I'm no guru, but I have Ubuntu on my ancient laptop and Mythbuntu on my media PC. I'm about to aquire a netbook and the new Ubuntu will be installed on that.
Linux gurus and fans let's hear from you
- Thread starter The Pontificator
- Start date
There is nothing easier than Ubuntu linux.
Started on Linux Mint Felicia, now dual boot Crunchbang Linux and Win7 on my desktop, Crunchbang on my eeePC. I only boot into windows if I want to do some gaming, Linux wins hands down for web, media and scientific work. I don't know what i'd do without APT, means I can install things in a couple of clicks as I need them and keep them up to date all at the same time. I'd like to give the new Ubuntu a go but Crunchbang hasn't let me down yet.
- Thread starter
- #64
I just learned a noobie Linux lesson.
For the past couple of days I've been using Unetbootin to create bootable USB drives so I can take a gander at various distributions. Without fail everytime the desktop of the "live" version comes up on screen everything freezes. NOTHING works.
It is a requirement of Netbootin that the USB drives you are using be FORMATTED IN FAT-32 REGARDLESS OF THE SIZE OF THE USB DRIVE YOU ARE USING!!!
I had no idea that you could format a 1 or 2 gig USB drive in that format. The "Disk Utility" on a Mac will not do this. You have to use Windows or G-Parted in Linux. If you use G-Parted (a linux partitioning tool)I believe you also have to have syslinux and P7zip-full installed.
For the past couple of days I've been using Unetbootin to create bootable USB drives so I can take a gander at various distributions. Without fail everytime the desktop of the "live" version comes up on screen everything freezes. NOTHING works.
It is a requirement of Netbootin that the USB drives you are using be FORMATTED IN FAT-32 REGARDLESS OF THE SIZE OF THE USB DRIVE YOU ARE USING!!!
I had no idea that you could format a 1 or 2 gig USB drive in that format. The "Disk Utility" on a Mac will not do this. You have to use Windows or G-Parted in Linux. If you use G-Parted (a linux partitioning tool)I believe you also have to have syslinux and P7zip-full installed.- Thread starter
- #65
As soon as I get home from school I'm going to run Xubuntu on my old Acer Aspire 512mb RAM SSD netbook. that, and Linux Mint 10 Xfce
- Thread starter
- #66
I did install Ubuntu 11.04 ("Natty Narwhal") on the Aspire One SSD with 1GB Ram (met the min. requirement)...
...and installed the older 10.04 LTS on the other which has 512MB RAM.
10.04 LTS runs pretty well on 512mb and 11.04 runs decently enough on 1GB although both netbooks are somewhat pokey (combination of low non-upgradable RAM, 1st gen Atom processor, and SSD drive).
At least they have a new lease on lifem, which is what I wanted.
Joined a local linux users group in the area, too. Lots of helpful folks. They have a listserve, monthly meetings, and most of them like beer. Some of them are even DE folks.
Cool.
...and installed the older 10.04 LTS on the other which has 512MB RAM.
10.04 LTS runs pretty well on 512mb and 11.04 runs decently enough on 1GB although both netbooks are somewhat pokey (combination of low non-upgradable RAM, 1st gen Atom processor, and SSD drive).
At least they have a new lease on lifem, which is what I wanted.
Joined a local linux users group in the area, too. Lots of helpful folks. They have a listserve, monthly meetings, and most of them like beer. Some of them are even DE folks.
Cool.
I just acquired an Asus EEE PC 900 and slapped xubuntu 11.04 onto it, its running great. My only drawback is even after removing all unneeded applications I only have 780mb of free space. But its a netbook, not a desktop replacement, so its all good.
- Thread starter
- #68
I really did like the interface on the old Ubuntu Netbook Remix distros and so for now I've replaced 10.04LTS with EasyPeasy 1.6 which is a derivative of Ubuntu 10.4 Lucid Lynx Netbook Remix.
so far, no real problems.
so far, no real problems.
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Got a ubuntu live cd when windows fails and it's an emergency. Thinking of installing it on my laptop though for work.
- Thread starter
- #70
lubuntu 11.04 ("light Ubuntu") is an unofficial release that's gunning for official recognition from Canonical and Ubuntu.
Very sweet little distro. I'll bet it zips along because the USB "live" was extremely fast. Everything hooked up. All apps loaded in the blink of an eye. Chromium browser - lightning fast.
Very sweet little distro. I'll bet it zips along because the USB "live" was extremely fast. Everything hooked up. All apps loaded in the blink of an eye. Chromium browser - lightning fast.
I"ve been on Ubuntu 11.04 for about 2 months now and like using my desktop again. I upgraded my MB, CPU, and memory, and MS made my Vista version "not genuine" because of the upgrade. It worked, but the Not Genuine message never went away. So, I installed Ubuntu through WUBI, got through the first week without a manual and just used lookups in the forum, and got it working. When the manual arrived I reinstalled on a disk, and have never looked back. The performance improvement in Vista with the new hardware was hardly noticeable. The performance difference between Vista and linux is very dramatic. With Vista I would start the day at about 1.5GB of resident memory which would increase to about 2.5 GB at the end of the day. Vista would only address 3.3 GB of my 4 GB of memory so I was already worried about having to upgrade to Windows 7 64bit. In linux, I never go over 1 GB unless I'm compiling - which takes me to about 1.2GB. It recognises all 4GB, but I don't know if I'll ever use even half of it. My new MB has both USB 2.0 and 3.0 and this caused conflicts in Mint (the desktop hangs), so I dropped Mint. I really liked Kubuntu (KDE on Ubuntu), but it's different enough from Ubuntu that I didn't pursue it - yet. I don't like Unity, but really like Classic Ubuntu, which I think is Gnome 2.x. I used HP-UX, AIX, and Solaris for about 15 years (but had a sysadmin to keep things up to date), and then had to use Windows for all the management documentation. I had lots of trouble with the early versions of linux (late 90's, early 20's) because of h/w issues. Not any more. Ubuntu 11.04 installed easily and I'm just amazed at how much nicer it is than Windows.
Been a Linux user for about three years.
Ubuntu up until 11.04 - did nothing but swear and spit at the Unity screen in front of me - tried the classic DE, but it was slow and buggy.
Tried Fedora with Gnome 3 shell and could not believe someone actually developed a more user unfriendly DE than Unity (why call it a desktop if you can't put anything on it? and how the hell do you shut down?).
Fled to Mint when I found out they stuck with the Gnome 2 desktop environment. Looks like I'm sticking with them because they are the only ones actively trying to make Gnome 3 usable. We'll see if their effort pays off in a few weeks. If not, I guess I'll follow Linus Torvalds over to Xfce.
Ubuntu up until 11.04 - did nothing but swear and spit at the Unity screen in front of me - tried the classic DE, but it was slow and buggy.
Tried Fedora with Gnome 3 shell and could not believe someone actually developed a more user unfriendly DE than Unity (why call it a desktop if you can't put anything on it? and how the hell do you shut down?).
Fled to Mint when I found out they stuck with the Gnome 2 desktop environment. Looks like I'm sticking with them because they are the only ones actively trying to make Gnome 3 usable. We'll see if their effort pays off in a few weeks. If not, I guess I'll follow Linus Torvalds over to Xfce.
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I've been using various Linux flavours for 3 or 4 years now. Favourite is Linux Mint Debian edition (on main home pc), but tried most of the Mints. Ubuntu I kind of liked. Puppy is great for old machines. I use Peppermint 2 and Lubuntu on my oldish laptop at work. (Lubuntu is now an official 'buntu flavour.) Xubuntu I also liked, Crunchbang I liked but Mint drew me back. Dreamlinux was also one I liked, a very nice looking distro.
Something I like about a lot of the Linux distros is the fact that they have some wonderfully helpful people on their forums, so if you're not sure about something, you just have to ask!
Something I like about a lot of the Linux distros is the fact that they have some wonderfully helpful people on their forums, so if you're not sure about something, you just have to ask!
few days ago, i just installed debian linux on an 11-year-old lime green apple ibook g3. it's got 192 mb of ram, a 10 gb hard drive, and a cpu that's either 366 mhz or 466 mhz (can't remember which).
the fact that it runs at all is amazing enough, but it runs amazingly well too. sometimes because of how cheap new hardware is and how common it is to upgrade, we tend to forget that one shouldn't need to have 2 gb of RAM just to browse the web. put a light enough window manager and light enough programs, and you can make even a decade-old comp usable. try doing that with windows.
the fact that it runs at all is amazing enough, but it runs amazingly well too. sometimes because of how cheap new hardware is and how common it is to upgrade, we tend to forget that one shouldn't need to have 2 gb of RAM just to browse the web. put a light enough window manager and light enough programs, and you can make even a decade-old comp usable. try doing that with windows.
I started using linux mint 11 a few weeks ago and I love it. The only time I use window is when I need a specific program. It works faster and more reliable than windows 7 had been lately. I cant wait for the official release on mint 12.
Been running Linux for about 10 years. I have tried a lot of distros and still bounce around,but mostly use Suse and Mint.
They seem to match up with my Linux box the best.
I also like the security of using Linux, and haven't even used a windows machine in a long time.
The best part is it's FREE!!
They seem to match up with my Linux box the best.
I also like the security of using Linux, and haven't even used a windows machine in a long time.
The best part is it's FREE!!
First used Linux back with version 0.12 on my old 386SX, when it wasn't much more than a kernel and a bunch of core utilities. Was definitely fun trying to get various programs to compile and run in those days. Use it now for a variety of servers. Typically using Red Hat Enterprise and/or CentOS. Preferred OS when I have a choice, as it is solid and just works. Run a number of Windows servers also, but am not a fan of all the rebooting and bad design that comes into play.
To be fair, most things do not work "out of the box" with Windows - you need to download and install drivers. The Atheros chipsets are notorious for this. Because most modern GNU/Linux distributions include a kernel that targets a broad swathe of modern desktop and laptop hardware, these things tend to work much better "out of the box" than does Windows. The reason most people do not have this experience however has nothing at all to do with either of these truths, and is entirely attributable to the fact that most people buy a machine with Windows pre-installed and configured by the vendor.
So this is really an apples and oranges comparison.
Mint 12 RC is out. Let's see how they did making Gnome3 into a more traditional desktop.
Hey, Linux and shaving advice, the perfect forum!
I use Linux since 92 or 93, I don't remember. Since when installing it required calculating sync frequencies for your monitor, and if you got that wrong you burned the monitor! I used slackware, red hat, fedora, debian, and others. My favorite for a while was SuSE, but I currently use Ubuntu. Still trying to decide if I'll go back or suffer Unity. You can switch it off by the way, my current machine is 11.04 with traditional gnome.
The ability to simply use it without resorting to "non genuine" or incredibly expensive software, and not to worry about viruses or lock ups is great.
Sergio.
I use Linux since 92 or 93, I don't remember. Since when installing it required calculating sync frequencies for your monitor, and if you got that wrong you burned the monitor! I used slackware, red hat, fedora, debian, and others. My favorite for a while was SuSE, but I currently use Ubuntu. Still trying to decide if I'll go back or suffer Unity. You can switch it off by the way, my current machine is 11.04 with traditional gnome.
The ability to simply use it without resorting to "non genuine" or incredibly expensive software, and not to worry about viruses or lock ups is great.
Sergio.
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