Ubuntu 13.10 Is Released..Consider using it if ...

Bilk22
Odd thing about Windows and OS X. It runs so much better in a virtual machine on a Mac than it does natively in it's own box. I think, and again not an expert here, but it is also more secure.

You know that's never been the case for me. I am a tech though. I run both with zero problems. I run VM's with zero problems. However I don't run the crappy versions of windows. I cannot remember the last time I had a technical problem with windows or linux. Musta been a decade at least.

Frankly, I hate Linux. I am not that tech savvy but you really shouldn't need to be just to install and run an OS. I have never had the kind of problems with Windows that I have any time I decide to torture myself and install Linux. I can get it installed and up and running with some effort but it just seems like there's always a problem of some kind.

Windows is basically transparent in everyday use. I hardly ever have to think about the OS. There's nothing special or technical or complicated about simply installing a piece of software on Windows. Linux is always a special case unless you're a computer geek.

reply to post by BrianFlanders


Installing Ubuntu.. along with some other distros is arguably easier than installing Windows!
Linux generally installs everything for you, OS, Apps, Drivers in one pass.

It also installs updates for everything in the same fashion.. Not just OS patches , but everything on your computer!

Now how is that difficult?

reply to post by rigel4


great thread rigel4 for all of us computer idiots i have got 4 old computers from friends to play about with and will try out some of the ideas i read about here i quite fancy trying ubuntu on a few machines and its free that is my fav price and if i botch it up i can always come here for you guys .

that is why i come to a.t.s so many brainy people here add up all the years you guys have been into computers and it is a massive help to those of us who have not got a clue about different systems etc it would save hours/ days in my case playing about with stuff . thanks guys

rigel4
reply to post by BrianFlanders

 

Installing Ubuntu.. along with some other distros is arguably easier than installing Windows!
Linux generally installs everything for you, OS, Apps, Drivers in one pass.

It also installs updates for everything in the same fashion.. Not just OS patches , but everything on your computer!

Now how is that difficult?

It's not. Assuming the drivers for all your hardware are extremely well supported in Linux. I spent 5 hours one lovely day trying to figure out how to install an updated driver for my graphics because the one that was installed by default in Mint seemed to be really glitchy (Flickering, freezing, horizontal tearing while playing movies, etc).

None of these problems appear when I install Windows 7 and download the latest driver for my graphics and install it myself. Granted, the same thing can be done in Linux but installing things you downloaded yourself is a special procedure. In Windows, you press "install" no matter what you download and it takes care of itself.

I spent several hours trying to find a music player for Linux that works exactly like Foobar. Specifically, the ability to sort your music library by folder structure. Maybe it exists but I couldn't find it and Windows Foobar refused to work properly under Wine for me. That is one of those must have things that keeps me on Windows. I use Foobar every time I use my computer and I always sort by folder structure.

The one bright spot on Linux is the fact that many distros come with Firefox right out of the box and the transition is practically seamless. I love Firefox and have been using it for years. If I was just browsing the web and nothing more, Linux Mint would probably be just fine.

I'm not even interested in arguing about it. I wanted to like Linux bad enough to tinker with it for many hours. I finally got it to the point to where I found alternatives for most of the software I use in Windows (Still never found a good substitute for Foobar though). Then I bought a new wireless router and every time I started my system, Linux would refuse to connect to it for half an hour. It connects instantly when I start Windows.

I just got tired of fighting with it. As bad as Windows can be sometimes, it's just convenient and effortless. The worst Windows bugs were worked out ages ago. I never have to see a command terminal in Windows. Ever.

The only thing I really have to do when I install Windows is graphics and wireless drivers. I can do OS updates at my leisure. I have a small collection of freeware programs I've been using for years. Virtually none of the Linux alternatives are anywhere near as good as their Windows counterparts. The image viewers on Linux are particularly bad. There doesn't seem to be a Linux equivalent to Irfanview and setting it up to work with Wine is a royal pain compared to just installing it and forgetting it in Windows.

The Linux version of OpenOffice seems to omit the thesaurus function (out of the box) for no obvious reason.

reply to post by geobro


You go right ahead and tinker to your hearts content!
And if you need to ask us anything then I for one will be happy
to help.

Remember that learning to use Linux is like learning everything else,
It takes time to get the best out of it and alternatives found to those familiar
things that are found in more familiar OS's

Sure I have had some problems with Linux , but there is almost always
a solution to the problem.

If i might suggest one thing though... Whene ever possable use either Nvidia or Intel based Graphics,
you will be more likely to experience Graphics glitches using ATI Drivers than you will with Nvidia or Intel ones.

Adding drivers is no more difficult in Linux than Windows.. It just works differently and more often than not it requires little or no user intervention.

Try Ubuntu on your most powerful system and perhaps Lubuntu or Xubuntu on your less powerfull systems.

Adding Third party PPA's to your system is usually ok,, but get to know what upstream and tesing PPA's actually mean before you add them becasue they may inadvertanly up date all of your system with Testing
packages and system files. ( Not Good).

Not all Distros are good or stable.. YMMV but That aside you then have a myriad of desktops that wil lseamlessly and some not so much fit right into your Distro, For example Ubuntu uses Unity a its default
desktop, but Gmome shell is the easiest alternative to install in place of Unity.

Then you might like try KDE ( another wonderful choice) for this you can either add the KDE desktop from
software centre in Ubuntu.. or you could install the @synaptic package manager an use that for your package control..or you could just press ctrl Alt + T open a terminal and type Sudo apt-get Install kde-desktop There are so many ways to do anything in Linux, it's Freedom.

I have just touched on the variety and flexability that Ubuntu Linux gives you so I actively ecnourage you
to persue your new Interest in Linux with gusto.. Have fun

Rigel4

rigel4
reply to post by BrianFlanders

 

Installing Ubuntu.. along with some other distros is arguably easier than installing Windows!
Linux generally installs everything for you, OS, Apps, Drivers in one pass.

Not really because you can do the same with Windows 7 . You can also experience tough installs when using MINT, Ubuntu, insert some of the version here. A computers stability is equal parts hardware/driver/software/user/cooling (can't forget the cooling!)

Still anyone with a minimum interest in computers should take the convenience of the modern computer world and run both Windows and some flavor of Linux. If you deal with the art world you could throw MAC OS in there also. Virtualization makes it so easy to run multiple fully functioning OS's.

Sure you are way more likely to encounter Windows but why not learn both.

opethPA


Still anyone with a minimum interest in computers should take the convenience of the modern computer world and run both Windows and some flavor of Linux. If you deal with the art world you could throw MAC OS in there also. Virtualization makes it so easy to run multiple fully functioning OS's.

Sure you are way more likely to encounter Windows but why not learn both.

Personally, I prefer a full install. Dual booting works fine as long as you do it right but installing Linux always scares me when I've got a good windows install going because Linux is so unpredictable (especially with a new release). The slightest screwup can mess up the Windows boot area and it can be hard to fix if you don't know what you're doing.

Fortunately, something like Acronis helps in that department but I've still managed to scramble things badly enough that I had to do a format, a fresh Windows install and then lay the backup down over it. Since I don't screw around with learning the real guts of everything, I don't have much choice but to just reinstall when something gets corrupted.

Even when I install Mint and everything goes smoothly, I end up just letting the Mint partition collect dust because it's always something. Lately it's been the problem where Mint won't connect to my router. It's probably some setting that's wrong in Mint but I'm not gonna mess with it. It works in Windows. If you can't even get online with an OS, that's a pretty big fail.

I did give it a shot, but it performed really bad, laggy, slow and unresponsive. I'm not blaming 'buntu because my laptop is actually really crappy. Other 'flavors' seems to run fine though..
Here is the list from my lshw -short

H/W path Device Class Descriptio
===================================================
system Aspire 525
/0 bus HMA51-BZ
/0/0 memory 1MiB BIOS
/0/24 memory 4GiB Syste
/0/24/0 memory 2GiB SODIM
/0/24/1 memory 2GiB SODIM
/0/2d processor AMD E-300
/0/2d/0 memory 64KiB L1 c
/0/2d/1 memory 512KiB L2
/0/2e memory 128KiB L1
/0/2f memory 1MiB L2 ca
/0/100 bridge Family 14h
/0/100/1 display Wrestler [
/0/100/11 storage SB7x0/SB8x
/0/100/12 bus SB7x0/SB8x
/0/100/12.2 bus SB7x0/SB8x
/0/100/13 bus SB7x0/SB8x
/0/100/13.2 bus SB7x0/SB8x
/0/100/14 bus SBx00 SMBu
/0/100/14.2 multimedia SBx00 Azal
/0/100/14.3 bridge SB7x0/SB8x
/0/100/14.4 bridge SBx00 PCI
/0/100/15 bridge SB700/SB80
/0/100/15.2 bridge SB900 PCI
/0/100/15.2/0 eth0 network AR8152 v2.
/0/100/15.3 bridge SB900 PCI
/0/100/15.3/0 wlan0 network AR9485 Wir
/0/101 bridge Family 12h
/0/102 bridge Family 12h
/0/103 bridge Family 12h
/0/104 bridge Family 12h
/0/105 bridge Family 12h
/0/106 bridge Family 12h
/0/107 bridge Family 12h
/0/108 bridge Family 12h
/0/1 scsi0 storage
/0/1/0.0.0 /dev/sda disk 250GB ST92
/0/1/0.0.0/1 /dev/sda1 volume 119GiB EXT
/0/1/0.0.0/2 /dev/sda2 volume 113GiB Ext
/0/1/0.0.0/2/5 /dev/sda5 volume 3818MiB Li
/0/1/0.0.0/2/6 /dev/sda6 volume 109GiB Lin
/0/2 scsi1 storage
/0/2/0.0.0 /dev/cdrom disk DVDRAM GT3
/0/3 scsi2 storage
/0/3/0 /dev/cdrom1 disk Mass Stora
/0/3/0/0 /dev/cdrom1 disk
/0/3/0/0/1 volume 17KiB Appl
/0/3/0/0/2 volume 21MiB Appl
/0/3/1 /dev/sdb disk SCSI Disk
/1 wwan0 network Ethernet i

Honestly I've never been a big fan of Unity, but now with the online-amazon-music-junkintegration-feature it's unbearable. I know how to turn them off, but it p***** me off to have to deal with it in the first place.

Currently I dualboot Mint 15 KDE and Mint 15 Cinnamon, both run really smoothly on this piece of junk. Got one hd with Mint Xfce, complete with awesome conky script and all, and must say, Xfce is a very nice, fast and stable desktop.

The graphic drivers are not working as good as they should, in any distro I've ever tried. It's actually true what was pointed out earlier about watching horizontal rain when watching movies from any external monitor/display, hdmi or vga, fglrx (with or without updates) or xserver-xorg-video-ati. This has been the case for the past years I've worked only with GNU/Linux.
Thing is, personally it's not really bothering me.. the picture's good enough, and everything else is working flawlessly. Ubuntu can be nice, but I'm sticking with Mint.
Any usb device I've tried has worked out-of-the-box, webcams, china-cheap-mp3 players, 3g-usb-modems, printers, digicams, mouses/keyboards (wired or wireless), smartphones (with the exeption of iPhone 3 with upgraded iOS, just had to give up on that one, but since I don't have the iPhone anymore it's not an issue).
...and not a single virus/anything other nasty in 6 years, totally awesome.

Stomp

Any usb device I've tried has worked out-of-the-box, webcams, china-cheap-mp3 players, 3g-usb-modems, printers, digicams, mouses/keyboards (wired or wireless), smartphones (with the exeption of iPhone 3 with upgraded iOS, just had to give up on that one, but since I don't have the iPhone anymore it's not an issue).
...and not a single virus/anything other nasty in 6 years, totally awesome.

Have you tried any USB wifi adapters? I was tempted to get one but I always pause when I see that most of them need driver CDs.

BrianFlanders
Have you tried any USB wifi adapters? I was tempted to get one but I always pause when I see that most of them need driver CDs.

Not that many, but the ones I've tried worked just fine, no need for additional drivers. Most recently I tested a Buffalo AirStation Turbo G (model WLI-U2-KG125S). I was unable to find the right drivers for it in Win7 (the adapter is old, designed for Xp-7), but the damn thing just would not work. I tried it in Linux, no fuzz, and a way better wifi-signal than my integrated card is capable of

BrianFlanders
Assuming the drivers for all your hardware are extremely well supported in Linux. I spent 5 hours one lovely day trying to figure out how to install an updated driver for my graphics because the one that was installed by default in Mint seemed to be really glitchy (Flickering, freezing, horizontal tearing while playing movies, etc).

None of these problems appear when I install Windows 7 and download the latest driver for my graphics and install it myself. Granted, the same thing can be done in Linux but installing things you downloaded yourself is a special procedure. In Windows, you press "install" no matter what you download and it takes care of itself.

Yeah I like Window 7 but I also love Fedora. One thing most people don't know about Windows 7 is you can install a driver as if it were in another OS. Such as Windows XP. Same with programs. I had a problem installing an old driver for a webcam so I just switched compatibility settings to make it install as if it was XP. Works great.

In Fedora I have had to port drivers from Ubuntu or Archlinux. I used RPM install to compile drivers. It's highly technical though and not for everyone. Very few can or should even attempt it. You can ruin an install quick no matter what flavor you're running.

Stomp

BrianFlanders
Have you tried any USB wifi adapters? I was tempted to get one but I always pause when I see that most of them need driver CDs.

Not that many, but the ones I've tried worked just fine, no need for additional drivers. Most recently I tested a Buffalo AirStation Turbo G (model WLI-U2-KG125S). I was unable to find the right drivers for it in Win7 (the adapter is old, designed for Xp-7), but the damn thing just would not work. I tried it in Linux, no fuzz, and a way better wifi-signal than my integrated card is capable of

edit on 7-11-2013 by Stomp because: typos..my tired eyes :p

Yey a true believer..
Mostly my experience too

So quick question for some of you, how do I harden this version, and can you add the tools from kali to it?

reply to post by GodsLawsWork


It's more difficult then other distro's to import to but technically you should be able to. What desktop are you bringing applications over from? What desktop are you going to run? Your Xwindows system has a lot to do with it. Unless itis command line of course then you're looking at dependencies.

i use ubuntu and i love it. i ditched windows a couple years ago. my wife and i both got new laptops about a year ago and as soon as i got mine i installed linux. it runs smooth all the time. i keep nagging my wife to change over but she wont. i dont know why.
her computer always freezes and lags. just little bs problems and i am always problem free.

we will mess around and shut our laptops off. then we fire them up at the same time and before her windows 8 desktop is loaded i can be logged into my bank using chrome or firefox and have multiple tabs open. it frustrates her but she wont change.

if youre thinking about it, just make the leap. you will be glad you did

CardiffGiant
we will mess around and shut our laptops off. then we fire them up at the same time and before her windows 8 desktop is loaded i can be logged into my bank using chrome or firefox and have multiple tabs open. it frustrates her but she wont change.

If the computers are the same then there's something wrong with your wife's computer, Windows 8 doesn't take that long to boot.

And no, I don't like Ubuntu, I prefer CentOS.

CardiffGiant
i use ubuntu and i love it. i ditched windows a couple years ago. my wife and i both got new laptops about a year ago and as soon as i got mine i installed linux. it runs smooth all the time. i keep nagging my wife to change over but she wont. i dont know why.
her computer always freezes and lags. just little bs problems and i am always problem free.

we will mess around and shut our laptops off. then we fire them up at the same time and before her windows 8 desktop is loaded i can be logged into my bank using chrome or firefox and have multiple tabs open. it frustrates her but she wont change.

if youre thinking about it, just make the leap. you will be glad you did

That's been your experience..
I have multiple Windows machines in my house..never have problems with them..
Their just isn't a point in this argument.
Both operating systems serve a very real and tangible purpose.

ArMaP

CardiffGiant
we will mess around and shut our laptops off. then we fire them up at the same time and before her windows 8 desktop is loaded i can be logged into my bank using chrome or firefox and have multiple tabs open. it frustrates her but she wont change.

If the computers are the same then there's something wrong with your wife's computer, Windows 8 doesn't take that long to boot.

And no, I don't like Ubuntu, I prefer CentOS.

i know its not supposed to take that long.
i just meant windows seems to bog down and ubuntu does not

opethPA

CardiffGiant
i use ubuntu and i love it. i ditched windows a couple years ago. my wife and i both got new laptops about a year ago and as soon as i got mine i installed linux. it runs smooth all the time. i keep nagging my wife to change over but she wont. i dont know why.
her computer always freezes and lags. just little bs problems and i am always problem free.

we will mess around and shut our laptops off. then we fire them up at the same time and before her windows 8 desktop is loaded i can be logged into my bank using chrome or firefox and have multiple tabs open. it frustrates her but she wont change.

if youre thinking about it, just make the leap. you will be glad you did

That's been your experience..
I have multiple Windows machines in my house..never have problems with them..
Their just isn't a point in this argument.
Both operating systems serve a very real and tangible purpose.

im not trying to argue. this is a thread about considering a switch to linux. i posted my experience because i felt like the switch was good for me as i used windows for years.
IMO, linux stands up better than windows.
again, IMO, i think windows is a better entry level OS. just an opinion.

its nice having a smooth running system and not having to worry about disc cleanups, defrags, and malware programs and such. its refreshing.