Author Topic: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.  (Read 71893 times)

Offline clivel

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #125 on: April 29, 2014, 03:30:58 PM »
Anyone who is still using Windows XP needs to make sure that they no longer use Internet Explorer. A critical security vulnerability that affects IE versions 6 to 11 has been discovered. It is serious enough for the US Government's cyber-security agency to issue a warning.

Although this vulnerability affects all versions of Windows, Microsoft will issue patches for Windows 7 & 8 in due course but not for XP. In the interim users of 7 or 8 should probably rely on Firefox or Chrome.

However XP users will be permanently left high and dry, so for now XP users will need to permanently drop IE in favour of either Firefox or Chrome, or better yet switch to Linux, preferably sooner rather than later, because as more and more security holes arise XP will become completely unsafe to use on any computer with an Internet connection.
Clive

Offline BaronJ

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #126 on: April 29, 2014, 06:20:34 PM »
Hello Clive,

I've been telling Windows users that IE is unsafe for a long time and that they should change to another web browser.  Indeed when the EU forced M$ to give users the ability to choose to download and use a different browser, I said that it was a good idea.

Best Regards:
                     Baron

Offline clivel

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #127 on: April 29, 2014, 07:46:50 PM »
Hi Baron,
It is not only IE's vulnerability that is an issue, but also a completely cavalier attitude to anything approaching standards; as a web developer IE was the bane of my life.
Things that would work as expected using Opera, Firefox, or Chrome would fail on IE, but not in a consistent manner, because the different versions of IE are not compatible with each other either. So pages often require a number of browser specific code sections - a few sections for the different versions of IE and then one section for almost everything else. And what complicates it even more is that you can only install one version of IE per computer so testing the various IE workarounds requires a number of computers or virtual machines. It is a complete nightmare.

On my last web project I estimated that my client could have saved at least 25% if not more of the development costs by not providing IE support but unfortunately MS having rammed IE down everyone's throats made ignoring IE an impossibility if my client wanted to stay in business.
IE should have been put out of its misery years ago.  I cheered when the EU forced MS to provide choice, I only wished that they had of forced them to unbundle it completely.
Clive

Offline garym

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #128 on: April 30, 2014, 11:14:30 AM »
I said I would post my experience of installing Linux Mint as a dual-boot with Windows XP so here goes:

I read a few sites documenting how to do it. This was the most useful.

http://www.freeyourselffrommicrosoftandthensa.org/06-dual-boot/6-3-dual-boot-linux-mint-with-windows-xp-or-windows-7

I have a desktop system with one 500 GB hard disk. It was partitioned into two primary partitions, one of 50GB which was the C drive and the rest (450GB) as the E drive. To install Linux I needed to create some unallocated space on the disk. First I made sure I had everything on E backed up to an external USB hard disk.

I also used Macrium Reflect http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx to make an image of the C drive again onto the external disk and a also rescue CD that I could boot from if things went wrong (I said I was cautious).

Download Gparted Live from http://gparted.org/download.php

The link to click is "Download gparted-live-0.18.0-2-i486.iso" Beware of all the Download buttons on the page which are adverts for other software.

Burn image to CD.

Then I used a Gparted Live CD to boot from and shrink the second partition from 450GB to 250GB. This left me 200GB of unallocated space that could be used for the Linux install. I booted back into Windows to check that the resize hadn't corrupted the disk.

Next I booted from the Linux Mint DVD and after it has loaded the desktop double-click the 'Install' icon. When I got to the screen asking how I wanted to install it I selected 'Something else' at the bottom of the list. This allowed me to choose the partitions that will be created. I created four logical partitions as follows:

                 name        size          partition         type
Boot          /boot        1GB        /dev/sda5        ext4
Root          /             30GB        /dev/sda6        ext4
Swap                         2GB        /dev/sda7        swap
Home        /home   167GB        /dev/sda8        ext4


I chose to place the bootloader on sda, which means that Linux's GRUB boot manager will replace the Windows one. From the reading I'd done this seems more reliable and easier than modifying the Windows boot manager to dual-boot.

When the installation has finished it asks you to reboot. Take out the Linux DVD and reboot.

Now I've just got to learn to use it.

Hope someone finds this useful. There are many pitfalls so don't expect me to sort them out for you.

Gary
Workshop activity resumes now ankle improving :-)

Offline BaronJ

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #129 on: April 30, 2014, 11:29:58 AM »
Hi Baron,

IE should have been put out of its misery years ago.  I cheered when the EU forced MS to provide choice, I only wished that they had of forced them to unbundle it completely.

Clive

Hi Clive,
I couldn't agree more !  The excuse or reason M$ gave for not unbundling was that it was the mechanism used to keep Windows up to date.  The browser choice was simply a sop to satisfy the EU.  As far as I am aware it only happened in the EU and not in countries outside.

Best Regards:
                     Baron

Offline BaronJ

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #130 on: April 30, 2014, 11:42:16 AM »
Hi Gary,
Its nice to hear that you got things up and running with Linux Mint.

The log of how and why you did it, is exactly how it should be.  Many people forget to take backups, particularly when making major changes to their machines.  One of the reasons for a dedicated "Home" partition is so that you can change to another flavour of Linux if you wish whilst keeping your data safe and usable.  Depending upon how much ram you have you may find that the "Swap" partition does not get used at all.

I have 1Gb ram and no swap usage at all.  My HDD is 160Gb and I'm using a 3GHz P4 CPU.  So not a race horse by today's standards.

 
Best Regards:
                     Baron

Offline garym

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #131 on: April 30, 2014, 01:52:28 PM »
Hi Baron,

I probably should have added that I have a Win 7 laptop as well, which is handy for looking up solutions to problems if anything goes wrong.

If the desktop system had been messed up by the install I could, as a last resort have re-installed everything from scratch as I built it from parts and installed XP from disks. The machine has 2GB RAM and a Core 2 Duo cpu (E7500 I think).

I've since managed to install a networked printer, which meant using the Terminal. This was a bit of a learning curve, like going back to DOS. I'm not sure if I did it correctly but it printed a test page.

Also installed the Chromium web browser as I use Chrome in Windows.

Gary
Workshop activity resumes now ankle improving :-)

Offline AdeV

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #132 on: May 01, 2014, 07:01:04 AM »
My last home XP machine was an old Dell laptop, a 610 IIRC, with either 1/2 or 1GB of memory, 250GB HDD and a 2.something GHz CPU. Or maybe 1.something, I forget now.

As an XP machine, it was suffering. I use it primarily for surfing while watching the TV, or downloading stuff to watch on TV. It's connected wirelessly to a router about 6 feet away. Despite this, the wireless connection needed repairing anything from daily to monthly; the machine absolutely ground to a halt if one tried to do any kind of multitasking. e.g. copying a 5-6GB file out to a USB hard drive, would take 5 or so minutes if you sat and watched it, or up to several hours if you tried to surf at the same time. Just awful.

Last week I finally saw my arse with it for the last time & threw Mint MATE version 13 (Maya) onto it. What a transformation, I can multitask again, the USB transfer times are steady no matter what else I do. OK, it still won't play 1080p video full screen, but that's just because the machine isn't up to it... and since my favourite browser is Opera, I can carry on with a near-identical setup to what I had before.

So, for the older machine, especially one that's wheezing badly on XP, Mint is definitely the way forward.  :thumbup:
Cheers!
Ade.
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Offline garym

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #133 on: May 01, 2014, 07:53:32 AM »
If anyone is having trouble with their wi-fi then a program called Inssider is quite useful. It displays the competing wi-fi signals that your computer can see. By moving to a different channel you can sometimes improve your wireless connection significantly. It is easy to install and use. I found that my next door neighbour was on the same channel as me and with a stronger signal as they had their router in the lounge whereas mine is under the stairs (I'll tell you why some other time). It seemed to be a particular problem for tablet computers, with frequent dropped connections. After changing to a different channel the connectivity is much better. I know some routers pick a channel automatically but theirs was always on 11. Anyway if you're interested the free version can still be downloaded from here.

http://www.techspot.com/downloads/5936-inssider.html

Their official site http://www.inssider.comonly lists the paid for version now.

Gary
Workshop activity resumes now ankle improving :-)

Offline DavidA

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #134 on: May 01, 2014, 10:00:31 AM »
Gary,

Once you had your machine running on Linux,  what did you have to do to make the connection to the internet ?

Dave.

Offline awemawson

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #135 on: May 01, 2014, 10:15:01 AM »
When I loaded Mint 16 it configured the built in pc network card, found my router, set it self up and said 'ok now what'  having also found the various Windows machines I have on my local lan !!!! Quite painless.
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline garym

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #136 on: May 01, 2014, 10:40:33 AM »
Gary,

Once you had your machine running on Linux,  what did you have to do to make the connection to the internet ?

Dave.

David,

The machine is hard-wired to the router via Ethernet cable. Even when I was trying Linux with the Live DVD, after it had loaded, the first thing I did was open Firefox, go to the BBC website and played the live news broadcast. Worked straight away, no problems. Obviously with a wireless connection it should be just a case of entering the security password for your router. Unfortunately I can't try it for you because the computer doesn't have a wireless adapter in it.

Gary
Workshop activity resumes now ankle improving :-)

Offline DavidA

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #137 on: May 01, 2014, 12:36:05 PM »
Gary,

My internet also comes via a cable (Virgin Media) so hopefully the same will happen. 
The reason I asked is that, way back in the dial-up days, one had to jump through a few hoops before you could get on line.

I'm still waiting for my Ubuntu flash stick to arrive.

Sorry to read about your broken ankle. Yesterday I came need to breaking a couple of ribs when I got a foot tangled up and nose dived over some piles of rubbish. It just hurts.  Dare not cough.

Dave.

Offline mattinker

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #138 on: May 01, 2014, 01:05:34 PM »
When I loaded Mint 16 it configured the built in pc network card, found my router, set it self up and said 'ok now what'  having also found the various Windows machines I have on my local lan !!!! Quite painless.

Nice to hear how easy it was to set up!
Gary,

My internet also comes via a cable (Virgin Media) so hopefully the same will happen. 
The reason I asked is that, way back in the dial-up days, one had to jump through a few hoops before you could get on line.

I'm still waiting for my Ubuntu flash stick to arrive.

Dave.

It sets it's own connection with the the "Live CD", the startup/instalation disk, Ubuntu will ask you during set up if you want to update whilst installing the system. No hoops! (when hard wired)

Regards, Matthew

Offline garym

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #139 on: May 01, 2014, 02:10:30 PM »
Gary,

......My internet also comes via a cable (Virgin Media) ......

Dave.

Just to clarify, I'm on ADSL via a phone line, the pc is connected to the router via Ethernet cable rather than using wi-fi.

PS: The ankle is a real PITA. I'd almost completed the Stuart S50 I'm building and it's unbelievably frustrating not to be able to get in the workshop or do any gardening for that matter.  :(

That's why I'm spending so much time on here.

Gary
Workshop activity resumes now ankle improving :-)

lordedmond

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #140 on: May 02, 2014, 02:41:36 AM »
 I get a warm fuzzy feeling that people are seeing the light and dumping win doze for a simpler and more reliable OS

And not least cheaper and far more secure

I hope your ankle heals up OK


Stuart

Offline DavidA

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #141 on: May 11, 2014, 10:03:42 AM »
Hi,

Just an update.

The data stick with  Ubuntu on it arrived.  And there is good news and bad news.

The good news is that things were looking good from the beginning.

The machine I am using is an HP Pavilion Slimline. And it is has  64 bit processor.

So, I plugged in the data stick to my front USB port.

Switched on and held down the ESC key to get into boot menu.

Then selected USB from the three options.

The initial Ubuntu purple screen appeared (more a shade of cerise) and we progressed to the installation options.

The choices are Try Ubuntu or Install Ubuntu.  I clicked on 'try'.

And the desktop appeared.

Great,  we're in.

But then the mouse stopped working.  Remember it had been working at the beginning.

Try a different mouse (radio mouse) and this time I got as far as the Firefox page. But couldn't enter text into the box.

Now,  I think I may know the problem.  The  version I have is for the 32 bit machines. I was going to use a different Esys (32 bit) machine.
I am using 14.04 LTS Desktop

I am going to try and download the 64 bit version onto a live dvd and see if that helps.

So near,  yet so far away.

Dave.

Created with Vista.

Offline BaronJ

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #142 on: May 11, 2014, 04:53:22 PM »
Hi Dave,

Interesting about the USB mouse and keyboard though I wouldn't have thought that 32 vers 64 bit would make any difference.
Its more likely that the live distribution from the USB stick can't find the other USB ports.  It may pay you to try booting from a CD or try the USB stick in a different socket.  I favour trying the distribution on a CD.

HTH.

Best Regards:
                     Baron

Offline garym

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #143 on: May 12, 2014, 08:32:37 AM »
Dave,

I tend to agree with Baron. I would have thought the 32-bit would work fine on a 64-bit machine even though not optimal. My Win7 laptop is 64-bit and has lots of 32-bit programs running on it.

I'm curious why you bought a USB stick if you can burn CD/DVDs. I would give Linux Mint (MATE or Cinnamon version) a try as well, just to see if the mouse/keyboard problems are still evident.

I was that encouraged by the Mint experience that I've bought a Raspberry Pi to play with as well.

Gary
Workshop activity resumes now ankle improving :-)

Offline DavidA

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #144 on: May 12, 2014, 07:26:48 PM »
Gary,

I opted for the stick as I reasoned that it would be a more reliable way to get a working distribution than downloading and burning my own dvd. I should have gone with the dvd option.

I did (last night) download a copy of openSUSE 13.1 . I'll try to burn this to dvd and see if I an get it to work. I don't seem to have much success with cd or dvd burning.

Baron,

I do have an early version of UBUNTU on cd somewhere. Also Mandrake. If I come across it I will give it a try.
May need some help with getting on line through.

Dave.

Offline Pete49

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #145 on: May 13, 2014, 01:51:05 AM »
Another question (sorry). My old laptop has windo$e xp which I want to try mint on but it also has a protected section that has the win install on it. If I install mint will it wipe that as well? 
Pete
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Offline AdeV

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #146 on: May 13, 2014, 07:24:24 AM »
Another question (sorry). My old laptop has windo$e xp which I want to try mint on but it also has a protected section that has the win install on it. If I install mint will it wipe that as well? 
Pete

Pete -

That's up to you; Mint will ask you if you want to zap the entire hard-drive & use it; if you want to keep your hidden Windows install partition, you'd need to choose "Something else" when Mint asks how you want to install it, and make sure you don't include that partition in the part of the disk Mint can see.
Cheers!
Ade.
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Offline BaronJ

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #147 on: May 13, 2014, 05:20:12 PM »
Another question (sorry). My old laptop has windo$e xp which I want to try mint on but it also has a protected section that has the win install on it. If I install mint will it wipe that as well? 
Pete

Hello Pete,

You may find that once you wipe the working XP installation the recovery partition will no longer function !  You need to create the recovery CD's first from the desktop utility, however if at some point the CD's have already been made then you cannot create a recovery CD set.  To get out of this trap, you will need to do a full wipe and restore from the recovery partition.  After you have done this, you can then use the utility from the desktop to create them.  Afterwards you then can let Linux wipe the whole drive and install itself.  Should you decide to go back to Windows you will now have the CD's to do so.  Also make sure that you have the Windows key.  Its on the licence sticker that should be attached to the bottom of your machine.

Sorry if this sounds complicated but M$ never made things easy.

Best Regards:
                     Baron

Offline garym

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #148 on: May 13, 2014, 06:44:14 PM »
Hi Pete,

Are you hoping to create a dual boot system with win XP? I assume you know that if you use the recovery partition to get windows back it will just set the pc back to the state when you got it. You could use Macrium Reflect as I detailed above to create an image of the windows partition before doing anything else, but this is only realistic if you have an external disk to back it up to.

Gary
Workshop activity resumes now ankle improving :-)

Offline DavidA

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Re: To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
« Reply #149 on: May 17, 2014, 07:12:44 PM »
Ok.

After the problems with the mouse not working with my Ubuntu I decided to take another approach.

I downloaded openSUSE 13.1, successfully burnt the image to dvd (a first for me) and, from the boot menu selected the dvd.

It went down hill from there.

The computer is reading the dvd properly. but I can't see a way of running from the dvd without installing SUSE on my hard drive.

he options I am given are...

Boot from hard disk.
Installation.
Rescue system.
Check installation system.
Firmware test.
Memory test.

Bearing in mind that I don't yet want to wipe out the Visa that is on this machine,  what do I do next ?
Partition the Hard Drive ?

Dave.

p.s.  The mouse seems to work fine with SUSE.