LINUX v. Windows

[BigBallinStalin]

Why do people do this to themselves?

How is pounding in commands in the Terminal more efficient than "point and click"?



What is fun to do on Linux? Updating graphics drivers!

Compiling and/or upgrading graphics drivers in Linux is a complex and error-prone task. Here is a user guide for how to build the driver from scratch. If you are not experienced doing this, we recommend that you get precompiled packages from one of the many Linux distributions.

Which menial issue would you want fixed by whoever? Please choose from any repository! E.G.,

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/


Hey, you want more and you don't want an all-inclusive package? Here:

The latest (unstable) upstream driver components (recommend to upstream developers)
2D driver: xf86-video-intel master branch
3D driver: mesa master branch
Kernel: drm-intel-fixes branch (fixes on top of current RC or final release) or drm-intel-next branch (proposed patches for next kernel version)
LIBDRM: freedesktop.org drm master branch


Yay!!



How do update a graphics driver with WinXP?

Google "model + driver"
Click a few times at website A, then download.
Double-click .exe.
Restart computer.

WHOA. HARD SHIT.

[DiM]

in before natty starts defending linux and telling everybody how satan bill gates brainwashed us.
this is gonna get messy really fast.

[BigBallinStalin]

On a more serious note, I'm installing Ubuntu on these old computers (Pentium 4 process era), and it can be frustrating when it comes to fine-tuning things, updating old graphics drivers, or even getting the microphone to work.

Finding a DOS to UNIX translator was nice, but still... the unix language takes awhile to become fluent in. Many of the Windows-related skills don't transfer well. Ubuntu has that windows feel, but none of the "windows" let you do anything complicated.

[Army of GOD]

I've only used Linux for college programming classes, but my guess as to why people prefer Linux is that it's (1) free (2) completely customizable if you know what you're doing and (3) faster than point and click if you know what you're doing.

[Gillipig]

Windows is the best! Their customer service is pretty awesome too!!

[nietzsche]

Once you are setup in linux you enjoy some sort of stability you don't in windows. Also, many workspaces are great, I had tried a few different third party options for this in windows but none felt good.

Also, when you want to do something you can select from thousands of different programs that are free and actually cool. In windows you have to pay, or worry that what you installed is collecting data or doing something else...

Yes, it takes some time fine tuning it if you come from windows, and BBS, the best thing to do with all computers is see all the hardware is supported.

Also, are you trying to install Ubuntu with graphical enviroment in Pentium IV computers? That might be slow. I'd try some of the lightest graphic enviroments, not gnome or kde for sure.

I switched to linux less than 2 months ago, and rarely boot on windows now.

[natty dread]

Is this a trap thread? I think this is a trap thread.

Why do people do this to themselves?

How is pounding in commands in the Terminal more efficient than "point and click"?

Wtf are you talking about? Have you actually used a linux distribution since 1994?

You don't have to use the terminal for anything if you don't want to. I'm running ubuntu 12.04 and the only thing I need terminal for is compiling programs from source code - and trust me when I tell you that even so compiling programs from source is like a 100 times easier on linux than what it is on windows.

For every day use, like installing new software, browsing the web, updating the os, watching videos, etc. etc. you can use the desktop interface for everything.

But hey, maybe you'd rather use windows 8... I heard it has a brand new version of Solitaire!

What is fun to do on Linux? Updating graphics drivers!

I've never had to update graphics drivers. Everything was autodetected and installed right from the start. If there are updates, synaptic (the update manager for ubuntu) installs them with a point-n-click.

But seriously, yes, lack of hardware support can be a problem especially on laptops that often have lots of non-standardized special-purpose hardware on them that differ from manufacturer to manufacturer - the problem is not linux, it's the hardware manufacturers who don't make their drivers or hardware specs open, forcing people to basically reverse-engineer them before support can be facilitated for linux.

How do update a graphics driver with WinXP?

Google "model + driver"
Click a few times at website A, then download.
Double-click .exe.
Restart computer.

Oh... you have to restart computer after updates? Wow, that takes me back to the 1990:s.

But seriously, free and open source software is the way of the future. I don't know about you but everything just works so much better on linux for me, maybe it's because I haven't used it on a laptop, but that's about to change as well - some laptop manufacturers are starting to get in on the game as well and are starting to even sell laptops with linux pre-installed on them.

Of course, microsoft is trying to mess things up with anti-competitive and evil business practices, such as their so-called "secure boot" that is a poorly-disguised attempt at making it as hard as possible to change your os on the computer you bought with win8 preinstalled.

Finding a DOS to UNIX translator was nice, but still... the unix language takes awhile to become fluent in. Many of the Windows-related skills don't transfer well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_duck_syndrome

Also, are you trying to install Ubuntu with graphical enviroment in Pentium IV computers? That might be slow. I'd try some of the lightest graphic enviroments, not gnome or kde for sure.

Agreed, I'd go for xubuntu or lubuntu (lubuntu has lxde which is the fastest + least resource hungry desktop, xcfe is also light-weight but a bit more extensive)

[BigBallinStalin]

Natty and Nietz, does xubuntu or lubuntu have a similar desktop interface as compared to ubuntu? These computers are for basic stuff: writing, internet, Skype.

[DiM]

Also, when you want to do something you can select from thousands of different programs that are free and actually cool. In windows you have to pay, or worry that what you installed is collecting data or doing something else...

yeah because there's no cool, free software for windows. and if they tell you it's free then it's a lie because it surely is a data mining worm that will steal your credit card numbers

[natty dread]

Natty and Nietz, does xubuntu or lubuntu have a similar desktop interface as compared to ubuntu? These computers are for basic stuff: writing, internet, Skype.

Do you mean unity? No, that's only on ubuntu, so if you want to use unity (which I think is pretty cool even though a lot of people are dissin on it) you'll have to stick with ubuntu.

But they do have graphical desktops, it's just that they're a bit more bare-bones, with all the fancy bells & whistles stripped off. And they are probably perfectly fine for doing basic stuff like writing, internet etc.

[nietzsche]

Also, when you want to do something you can select from thousands of different programs that are free and actually cool. In windows you have to pay, or worry that what you installed is collecting data or doing something else...

yeah because there's no cool, free software for windows. and if they tell you it's free then it's a lie because it surely is a data mining worm that will steal your credit card numbers

No, there is cool free programs for windows, but not for everything. But you have to call sherlock holmes to do a little research before feeling completely safe. Some others, like libre office of course they are free but they started in linux. GIMP doesnt run as fast in windows.

What I'm trying to say is that I don't feel limited when I'm in linux, in Windows I do because I know that if I want to do something, either I have to buy it or settle for starter options and look around to see if anyone has reported something about that app.

I do online banking every day in my laptop so I have to be sure.

[nietzsche]

BBS, what are the specs of your computers? processor, ram, etc. You might be able to start trying the default look of ubuntu, or even better, install 1 different in each, 1 Ubuntu with gnome (default), in another lubuntu and another Ubuntu with kde. See what you like the most in everything. Safe choice will be lubuntu.

natty did this video, he's known in youtube as spatry.

[natty dread]

Why I <3 linux

I just love not having to run anti-virus checks that slow the computer to a crawl every damn day. That is, when the anti-virus doesn't just freeze up and force me to restart the check... I love not having to worry about malware at all.

I also love how my computer is in my control, it lets me do what I want with it and doesn't try to tell me what I can or can't do with it.

I also love that I don't have to pay a cent for an operating system, and I can still get a free 5 GB cloud storage service for it.

I also love not messing around with product activation keys and shit like that. I love that I don't have to restart after every single update (only kernel updates require restart, afaict). I love that I can customize my system however I want, if I dislike a part of it there's tons of free alternatives I can use. I also love that I can learn how to do new stuff at my own pace, and that I keep constantly learning new stuff and new ways to do things.

I love that my money is not supporting a software company that uses anti-competitive, underhanded business practices.

Every since I installed ubuntu 12.04, the only time I've booted to windows was to run chkdsk so I could shrink the windows partition...

[GreecePwns]

Yeah, same here except to get the occasional Starcraft game in (too lazy to figure out how to do things through Wine).

[john9blue]

if this is a troll thread, then it's one of the best ones in quite a while.

[BigBallinStalin]

BBS, what are the specs of your computers? processor, ram, etc. You might be able to start trying the default look of ubuntu, or even better, install 1 different in each, 1 Ubuntu with gnome (default), in another lubuntu and another Ubuntu with kde. See what you like the most in everything. Safe choice will be lubuntu.

natty did this video, he's known in youtube as spatry.

As long as people can easily find the programs, then it's all gravy (meaning: that "alt + F1" taskbar is readily available; there's no need to type in terminal commands, etc.).

The specs for these computers are in the following range:

Pentium IV ~2.0Ghz or much less
RAM: ~256mb to 700-something MB
graphics: Intel Integrated POS

The computers are about 7-10 years old.

I installed Ubuntu 12.04 (or whatever the latest version is) on all the computers (about 5) because having one variable being held constant is more useful for benchmarking.

By the by, lubuntu is looking sexy... very sexy.

[BigBallinStalin]

A pet peeve with linux in general:

with linux, I can't find what I want as efficiently, so I have to learn while I complain on the side.

For windows, I could get Anything quickly and for an extremely low price. With linux, that matching process is significantly more difficult.

So, questions:

1) what are some major websites I should be lurking?
2) what's a good "english to linux" dictionary?
3) what's a good linux beginners manual that isn't for children?

[Lootifer]

Pretty simple isnt it?

IT Prowess/Customisation desire - OS

Low - Mac OS X
Medium - Windows
High - Linux

[Army of GOD]

g++ -o awesomecode.cpp awesomeprogram.x
./awesomeprogram.x

[natty dread]

So, questions:

1) what are some major websites I should be lurking?
2) what's a good "english to linux" dictionary?
3) what's a good linux beginners manual that isn't for children?

1. I dunno, depends on the purpose I guess? If you're talking about software, just google what you need and append "for linux" at the end... or check out the ubuntu software center if you want easy-to-install stuff
2. Not sure what you mean by this...
3. Well, here I can recommend some...

The official ubuntu documentation is a good place to start https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/ubuntu-help/index.html
If you need help using the command line, here's a good list of resources http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1909108

Incidentally, ubuntuforums is also a good place to get help, even if you don't want to register, you can usually find the answer to a question just by searching it, odds are someone has already had the same question

One more thing, it's a really good idea to partition your hard drives so that you set two separate partitions, one for root and one for /home - that way, if you mess something up and need to reinstall, your user accounts + the files in your home directories will still be safe.

[Haggis_McMutton]

I only started learning unix-fu recently but it's pretty sweet what you can do at the command line.

For instance, right now I was trying to copy some text from a pdf to a document and the whitespace was all fucked up, for some reason there was a newline or carriage return after every word and there were extra spaces everywhere.
Solution? copy the text, press ctrl + T to bring up the terminal, type:

Code: Select all

xsel -o -b | tr -d '\r\t\f' | tr -s ' ' | xsel -i -b

and paste the now correctly formatted text.

I dunno how you can do shit like that in windows.

Of course, in the time it took me to figure out how to do that I probably could have fixed that shit manually, but that would feel significantly less awesome.

[nietzsche]

BBS, yes, given the amount of RAM i think it's best to install lubuntu. You can use the normal apps tho, I don't remember the name of the software manager in ubuntu (i use mint) it's sinaptics or something like that but there you'll find a skype client and all you need.

The links natty gave you are fine, I normally just google "how to blah bha linux" or add "for linux" and that's it.

There's also a linux mint lxde veresion but ubuntu has way more support.

[natty dread]

Is it just me or does it seem like there's more and more people getting fed up with windows these days and migrating to linux?

Even if it's just in a dual-boot setup, it seems like a lot of people are "trying their wings" in a unix-like environment... Just like the bible is the best advertisement for atheism, it seems like windows 8 is becoming the best advertisement for people to move on to linux. I mean, have you guys seen the previews of it? It looks just plain awful. I'd never torture a computer of mine by installing something like that. I predict win8 will be a bigger failure than vista & windows me combined.

At the same time, we have multiple linux distros (or gnu/linux if you're a Stallman fanboy) that have released their maybe best releases so far. Ubuntu 12.04 is the best ubuntu yet, they've finally got Unity working as it's supposed to.... and from what I hear, Fedora has a great new release, as does Mint, the latest versions of both Gnome & KDE seem to be working really well too... everything just seems to be coming together real nicely for linux, even some hardware manufacturers are beginning to wake up to the possibilities.

Also, just check out these:

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/ ... my-1030257

http://www.techradar.com/news/computing ... ia-1067863

[DiM]

I just love not having to run anti-virus checks that slow the computer to a crawl every damn day. That is, when the anti-virus doesn't just freeze up and force me to restart the check... I love not having to worry about malware at all.

my nod32 antivirus version 5.2.9.12 runs very smoothly, never slows down my computer and it certainly never froze up. i'm running it on several laptops including an entry level piece of crap from 5 years ago and it still works perfect.
also i haven't had a malware/trojan/virus/worm/etc in probably more than 12 years. i can't even remember more than that. the last time iclearly remember having a virus was a loooong time ago (probably 20 years) when i was a stupid kid and got simcity on a 1.44mb diskette. it had a virus, windows warned me it has a virus and i should not install it. i still did and got the virus.

I also love how my computer is in my control, it lets me do what I want with it and doesn't try to tell me what I can or can't do with it.

my computer is in my control too.it never tells me what i can or can't do and it doesn't restrict my access to any feature.
if i want i can make it idiot proof via the UAC but those that have confidence in their knowledge can disable the UAC.

I also love that I don't have to pay a cent for an operating system, and I can still get a free 5 GB cloud storage service for it.

you don't have to pay for windows either. there are plenty of methods to get it for free with no viruses and no restrictions.

I also love not messing around with product activation keys and shit like that.

and in windows you do? i never entered an activation key for my windows. the crack took care of that.

I love that I don't have to restart after every single update (only kernel updates require restart, afaict).

you don't have to restart windows after every update either. only after major updates.

I love that I can customize my system however I want, if I dislike a part of it there's tons of free alternatives I can use.

you can customize windows in plenty of ways too. and free alternatives are abundant.

I also love that I can learn how to do new stuff at my own pace, and that I keep constantly learning new stuff and new ways to do things.

and in windows you're not allowed to do new stuff? is somebody stopping you from learning whatever you want at your own pace?
you can put a moron on linux/windows and he'll never learn anything.
put a smart guy avid for knowledge on either platform and he'll learn whatever he wants.

I love that my money is not supporting a software company that uses anti-competitive, underhanded business practices.

my money isn't either

look, i know you've become some sort of linux fanatic but just like you don't like it when people use erroneous facts about linux i don't like it when you do the same about windows. try to be objective about it.

saying windows is a slow os, that doesn't let you do anything and it's filled with viruses is the same as saying linux is a command based piece of crap that's not compatible with most hardware or software and where even for the easiest of tasks you have to be a programming guru.

[nietzsche]

DIM

Did you know that many cracks have malware in them?

So you install an activation crack, you install something that you know will mess with your current Windows installation, and you are saying you are sure you don't have a virus? Virus are recognized once found detected by many, if I was to wrote malicious software and install it in your computer most likely nod32 wouldn't detect it.

I had always this in the back of my mind when I wanted to test drive a software, "what is in the crack besides the crack?" If you just browse the web and chat, do homework having an infected computer is ok, but when you deal with sensible information it's a big deal. When I was into foolish things, I used to install this little server sw on the computers of my friends, just to freak em out opening the cd/rom, rotating the image in the display, i would do that from my place, some of them had antiviruses and never was the software detected.

nod32 is indeed one of the lightest antivirus, yet it does slow down your computer, it might be not noticeable for you tho. It has to, it's actually checking on all you do, if you go to a website it has to do some checking, same if you download a file, if certain program wants to access the net or change some files.

And, for most tasks you don't use the terminal in linux. Also, in linux, you feel like you can actually multitask, in windows i always feel like I can only have 5-6 application programs open, for some reason, --this is only a feeling, nothing stops you from having as many apps running as you want in win.

If you want control over your computer, linux is better option than windows. Yes it's true you can control your windows too, but only to a certain point. In linux you got way to many options, in windows you have a range.

Btw, who usese the UAC? It's a pita, only those who can't disable use it. It has so many issues..