Linux users?

[leftsideoverhere]

Just been reading through the Windows 7 thread and wondered whether anyone has thought about a real upgrade - to an Operating System that, you know, actually works? I can't believe I'm the only foxestalk user to have a linux system... not only is it free, but it wouldn't swallow a Gigabyte of your RAM just running the OS the way Windows 7 does.

Perhaps I'm just bitter because of all the "Windows 7 was my idea" adverts: "I wanted my computer to stop crashing on me, Windows 7 was my idea" - that's not a feature request, it's a bug report. Gah!

[Lillehamring]

the missus has it on her tiny asus thing, but she can't get her internet working, so it sits in a cupboard not using any of it's RAM....

[leftsideoverhere]

the missus has it on her tiny asus thing, but she can't get her internet working, so it sits in a cupboard not using any of it's RAM....

Odd. All the reviews I've seen of those Asus palmtop PCs say they're dead easy to set up, and I know a couple of people who I woulnd't exactly call geeks who have them, and love them. Has it ever worked? Maybe it's actually bust?

[Daggers]

the missus has it on her tiny asus thing, but she can't get her internet working, so it sits in a cupboard not using any of it's RAM....

Can she work that tiny asus?

[Hitesh]

I was dual booting Ubuntu and Windows Vista. Havent got round to stick it on again after installing Win7

[Lillehamring]

Odd. All the reviews I've seen of those Asus palmtop PCs say they're dead easy to set up, and I know a couple of people who I woulnd't exactly call geeks who have them, and love them. Has it ever worked? Maybe it's actually bust?

it's the wireless, it works normally but as soon as you need a password it fails?

[leftsideoverhere]

it's the wireless, it works normally but as soon as you need a password it fails?

There's a known problem, kind of, with the Asus eee and some WPA routers depending on the complexity of the key. God knows why it should happen, or why Asus haven't fixed it. It's certainly not a 'linux' problem as such, since most linux PCs work pretty well with security-enabled wifi, but here's some help:

http://www.computer-aid.com.au/blog/2008/0...eless-security/

http://brunogirin.blogspot.com/2008/03/asu...a-wireless.html

It sounds like choosing a shorter password might fix it for you.

If not, here's a more complicated process to fix the problem...

http://wiki.eeeuser.com/wpa_default_xandros

Good luck.

Nick

[Mike the Metal Ed]

I've just set up a small 20GB Ubuntu partition on my otherwise Vista PC, just to give it a trial run. Must say I like it so far, only had to stop a process once, and that was a) due to my own error and b) a Windows app running in Wine.

I've been looking into other Distros to install on my old old PC that I gave to my cousins, (64MB RAM, 600 MHz processor if I remember correctly) as XP runs really slowly on it (it was designed to run Win 98 SE), tried OpenSUSE but it looks like it would use too much memory, MEPIS Lite looked good, but when I tested it on a laptop (it needs an internal wireless card, the PC I was originally testing it on uses a USB dongle) it wouldn't install despite me trying every command I could find.

[Fox92]

The only time I ever used Linux in my life was something like Slax Linux.

That was in college when we were timing Linux and Windows for an assignment.

Windows XP took 55 seconds to load.

Slax Linux took 2 minutes 29 seconds.

[leftsideoverhere]

The only time I ever used Linux in my life was something like Slax Linux.

That was in college when we were timing Linux and Windows for an assignment.

Windows XP took 55 seconds to load.

Slax Linux took 2 minutes 29 seconds.

I'm guessing that was Slackware - the so-called "British linux". Not hugely impressive, but even so, those timings you quoted are bizarre. Did you fail the assignment?

[Fox92]

I'm guessing that was Slackware - the so-called "British linux". Not hugely impressive, but even so, those timings you quoted are bizarre. Did you fail the assignment?

I know they are.

And, I haven't handed it in yet, but thanks for the support

[Mike the Metal Ed]

I'm guessing that was Slackware - the so-called "British linux". Not hugely impressive, but even so, those timings you quoted are bizarre. Did you fail the assignment?

Nah, it's Linux Slax (http://www.slax.org/) a portable one, that is intended to run off a CD or pen drive, which would probably go a way to explaining it. Was this a Microsoft propaganda course?

[leftsideoverhere]

I've just set up a small 20GB Ubuntu partition on my otherwise Vista PC, just to give it a trial run. Must say I like it so far, only had to stop a process once, and that was a) due to my own error and b) a Windows app running in Wine.

I've been looking into other Distros to install on my old old PC that I gave to my cousins, (64MB RAM, 600 MHz processor if I remember correctly) as XP runs really slowly on it (it was designed to run Win 98 SE), tried OpenSUSE but it looks like it would use too much memory, MEPIS Lite looked good, but when I tested it on a laptop (it needs an internal wireless card, the PC I was originally testing it on uses a USB dongle) it wouldn't install despite me trying every command I could find.

The inevitable OS of choice for a limited PC is DSL (Damn Small Linux), but I also like Xubuntu - which is ubuntu but with xfce (because it isn't the linux which uses up the RAM, it's the GUI, and xfce is the most lightweight). A lot of people like puppy but I've never used it.

What do you make of Ubuntu? I've used it once before for a machine in a school classroom, and the kids loved it (it was edubuntu, I think). There's a new version out which is tempting me to try it, and I'm about to get a new PC at home which might get Ubuntu instead of OpenSUSE which I've used for the last few years. Only times I've turned my PC off in all that time have been power cuts or hardware failures I think.

[Mike the Metal Ed]

The inevitable OS of choice for a limited PC is DSL (Damn Small Linux), but I also like Xubuntu - which is ubuntu but with xfce (because it isn't the linux which uses up the RAM, it's the GUI, and xfce is the most lightweight). A lot of people like puppy but I've never used it.

What do you make of Ubuntu? I've used it once before for a machine in a school classroom, and the kids loved it (it was edubuntu, I think). There's a new version out which is tempting me to try it, and I'm about to get a new PC at home which might get Ubuntu instead of OpenSUSE which I've used for the last few years. Only times I've turned my PC off in all that time have been power cuts or hardware failures I think.

I'm a real Linux noob, but it seems great so far, nothing sets it massively apart from any other OS I've used, and it took some tweaking to make it aesthetically pleasing, but it seems to be stabler than any Win or Mac PC I've used, and Wine mostly works fine for stuff that doesn't work on Linux.

Try it out I say, you can always just test the LiveCD version before you commit to installing it anyway.

Just to make sure I have my facts straight, I don't need to worry so much about firewall and antivirus software on Linux right? Is it still worth finding some security software just to be safe?

[leftsideoverhere]

I'm a real Linux noob, but it seems great so far, nothing sets it massively apart from any other OS I've used, and it took some tweaking to make it aesthetically pleasing, but it seems to be stabler than any Win or Mac PC I've used, and Wine mostly works fine for stuff that doesn't work on Linux.

Try it out I say, you can always just test the LiveCD version before you commit to installing it anyway.

Just to make sure I have my facts straight, I don't need to worry so much about firewall and antivirus software on Linux right? Is it still worth finding some security software just to be safe?

You still want a firewall, because some of those kind of attacks are not OS-specific. Most linux variants have some kind of in-built firewall, which should do you fine, provided you're not particularly exposed for some reason. If you're sitting behind a firewall-enabled router you should be good to go anyway. As for anti-virus, it's a lot less of an issue, because the vast majority of viruses are Windows-specific. There are linux anti-virus scanners around, but that's mostly just good manners, cos linux mail servers can then catch and delete any passing Windows virus-laden emails.

[Lillehamring]

There's a known problem, kind of, with the Asus eee and some WPA routers depending on the complexity of the key. God knows why it should happen, or why Asus haven't fixed it. It's certainly not a 'linux' problem as such, since most linux PCs work pretty well with security-enabled wifi, but here's some help:

http://www.computer-aid.com.au/blog/2008/0...eless-security/

http://brunogirin.blogspot.com/2008/03/asu...a-wireless.html

It sounds like choosing a shorter password might fix it for you.

If not, here's a more complicated process to fix the problem...

http://wiki.eeeuser.com/wpa_default_xandros

Good luck.

Nick

thanks, never worked with linux myself so will be interesting to have a fiddle....

[Daggers]

[Daggers]

And one for Phube...

[EddLeicester]

I understand Windows and its quirks. Everything I try to do on Linux, I naturally try to do the Windows way, which is not always possible. Very rarely is a task simpler to perform in Linux than in Windows and often enough, a Linux task is insanely complicated and you are left guessing.

(boring bit: feel free to skip...)

For example, the other week I tried to install an IPV6 (over IPv4) tunnel and it turned out that the Ubuntu repo's package does not install a config file in /etc/somewhere-or-other/. I spent an hour trawling through user forums reading post after post of people saying, "yeah, I have that same problem", or "great, fixed it" without saying what they did. I chanced upon a good post and got it working, but I consider myself to be reasonably techie and had major problems. My mum, if she had really wanted an IPV6 tunnel, would have failed.

(...end of boring bit)

And that is the problem with Linux. It is written by people with beards, for people with beards. Others are welcome to try it, but should know what to expect. I wouldn't advise anyone outside the IT world to even consider it. Stick to Windows. It works for me.

[leftsideoverhere]

I understand Windows and its quirks. Everything I try to do on Linux, I naturally try to do the Windows way, which is not always possible. Very rarely is a task simpler to perform in Linux than in Windows and often enough, a Linux task is insanely complicated and you are left guessing.

(boring bit: feel free to skip...)

For example, the other week I tried to install an IPV6 (over IPv4) tunnel and it turned out that the Ubuntu repo's package does not install a config file in /etc/somewhere-or-other/. I spent an hour trawling through user forums reading post after post of people saying, "yeah, I have that same problem", or "great, fixed it" without saying what they did. I chanced upon a good post and got it working, but I consider myself to be reasonably techie and had major problems. My mum, if she had really wanted an IPV6 tunnel, would have failed.

(...end of boring bit)

And that is the problem with Linux. It is written by people with beards, for people with beards. Others are welcome to try it, but should know what to expect. I wouldn't advise anyone outside the IT world to even consider it. Stick to Windows. It works for me.

Never had a beard.

[Fox92]

Nah, it's Linux Slax (http://www.slax.org/) a portable one, that is intended to run off a CD or pen drive, which would probably go a way to explaining it. Was this a Microsoft propaganda course?

No, it is BTEC National Diploma in IT.

And, yes, it was run off of a CD.

[coale39]

Never had a beard.

Maybe you should get one...

[h1210]

I've been running Mint for about a month now which I'm very happy with. I think it makes life easier for people who would have previously been put off Linux due to the seemingly difficult nature of configuring simple applications. I was converted after using Ubuntu (8.04? I think) at Uni last year and wouldn't consider changing to Windows 7 (although I do welcome the inclusion of PowerShell).

EDIT: Basic spelling error (FAIL!)

[lavrentis]

Installed Ubuntu and deleted it in the same day.

I prefer compatibility and cant be bothered for custom user built drivers. Win 7