Tips on moving to Linux?

[TheMagicM]

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.

[TheMagicM]

@stefcep2

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

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

Your link doesn't work. Fix it, I'm interested in reading it.  Some people don't have the aptitude or willingness to learn something new and stick with the simplest, no matter how archaic.

[TheMagicM]

Aww, you do care!

Well you are an Amiga user and so far you haven't pissed me off, so, yes I care somewhat.  LOL

...and with a mass of terrible UI and configuration/dependency issues that occur at random, so it's at best a lateral move.

Really?  That's definitely incorrect.  The only somewhat difficult UI issues I've read or seen is when users try to install a different window manager like Enlightenment or whatever isn't a default wm like Gnome 2/3 etc.

...where that's still entirely the case if you attempt to do anything other than install pre-configured software from the repository, and occasionally even then, and the cat-calls of "RTFM noob!" are as strong as ever...

Yea that chaps my damn hide about those rtfm comments. Sometimes they are warranted since google does provide much help or even searching said distros forum can provide answers.

[TheMagicM]

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.

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.
 

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

"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.

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.  

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

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.

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.  

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

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.

[TheMagicM]

So far no votes for Solaris? Doesn't anybody use that big ball of joy anymore? Tried it, even wrote a paper about it for school many years back. They actually had a list of hardware it would work on, and if you didn't get a system off that list you were SOL, lol. :rtfm:
 
 I think the best thing to come out of Solaris was ZFS.

HA!  I  manage 40 servers with Solaris running on it, migrating some sun boxen to T4's as we speak.  I have some VM sessions with Sol running for testing my scripts and ideas to implement at work and my backup NAS at home runs Solaris.  Absolutely love Solaris and ZFS.  BRING IT ON!  LOL!!!

[TheMagicM]

But then as a forum moderator you realised everyone's opinion was just as important and that the choice to dismiss is a personal one, not public.  Least your own view be dismissed in the same vain.
That would be terrible yes?

If I dismiss someone because they are ill informed, of course, its in my eyes only but I'm sure I'm not the only one.  If someone were to think that of my posts, its fine with me.  We dont have to agree.  We are all entitled to our own opinions, regardless of how ill informed they are.  I'm just adding the correct spin on it when it seems as though anything new other than Amiga and Windows gets bashed by users who havent left their pigeon hole.  Reminds me of the days when this new OS that had some sort of blue butterfly representing it, was released..cut my legs off and call me shorty..those were some big time bashing days.  I forget which OS it was..probably faded into obscurity.  :-)

My view is people use and validate there OS usage based on their aims; Some people want to just run their stuff. Some people want to tinker / customize.  Then there's a spectrum around and between those poles.

I understand exactly where commodore john is coming from.

If you choose Linux and want to do music you're gonna be tinkering quite a bit.
That of course can be fun and rewarding.

I understood where he was coming from...in 1992.  Maybe I'll go fire up the 'ol DeLorean and head back to the '90s, read his posts and then fully understand.

[TheMagicM]

A modified form of the "It's Just A Kernel!" argument ...  

Ok.  Then Linux isnt for *you* specifically.  Thats fine.  Just dont ruin other peoples enjoyment of trying something different because of your personal shortcomings.

[TheMagicM]

I was thinking of trying the Aros/Linux hybrid Aeros. Does anyone have any experience with that? It seems a bit fiddly to install though.

dunno..but there is a thread out there somewhere that you can reply to.  I think I replied to it myself*...being that this is a Linux only thread.

EDIT: nvm..I replied to Icaros thread..but you can spin off a new thread.

[TheMagicM]

I'm trying to save a fellow forum member the time and headache I experienced in basically the same situation. I don't really give two shíts what you think about it.

So you dont even want him to try it.  Just want him to give up.  Momma raised a quitter, huh?

If people have their enjoyment ruined simply because someone on the Internet is saying mean things about something they like, they need to grow a thicker skin.

After those two posts, I can surmise you're just a troll doing trolly things.  Not trying to actually post any LOGIC and REAL reason as to the pros and cons of linux..just trolling thru AO because of your lack of abilities at learning new things.  No problem.  I was wrong and thought you had something constructive to say, but after wasting a few minutes of my time and reading your drivel, all you do is resort to cursing and crying when someone says Linux is great.  

And once again, the "I don't notice any problems, therefore the problems that you experience can't possibly exist or must somehow be your fault!" argument...

And once again, the "I have problems, therefore the problems that I experience must somehow be Linux fault!" argument...
^^^^ See what I did there?

Check out the Blender interface - it's designed for space aliens, by space aliens. The technical underpinnings may be excellent, but they're accessible only via a poorly-designed UI, which is a lot of Linux software in a nutshell.

VIP/Donor needs to be edited to Troll.

[TheMagicM]

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

Linux *Users* are generally very helpful and polite.

I merely gave you an example of the irrational thinking of some users, didnt see anything wrong with that.

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

I'm not a guru, but I do know quite a bit about UNIX and Linux being that I am a Sys Admin and a Software Engineer for the company I work for and also I do the same on the side for my own company.  

As a matter of fact, right here in my home office I have a few 1U servers... I have 1 NAS running FreeBSD, 1 backup NAS running Solaris 10 x86-64bit, 2 servers running CentOS Linux 6.5 (one runs some sites I host for a handful of companies, even my personal site and the other for my security system), 1 sandbox server running Solaris 10 (I wipe it and install whatever I need to test), 2 dual-quad core CentOS 6.5 Servers running GunsNet.net, AK-47.net and a spare dual-quad core for when I am going to virtualize 2 servers in the next few weeks.

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

I'm not trying to convert ex-users into current users.  Not my battle, not my problem.  People have their own choice.  I just want a level playing field for potential users.  Throwing FUD and seeing what sticks isnt exactly level, so I help tilt it back in the right direction.

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.

Well, he went from openSuSE to Linux Mint, only because of my personal disdain for Gnome 3.  There's nothing to distribute and slap a GNU license on, its already freely available for all to enjoy.

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

I know, its always the OS.

[TheMagicM]

Hi guys,

This discussion is very interesting and informative.

I'm posting this message from a Livd CD of Lubuntu right now.  At first brush - a very first brush as I've only had it going for five minutes - I'm impressed!

dude..you did well.  Kudos.  Get used to running it, moving around in Linux.  After a while, you'll start narrowing down what you want out of it then you'll custom tailor it to what you'd like.  Its fun...I love it!

[TheMagicM]

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.  

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.

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

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.

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.

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

[TheMagicM]

I love how discussing real issues that we've experienced firsthand is "throwing FUD" and "tilting the playing field." Yeah, Linux would totally have a fair shot if people would just stop having problems with it!

When babelfish or google translate can convert trollspeak, I'll understand you better.  Till then, its all greek to me.

[TheMagicM]

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.

You sound like Hitler.  One choice only.

[TheMagicM]

some useful software I've come across:

DeVeDe - use it to create DVD's with titles, background music, images out of .avi's, mpegs etc..
QTerm - I use to to connect to places like CottonwoodBBS via telnet, works great.
VirtualBox- create virtual machines to test various other operating systems before actually installing on a real machine.
K3B- burn stuff to cd/dvd, if its not standard with your distro, you can always install it via *Ubuntu's software manager
Mondo- very damn useful.  I use it to back up my servers to get a full image put on .iso's.   Something goes wrong..boot disk 1 of iso's and restore the entire server from backup.  Works with desktops, laptops, same concept.
KTorrent- if you download stuff via torrents, this is a great program also.  Easy to use/setup.

E-UAE- Amiga emulator w/GUI interface
fs-uae-  another Amiga emulator, in the under construction phase.  Looks good so far.

OpenShot- video editor..you can put together family or whatever type videos with this, add music etc.

mypaint- if you like drawing..this is a nice piece to install.  reminds me of Dpaint.
Audacity-audio editor.. I've used it to make ringtones for my phones