Author Topic: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.  (Read 71937 times)

Offline DavidA

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To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« on: April 12, 2014, 04:56:14 PM »
I'm considering taking the plunge and moving to Linux.  My XP is playing up a bit and MS no longer supports it.

So,  I understand that some of you guys use Linux.  To install it on a machine is it really as simple as downloading the system onto a dvd or data stick and letting it install itself on the chosen machine ?

How do I get back onto the web ?

All advice appreciated.

Dave.

Offline Stilldrillin

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #1 on: April 12, 2014, 05:19:06 PM »
Hi Dave.
I know nowt about how these things work...........

New laptop, few years ago. My son set me up on Linux Ubuntu, cos he thought it was wonderful. At the time.

I hated it, as it wouldn't talk to PBucket or Utube properly. Various other sites just didn't work properly either.

He swapped me back to XP. I've been happy, until now!

I'm awaiting, "something happening". Then, he says he will clean it out, and install different Windows.

David D
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Still modifying bits of metal... Occasionally, making an improvement!

Offline mattinker

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #2 on: April 12, 2014, 05:35:09 PM »
Six years ago my 12 year old MacG3 was no longer operational. Using a relatively old free PC, I installed Ubuntu, never looked back. It does everything I want it too, photobucket no problems, youtube never had any trouble. That PC died recently, I've built myself another PC, installed Xubuntu, everything fine and dandy, with the exception of making videos which is not as easy as on windows, but it is free, and open source.

Microshaft has been creating obsalescence for years, when I ran my first PC, I hooked up my eleven (at the time) year old umax scanner which it recognised straight away, there were no pilots for it on either Mac or PC.

I'm very happy with Xubuntu, regards, Matthew

Offline awemawson

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #3 on: April 12, 2014, 05:39:05 PM »
I got stung buying a supposedly genuine copy of Win7 that I needed for a machine I was setting up in the workshop - it turned out to be an unregisterable forgery.I'd bought it months earlier so could do nowt about it. Not being prepared to shell out twice I downloaded the free LINUX Mint17. Went like a dream, loaded easily and recognized all my peripherals that WIN7 said were no longer supported. Not really got fully into it yet as I've been distracted by other things, but as a LINUX skeptic I've been impressed.

Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline DavidA

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2014, 05:59:02 PM »
Thanks for the replies so far.  I also got stung with windows Vista. Loaded it, spent one and a half hours downloading the updates and installing them.  Then it wouldn't accept the key that came with it.  So it is that machine that may get the Linux.

My XP keeps suddenly dropping out of MadModder back to the desktop. Usually in the middle of a doubleboost video. (it also does this on another site) and at the moment I can't find my XP disc to re-install.

Keep the advice coming.

Dave

Offline velocette

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #5 on: April 12, 2014, 09:43:20 PM »
Hi
Linux is OK by me cheap and secure if set up properly with a system administrator (root) and on the (/home) partition setup with  (eric) as the normal user.
A bit of a steep learning curve at first but worth it.
A memory stick loaded with the linux system of your choice loaded or a live DVD will give you a look at it without having to commit to it.
Personally I ditched Win 95  when it was still in vogue got sick of many constant patches and "Anti Virus" updates.

Now with Suse Linux loaded with the ability to keep updated at my leisure.

Eric

Offline hermetic

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #6 on: April 13, 2014, 12:36:39 PM »
When my mother got sick of windows 98 not recognising hardware, I set her up on Linux Ubuntu, and she has used it ever since, and she likes it! She now knows linux better than I do, (not difficult) but then again, she is 82 years young!!
Man who says it cannot be done should not disturb man doing it! https://www.youtube.com/user/philhermetic/videos?

Offline mattinker

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #7 on: April 13, 2014, 01:23:31 PM »
One thing I would like to add, when using Linux, there is an enormous amount of support available, if you have a problem, a web search will almost definately find the solution. In my early days on Linux, I had a friend that helped me, but it didn't take long to use the web to find the solutions to my problems. I f you have any problems, send me a PM and I'll try to help!

Regards, Matthew.

Offline Arbalist

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #8 on: April 13, 2014, 02:25:05 PM »
This looks nice.

http://elementaryos.org/

Offline BaronJ

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #9 on: April 13, 2014, 05:07:55 PM »
Hi Guys,


I've used nothing but Linux since about 1993-4 !  My first Linux was from book with a bound in copy of "Yggdrasil" Linux.  Those were the heady days of compile everything yourself.  Rooting out drivers to get better screen resolution.  Sound if you were lucky. Everything had to be searched for, modified, compiled linked.


Today its so easy !  Choose a flavour.  Download the ISO image for a live CD or DVD.  Burn the disc.  Stick it in the drive and boot from it.  Sit back and wait while it searches your machines hardware, picks the right drivers and just works.  Installs nothing on your machine.  Unless you tell it to !


When you have finished log off, shutdown and remove the CD/DVD.  Hey presto the next time you boot your machine you are back in Windows.


If you do decide to install make sure you have a good backup of your system and data.  Linux will read and write most of if not all Windows data.


There are many Linux users here that I'm sure will be able to help a new Linux user.



Best Regards:
                     Baron

Offline raynerd

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #10 on: April 13, 2014, 05:17:36 PM »
I tried Ubuntu a few years ago and never really adapted properly to it. I`ve been using Raspian on the raspberry pi`s I`ve got and I enjoyed it so much that I switched my home computer to debian. I don`t think I`ll look back now... it just takes a lot of getting use to to use it properly. Some of the things that are perhaps a little more straight forward on windows are slightly more hidden with Linux but the functionality is there!! The IRC support channels are amazing.

Chris

Offline Pete49

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #11 on: April 13, 2014, 11:46:27 PM »
I too am a long time user of XP (except this laptop which is win 7). I like win 7 but don't want to use it on my old desktop which still runs xp without a hitch but now due to no support am looking to Linux as well. Best move Micro$oft ever did to get people off windoze.
The problem I have come up against is what version to use as there are so many out there and their devotees that I am hoping to get advice here to cut through the BS
Pete
oops..........oh no.........blast now I need to redo it

Offline ksor

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #12 on: April 14, 2014, 12:05:02 AM »
I have an old ThinkPad that was a Little slow running XP so I updated it to Ubuntu 12.04 and I have been very happy with that ever since.

It's not my primairy computer but one we have in the kitchen for recepts for food, access to internet ect. ect.

I run TeamViewer on all my computers so I can remote control all from my primairy computer and I think our home Network is very nice and stable running.

I have 3-4 other ThinkPads/ThinkCenters and I'll update them too to Linux
Best regards
KSor, Denmark
Skype name: keldsor

Offline AdeV

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #13 on: April 14, 2014, 06:31:33 AM »
Linux has come a long way in the last few years. If you haven't tried it since, say, about 2010; try it again....

I'd personally recommend Linux Mint - it's an Ubuntu derivative, but much nicer IMHO. I think it's also the most popular version just now, it's also one of the most "non-nerd friendly" versions, although as a semi-nerd, I am not totally qualified to claim that.

The nice thing about Mint (and others) is the LiveDVD option; download the ISO & burn it to a DVD. Chuck the new DVD into your computer & boot from it - you will now get to experience a (very slow!) demo of what Linux is like. You can run Firefox & other s/w, I believe you can even download & install apps (but only for that session, re-boot and it's all back to how it was before). If you like it, install it; it will offer to try to co-exist with Windows if you have it, or allow you to wipe the machine & restart.

Personally, I use Linux Mint pretty much exclusively at home now, it just runs better on my ancient laptop than even XP. Although I do have a Windows "Virtual Machine" on my desktop computer, so I can still do Windows stuff if needed.
Cheers!
Ade.
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Offline Arbalist

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #14 on: April 14, 2014, 07:08:33 AM »
Funny how things change. I used to fiddle about with operating systems on a very amateur level but I gave up with that many years ago. I just like to use the thing now, not keep fiddling about "under the bonnet". These days though I do most stuff on an iPad and only resort to the desktop for image editing in Lightroom.

Offline gmac

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #15 on: April 14, 2014, 12:22:18 PM »
+1 on AdeV's comments. I loaded Linux Mint 13 KDE on an eMachine 350 netbook with only 1GB ram and it runs great. It's dual booted with the original Windows 7 but I no long use Windows. Lots of free software and currently use LibreOffice rather than buying MS Office. Preparing to load it on my main notebook computer. Take the time to review the various versions of Mint and previous releases. Also check the release notes for any machine incompatibilities.

http://www.linuxmint.com/index.php

Cheers Garry

Offline DavidA

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #16 on: April 14, 2014, 03:23:30 PM »
Well,looks as if it is generally considered to be a good thing.

So I'll be getting a new data stick and downloading Ubuntu sometime in the next week.

Thanks for all the replies to my query.

Dave. :thumbup:

Offline raynerd

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #17 on: April 14, 2014, 06:36:20 PM »
No one use Debian - open source for free software, totally community run?

Offline Pete49

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #18 on: April 14, 2014, 10:47:27 PM »
And now the problem... :scratch:... Ubuntu mint, Linux mint, Debian and the list goes on. This is the bit that confuses me. I think my head hurts
Pete
oops..........oh no.........blast now I need to redo it

Offline CrazyModder

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #19 on: April 15, 2014, 02:48:24 AM »
No one use Debian - open source for free software, totally community run?

I use Debian on several small machines at home, and am using it at work, it's fine. It is the distribution that Ubuntu and others are based on, after all. It does slightly less "hands holding" than other distributions, and does not have that big overarching theme like Ubuntu ("for the masses") or Mint ("beautiful"), but IMO it offers the highest level of choice for pre-compiled distribution (i.e., without getting into compiling everything yourself, like Gentoo).  So the learning curve might be just a little bit higher. It does have a very refined package management, compared with the RPM-based distros (Redhat, Suse...), which tend to get a bit chaotic in my experience.

Offline awemawson

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #20 on: April 15, 2014, 03:07:45 AM »
When I loaded my Mint16 system I was very impressed how easy it was to do, and I found my way around reasonably easily, however file sharing of a network is currently defeating me. If I set files to be shared by everyone it's ok, I can access them over my network from WIN7 machines. However setting it up so only one user can access is defeating me.

I think what winds me up with all the UNIX, LINUX variants is the arbitrary naming  of things, so the name seems to bear no relationship to the use of the utility or whatever.

Same happened to my Bank when it was converted to restaurant and was called 'The Bank' - now if they'd called it 'The Old Bank Restaurant' it would have made sense - but they didn't !
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline Stilldrillin

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #21 on: April 15, 2014, 03:34:14 AM »
As I said earlier. I know nowt. And, understand even less....... Still running, very happily, on a pirate copy of XP.

At No1 son's instruction. I installed Avast, yesterday.

I'll let you know if/ when anything happens........ 

David D
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Still modifying bits of metal... Occasionally, making an improvement!

Offline philf

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #22 on: April 15, 2014, 04:57:55 AM »
I have some questions:

I only tried Linux (I can't remember what version) once on an old 233MHz 256MB laptop and was much less than impressed. I dismissed it as being for nerds!

I have two desktops running XP - one stand-alone (no connections to the outside world and minimal software) PC for Mach3 on my CNC and one for general use connected to printers, scanners with an ethernet connection to my router.

I also have a laptop running Vista.

I am running programmes such as Autocad (2005), Vectric Cut2d, Family Tree Maker, ViaCad 2d/3d, Photoshop Elements, Anquet Maps etc.

Would I be able to run these programmes on e.g. Mint?

I sync the data files between the Vista laptop & XP desktop with SyncBack and backup both with Acronis True Image. (Acronis can also clone a hard drive so, in the event of a hd failure, I can swap the hd out and be back in business in minutes.) Would these programmes work or are there equivalents.

I might consider setting the Mach3 PC up to dual-boot into XP (for Mach3) and Mint? (for LinuxCNC for my CNC lathe when I finish it.)

Avast have said that they will continue to provide their support for XP for at least 3 years so, for now, I'm happy to carry on with XP.

I have another old laptop (933 MHz 1GB) which I might experiment with.

Cheers.

Phil.
Phil Fern
Location: Marple, Cheshire

Offline AdeV

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #23 on: April 15, 2014, 10:01:26 AM »
I am running programmes such as Autocad (2005), Vectric Cut2d, Family Tree Maker, ViaCad 2d/3d, Photoshop Elements, Anquet Maps etc.

Would I be able to run these programmes on e.g. Mint?

Only if there are Linux versions. Alternatively, if you have a transferrable (non-OEM) Windows licence, you can set up "virtual" Windows machine using either VMWare Player, or VirtualBox. Not particularly recommended on an underpowered machine though...

I sync the data files between the Vista laptop & XP desktop with SyncBack and backup both with Acronis True Image. (Acronis can also clone a hard drive so, in the event of a hd failure, I can swap the hd out and be back in business in minutes.) Would these programmes work or are there equivalents.

I might consider setting the Mach3 PC up to dual-boot into XP (for Mach3) and Mint? (for LinuxCNC for my CNC lathe when I finish it.)

Avast have said that they will continue to provide their support for XP for at least 3 years so, for now, I'm happy to carry on with XP.

I have another old laptop (933 MHz 1GB) which I might experiment with.


In your circumstances, you'd probably be best sticking to Windows for the time being.
Cheers!
Ade.
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Offline philf

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #24 on: April 15, 2014, 10:41:07 AM »
Thanks Ade,

I'll stick with what I know then! - At least I won't be wasting days messing about and being very disappointed.

I'll see if I can pick up a couple of Windows 7 licenses to futureproof myself.

 :beer:

Phil.
Phil Fern
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