Linux

[houseofbugs]

Quote, originally posted by tribalman »ever since hardy heron i haven't had an issue with wireless.Go buy a basic wifi USB card and try using it. Chances are that it wont work right out of the box.

[Tubaryan12]

For those who want a lighter alternative, Xubuntu 10.04 has been released.

[zionzr2]

I'm now selling case badges/stickers for Ubuntu and and Linux featuring TUX

[zionzr2]

bump Edit above ^

[AZViking]

Well, after playing around with Ubuntu on Virtualbox for a while, I have since aquired an HP Laptop through Freecycle and did a fresh install of Linux Mint9. It's a handy laptop for random email/facebook checks and I have used it a lot to convert our old home movies from 8mm tape to DVD using Kino through the firewire port. I was even able to share the wireless signal with my xbox to download demos from xbox live and play a few games until my free month of Gold membership was done.I wouldn't mind switching to Mint10, because I would like to upgrade to the DVD version, and I like the name of Mint10 (Julia) for my own personal reasons (Julia is our 4month old daughter's name). The only problem I have had with Mint9 so far was a 'no init' warning when trying to start the machine. I did a livecd boot from a xubuntu10.xx I had lying around and found the fix.

[Tubaryan12]

I just did a fresh dual boot install of Ubuntu 11.04 on my Acer netbook. Slickest Ubuntu to date. Without question, this was the most pain free Ubuntu install ever. The GUI is very nice though it will take some getting used to. If my new windows 7 box wasn't so fast, I would be very tempted to install it on there as well.

[tribalman]

Quote, originally posted by Tubaryan12 »I just did a fresh dual boot install of Ubuntu 11.04 on my Acer netbook. Slickest Ubuntu to date. Without question, this was the most pain free Ubuntu install ever. The GUI is very nice though it will take some getting used to. If my new windows 7 box wasn't so fast, I would be very tempted to install it on there as well.oh wow. i didn't like 11.04 at all. i don't like the grouping of all programs together. reminds me too much of my phones GUI, which i don't like that much either. actually switched over to SUSE. it was ok, but it also reminded me too much of a phone OS, also. went back to 10.04 LTS and everything is back to normal.

[Tubaryan12]

Quote, originally posted by tribalman »oh wow. i didn't like 11.04 at all. i don't like the grouping of all programs together. reminds me too much of my phones GUI, which i don't like that much either. actually switched over to SUSE. it was ok, but it also reminded me too much of a phone OS, also. went back to 10.04 LTS and everything is back to normal.Once I got used to how the dock works and stopped it from flying out every time I went to the left, it became much easier to use. It is actually a combination between a taskbar and quick launch bar. It puts little white triangles next to the icons that have open windows so you know what programs are running even when the windows are hidden. Finding the normal functions was strange as well until I realized that the menu bar is always hidden on each window and it shows up when you put the cursor on the top of the window. I will admit, my favorite GUI is still the version of Xubuntu that I customized to look exactly like windows xp. That one was the easiest to use by far.

[ColonelPanic]

Used to be a huge SuSE fan in the pre-Novell days. I didn't have high speed interweb back then, so I paid I don't know how much to go down to CompUSA (RIP) and buy each new release of SuSE Professional as soon as it hit the shelf. Now I can't stand to use it.I got a new Acer netbook at the beginning of the year. I started with 10.04 LTS - I usually like to stay with the long term releases these days, but my SD card reader on the netbook was broken in 10.04 and didn't work until 11.04. The card reader worked, but new the interface was just too much fluff. I turned it off as soon as I could figure out how. Ultimately, I nuked it and went for Xubuntu 11.04. It does everything I need.

[10vibe]

Ubuntu 11.04's default desktop environment is Unity, but if at sign in (log in) you click on a log in name, the bottom taskbar will appear and let you change from the default Unity desktop to Ubuntu Classic, which is a gnome (gnome 2) desktop environment. This will let you set it up as before putting panels where you like and adding launchers and such. What I am not sure of is if all the restricted graphics drivers are available yet, and whether 3d functions will be available for most.Older machines that do not have the graphics capabilities automatically default to Ubuntu Classic's gnome environment.Gnome 3 and xorg developments is taking Linux to a point where older machines might not have the full functionality concerning graphics and 3d. Restricted drivers are starting to lag behind too. Ubuntu 11.10 might not allow default gnome environment as they layer or stack Unity on top of the gnome 3 shell and that they are not going to spend the time paralleling development of gnome 3 desktop environment. Instead, older machines will default to a Unity 2d environment. Not sure what that will be like.I also like Mint a lot.I find myself enjoying going to the old Win XP dual boot more and more. It just works. Besides, as I get older I actually appreciate intellectual property, profits and businesses that employ people with good pay who pays taxes that fund all the social programs that the so-called anarchists, socialists, communists, anti-establishment, and the young demand. After all, there are no free lunches, things have to be paid for, people have to make a living, and bartering does not work with over 6 billion people and almost 200 countries interacting with each other.

[Tubaryan12]

Quote, originally posted by 10vibe1.8auto »I find myself enjoying going to the old Win XP dual boot more and more. It just works. This is the very reason why I dual boot. I love Ubuntu for its speed on older computers, but Win Xp just does everything I ask it to do without fail. I have not dual booted my new machine (quad core, Win7). No need to. Its blazing fast right out of the box. For what I need it for, the extra speed wouldn't matter.

[10vibe]

Quote, originally posted by Tubaryan12 »I have not dual booted my new machine (quad core, Win7). No need to. Its blazing fast right out of the box. For what I need it for, the extra speed wouldn't matter. If and when I upgrade to new machines and Win 7 or 8, I doubt I will dual boot either, unless I have full copies of the OS. I do not want to muck up the MBR and NTldr with grub. Of course it is easier to fixmbr, Ntldr, and Ntdetect since windows OS disks now include full functioning recovery consoles, automated system recoveries, and partition managers, unlike my old Win XP home oem restore disk. Not so sure about the OEM restore disks and partitioned ghost copies. It would also be nice to be able to make clean installs without adding all the useless and outdated programs that come bundled with oem restore disks.Now that a lot of computers do not come with actual disks, but partitioned ghost copies, things get complicated again when mucking with boot and grub if you want to keep the ghost copy partition and actually be able to use it if wanting to restore to original condition or fix problems, whether or not you can make a backup.This is why I only loaded Ubuntu as a Wubi (inside windows) on my netbook. Also blocked grub updates. Rumor has it some grub updates can break it and you cannot boot either to windows or Linux, and cannot uninstall and set things back to normal. I run a couple versions of Linux on USB sticks too.

[tribalman]

Quote, originally posted by 10vibe1.8auto »It would also be nice to be able to make clean installs without adding all the useless and outdated programs that come bundled with oem restore disks.that's why i build my own computers and buy the OS. no bloatware until i install it. :DQuote »Now that a lot of computers do not come with actual disks, but partitioned ghost copies, things get complicated again when mucking with boot and grub if you want to keep the ghost copy partition and actually be able to use it if wanting to restore to original condition or fix problems, whether or not you can make a backup.on my laptop i've got my backup partition for windows and i'm dual booting. i think it still works, haven't had a need to use it, but i think it does.Quote »This is why I only loaded Ubuntu as a Wubi (inside windows) on my netbook. Also blocked grub updates. Rumor has it some grub updates can break it and you cannot boot either to windows or Linux, and cannot uninstall and set things back to normal. so far, all my grub updates have been fine, but that's not to say it doesn't happen.

[AZViking]

My Mom gave our daughter her 'old' (2 year old) Gateway netbook that was running XP. It was having lots of malware issues, so I did a fresh dual boot install of Mint 10 and Qimo (Linux for Kids). The Mint 10 side allows my wife and I to use it as a full functioning PC when we need it, and the Qimo side allows our 5 year old a chance to have a computer of her own. She loves playing all of the educational games it has to offer.