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Linux, Anyone?

Blackfish64

By Blackfish64
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Blackfish64 Newbie

Blackfish64

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I also dumped windows very recently! Using Mint 17 and loving it thus far. :)
Absolutely! Mint and openSUSE are my second and third favorites respectively. Puppy Linux is my first love. I have old laptops. Puppy is designed for old computers. Works flawlessly. I am also a fan of minimalist distros. Puppy is the best I have found. The entire operating system is about 250 megabytes.

I dumped windows 8 about a month ago. I'm using Ubuntu right now but I have looked into other distros. Anything is  better than windows 8. I'd rather use windows 93 than windows 8.

I started out with Ubuntu. I quickly lost interest. Though I do like the Trusty Tahr distro.

I am very much a Linux fan, as it has fed me and my family for 15 years. :)

How did you make money with Linux?

Yes, am a Distro Developer, you might want to try mine, am aiming for release at the end of the month.

Yes, am a Distro Developer, you might want to try mine, am aiming for release at the end of the month.

Which distro is yours?
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ribuck Newbie

ribuck

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I've been Microsoft-free for 15 years now. I keep coming back to Fedora for my main PC, which is also a server. I would recommend Ubuntu to beginners though, because it includes the non-libre codecs.

 

I also have Peppermint (a low-resource derivative of Mint) running on an old netbook.

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Blackfish64 Newbie

Blackfish64

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I've been Microsoft-free for 15 years now. I keep coming back to Fedora for my main PC, which is also a server. I would recommend Ubuntu to beginners though, because it includes the non-libre codecs.

 

I also have Peppermint (a low-resource derivative of Mint) running on an old netbook.

I've got Peppermint.  Good one.

 

I always wanted to try Fedora, but could never find anything to work with these old 32-bit laptops I run. 

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WorBlux Newbie

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Yes, love it mostly use gentoo, occasionally win7 when I have to and ubuntu when nothing else works. Been using some distro or another as my primary OS for five years or so now.  Played around with a few distros circa 2000, but they didn't quite stick.

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PatrickC Newbie

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I'm seriously considering switching to Linux. I rarely use software these days that requires a Windows environment so it seems like a great alternative, particularly since the internet browser has become the tool of choice for some of the better software innovations of late. I also have a server and hear that the running a Linux server significantly improves the performance of your network.

 

The only thing holding me back has been my Steam catalogue. I'm aware that there are some games that will run on Linux, but I assume it is limited to a selection and not all games. I'm aware of the WINE app, but this used to be fairly unstable and often hogged more hardware resources than playing the games in a Windows environment. Anyone know if this has significantly improved of late?

 

I have some experience with Umbuntu and I hear a lot of good things said about MINT too. Albeit that MINT tends to more favourable amongst hardcore Linuix geeks and has a level of complexity attached to it, that requires a slight learning curve before you can comfortably use it. But can anyone recommend me an alternative distro, bearing in mind all that I've said above.

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Blackfish64 Newbie

Blackfish64

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Mint is easy.  You will love it right out of the box.  I'm just a user and a hack and I got it going in seconds.  No problem.  It's a lot like Windows XP (sad to see that one go.  It was the only Windows I ever liked).  So, too is Ubuntu Trusty Tahr.  It was coming out around the same time XP was going out, and Trusty Tahr was being touted as a replacement for XP.  I think it fell a tad short of the mark for a few reasons.  Number one, people still think Linux is difficult to use and are scared to try it.  That's not the case anymore.  They think a user needs to know code to get it going, but that's all in the distant past.  I ran Mint, Ubuntu, Puppy, openSUSE, and many other Linux distros for well over six months before I bothered to learn my first line of code.  Very easy to use.  You will have no problems.

 

Myth Busted!  YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW ANY CODE TO RUN LINUX ANYMORE!

 

I use Mint Cinammon.  If I am not mistaken, it is the most popular Mint.  And for good reason.  It's solid.  It rocks. 

 

Burn a copy and boot it from the DVD to give it a test run.  It's free. 

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cynicist Newbie

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I've been using Linux for over a decade, starting with Gentoo. Now I'm running the latest Ubuntu Dev release (14.10) since it is quite stable and up to date. I have a huge amount of respect for what Canonical is doing in the Linux space and enjoy their take on a desktop UI. I think Ubuntu is miles ahead of most other distributions, but if it didn't exist I'd be comfortable in openSUSE. Their one-click installer is brilliant and they have a pretty impressive software collection, it just takes longer to tweak all the things that bother me.

 

Unfortunately it seems that most distributions need to be dragged kicking and screaming to some semblance of usability. Even top tier distros like openSUSE have major problems. Not enabling network manager by default was a stroke of sheer stupidity that they managed to fix only recently... probably after so many people complained about not being able to connect to a network on a fresh install. Did they really expect people to deal with network configuration themselves? Or know how to change that setting in YAST?  :wallbash:

 

The only thing holding me back has been my Steam catalogue. I'm aware that there are some games that will run on Linux, but I assume it is limited to a selection and not all games. I'm aware of the WINE app, but this used to be fairly unstable and often hogged more hardware resources than playing the games in a Windows environment. Anyone know if this has significantly improved of late?

 

It has changed a lot since Valve decided to get into the console market and base SteamOS on Linux. Some games are being ported over but you are more likely to see new titles (like 

Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth) having support from the start. I'm also sure some titles will just never be ported over.

 

WINE can be quite stable but it depends on the game. You can go here to see how well supported applications are, and if you click on 'Browse Apps' on the left hand side, you can also search them all. It's not very user friendly but it is better than nothing.

 

If you end up wanting to switch and have questions or run into problems I'd be happy to help. :)

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HordOfTheFlies Newbie

HordOfTheFlies

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I've been using Linux and Unix in general since around 1995.  For the type of work I do and the way in which I work I find that is the most suitable environment for me.  I've used many distributions including Slackware, Gentoo, Debian, Red Hat and Ubuntu but I'm currently using Arch Linux.  I've also played with a lot of other open source operating systems like the BSDs and even currently still prefer OpenBSD for some tasks.  With VM technology today it's so easy to experiment so I really encourage anyone that's on the fence to just dive in.

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Blackfish64 Newbie

Blackfish64

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Right on!  I started out with Ubuntu and tried a hundred Linux distros since.  I am a Puppy Linux fan and user all the way.  I love the minimalist distros most of all.  Linux at it's very best!  Arch is also a minimalist distro.

 

So, here we have the best of both worlds... some of the Pups are Arch based, and they work like a million dollars!  But they're free!  Ha!

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/Archpup

 

I simply do not understand why someone would actually pay money for Windows junk when you can run Linux, a by far and away superior system, for FREE!

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PatrickC Newbie

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It has changed a lot since Valve decided to get into the console market and base SteamOS on Linux.

 

Actually given the advent of the new Steam OS Robert, wouldn't that actually mean that all Steam games would be playable on that platform. Although I guess Steam OS might not be particularly useful as a desktop computer OS perhaps.

 

On an aside It look like the Steam OS is just days away from being released.

 

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

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cynicist Newbie

cynicist

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Actually given the advent of the new Steam OS Robert, wouldn't that actually mean that all Steam games would be playable on that platform. Although I guess Steam OS might not be particularly useful as a desktop computer OS perhaps.

 

For any games made by Valve that is a guarantee, but for everything else it depends on whether the game studio or publisher feels that porting is worth the effort. SteamOS itself is a rebranded Linux distribution; This allows them to hide all the complexity of an operating system from typical console gamers, but you can get all the same functionality by installing Steam within Ubuntu. 

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WorBlux Newbie

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Actually given the advent of the new Steam OS Robert, wouldn't that actually mean that all Steam games would be playable on that platform. Although I guess Steam OS might not be particularly useful as a desktop computer OS perhaps.

 

On an aside It look like the Steam OS is just days away from being released.

 

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

 

SteamOS as of the moment is based on a slightly modified Debian. From early indications is looks like it will by default boot into the steam client's big picture mode, with a button of some other way to access a standard desktop.

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  • 1 month later...
Blackfish64 Newbie

Blackfish64

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Hello my Fellow Linux Lovers, just wanted to take a minute to share my latest Linx raves and favs and other new goodies I have found...

 

As for the big distros, I'm an openSUSE lover and user, and I just downloaded openSUSE-13.2-DVDx86_64.iso and installed and it's just wonderful!  Best openSUSE I have seen yet!  

 

I also downloaded centos 7 and gave it a boot.  Can't say I liked it much.  

 

I just downloaded Fedora 21 but haven't booted that one yet.  No comment.  

 

My most used, most reliable distros are of course the Puppy Linux distros.  These are my main operating systems, I use them everyday, they do everything I need and then some right out of the box, and I can't get enough of them.  I run my first love LxPup-Precise-Retro 14.02 on my electronic notebook, the one that's never ever, under any circumstances connected to the Internet.   I do a full install to the hard drive, then boot the computer with the Precise operating system and get to work.  That way, only what I want saved to the hard drive is saved.  Once I boot down, the entire session vanishes.  This method is great for online banking, too!

 

I just found this one, didn't even know it existed until a couple of days ago: LxPupTahr-1-4.10.1-pae.iso  And I fell in love immediately.  I will likely use this Pup to replace Precise Pup sometime in the near future.  It is just fantastic!

 

And the latest Pup I've walked around the block is this one: Quirky Pup unicorn-6.2.1.91.iso  This Pup is amazing!  Note: the .iso, should you decide to download and try it out, is not what you need for a full install.  This CD will only be good for booting up and using the operating system as a live CD session.  Once you boot down, all will be erased!  In order to do a full install, you will need another version.  I recommend burning to disc the .iso I have posted here and trying the Pup first.  It is still in development stages and it is said that it is kind of crazy right now; I don't know what they're talking about, as I have had zero problems with this Pup, but you can't say I didn't warn ya.  Quirky Pup is, by far and away, the fastest operating system I have ever seen.  Enjoy.             

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  • 2 weeks later...
Blackfish64 Newbie

Blackfish64

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So, what's up with the Ubuntu Utopic Unicorn 32-bit downloads that won't boot on my 32-bit machines?  I downloaded three already and not one will boot from either of my old 32-bit machines.  They boot fine on my new machines however.

 

I need one of the major Linux distros for a Linux course I am taking and  decided to go with Ubuntu.  I don't want to use one of my new machines for the course, so I broke out a couple of old 32-bit laptops that will work fine.  But no go with any of the latest Ubuntu operating systems.  I want Ubuntu because it runs best on my old hardware.  I ended up installing an old Saucy Salamander 13.10 cd I had lying in the drawer, which is no longer supported.  When I went to upgrade, that's when I found none of the new .iso I got would boot from the old hardware-even though it is (allegedly) 32-bit!  What's up with this?  Anyone find this problem?   

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shirgall Newbie

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I'm running Utopic on a 32-bit only Intel box I have here, but I upgraded, I did not install fresh. I have not looked into the images recently, but often when you are dealing with really old hardware, you may have to modify the image to load hal (hardware abstraction layer), which we avoid putting in like the plague because it's spaghetti, but it's where the support for really old stuff is. Utopic is based on a modern kernel and udev, which should cover anything made in the last 6 years, but when you get really old, you might need proprietary stuff.

 

If you cut a CD instead of USB boot you might have better luck.

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FriendlyHacker Newbie

FriendlyHacker

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Actually given the advent of the new Steam OS Robert, wouldn't that actually mean that all Steam games would be playable on that platform. Although I guess Steam OS might not be particularly useful as a desktop computer OS perhaps.

 

On an aside It look like the Steam OS is just days away from being released.

 

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

 

 

My Distro has all you need from a Desktop, plus it has the Steam Session enabled so you can login into SteamOS if you want to.

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