No more Microsoft Windows; it's GNU/Linux for me

[vikingm03]

How's the Ubuntu laptop working out for what you want/need to do with it?

Good. I have had some software issues, (like not being able to get the "Xilinx" software cable drivers to work) but I managed. I really like most of the default software that comes with ubuntu. Out-of-the-ISO I had to change things around to get it the way I like it, but the same can be said for Windows too I guess. I am disappointed in the lack of default SSD support though, trim is not enabled by default, but some edits to fstab can fix that.

If someone has normal (basic) software needs, or if they know and understand what linux can do and it suits their needs (linux can do a LOT now btw) then linux is a good viable choice for an OS. But, and I'm sure you'll disagree, Windows 7 is also a great OS; in my experience it just never crashes and has so much software for it.

That's my take on OSs.

[Cowboy T]

I guess an OS can be viewed as "great" or not depending on what its intended use is. As one example, for "gamerz", I'd say Windows 7 probably is pretty good, because of the sheer amount of games that are written for the Win32 platform. By contrast, Linux doesn't have very good support for Windows games, so it's not so great there. However, for general computing use, I'm now convinced that Linux is a superior platform, and here's one big reason why.

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=587751

My Dad is also a non-techie and has run across these infected Web sites regularly. Fortunately, he's pretty much immune to that stuff now. I had put him on a GNU/Linux distro during his last computer refresh (previous one had MS Windows), and since he does online financial transactions, my first concern was that his computer doesn't get "pwn3d". To prepare him for the OS move, I had installed OpenOffice.org, Firefox, and Thunderbird on his Windows box and migrated him over to those apps. He uses those same apps on GNU/Linux today. I was also able to migrate his financial data from Quicken to KMyMoney (the GNU/Linux equivalent), and it's actually pretty decent.

However, perhaps for those who have certain niche business apps that require the Win32 API (e. g. Lawson), Microsoft Windows might still be needed. I wish software houses would rely less on "CraptiveX" controls and instead use W3C standards. AJAX (Async JavaScript And XML) and style sheets together can do a whole lot and are cross-platform. As long as Internet Exploder continues to support CraptiveX, these "click-by" infections will likely continue.

Just looked up this TRIM that you'd mentioned. I don't have any SSD's just yet, given their cost compared to traditional hard disk drives, so I hadn't known about it yet. But I see what you're talking about and why TRIM is a very good idea! As SSD's come down in price and thus get more popular, I'd imagine Ubuntu will have this turned on by default.

[vikingm03]

Ya, almost everyone who wants to play games on the PC will default to windows (or dual boot), that's just that way things are.

For general computing use (by non-techies specifically) linux does have that ace up it's sleeve. But the way I think about it for that role, both suck very hard. Either way the non-techie still needs that techie-in-the-family. Could your father have setup linux himself? What if something goes wrong (something will eventually) like say a permissions problem or something, can your father operate the terminal by himself? If someone who is computer illiterate didn't need more powerful software like Quicken or Photoshop or the linux equivalents (so not your dad in this case), a tablet makes a lot of sense I think. Less work for the techie-in-the-family

As for the SSD, my laptop gets moved/bumped around a lot, so an SSD makes sense for me. Space doesn't seem to be an issue either, but I dont carry around movies or anything on it, just my work.

SSD's seem to have caught linux off guard or something. I remember reading something about the people behind the kernel development recommending against turning on trim at all (the "discard" option that goes in the fstab file), and just using a command (something like "fstrim", would have to look it up agian) once in a while manually. I just turned trim on anyways, everyone else is doing it =)

Oh, just wanted to say one more thing I like about Ubuntu (im sure some other distros do it too, I haven't tried them all). I really like the alias' for the default programs. For example, in some other distros I have tried, when you start it up for the first time you are greeted with a ton of applications like "pacman", "geany", "Thunar", etc. At a glance you have no idea what these are, it's a foreign language. Ubuntu has alias' for the crazy names, so by default I can launch "files", "screenshot", "text editor", "system monitor", etc. I really liked the common language of these alias' and I think it's a good direction for linux to go. Less time learning the OS, more time using it. Just my opinion...

[dem0critus]

Tri boot ftw! OS X lion, Debian, Win7 x64. The OS X for number 3 is just for bragging rights :P

[stix213]

I use Ubuntu Linux on my work laptop, have been since 2007. The only time I use Windows is on my gaming computer. Though I have to say Microsoft did a much better job with Win7 than I expected.

[stepchain]

I use to run Linux back in the day, Slack ware 3.0 was the last distro that I ran of Linux. While it has its advantages, I can't shake that 99% of the software out there runs for Windows. Using wine sucked, so I'm sticking to windows. Too lazy to use Linux anymore.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

[JDay]

I run Linux in VMs when I need to use it.

[dem0critus]

I run Linux in VMs when I need to use it.

Ya VMWare makes it soo easy I love it.

[Cowboy T]

For general computing use (by non-techies specifically) linux does have that ace up it's sleeve. But the way I think about it for that role, both suck very hard. Either way the non-techie still needs that techie-in-the-family. Could your father have setup linux himself? What if something goes wrong (something will eventually) like say a permissions problem or something, can your father operate the terminal by himself? If someone who is computer illiterate didn't need more powerful software like Quicken or Photoshop or the linux equivalents (so not your dad in this case), a tablet makes a lot of sense I think. Less work for the techie-in-the-family

No, my Dad would've been up ye olde creek, be it either GNU/Linux or Windows 7, if he had to set it up himself. Total non-techie. Wouldn't have known Jack Diddly about setting up, say, a printer driver on MS Windows. You raise a good point there about computer OS's generally. He does some very basic terminal stuff to run his weekly backup to an external USB drive, based on some instructions I wrote up for him (it's a BASH script running rsync). I could've installed something like AMANDA or bacula, but a quick BASH script and a "this is how you run it" Post-It just turned out to be easier.

The other nice thing is that I can SSH into his box and fix whatever it is that he broke. :-) Fortunately, that isn't too often.

[JDay]

He does some very basic terminal stuff to run his weekly backup to an external USB drive, based on some instructions I wrote up for him (it's a BASH script running rsync). I could've installed something like AMANDA or bacula, but a quick BASH script and a "this is how you run it" Post-It just turned out to be easier.

A cron job would have been the preferred solution. Or you could setup a script to run when that drive is attached to the system.

The other nice thing is that I can SSH into his box and fix whatever it is that he broke. :-) Fortunately, that isn't too often.

You can do the same with Windows.

http://sshwindows.sourceforge.net/

Or you can setup a free service such as LogMeIn.

[zfields]

A cron job would have been the preferred solution. Or you could setup a script to run when that drive is attached to the system.



You can do the same with Windows.

http://sshwindows.sourceforge.net/

Or you can setup a free service such as LogMeIn.

Hell, I wore a batch file in 30 seconds to do back ups for my mothers business PC in notepad. Put a file name of " run me every night ". Didn't even need a sticky note on the monitor.

Also check out team viewer for remote service.

Sent from my Incredible 2 using Tapatalk 2

[zfields]

Oops

[JDay]

Also check out team viewer for remote service.

LogMeIn has many more features that are useful for remote diagnostics.

[projectalpha]

I'm a huge Windows supporter, but I use Unix for my home servers and at work.

[Cowboy T]

A cron job would have been the preferred solution. Or you could setup a script to run when that drive is attached to the system.

Not in this case. It's a USB thumb drive which only gets plugged in during the backup session. A relatively permanently attached USB hard disk, then yes, that's when I'd call for a cron job.

You can do the same with Windows.

http://sshwindows.sourceforge.net/

Or you can setup a free service such as LogMeIn.

Nah, I'd rather not go through some unknown third party for SSH'ing into my Dad's box. And as for this "sshwindows", it's good that they have it, but since OpenSSH already comes with GNU/Linux, I just used that.

And the malware issue--the chief issue--still remains. His Microsoft Windows OS was full of malware, and that's no longer a problem now.