Ubuntu (Computer Operating System)

[Johannes]

This has nothing to do with Bukowski whatsoever, but just out of curiosity: Is anyone around here using Ubuntu?

Ubuntu 10.04 (LTS) Lucid Lynx is going to be released today.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

Wonder if anybody is trying to grab that?

 

[Bookowski]

Yeah, I'm runing an old version of it. It's OK, but nothing stunning. I started using it 'cos I got sick of Windows XP.

If I had the money I would probably go back to a Mac, but I'm not desperately obsessive about operating systems. As long as it works any of 'em will do me.

 

[Johannes]

Same here. Had to get rid of XP.

I toyed around with 8.04 then, but wasn't convinced. 8.10 did the trick, I installed it with Wubi and after a few months there was no need for XP anymore. Since then I stick with it.

I too feel not religious about operating systems or something. Ubuntu is not perfect, but I like the idea.

 

[Bukfan]

I don't know anything about the various operating systems but what's the problem with XP? Just curious.

 

[mjp]

The problem with XP? Well, that's easy! It runs all of your programs, has drivers for all of your peripherals and it never crashes.

Oh wait, those aren't problems...

Linux is indispensable for server operating systems - it, or some other flavor of *nix runs most of them. But I think you have to be a masochist or a geek or a masochistic geek to run it on your home computer.

 

[Bukfan]

Thanks, mjp! Then I think I'll stick with my XP. I have enough computer problems as it is from time to time.

Now I'm glad I did'nt listen to a friend who told me to get Linux because "it's very much like using XP and then you won't have to worry about virus bla-bla-bla..."

 

[mjp]

Linux is great, but unless you like messing with your computer's operating system - and who doesn't love that - I wouldn't recommend using it. XP is a million years old in computer time, but it works. That's what most people are after.

As for viruses, I can drop a keylogger onto your Linux machine just as easily as a Windows or Mac (Mac runs unix now anyway). People who feel bulletproof because of their O/S are setting themselves up for disappointment.

A friend of mine, super geek, systems administrator, engineer, was running FreeBSD (a flavor of unix) on one of his home computers, and someone dropped a rootkit (a very bad thing) onto the box. Via his cell phone. So I don't think anyone is completely safe. In my business there is an old saying; the only really secure computer is one that is not connected to the network.

 

[jordan]

how 'bout that windows 7, eh? i'm happy with it so far, although it has some of that classic "microsoft making your life easier by making you change what you're used to with no discernible benefit"... like having a quick link from windows explorer to your "documents library" instead of just to "my documents."

 

[Bukfan]

Linux is great, but unless you like messing with your computer's operating system - and who doesn't love that - I wouldn't recommend using it. XP is a million years old in computer time, but it works. That's what most people are after.

Exactly! It works and that's the main thing. Next I time I buy a new computer I'll probably go for Windows 7, but I'm not sure it would be worth the trouble and money to buy it now and install it on my 5 year old computer.

As for virus, people keep telling me Linux and Mac usually don't get infected with virus, but I can understand from what you're saying that's not quite true. Maybe the risk is lower than on XP, but the question is how much lower!

 

[bospress.net]

The search function is awful. Maybe I am doing it wrong, but you used to be able to search under a file name. Now, it pulls up any e-mails that have that same name.

 

[Bukfan]

The search function in Windows 7?

 

[chronic]

As for virus, people keep telling me Linux and Mac usually don't get infected with virus, but I can understand from what you're saying that's not quite true. Maybe the risk is lower than on XP, but the question is how much lower!

So far there are no Mac viruses (virii?) that I've heard of since OS X was introduced. But as mjp said, you could install a keylogger on any system.

 

[Johannes]

The problem with XP? Well, that's easy! It runs all of your programs, has drivers for all of your peripherals and it never crashes.

Oh wait, those aren't problems...

Linux is indispensable for server operating systems - it, or some other flavor of *nix runs most of them. But I think you have to be a masochist or a geek or a masochistic geek to run it on your home computer.

I'm certainly not a geek, nor masochistic (well) but surely was one of the average not giving-a-fuck about anything XP-users around. It was enough for me because I didn't even know there were alternatives. I knew there was Mac, but didn't care. Linux I'd heard of, but even the word sounded complicated.

By accident I saw some Linux-mag at the newsstand and picked it up. It had an Ubuntu-Live-CD with it. I took it home, read it, didn't understand much and tossed it aside. After some months in a moment of boredom I remembered the CD and that they said, you could try out Ubuntu with it without harming your Windows or anything. Preparing to kill my PC forever I booted. Nothing happened. It was strange, because not at all like XP, but ok. When I had time I toyed around with it, but nothing serious.

When 8.10 came out I downloaded the 700mb, burned them, read about Wubi and installed it, preparing again to kill my PC forever with it. Nothing happened. But this time was much better. Everything went out-of-the-box: my printer, my WLAN-connection, my mp3-player, my whatever. It was even easier than XP. Besides, thrice as fast, no virus (don't know about the keylogger), no firewall, no fragmentation etc., and it's free.

Since then I use it via dualboot with Windows, but very seldom need Windows now. That being said I only need my os for internet, office and stuff, nothing serious. It's also true that you sometimes have to mess around with it. 8.10 sometimes froze my keyboard, when the desktop-effects were activated. 9.04 was the best (for me) yet, there were no problems at all and with 9.10 somtimes the suspend-to-RAM won't work at first, so I have to try it twice. But these things are all minor to me.

 

[mjp]

When I had time I toyed around with it...

I downloaded the 700mb, burned them, read about Wubi and installed it...

8.10 sometimes froze my keyboard, when the desktop-effects were activated.

somtimes the suspend-to-RAM won't work at first, so I have to try it twice.

If those are all minor things to you, you are a geek, like it or not. ;) The average person is not going to download a 700mb operating system, burn it to a boot disk and install it. It's just beyond what most people are willing to endure.

It's nice that your peripherals worked right away. But you know that is not usually the case. Especially with newer gadgets. Windows 7 didn't even have enough proper drivers when it was released.

None of it matters anyway. I just never understood the O/S "wars," or people making blanket statements like "Windows sucks." It hasn't sucked in many, many years. I managed a roomful of Windows web servers 14, 15 years ago, and they were trouble, baby! We ran 250 sites on each one compared to 1500 - 2000 on unix. But now we run 1500+ sites on Windows 2008/IIS 7 servers, so things have come a long way.

No one likes a monopoly, and I think that's where all the pushback against Microsoft comes from. I certainly understand the "Microsoft sucks" mindset. I have to deal with their convoluted web technologies every day. No company with 100,000 employees sitting at computers all day can produce a focused, usable line of products.

 

[Johannes]

I thought to be a geek you have to be pale as a corpse, ashtray-thick glasses, greasy hair, bad case of acne and the etc., sitting in some lightless cellar compiling kernels or what. But fuck, it might have caught me backwards ;)

It's true, I would never have thought about downloading and installing an operating system, I didn't even know that was possible. I always thought you buy a PC with the os on it and that's that, forever.

But it's really quite easy, once you try. You know, now I think, if I am able to do it, certainly everybody is. But I see the point, and of course don't want to convince anybody. I don't even want to argue. It works for me, more painless than XP and especially Vista. If it doesn't for someone else, ok. I read the "Web"-section of my online-newspaper frequently and everytime a new Windows, Mac or Linux version comes up, all hell breaks loose, the forums running wild with 700 angry people yelling at each other. I don't get it.

Certainly Microsoft sucks in many ways, but so does Apple and Linux too.

 

[mjp]

especially Vista.

Vista was a horror show, no one could deny that.

If you wait long enough every O/S blows away like pollen, and you don't have to worry about it. Ha.

(A lot of pollen in Los Angeles at the moment, and plenty of wind to blow it into your snout.)

 

[roni]

I liked Windows 98 SP 2.
You could work a great lot under the hood even without being a geek.
Nowadays I don't even understand the front-end of your average OS.

 

[mjp]

you have to be a masochist or a geek or a masochistic geek to run it on your home computer.

Just installed it on an old laptop that I was going to throw in the trash anyway, and it works pretty well. I'm impressed.

I still don't have any use for the computer, but now it's usable if I turn it on. It wasn't before (nothing runs right on Windows XP anymore).

 

[Johannes]

Especially Xubuntu (using Xfce as desktop) or Lubuntu (using LXDE as desktop). They need very little system requirements.

I do the same, I have an almost 10 year old laptop which runs just fine with Lubuntu for years now. It's a little slower but besides that, no complaints.