Ubuntu, another choice

Great guide to start with: Think working on the command line is complex, old school and obsolete? Think again. In Linux, the command line is a peerless tool that performs complex tasks with very little effort. For example, try using a GUI ( Graphical User Interface ) to delete every file with names ending with  .tmp  and were created within the last 3 months. Then learn how to do the same task through the command line. You will be surprised by the ease and speed with which you can perform this task through the command line, especially if you have to do it regularly. You can do lots of amazing stuff with commands in Linux and it’s really not difficult to learn. If you are completely new to the Linux command line, you should first get familiarized with CLI (Command Line Interface) navigation, along with some basic file/directory operations. And that’s exactly what we will discuss in this article. If you are absolutely new to Linux, try reading our  Linux guide . Also, ...

Ubuntu 12.10  (thus named because it came out in October 2012) has just arrived, and 13.04 and 13.10 will come in April and October of 2013. But 14.04 in April 2014 could be the last version released after just a six-month development period.  14.04 is also the next "Long Term Support" or LTS edition. Every two years, Ubuntu is sort of frozen in place with a more stable edition that is guaranteed support for five years. If the change Canonical is considering is adopted,  every  future edition starting with 14.04 will be an LTS, so the next version after 14.04 would be 16.04 in April 2016. Ubuntu considers “huge” change that would end traditional release cycle | Ars Technica :

Ubuntu 13.04  with codename “ Raring Ringtail ” has been released and announced by  Ubuntu  Team. It comes with a number of improvements in performance and speed, and aesthetic touches that promise “more polished visual experience of Ubuntu  to date”. Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Final Version Released and Available for Download

The date of the release, along with those for the major development milestones, are listed on a  release schedule  on the Ubuntu Wiki. While these dates are, at this early juncture, subject to change it has to be said that they rarely do. As with Ubuntu 13.04 there will only be a single beta release for Ubuntu 13.10 itself. Ubuntu flavours, Xubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Lubuntu & co, are able to take advantage of as many 3 alphas, 2 betas and a release candidate. Key dates at the time of writing are as follows. Bold indicates a milestone that Ubuntu-proper takes part in: Alpha 1 – June 20th Alpha 2 – July 18th Alpha 3 – August 1st Beta 1- September 5th Final Beta – September 26th Release Candidate – October 10th With the final release scheduled for: Final Release - October 17th Ubuntu 13.10 Release Schedule

On April 25th, the newest version of one of the most popular Linux distributions was released — Ubuntu 13.04 , codenamed “ Raring Ringtail ”.  Every new release of Ubuntu warrants the question of what’s new and whether people should try it out or upgrade from an older release. Unlike previous releases of Ubuntu, 13.04 doesn’t bring extraordinary new visual features which may make some people even more skeptical about this release than others.  So what exactly is new, and should you really upgrade? Ubuntu 13.04: What's New In Raring Ringtail?

Microsoft DirectX is a collection of libraries for game programming. With Runtime installed on your Windows Desktop you can run the most important commercial games. On linux you can’t have DirectX installed natively as part of system and there isn’t a Linux Binary versione of it. So, you can’t run windows games on Linux. To have DirectX games on your Linux you can try Wine. Wine (wine is not emulator) is a wrapper of windows libraries, so you can use windows software on your Linux Desktop. Many of windows software don’t run on Linux with Wine, but you can try particular configuration of Wine to see if you can run your favorite windows game or software. To install a Windows Game on Linux you have to install and configure DirectX on wine. This tutorial explain how to install DirectX. Play your Windows Games with Wine and DirectX

People sometimes have to do a reinstall of their Ubuntu system for various reasons (been playing/experimenting with configuration/drivers/other packages or just because something is badly broken) but remembering all the extra packages you have installed can be a chore - but here is the simple solution: On your old system (assuming it is still working), start up Synaptic and go: File-Save Markings and choose a file name along with a location (like a USB drive) that you can use when you have installed your new system and make sure you have checked “save full state, not just changes” option click on Save. Howto Reinstall all of currently installed packages in fresh Ubuntu install