Linux Mint users: This is the one you'll want

[ToyotaNSaturn]

2GB RAM ain't enough for 25 browser tabs and everything else on top, including a VM on a flash drive for needed Windows things.

4GB RAM (8GB preferred) would be a sweet spot for such Toshiba Chromebooks, it's really nice.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: badtlc
Yet you first claimed Linux had little to do with it. Obviously, that is flat out wrong. Linux has everything to do with it.


Because Linux is a kernel, not an operating system. "Linux" can demand outrageous resources depending on the configuration and the operating system built atop it. It can also require very little resources when compiled for an embedded system.

This is semantics, though, and not worth arguing over. Linux is awesome and darn-near infinitely configurable; and can be tailored to just about any use, from industrial automation to Android to Ubuntu to GPS to DVR's.

 

[badtlc]

Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
Originally Posted By: badtlc
Yet you first claimed Linux had little to do with it. Obviously, that is flat out wrong. Linux has everything to do with it.


Because Linux is a kernel, not an operating system. "Linux" can demand outrageous resources depending on the configuration and the operating system built atop it. It can also require very little resources when compiled for an embedded system.

This is semantics, though, and not worth arguing over. Linux is awesome and darn-near infinitely configurable; and can be tailored to just about any use, from industrial automation to Android to Ubuntu to GPS to DVR's.


Just to further correct you, Linux is an OS. The GUI/desktop environment is layered on top of it.

 

[demarpaint]

I like not having CCleaner, Super Anti-Spyware, Malware Bytes, Disk Defrag, an AV program, etc. I have a faster machine, and I'm using a lot less disk space. I'm sorry I didn't upgrade my XP machine years ago.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: badtlc
Just to further correct you, Linux is an OS. The GUI/desktop environment is layered on top of it.


An operating system (Android, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora) has a kernel (called Linux) AND userland utilities atop it; and these are Linux-based OS's that we often group together as "Linux" simply because there are so many distributions that use it as their kernel.

Many (well, SOME), I should point out, also run on kernels other than Linux. Debian, for example, can run on the kFreeBSD and HURD kernels. The desktops can usually run on BSD kernels, too; and that isn't Linux at all.

Here is an excellent overview of the components of a modular OS: http://swift.siphos.be/linux_sea/whatislinux.html and this may help, too:

We are getting dangerously close to a Richard Stallman-esque ( it's GNU/ Linux!!!) friendless neckbeard curfuffle over silly semantics. Let's get back to helping our friends discover how to migrate away from proprietary software towards the green pastures of F/LOSS, yes?

 

[MONKEYMAN]

uc50ic4more, I read the info in links you provided and found more info than I wanted to know.

It was like reading the history of cars and the systems that make them work when all I wanted was a reliable car that is easy to maintain.

I am looking forward to using Mint long term. Thanks for giving me something to look forward to.

Maintaining my Windows computer will now require more dusting due to non-use.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: yonyon
One of these things.


When I used to do traveling tech support, a USB storage device with Mint was insanely useful.

People always managed to corrupt their windows installation to the point the computer wouldn't boot. And, of course, it was always before they NEEDED an important piece of data that was saved locally and not on the network!

 

[Sierra048]

Just wanted to check back in. The bride and I are going to the store today to get a usb drive. I tried to do it with a CD but it wasn't big enough. Not giving up. Still want this to work. But I'm a little nervous after reading through this topic. I don't have a clue what most of you are talking about. I hope my ignorance on this subject doesn't move the more knowledgeable from getting bored and tuning out. I really need your input. And to further show my ignorance, just what is unbuntu?

Quote from above entry: "People always managed to corrupt their windows installation to the point the computer wouldn't boot. And, of course, it was always before they NEEDED an important piece of data that was saved locally and not on the network".

This makes me a little nervous but I'm still gonna give it a go if I can.

 

[ClutchDisc]

You don't need a USB drive, a DVD will work too. As long as you only boot up to the live disc/usb, and you don't install it, you will not corrupt your windows installation. If you decide you like it and want to install it, that is different. Before you do that make sure you make a recovery backup of windows should anything go wrong!

Ubuntu is a distro of linux. See here: http://www.ubuntu.com/ and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(operating_system)

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: Mfrank84
Just wanted to check back in. The bride and I are going to the store today to get a usb drive. I tried to do it with a CD but it wasn't big enough. Not giving up. Still want this to work. But I'm a little nervous after reading through this topic. I don't have a clue what most of you are talking about. I hope my ignorance on this subject doesn't move the more knowledgeable from getting bored and tuning out. I really need your input. And to further show my ignorance, just what is unbuntu?

Quote from above entry: "People always managed to corrupt their windows installation to the point the computer wouldn't boot. And, of course, it was always before they NEEDED an important piece of data that was saved locally and not on the network".

This makes me a little nervous but I'm still gonna give it a go if I can.


Oh, I didn't mean the USB drive caused it.

People clicking on emails from the "New York State Polcie" about a parking ticket in New Jersey (Yes, that happened ...) or general virus infections would render their computers useless and they needed to access something on the computer.

The USB drive was able to move data for them while I fixed some of the issue.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: MONKEYMAN
uc50ic4more, I read the info in links you provided and found more info than I wanted to know.

It was like reading the history of cars and the systems that make them work when all I wanted was a reliable car that is easy to maintain.


It's a slippery slope: Imagine if, when buying a car (check that: If you were just given a car), it came with a complete set of schematics and designs; and the manufacturer encouraged you to tinker with them. If you've improved upon the design or have tailored it more specifically to yourself or the needs of some community, you may re-brand that vehicle and produce and distribute them (as long as you offer those same freedoms to others). You could even make a living supporting those vehicles! Soon enough, that car you got "just so you could get around" is in pieces in your front yard as you discover and learn how it works; knowing full well that if you mess it up beyond repair you can get another one for free and start again.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
We are getting dangerously close to a Richard Stallman-esque ( it's GNU/ Linux!!!) friendless neckbeard curfuffle over silly semantics.

In that vein, I trust your an Emacs user, right?

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: Garak

In that vein, I trust your an Emacs user, right?

Nope! I have actually never touched Emacs in my life, strangely. I am, though, an avid free software supporter and advocate; and I greatly admire Stallman.

I started out w/ Knoppix live CD's, awkwardly, in the early 00's and used Ubuntu when it first came out in '04 (and have used, through the years, Debian for quite a while, Arch, Fedora); so I was a GUI-only kinda guy for a long time. When I got doing more web development work, and when that work got less design-y and more code-y (nothing heavy: PHP + MySQL, javascript, a little Python), I would just ssh into a server and use vim, knowing that it'd be there (I had many sites hosted on VM's using either Debian or CentOS). These days I code web sites using gedit on Ubuntu as gedit can use Gnome's gvfs to access files via ssh directly.

 

[Garak]

Arrgh. I can't use vim to save my soul. I'll use it to view a text document, but never to edit one. Back in the late 1980s when I had an Amiga, a variant of Emacs came with it, so I've stuck with it ever since.

I do a little bit of stuff with gedit on occasion, but Emacs is obviously more powerful. However, that really only matters if you use the features, and I only need a couple features that gedit doesn't have. I am, however, quite used to the arcane Emacs command set, since that's all there was on the Amiga at the time, so I keep using it.

I don't know if you've ever seen them, but there have been keyboards specially designed for Emacs users, thanks to all the control codes. I believe they swap the position of the control and alt keys.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Arrgh. I can't use vim to save my soul.


It's so easy! All you have to do is determine what you want to do, then Google "How do I ______ in vi".

 

[javacontour]

I seldom give a VM more than 2GB and 2 cores. Haven't really seen any benefit to giving a VM any more than that.

Just doesn't seem to need the memory footprint for what I do.

Originally Posted By: badtlc
Originally Posted By: ToyotaNSaturn
Anyone using the Toshiba Chromebook? Wondering if the 2GB RAM can be upgraded and if Linux Mint can be installed instead of the limited ChromeOS.

Having a RAM upgrade to at least 4GB would be a huge plus for Linux.

A large screen Chromebook for $279 is a good deal, add RAM and a 'real' Linux version such as Mint, looks like an ideal end-user device.


Linux doesn't need the RAM. I run 2GB and Linux Mint 16 XFCE x64 bit never uses more than 500 MB for what I do.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
It's so easy! All you have to do is determine what you want to do, then Google "How do I ______ in vi".

No! I must have all the commands memorized in my head, no matter how absurd they are (like the Emacs command set).

 

[javacontour]

I'm a vi purist, HJKL keys. NO silly arrow keys for me

I remember the "old" ADM-3A terminals we had back in the 1980's when I was working on my Software Engineering and EE degrees. They had arrows on the HJKL keys.

 

[Garak]

I'm well acquainted with bizarre sequences of control codes, and weird cut and paste sequences, too.

But, it works!

 

[LazyPrizm]

I use vi only because at the very least every system will have it. But sometimes I'm unlucky and it's plain vi, not vim, and the terminal beeps at me every third keystroke

A friend of mine uses emacs, remember all those backronyms? Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift, Emacs Makes A Computer Slow, and my favorite "Eight Megs And Constantly Swapping"

I do use the emacs key bindings for line editing in the shell though. One day I'll learn to use the real thing... /strokes neckbeard