Tips on moving to Linux?

[stefcep2]

I think most of the risk with running XP is overstated.

I haven't updated it in maybe 12 months, runs as well as ever and no malware.  I use  Zone Alarm firewall, I do not log in with an administrator account, I use AVG free.  And commonsense: there are NO Nigerian Princes who want to transfer their riches into your bank account!

Maybe you can still keep going for a fair bit longer.

I know there's a few Linux fans here, but in my experience, no, it doesn't "just work".

[stefcep2]

As soon as I read commodorejohn's first post, I dismissed him, to put it mildly since I'm a moderator, as a ill-informed and .

I've been using Linux since 1992, dual boot with Windows, and then in '96 switched full-time to Linux.  I've used many different distros to say the least.  Each has their pros and cons, just like each version of Windows, except without the virus/malware problems.  Its come such a long way since '92.  Back then I had to dig around and fix dependencies on my own and any help came with a RTFM in irc chat days.  Fast forward to today...

My dad runs Linux.  He's not an IT guy.  He just wants something that works.  He ran Windows from  Win 95 to Win 7.   Well, he's been using Linux only for about 12 years.  He's 76.

Myself, I run a crapload of different distros in VM machines and on my server rack here at my home office and also UNIX.  I love it.   My Acer s7 runs Debian.

For you, I would try Ubuntu or Linux Mint which is what my dad uses.  Both Ubuntu and LM have nice package managers and have a plethora of software in their library.  Virtually all retro system emulators are supported and run very well, even on a P4 like yours.

I'm glad that you had a positive experience, but many, many people have an entirely different experience-.  Look here:http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=327&

The thing is thats its often simple stuff that should not be an issue by now but it is.  A dodgy CD driver can boot you into a shell and you end up not having a clue why.  Off to the  forums and watch as your spare time crosses the Linux event horizon as you try and track the error down.

Maybe it helps that you have 20 years experience.

And Libre Office is a problem when you have to use Powerpoint collaboratively and the formatting gets screwed up every time you open someone else's file, as my partner is going through right now!

To the OP, test it out first off a Live CD or in a virtual machine *in Windows*, not the other way around.

My verdict is that it was a tragedy that Microsoft stifled innovation in computing.  It was an equal tragedy that open source chose Linux to waste millions of man-power hours on.

[stefcep2]

@stefcep2

As many negatives, I can find 5x the amount of users with a positive experience.  YMMV.

Anectodally?  Its still poor if 1 in 5 are not happy.

Libre office is not a Linux problem.  Direct that to the correct dev team and not towards Linux.

No-one runs operating systems, they run applications. Its a core app that runs on the Linux platform. It matters.

Your link doesn't work. Fix it, I'm interested in reading it.

Works here in Chrome on Win 7. Its just the Ubuntu forums, which are just as busy as I remember them.  Clearly it doesn't "just work" for a lot of people out there.

 

Some people don't have the aptitude or willingness to learn something new and stick with the simplest, no matter how archaic.

That sounds suspiciously like blaming the user for the platform's shortcomings. I remember it well.

I was very open to Linux in 2007.  I tried PCLOS, Ubuntu (Gnome and KDE offshoots), Mandriva, Suse.  Not ONE "just worked".  And all I had was an AMD X2 with motherboard everything.  

The worst were the rolling upgrade OS's-I lost count the number of times I'd shut down for the night, and in the morning...end up being thrown in a CLI because some %&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!ty small update caused some conflict somewhere.
 
How do I fix it?  Oh lucky i dual booted with XP to get online to work it out, WHEN it was possible to do so.  Thats right if you go Linux, keep a Windows machine handy-you'll need it.

I cut my losses in 2011, about the time  Ubuntu went to Unity and dropped support of the version I was running.

The OP needs to hear the good and the bad- and no its not the user's fault either.

[stefcep2]

Oh, then in that case, it works.  Thought you were sending me a specific thread.  http://www.sevenforums.com ...you'll find plenty of Windows issues and thats just one forum.  Windows is riddled with problems.  Not all OS's are perfect, yet I have yet to have issues with Linux.

I could say the same about my XP installation.  Still running the original install. 10 years later.
 

"Man this truck is kinda loud on the road, I can hear the tires.  Its probably the tread.  Ok, the truck sucks.  Its the tires but I hate the truck.  I'm selling it.  No, not replacing tires.  I'm done with it."   Everyone deals with issues their own way.

Y'see that's the ATTITUDE I'm talking about.  

Linux *Users* are generally very helpful and polite.  

But the self-proclaimed gurus with 20 years plus experience or, worse, the maintainers of a distro.

User: "this is a fault".
Maintainer: "No, you're the fault.  If you don't like it, the source is there, fix it yourself".

What was that? 2007?  Oh ok.  I thought we were talking about something recent.  

Oh yes in 2007 Linux was up against Vista and was gonna take over the world.  PFFT.

Anyway, I stayed till 2011 or 2012, when In finally wiped my drive clean of it.  Around the time of the Unity fiasco.  Recent enough.

Strange because my dad, myself and people I know who use Linux have *never* had anything like that happen.  My dad has had completely different machines every 3 years or so because I just like buying better systems.  No issues.  Dunno why you had yours.  

Or more accurately the question should be why your dad *didn't* have issues like that.  Find that out, bottle it and distribute with a GNU license.

I agree.  But I disagree when people start bring back issues from 1990 or because of their own shortcomings or issues they created themselves which caused the problems in the first place.

Yes here we go again-blame the user.  Its always the user.

[stefcep2]

If half that was true, my parents (+60 years old), my girlfriend (who is a chemistry student without deep computing knowledge) and most of my friends wouldn't be using GNU/Linux on a daily basis. And they do, with no problems whatsoever.
They produce technical documents, watch videos on youtube, watch downloaded films and series in a perfect smooth way, surf the internet, etc... and they don't need my technical assistance at all once the system is installed.

What's more: they daily have a nice, responsive desktop computing experience, whereas their computers struggled to do anything back in 2009 when they where using Windows Vista instead, before I moved back to my small town and started installing Lubuntu/Debian everywhere.
You can't start to imagine how much quality their computing has earned through using a proper OS like a good GNU/Linux distro.

They were possibly using a Vista PC with tonnes of crapware, defrag on all the time, defender scanning all the time, system restore and the indexing always on.  It helps if they had 2 MB RAM.  

I have tweaked my dual XP/Vista install and i bet no-one would tell vista apart from Win 7 once it booted: most benchmark reviews I've seen put them neck and neck, even Vista ahead in some tests.

Other than boot time, I saw no performance gains in using Ubuntu on the same system.  And no Direct X10.

[stefcep2]

OOOHHHH...so you're saying the UUUUSSERRRRR did that.  Wait..no its not the USER.. remember?  You just said that a few posts up when we were talking about LINUX.  Hold on.. let me quote it.

Isnt that  what you're implying in the first quote above?  You're saying its the users fault, yet you yourself are trying to deflect blame in Linux to the OS itself.

Nope.  Not at all.  

I probably should have written "Vista comes with all those things on by default".  

That was Microsoft's fault.

Same as having them making the  default account in XP with administrator privileges which BTW is probably the most significant thing that they could have done to compromise security as soon as the user logged on.

Can't blame the user for not knowing what MS had done to a totally new OS.

I was that user myself- I wanted to take to my HP Mini-note with a hammer when I first turned it on with Vista Business SP1.  Totally unusable, as it indexed, defragged, shadow-copied, ran defender scans ALL the fricken time.

The point is one google search, untick a handful of boxes, disable a service. DONE.  No CLI, no archaic commands, no trawling through forums

I dunno...my ultrabook boots up to full Debian in 12 seconds with no tuning done on my part.  I guess thats fast.

I don't have an SSD so I can't say.

[stefcep2]

For Windows the way to fix things is by reinstalling the OS. For Linux I never had to reinstall the OS just boot into rescue CD to fix a configuration I borked myself.
I have here a Windows XP partition I can't boot any more, even in fail safe. All I did was play with some BIOS settings and juggling some hardware. An OS should be able to withstand such things IMO. Didn't bother to reinstall the OS and just kept Linux.

I find it interesting to note that the zealots now seem to be in the Windows camp. The Linux users just talking about their own positive experience and willing to answer questions but not pushy to try to convince people to use Linux. I agree times have been different but Linux seem to becoming mainstream.

Thats one way to look at it.

Another is  experienced computer users have tried Linux, experienced issues, and have laid those issues out in the open.  

I seriously wish the Open Source folks didn't choose Linux to throw away countless man hours on.  One of the worst decisions in computing history.

[stefcep2]

You sound like Hitler.  One choice only.

No, but its interesting thats how you took it.

I didn't say there should be ONLY ONE choice-only that Linux was the WRONG choice for them to waste their time on.

The user experience is now everything- but in Linux that's an annoyance that developers grudgingly consider.

[stefcep2]

Y'know, I ditched Linux once Ubuntu 9.10 ended support, but every now and then I think:"Lets see where its at, now".

And then I see a post like Amigapixel's, and all its starts to come back to me, and I realize its just Crazy Thinking.

Oh and if you want to know why it happened Amigapixel, I'll save you some time.  Man what were you thinking going nutso and installing a video diver like that!

"Its your fault".

[stefcep2]

Does linux Ubuntu have the eqivalent to Task manger? Applcations mainly Firefox freeze up and I have no way to end the programs. Ubuntu even with the updates seems a little buggy rigth now, I am using version 12.04 for now.

And in time you'll be saying that about 12.10, 13.04, 13.10, 14.04 or whatever version.  This idea that a new version is put out every 6 months is madness, although better than the distro's who are on a rolling update.  THATs like playing Russian roulette, with every update you get everyday.

All distro's are on this hamster wheel to up the version number that stability is secondary to having the latest.  And YOU get to be the guinea pig for every new version.

[stefcep2]

There is, of course. It's just a lot easier to tell him "open terminal and type 'foo'" than writing half a novel explaining where to click, what it's called and how it will react.

NO!No!No!

I've heard this bull%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@! excuse for Linux lack of intuitive interface a lot.

All the user is doing is cut and pasting archaic, cryptic commands that :
1.  He has no idea what they do and why.
2.  He will not remember any of it.

Y'know people sometime in the 1970's realised this and thought...there has to be a better way..and lo and behold, there was.

They called it a Graphical User Interface.

Then use Synaptic and the Gnome System Monitor (or whatever equivalent Lubuntu is using) to do the tasks described above.

So why did he have to come here and ask and couldn't see this for himself?

The rest of us will enjoy the beauty that is the Unix terminal in the meantime.

I think I just threw up a little.

[stefcep2]

Someone needs to take some chillout time. You do know the difference between Ubuntu release models don't you? Such as LTS and standard releases?
 
They make it pretty clear what the difference is between releases.

1.  I do know the difference.  Even with LTS, the updates are not always fully tested.  Especially when a new LTS version is released.  Look at the Unity LTS debacle.

2.  Ubuntu doesn't equal Linux.  In fact its not even the most popular distro, Mint is.   Which is a rolling release..which means more Linux users are subject to the risks of running rolling releases.

[stefcep2]

And on top of that, Linux is making our children gay! I saw it with my own eyes!

Its interesting you brought homosexuality into it.

[stefcep2]

Two thirds of the Internet is running on Linux these days - but hey, what's that compared to your glorious insight in Linux' stability...

So what?  Barely 1% of computers *connected* to the internet run Linux.

Linux is a good server OS.  What does it do? Negotiate connections, allow other computers to access and facilitate the transfer of data from the servers.  

But the demands of a server OS are very different to those of a desktop OS.  

As an amateur, free to acquire but not free in time OS Linux is a decent.  

But most users would rather just pay for a Mac or Windows PC and not waste their valuable time fartsing around in the terminal to do simple things.

[stefcep2]

For everybody it's own. I am one of those weird guys who did a lot of his Amiga stuff in AmigaShell using Vinced.

Just to say Amiga was not GUI only...

Never said it was.

But you had a choice.