[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Linux or Windows (Page 1 of 5)
Posted: 12/7/2016 10:27:31 PM EDT
| What do you have and why. I have a brand new laptop and I am trying to figure out if I should drop windows and install linux mint or whatever is out there. |
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I tried Ubuntu but gave up when I couldn't get most of my Windows programs to work properly (even with WINE).
I'm not saying the Ubuntu is bad, just that I couldn't get it to work well enough for me to use. Since Windows 10 came out I'm a yuge fan of that OS. I do have Virtual Drive installed on my desktop and have Mint installed but I think that I've only run it three times just to see if it worked - I just have no reason to run it. |
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I am no expert, but, I have Windows XP home on my hard drive and Linux Mint on a USB jump drive so that I can have it both ways.
A couple of weeks ago I had a problem with Windows XP starting up because as it turned out my BIOS got screwed up. So I inserted my jump drive and started it up in Linux which told me that my computer was OK so it had to be a Windows problem. Anyway, Linux Mint is very much like Windows XP and I found it easy to use but it is slower working off of the USB jump drive. One of these days I may put it on my hard drive so it will run faster as a dual boot. |
| I have no clue how to dual boot. I have a alienware with windows 10 and I planned to leave it that way. I am thinking about linux for my Lenovo P50. I am reading about it on Wiki now, there are so many. I do have mint on a usb drive and use it in a virtualbox and liked it but never really played with it. |
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Quoted:
I have no clue how to dual boot. I have a alienware with windows 10 and I planned to leave it that way. I am thinking about linux for my Lenovo P50. I am reading about it on Wiki now, there are so many. I do have mint on a usb drive and use it in a virtualbox and liked it but never really played with it. The better question is, what are you trying to do that Windows won't do well? |
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Quoted:
I am no expert, but, I have Windows XP home on my hard drive and Linux Mint on a USB jump drive so that I can have it both ways. A couple of weeks ago I had a problem with Windows XP starting up because as it turned out my BIOS got screwed up. So I inserted my jump drive and started it up in Linux which told me that my computer was OK so it had to be a Windows problem. Anyway, Linux Mint is very much like Windows XP and I found it easy to use but it is slower working off of the USB jump drive. One of these days I may put it on my hard drive so it will run faster as a dual boot. Windows XP is no longer supported. But virus creators are still making software for it. Ditch Windows XP. |
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Id dual boot.
Windows is convenient and universal. Lots of what i do requires windows. Linux is more secure and has lots of free software available. It's also an absolute pain in the ass unless you want to be or already are a computer geek. You'll need to learn a complete new language. |
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The better question is, what are you trying to do that Windows won't do well? Nothing, I am getting ready to go to school for a different computer program than what I am taking so I am trying to broaden my horizon. Also chrome stops working on my Alienware all the time when I open a new tab it is just dead, I was going to switch to TOR but webroot is saying it's poison but I was reading on how it doesn't let websites see your info. |
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Nothing, I am getting ready to go to school for a different computer program than what I am taking so I am trying to broaden my horizon. Also chrome stops working on my Alienware all the time when I open a new tab it is just dead, I was going to switch to TOR but webroot is saying it's poison but I was reading on how it doesn't let websites see your info. Sounds like you have some stuff to figure out before you move on to Linux. 
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linux is still an unstable turd for geeks. Get some fucking error handling, and get back to me.
seriously, tried an SSD with ubuntu linux about a month, maybe 6 weeks ago, after two weeks of nothing but browsing plain vanilla web pages, it refused to boot. I have Tails, but now it's just a bird dog for the FBI to watch everything you do. |
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linux is still an unstable turd for geeks. Get some fucking error handling, and get back to me. seriously, tried an SSD with ubuntu linux about a month, maybe 6 weeks ago, after two weeks of nothing but browsing plain vanilla web pages, it refused to boot. I have Tails, but now it's just a bird dog for the FBI to watch everything you do. I'm not a geek by any means. Linux Mint 17.2 has been rock solid stable for me since it was released. Maybe you just downloaded too much pr0nz. 
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Where can I find a linux cd and what should I look for, Mint, cinnamon, or whatever else they have, there are a few OS out there? Find a USB stick or SD card bootable image for Mint or Ubuntu. You can run and test it without doing any permanent installs, plus no need for burning CDs or DVDs. |
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Quoted:I have gotten Windows programs to run under Linux Wine but it's really not worth the effort.  You're a brave man or one with a lot of time. I use Windows, Macintosh, and Linux as needed to match the application we're running. Our default is Windows as running Win 7 desktops and 2008 R2/2012 R2 servers with our setup they're just short of bulletproof. If Adobe could get their shit together and Java were just just die damn it we'd be golden. We have some of the 2D artist running Macintosh but the 3D guys and gals moved to Windows ten years ago and haven't looked back. There are some security tools (a lot really) that only run on Linux and some that just run better there so our IPS, firewall, and PVS and some other tools are running assorted security focused Linux kernels. But my favorite OS is Cisco IOS. |
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I have no clue how to dual boot. I have a alienware with windows 10 and I planned to leave it that way. I am thinking about linux for my Lenovo P50. I am reading about it on Wiki now, there are so many. I do have mint on a usb drive and use it in a virtualbox and liked it but never really played with it. Aren't your a CS major? Knowing how to dual boot and set up a Linux install is going to be an important skill. You should get down and dirty and install Gentoo via a command line, from source code. |
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Aren't your a CS major? Knowing how to dual boot and set up a Linux install is going to be an important skill. You should get down and dirty and install Gentoo via a command line, from source code. English man!!!! I am transferring from computer forensics to Computer and internetworking technologies. And in my HDD to SDD thread I posted the classes I have taken haven't taught me shit yet. Or else I would not be asking. |
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I was there once many years ago. Got tired of switching around. What's the point. Winders does web surfing and email too, why dual boot or have another computer to do that? Has nothing to do with web surfing and email. Virtualization, R&D, and actual work is better done on a Linux env. Native SSH is a big plus for me. |
| I haven't touched a Windows box in years and don't plan to. Elementary OS has been running on my workstation for about 2 years now and I love it, made the switch from Mint and haven't looked back. I'll take a Linux machine any day of the week (and cuss the 30 times the wireless drivers have to be restarted...) |
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Every major distro offers a Live CD that you can try out.
I ran Ubuntu for years, then Mint. When I bought a new laptop I put Debian on it. For the past year I've been running Fedora. Cinnamon was mentioned but that's a desktop environment, not a distro. It's very similar to Windows. Personally I'm a fan of Mate. That's part of the beauty of Linux. Not only can you pick the distro that matches your needs but you can customize the desktop environment as well. Elementary OS is actually a very polished distro. Cool to see it mentioned here. I have it in a VM but haven't installed it as a boot OS yet. |
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Where can I find a linux cd and what should I look for, Mint, cinnamon, or whatever else they have, there are a few OS out there? In all seriousness, I suggest you stick with Windows for now. Download a Mint iso and use Virtualbox to make a virtual machine to play with it: https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php |
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I used to use Linux and Free/NetBSD heavily in the 2000s. With the advent of Windows 7, IMO Windows got so good that the reasons for running Linux became mostly inconsequential and down to philosophical belief for some.
Once Windows 7 is EOL I will probably be moving back to Linux. I have no desire to use Windows 10+ on a daily basis, other than as a test bed.. I was never a fan of the 8+ UI, but Microsoft's aggressive update and telemetry policies have sealed the deal. Can you turn these things off, yes... However Microsoft has now proven that they are OK with surreptitiously making unwanted modifications to users' system preferences, or updating the entire OS as part of the normal patch routine. Not OK with that, Microsoft is not trustworthy enough to have that kind of power over end users' systems. |
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I use Win 7 for work, but I use Linux at home. Â Currently using Lubuntu 16.04 LTS on an older Thinkpad. Â I don't do a lot of games. Â I can remote into work using VMWare with no problem. Â Pulls up a Win 7 desktop with no problem.
I've still got the hard drives with Win 7 for two laptops in a drawer, but after MS pulled the mandatory upgrade to 10 (and all it's associated buffoonery) after I paid for Win 7 till 2020, well, they can suck my large blue veined johnson. |
| VIRTUAL MACHINES! Don't tinker in on your server/primary PC. Make VMs and tinker, break shit, over and over until you sort it out what you are trying to do. Suggestion if you have an old PC, make your own PVR with Kodi. Don't use any preconfigured options. Pick a your desired version of linux to play with, and learn how to navigate it via shell, then install and tweak kodi on it. There are a crazy amount of guides out there to help walk you through it and learn, as well as discussion forums to ask "noob questions". Or set up a web/DB server. Or if you are network oriented, make a linux router. Many paths to take with old hardware when tinkering. |
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Ubuntu 16.04 with Unity desktop. It runs like a smooth pimp daddy on my old(ish) hardware. Using Win 7 at work makes me nerd rage. MS passes off garbage as quality and I'm tired of their shit. Don't even get me started on Win 10.
If you don't have a specific need for Windows then I highly recommend Linux for a few reasons: 1.- Open source GPL. Do you trust that Microsoft isn't spying on your every move? Or sending your browsing data to people you don't trust? You better really trust MS because thats all you can do. Trust. With Linux, the code is available to view and audit. Anyone can see whats going on under the hood. Now think bout the IoT, self driving cars, and AI. As consumers we really need to get behind open source solutions. Think of all the nasty things companies can do with all this awesome tech behind closed doors 2.- Diversity. In a nutshell- There are 4 major distributions. From those four there are hundreds of flavors. If one distribution does something stupid there are a shitload more eagerly awaiting your download. 3.- Competition in the marketplace. If MS starts losing business to Linux then they will be forced to change. While I doubt the change will bring about a strict OS/GPL policy, MS will not continue to give us giant, stinking turds every 2-3 releases. 4.- Mobile. I desperately want Linux on the mobile device. Canonical is currently working on Ubuntu touch. And I've heard rumors about a converged desktop of sorts. Imagine seamlessly "syncing" your desktop to your laptop and back. Or maybe even the ability to "dock" your phone for peripherals and a full desktop experience. This would be so badass. |