Linux and WInderz Qs
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Greetings fellow technomancers
(Nuqneh)- It's probably clear now that it seems as if my Inspirons drive is having issues- and are testing out some cloning software So far Macrium, Casper and XXClone are neer the top. If I can find a cheep Norton Ghost(or whever it's called now) i'll give that a spin as well For just the file side of things CrashPlans free is neer the top, as is Dropbox, and doing some stuff with googledrive. Two questions: I haven't yet found a straitforward meens to tell a PC to boot from a external drive? Spefecifically a WD Pasport mines some variety of USB ( seems to comedown to demand the force the pc to my will) I ask as I thought it does me no good to make a clone of my software if it can't be used, I've done some googling with conflicting resualts one saying something about using WinPE, others sugest using D Anyone care to share opinions? Second Question: Feeling as if I've had about enough of windows, I want to consider linux as a option. What's been peoples experience with it these days? ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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On Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 11:24:36AM -0600, Gillian Densmore wrote:
> Second Question: > Feeling as if I've had about enough of windows, I want to consider > linux as a option. What's been peoples experience with it these days? > It keeps getting better and better. I remember the days when it was a right royal PITA to set up X-windows, but that was like 20 years ago. Now there are versions you can download onto a DVD or USB stick and run without installing anything. Great for try-before-you-buy. Nowadays, a linux distro will just install and work, and support the latest USB devices (except Apple iOS devices, *cough*). I happen to use OpenSUSE, but other distros I've used have worked well too. The only gotchas? If you want to preserve your windows, you can bet into trouble. Last time I bought a laptop and installed the latest OpenSUSE, it trashed the Windows 8 partition (which I hadn't even booted at that stage). I had to badger HP into sending me the OEM disks to reinstall the system (which I insisted should have been part of the sale in the first place). Now, of course, OpenSUSE's version has bumped, and it will happily install alongside Windows 8. It just needed to catch up with the latest UEFI shenannigans. The second gotcha is systemd. You can read a ton of vitriol about it on the web. Personally, systemd is not so bad, but just very badly documented when first released, so it did cause a lot of pain a couple of years ago. Now its easier to figure out how to use it. That's it. Just check whether you have any applications that are Windows only - if you do, you can have a dual boot setup, or use a virtual machine - or you can also try wine, which will run a lot of Windows software natively on Linux. For example, I ran Microsoft Word for years on Wine (MSWord happened to be a requirement for one of my clients as personally, I'd use LibreOffice by preference). Cheers -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics [hidden email] University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au Latest project: The Amoeba's Secret (http://www.hpcoders.com.au/AmoebasSecret.html) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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The best advice I ever gave about Linux was to my sister in law this spring. I said: ¨Just buy another disk for the laptop, keep the windows disk as a backup in case you want to go back.¨ Truth is, it takes less time to buy a new laptop drive and swap it in than it does to explain how to set up a dual boot system. Especially when it turns out that the windows install is somehow mystically wired to the original disk partitioning, as it appears to be these days. It hardly takes any longer to buy a box that lets you mount the spare disk over a USB port, too. She has been a Windows user forever, happy as a clam running Linux now, especially since it extends the useful life of the hardware by being less of a bloated mess. -- rec -- On Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 4:01 PM, Russell Standish <[hidden email]> wrote: On Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 11:24:36AM -0600, Gillian Densmore wrote: ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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Roger: Yeah, but what software is she/can she run?============================================ Tom Johnson Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA 505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h) Society of Professional Journalists - Region 9 Director Twitter: jtjohnson On Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 6:17 PM, Roger Critchlow <[hidden email]> wrote:
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Stand under bridges much? "What is your favorite color?"
Seriously, in addition to Roger's excellent idea of swapping hard drives, I always recommend installing VirtualBox (open source and pretty darned good) and trying various distros out as virtual machines. That way, you can see what software is actually available and how well it works as a Windows replacement, without a lot of commitment. On Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 8:32 PM, Tom Johnson <[hidden email]> wrote: > Roger: > Yeah, but what software is she/can she run? > > -tom > > > ============================================ > Tom Johnson > Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA > 505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h) > Society of Professional Journalists - Region 9 Director > Twitter: jtjohnson > slideshare.net/jtjohnson/presentations > http://www.jtjohnson.com [hidden email] > ============================================ > > On Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 6:17 PM, Roger Critchlow <[hidden email]> wrote: >> >> The best advice I ever gave about Linux was to my sister in law this >> spring. I said: ¨Just buy another disk for the laptop, keep the windows >> disk as a backup in case you want to go back.¨ Truth is, it takes less time >> to buy a new laptop drive and swap it in than it does to explain how to set >> up a dual boot system. Especially when it turns out that the windows >> install is somehow mystically wired to the original disk partitioning, as it >> appears to be these days. It hardly takes any longer to buy a box that lets >> you mount the spare disk over a USB port, too. >> >> She has been a Windows user forever, happy as a clam running Linux now, >> especially since it extends the useful life of the hardware by being less of >> a bloated mess. >> >> -- rec -- >> >> On Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 4:01 PM, Russell Standish <[hidden email]> >> wrote: >>> >>> On Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 11:24:36AM -0600, Gillian Densmore wrote: >>> > Second Question: >>> > Feeling as if I've had about enough of windows, I want to consider >>> > linux as a option. What's been peoples experience with it these days? >>> > >>> >>> It keeps getting better and better. I remember the days when it was a >>> right royal PITA to set up X-windows, but that was like 20 years ago. Now >>> there are versions you can download onto a DVD or USB stick and run >>> without installing anything. Great for try-before-you-buy. >>> >>> Nowadays, a linux distro will just install and work, and support the >>> latest USB devices (except Apple iOS devices, *cough*). I happen to use >>> OpenSUSE, but other distros I've used have worked well too. >>> >>> The only gotchas? If you want to preserve your windows, you can bet >>> into trouble. Last time I bought a laptop and installed the latest >>> OpenSUSE, it trashed the Windows 8 partition (which I hadn't even booted >>> at that stage). I had to badger HP into sending me the OEM disks to >>> reinstall the system (which I insisted should have been part of the >>> sale in the first place). >>> >>> Now, of course, OpenSUSE's version has bumped, and it will happily >>> install alongside Windows 8. It just needed to catch up with the >>> latest UEFI shenannigans. >>> >>> The second gotcha is systemd. You can read a ton of vitriol about it >>> on the web. Personally, systemd is not so bad, but just very badly >>> documented when first released, so it did cause a lot of pain a couple >>> of years ago. Now its easier to figure out how to use it. >>> >>> That's it. Just check whether you have any applications that are >>> Windows only - if you do, you can have a dual boot setup, or use a >>> virtual machine - or you can also try wine, which will run a lot of >>> Windows software natively on Linux. For example, I ran Microsoft Word >>> for years on Wine (MSWord happened to be a requirement for one of my >>> clients as personally, I'd use LibreOffice by preference). >>> >>> Cheers >>> >>> -- >>> >>> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) >>> Principal, High Performance Coders >>> Visiting Professor of Mathematics [hidden email] >>> University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au >>> >>> Latest project: The Amoeba's Secret >>> (http://www.hpcoders.com.au/AmoebasSecret.html) >>> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> >>> ============================================================ >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> >> >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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In reply to this post by Tom Johnson
I haven't asked, but I expect that OpenOffice and a web browser cover most of her requirements. I'll ask next time I see her on a google hangout. -- rec -- On Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 7:32 PM, Tom Johnson <[hidden email]> wrote:
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If you are thinking of getting into Linux, you might consider attending a meeting of the nmglug.org at the Santa Fe Baking Company - it is really nice to have physical people to vent to and ask for advice, especially about a good setup (which distro to pick can be confusing. I use Debian and like it). If you just need functionality and are not too attached to a particular interface / program, alternativeto.net is your friend, as is the apt (or rpm, or ports, or pacman, or...) repository. Seriously, the killer app for Linux versus Windows is not having to hunt down executables and dependencies from all over the web. Some hardware is friendlier with Linux to others, but most works OK - especially if you are willing to compromise your software freedom :P h-node.org is supposed to help with this, have not tried it. Good luck and enjoy! -Arlo James Barnes ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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