The Linux Distro Thread (maybe)

[ej-solutions]

Thought I'd start this one off, rather than continue on another thread.

As a quick catch up for others:

Have a look at Unetbootin, as a means to try out different versions of Linux, without producing numerous coasters (unwanted CDs).
I haven't tried the method of installing to hard drive, only the USB flash drive method (so far).

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Just skimming the surface

Opinions/guidance expressed are intended to benefit the reader (mostly) but no responsibility should be assumed for the accuracy and no warranty is implied/expressed or given - so eBay may pull this post

[ej-solutions]

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/old-pcs-processor-doesnt-have-cmov-and-cant-install-xubuntu-848452/

[grumpy-cook]

Thanks EW, I'm downloading the latest 486 brew of Antix now.

[otherego]

Any joy with Antix 486, g-c?

Modern Linux kernels definitely aren't always old-computer friendly, I find - but I seem to remember that one working. (Or did it come up with the CMOV problem? Scratches head.)

This looks like an interesting one for privacy enthusiasts:

http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=07059

(TAILS - The Amnesic Incognito Live CD).

It runs Tor - something I've never tried - by default. So slow, I eventually took off my tinfoil hat and went back to something else - but I could see it having real value for people in vulnerable positions in Nasty Places.

Interestingly, it includes NoScript and AdBlock Plus, and dom.storage is disabled by default - don't remember encountering that before. (The browser is Iceweasel 9.0).

[grumpy-cook]

I haven't got round to it yet OE. Other things got in the way.

I'll let you know when I give it a try.

[otherego]

This is one of the rare distros that actually works on a poxy MMX CPU:

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=tinycore

I've not tried the latest, but remembered that I'd installed it on a Toshiba Satellite 320 - 233MHz MMX and 96MB RAM - I dragged it out for another look. Reasonably quick (Dillo totally foxes eBay, of course), but blowed if I can work out how to add apps. Guess I'll have to give up and read the instructions...

[oxieman]

Hi OE

Funny you mention Tiny Core - Picked up a Mag this evening (Yesterday now oc) and it said additional apps are from 'App Browser'

The crap Mag gives instuctions through some bit.ly/xxxx - I cannot get into these as you have to a twitter freak. I might write to the editor!!!

Remind me not to have the Flu-jab next year - it did not work this year :-(. Have been replacing my Foxconn M/B - going 64 bit.

Might try Tiny when have time and feel a little less snuffly.

Oxie...

[grumpy-cook]

I had a nice bit of luck yesterday 🙂

A customer of mine contacted me about her 2 year old Toshiba laptop just before Christmas. She'd got the dreaded "Enter Password" at power up. This is a known fault caused by a bad bios. The only safe way to cure it is to return it to a Toshiba Service Centre - for a while they did this FOC, but that ended a while ago.

There are reams of supposed fixes if you search, but they all involve doing things that may fry the motherboard, so I wouldn't risk it and told her she would need to get it fixed via Toshiba. Unfortunately the TSCs for the UK are PC World. They quoted her something quite ridiculous, so she had a nice new laptop for Christmas instead.

Last week she brought both in for me to transfer her data from the old hard drive. When she came to collect she told me I may as well keep the Toshiba for spares and gave it to me.

Yesterday I thought I may as well have a go at getting it working before pulling it apart. After much ploughing through dross via Google, I found a possibly promising fix written by someone who seemed sensible. I eventually found these two solder points on the motherboard underneath the memory and shorted them with a bent paperclip. There was a little click as promised. Put the memory back and switched on and off it jolly well went.

I now have a nice dual core laptop with 2Gb of memory and a big screen. It even has a brand new battery which she bought just before it went faulty.

I just need to decide what to put on it now. It has Vista Basic, which is a true nightmare. I'll probably go for PCLinuxOS. although I'm just a bit tempted by W7. Hmm.

[otherego]

I'll probably go for PCLinuxOS. although I'm just a bit tempted by W7. Hmm.

Or both, perhaps - dual boot or run one in a virtual machine. You've probably got enough "horsepower" to make that feasible.

Best of both.

[otherego]

(Apologies - I know this is the Linux Distro thread - but have come to regard it as a bit of a hub for general open-source matters too.)

This article in The Register has almost put me off my feed:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/19/apple_education_announcements/

Just look at the happy faces of the locked in zombies students in the photograph...

Now, it would be wonderful if Apple were about to solve the world's great problems in education. Or would it? Should we, just perhaps, give our young a chance to think for themselves, and above all keep them free from "vendor lock-in?"

Just to make the gorge rise further:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/27/ipads_in_zimbabwe/

Coltart is no fool (google is your friend, if you're interested) - yet I get the distinct impression that he doesn't see what's coming here.

Just what poor old Zim needs - in a country where teachers are threatening to strike in order to attain salaries of just of USD500 per month (and I'm reliably informed it's no longer possiboe to live a life of luxury there for 50p per month...) - everybody addicted to i-this and i-that, and actually dependent on those gadgets - yeah, right.

It gets more worrying. The "school in a box" programme (which I'd not heard of before) embraces open source:

Open Standards and Web Content An example of this is WebKit’, an Open Source project initiated by Apple, that promotes “real-world web compatibility, standards compliance, stability, performance, security, portability and usability.” The webkit engine is supported across a number of mobile platforms, which makes it easier for content producers to target a range of mobile devices.

Oh, so that's all right then...

(More here:

http://www.iadtschoolinabox.com/open-source/     )

I know Bill Gates and Microsoft contributed hugely to everyone having a computer. I know Apple hardware and software is wonderful. I know that without commercial enterprise, risk-taking and investment, progress might lag.

But increasingly, Richard Stallman:

http://www.gnu.org/education/edu-schools.html

sounds less and less howling-at-the-moon crazy, and more and more a voice of sanity and reason in a Bedlam of commercial and proprietary industry-driven, "Oh, we must have that" madness.

Rant over.

I thank you for your attention.

Both of you.

[grumpy-cook]

I agree with everything you say OE, it gets on my wotsits. You can see where it's going. It's very clever and very scary.

[ej-solutions]

It was pleasing to see the recent news article on the long ovedue shift in the teaching of 'computing'. The proposed move away from showing how to use Word, Excel etc., in favour of learning about programming and open source.

Deja Vu, methinks: my 1st glimpse of computing was in a physics class that showed a wire-frame lunar lander. One plugged in values for thrust, gravity etc. in order to land on a specific spot. This moved on to programming a sequence of flashing LEDs, somewhere along the line and through teaming up with a schoolmate, we devised self changing code, for improved coding efficiency.

Now look where it's got me.... 😞

Do we really want to allow our L.G. Councils to fill the coffers of large corporations, by the insistence of not using open source software? (Notwitstanding the discounted rates given to L.G.) A few have seen the light but in these days of 'austerity' isn't it about time open source adoption became more widespread? The principal argument appears to be, that it would require too much retraining of staff. Yeah, right.. LibreOffice is just so far removed from any other office suite.

Now, back to the true substance of this thread...

😛

[otherego]

It was pleasing to see the recent news article on the long ovedue shift in the teaching of 'computing'. The proposed move away from showing how to use Word, Excel etc., in favour of learning about programming and open source.

As was the news that the Rasberry Pi seems to be a reality:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/

If I had any programming aptitude at all, I'd try to get one of those myself... When I was at school, we didn't have computer classes ('tho I dimly remember being taken to visit a computer in about '68 - it took up a large, air-conditioned, dust-free room. Lots of noise and humming and rattling stuff. Wonderful.)

An aptitude test in the early eighties suggested that I only just made it into the top 98% where computing aptitude was concerned. Probably about right, and one had to be able to do at least simple programming to use a computer then, I suppose.

I still wonder about trying Linux from Scratch - off-putting that the (admittedly free) guide demands name and contact details and the like before downloading it.

Today's botheration - I'm sure I used to like PCLInuxOS, and have the 2010 version on a couple of little-used laptops.

I found this evening that it was impossible to update. A problem with "held packages" was eventually resolved by apt-get install -f, followed by apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade - these revealed something called netcat traditional to be a problem, and obsolete, and its removal stopped Synaptic's whingeing. (After trying umpteen repos to find one which would actually do anything - another PCLos gripe, I now remember.)

It looks as if something called aptupdate (also referred to in the forums as aptupgrade) needed to have been installed months back in order to continue updating the system.

I now seem trapped in a situation where I can't get at aptupdate 'cos I haven't got aptupdate - or something. Synaptic remains blissfully unaware of its existence, and apt-get simply grumbles that it can find no such package.

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,96300.0.html

and

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=79265

seem to sum up the available advice.

After my bedtime now, but I might have one more try later in the day. Otherwise, it looks like a clean installation from the latest available version - GNOME doesn't seem to be covered, though.

Botheration.

[otherego]

Still haven't found that wretched application. My googling skills are definitely sub-par today.

What I did blunder across was this:

http://forums.comodo.com/comodo-antivirus-for-linux-cavl/comodo-antivirus-for-linux-1022065932-beta-released-t80473.0.html

If I can find the notebook with my passwords in it and my Comodo account is still alive, I might look more closely in due course. (Frankly couldn't be bothered with sites which insist on one signing in to browse what is essentially a public board. What on earth are their motives?)

A (very) little more on these sites:

http://forum.pinguyos.com/Thread-COMODO-Antivirus-for-Linux-1-0-is-ready-for-BETA-testing

http://www.mostiwant.com/blog/free-download-comodo-antivirus-for-linux-desktop/

My own understanding is that Linux continues to owe its relative security to factors other than its obscurity, no matter what certain software providers assert.

It'll be interesting to see whether malware writers do eventually target it successfully. I suppose it could be worth the effort involved if, say,  "desktop share" ever makes it into double figures.

Even then, I suspect the Linux community would spot and patch problems at least as fast as the antivirus providers. And writing malware that can infect all distros? (Just try finding legit software for your outdated PCLOS, for instance...) A major undertaking, I'd imagine.

There's some merit, perhaps, in scanning e-mails in case one indadvertently infects Windows machines - but the "supported mail systems" don't seem to include Thunderbird etc (unless the names given refer to underlying architecture of popular clients - not an e-mail client user, meself.)

It would also be interesting to know whether this antivirus (or others on offer, at a price) actually offer protection against rare Linux malware, or simply guard against Windows malware. If the latter is true, I find I can empathise with Linux users who ask why on earth they should slow their machines down with antivirus software just to protect their friends who are too idle to protect their own Windows machines against inadvertently forwarded nasties.

Just hope this isn't the thin edge of a wedge, though, with ISPs, for instance, deciding to insist on AV on all computers irrespective of operating systems.

[oxieman]

Do we really want to allow our L.G. Councils to fill the coffers of large corporations,

ej - I know it's a while ago, but where is it now?

Money money money - You nearly had a YouTube Link 😄

OE - don't look, I don't want a double *thud* from you.

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240105311/Computacenter-gags-Bristol-City-Council-over-anti-open-source-bias

Just a fleeting visit.

Oxie...

[otherego]

No surprises there, alas.

Much of the problem is pure "FUD," of course. Yet there are real difficulties, in my humble opinion - eg:

Interoperability hassles. No good Local Council A going open source if they then find they can't open all the docx (did I get that right? the current MS Office standard) sent to them by Local Councils B to Z and beyond from their expensive new MS Office apps.

My own inclination would be to send each of those councils a copy of LibreOffice and explain with deep regret that we can only correspond using LO - so please install it on your computers. In real life, I'd just be laughed at. (Again.)

FUD - and the fear, uncertainty and doubt will be fuelled by the increasing difficulty with getting people accustomed to MS's smart new ribbons and things to go back to what they'd regard as dated and different old LibreOffice. Unless national and local authorities are compelled to save everything to open standards, the difficulties communicating with people using different systems will be viewed as insurmountable or expensive.

Even if, for the sort of stuff most people use word processors and spreadsheets for, it would probably take them about ten minutes to work out the differences. Without a million-pound training programme.

Fear of change and associated misperceptions - we instinctively resist change. And it's no use pointing out that somebody used to Office 2003 would probably pick up LibreOffice faster than they would Office 2010. The open source offering is misperceived as "more different" and more difficult than the one with a familiar name.

Failure to commit - if a significant number of national and local authorities (and possibly more effectively, a significant number of businesses) simply got rid of proprietary software altogether, others would follow suit and realise that a) it's not so hard  b) there are real benefits beyond just the cost savings with respect to MS licences.

Unfortunately, any efforts to change seem doomed to a certain half-heartedness - not least because of the problems of communicating with proprietary software hold-outs, as above - and the whole initiative runs out of steam. Half the machines end up running proprietary software of (perceived?) necessity; gradually it becomes just too hard to use open source internally and proprietary software dealing with others, and initiatives grind to a halt.

The Dark Forces Of Marketing - In all fairness, MS and other big proprietary software companies produce pretty good software. But I honestly suspect their real gift lies in marketing their wares, and in "influencing" existing and potential customers.

Open source simply lacks effective advocates able to battle the DFOM - in my opinion.

Could go on all night. I desperately hope Open Source (and with it, common sense) will win the day in public services, but I'm not holding my breath.

("Computacenter"? A leading European/British provider? Spelling "computer" and "centre" like that? Perhaps they're trying to be cool. Or Kool.)

Back to real life - still can't update my PCLOS 2010. As a silver lining, though, I've downloaded the current Xfce version - could prove nice, and will hopefully be more effective on the Old Heaps than KDE. (Wish they'd bring out an updated GNOME version...)

[otherego]

A nice (I think) surprise - today's Mint update included Firefox 9. I'm using Mint 9 (Isadora). Until now, it's only updated Firefox 3.

The only add-on I actually use and which has stopped working is Sync. Bit of a nuisance. On the other hand, I've always found it irritating, labour-intensive and inclined to work only if it feels so inclined.

Otherwise, bit of a mixed bag where first impressions are concerned. Why on earth they feel the need to shift things around (the NoScript icon has shifted from the lower right to upper left, for instance), goodness knows.

It might be a touch faster, but I'm not 100% convinced. Page loading on this site, and others which feed from various servers (eg the Beeb) remains pretty glacial on this particular machine.

I see I've lost the options to use italics, bold, strike-out and whatever other options used to appear on this board, too.

Memory use is disappointing. It's crept up from about 98MB to 132. Interesting to see whether it goes any higher. Perhaps an add-on is causing the problem. If I'm very, very bored some time I might try disabling various add-ons and seeing whether that makes any difference.

[nice_bow_tie]

Sync is built-in now. You don't need the add-on.

[otherego]

Oops.

Cheers, n_b_t.

I might have worked that out.

Eventually. (Cue red face.)

I quite like Firefox 9 so far, though. Seem to have the formatting options back here, and I believe it might be slightly quicker than the old version.

Judging from the fact that I keep opening new windows instead of tabs, I assume those functions have been swapped around. And is there a loading bar anywhere? Always found it quite useful on this site, in deciding whether to hang on for a page to load or whether to try again or take a coffee break.

[grumpy-cook]

OE, the loading bar is incorporated into the address bar - green progress bar underneath the url.

[grumpy-cook]

I should have said, there's also a progress meter which you can add from the toolbar customiser - right-click any toolbar and select Customise. Anything in there can be dragged into a toolbar (I have my progress meter bottom right). You can also drag anything out of a toolbar into the customiser if you don't want it.