Must say I'm impressed how well Linux just installs and runs! Back in 05-06 when I last run RedHat or Mandrake had to do some kernel configuring to get a few things to run. I've put Linux Mint 12 64 on both a laptop and desktop and hardware wise everything works, fairly easy to use and alot quicker! The main software we use is only Chrome and Openoffice but of course those isn't much different than the Windows version. Still need to setup/share the printer and figure out how to automount our NAS drive, haven't had time yet. On top of that thinking of setting up a separate box for a Linux router with DNS. Can't believe I paid for Windows 7 last year.. although can't say we've had any problems with it.
Back to Linux!
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Been meaning to try some of these new distro's too, but honestly, Windows 7 is great. I have no trouble with it at all, it just works, and it works well.
Maybe I'll try Linux on my laptop and see how it goes.
Maybe I'll try Linux on my laptop and see how it goes.
Windows 7 has been pretty solid for me too. Aside from a few KERNEL_INPAGE errors, which I suppose isn't the OS's fault, I haven't had any real trouble with it. I've played around with a few Linux distros (pre-unity Ubuntu, Xubuntu and Mint) and they're all pretty good, except that each time I log in I have to do a sudo modprobe b43 to get the wireless module working on my Dell notebook and my eMachines netbook.
Originally Posted By: Eric Smith
Must say I'm impressed how well Linux just installs and runs! Back in 05-06 when I last run RedHat or Mandrake had to do some kernel configuring to get a few things to run. I've put Linux Mint 12 64 on both a laptop and desktop and hardware wise everything works, fairly easy to use and alot quicker! The main software we use is only Chrome and Openoffice but of course those isn't much different than the Windows version. Still need to setup/share the printer and figure out how to automount our NAS drive, haven't had time yet. On top of that thinking of setting up a separate box for a Linux router with DNS. Can't believe I paid for Windows 7 last year.. although can't say we've had any problems with it.
That's the thing though. You mentioned there is not much difference between the linux and 7 versions. I can get just as many free and functional applications on 7 as on linux plus get commercial software that "just works" like paint shop pro as opposed to the aptly named Gimp. 90% of the software on my 7 boxes is freeware. Linux no longer has the edge in terms of free apps as most of the worthwhile and stable/functional ones for linux have been ported to Windows.
Must say I'm impressed how well Linux just installs and runs! Back in 05-06 when I last run RedHat or Mandrake had to do some kernel configuring to get a few things to run. I've put Linux Mint 12 64 on both a laptop and desktop and hardware wise everything works, fairly easy to use and alot quicker! The main software we use is only Chrome and Openoffice but of course those isn't much different than the Windows version. Still need to setup/share the printer and figure out how to automount our NAS drive, haven't had time yet. On top of that thinking of setting up a separate box for a Linux router with DNS. Can't believe I paid for Windows 7 last year.. although can't say we've had any problems with it.
That's the thing though. You mentioned there is not much difference between the linux and 7 versions. I can get just as many free and functional applications on 7 as on linux plus get commercial software that "just works" like paint shop pro as opposed to the aptly named Gimp. 90% of the software on my 7 boxes is freeware. Linux no longer has the edge in terms of free apps as most of the worthwhile and stable/functional ones for linux have been ported to Windows.
True but as with Windows you don't have to buy Linux unless you want support. Anyone thinking about upgrading from Vista or lower should look at a flavor of Linux first... I'd say it would work for 80% of most users I've seen.
Originally Posted By: Eric Smith
True but as with Windows you don't have to buy Linux unless you want support. Anyone thinking about upgrading from Vista or lower should look at a flavor of Linux first... I'd say it would work for 80% of most users I've seen.
Works vs works well?
I loaded Mint on an old XP laptop (dual boot) to give Linux another test run to see how much as been improved. At least the wireless was working correctly without having to jump through hoops using ndiswrapper, though considering the card was an old (2005) Intel 2200 b/g its not a surprise the Linux community had developed a solution at this point though I still had to fiddle around in the command line to set options with for the tx settings on the card so that it wasn't always running at full transmit power and killing the battery.
The power management on laptops is still lagging in linux. I don't think the average laptop user wants to have to go poking around in the command line to configure "atime" to reduce the disk writes to save on battery power because of the constant disk access. Just as a simple example. XP on the old Inspiron would run for about 4 1/2 hours on the battery. Using Mint, I was lucky to get 2 1/2 hours.
Running the intel utility (the name escapes me right now) was an eye opener as far as watching the polling events that were keeping the laptop from fully throttling the processor down for extended periods. Watching the Mhz jump all over for seemingly no reason (since the computer was setting idle) was also interesting. Using CPUz or other such tools in windows, you don't see the processor's Speedstep throttling jumping around like mad unless you're actually putting a load on the system and even then it drops back off very quickly. And yes I'm aware you can configure how fast Linux steps the processor back down from wide open to its lowest setting. I had it configured to drop back off ASAP and it still took a while to return to the lowest Mhz supported by the Pentium M in that machine.
If anyone is thinking of a switch to linux I'd recommend they use Mint and then http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ to boot and run directly from USB to get a feel if they like it or not before jumping in with both feet. I keep an 8GB flash drive configured to run Mint lying around for recovery/repair purposes when working on other peoples machines.
Linux has its place. On a desktop where power considerations aren't an issue I don't have any problem recommending it as a replacement OS. Laptops not so much.
True but as with Windows you don't have to buy Linux unless you want support. Anyone thinking about upgrading from Vista or lower should look at a flavor of Linux first... I'd say it would work for 80% of most users I've seen.
Works vs works well?
I loaded Mint on an old XP laptop (dual boot) to give Linux another test run to see how much as been improved. At least the wireless was working correctly without having to jump through hoops using ndiswrapper, though considering the card was an old (2005) Intel 2200 b/g its not a surprise the Linux community had developed a solution at this point though I still had to fiddle around in the command line to set options with for the tx settings on the card so that it wasn't always running at full transmit power and killing the battery.
The power management on laptops is still lagging in linux. I don't think the average laptop user wants to have to go poking around in the command line to configure "atime" to reduce the disk writes to save on battery power because of the constant disk access. Just as a simple example. XP on the old Inspiron would run for about 4 1/2 hours on the battery. Using Mint, I was lucky to get 2 1/2 hours.
Running the intel utility (the name escapes me right now) was an eye opener as far as watching the polling events that were keeping the laptop from fully throttling the processor down for extended periods. Watching the Mhz jump all over for seemingly no reason (since the computer was setting idle) was also interesting. Using CPUz or other such tools in windows, you don't see the processor's Speedstep throttling jumping around like mad unless you're actually putting a load on the system and even then it drops back off very quickly. And yes I'm aware you can configure how fast Linux steps the processor back down from wide open to its lowest setting. I had it configured to drop back off ASAP and it still took a while to return to the lowest Mhz supported by the Pentium M in that machine.
If anyone is thinking of a switch to linux I'd recommend they use Mint and then http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ to boot and run directly from USB to get a feel if they like it or not before jumping in with both feet. I keep an 8GB flash drive configured to run Mint lying around for recovery/repair purposes when working on other peoples machines.
Linux has its place. On a desktop where power considerations aren't an issue I don't have any problem recommending it as a replacement OS. Laptops not so much.
It's all GREEK!
"buickman" guess I got lucky as my laptop works perfectly. Wireless card and long as I stay in Gnome the power management seems to work the same as in windows. So I'd say it works well in my case. I don't play games though or anything fancy.. yet. In the past I have had issues like you listed.. frustrating at least.
Originally Posted By: Eric Smith
"buickman" guess I got lucky as my laptop works perfectly. Wireless card and long as I stay in Gnome the power management seems to work the same as in windows. So I'd say it works well in my case. I don't play games though or anything fancy.. yet. In the past I have had issues like you listed.. frustrating at least.
I don't have anything against linux. I just think that for the average non-technical person running it on their laptop is not a good idea until (if) the power management gets all the bugs worked out.
"buickman" guess I got lucky as my laptop works perfectly. Wireless card and long as I stay in Gnome the power management seems to work the same as in windows. So I'd say it works well in my case. I don't play games though or anything fancy.. yet. In the past I have had issues like you listed.. frustrating at least.
I don't have anything against linux. I just think that for the average non-technical person running it on their laptop is not a good idea until (if) the power management gets all the bugs worked out.
Originally Posted By: Eric Smith
True but as with Windows you don't have to buy Linux unless you want support. Anyone thinking about upgrading from Vista or lower should look at a flavor of Linux first... I'd say it would work for 80% of most users I've seen.
*NIX is definitely the future....with this "cloud computing" everyone is now pushing.....Google has it, Amazon has it, etc....it is the future.
I like the idea of the "netbooks" running the Google OS; which I hear is basically *NIX of some sort.....but I think I'd feel "trapped" if I were to go use an app and couldn't...
But then again...it's funny, I find I primarily using Chrome (or other web browser) for nearly everything..
I think the last "application" I actually used may have been "CCleaner" to clean up the [censored] that gets littered across Windows
Really have been considering Ubuntu....seems to have come a long way.
True but as with Windows you don't have to buy Linux unless you want support. Anyone thinking about upgrading from Vista or lower should look at a flavor of Linux first... I'd say it would work for 80% of most users I've seen.
*NIX is definitely the future....with this "cloud computing" everyone is now pushing.....Google has it, Amazon has it, etc....it is the future.
I like the idea of the "netbooks" running the Google OS; which I hear is basically *NIX of some sort.....but I think I'd feel "trapped" if I were to go use an app and couldn't...
But then again...it's funny, I find I primarily using Chrome (or other web browser) for nearly everything..
I think the last "application" I actually used may have been "CCleaner" to clean up the [censored] that gets littered across Windows
Really have been considering Ubuntu....seems to have come a long way.
Originally Posted By: ahoier
Originally Posted By: Eric Smith
True but as with Windows you don't have to buy Linux unless you want support. Anyone thinking about upgrading from Vista or lower should look at a flavor of Linux first... I'd say it would work for 80% of most users I've seen.
*NIX is definitely the future....with this "cloud computing" everyone is now pushing.....Google has it, Amazon has it, etc....it is the future.
I like the idea of the "netbooks" running the Google OS; which I hear is basically *NIX of some sort.....but I think I'd feel "trapped" if I were to go use an app and couldn't...
But then again...it's funny, I find I primarily using Chrome (or other web browser) for nearly everything..
I think the last "application" I actually used may have been "CCleaner" to clean up the [censored] that gets littered across Windows
Really have been considering Ubuntu....seems to have come a long way.
The google OS is terrible. Its basically just the Chrome browser as your entire OS and everything is done "in the cloud". Almost zero local storage of anything.
Think for a minute why that is a terrible idea.
"The cloud" has been the next big thing for years now. And yet, no one is really tripping over themselves to get onboard as people still want (and need) local storage as well as execution of apps when they don't have net access.
Business for the most part want nothing to do with it other then perhaps using it as a backup solution.
Originally Posted By: Eric Smith
True but as with Windows you don't have to buy Linux unless you want support. Anyone thinking about upgrading from Vista or lower should look at a flavor of Linux first... I'd say it would work for 80% of most users I've seen.
*NIX is definitely the future....with this "cloud computing" everyone is now pushing.....Google has it, Amazon has it, etc....it is the future.
I like the idea of the "netbooks" running the Google OS; which I hear is basically *NIX of some sort.....but I think I'd feel "trapped" if I were to go use an app and couldn't...
But then again...it's funny, I find I primarily using Chrome (or other web browser) for nearly everything..
I think the last "application" I actually used may have been "CCleaner" to clean up the [censored] that gets littered across Windows
Really have been considering Ubuntu....seems to have come a long way.
The google OS is terrible. Its basically just the Chrome browser as your entire OS and everything is done "in the cloud". Almost zero local storage of anything.
Think for a minute why that is a terrible idea.
"The cloud" has been the next big thing for years now. And yet, no one is really tripping over themselves to get onboard as people still want (and need) local storage as well as execution of apps when they don't have net access.
Business for the most part want nothing to do with it other then perhaps using it as a backup solution.
Originally Posted By: buickman50401
Originally Posted By: Eric Smith
"buickman" guess I got lucky as my laptop works perfectly. Wireless card and long as I stay in Gnome the power management seems to work the same as in windows. So I'd say it works well in my case. I don't play games though or anything fancy.. yet. In the past I have had issues like you listed.. frustrating at least.
I don't have anything against linux. I just think that for the average non-technical person running it on their laptop is not a good idea until (if) the power management gets all the bugs worked out.
There was a problem with power usage with a version of Ubuntu but that has been resolved.
I am running Linux Mint (Debian Version) on 2 Laptops and a Netbook in a dual boot mode with Windows Vista and 7 and have no problems with battery life using default power settings.
Have not found any need to tweak it.
Originally Posted By: Eric Smith
"buickman" guess I got lucky as my laptop works perfectly. Wireless card and long as I stay in Gnome the power management seems to work the same as in windows. So I'd say it works well in my case. I don't play games though or anything fancy.. yet. In the past I have had issues like you listed.. frustrating at least.
I don't have anything against linux. I just think that for the average non-technical person running it on their laptop is not a good idea until (if) the power management gets all the bugs worked out.
There was a problem with power usage with a version of Ubuntu but that has been resolved.
I am running Linux Mint (Debian Version) on 2 Laptops and a Netbook in a dual boot mode with Windows Vista and 7 and have no problems with battery life using default power settings.
Have not found any need to tweak it.
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