So after 3 weeks I end up here.

[siringo]

4 weeks ago, I got so fed up with Windows and Microsoft's never ceasing march forcing people to buy software they don't need.

Anyway, the decison was made to move to Linux. It's come quite a way in the past 5 years and in the past 2 it's really moved forward.

I spent 3 weeks looking at about 15 distros. The other week I settled on Lubuntu, but towards the end of last week, something went awry and Lubuntu self imploded. So now, I'm on Kubuntu.

I've vitualised my Windows laptop and can run that within Linux, so it's a type of dual boot system in a way.

The Kubuntu kernel is PAE aware/capable (the Win7 kernel aint) which gives me an additional GB of RAM to play with, so I can now boot Kubuntu, play in that, run 2 VM's and play with them and still have about a gig of RAM left.

I settled on a Debian derivitive as there is just so much software available for that flavour of Linux and lots of support availabale as well.

Your average Joe would have trouble with Linux, but your average Joe also has trouble with Windows.


Oh, and I lowered the Nav by 1.5".

 

[sparra04]

My head hurts

 

[Old.Tony]

Excellent! We have a Fedora 11 server, a Fedora 15 server and now a Fedora 20 server with VMWare running WinXP, Win7 and OS/2. I'm going to virtualise Windows 8 as well when I can get my finger out, but I'm busy configuring ZoneMinder so that the 3 cameras in our country house can monitor the place and email me as soon as motion within the boundary is detected.

I picked up some WANS-CAM IP cameras with remote tilt & pan, IR vision - here's a live pic from the camera. There are no lights on outside. There's a street light across the road, but the light you can see is sourced in IR from the camera itself. For $40 a pop I'm bloody stoked!

Pic was taken on a Windows 8 laptop VNC'd to the Fedora 20 server running Firefox to access the camera via its own internal HTTP server. Yes, I could have gone direct, but where's the fun in that?

 

[Malicious]

One of the best things about Linux is the price, I have a home media centre Ubuntu with xbmc , run it as a server for vm xp and win 7 which I vnc to with my android tablet as I need java for some work apps, and of course a few tb of storage, worst thing is it's so reliable I never play with it

 

[nathand22]

My head hurts

thats the only thing i understood in the entire thread

 

[rastik86]

My head hurts

thats the only thing i understood in the entire thread

What they said

4 weeks ago, I got so fed up with Windows and Microsoft's never ceasing march forcing people to buy software they don't need.

Lost shortly after... "so they have the internet on computers now?"

 

[nakedape]

You LOWERED the Nav?

 

[mrtim123]

Windows definitely has its place still, but my current flavour of choice is Linux Mint. Easy enough for the wife to use day-to-day and still has all the grunt under the surface that i know and love from my years of running slackware! Helps that i run 2 data centre's full of RedHat/CentOS servers too

 

[Old.Tony]

Windows definitely has its place still, but my current flavour of choice is Linux Mint. Easy enough for the wife to use day-to-day and still has all the grunt under the surface that i know and love from my years of running slackware! Helps that i run 2 data centre's full of RedHat/CentOS servers too

The problem I found with Fedora 17/18/19/20 (the last especially) is that they've radically changed the interface and tried to force the product into a user-only genre, with the "server" install providing just a command line and nothing else. I far preferred the interface and tools from back in Gnome 2, but the guys efforts in Fedora Mate (an attempt to emulate Gnome 2 in these later revisions) have fallen far short of the mark. I'm left with LXDE to give me the balance between the GUI I want to make operations less complex and the tools that I need to actually use, configure and maintain the server.

Never tried Mint, based on Ubuntu which (back when I first took a serious look at Linux) was a very poor second cousin to Redhat (personal opinion based on functional needs and my mind's approach to computing). I have a spare laptop, I might try it and see how it's evolved. I could be swayed!

I've left data centres alone, last one I worked in was fine but I prefer working with people (plus the pay isn't bad, doing what I'm doing).

 

[Malicious]

Mint is nice and straight off the shelf Ubuntu is great aswell, very user friendly, Ubuntu I setup on an old laptop for my olds , they are pushing 90 ,

 

[sparra04]

You LOWERED the Nav?

he WHAT?

 

[siringo]

Well with my work at rural schools, I'm trying to come up with an alternative to Win8 and iPads for the kids. Teachers don't know enough about any of it, despite what they think, and parents in no way have enough money to spend $500 on a laptop and $400 on an iPad, so I'm working on coming up with alternatives.

That's why it took me 3 weeks. I was looking for a distro that kids & parents could jump straight into and not have to learn before they could use it. Also I had some issues with some distros not recognizing my laptop fan and not turning it on, which made the thing turn into a mini campfire.

Of all the desktops I pretty much prefer KDE, it's very pretty and easy to move around in,

I almost settled on Mageia, not a bad build, but it's based on Mandriva and it's command line tools are just too damn confusing for me.

Yep, lowered the Nav. But it was only the tray, so it's a Clayton's lowering really.

Oh and if anyone knows of a 2GB quad core 10" android tablet for $150.00 please let me know.

 

[bullwinkle]

Good luck trying to tell a teacher they don't know what they're talking about!

Other than that , I'm with the others - have NFI what you blokes are on about.

 

[grasshopper]

Hang on a minute... you Lowered your Nav?
Wtffour!

Good to see someone else giving Linux a good solid go after getting the crapps with Windoze

 

[steve1961]

i seen the light years ago , i-mac, macbook pro , i-pad , i-phone , never looked back , and i work on windows based systems every day

 

[grasshopper]

Well with my work at rural schools, I'm trying to come up with an alternative to Win8 and iPads for the kids. Teachers don't know enough about any of it, despite what they think, and parents in no way have enough money to spend $500 on a laptop and $400 on an iPad, so I'm working on coming up with alternatives.

That's why it took me 3 weeks. I was looking for a distro that kids & parents could jump straight into and not have to learn before they could use it. Also I had some issues with some distros not recognizing my laptop fan and not turning it on, which made the thing turn into a mini campfire.

Of all the desktops I pretty much prefer KDE, it's very pretty and easy to move around in,

I almost settled on Mageia, not a bad build, but it's based on Mandriva and it's command line tools are just too damn confusing for me.

Yep, lowered the Nav. But it was only the tray, so it's a Clayton's lowering really.

Oh and if anyone knows of a 2GB quad core 10" android tablet for $150.00 please let me know.

---------------------------------------------

Great work for the folks in your area.
I hope it works out vgood for those that you can assist.

 

[TigerST]

O WoW i like old tonys photo. And I do know what Windows & Linux are.
And all I can say is I miss DOS.

 

[mrtim123]

The problem I found with Fedora 17/18/19/20 (the last especially) is that they've radically changed the interface and tried to force the product into a user-only genre, with the "server" install providing just a command line and nothing else. I far preferred the interface and tools from back in Gnome 2, but the guys efforts in Fedora Mate (an attempt to emulate Gnome 2 in these later revisions) have fallen far short of the mark. I'm left with LXDE to give me the balance between the GUI I want to make operations less complex and the tools that I need to actually use, configure and maintain the server.

Never tried Mint, based on Ubuntu which (back when I first took a serious look at Linux) was a very poor second cousin to Redhat (personal opinion based on functional needs and my mind's approach to computing). I have a spare laptop, I might try it and see how it's evolved. I could be swayed!

I've left data centres alone, last one I worked in was fine but I prefer working with people (plus the pay isn't bad, doing what I'm doing).

I'm hearing you!

Luckily, all of these (gnome, kde, lxde, etc) are just desktop environments anyway - and as such are fairly easily interchangable.
As long as you find a distro that is running all the tools you need in the CLI, loading in the right GUI is easy
I like Mint - its quite easy to run from the GUI (for the wife) and cinnamon is quite quick and pretty when im feeling lasy. As the version of mint i run (LMDE) runs on a Debian core, it has all the grunt that any Debian system should have

If you feel like giving it a crack, try both. the modern ubuntu core is pretty good these days (ubuntu's enlightenment GUI is its failure). For the purists, the LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) is my pick.

/nerd talk

 

[mrtim123]

...if anyone knows of a 2GB quad core 10" android tablet for $150.00 please let me know.

There are some pretty grunty china models at the moment. Sure not the quality of Samsung et al. but for the money they are good units.

I set my dad up with a Pipo M8 Pro late last year for around the $200 mark, and the revision model (the M9) is now quad core!

Pipo Max M9 - $229AU
10.1 inch
Android 4.2
Quad Core
RK3188
IPS - 1280*800
2GB RAM
16GB Built-in Storage

 

[siringo]

There are some pretty grunty china models at the moment. Sure not the quality of Samsung et al. but for the money they are good units.

I set my dad up with a Pipo M8 Pro late last year for around the $200 mark, and the revision model (the M9) is now quad core!

Pipo Max M9 - $229AU
10.1 inch
Android 4.2
Quad Core
RK3188
IPS - 1280*800
2GB RAM
16GB Built-in Storage

Gee that's not a bad price for the specs, is that $AU or $US??

Mint LMDE does that have the MATE desktop??

I'm looking at all this with my "In this day and age, It should just work straight out of the box" eyes on. I don't beieve you should have to compile XYZ or apt-get patch X or similar to have basic functionality these days.

It's like buying car and then having to buy a spare wheel from somehwere else and then jack from somewhere else again.

I don't claim to be a guru, but I've been in IT for 25 years now, my prediction for the next 5 years (for the desktop area only). Microsoft will not be such a power in the software arena, Windows may even be given away free as it will be viewed as not an important component in people's computing requirements. Android is already free and iOS updates are free as well.

Tablets are here to stay. They will become more powerful and used by many more people.

Android will dominate over iOS, this will be based solely on price and it's openness.

Google will become bigger than Microsoft, Microsoft will begin to look like Novell. Apple will stay where they are, but gather increased criticism for their 'proprietaryness'.

And desktop PC's will almost disappear and be replaced by laptops.

Just my 2 cents worth.