Ubuntu is my friend

[Russel]

Well, here I am again, posting from Ubuntu. This time I have Ubuntu running from the hard disk on my old Toshiba notebook computer. I have to say that I'm amazed how easy it was to resize the 100GB partition with WinXP on it to 80GB for XP and 20GB for Ubuntu. The installation was straight forward, much quicker than installing WinXP, Vista, or Win7, especially considering the lack of performance on this old notebook computer. And WinXP hasn't been affected except for the size of the partition that it resides on.

Tthis old computer operates much more responsively on Ubuntu, worth the time to install Ubuntu in dual boot with XP.

I've installed FreeNAS on old computers with 400mhz processors and 256mb of RAM in order to keep the old hardware usefull, but I never really though about using Linux on slower machines for performance improvement.

Anyway, Ubuntu is still my friend.

[updatelee]

I really enjoy linux alot, I have it on quite a few pieces of hardware around the house, router, nas, desktop, laptop's etc. I use mac's on a day to day basis but have vmware with linux on them as well for the few times I cant get my mac's todo what I want. I just really hate windows. People always spout windows driver compatibility, ya sure thats important, but driver install and ease of install are just as important.

for example I bought a samsung 3170 networked printer. in mac osx

click sys pref, click printers, click the + to add a printer, select the 3170N, done

in windows, goto samsung.com, search for the 3170N driver and down, then run and install. Then goto control panel, printer, add printer, select network printer, enter the IP of the printer, so now you have to goto the printer, go through the menu, print off the current settings spec sheet to see the IP, enter that IP, then list to the driver complain its not plugged into usb, tell it to ignore that (because its a network printer) carry on and install.

For someone like my mother inlaw or my wife, the mac is a no brainer, for me, its a time saver I dont have to fight with it.

Now linux is honestly about as complicated as windows, no harder no easier, takes the same amount of time. I just like its opensrc and gives me full control of things. When something doesnt work the way I want it to, I can modify it todo what I want.

Think of it like electronics, Im sure im not the only one that has bought something that doesnt quite do exactly everything I want it to, knowing that I can get full service manual with schematics and diagnostic info, Over the product that does do what I want, but I know for a fact it will never do anything more because its such a closedsrc product nothing more can ever become of it.

[Ed.Kloonk]

...

Anyway, Ubuntu is still my friend.

That's great. While *buntu isn't my preferred choice, I happen to use it on a laptop because it is the only *nix that manages to connect an (unsupported in Linux) Telstra usb 3G stick when I'm traveling.

The desktop can be even more responsive if you use a lighter desktop such as LXDE or XFCE instead of the default Gnome that ships with Ubuntu.

Enjoy your *new* laptop.

 

[firewalker]

That's great. While *buntu isn't my preferred choice, I happen to use it on a laptop because it is the only *nix that manages to connect an (unsupported in Linux) Telstra usb 3G stick when I'm traveling.

Proprietary hardware with precompiled drivers only for *bubtu? It sounds strange though for this kind of hardware. Can you do an lsusb with the 3G stick connected and post the results?

[Ed.Kloonk]

That's great. While *buntu isn't my preferred choice, I happen to use it on a laptop because it is the only *nix that manages to connect an (unsupported in Linux) Telstra usb 3G stick when I'm traveling.

Proprietary hardware with precompiled drivers only for *bubtu? It sounds strange though for this kind of hardware. Can you do an lsusb with the 3G stick connected and post the results?

It's a ZTE MF636. I don't mean that it only works on Ubuntu. It's was at the time(2009) the only distro that had clear instructions from other users on whirlpool. I'm sure you could get it going on other distros, but I never could(be bothered).

There is no special software needed to get it to work in linux, just the right software configured correctly. The trick is, the device is a memory stick when first plugged in. This is so it can assimilate any windows computer it finds. The windows program installed then 'switches' the device into usbmodem mode. A command line program for linux does this task to allow it then to be seen by the system as a USBmodem.

The initial problem was the Linux switcher program had to be used manually, the version was old and needed an out of repo update. Then the distros started to preconfigure it to run automatically with hal etc. Sometimes that preconfig was wrong depending on the ZTE device you had.

I believe it is now much more simplified and you don't even need to do anything but plug it in. I don't use it very often because the usage fees pretty much require you to mortgage your house, and any unused credit you buy (min $20) disappears after 30 days. Way to go Telstra. You really are the benchmark for contempt of your own customers. Truly outstanding actually. 

[firewalker]

Ok, thanks for clarifying it.

[Sionyn]

yeah 3g data charges are extravagant

[Zero999]

Well, here I am again, posting from Ubuntu. This time I have Ubuntu running from the hard disk on my old Toshiba notebook computer. I have to say that I'm amazed how easy it was to resize the 100GB partition with WinXP on it to 80GB for XP and 20GB for Ubuntu. The installation was straight forward, much quicker than installing WinXP, Vista, or Win7, especially considering the lack of performance on this old notebook computer. And WinXP hasn't been affected except for the size of the partition that it resides on.

The thing I liked about Linux was the installation which was quicker than Windows because I didn't have to spend ages installing Adobe Acrobat reader, OpenOffice.org, Inkscape, Firefox etc. All I needed to do was boot the CD, partition my hard drive, leave it to install, then come back and install all the updates.

What I disliked about the installation was having to install the codecs and my printer driver separately but I understand why this is necessary.

Tthis old computer operates much more responsively on Ubuntu, worth the time to install Ubuntu in dual boot with XP.

I've installed FreeNAS on old computers with 400mhz processors and 256mb of RAM in order to keep the old hardware usefull, but I never really though about using Linux on slower machines for performance improvement.

I was disappointed with the performance Windows XP seemed to boot much more quickly than most of the distributions I tried which I understand isn't a problem for a server operating system. Other people I've met on forums say Linux boots faster for them but that's not the case in my experience. I tried various tips I read to make it boot faster but it still didn't seem to be faster than Windows. I've heard that disk performance on some hard drives can be poorer for sectors on the outside of the disk than the inner but the difference seemed to be too great to be that alone.

Programs seemed to load more slowly and the memory usage was higher than Windows XP.

The graphics were much slower than on Windows which I put down to an unaccelerated driver. I sought help from the Internet but was unable to resolve the issue.

I liked some of the programs which have no free Windows equivalents and the user interface but for me these aren't good enough reasons to run it over Windows XP. I didn't have any problem with not being able to run software or Linux equivalents to Windows programs. I like open source software (OpenOffice.org, Inkscape, Gimp, KiCad ect) but run them all on Windows XP.

[Russel]

[...]The thing I liked about Linux was the installation which was quicker than Windows because I didn't have to spend ages installing Adobe Acrobat reader, OpenOffice.org, Inkscape, Firefox etc. All I needed to do was boot the CD, partition my hard drive, leave it to install, then come back and install all the updates.

That's very true. When asked how long it takes to build a computer I typically answer, it takes a couple hours to assemble the hardware (including routing and tie wrapping the cables nicely) but it can take days to install the software. While this may be a bit of an exaggeration sometimes it is closer to the truth than I would like to admit.

One of the big differences between Linux and Windows is that Linux usually seems to work well right after installation. I did check for  updates during this current installation of Ubuntu, but that seemed to go much quicker than the typical update scenario with a new Windows installation. Yesterday after installing Ubuntu, I ran updates twice, the second time finding that the OS was up to date. When I perform a new installation of Windows, I just keep running updates over and over until the OS is finally up to date. That can take some time and many reboots. At my last place of employment, the operating system of choice was WinXP. The new notebook computers that the company purchased arrived with Vista, only to be overwritten with WinXP by us to maintain uniformity. It was done legally, with WinXP licensing, and had some of us scratching our heads, but that's another story. So, needless to say I've installed WinXP a few times...

On another note, I usually spend at least one afternoon, if not a couple days, disabling software in the Widows OS that is running and not needed or desired. There are many services that don't need to be running and only slow your system down, take a look at www.blackviper.com for more information. And, of course, every application that you install wants to run a little applet in the tray that usually isn't really needed. Although I don't have any great experience with Ubuntu, it does seem to operate faster on the same hardware and as far as I can tell part of this may have to do with the fact that tons of unnecessary software isn't running from the start.

[...] I like open source software (OpenOffice.org, Inkscape, Gimp, KiCad ect) but run them all on Windows XP.

I also run some of the Windows versions of Linux software in WinXP. One of my favorites is OpenOffice. While Microsoft Office has some incredible capabilities I got tired of using a semi truck (or Ferrari, if you prefer) to go to the store for a loaf of bread. I really like OpenOffice, in fact this post is being composed on OpenOffice Writer, albeit I am on my notebook operating with Ubuntu.

While most of my time using a computer involves Windows operating systems, I am very impressed with this current installation of Ubuntu (10.04.02 LTS). I am going to have to try running a live CD on my older desktop machines. If they work out as well as it has with this notebook computer, I will be setting up more dual boot machines.