convince me to try linux again

[FlibbyFlobby]

I hope you aren't saying that Windows never slows down over time. That certainly isn't my experience on the several different WinXP PCs in my house.

But perhaps that is all boils down to that my wife doesn't admin her XP box right, and I don't have my kids' PCs configured and locked-down right, either.

I didn't say Windows doesn't slow down over time. It does slow down if you don't look after your installation right, but that's not a problem I would say is confined to the Windows platform anyway.

People who format every 6 months are the ones who clearly aren't looking after their installation right. They buy into the hype that their machine is slowing down because of Windows itself, and not because of the junk they install and allow to run in the background processes on their machine.

Its funny how if you prune the boot processes and junk, and choose applications more wisely this 'problem' doesn't exist.

[obsolete_power]

I thought people had stopped pulling this line.

Provided you only enable the things you need to start on boot and keep your system clean from infections and bloated applications Windows runs superb (Yes, even Vista!). Regardless of OS you'll always have some housekeeping to do. The way people go on though you'd think Windows needed constant attention, and more-often-than-not its the farthest from the truth.

Same Windows XP install here for over a year and it still runs fantastic.

On topic. I'd recommend trying Ubuntu first if you decide to take the plunge. Its totally newbie friendly and you'll find plenty of guides and help on the official forums. Also, dual boot using the XP/Vista MBR, it'll save you a lot of hassle if you decide Linux isn't for you and you want to revert to Windows. :)

You shouldn't have to tweak your system like this! Most people don't have the knowledge to select what applications to start at boot and frankly they didn't pay this much money for Windows XP or Vista to have to do all the bloody work that Microsoft should have done themselves!

[Barney T. Administrators]

Linux just fits me better than Windows ever did. That's why *I* use it. Should you? Try it to see if it fits you, if you like. If Windows fits you better, than there is no need for you to use Linux.

I think that this statement probably sums it up the best. No one will convince you.... you need to experience Linux yourself and see if it fits your needs.

Saying that, there are lots of reasons listed here on why members use Linux. If you post this same question on the Windows subforum, you'd get a host of exactly the opposite responses. So, in the end, it is up to you to try it and see if it is the right OS for you.... it is for me.

[FlibbyFlobby]

You shouldn't have to tweak your system like this! Most people don't have the knowledge to select what applications to start at boot and frankly they didn't pay this much money for Windows XP or Vista to have to do all the bloody work that Microsoft should have done themselves!

What rubbish. Passing the buck onto Microsoft as per usual. It's not Microsoft's job to control and restrict 3rd party developers who decide their application needs to start up on boot. In fact many of the major manufacturers such as Dell are pushing this problem on unknowing consumers, not Microsoft.

And even though it isn't their problem at least they're still going some lengths to make it easier in Vista with Windows Defender, which allows you to control and block the boot up of applications.

[ichi]

It's not just what's running in the background, all the crap left after uninstalling can also degrade your system's performace.

Wasting memory and cpu cycles on an AV doesn't help either. And same goes for fragmentation.

[FlibbyFlobby]

It's not just what's running in the background, all the crap left after uninstalling can also degrade your system's performace.

Wasting memory and cpu cycles on an AV doesn't help either. And same goes for fragmentation.

True. Although a good registry cleaner can sort out bad uninstallations and what they sometimes leave behind. I can't really defend the registry system though, its not exactly ideal.

If people didn't target Windows we would need Anti Virus applications, and defragging isn't something you need to do that often anyway. :)

[sengork]

Get VMware Server and install Ubuntu or download the PcBSD vmware image. This is the safest way to go...

[david622]

thanks for your responses, guys :)

maybe for the time being i'll try out that virtualbox program to give ubuntu a test-drive. you guys probably are right; i just need to fiddle around with it myself to see if it makes sense for me.

[markwolfe Veteran]

you know what man ... you are not worth convincing ... if you were to have an open mind and willing to actually learn and figure out stuf by yourself, you would have done it by now, and maybe tried freebsd / unix ... so ... if linux has no use to you in your daily life ... why bother anyway? ...... it makes no sence trying something if you have no use and don't seek any novel things

I don't think that this is the right attitude. I understand frustration when people say "convince me", but they are really saying that they haven't experienced (or know the feature sets) what makes Linux different (and possibly better) than what they are used to. Remember, most of these people have been 100% using Windows all their computing lives.

...

People who format every 6 months are the ones who clearly aren't looking after their installation right. They buy into the hype that their machine is slowing down because of Windows itself, and not because of the junk they install and allow to run in the background processes on their machine.

...

Oh, I agree with you there. Some claim the need to re-install, but I have never had to. Reboot, yes. Reinstall, no.

[mitch00]

I like the fact that all my configurations are in human readable, editable configuration files in my home directory, rather than that god forsaken registry. (: Among others that is.

[david622]

before i go off and install, i was running ubuntu off the CD last night just to give it a try before i installed, and I wasn't able to get my wireless internet working. i typed in the name of our wireless network and i typed in the WEP password about a bazillion times, but it still didn't work. and ubuntu's built-in help didn't seem to have any solution.

any ideas what i may have missed?

PS: I don't wanna screw up my laptop again when i try the install, so is there an installation guide I can follow step by step before I just go off and do it on my own?

[markwolfe Veteran]

I'm not sure about the wireless. What chipset do you have in it? That is the important part.

If I am not mistaken, even if your wireless is not natively supported in Linux, you can use ndiswrapper to use a Windows driver to get connection.

[Fish]

before i go off and install, i was running ubuntu off the CD last night just to give it a try before i installed, and I wasn't able to get my wireless internet working. i typed in the name of our wireless network and i typed in the WEP password about a bazillion times, but it still didn't work. and ubuntu's built-in help didn't seem to have any solution.

any ideas what i may have missed?

PS: I don't wanna screw up my laptop again when i try the install, so is there an installation guide I can follow step by step before I just go off and do it on my own?

This happened to me too, however I could still connect to my router over ethernet. Once installed properly, though, Ubuntu had no problems with my wireless connection. Mine's an Intel chipset, which Ubuntu supports natively.

^Mark's right about ndiswrapper if your chipset isn't supported. There's plenty of guides about setting this up on the Ubuntu forums.

[+BudMan MVC]

i typed in the name of our wireless network and i typed in the WEP password about a bazillion times, but it still didn't work.

WEP? Glad to see your on the cutting edge of wireless security there ;)

Do you mean you typed in the key? or do you mean "password/passphrase"?

WEP does not use a password/phrase - it uses a KEY.. which would be a specific length HEX value, depending the encryption used, the key length would be different

* 40- / 64-bit WEP: 10 digit key

* 104- / 128-bit WEP: 26 digit key

* 256-bit WEP: 58 digit key

Yes all the major players netgear, linksys, dlink, smc, etc.. etc.. software to control their hardware - both on the router and nic side provided a method for the user to convert their "password" to a proper WEP key.. Since how could you expect users to remember something like. "683d48694a6c656e3c54525d71"

When they could just put in MyPassword - an have the software use that to generate the hex key.

My guess would be that your issue stemmed from linux not using the same method to create a key, as whatever sofware you use on the window side..

I would almost bet that whatever application you were using to setup wireless in linux directly call for the "KEY" not the "password"

I do not have wireless currently running on any ubuntu install - so not sure what the gui interface might support, but I do know that iwconfig requires the entry to be a KEY.

man iwconfig

key/enc[ryption]

Used to manipulate encryption or scrambling keys and security

mode.

To set the current encryption key, just enter the key in hex

digits as XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX or XXXXXXXX. To set a key other

than the current key, prepend or append [index] to the key

itself (this won?t change which is the active key). You can also

enter the key as an ASCII string by using the s: prefix.

Passphrase is currently not supported.>

For starters - I would suggest is you move to WPA;)) WEP is no longer a valid way to secure your wireless.

But users not understanding how wireless encryption works is normally why they have issues..;))

[david622]

yeah, sorry, let me clarify, i had a long string of numbers and letters like that, it wasn't a password like my mom's maiden name or somethign like that.

by the way, i decided to try and install linux last night but came across a problem. for one, i can only boot into linux off the CD if i go in through safe graphics mode, and even when i do and try to install linux that way, the screen resolution is such so that i can't see the entire installation window and click the "next" button at the bottom. it's kind of funny really, i can't change the resolution to anything above 800 x 600 in safe graphics mode, and i can't move the installation window up any further, so it's just a ridiculous reason not to be able to install linux.

when i try to boot linux with the top option off the CD, which is called something like "run or install linux", it goes through the little bar going across with the ubuntu logo, then a whole bunch of text goes across with all the drivers saying [OK] and things, but it never makes it to the end without freezing or something.

any reason why this should be? i'm on only a few-month old HP Pavillion, it should be fully capable of running ubuntu, no?

[mitch00]

The "nv" video driver shipped with Ubuntu is very problematic, I know from experience. I have 3 different nvidia cards, and _none_ of them can use the nv driver shipped with Ubuntu.

The way I solve it is I boot regular mode, get to a blank screen where it seems like nothing is happening. At this point I press ctrl-alt-F1 to bring me to a console. Login as root, and do (no quotes) "/etc/init.d/gdm stop" then type (again no quotes) "nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf".

This will open the gfx config file. Press ctrl-W and search "nv", you'll find a few entries but the one you're looking for is listed under the subheading "Device" and will say Driver "nv". Change that to "vesa" (instead of nv), press ctrl-X to save and exit and then ta-da you should be able to do /etc/init.d/gdm start and be brought to GUI (if you arent, press ctrl-alt-F7 to bring you there).

This is all assuming you have an nvidia graphics card of course.

Alternatively, before editing xorg.conf, you maye do "sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx" and as your driver use the official (much better) nvidia driver, "nvidia" instead of "vesa". This involves editing your repositories, which you're going to want to do anyways once Ubuntu is installed, so if you'd like to do this before installation, let me know and I'll try to give you directions.

[+BudMan MVC]

any reason why this should be? i'm on only a few-month old HP Pavillion, it should be fully capable of running ubuntu, no?

Well how about giving the model number - then we would all know, and could tell you if there were any issues with that specific hardware..

Saying its only a few month old HP does not give anyone anything to work with.

[david622]

thanks, it sounds like mitch answered my question (i haven't tried yet though), and, sorry, i'm on an HP dv6324us

[Robgig1088]

thanks, it sounds like mitch answered my question (i haven't tried yet though), and, sorry, i'm on an HP dv6324us

meh.. not good. My girlfriend has a 2305 and it was a killer to get linux working on it. Problem stems from the buggy BIOS and the militantly-anti-linux Broadcom Wireless company. So you'll have to basically use a dirty hack and the windows drivers to get your internet working (called ndiswrapper. Look on google for a tutorial. Generally they are pretty good. I got it working in my first try). Also, because of the buggy BIOS, you will have no suspend/resume features and no powersaving features. You can, however, download some packages that enable power saving on this processor (if you want to know how i did it, just PM me. It's a bit detailed but its not hard to follow.)

So in a nutshell, AMD laptops = bad for linux. When I get mine, its going to be Intel.

edit: also, the way I got the livecd to boot was by throwing in the "noapic irqfixup" option into the boot paramaters. When you get to the initial menu, it should say something like "press F7 for additional options" or something. Simply type "noapic irqfixup" after what is there and press enter. You should be able to boot now. After you install the closed-source Nvidia driver, you can delete the kernel options. Bleh, thank goodness most computers dont suck this much with linux :wacko:

edit #2: in safe mode (with the 800x600 screen) you can move the window around by pressing alt and clicking hte window. It's a pretty handy way to move windows, and its really useful when you have to install from safe mode ;)

Edited July 29, 2007 by Robgig1088

[Pc_Madness]

convince me to try linux again

Try Linux or I'll stomp on a kitten!