Offline User Friendly Linux Distro with Updated Wine?

[nicholas]

IF 1.0 hits

I like Haiku as well, but it is taking its sweet time to get here.  Also, while I love tinkering with it on my P4, it needs to get going on the 64 bit bandwagon.  Who knows, tho - its really a great time for OSes.

Et voila!

http://haiku-files.org/unsupported-builds/x86_64/

[nicholas]

First off, COOL MAN! I didn't realize you coded, didn't realize you were a Haiku user either!

Secondly, I don't mind a little command line here and there, I've used it plenty under all the Amiga OS flavors as well as on Haiku. I find it enjoyable for basic needs like launching a game of Odamex with a special file attached. Or better yet, I like creating scripts for my Amiga Icons to launch pWADs and such for Odamex or what have you.

What I hate is when my system isn't working quite right and I have to fully depend upon a crap load of command line entries in order to work things out, and I hate it even more when I get strange and elusive error messages that only the seasoned Linux user understands. That is when for me, Linux ceases to be fun.

Others may like that depth of control and I think it is a nice option, but to be something that is still mandatory, that is annoying to me.

Another thing that makes Linux confusing is all the distributions, built upon this kernel and that, this GUI and that, so on and so on. It's like there is no standard...

Long live Haiku! I can't wait to see how things go after 1.0 hits the net!

There is nothing inherently complicated about UNIX, it's actually quite simple, it's just different to what you already know that's all.

I've been using it since the mid-90's so it's what I'm most familiar with.

The best UNIX for ex-Windows users is probably OSX, closely followed by Android.

Edit: Try this Linux distro http://code.google.com/p/android-x86/downloads/detail?name=android-x86-4.2-20130228.iso&can=2&q=

[nicholas]

Oh Lord, please don't think of me as an Ex-Windows user. Think of me as an Atari DOS user, an Amiga user, MorphOS user, Haiku user, and well ya, even a little DOS and Windows, though I am not proud of my Windows use, I consider it a vice I must bear with till my other OS' are able to get tools that do what I need such as editing DOOM and being able to edit any audio or video file to what ever extent I desire.

Have you seen this?

http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/

[nicholas]

Or this?

http://ubuntustudio.org/tour/

[nicholas]

Or this even?

http://www.dynebolic.org/

[nicholas]

The h-node project aims at the construction of a hardware database in order to identify what devices work with a fully free operating system.

http://h-node.org/hardware/catalogue/en

[nicholas]

Something nice from the Dynebolic FAQ I thought I'd share.   It made me ponder for a few moments and then I uninstalled the proprietary Nvidia driver.  100% Free software now. (Unless you count my miggies and the dirty OSX partition with Logic Pro 9!)

It doesn't works on my computer! some cards are not found...
 -------------------------------------------------------------
 A big difference between dyne:bolic and other popular operating systems around is that we adopt only 100% free software, which means our system is free from proprietary software.

The result is that we can provide support for less hardware cards (video, network, wireless and such): just those working transparently, following a well documented protocol and running free and open source drivers that make it clear to everyone what the device is doing.

It is frustrating on the short term to have such a limited hardware support, but we think is worth on the long term because it gives everyone the freedom to study, adapt and modify software and hardware and to clearly know what is happening inside our machines.

* Why freedom is better on the long term?       To explain why this is important, let us propose you an example in a   different context, that of food production: many farmers in the World   have been told by the global mega-corporations that by buying and   using their proprietary chemicals and seeds their farms would be more   productive.  

The result of this corporate fraud is that farmers become   dependent from foreign and proprietary chemicals and seeds: they are   often genetically modified so that plants won't produce more seeds,   plus they are protected by patents so that farmers themselves cannot   study, adapt and redistribute the technology they are using.  

It even   gets worst, since these proprietary and globalised products cannot be   appropriate to the contexts they are used: not even the promise of   productivity is maintained and the soil gets poisoned by the ignorance   and inability of the mega-corporations that will never be able to   supply very different needs around the world.      

Now, back to your computer :^) think of how important is the   technology you use to build your social interaction online, your   digital productions and audio/video creations.

As the importance of   this technology grows in your life, so it grows the power of the   mega-corporations which are acting unethically by locking you out of   your own device, denying your freedom to study, modify, adapt and   redistribute all what you use.

On the long term you will find yourself   depending from these technologies and being limited by them, you will   not be able to evolve and use your knowledge and skills at their full   potential.

You'll be a mental slave trained to say yes to license   agreements progressively corroding your rights and interacting with   prefabricated interfaces which will limit your freedom and squeeze out   your time and money while doing that.      

That's why we consciously eliminate support for the hardware that   closes you up in such traps.

For instance if you are a digital artist,   using dyne:bolic or other 100% free operating systems you can be sure   that your creations can be preserved in time, without being held   hostage of proprietary technologies needed to reproduce them.

* Ok! so you think you're smart, hu? what should I do then?!      

Next time you buy technology, think twice and choose wisely! here is a   useful initiative you can visit to find out which hardware is well   supported by free software: [http://www.h-node.com]      Liberate yourself from mental slavery!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFGgbT_VasI

[nicholas]

On a related note: http://h-online.com/open/news/item/LXLE-extends-life-of-ageing-computers-1824111.html?from-classic=1

[nicholas]

Why does nearly every Linux distro have an old Win 95 Start Bar?

Erm, the most popular ones don't.

Ones designed for ****ty old hardware seem to go for that in a lot of cases though.

Mind you, I see no difference between the Windows start menu/bar and the BeOS/Haiku Deskbar.

[nicholas]

Free Software distros (Like dynebolic) don't include proprietary drivers

Fixed that for you.

Freeware!==Free

[nicholas]

So.... there are said to be open source Radeon drivers that come with pretty much ever Linux distro now a days?

How come everything loads so slowly then? How come the screen refreshes slowly? I thought I was missing the video drivers, but I guess they were installed all along. Either Linux blows hard core, or this laptop was just a way over rated flop by Dell.

Sounds like you are running in vesa mode rather than using the Radeon driver.

What OS are you running?

[nicholas]

This experience is with nearly ever Linux distro mentioned here. Ubuntu included.

What version of Ubuntu and what model number of Radeon?

Did you check the Supported Hardware list before you installed the OS?

[nicholas]

Latest Ubuntu

Radeon X1200

No, I'm not installing Amithlon

OK, you need to open the software sources app (I forget it's name as I use KDE) from the gui or just type 'sudo software-properties-gtk' without the quotes into a terminal window and press enter.

Click the right-most tab 'Drivers' and install the driver for your Radeon from there.

[nicholas]

It appears that AMD have abandoned all driver support for the X1200 card (For Windows and Linux) so the proprietary driver for it will not work on any version of Xorg past 1.5 which means you'll need to install an OS that has that particular ancient version of X if you want to use AMD's driver (Such as Ubuntu 8.04).

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/8.04.4/release/

[nicholas]

What a bunch of crap! Grrrr.... :/


Thanks for the heads up!

I'm wondering whether your laptop would work as a Hackintosh?

[nicholas]

Good God! Why would I want to do that?!?!?

There is only one reason and that is for Logic Pro.

I'm waiting on the Linux distro that allows you to emulate 68k Amiga and use it as the GUI giving access to Linux and Wine, etc.

It's coming, it's coming!

Yeah but AEROS won't work on your laptop because it uses a recent version of Xorg. :/