Recent Posts

1651

General Software Discussion / Ten Tips for Windows users making the switch to Linux

« Last post by zridling on October 15, 2008, 03:26 PM »

Here are ten tips for Windows users who are considering making the switch to Linux. Details on each point and helpful links after the jump. If I can make the switch from Windows to GNU/Linux, anyone can. I’m not a programmer, not an expert, nor do I have time to endlessly futz with my system. Based on my experience over the past year, these tips will smooth your transition from Win to Lin.


01. KEEP YOUR OLD WINDOWS MACHINE/PARTITION INTACT
You may want some training wheels at first.

02. EXPECT A LEARNING CURVE AT FIRST
If I can make the switch, anyone can! Immersion is your best friend.

03. DON’T EXPECT LINUX TO BE JUST LIKE WINDOWS
It’s better, and you’ll soon see why.

04. WHETHER YOU USE UBUNTU OR NOT, PERUSE THEIR FORUMS TO GAIN KNOWLEDGE
Some Ubuntu forum members have written great tutorials on the intricacies of fstab, grub, virtualization, customization, etc.

05. DON’T BE AFRAID TO EXPERIMENT
It’s harder than you think to take down a Linux machine.

06. HELP IS AS NEAR AS YOUR KEYBOARD
There are forums. There are Usenet groups. There’s Google, of course. Better is Google/Linux. In the end, it’s a community relationship, not a customer relationship. (A lot like DC!)

07. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CROSS-PLATFORM SOFTWARE
You know more than you think you do, since you may already be using Firefox/Opera/Chrome or OpenOffice or 7-Zip/RAR or GIMP or MySQL or Beyond Compare or XnView/Picasa or Kompozer or FileZilla… I could do this all day.

08. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CLOUD
Don’t laugh. Linux is built for cloud computing, mobile computing, thick computing, Hadron colliders, and even phones!

09. LET OTHERS KNOW YOU’VE SWITCHED TO LINUX, BUT DON’T BE A JERK ABOUT IT
Don’t be "that guy." Mac users have been this way and the whole routine gets old by the second sentence. Enjoy Linux for what it is — great code, stable OS, fast platform — not for what it’s not (Windows).

10. THE COMMAND LINE AND SHELL IS YOUR BEST FRIEND
A little command line knowledge goes a long way, but you will likely use it far less than you expect to. Its power is irresistible because it’s so efficient.

More...

1652

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by zridling on October 15, 2008, 03:14 PM »

I like going back to simple numbering over fancy/faux names and years. I find Ubuntu's numbers fine, but their naming scheme is truly dumb imo. But a ribbon touch calc? NOOOO!!

1653

Living Room / Re: Monday Silliness: "He's a Cat Flushing the Toilet" Music Video

« Last post by zridling on October 14, 2008, 02:47 AM »

Man, I'm a sucker for cat videos. One of my all-time favs is by Bubbles of Trailer Park Boys fame:

1654

Living Room / Re: Should Microsoft become an OEM (PC manufacturer)?

« Last post by zridling on October 14, 2008, 02:36 AM »

[f0dder]: ALL of Microsoft's software, or just what a regular end-user would ever need?

Good question. I don't know. How about MS Office Super Pro Premium Ultra Ultimate 64-bit?

The danger of lock-in as f0dder noted is slim, since that would shackle OS sales to hardware sales, thus reducing revenue drastically. I'm talking about MS building what 40hz said would be a 'Microsoft' appliance, which is all that any Apple computer really is. (How often do you take apart your microwave or refrigerator?)

1655

Living Room / Re: Recommend a keyboard

« Last post by zridling on October 14, 2008, 02:26 AM »

Holy freakin' crap, wreckedcarzz, now that's a keyboard!

CWuestefeld, after about 3 days, you get accustomed to the ergonomic keyboard, and then you're hooked. Now whenever I use a regular keyboard, my hands and fingers hurt. The big DEL key helps when managing massive Usenet downloads.

1656

Living Room / Re: Recommend a keyboard

« Last post by zridling on October 13, 2008, 02:33 PM »

The more function keys the better. I'm so hooked on this older MS Natural Multimedia 1.0 keyboard that I bought several at $19/ea. I can accurately type 80+ wpm on it!

1657

Living Room / Re: Should Microsoft become an OEM (PC manufacturer)?

« Last post by zridling on October 13, 2008, 02:28 PM »

But it seems that Microsoft took a baby step in this direction with its "Vista Ready" PC campaign. Yes, yes, it turned out not to be true. If nothing else, as 40hz mentioned, build a certified box that has all of Microsoft's software pre-installed. On second thought, that would be a damn expensive machine unless you gave customers a technet license.

[40hz]: Of course, there's nothing stopping anybody from doing this with Linux.

Dell is already doing it on a small scale with Ubuntu; no?

1658

Living Room / Should Microsoft become an OEM (PC manufacturer)?

« Last post by zridling on October 12, 2008, 08:17 PM »

I'm throwing this idea out there because with the proven success of its Xbox, it only seems obvious that it could finally follow Apple's lead and, (1) make even more money; (2) further improve security; while (3) controlling complex compatibility issues in future OS versions.

PS: I understand that Microsoft has long manufactured keyboards and mice, among other things. But this is about PC systems.

1659

Living Room / Re: Here's something you don't see everyday: Linus has a blog!

« Last post by zridling on October 12, 2008, 12:38 AM »

Like most people, he may abandon it in a month or two, but who knows, it should be interesting. I figured the guy just didn't have the time to mess with a blog.

1660

Living Room / Re: Media Extenders (SageTV)

« Last post by zridling on October 10, 2008, 01:39 PM »

Wow, it definitely looks cool and has a good price, but no, I have no personal experience with it. The fact that you can exchange digital media with a wide variety portable devices, including your phone, is pretty awesome.

1661

General Software Discussion / Re: A Linux wallpaper for beginners

« Last post by zridling on October 10, 2008, 01:32 PM »

Okay, those are really cool, Edvard; thanks!

1662

Living Room / Re: Mouser's new book

« Last post by zridling on October 10, 2008, 01:31 PM »

Is a mouse ring similar to a nose ring, ear ring, etc.? 

1663

Living Room / Re: Asus ships Eee Box PCs with malware

« Last post by zridling on October 10, 2008, 01:28 PM »

Well, at least Asus recognized it and owned up to the mistake. Bought one of these for the wife recently w/Linux loaded for travel and it's really a nifty machine. I see the attraction as "highly useful toy."

1664

Living Room / Re: One answered question before you died

« Last post by zridling on October 10, 2008, 01:24 PM »

[zaine]: What are the winning lotto numbers for 2009?
[jgpaiva]: I fail to understand what use would those number be to you.. Or are you assuming riencarnation? Still, how'd you be speaking the winning lotto numbers after 1 year of life?

Dude, I'd forward them to mouser to fund more coders!

1665

Living Room / Here's something you don't see everyday: Linus has a blog!

« Last post by zridling on October 10, 2008, 01:18 PM »

[via Glyn Moody]:
In case you missed it, something of truly global importance happened last week. No, not the collapse of capitalism as we know it, something much more profound: Linus started a personal blog.... But blogs are funny things; they have a life of their own that often takes posts in quite unexpected directions. And so, despite Linus' protestations to the contrary, this family blog has started sprouting stuff like this about the "Art of the Kernel Release":

So in a very real way, a release is just a starting point for further work, but very little of that "further work" is actually things I have anything to do with what-so-ever or much interest in. Yes, I see the patches that are queued up for the stable kernels, but mostly as an observer. And the distributions do their own thing.

So what makes a release anti-climactic is that from a development standpoint - at least as far as I'm concerned - it is inevitably at the end of a gradual slowing down of interest. So to me a release is not so much of a birth of a new kernel version, it's more of a laying-to-rest of an old one. It's also an end to a fairly quiet period.

So I tagged the release five hours ago, and during the few days before that I had barely a score of commits to merge. But now that I have cut the release, my mailbox is starting to come alive with merge requests for the next version - with thousands of commits queuing up for merging in just a few hours, as opposed to the slow trickle in the days that went before.

This is all exactly as it should be, of course, but it still feels bass-ackwards, in that people always talk about the death-march to a release, and how you're supposed to take a well-deserved vacation after the release.

I have a feeling that this blog is going to provide us with many more insights into the making of Linux – and the mind of Linus – and that the open source world will be all the richer for it.

1666

General Software Discussion / Re: Apple Patents the OS X Dock!!!

« Last post by zridling on October 09, 2008, 11:23 PM »

We truly need to nuke human society and start all over. Are there any good corporations left?

1667

General Software Discussion / A Linux wallpaper for beginners

« Last post by zridling on October 09, 2008, 06:36 PM »

Although I don't use the command much at all in Linux except to update and install drivers, someone had a great idea to build a wallpaper with a basic list of commands you might need someday on it.

1668

Living Room / Re: Fred Langa's back!

« Last post by zridling on October 09, 2008, 06:27 PM »

Also, if he was really retired, he may have just seen 60% of his retirement wealth vanish in the market during the last month. I feel for the guy, because you know he'd rather stay retired.

1669

Living Room / Re: One answered question before you died

« Last post by zridling on October 08, 2008, 03:14 PM »

What are the winning lotto numbers for 2009?

1670

Older Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter For October 7th, 2008 - Codename "Tech News Weekly"

« Last post by zridling on October 08, 2008, 03:12 PM »

Fantastic. As always, there are things I missed. 

1671

General Software Discussion / Re: Programs you can use during a financial meltdown!

« Last post by zridling on October 05, 2008, 09:30 PM »

[Carol]: FSF approach is just plain stupid (IMHO).

Most non-free software in the world today is not sold, but licensed. From complex operating systems to tiny games or screensavers, end users of the software have a license to use it under conditions laid out in an End User License Agreement (EULA). This agreement lists out the conditions under which the user can use the software -- often restrictions are imposed on the use to which the software can be put. In almost all cases, users are explicitly prohibited from "taking the software apart" to study how it works, cannot modify or improve it, are only allowed to make a single copy of the software (for backup purposes) and are strictly prohibited from distributing copies to other people. (Much of the open source model is one of distribution.)

I openly credit Vista's original EULA for pushing me toward Linux. Thanks again, Microsoft; it was the best thing you've ever done for me! But then recently, the highly popular open source Mozilla Firefox browser was severely criticized for creating a pop-up dialog of Firefox's EULA, a piece of software which needed no "branding" EULA. Mozilla Foundation’s Mitchell Baker quickly responded to it as a mistake.
__________________
Most of us are never going to open the hood and retool the source code. But there's intrinsic value in using free/libre software, since most of the world cannot afford to send money to Redmond for its proprietary products, much less trust a corporation to do the right thing by us. Not Microsoft. Not Google. Not IBM. Not Apple. Not Goldman Sachs....

Besides, all data composed by governments (and many key industries) should be open source that follows open standards. Stephen Fry explains it well: http://www.gnu.org/fry/

1672

General Software Discussion / Re: Programs you can use during a financial meltdown!

« Last post by zridling on October 04, 2008, 03:35 PM »

Yea, 40hz nails it. I'm just trying to find your favorite cheaper -- as in price -- alternatives for common commercial software or shareware. If it's FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software), all the better. I even include donationware here, since at the very least, it's affordable to your ability to pay. The Free Software Foundation just listed some holes where coding would be great and save a lot of the money being sent to Adobe, et al. every year.

1673

General Software Discussion / Re: Programs you can use during a financial meltdown!

« Last post by zridling on October 03, 2008, 10:59 PM »

One of the criticisms of free software is that certain classes of applications are missing. Interestingly, the FSF agrees, up to a point, and has put together what it calls its high-priority projects list:

1. Gnash — the free software Flash player
2. Coreboot — the campaign for a free BIOS
3. Free software replacement for Skype
4. Membership and donor transaction and contact system
5. Free software video editing software
6. Free Google Earth Replacement
7. gNewSense — The all free software GNU/Linux operating system
8. GNU Octave — free software Matlab replacement
9. Replacement for OpenDWG libraries
10. Reversible Debugging in GDB
11. Free software drivers for network routers

1674

Living Room / Re: Tech News Weekly: 41

« Last post by zridling on October 03, 2008, 10:57 PM »

Yea, this is like a newsletter in between newsletters. Cool.
___________________________
7. Time To Look For A Skype Alternative (Thanks 40hz)
check out the FSF's  http://www.fsf.org/c...paigns/priority.html

1675

General Software Discussion / Re: Programs you can use during a financial meltdown!

« Last post by zridling on October 03, 2008, 10:51 PM »

.... when I get $4, I'm gonna git me one of those beauties! (It's the commute that will kill me.)