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1601

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Tuxman on April 30, 2012, 08:32 AM »

Denied. 

1602

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Tuxman on April 29, 2012, 10:08 PM »

There is no "agreeing" when it comes to things that are either true or false.

Good night.

1603

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Tuxman on April 29, 2012, 09:59 PM »

Okay, leaving aside Free-BSD, putting a desktop environment over Linux *almost* does make it a generic desktop operating system.

-TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 09:35 PM)

What is the difference then? Why do you consider Linux a generic desktop OS but BSD not?

As for the drivers, if they are included in the CD's, they "Just Work".

-TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 09:35 PM)

Wrong. Really, really wrong.
If they are included in the CDs, they are primarily outdated.

I know, Linux advocates hate that, but sorry, for new users, that's how it is.

-TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 09:35 PM)

No.
Best example from the real world: Dumbuntu. Try to upgrade it to a new version without failing any driver. Good luck.

If I can't even boot to a desktop, how the blazes will I diagnose which driver is missing and fire up a web browser that didn't load to go find it and somehow install it?

-TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 09:35 PM)

That's why Windows is the better desktop OS.

just get me a basically working system with sound and TV. Not that tough.

-TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 09:35 PM)

From a newbie user's POV, you might be right. Technically, this is horribly wrong.

1604

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Tuxman on April 29, 2012, 09:17 PM »

Hulu does not yet have HTML5? Now that's ancient. (OK, not quite serious.)

Unix itself is not a generic desktop solution.

Neither is Linux itself. Putting a desktop environment over it does not make it a desktop operating system yet. Not even if it is called Ubuntu and has funny code names. On my FreeBSD (virtual) machine, KDE runs (theoretically) fine, so how is Unix less of a desktop OS than Linux?

You see?

So I don't need to get all theoretical, if I need 7 drivers, by golly I need 7 drivers, and I'd rather have a distro include them.

How can they be included better than in its repositories?



edit: Can't sleep if I leave that typo in place.

1605

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Tuxman on April 29, 2012, 09:03 PM »

I'm decent on Windows, and I do light helpdesk as part of my official job at work. So I'm clearly no Turbo-Newbie. Yet all the assumptions of Linux break my instincts, so I am a classic mid line Windows user trying Linux for basically the first time. I could have picked any of 5 cores, I tried OpenSuse last year, it was okay. This year I decided to try to stay as close to Debian as I could, but all the pure FSF principles lose out to just getting a working box, even if that means Non-Free Codecs.

-TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 08:35 PM)

Debian has non-free repositories. IMO the FSF philosophy is one of the only reasonable reasons to switch to a "free" (Linux is only partially free) OS, but it's just me, probably. (Hey, a rhyme.)

"Experiences with one or two major Linux distributions" and "knowing Linux" is a bit different by the way...

I believe I am representative of a big untold group of users out there. Get me at least as far as a desktop with Flash and Sound, and I'll slowly learn the other stuff later.

-TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 08:35 PM)

Who still needs Flash?

In a sense there's only three OS's, Windows, Mac OS X, and the Linux Family. (I'm skipping the outliers.)

-TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 08:35 PM)

Unix is an "outlier"? WTF?  
Kids of today...

1606

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Tuxman on April 29, 2012, 08:26 PM »

Well, maybe my terms are up for grabs - what's the difference between a Fork and a Mod?

-TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 08:19 PM)

A fork is developed independently of the code it was initially based on, while a mod is merged with it when it changes.
Ubuntu is not Debian anymore. Not nearly.

So however you term it, I got one that works. Me-As-Typical-New-Linux-User just wants to get to a desktop screen.

-TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 08:19 PM)

So why Linux then?

There is no "typical new Linux user", back in 1998 I started with SuSE Linux 6.0 (and was stuck to Windows-only for years after then), others start with Arch Linux or Slackware. What is "typical"?

Long Haul, I don't know if I can make it to Windows 9 - Win8 with Metro is looking really ugly, even worse than Vista.

-TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 08:19 PM)

Vista was fine, at least it was the last Windows version with a working task bar. I hope Microsoft will get back to the desktop market some day... Windows 8 SP1 or something.

"All I do" 50% of the time is play on the web and make folders and save notes and files. That's cake. Linux can handle that.

-TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 08:19 PM)

So can most other OSs.

So yes one of these years if I really got serious I'd buy a new comp for Linux. This is a test case for now.

-TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 08:19 PM)

I recently did that for my sister, ordered some Linux laptop for her (Fedora 16) and she's happy with it (after some days of "why can't I play my random MMORPGs here?"); but it was more because it was cheap.

1607

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Tuxman on April 29, 2012, 08:12 PM »

Srsly, why do you want Linux if you call yourself a Windows user?

Anyway, you tried distributions I had never heard of, nice. Some are supposed to look funny, like Bodhi Linux.

Ubuntu, however, is a fork, not a mod. Too much has changed from Debian, that's why Debian does not have massive driver failures.


edit: Oh dear, my spelling has died.

1608

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Tuxman on April 29, 2012, 06:41 PM »

Which ones have you tried so far?

edit: LOL, just looked at the Zorin "OS" site. "Linux for Windows users".
Bazinga!

1609

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Tuxman on April 29, 2012, 06:36 PM »

To be honest, I never gave any Ubuntu edition a run, it is enough to see how it fails - every new *buntu release floods Linux help forums.
I doubt Zorin's version is much better.

So I really wonder why you want reliability and *buntu....

1610

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Tuxman on April 29, 2012, 06:11 PM »

First important thing: Drop anything that includes Ubuntu stuff.
Really, Ubuntu is broken by design in a lot of ways, "full Debian" is the other direction.

If you want Ubuntu, use Ubuntu, but don't expect compatibility to anything aside Ubuntu then.

1611

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Tuxman on April 29, 2012, 05:52 PM »

OK, another proposal: Crunchbang Linux? May be spartanic but features a lightweight Openbox, and aptitude works.
(Runs in a VM here. Great IMO.)

1612

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Tuxman on April 29, 2012, 05:38 PM »

Right-click works like a charm in KDE. KDE 4.8 is usable after a couple of quite fucked-up versions before it.
If you want "pure Debian with some codecs", try Linux Mint Debian Edition. 

"Pure Debian", however, means Gnome which is bleh. Considering that you like JWM, you really should try IceWM though!

1613

General Software Discussion / Re: free antivirus

« Last post by Tuxman on April 29, 2012, 05:24 PM »

Precisely. Software does not avoid human stupidity.

1614

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Tuxman on April 29, 2012, 05:22 PM »

Lol, Ubuntu. The Linux for people who want Windows. Stick with Windows, you'll love it.
(Also, Ubuntu is the most-broken distribution I know, every upgrade brings new heavy quirks. I wonder why there are so many masochists around.)

That aside, there is no point in switching to Linux if you want random Windows applications ("Wine", mentioned several times in this thread).
There is a good reason for a dual-boot Linux, like for the lulz or something, but replacing Windows for the sake of replacing Windows is never a good idea.

That said, I currently operate a couple of machines, some Linuxes on them too. My main machine is a Win7/Fedora 16 dual-boot, and Fedora is hardly ever booted at all.

BTW TaoPhoenix, if you come from Windows, try KDE. It is better than people say about it, a lot of eye-candy and widget stuff.

1615

General Software Discussion / Re: free antivirus

« Last post by Tuxman on April 28, 2012, 10:48 AM »

3) At least as good as any of the alternatives (paid or free)

-Carol Haynes (April 28, 2012, 10:41 AM)

Depends on what you want to do.

The issue that annoys me with MSE is that it gives red alert when a Windows Update is missing.

1616

General Software Discussion / Re: free antivirus

« Last post by Tuxman on April 28, 2012, 10:07 AM »

Free antivirus applications get less signature updates and (mostly) lack good heuristics. The first point is the worse.

1617

General Software Discussion / Re: free antivirus

« Last post by Tuxman on April 28, 2012, 09:56 AM »

There is.

1618

General Software Discussion / Re: free antivirus

« Last post by Tuxman on April 28, 2012, 09:38 AM »

Why do you want to save money on computer security? I'd bet paying for a good anti-virus solution will save you more money later.

1619

Living Room / Re: Windows 8 reportedly set for October debut

« Last post by Tuxman on April 27, 2012, 05:45 PM »

A better analogy would be Windows 1.01. No overlapping windows, only tiling...

1620

Living Room / Re: Web link snippet manager

« Last post by Tuxman on April 20, 2012, 07:38 PM »

I want a tool that can save urls (right click page, or just click extension button and save link), images, text, etc. for various pages I visit.

-Josh (April 20, 2012, 09:42 AM)

Evernote with the EvernoteClipper add-on.

1621

General Software Discussion / Re: IsoBuster 3.0 released

« Last post by Tuxman on April 13, 2012, 08:47 PM »

Ah, almost forgot that good old thing. Fine it's still alive.

1622

General Software Discussion / Re: The start of the Start Button Menu things for Win8

« Last post by Tuxman on April 06, 2012, 12:10 PM »

A Win7 machine is called a Win7 machine because it has Win7. 

1623

General Software Discussion / Re: A New ArsClip for the New Year (2012)

« Last post by Tuxman on April 03, 2012, 03:49 PM »

They might not be the only changes, but the most obvious. 

1624

General Software Discussion / Re: SMF v1.0 - END OF LIFE ANNOUNCEMENT

« Last post by Tuxman on April 03, 2012, 02:18 PM »

All board systems have similar problems: Once customized, upgrading is hard. phpBB, at least, tries to preserve hacks when updating and allows to keep them as well as possible. Maybe there should just be a WordPress-like plug-in system with hooks instead of core modifications.

1625

General Software Discussion / Re: The start of the Start Button Menu things for Win8

« Last post by Tuxman on April 03, 2012, 12:34 PM »

Now you've left us hanging  - what's the first?

-jaden (April 03, 2012, 12:05 PM)

Firefox.