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Any Linux users out there


The Dude

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I was in interesting situations a few years ago.  A friend who was unemployed came to me with a laptop owned by a friend who was also unemployed.  No system disks available; the poor little computer was a bit aged.  But is there anything to do?

 

So I had an adventure loading Ubuntu and Open Office. They worked well. Ubuntu seems to be savior of older Windows computers.

 

Later I've learned more about the Copyleft movement and have a lot of respect for it on moral grounds.

 

I've also read that most supercomputers are running a Linux variation; and most servers on the Internet.  So it is not just for orphans.  In fact, Windows is a small player overall. It just shows how little I knew. 

 

WMcD

Edited by William F. Gil McDermott
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Once this is downloaded I plan to load it on my basically unused laptop which has windows 7 pro on it

 

Am I able to use the flash and try the linux without downloading the os.........................This way I can see if I like it before removing windows, I wont have any reason to keep windows if linux works out, and then I will put it on my current laptop

 

I am guessing I will lose my Itunes  library though.  Not a big deal as it is backed up on 2 other hard drives

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Just create a 20 gig partition on your HD and keep both.  You never know when you may need W7. 

 

The only annoying thing is that windows intentionally takes up a lot more space than it needs so if you shrink a the drive that has it, it will not shrink nearly as much as it should.  You can always wipe the drive and re-install W7 later on a smaller partition (or partitions). 

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After some research and trial and erroe, I finally have something working that I am happy with.  Linux mint 17 mate eddition, with VLC and VlC remote for android.  Things are working great, just need to get Linux to alls pick up my usb storage device on my network and I will be golden.  Other then that this compute will mainly stay downstairs as a juke box on my system.

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I was in interesting situations a few years ago.  A friend who was unemployed came to me with a laptop owned by a friend who was also unemployed.  No system disks available; the poor little computer was a bit aged.  But is there anything to do?

 

So I had an adventure loading Ubuntu and Open Office. They worked well. Ubuntu seems to be savior of older Windows computers.

 

Later I've learned more about the Copyleft movement and have a lot of respect for it on moral grounds.

 

I've also read that most supercomputers are running a Linux variation; and most servers on the Internet.  So it is not just for orphans.  In fact, Windows is a small player overall. It just shows how little I knew. 

 

WMcD

Most routers are running Linux, AKA the internet. Apple computers, Linux. It's everywhere!

 

The public domain rulez!

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After some research and trial and erroe, I finally have something working that I am happy with.  Linux mint 17 mate eddition, with VLC and VlC remote for android.  Things are working great, just need to get Linux to alls pick up my usb storage device on my network and I will be golden.  Other then that this compute will mainly stay downstairs as a juke box on my system.

 

This is fantastic.  You did the research.  I will be jumping into this during the holiday season. 

 

One thing that I love about linux is the lack of it "poking you in the eye with a stick."  What I mean is that MS word, for example, when you have to save to Office 2007 from 2003, the intentionally put the choice down on a list so that you have to scroll down to get to it.  They can just as easily lump them together.  Or hyperlinks in MS products will only launch internet explorer (which I don't even have on my computer).  Or windows media player not recognizing apple or FLAC (older versions, I have not tried this in years).

 

All of these little things are just plain annoying.  In Linux everything is designed to make things easier and it is not trying to sell you anything. 

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Apple computers, Linux.
I beg to differ. The core Apple OS is based on BSD Unix. Apple will even let you download and compile the software (Darwin), as it is open source. They just made it look really pretty.

 

Linux was initially written by Linus Torvalds and isn't unix at all, although it works like it for the most part.

 

Cheers

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  • 3 months later...

I am thinking of dual booting Ubuntu along side of Windows 7 on my main machine.  Here is why, I don't know if my video card is going out or my ram is low.  But I am having problems with videos playing.  Not so much audio unless it is along with the video.  Second, since I have been happy with my laptop running Linux Mint 17.  I thought I would give Ubuntu a try for a media server I want to build.  So by dual booting it, my wife will still be able to use Windows to remote in at her work.  Then I can find out if the ram is low, or if the video card is going out.  I figured the ram is low then the video should play just fine when logged into Ubuntu instead of Window(unless I will be using more ram than through that idea out the door).  Anyways it would be a great time to learn some more computer stuff.  Anybody have any thoughts.

 

Thanks

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Skrinking the drive will be tough.  Windows intentioanlly occupies alot of space on the HD
 

 

What if I all ready store most of my files on an external hd, how much space are you thinking one would need.  Would the next best thing to be replace my internal hard drive with a bigger one for os. Or could I add a additional hd in a since piggy back 2 of them. 

 

Why not LM17.1?  It uses the Ubuntu kernel and you already have it on your laptop

 

 

I was looking into Ubuntu for server needs, and that is what had taken me to their home page.  So I thought it would be fun to try.  I guess I could look into using LM for server needs.  

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I am giving VLC a try, Just trying to figure out how to connect my android phone as a remote.  

 

Joe, Did you get it running.  What do you think?

I stopped looking at Linux when I found out it was not compatible with J-River, now that they offer a master license I may look at it again.......I hate to install it on my now only laptop for fear it will create some issues.  I would like to try and run it off a disc and see how it works. Not sure how to do this though. 

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Not sure how to do this though
 

 

Joe, I don't want to give you wrong direction on how to.  But from what I remember I used a Writable DVD, and burned the ISO image for Linux.  Then ran the disc.  If I can figure out how to dual boot as it seems easy, I will keep you informed.  As this should give the user a chance to try both os.  

 

Question for Tiger.  I have a 750 gb hd which is actually on 680 which I assume is do to WIndows taking up 70 gigs.   Anyways on top of that I still have 510 gigs of free space on my hd, would this be enough to dual boot.  

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Should be plenty of space.  But windows will "take up" much more space than the 70 gigs or so. 

 

You need to create a seaprate partition for Linux (actually a few partitions (home, swap space, OS space)) and to do this, you need to shrink the partition that has Windows is on.  Windows intentionally "places" some information in various areas of the disk and it takes up a lot more space than it appears.  I think this helps keep the OS defragmented, forget exactly why. 

 

25 gigs or so should be plenty for Linux (only need 6 or 7 for LM, but room to grow and avoid fragmenting)).  I shrunk a 300 GB drive with Vista (Laptop with no files other than the OS) and I could only get 20 gigs or so of free space.  Same with Windows 8.1 on my wife's laptop (I just wiped W8 away and we do not miss it at all). 

 

For a server I think there are specific packages, not just Ubuntu, but I might be wrong.  Let me know what you find.  I have a spare server that I was planning on converting to Linux. 

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Ok went to youtube a followed some directions and actually created a virtual pc and a virtual drive which I loaded linux 17 on, seems pretty intuitive  a bit of a PITA going through a virtual system but at least got an idea of how it would work, so now my issues are

 

1 my musical fidelity v-link 192 does not appear to work with linux

 

2 taking the 192 out of the loop my havana does not appear to work with linux 

 

3. I will have to spend the $$$ to upgrade my J-River license

 

I need to see if I can find a driver for my v-link, if I can find that I want to see how people are saying river works on linux, if that comes out good I will switch over, I like the security and the layout. pretty sure I could navigate it with little troubles.....................Off to search for drivers and information :D

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