PC LINUX

shep · « **on:** 21 Feb 2007, 06:30 pm »

This posting is from a just installed "new" Linux distro. A case-hardened PC/Windows user, I have always liked the idea of Linux but every "latest" version either was buggy, too complicated, or in some way flawed. This one works a treat and is very pretty as well. Everything worked right off. The only hassle was getting the wifi stick to be recognized, but this was easily solved. I was on-line and had my mail account configured and running in less than an hour. Well nothing is perfect. The way that this site page is displayed, using Firefox, is a bit odd, but I can fiddle with Font size and type if I really need to. Mostly I see the endless quarrel between Mac and Window's users here. Anyone using Linux on a daily basis? If so, check out this version. Pretty sweet. This one is a keeper! I even got it to read DVDs almost right away (I had to download a lot of stuff to get all the codecs etc.) for some reason it refuses to read a brand new disk of "24". CAn't figure that out but never mind, I have XP on the same disk so I can just reboot to that when I need to. Ahh just discovered that the spell check doesn't work

JoshK · « **Reply #1 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 06:34 pm »

Congrats! What distro is it? BRJ is a daily linux user and helped me a great deal when I was playing with Linux.

I found the install fairly simple, except for some issues I had with the download. I found doing simple stuff pretty straight forward, but I was a bit lost when it came to configuration and some of the application associations. Never-the-less, that was an older distro and I planned to look back into it later, I just didn't have the time/energy to play further at that time as I wanted to make forward progress on that PC.

TomS · « **Reply #2 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 06:37 pm »

My Slimserver is on Clarkconnect 4.0. I'm NOT a Linux or even an XP guru at all and have no problems using it that way. It is rock solid stable so far. My kids use Ubuntu on all the Dells at their school and move transparently back and forth no problems with all of our home XP PC's and an Intel Macbook Pro.

gitarretyp · « **Reply #3 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 06:47 pm »

I'm always glad to see people realizing the power of linux. It's not for everyone, but if you're computer savvy, linux is great. I've been a linux convert for 5'ish years now. I run gentoo linux on my desktop (dual boot with winxp for the occasional game) and laptop.

The latest versions of firefox have spell check built in. You may need to update your installation --i have no idea what package management scheme pc linux uses. AC's spell check should still work fine, however.

shep · « **Reply #4 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 07:04 pm »

Actually the spell check did work, only it was hiding in the background instead of the foreground as I'm used to!
(it is called "PC LINUX") Why? who knows! there are so many names... I just downloaded a whole packet of background images for the desktop, some really nice. The down-load manager and installer is a delight on this one. It's just about impossible to not get it right. I know Linux can be disconcerting at first but here they have made a real effort; It boots up and shuts down in record time. Linux has made giant strides recently and this is a really good example. It's KDE based but they have even made an effort to give it the simple uncluttered look of Knome. I tried a recent version of Suse...didn't like it, of Mandriva, didn't like it, of Fedora, ditto. Seriously, I am not a Linux geek and I hate having to write commands. This ie really worth your time to check out, I promise.

shep · « **Reply #5 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 07:05 pm »

"Gnome"

jqp · « **Reply #6 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 07:59 pm »

I loaded linux (Red Hat) on a PC about 6 years ago, and bought the gigantic "Linux Bible", then never did much with it.

Now that I have a few very decent PCs that are "too slow" for my windows builds, I may give it another look.

I want it to be capable for use with multimedia - graphics, image processing, video processing - anyone have a known and tested path to get there? I am not looking to do best in class applications, or use it as a complete editing suite, just want it to be functional with pictures, audio files, and videos

brj · « **Reply #7 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 08:03 pm »

Quote

every "latest" version either was buggy, too complicated, or in some way flawed

Have you run a MS operating system lately?

Kidding aside...

Does this link lead to the PC Linux distro you were referring to?

Gnome is one of the two major desktop environments, with the other being KDE. Most Linux distributions offer the libraries for both, if not the full package. Both interfaces, and Linux in general, have been advancing at an amazing pace. Even a year makes for a substantial difference to most Linux distros. (KDE tends to have somewhat tighter integration among programs, but I generally prefer Gnome because it doesn't take up quite as much screen real estate.)

Josh, I don't remember exactly what problem finally created enough of a time sink to divert you, but you might want to look at some of the different "live" CDs in order to survey the current "state of the penguin". Many distros have live CDs, and they will boot from the CD-ROM drive without touching the OS already installed on your hard drive. They let you use the OS without having to install it. Perhaps your issues have been addressed just with the passage of time...

I'm still leaning toward the SUSE products these days, although I've been meaning to try a few others. In total between work and personal machines, I currently have installed Redhat 9 (RH9), Redhat Enterprise Workstation 4 (RHWS4), Novell Linux Desktop 9 (NLD9), SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (SLED10), SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (SLES10), and SUSE Linux Pro 9.3. (I also have access to Windows and SGI IRIX.) I'll be replacing the SUSE Pro 9.3 with 10.2 as soon as I have the time, and wouldn't mind playing with Ubuntu and a few others. At work, I can run Windows inside of VMWare on Linux, but use it only rarely and for specialized applications.

I eventually intend to use my home Linux machine to handle media server duties, including active room correction. It won't happen for a while, but I'll document the process when I get there.

Of course, I'm still hoping to pick up a Macbook Pro at some point as well (and then triple boot it!

).

jqp · « **Reply #8 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 08:17 pm »

And it was all free?

I imagine to conveniently get the good distribution, you want to buy the CD/DVD set?

brj · « **Reply #9 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 08:48 pm »

Actually, virtually all of the installations I've ever performed were via downloaded ISO images, both CD and DVD based. (Downloading 3+ GB DVD ISO images definitely makes you appreciate a broadband connection!)

At work, we have maintenance agreements for the enterprise software, but even then, the software itself is actually free "as in beer". What you are paying for is faster updates, errata and a given level of support.

shep · « **Reply #10 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 09:23 pm »

"Does this link lead to the PC Linux distro you were referring to?"
Yes, that's it.

shep · « **Reply #11 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 09:42 pm »

Virtually all Linux distros can be downloaded free but if you are a newbie or haven't used it for a while, it's easier to try and pick up a Linux mag. that has a monthly of bi-monthly offering of whatever version they are pushing. Since that could take a while to find the "right" one, it's easier to download. On the other hand, the magazine offerings (which usually cost over here about 15$) offer a bootable, step by step install and that makes it a lot easier. A "full" install (which is usually unnecissary) runs anywhere up to 3go's. As stated, the Live versions allow you to have an experience of Linux without the hassle of partitioning the disk and trying to figure out what all those packages are for! Anyway it's fun and keeps those brain cells active

mjosef · « **Reply #12 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 10:18 pm »

I built a new computer with the idea of running Linux for DVD playback and maybe as a music server. I was not successful even installing Ubuntu, the installation kept stalling just after the system component check. I just put it aside. Well actually I installed the Vista RC1, which allowed me to check that all the hardware was working.
Linux is not as easy as they would have you believe. I am not giving up on Linux though, the 'free' appeal is too strong to ignore. In the past couple months I have accumulated a few other builds from buying various Linux magazines, and will give it another go.

shep · « **Reply #13 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 10:31 pm »

That's fairly unusual, but with some very new hardware, it may have a hard time and just balk. On older machines like mine, the install just sails thru. I think this one took all of ten minutes from the time I put in the dvd till the desktop was up.

mjosef · « **Reply #14 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 10:39 pm »

Yeah, its all new hardware, DDR2 ram, Intel duo core, SATA II hard drive... it just choked and froze. bugger.

TomS · « **Reply #15 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 10:47 pm »

I installed Clarkconnect 4.0 in an old Dell Inspiron 1000 laptop w/Celeron 512mb RAM that could barely run XP worth a darn. It simply screams on Linux. No issues at all.

brj · « **Reply #16 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 10:57 pm »

Actually, multimedia is one area where Linux can still be painful, but it has nothing to do with the technology. While most proprietary codecs have been reverse engineered or encapsulated and can thus be run on Linux (at least on x86 hardware), none of the commercial vendors can distribute them because they are proprietary and they'd be sued unless they found some way to allow the end user to buy a license. As a result, nice convenient packaging of them isn't commonly available like it is for most other software tools that can be legally distributed without paid licensing.

There is one company pursuing the legal licensing and distribution of proprietary codecs for Linux: http://www.fluendo.com/

They've basically made agreements with Microsoft (WMA), MPEG (MPEG 2 & 4) and others such that you can buy a legal copy of those codecs to use on Linux/UNIX systems. They are still fairly new, but it is a very encouraging sign.

gitarretyp · « **Reply #17 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 11:13 pm »

Quote from: mjosef on 21 Feb 2007, 10:39 pm

Yeah, its all new hardware, DDR2 ram, Intel duo core, SATA II hard drive... it just choked and froze. bugger.

If i were a betting man, i'd say it was the SATA drive/interface causing the problem. You may need to pass some options to the kernel at boot to have the drive recognized.

brj · « **Reply #18 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 11:45 pm »

I've found SATA to be pretty stable out of the box under the different Linux distros I've tried. Between workstations and compute cluster nodes, we have at least 1000 machines running Linux on top of SATA drives at work. (And possibly several times that if I could remember all of our configurations right now.)

shep · « **Reply #19 on:** 21 Feb 2007, 11:49 pm »

I'm not that expert but don't most Linux installers have "verbose" installer mode that should show where the hangup occured?