Linux for the rest of US, Ubuntu's (un)friendliness, dual boot win10 and 18,4lts

[james_s]

Just read recently, that Windows 10 is now "automatically" hide the local account when the machine is connected to it's mothership. 

You still can set up a local account if:

1. You skip WiFi setup in post-installation window before setting up an account, or
2. You setup a MS account, then go to Settings and revert it back to local account. MSFT doesn't want you to do this by preventing you from creating a local account that's the same name as your MS account, so you have to create a temporary account, nuke the MS account, then create a new local account with your account name, then nuke the temporary account.

The fact that all these tricks are needed, and the fact that they are constantly changing things and making it harder is enough to make me avoid the whole thing. I shouldn't have to resort to tricks and hacks to accomplish such basic things that are trivial in any other OS.

[malagas_on_fire]

Microsoft wants an account to get you in sync .... and for "telemetry" purposes aka gatter information about OS usages for statistcs.... and thus hiding that option. About dual boot tried  first using virtual machines inside one of the OS. For dual boot the order would be first install Windows and then Linux. Now only linux on main PC and a windows 10 hybrid cheapo

[james_s]

I know they want that, but I don't care what they want, my PC is *mine* and it's all about what *I* want. Until they figure this out they are going to face a lot of backlash, especially the way digital privacy is getting so much attention lately.

[malagas_on_fire]

Yes understand that as PC as being own privacy in terms of hardware, but software is another domain...  you buy, agree licence and hope for the best... or worst... Also on linux there might be some statistical gathering from some applications, but most of them ask if you want to send information.Don't know about apple since not used .  My comment also had some irony since don''t like being sneaked too, unless to get resolution to SO problems.

The two tools required are a gateway for sniffing the connections and a physical firewall for blocking this sort of information if privacy is required, but this should not be necessary to personal user , it should be easy to set the privacy settings.

Today installed a toolchain that added a ton of rules to the windows defender and instalation got bad... i had to remove one by one .... no reset to defaults available on the windows defender, However there that option for windows firewall. The instalation on linux was easy peasy.

[ebclr]

I'm quite happy with WSL, and also I have many VMware  Linux VMS in all flavors, But no one, give the conveniency, to only type bash you are ready on Linux. including X11 graphics using Xming, Also very easy to transfer things between both systems. After I installed WSL I use the virtual machines very rarely for very special circumstances since, near everything that I need to do on Linux I can do on WSL. Things like compilers, fpga programming,  and even wamp server, WSL works much faster thansVM's, and is always there in case you need it.and just in case the virtual machines still there to be used at any time,  just no reason to do not use this quite a useful tool available to any Windows 10 user.

[BravoV]

I think they are just probing for the max they can push.
If the community responds badly enough, they will not to stupid things.

This is not going to end up well, and I think they will take a step back sooner or later.

Starting from stealthy & forced updates, and you're right, they're pushing me to the edge already by this stunt in preventing the owner to use local privileged account, to me personally I feel I've lost the "power" and "control" over my machine. I've seen and experienced enough at my kid's laptop. 

Currently I'm still on W7, looking forward to have Linux host as the baseline, won't tinker much for start as I can't afford it currently, just boot and auto launch W10 virtualization and PCIE passthru feature for the GPU, that is my basic requirement for start.

[CatalinaWOW]

After seeing the recommendations for Virtualbox several times I finally bit and tried it.  I've had several issues, but Google has resulted in quick fixes for all of them and I am quite satisfied with the result.  W98, WXP, W10 and Linux all under the same roof.   The ability to freeze the machine state is really useful.  Now can switch back and forth between operating systems without waiting for the seemingly interminable boot process to finish.  If you haven't tried it yet it is worth a look. 

[Ampera]

Some of the two best hypervisors in the world, Xen and KVM, are both opensource/free. Wouldn't suggest for a beginner user, but if you need a reliable and high power hypervisor, they are two very good options.

[ebclr]

Vmware is quite superior, and no MOQ

[nctnico]

Vmware is quite superior, and no MOQ

I agree but the license to run multiple VMs on one computer is quite expensive compared to using Virtualbox for free. Virtualbox may have changed their license but until they got the 3D accelleration figured out they can't really charge any money for their software. Or to put it differently: if Virtualbox is going to nag me to pay and/or needs a license locked to my machine I'll move to VMware in a heartbeat.

[soldar]

After seeing the recommendations for Virtualbox several times I finally bit and tried it.  I've had several issues, but Google has resulted in quick fixes for all of them and I am quite satisfied with the result.  W98, WXP, W10 and Linux all under the same roof.   The ability to freeze the machine state is really useful.  Now can switch back and forth between operating systems without waiting for the seemingly interminable boot process to finish.  If you haven't tried it yet it is worth a look.

I take it I can install VirtualBox in my Linux Mint machine and run WIN XP SP3 inside VirtualBox?

How does this work? I install VB and then install Win XP inside VB? Do I need a win XP license?

If I decide to do it I might start a thread.

[Bicurico]

You install VirtualBox.

Then you run it and can create virtual machines. Consider them virtual computers!
You configure them, selecting how many CPU cores you want to assign, how much memory, what kind of virtual video graphics card (2D or 3D, how much memory, etc.) and many other configurations.
The first thing you are asked when creating a new virtual machine: what will be the operating system you are going to install? This will pre-configure the machine: up to a point you don't HAVE to configure anything I mention in the previous sentence.

Then you insert a real CD/DVD or a virtual CD/DVD (an ISO, of course) into the virtual machine and start it. It will run a BIOS and then run whatever installer is on the CD/DVD/ISO.

And yes, you will need a serial key to activate Windows. I just learned that MAC users get a free Windows license for Bootcamp or Virtual Machines. Also, on Windows Professional, you can use Microsoft's own virttualisation to run a virtual machine with Windows.

Other than that, I think you can run Windows 10 for 30 days without activating it.

If you alreadhy have/had Windows installed on your computer, you should be entitled to use this license inside a virtual machine.

Regards,
Vitor

[techman-001]

After seeing the recommendations for Virtualbox several times I finally bit and tried it.  I've had several issues, but Google has resulted in quick fixes for all of them and I am quite satisfied with the result.  W98, WXP, W10 and Linux all under the same roof.   The ability to freeze the machine state is really useful.  Now can switch back and forth between operating systems without waiting for the seemingly interminable boot process to finish.  If you haven't tried it yet it is worth a look.

I take it I can install VirtualBox in my Linux Mint machine and run WIN XP SP3 inside VirtualBox?

How does this work? I install VB and then install Win XP inside VB? Do I need a win XP license?

If I decide to do it I might start a thread.

Yes, you can run Virtualbox, you can also run KVM which is fully opensource with no restrictions and very advanced. If you use KVM you may also want to install 'Virtualmanager' which is a advanced GUI to configure it.

Windows was NEVER free, is not free now, and will never be, so yes, you do need a license. Scrape a Windows license of a old XP box and stick it on your Linux machine to protect you from the Microsoft controlled licensing police in your country.

However you'll be unpleasantly surprised after running a modern Linux because XP is ancient, limited and unsupported. XP is really showing its age.

[gmb42]

Also, on Windows Professional, you can use Microsoft's own virttualisation to run a virtual machine with Windows.

Yes, Hyper-V is free to use as an optional feature, you can use whatever you like as a Guest OS, e.g. Linux, Windows Desktop or Server, but see below for Windows OS's.

If you alreadhy have/had Windows installed on your computer, you should be entitled to use this license inside a virtual machine.

I don't believe this is the case unless you have a Windows Desktop licence with Software Assurance or a VDA licence.  See the licencing gobbledegook at: https://download.microsoft.com/download/9/8/d/98d6a56c-4d79-40f4-8462-da3ecba2dc2c/licensing_windows_desktop_os_for_virtual_machines.pdf

[legacy]

KVM

About that, we are collecting vblogs here. The last video is very interesting, although it's only applicable on x86 hardware, and specifically to x86 hardware with hypervisor support.

[james_s]

I think they are just probing for the max they can push.
If the community responds badly enough, they will not to stupid things.

This is not going to end up well, and I think they will take a step back sooner or later.

I wish I could say that I agree with you there, but unfortunately I think the majority of consumers are the proverbial sheep that just take what they are given and put up with it. They are used to this lack of control by now, especially kids who have grown up with mobile devices that automatically update as the manufacture sees fit. Most people who buy a computer just use whatever it comes with, they might moan about companies doing this or that, but they are not bothered enough to actually do something about it. Clearly companies like MS know this.

[Black Phoenix]

I wish I could say that I agree with you there, but unfortunately I think the majority of consumers are the proverbial sheep that just take what they are given and put up with it. They are used to this lack of control by now, especially kids who have grown up with mobile devices that automatically update as the manufacture sees fit. Most people who buy a computer just use whatever it comes with, they might moan about companies doing this or that, but they are not bothered enough to actually do something about it. Clearly companies like MS know this.

Add that to the lack of interest of learning a new OS when you already used the same one for years and years, plus the lack of attention span of the new generation, cause of the social networking and other media, and we reach to this crossroad where there are no will to change.

Of course it could also be applied to other learning environments or everything that is totally different of what users are used to. It takes will and time to learn a new skill set and most people are not into that, being for lack of time or having a different way of using their own time or very small will to.

I talked by myself, I was exactly like that for some years and now I'm trying to catch up in this race although I've been already lapped a lot of times. It turns into an endurance race, and not everyone is up to it.

[legacy]

One of my friend wrote

The quality of all NetBSD and OpenBSD ports has gone down. m68k, PPC, MIPS, HPPA it's all crap. People do not like retro Unix hardware the same way they used to in the 1990s and 2000s, I guess due to the blasted Raspberry Pie.

Retro Unix is dead, Computing is dead.
Because modern things killed all the true creativity.

[Jeroen3]

According to the license you're not allowed to run Windows in any virtual machine unless it's Windows Server.
But there are preactivated XP and 7 iso's around that will never complain about not being activated. Ideal for VM's, especially the XP Lite modified isos.
Windows 10 eliminated this problem, and now people have to resort to KMS type hacks that might suddenly stop working after an update.

Anyway those unfortunate with linux incompatible devices (*** nvidia) can install best experience w10 without any internet. Setup refuses this at first, but you can still do it.
And then in audit mode run this: https://gist.github.com/gvlx/b4d4c5681900ca965276fc5c16fe8520

Windows 7 will deploy nagware in a VM if you have it report the actual CPU.

Linux Mint is surprisingly easy to use. If you don't have any nvidia hardware.

[BravoV]

I think they are just probing for the max they can push.
If the community responds badly enough, they will not to stupid things.

This is not going to end up well, and I think they will take a step back sooner or later.

Well, things are getting worst now, its like you're cursed just because you're born at the other wrong side of the pond. 

-> Adobe is cutting off users in Venezuela due to US sanctions

I guess one day, near future, someone that is totally innocent and just another ordinary citizen, doing nothing with politic nor allegiance with any political power, will find out the hard way and out of the blue that his/her computer suddenly stopped working and with clear political sign wall paper at the monitor.

[BravoV]

Linux Mint is surprisingly easy to use. If you don't have any nvidia hardware.

Why is that ? Mind elaborate further ?

[Jeroen3]

Linux Mint is surprisingly easy to use. If you don't have any nvidia hardware.

Why is that ? Mind elaborate further ?

I found that not all variants of nvidia graphics cards support the official nvidia driver. While googling I also found many other problems with nvidia. I tested both my MSI 660 and 1060, both didn't work. The basic effects in xfce caused kernel panics.

So I regret buying an Ryzen without graphics, perhaps when budgets is there I will retry with newer AMD cards.

[BravoV]

Linux Mint is surprisingly easy to use. If you don't have any nvidia hardware.

Why is that ? Mind elaborate further ?

I found that not all variants of nvidia graphics cards support the official nvidia driver. While googling I also found many other problems with nvidia. I tested both my MSI 660 and 1060, both didn't work. The basic effects in xfce caused kernel panics.

So I regret buying an Ryzen without graphics, perhaps when budgets is there I will retry with newer AMD cards.

Ok, noted and thanks. 

Luckily all my GPU are AMD's, for some weird reasons, I always had bad luck with nVidia cards, they broke down all the time on me once it crossed the warranty period, and that was about 7 or 8 years ago  , so when I decided to switch to AMD Radeon, even the oldest 8 years old AMD GPU card are still working fine today. Currently running on RX580 at my main rig.

[legacy]

eh, guys ... a dude has recently needed to use his LA to find the reason why PCI Radeon 7000 video card has never worked with Linux on a HPPA workstation.

A hack to work around this is work in progress just right now, but ... I wonder why computer must be so shitty, and with "shitty" I mean: what has he just found wrong? That yet again, a company didn't respect the PCI spec 

A video card is not a complex amount of circuits, it's just a stupid device which is supposed to accept commands and data on a stupid BAR and properly operate to show something on a screen, or (in case of our modern GPUs) to give back to the CPU all the computed chunks of data.

WTF?!?! It's DMA, it's a couple of BAR, ok there is a cache in the middle, but ...

So, WTF is the reason for making these damn things so complex and horribly made in a way that *WE* have to spend hours and hours at reverse engineering / fixing / workarounding stuff?


Linux, Windows ... all garbage, because the hardware is garbage, because companies are still prone to do business on garbage.


This is the problem!

[Jeroen3]

That part works fine. It’s the actual coprocessor that accelerates 3D and video codecs that doesn’t.