Ubuntu diary

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by Syzygys, May 18, 2009.

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  1. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    If you install it on a clean partition you don't need to worry about over writing windows, but your still going to need to put a little paragraph in the GRUB to put windows in the boot menu.
     
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  3. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    OK, rainy day, time to waste time with Linux. I still haven't given up on trying to install at least 1 game. This time I chose Neverball. The download stopped twice and when it finished, it gave an error message. Fuck that...

    Then I went back to Frets on Fire. Download, OK. Extracting it, OK. Then nothing, like it would tell you what to do with it or automaticly asking. But I already had this question so I went back and using EF's advise I installed it. Then nothing, although it does show up under Games in the Applications menu, but when I click on it, still nothing happens. Fuck that and linux too.

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    Excuse my language, but when Linux fanboys try to spread the evangelium they forget one thing, that computers are for us, and not we are for them. Usability is one of the most important thing and if I can't use it, well you can shovel it up in your ass....

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    So far what it is worthy to use is faster internet browsing and a safer experience, because well, you can't install shit with it...

    Edit: Tried to download Scorched3d and after the download the Archive manager said it couldn't open it. Fuck that, but I already said that!!!
     
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  5. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    I have good news and even better news. Finally I managed to install and play a few games, although I didn't do anything differently, I was just expecting the OS to figure it out for me and ask me what to do with the files.

    But the even better news is that I installed Ubuntu rather painlessly on the laptop, and it worked right out of the box. Actually, I was able to try wireless using the Live CD, and once it worked I went ahead and installed it.

    Now here is the trick!! I used the desktop Live CD, so there was no need for a special laptop program, what I have been looking for. The same CD I have been using for the desktops, worked as a charm on the laptop. I assume the 9.10 version is way better handling laptops then the previous versions.

    Now when I measured the internet speed, it hit it out of the ballpark. This is a 3 year old cheap Acer laptop, but the wired speed is 20+ mb/s and the wireless is 8-12, which is still at least twice faster than the original speed with XP.

    So I guess my goal was reached, I speeded up my internet access and probably secured it too. I don't plan to use Ubuntu for much more, unless I get real bored or I find a FAQ 101 for dummies where they explain everything in simple and easy terms.

    Next step will be to put the new HD into the kid's computer, reinstall XP, then put Ubuntu on as an extra. Once everything runs fine, I put the old HD into the leftover computer and that will be just a linux machine.

    I still would like to tryout a game with heavy video card usage, just to see how Ubuntu handles such a task. I downloaded Urban terror and extracted it, but I am not sure how to install it from there.

    Anyhow, as an experience I got what I was expecting both positive and negative, so I guess I wasn't surprized.
     
    Last edited: May 25, 2009
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  7. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    Installing games that require the graphics card on linux is a bitch for several reasons
    1) Drivers are hacked and unstable
    2) Same with the games

    The problem is not linux: its the developers making drivers and well compiled graphics hardware and games for linux.
     
  8. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    1. The bottomline is, no matter whose fault it is, it decreases usability.

    2. Linux can be hacked??? The horror!!!

    After installing several FF add-ons, now it doesn't play youtube videos, and it even scewed up Opera, so it doesn't play it either. I switched back to XP, everything is fine and dandy in Windows land...

    Also FF although very fast, seemed to be buggy for me. The google toolbar didn't always work and set ups on certain pages can not be changed.

    Now I have to figure out what causes the video not playing...
     
  9. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    FF is completely screwed up. Clicking on the Add-ons closes the browser. I can open a page but there is no working Back button. I tried to download stuff with opera, but it gives an error...

    So what one is supposed to do when the Linux OS gets screwed up? At the start there was an option for Recovery, I might try that one....

    Or is there any other way to get back to the virgin state?
     
  10. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    The fault is not its, just because people don't make things to be compatible with it does not mean it can't be compatible, this is why everyone still uses windows because that what all the software and hardware drivers have been designed for, thus the windows monopoly.

    The drivers are hacks of windows drivers or made in the spare time of some 3rd party.

    You probably have a conflicting add-on, remove them install one at a time and see which one fucks things up.
     
  11. AlphaNumeric Fully ionized Registered Senior Member

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    I've always found Ubuntu to work well with laptops. I have to use Xubuntu for a really old laptop because it simply didn't have enough RAM but it worked fine. I've had Ubuntu 8.10, 8.10 with different Kernel and 9.04 UNR on my netbook and they have all worked. A tiny hint of teething problems to do with external monitors but it turned out to be due to the age of one of my monitors, newer ones were instantly recognised.

    You don't need a different Ubuntu for laptops or netbooks it's just that certain things about desktops might not work so well for laptops. For instance, I have a solid state drive in my netbook which, by the very nature of the technology, has a much lower 'read/write' life than normal drives. Any particular sector can be written to about 100,000~1,000,000 times before it dies (USB sticks are exactly the same), while the count is 10+ times higher on normal drives. As such I have the file system set to ext2, not ext3. ext3 'journals' all it's changes and that means more read/writes, ext2 doesn't. It just means my drive will live maybe a year or two more (and in 4~5 years I'd want a new netbook anyway). Before installing the UNR (Ubuntu Netbook Remix of 9.04) I was using 8.10 with a different kernel, one which was written for Intel Atoms, so it just streamlined a few things my netbook had specific to it. When I was using the standard 8.10 Ubuntu it all worked fine, there was no issue with it being a desktop OS on a laptop but doing a few tweaks here and there wasn't much hassle.
     
  12. Enterprise-D I'm back! Warp 8 Mr. Worf! Registered Senior Member

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    Well said! Evangelinuxism gets on my last nerve! And they can't seem to understand that Windows simply works.

    Was waiting for this part of the experience

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  13. Enterprise-D I'm back! Warp 8 Mr. Worf! Registered Senior Member

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    Even if you come across a manual that you think is easy to understand, I can almost guarantee that it will not be consistent even across versions of Ubuntu itself.

    Of course, I personally only expect positive results in Linux with the basic functions (basic internet browsing, word processing etc.)...or...a dedicated application specific server.

    But since we aren't talking about servers...I personally didn't spend 700 odd dollars to have a PC with only basic functionality

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    Hence why I only learn about Linux in a virtualized environment (which in and of itself is an adventure).
     
  14. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    I agree, the problem is that FF is not working correctly at this time, so...

    How do I reinstall FF anyway? The only reason I actually could do it, because I installed Opera and that is still working although doesn't download strange files extensions and doesn't play videos.

    Speaking of conflicting add-ons, since Firefox has literally thousands of add-ons, the idea of a few hundred screwing up the OS kind of scares me. That is the whole point of using FF, so one can have add-ons. Otherwise I would just go with Opera...

    I am going to install the exact same (4) add-ons on the extra desktop and see if they screw up the browser there. Then I will know not to mess with FF add-ons....
     
    Last edited: May 25, 2009
  15. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    I know NOW, but his little piece of information could have saved a few hours for me a few days ago.

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    Interesting, but none of the websites mentioned this, when I was looking for a version for the laptop... Also, I was unable to use for installation either the online Wubi version or the laptop CD, although I did burn one netbook version CD.

    Just for fun, here are the instructions how to install the netbook version, if anyone thinks it is simple or easy:

    https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UNR

    Instead they could have just said, try the desktop version first, because that is actually simple and you might get lucky with it...
     
    Last edited: May 25, 2009
  16. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    Well, I installed the same 4 add-ons on the desktop and it seems to have no ill effect. Now (after fixing it on the laptop) I have 2 choices:

    1. Just leave FF as it is, and don't mess with add-ons.

    2. I could try to install the netbook version so it might handle the add-ons better.

    The thing is that it is too much pain to get the netbook version on a USB drive and there is no guarantee that the add-ons would work, so at this point if it ever works again on the laptop, I will leave it alone and play it safe....

    The add-ons were (if anybody was curious enough): adblock plus, cooliris, reloadevery and speeddial. (These last 2 are built in in Opera)
     
  17. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    I meant to start a new thread called "Linux: still not ready for prime time" but there are already articles like this on the net with viewer comments and arguments, so there is no point in doing so.

    I found a youtube video on How to build a Ubuntu computer:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNuEb3DeAL0&feature=related

    Well, it costed $400 for the poster. I already mentioned this earlier that one can buy a pretty decent computer on Ebay with no OS on it or Linux already installed around $100, and no need to tinker with the hardware.

    For $100, that is a dirt cheap price just to have quick access to the internet.

    Oh, here is the article, I pretty much agree with the writer:

    http://suffolk757.com/blog/2009/05/03/linux-still-not-ready-for-prime-time/
     
  18. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    Oh about playing a music CD:

    Using the still working laptop, after putting the CD in, the Rhythmboxplayer actually found a shitload of music on the Windows part and showed it, although I wasn't interested in it. Since this player looks like the Ipod player what I hate, I actually used the Movie player to play the songs.

    Now when I did the same with the desktop, I actually found the songs with the Rhythmplayer, but for some reasons it took 5-10 seconds to start them and it didn't play them very smoothly so I had to use the Movie player again.

    Now I am reinstalling Ubuntu on the laptop. I tried to just whipe out the previous version but I think it is still there, nevertheless I went ahead with the installation. I am actually curious if I will have 7-8 choices when the computer starts up, since I had 5 when I had it installed once (Windows NT and XP Media center, Ubuntu and recovery and a 5th, so basicly 3 Ubuntus, just to keep things simple)

    Edit: Yes, it has now 8 choices. FF works but when I tried to download the Adobe Flash plug-in it gave an error message at installation, so I am still screwed.
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2009
  19. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    Somewhere I read that Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu but more userfriendly and it supposed to work out of the box with Flashplayer preinstalled, etc. Hey, I am all about practicality and usability, so let's try it!

    Allright, I burn the LiveCD, put it in the laptop. It boots slower than Ubuntu. I don't like the fonts. I go to Youtube, videos don't play, Speedtest doesn't measure. I had to download and install Flashplayer to make them work, so that part wasn't true.

    Speed is dandy 20 Mb/s. Oh yes wired. Because it doesn't recognize my wireless, so I guess that is the end of my experience with little Mint. It was handling the internet slower than Ubuntu.

    I guess to like Ubuntu again, I had to experience Mint!

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  20. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    Finally!!!! After having 2 Ubuntus installed but none of them working properly, and trying to uninstall/reinstall them for a few hours, finally I was able to install the Flashplayer on the 2nd installation, thus it is working perfectly!!! The trick was that there are 4 versions of Flashplayer for Linux and although the Ubuntu version didn't work (because of discrepancy error), I was able to use another one, although I had to extract it first. hey, I am getting good at this!!

    So the speed is now 23 Mb/s wired and 19 wireless and excuse me but I have to drink something very alcoholic to celebrate!!!

    Now I am not going to tinker with this on the laptop and I don't care that I have an extra installation as long as one works!!!
     
  21. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    I finally updated the 7 year old computer with the new HD, putting XP back first. Then I put Ubuntu on it, but this time it went as a file of Windows and it seems to make it slower when handling files and such. The internet is still fast, but the OS itself is sluggish. Since FF seems to be rather fast in XP, I might just leave it like that, because other than making the net faster I don't see many other reasons to use it, except maybe against viruses.

    Speaking of viruses, I think the laptop got its first Linux virus/spam. It keeps going to a particular website in every 10 or so minutes, using 2 browsers. And I thought Linux was virus-proof...
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2009
  22. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    Aside for not having to purchase an operating system of course. Virus proof depends on the nature of the virus
     
  23. Enterprise-D I'm back! Warp 8 Mr. Worf! Registered Senior Member

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    There is no such thing as virus-proof software. There IS however such a thing as a bigger target (Windows)...and such a thing as virus writers with sour grapes syndrome.
     
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