Posted on 11/05/2007 12:19:20 PM PST by Red Badger
Check the classifieds and the Trading post papers. Make an offer regardless of what is asked.
Walmart is running a special right now on Acer Laptops. 1.73GHZ Celeron’s running Vista Home Basic and equipped with 802.11g wireless uplink. Too good a deal for me to pass up. Nice machine too, just bought one Friday.
I installed Ubuntu Linux 7.1 on my primary machine at home (the one I'm on now), and I think that your response is a little off target.
I downloaded the ISO, burned it to a CD, and rebooted my machine. The CD loaded up, and after it ran through its processes, it came up to a desktop, with an option to install permanently. I told it to do so, and it did. No hunting for drivers, no real problems at all. In fact, the only "real" problem was my secondary drive was formatted as NTFS, and I had to do a little reading to correct that issue - just like when I first started out running DOS - had to do a little reading.
I think one of the great things about the OS is the community. If I have a question, there are a group of forums I can go to, post my question, and have an answer in a very short period of time. The Windows community seems to have a ton of folks who enjoy sniping at newbies (and even old hands) who have questions. I haven't encountered that yet within the Ubuntu community. I'm sure that will change, though, as more folks come over.
Install Linux software? Find the correct repositories for your distro. Download it and try to install it with the command line. Oops. Wont work. Nope - I go to System, Administration, Synaptic Package Manager, and select the software I want. I'm already connected to the Repository, and have a dozen or so others to select from if I need to. Haven't had to mess with Terminal for the command line, with the exception of calling Wine so I can run Windows applications, and so far, I've only needed one.
Dependency failure. Missing libraries. Haven't had any of those problems yet. And if I do, I'll deal with it like I've dealt with all the Windows problems I've had. I'll research the issue, and correct it.
It does everything I want it to do, and everything I need it do to do. It does it well, and it does it easily. No lockups, no BSOD, nothing. My 74 year old father is getting ready to install it on his machine. But then, he's a real geek.
You could buy 2 of these, but you only get to keep one...the infamous “$100 laptop”.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/technology/circuits/04pogue.html
You can do that with a live CD, which will not disturb your current Windows installation in any way, since it boots and runs from the CD.
You can download and ISO image, then burn it to CD.
Mepis is my current favorite, but there are many others.
Does anyone actually use a modem to connect to the Internet these days?
This will be a fine machine for what most people use a computer for.
Wal-Mart wouldn’t sell it if they didn’t think so.
Windows is just too expensive for the sub-$250 computer market.
The Live CDs pretty much all do that automatically.
At $199, I would buy one and load XP with one of my licenses on it.
I wonder what the actual hardware specifications are.
Might be worth a look.
How to install software on Ubuntu Linux
1) Boot up Ubuntu
2) Open Synaptic
3) Choose software
4) Click “install”
2) Profit!
(Question marks were unnecessary in this case. :p )
I have to be honest here. I was playing around with Linux on my four year old Dell XP machine. I think and still do think it has great possibilities. But for the novice to try to get a dual operating system up and running is not exactly chopped liver. I started to think about everything and just bought a new “refurbished” Dell Vista machine for $400 from Dell and for all the bad press that Vista has received I think it is a bad rap. I think the new operating system on a properly configured machine up and running out of the box is the way to go.
I couldn’t possibly have purchased even the parts for this never mind the Vista system which retails for $250 by itself. I do need to get the Home version of Office 2007 with Word and Excel for about $120 over the internet. Vista is is already on this machine including a big hard drive, dual core processor, and 2 gb memory and all the bells and whistles and is lightning fast. Two days and UPS is at my door.
I’ll just keep the old machine which worked fine as a backup but I’m loving my new machine and Vista. Definetly better than XP. Don’t even need a manual. I doubt if I will bother with Linux. Just not worth my time. My $0.03 for today.
“cruising usenet “
LOL, you kind of dated ur-self there. :)
If you’re really interested in Ubuntu, check out this site.
This is where I got started. Wubi will install Ubuntu as a dual boot on your machine. I ran that for a few weeks before I decided to make the change.
I keep a Knoppix and a PCLinuxOS on me at my support job and copies for home/travel.
The Live discs have come in handy for hardware ID and testing on quite a few Dells. They did a better job of hardware detection than the Dell Diagnostic discs most of the time.
The live feature is the best part to me since it doesn’t change anything on Windows.
I have even given a few away as gifts for people to try and they are amazed at the friendliness and reliabilty.
FWIW, I run a linspire machine (Which is yet another distro of Linux based on the Ubuntu distro) and I have had zero problems with the box at all.
It runs everything I need, I have installed a few things with their “Click and run” software so there are no issues with compiling or make install issues.. lol
Im a unix geek but this was a 200 dollar box I got from Sears and it has been VERY cool for day to day use. Mainly I got it as a toy.. but I have found it very helpful for many tasks.
Best part? Putting in USB Drives and not needing to mount them.. box does it all.. lol
ping
I wasn't sure myself, but was able to mess with Fedora this past weekend and was very impressed. I think the main thing would be to have someone install the OS for you (well, for me, anyway). After it's stable and running, it really isn't any worse than Windows, and probably better in a lot of ways. I'm going to install Ubuntu on my old desktop & see how many apps there are to replace the ones I normally use. If I can find ones that mirror what I already use, I'll probably get rid of Windows. The virus worries and constant updates are too much to worry about.
It has now been running over 3 months without a reboot. It is used for daily internet access through a Belkin Wireless G USB stick, online gaming, MP3 encoding and burning, Open Office for word processing.
My Wife is pestering me about putting PCLinuxOS on her computer.
You forgot to mention the best part of Ubuntu (in specific, and Linux in general): no viruses and no cost to upgrade (and no 7 year wait either).
When you think "PC", think EVEREX.
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