Tech Ping
I like everything about Linux mint except that ferkakte startup chime.
Like nails on chalkboard.
I personally like the Raspberry PI running Debian I have my one machine running ADS-B software with FlightAware tracking airplanes as they fly over North Florida.
The interesting thing is Raspberry Pi has a utility running on my Windows laptop that allows you to create boot disks for a number of different Linux versions so I a Ubuntu disk setup and ready to go
Linux piece 2021
BBT. to return when Im awake and learn something.(maybe) thanks ShadowACe
I went Ubuntu Mint Cinnamon two years ago. Solid as a rock, easy to use, all you need.
Thanks but mistake #1 in such helps is assuming a novice even knows what you are referring to. In this case what in the world "terminal" means or where it is or how to quickly shortcut-key access it (Ctrl+Alt+T in Ubuntu). Most Windows users do not even know what the Run or terminal command is or where to or how to quickly shortcut-key access it.
I have Zorin. Every Windows I had slowed down over time. I did the usual but over time it slo - o- - o ed down. Zorin is fast and stays fast. My only problem is watching video, it freezes up all the time. I have to right click it constantly to keep the video going. The sound keeps going but the picture stops. Other than that I love it.
Linux Mint Cinnamon and Windows 7 for only 2 software packages that don’t run outside of Windows on separate dual boot 250gb SSD’s. For over a year has been bulletproof without a hiccup. Fast isn’t even a term I use to describe it.
Good Hunting... from Varmint Al
Nothing about Puppy Linux?
Puppy is my favorite way to introduce newcomers to Linux, or Knoppix, but I haven’t looked into Knoppix in several years.
The idea is a “live cd”. You pop it in, reboot and you’re looking at Linux. Shut down, pull the cd, and you’re back into windows, untouched. Now you can also use it on a USB drive, I’m not going to try it until I get another issue figured out. How to install a few favorite games...
I have a recent version I use on my win 7 laptop now and then, and on a used eMacines with a botched win 7 install. It looks like someone rebooted during a windows 10 “upgrade” and now win 7 is there but only the core OS. No system utilities work at all. Can’t run msconfig, regedit, any system tools.
So I keep a Puppy CD in it. Just downloaded Mint a few days ago, haven’t taken time to burn it to cd yet, too much else going on trying to recover from the ice storm. I think I have an extra hard drive I can use as a test platform, it’s not hard to swap it out. If not, I know where to find them.
Only thing about Puppy I’m not pleased with is it only has a couple of games, and I haven’t figured out how to install a few favorite arcade games and make them keep working so I can burn the result to cd.
That’s another nice feature, you can customize Linux all day long, then burn the results to a CD and you have your own custom install, tailored to your likes. I’ve seen custom builds tailored to education, science and astronomy. The astronomy one was good but I don’t think it’s being developed any more. Everything you could possibly want for an astronomy related OS, including software to attach a telescope to a laptop and take pictures through it. Want to know when the space station will be overhead in your area? It’s there...CLICK...want to see Jupiter’s red spot? Yep, software was included to tell you what night and time, just set your time zone.
Strange though, I built and repaired computers for a living for 15 years, never figured out much about Linux except to boot it up and use it. Didn’t want to though, I wanted to see if it was “ready for prime time”, so I approached it as a complete computer illiterate, can I use it with no knowledge of anything but point and click?
Yes, but Linux in general had a steep learning curve 15 years ago when Puppy was still a 120MB file that would fit on a mini cd. (Puppy and Knoppix were easy, but a full install of Mandrake, Debian or Red Hat was an eye opener)
Just using it and getting online was no big problem, getting dial up working was fairly painless. (no broadband when I first checked out Puppy). Ran like a scalded dog, Puppy would run on a 386 that would choke on windows 95. On a 233MMX, it just screamed. Ran circles around win98 on tbe exact same machine and left no changes whatsoever, except for a small swap file windows would ignore. On identical, brand new 1GHz computers I built myself, XP ran like a dog, while Mandrake 9, released not long after XP, would still run on a 233. XP required a 500 PIII to just stumble along. Kinda reminds me of biden compared to Trump...biden would be XP on a pentium 500, Trump would be Mandrake on the 233mmx, and still running circles around windows, on a machine half as fast with half the RAM. No, I’m not kidding. Mandrake 9 on a 233mmx with 256 mb ram outran XP on a 1GHz PIII with 512 ram.
I also had Mandrake 9 installed on a 1GHZ PIII machine. Identical to my XP machine, with minor hardware differences, Mandrake ran circles around XP and never slowed down a bit while I had to reinstall XP after 2 years because it was so sluggish. That’s because Linux has always had much better memory management. I still don’t know of a reliable way to kill Windows processes once the application that requires them is shut down. Linux does it automatically.
And there were also some other options, like Feather Linux, Damn Small Linux, and a couple of others, all very small, would fit on a mini cd except for Knoppix, and just worked great as a bootable cd. Puppy and Knoppix turned out to be my favorites. Damn Small was quite good too. Feather worked great, light and fast.
I can’t remember which others I tried. Didn’t like Ubuntu much. It ran good, just wasn’t the OS for me. Mandrake, later Mandriva, was my favorite full install. I used it up to Mandrake 10, very good.
Bump for later
And for several years Ubuntu and Mint have been 1&2 (or 2&1) for most widely-used distros.
------------------------------------------------------------ 08:41:51
$> cd /pub
$> more beer
------------------------------------------------------------ 08:41:54
$> man woman
$> Segmentation fault (dumped core)
I’ve been writing software for over 30 years. LINUX is clearly technically superior to windows bloatware. And I have programmed for both of them.
But after 30 years of watching Linux fail to take over the market I am convinced they do not understand computer users.
They talk as if everyone is a computer literate person. For example this article doesn’t even explain what a ‘distro’ is, or how one would get it on your computer.
Until grandma can put in a cd and walk away and then come back to watch pictures Of their grandchildren online, Linux will NEVER take over the market.
And Linux users will continue to fail to understand why.
I know Linux Mint has a huge following here on FR. Many like it because of it's Windows XP like interface that feels very familiar and there's much to be said for that for those that are making the jump from Windows to Linux.
I happen to be a huge Ubuntu Desktop & Server fan myself. On Ubuntu Desktop I put the latest version of Gnome on it, the Gnome Shell Extension and then download all the Mac Catalina OS icons and theme for it to make it look like a Mac. I dumped Windows in my house well over a year ago now (I've always used both Windows and Linux until then) and converted everything to Ubuntu.
my 9+ year old AMD FX-8350 with 32Gb of memory and an SSD RAID absolutely SCREAMS on Ubuntu 20.10 with Linux Kernel 5.10.0
My main machine (daily driver) is an AMD 2700x w/32Gb and an SSD RAID. My Home Theater PC is (you guessed it) also Linux on an Intel i3 4350 and you'd never guess it's that old because it runs fast. I even run a NAS Server on Ubuntu on another i3 4350 with dual Gb NIC's and you'd never know that machine is over 10 years old it runs that well on Ubuntu.
So for those of you who have older PC's and Windows is a dog on it, consider installing Linux Desktop (Ubuntu or Mint) and watch it come back to life.
Hint: If you are installing Linux on a machine with WiFi, make sure you are hard-wired to Ethernet while doing the installation. Most distributions don’t install the WiFi adapter drivers. In some cases, you will be in hell trying to get the WiFi to work. I’m still trying to get Debian to install the driver for my Dell Inspiron 6400 adapter. I have about 20 hours into it so far. The forums show lots of ways to do it and so far, none of them have worked.