Linux

bails87

Anyone use it?

I've got an old laptop that I might be giving to my sister, it's got no hard-drive, and the Windows recovery/install disc is long gone. Seeing as she's only going to be using it for web browsing is getting a cheap HDD, installing it and putting Ubuntu on it a not-at-all-crazy idea?

I've put Ubuntu on a USB stick, so I'll have a play around with it tonight on my own laptop, might properly install it so I get the choice between that and Windows at boot.

Just wondered if anyone else used it, and if leaving it in the hands of a non-computery person is going to work out ok. From what I've seen of it already it looks like it'll be fine.

Captain Peanut

I've played with it on an old laptop and, for web browsing and reading documents (with Open office) it seemed fine, generally a bit faster and more user friendly than Vista.

Have you considered the Google OS? It's brilliantly simple and, although not on general release, copies can be found with a bit of a search.

Daz555

Ubuntu is a nice OS.

If the laptop is very low spec however you might want to consider a lighter weight distro like Xubuntu.

cooldad

All I've used for a few years now. Nice and simple and no issues with viruses and the like.

Anonymous

Ubuntu is ok. Definitely does the job. I have it on one of my laptops, and on an old desktop machine. It's a little clunky, and (unlike popular opinion would have you believe), not as snappy/responsive as windows, but it gets the job done.

Cferg

Ive got a resonable specced older desktop with Ubuntu on it, its ideal. Far faster at booting up than windows, ready to go in 20 seconds. Plus theres everything you need programme wise for free.

Anonymous

You must have a magical machine then. None of the machines I've used Ununtu on have booted faster than XP or 7

bushu

I use Linux at home, not the kiddy glove ubuntu stuff you require for said persons tho
Ubuntu altho pretty (to some) is linux' answer to Aero on win boxes and by all means still not a beginners OS but a system even moderate pc users can break
works great out of the box if you don't touch it and has all the productivity things needed tbh
I wouldn't give a root password to said user unless you fancy rebuilding the OS each week..

saying that it IS faster when configured correctly

Anonymous

bushu wrote:

not the kiddy glove ubuntu stuff...

works great out of the box if you don't touch it...

saying that it IS faster when configured correctly...

Isn't that stuff copied and pasted from "The Linux fan's handbook"? Chapter 3, paragraph 5

Cferg

yeehaamcgee wrote:

You must have a magical machine then. None of the machines I've used Ununtu on have booted faster than XP or 7

Yeah, well, it was vista that was on it previously. Horrible OS.

bails87

I've now got Ubuntu running alongside W7 on my laptop (4gb ram, dual core 2GHz processor).

I've got to say it boots up quicker than Windows 7 from 'cold'. From hibernate,W7 starts in about the same time as Ubuntu does from cold. Shutting down is also much quicker

So I'm going to have a play around with it, see how easy it is to 'just use'.

All it'll be used for is web browsing and word/open office documents.

Anonymous

I'm guessing from your phrasing that "now" you have a dual boot, that Windows was there originally?
Ubuntu's GRUB loader loads before Windows' one, which adds around 5 seconds or so (sometimes longer) to the boot time, before windows boots up.
Anyway, that's a moot point. Keep using Ubuntu, and fill it with as much stuff as you've got on the windows side, and over time I pretty much guarantee that you will find they're about the same.

One serious advantage that Windows vista/7 has on a machine that sleeps, instead of shutting down each time, is that applications launch almost instantaneously.
My main computer is also my tv, and recording box, so it only ever sleeps (if it was OFF, it would miss recordings). This means all the useful pre-fetch stuff is always in hand so that when I click on my email program, for example, it's launched before the mouse button rebounds.
Normally, you don't think about it, but after using Ubuntu on my work machine all week it becomes quite apparent!

unixnerd

I've used Ubuntu a little and quite liked it. I mainly use HP-UX and it feels very modern compared to that! It certainly boots faster than Vista/7, about on par with XP. Feels fairly friendly too.

bails87

yeehaamcgee
I was about to say pretty much the same thing, I knew you'd be back to say that it's no quicker than Win 7

Yeah, obviously it's a clean, new install, so there's not much to slow it down, versus windows 7 which I've been using since it was released.

W7 takes a good 30 seconds or so to be usable after the desktop/icons/startbar load up, that's after waiting for, and getting through, the log in screen as well.

But it's all irrelevant, because Ubuntu works, and it's free. Windows also works, but it's not (legally) free. If it turns out she really wants windows then she can pay for it herself! :P

Anonymous

bails87 wrote:

Windows also works, but it's not (legally) free.

Such a stupid statement.
A Porsche 911 is a nice car and is also not (legally) free. :roll:

Like I've said before, Ubuntu is great, but I don't fall for the nonsense performance claims people make of Linux.
You can make Linux faster, and faster and faster, but by doing that, you're sacrificing usability, and ease of use.

bails87

yeehaamcgee wrote:

bails87 wrote:

Windows also works, but it's not (legally) free.

Such a stupid statement.
A Porsche 911 is a nice car and is also not (legally) free. :roll:

Like I've said before, Ubuntu is great, but I don't fall for the nonsense performance claims people make of Linux.
You can make Linux faster, and faster and faster, but by doing that, you're sacrificing usability, and ease of use.

Hmmm, not really.

It's like saying "I've got an old Citroen AX that I'm going to donate to someone", and then someone says "A Porsche 911 performs better".

Well, tough, if they want a Porsche then they can buy one, as it is they're getting an AX. If all they need is something to pootle down to the shops once a week in, there's no need to spend the money on the Porsche when they can have the AX for free. I'm not putting Linux on this old laptop for a performance boost, I'm doing it to get it usable as cheaply as possible.

Thewaylander

To be honest used both, Ubuntu is great and it IS faster for most use, but with a lack of Direct X and so on i can't do a fair few things like games on it in a simple mana like 7, and 7 is alot easier from a more lamens user point of veiw

bails87

Just to stop the thread descending into OS war chaos:
1. I don't care which one is faster
2. I'm not buying Windows

Anonymous

bails87, what I meant is that "(legally) free" is a dumb remark. It ISN'T free.
You can get it without paying, through illegal means, but that applies to anything, such as cars, for example.

bails87

yeehaamcgee wrote:

bails87, what I meant is that "(legally) free" is a dumb remark. It ISN'T free.
You can get it without paying, through illegal means, but that applies to anything, such as cars, for example.

Ah, right, sorry!

I was pre-empting someone saying "yes it is, if you look in the right places *nudge nudge* *wink wink*" when I said Windows wasn't availble for free.

bushu

And when the cows come home, they will tell you Linux is faster too but that's not what bails required

Xubuntu as said previously a lightweight version of ubuntu shineyness may be a bit sharper with older systems

Widows does have benifits just not for older systems or me as I'm not a gamer

junglist_matty

Did my degree mostly based around Linux / embedded Linux, back then I used to use Suse; always preferred it to Ubuntu, don't really know why! Although I saw a machine with a newer version of Ubuntu recently and was impressed.

The only thing stopping me from using Linux is the fact that the few music software's available are totally gash (and not talking about media player software; professional audio software).

Anonymous

junglist_matty wrote:

The only thing stopping me from using Linux is the fact that the few music software's available are totally gash (and not talking about media player software; professional audio software).

That's the case with most serious software though. People will recommend all kinds of alternatives for video, graphics and audio work, but unfortunately, there just is no decent alternatives for Linux.
I've had several people recommend things like Rosegarden for audio, but seriously, it just doesn't compare to the likes of Protools, Pyramix, Logic, etc.

Same with Graphics, whilst GIMP is fantastic for free software, and is cross platform, it really isn't a Photoshop killer - it's far too slow and clunky.

And video?
Well.... forget it.

bails87

Thanks team, I'll try with Ubuntu, hopefully it'll be ok, seeing as the old laptop has a "Core Duo T2050 1.6 GHz", it came as stock with 512mb of RAM, but I'm certain I put it up to 1gb. So it's not like I'm trying to run it on an Acorn from the 90's

But if it does struggle I can go to Xubuntu.

I need to check she's alright with it first though, so she can have a look at it on my computer before I bother buying/fitting a hard drive.

Anonymous

That machine should run Ubuntu great, in fact, I think it's almost exactly the same spec as my old laptop (which I'm still to get back from an ex, long story), except mine had 2G of RAM.
The only thing that it struggled with was the fire effect when closing windows, maaaan, I love that burning effect

matt@theforce

if its only web browsing, why not save on buying a hard drive and boot from CD, something like Knoppix?

bails87

matt@theforce
For the sake of £20, I'd rather just put a hard drive in. Gives some potential for saving documents and settings then.

yeehaamcgee
What aare you looking at that needs fire to cleanse the screen? :shock:

Anonymous

What I mean is, in Ubuntu (and other Linuxes, but it's mostly already set up in Ubuntu), there's some really mad desktop animations. You can have your windows wobble like jelly when you move them, you can have them fold up into a paper aeroplane and fly away when you minimise them, for example. I really like the fire effect, so that the windows burn away when you close them.
Mad, pointless, but quite fun!
Check out YouTube and search for videos of Compiz and you'll see what I mean.

junglist_matty

bails87 wrote:

matt@theforce
For the sake of £20, I'd rather just put a hard drive in. Gives some potential for saving documents and settings then.

yeehaamcgee
What aare you looking at that needs fire to cleanse the screen? :shock:

You could always look at Chrome OS; I've never used it but it does look interesting and sounds perfect for the sort of thing your wanting to do... Probably be a lot easier for your sister to use (if she's not so great at tech, a full on Linux variant will be a right pain in the ass to learn).

http://getchrome.eu/

I think the screenshot's look pretty good; nice and simple... No need to worry about saving documents as its all done through google, so effectively you don't need a hard drive (although I could be wrong on that one).

Anonymous

ChromeOS is just complete nonsense. All it is, is the chrome browser.
Ubuntu is actually very easy to use.

Raymondavalon

Got on this one a little late, due to not being intelligent enough for the content discussed within "The Hub"

I found for a "do it all on one install" Linux for laptops, you just cannot beat Mint. Admittedly it is based on Ubuntu but I believe the overall packaging (of utils/progs) is better than Ubuntu and it has all the nice stuff loaded and the Update Manager is the best I've come across on any flavour so far..

More Linux Mint info here....