Testing Linux . . .

[paparowe]

I have been hearing about Linux Free O/S's for many years now, and I have
decided to try it out on one of my older P/C's - one that I built from parts
purchased at PC Club which I have replaced with this one (hp Pavillion).
Checked the Ubuntu website and v7.04 will be released on the 19th and have
ordered the CD of it. If it works with my peripherals and current
software - Hasta La Vista Microsoft!

This Windows Vista O/S is turning out to be the final straw, from vanishing
icons to IE7 shutting down randomly without cause to having to get help at
every turn just to make this thing work as advertised (which it still does
not!), is proving to be my undoing, or rather Microsofts undoing. I belong
to a nationwide volunteer organization and we all use our computers
extensively and it gets darned expensive trying to keep up with Billionare
Gates and Company just to do our bit for the everday people we work with.
There is a membership of more than a hundred thousand and if this free
Ubuntu O/S works, I shall make a recommendation to the entire organization
to make the switch.

Good luck to you all, and thank you all for trying to help this retired old
f**t work out the bugs in this Vista O/S, but I believe there are just way
too many "workarounds" that take way too long and are way too complicated to
get this thing to work as advertised . . . Did I mention that it still
doesn't work as advertised?

Paparowe

 

[Mike Hall - MS MVP]

Good luck..

I have been hearing about Linux Free O/S's for many years now, and I have
decided to try it out on one of my older P/C's - one that I built from
parts
purchased at PC Club which I have replaced with this one (hp Pavillion).
Checked the Ubuntu website and v7.04 will be released on the 19th and have
ordered the CD of it. If it works with my peripherals and current
software - Hasta La Vista Microsoft!

This Windows Vista O/S is turning out to be the final straw, from
vanishing
icons to IE7 shutting down randomly without cause to having to get help at
every turn just to make this thing work as advertised (which it still does
not!), is proving to be my undoing, or rather Microsofts undoing. I
belong
to a nationwide volunteer organization and we all use our computers
extensively and it gets darned expensive trying to keep up with Billionare
Gates and Company just to do our bit for the everday people we work with.
There is a membership of more than a hundred thousand and if this free
Ubuntu O/S works, I shall make a recommendation to the entire organization
to make the switch.

Good luck to you all, and thank you all for trying to help this retired
old
f**t work out the bugs in this Vista O/S, but I believe there are just way
too many "workarounds" that take way too long and are way too complicated
to
get this thing to work as advertised . . . Did I mention that it still
doesn't work as advertised?

Paparowe

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

 

[Charles W Davis]

I have been hearing about Linux Free O/S's for many years now, and I have
decided to try it out on one of my older P/C's - one that I built from
parts
purchased at PC Club which I have replaced with this one (hp Pavillion).
Checked the Ubuntu website and v7.04 will be released on the 19th and have
ordered the CD of it. If it works with my peripherals and current
software - Hasta La Vista Microsoft!

This Windows Vista O/S is turning out to be the final straw, from
vanishing
icons to IE7 shutting down randomly without cause to having to get help at
every turn just to make this thing work as advertised (which it still does
not!), is proving to be my undoing, or rather Microsofts undoing. I
belong
to a nationwide volunteer organization and we all use our computers
extensively and it gets darned expensive trying to keep up with Billionare
Gates and Company just to do our bit for the everday people we work with.
There is a membership of more than a hundred thousand and if this free
Ubuntu O/S works, I shall make a recommendation to the entire organization
to make the switch.

Good luck to you all, and thank you all for trying to help this retired
old
f**t work out the bugs in this Vista O/S, but I believe there are just way
too many "workarounds" that take way too long and are way too complicated
to
get this thing to work as advertised . . . Did I mention that it still
doesn't work as advertised?

Paparowe

Paparowe

I wonder why the Ubuntu Main Support Category Forum has 209,631 threads? Do
you suppose Ubuntu has problem or two?

One of their "Sticky" posts in the Installation & Upgrades threads is titled
"PLEASE use the official upgrade method! Do you suppose that former Windows
users that couldn't follow instructions and the blamed the operating system
are continuing in their old ways when using Ubuntu?

 

[Charles W Davis]

I have been hearing about Linux Free O/S's for many years now, and I have
decided to try it out on one of my older P/C's - one that I built from
parts
purchased at PC Club which I have replaced with this one (hp Pavillion).
Checked the Ubuntu website and v7.04 will be released on the 19th and have
ordered the CD of it. If it works with my peripherals and current
software - Hasta La Vista Microsoft!

This Windows Vista O/S is turning out to be the final straw, from
vanishing
icons to IE7 shutting down randomly without cause to having to get help at
every turn just to make this thing work as advertised (which it still does
not!), is proving to be my undoing, or rather Microsofts undoing. I
belong
to a nationwide volunteer organization and we all use our computers
extensively and it gets darned expensive trying to keep up with Billionare
Gates and Company just to do our bit for the everday people we work with.
There is a membership of more than a hundred thousand and if this free
Ubuntu O/S works, I shall make a recommendation to the entire organization
to make the switch.

Good luck to you all, and thank you all for trying to help this retired
old
f**t work out the bugs in this Vista O/S, but I believe there are just way
too many "workarounds" that take way too long and are way too complicated
to
get this thing to work as advertised . . . Did I mention that it still
doesn't work as advertised?

Paparowe

Some more thread titles from the Ubuntu Forums:
1. Installation freezing
2. Frostwire crashes on start up
3. Upgrade to Feisty is failing
4. Can I downgrade back ot Dapper
5. Making aptitude stop ignoring sources
6. How do you easily install Ubuntu for dual-boot with Windows

Seems like the same problems and the same folks, and did you notice, they
don't really want to leave Windows behind hence the request to dual-boot.

If they would only keep their threats and rants to themselves.

 

[Bill]

When I ran the PCLINUXOS TR3 Live CD, all my hardware was read, except
for my win modem. Since I use wireless and the wireless worked, I went
ahead and installed the operating system. I have had not had any
problems so far. You do have to learn a different operating system, but
it is easier to learn than Vista. If you use PCLINUXOS, you will find
three buttons on your taskbar.
1. Configure your computer. You will find most configuration solutions
here.
2. Configure your desktop. You will find that you have a much broader
selection of choices than you will ever see in a Windows Installation.
3. Synaptic. You use this to download more software and to update your
current software. It is real simple to update:
Press reload. Press Mark All Upgrades. Press Apply. That is all there is
to it.
As a beginner, you may find PCLINUXOS easier to use. Dont worry about
virus or spyware programs. You wont need them.....

 

[Dustin Harper]

Go for it. Depending on your knowledge level and what you do, Linux can be a
great OS. I really like Ubuntu. If I were to use Linux full time on the
desktop, it'd be Ubuntu. For a server, I'd use the tried and true Red Hat.
But I find that for what I use it for, Windows is 10x better than Linux. It
all depends on the user. Vista is awesome for me. I love it.

Not bashing Linux, but it does come with a learning curve. After you get up
to speed it is fun to use. But, it's a lot more hands on, getting dirty than
with Windows. Sometimes it works flawlessly, sometimes it requires some conf
files to be edited via vi. It's all a crap shoot. If you think Vista is
hard, you may want to think twice on Linux.

Although, if you do get into Linux, you should have a better understanding
of how your computer works. Similar to the old DOS days, you may be getting
into the hardware configuration a little more than just installing a driver.
Linux can be fun, and is a huge learning experience. But, for the ones that
think Windows is hard, it can be a nightmare.

 

[ray]

When I ran the PCLINUXOS TR3 Live CD, all my hardware was read, except
for my win modem. Since I use wireless and the wireless worked, I went
ahead and installed the operating system. I have had not had any
problems so far. You do have to learn a different operating system, but
it is easier to learn than Vista. If you use PCLINUXOS, you will find
three buttons on your taskbar.

Winmodems can indeed be difficult. I've encountered them on three of our
existing machines. Two of them were made to work quite easily with Linux;
one was not.

 

[ray]

Paparowe

I wonder why the Ubuntu Main Support Category Forum has 209,631 threads? Do
you suppose Ubuntu has problem or two?

Yes it does. And most of them are with 'Feisty' which has not seen it's
full release yet - that's what beta testing is for - unlike the way MS
does it.

 

[ray]

Some more thread titles from the Ubuntu Forums:
1. Installation freezing

That will occasionally happen. Usually a 'cheatcode' with the boot command
will fix it.

2. Frostwire crashes on start up
3. Upgrade to Feisty is failing
4. Can I downgrade back ot Dapper

Upgrades can be problematical with any system - check some of the ones
here. I've upgraded five systems from Ubuntu 5.10 to 6.06 and four from
6.06 to 6.10 with absolutely no difficulty.

5. Making aptitude stop ignoring sources
6. How do you easily install Ubuntu for dual-boot with Windows

That's easy - boot the CD and proceed, following online instructions. A
lot of folks are too timid to try it until they've been reassured several
times, but it really is that easy.

Seems like the same problems and the same folks, and did you notice, they
don't really want to leave Windows behind hence the request to dual-boot.

Lots of folks like the security blanket, or they have data to transfer.

 

[Frank]

I have been hearing about Linux Free O/S's for many years now, and I have
decided to try it out on one of my older P/C's - one that I built from
parts
purchased at PC Club which I have replaced with this one (hp Pavillion).
Checked the Ubuntu website and v7.04 will be released on the 19th and have
ordered the CD of it. If it works with my peripherals and current
software - Hasta La Vista Microsoft!

This Windows Vista O/S is turning out to be the final straw, from vanishing
icons to IE7 shutting down randomly without cause to having to get help at
every turn just to make this thing work as advertised (which it still does
not!), is proving to be my undoing, or rather Microsofts undoing. I belong
to a nationwide volunteer organization and we all use our computers
extensively and it gets darned expensive trying to keep up with Billionare
Gates and Company just to do our bit for the everday people we work with.
There is a membership of more than a hundred thousand and if this free
Ubuntu O/S works, I shall make a recommendation to the entire organization
to make the switch.

Good luck to you all, and thank you all for trying to help this retired old
f**t work out the bugs in this Vista O/S, but I believe there are just way
too many "workarounds" that take way too long and are way too
complicated to
get this thing to work as advertised . . . Did I mention that it still
doesn't work as advertised?

Paparowe

Good luck in your new adventure cause you'll need it! If you found
Windows difficult to master just wait till you try and be productive in
linux.
If you have problems be sure and cuss at LT for reverse engineering it
from Unix so he didn't have to pay for it.
(smirk, snort, chuckle)
Frank

 

[cvp]

That's easy - boot the CD and proceed, following online instructions. A

lot of folks are too timid to try it until they've been reassured several
times, but it really is that easy.

Well... it was that easy to boot from the CD, however on all five machines I
tried it on (6.0.6.1, 6.10, 7.04 beta), following the instructions was
impossible, since the screen contents were totally unreadable. They all had
ATI graphics chips/cards.
Now, admittedly that was only 5 out of 5...

Note that I had no such problems with PCLinuxOS.

 

[XS11E]

Well... it was that easy to boot from the CD, however on all five
machines I tried it on (6.0.6.1, 6.10, 7.04 beta), following the
instructions was impossible, since the screen contents were
totally unreadable. They all had ATI graphics chips/cards.
Now, admittedly that was only 5 out of 5...

Note that I had no such problems with PCLinuxOS.

And the religious wars begin....

 

[Lang Murphy]

I have been hearing about Linux Free O/S's for many years now, and I have
decided to try it out on one of my older P/C's - one that I built from
parts
purchased at PC Club which I have replaced with this one (hp Pavillion).
Checked the Ubuntu website and v7.04 will be released on the 19th and have
ordered the CD of it. If it works with my peripherals and current
software - Hasta La Vista Microsoft!

This Windows Vista O/S is turning out to be the final straw, from
vanishing
icons to IE7 shutting down randomly without cause to having to get help at
every turn just to make this thing work as advertised (which it still does
not!), is proving to be my undoing, or rather Microsofts undoing. I
belong
to a nationwide volunteer organization and we all use our computers
extensively and it gets darned expensive trying to keep up with Billionare
Gates and Company just to do our bit for the everday people we work with.
There is a membership of more than a hundred thousand and if this free
Ubuntu O/S works, I shall make a recommendation to the entire organization
to make the switch.

Good luck to you all, and thank you all for trying to help this retired
old
f**t work out the bugs in this Vista O/S, but I believe there are just way
too many "workarounds" that take way too long and are way too complicated
to
get this thing to work as advertised . . . Did I mention that it still
doesn't work as advertised?

Paparowe

I installed Ubuntu 6.10 on a Dell GX150 here. In fact, I did it tonight,
just to see if it would install. I have already had to reinstall Windows for
some testing, but will reinstall Ubuntu when I'm done my Windows based
testing. I didn't spend any time checking that everything worked in Ubuntu.
but I could surf the web without doing any network config and it did mount a
USB flash drive without problem, so that was pretty cool.

And... I've had pretty much the same experience with Vista on the 5
different models of PC's on which I've installed it. (All Dell's... two
different laptop models and 3 different desktop models.) I'm not claiming
that Vista is problem free... good lord no... but I've never had a BSOD on
any of the PC's.

My point is: you -may- have issues with Ubuntu or any flavor of Linux, just
like you had with Vista. I'm not saying you -will- have problems, just that
it's a possiblility. My point is NOT: that you shouldn't give Ubuntu a
whirl, go for it and good luck, for real. Come back and tell us how you
fare.

Best of luck,

Lang

 

[cvp]

Not from me. I'm OS-agnostic. I even think that Linux will mature to provide
a viable alternative. It's just not going to be in the forseeable future.
Until then I need to get some work done that needs functions not in XP. So
Vista does for now, and Linux in a VM to play with.

I just got fed up seeing the posts about Ubuntu being man's best friend
needed a little balance.

 

[ray]

Well... it was that easy to boot from the CD, however on all five machines I
tried it on (6.0.6.1, 6.10, 7.04 beta), following the instructions was
impossible, since the screen contents were totally unreadable. They all had
ATI graphics chips/cards.
Now, admittedly that was only 5 out of 5...

Note that I had no such problems with PCLinuxOS.

Interesting. I've installed Linux on several dozen machines - more than
half a dozen different distros and never encountered that problem - but I
don't think I've ever run across an ATI graphics cards - mostly nvidia
and intel with a few via.

 

[ray]

And the religious wars begin....

Sorry to burst your bubble. It points out one of the strengths of Linux -
CHOICE. If one distro has problems (you can usually get around them with
boot prompt 'cheatcodes') you can try another - you'll probably find one
that works quite nicely. If vista fails to install (see a recent post
here) what are you going to do? And you certainly won't be installing
vista on 'older hardware' - what happens when MS drops support for xp
later this year? I guess you're up the creek.

 

[Frank]

Sorry to burst your bubble. It points out one of the strengths of Linux -
CHOICE. If one distro has problems (you can usually get around them with
boot prompt 'cheatcodes') you can try another - you'll probably find one
that works quite nicely. If vista fails to install (see a recent post
here) what are you going to do? And you certainly won't be installing
vista on 'older hardware' - what happens when MS drops support for xp
later this year? I guess you're up the creek.

Sorry to burst you bubble but MS IS NOT dropping support for XP this year.
Frank

 

[cvp]

Burst MY bubble? What are you talking about?

Let me instead burst your bubble:
All of my machines are working fine on Vista (several don't have Aero, but
that's hardly a problem). I kept some on XP for a while, but after observing
a few problems that I can live with, it was time to move on.
I was tempted to try a few linuxes to see if that was (currently) a viable
alternative, but it wasn't:

Some linux problems for me:
Lack of support from my company-mandated VPN supplier.
Driver support for Canon MF3110 printer
Driver support for Samsung DDTT printer
Driver support for KWorld 7131 TV tuner cards.
Driver support for Highpoint 2240 (I can get the source, but didn't feel
like spending the effort modding the distro - maybe if there were no other
issues)
What to do with 60,000 lossless .wma files (converting to flac isn't the
problem, the tagging, and manual time spent getting it correct is).
A bunch of apps and utilities that don't support linux.
64-bit support (combined with above)
7TB drive support.

Now, all those problems don't exist with Vista. So that's the way I headed.
It hasn't all been plain sailing, but all the bits are now in place.

So get back to me about bubble bursting when any single linux distro has all
the above (or even most of them) solved.

 

[ray]

Burst MY bubble? What are you talking about?

Let me instead burst your bubble:
All of my machines are working fine on Vista (several don't have Aero, but
that's hardly a problem). I kept some on XP for a while, but after observing
a few problems that I can live with, it was time to move on.
I was tempted to try a few linuxes to see if that was (currently) a viable
alternative, but it wasn't:

It does not burst my bubble because:

Some linux problems for me:
Lack of support from my company-mandated VPN supplier.

I don't have one.

Driver support for Canon MF3110 printer

I don't have one.

Driver support for Samsung DDTT printer

I don't have one.

Driver support for KWorld 7131 TV tuner cards.

I don't have one.

Driver support for Highpoint 2240 (I can get the source, but didn't feel
like spending the effort modding the distro - maybe if there were no other
issues)

I don't have one.

I do, howerver have fine support for:
Epson Photo Perfection R320 printer
Brother HL1440 Laser printer
Apollo p2200 inkjet printer
Dlink WNA2330 wireless card
External USB hard drive
Kodak P850 digital camera and printer dock
etc.

What to do with 60,000 lossless .wma files (converting to flac isn't the
problem, the tagging, and manual time spent getting it correct is).
A bunch of apps and utilities that don't support linux.
64-bit support (combined with above)
7TB drive support.

Now, all those problems don't exist with Vista. So that's the way I headed.
It hasn't all been plain sailing, but all the bits are now in place.

I guess they exist in vista if you can't get it installed as a recent post
indicated.

 

[cvp]

Now, all those problems don't exist with Vista. So that's the way I

I guess they exist in vista if you can't get it installed as a recent post
indicated.

What is the "it" that I can't get installed? I'm unaware of anything I have
which is currently not installable on my systems.