Anyone Use Linux?

[DEI37]

I tried Ubuntu on my laptop. I got the wireless network to work...took some effort, and several restarts, but got it. But, to make anything else work, even a Yahoo! install was crazy, and none of the downloads would install right. So...combine that with no drivers for anything, and I said piss on it, and back to XP Pro/Corp I went.

[geoffinbc]

Yea that is kind of the drift I am getting. Yea Linux has its pros. But Windows is just so damn easy and has software for it everywhere and everyone who makes hardware, makes Windows drivers and the installation of those drivers and the applications with it is so easy.

If I needed this Laptop for something I would revert to Windows. But this is just a learning experience for me.

[nixtux]

I'd disagree but I've been using linux for 8 years. The kernel is a vast resource of drivers. Most the time after a linux install everything just works cause of udev. It's amazing. Whereas hardware drivers tend to require a upgrade to work with windows.

Software is as easy as apt-get install or yum install

Most the software is open source so it's freely available. But to those used to windows linux would be difficult. But since 2.6 linux surpasses windows in respect to ease. Back in the 2.0/2.2/2.4 days it wasn't nearly as easy as it is now. I remember spending 8-10hrs+ getting a single workstation running. Now it takes a half hour and wham bam thank you mam.

if you don't have iwlist login as root or su as user and yum install it. I don't think it's iwlist and I dont' recall off hand what it is.

I'll look for it after dinner.

???

Yea that is kind of the drift I am getting. Yea Linux has its pros. But Windows is just so damn easy and has software for it everywhere and everyone who makes hardware, makes Windows drivers and the installation of those drivers and the applications with it is so easy.

If I needed this Laptop for something I would revert to Windows. But this is just a learning experience for me.

[StudlyCamaro]

If I needed this Laptop for something I would revert to Windows. But this is just a learning experience for me.

I did the same thing with my old laptop. I tired arklinux (I read some stuff about how it was a good step from windows to the linux world), but decided it wasn't for me. Then installed ubuntu and decided I think that I liked the KDE better than gnome (not that i knew much about either of them). My plan was to install Kbuntu and see how i liked that, but my charger for my laptop decided it didn't want to supply power anymore

If i have some time this spring i'll probably partition a bit of this computer and install it on this machine, but keep windows for the obvious reasons
---------------- Now playing: The Streets - It Was Supposed To Be So Easy via FoxyTunes

[nixtux]

I like kubuntu. I've been using that since it came out. Before that I used Debian testing /w newer sources for the "newer" KDE.

I've found KDE to be slow lately so I switched my desktop to xfce4. I must say, it's very similar to KDE but it's faster. I don't care for their file manager though. But you take the good with the bad.

Assuming you run startx after you log in. Which the default for kubuntu is kdm. So you should be able to select xfce from a list. I don't like the GUI login. I prefer old fashion Login:

But if you have xfce on your box edit "~/.xinit"

comment out exec start-kde

ie.

#exec start-kde

add

exec startxfce4

once in right click desktop settings->settings manager and configure it. Real simple, fast and it looks nice.

If you don't see your desktop icons ctrl+F2 and run xfdesktop

for the guy using Fedora try the below. If you have any other questions I have MSN. nixtux@hotmail.com. I'm always idle.

yum install sharutils

I did the same thing with my old laptop. I tired arklinux (I read some stuff about how it was a good step from windows to the linux world), but decided it wasn't for me. Then installed ubuntu and decided I think that I liked the KDE better than gnome (not that i knew much about either of them). My plan was to install Kbuntu and see how i liked that, but my charger for my laptop decided it didn't want to supply power anymore

If i have some time this spring i'll probably partition a bit of this computer and install it on this machine, but keep windows for the obvious reasons
---------------- Now playing: The Streets - It Was Supposed To Be So Easy via FoxyTunes

[Ray Hamilton]

Suse 10.3 here. I have tried almost all the distros and I like this one the best. I have a stack of CD's if you want to try Linux. If you decide on one in particular I will send it free. Xandros is the easiest I've tried. Most will install in your free space and you can have windows and linux dual boot. Not as hard as you'd think, linux does all the partioning.

[Canyonero]

I've stuck with Ubuntu since the first release when I installed it and my wireless card worked "out of the box". I'd never had wireless JUST WORK before. I've had Ubuntu installed on a machine at home, but rarely used as a workstation, just file server. I finally got rid of it and went the NAS route (Buffalo LinkStation Live). I still maintain an Ubuntu based server at work running Cacti. It's the most powerful server we have actually.

Truth be told: I'm a Mac guy. I do have a PC that I built some years back. Has XP MCE 2005 and runs great, but I only use it for a few things. My primary machine is the last of the PowerBook G4's before the Intel based MacBook Pros were released.

[nixtux]

There is very little difference between PC/MAC anymore. PC's can run OSx and Macs can run XP. But OSx, IMO, is a all around better OS than XP. But XP is far more feature rich. But XP blows (I dislike windows.) Linux, IMO, is far less time consuming these days than XP. It's also less frustrating, IMO.

But that's the changing face of computers.

Ubuntu/Kubuntu are very easy. Assuming you don't require a WEP key to access the AP. But I could be wrong. I haven't setup Wireless on linux using WEP for awhile. I typically use MAC filtering. I'm also in the sticks (not really cause it's closer to downtown here than it was when I lived in the city.) But it's remote enough that the closest house is a good 100 yards away and I can't get DSL or Cable so it's the sticks. Which makes for some fun parties.

Though I did find Linux to be easier to setup wireless than windows. But that's just me. I imagine it explains why so many AP's are wide open.

I've stuck with Ubuntu since the first release when I installed it and my wireless card worked "out of the box". I'd never had wireless JUST WORK before. I've had Ubuntu installed on a machine at home, but rarely used as a workstation, just file server. I finally got rid of it and went the NAS route (Buffalo LinkStation Live). I still maintain an Ubuntu based server at work running Cacti. It's the most powerful server we have actually.

Truth be told: I'm a Mac guy. I do have a PC that I built some years back. Has XP MCE 2005 and runs great, but I only use it for a few things. My primary machine is the last of the PowerBook G4's before the Intel based MacBook Pros were released.

[geoffinbc]

Well I made some progress. I got Samba up and running and successfully networked my house. My Linux laptop can see My XP computers and vise versa. So I am happy. I even got my printer networked so I can print from my Linux laptop. Still working on the wireless. I got the guys at Linuxquestions.org helping me with fwcutter and some XP drivers I downloaded for the wireless card.

[geoffinbc]

Well I got my wireless working now. It was pretty simple after I got the firmware I needed for my card. Everything works great now.

So far I love Linux and would recommend it to anyone with descent computer knowledge. But any computer illiterate person might want to steer clear.

[treeZ24]

been using red hat since the third release and i'm currently using fedora 5 (i'm lazy lol) on my desktop.

glad to hear you switched, the feel of the OS is so much better the windows.

[geoffinbc]

Yea I am really enjoying it. Say do you know of any descent MP3 players. The ones with Fedora are kinda weak and they don't even come with their own codec pack. You have to download different sets of codecs and then direct the application to their location. Some do work well but the look and feel seems poorly finished. I really like winamp I am looking for something along those lines.

[nixtux]

You need to google fedora MP3 and that'll tell you how to get MP3's to work. MP3 isn't "free" codec or some crap and Fedora hasn't included the codec for quite some time because of it. Similar how linux doesn't support certain DVD's w/o some work.

XMMS is old winamp 1.X I believe. It looks and feels more like winamp classic. I'm not sure how different the newer versions of winamp are vs old. I haven't really used windows much since 2001 and the version around that time I didn't care for.

XMMS has a lot of cool plugins --- you should be able to yum search xmms and install what you want. Or you could yum install xmms-* and it'll attempt to install all the plugins. On Debian based distro at least it works.

Yea I am really enjoying it. Say do you know of any descent MP3 players. The ones with Fedora are kinda weak and they don't even come with their own codec pack. You have to download different sets of codecs and then direct the application to their location. Some do work well but the look and feel seems poorly finished. I really like winamp I am looking for something along those lines.

[geoffinbc]

Xmms was included with Fedora and also included the codecs for mp3, flac and ogg. So that is up and running now too. But when I choose to load a whole directory it is kind of flakey.
But ohwell I am still very happy with Linux thus far. It is not as idiot proof as Windows but sure runs a hell of alot faster and with less junk. No spam ware, malware, spyware or virus crap to worry about

[bszopi]

Makes me want to load Linux on my laptop as well. Too bad I doubt it would run even on old version of Fedora. Its an old P100 w/700MB HD and 24MB RAM. It doesn't even run Win95 very good, lol! One of these days I'll get around to messing with the workstation in the basement again, which is sitting idle on Fedora 8.