searching for application menu items from the keyboard, without the need for using the mouse. Shuttleworth said that the HUD "will ultimately replace menus in Unity applications" but for Ubuntu 12.04 at least the menus will remain.

I'm willing to abandon Fritz if necessary in order to switch to Linux but am not eager to abandon Chess Base 9 which I now know a lot about and which also has a BIG DB 2011 updated to right now (this very nanosecond, I swear to Allah, Visnu and Yaweh) with 5.3 million games. Of course I'll need to upgrade CB9 eventually but want to stick with a "winner" for me at least.

Again, put your chess software on a virtual machine - either VMWare, Virtual Box or whatever. Lock it down and you don't even have to worry about patching it. 

Support for both Win XP and W7 ends in 2014

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/endofsupport.aspx

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/how-long-will-microsoft-support-xp-vista-and-windows-7/2304

Which matters not if you're running the OS in a virtual environment for a single app or two and where you strictly control the network access. It does matter if you're running it on a computer with unfettered network access or where you're running so many applications that you can't manually limit network connectivity to a few trusted sites.