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Post by remmington on Feb 23, 2020 23:42:20 GMT 1
Gonna have my first play with Linux.
Have downloaded Linux Lite onto a USB stick.
Got an old laptop collecting dust - 32 bit 2.0 GHz processor - 1024mb ram - 140gb laptop with dead battery - gonna load it.
It is an old low spec laptop - wanted to find the smallest operating system I can find. I have found some old powered desktop speakers to Aux connect to it.
I had CAT5 cable run into the garage when it was built at the bottom of the garden - if I ever wanted to make it an office (which I never did - the kids left home and I got a bedroom for and office).
This is to further my internet radio thing (Voicey got me thinking). I did the workshop with internet radio in the end - now I wanna do my domestic garage at home. I have managed the whole project so far without spending a single penny.
My wife used to reckon I was as mean as muck - with my make do and mend attitude. But now she thinks I am forward thinking - an eco warrior - re purposing old things.
Moved away from Microsoft Office years ago - use Open Office and really like it.
I do use Google Chrome for browsing - not sure if I should as they are collecting data for world domination I think.
Anybody else used Linux?
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Post by valhalla on Feb 24, 2020 1:07:42 GMT 1
Loads are using Linux on here. I have been trying to get the garage running 100% on Linux Mint for a wee while now, but there are some limitations with proprietary softwares for some of the toolsets.
Quite often you will find that software suppliers just don't support their tools running under any flavour of Linux. For doing most jobs, though, it is just the ticket. Browsing, Email, OpenOffice Suite, far easier than Windows.....
To put it into context, I'm typing on a Linux PC at the moment; my Win10 HP Pavilion laptop has been reformatted to dual-boot into Linux, which is quicker and easier than waiting for Windoze to wake-up.
The garage main PC on the desk is running an older version of Linux Mint, as it is a fairly old Dell Optiplex 755 piece of hardware that prefers a lighter-weight 32bit O/S.
You can fairly easily re-discover the joy of being able to do "real computing" on Linux - write your own software for a start - which puts some fun back into the day. What is more, if you don't like what you have, you can swap and change it around to suit, just find a distro that's a bit closer to what you need.
There are several "Lite" versions of Linux around, although some of the mainstream distros are dropping 32bit support - they tend not to be the "Lite" ones! A very good publication to look-at for Linux is "Linux Format" (Monthly) which has a round-up of what is the latest-and-greatest out there at the moment. I have an article somewhere on lightweight distros, so if you're interested, I could dig that out.
For anyone new to Linux, I have no hesitation in recommending the Linux Mint family (32bit / 64bit / full-fat / lightweight / different desktop utils / etc. etc)
In total I have around 17 PC's running various Linux distros at the moment. Then again, I have around 33 PC's now....  |
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Post by givusaclue on Feb 24, 2020 1:19:16 GMT 1
The original mot computers were Linux, I'll have a look to see if we've still got ours, if we have you can have it
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Post by rhyds on Feb 24, 2020 12:53:07 GMT 1
Linux is a great platform to play with. Its like a kit car or series Land Rover in that you can add or remove various parts so the machine will do as you want it to. The only real issues are around getting a linux box to work nicely with other kit. Printers are generally fine, as most manufacturers either provide specific linux drivers or an universal one that'll work, and if not there will be someone somewhere that will have spent a week getting it to work and posted up the solution.
The main issue however is, as Valhalla says, the fact that pretty much every piece of software for scopes/scanners and the like is designed for Windows. Now there are various tricks to get Windows programs to run within a linux environment however a dual boot solution makes much more sense!
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Post by remmington on Feb 24, 2020 13:52:01 GMT 1
Thanks for the feedback - I am gonna have a play - when I get some time.
Like Valhalla - I too have loads of PC's and laptops - some are very new - plus a I have few old ones lying dormant - I just wondered if I could get them loaded with a linux - and use them for one application - instead of trying to use one or two desktops for everything.
Even if I get one up and running on the internet - and just used it for a radio - it will save another radio being made just for my use.
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Post by rhyds on Feb 24, 2020 14:35:22 GMT 1
Ubuntu is a good basic setup if you want to test it out. Its probably the most user friendly of the various distributions
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Post by valhalla on Feb 24, 2020 23:42:57 GMT 1
Thanks for the feedback - I am gonna have a play - when I get some time. Like Valhalla - I too have loads of PC's and laptops - some are very new - plus a I have few old ones lying dormant - I just wondered if I could get them loaded with a linux - and use them for one application - instead of trying to use one or two desktops for everything. Even if I get one up and running on the internet - and just used it for a radio - it will save another radio being made just for my use. It's well worth having a good play! It's also fairly easy to string the PCs together if you go for a wired ethernet connection between them, so having dedicated machines for each task is less of a hassle. Just make sure you have a low-cost switch box to join them together, then the rest is trivial.
Exactly as Rhyds says, making some proprietry devices work "nicely" with Linux can be a trail, but the bigger distros these days tend to have the necessary libraries built-in to work with most things.
Things that are a pain are ;
1) Scanners - I'm still not sure I can make my Xerox semi-industrial scanner work with any flavour of Linux 2) Some types of printers, it depends on make and model, but these are becoming easier each month now 3) Some external hard-drives seem to play-up a bit, especially where they are codged-together SDD drives 4) USB devices vary from "OK" to "right - I've had enough of this game!!!" 5) Sharing some file-systems with Windoze softwares can be a bit fraught; I have to keep my Linux machines away from my NAS drive that holds the Thunderbird "Local Folders" for all my mail, otherwise the UNIX filing system goes berserk and starts duplicating all the individual stored Email messages (going back 15years......) and that can be a lorra, lorra fun to sort out afterwards.
The more time you have got to "play" where it doesn't matter, the easier it gets. Some things can make you scream (such as NAS drive recognition, even where that drive is basically a Linux box itself !!!) and then the rest of the time it is brilliant. The main thing is, there's so much information out on the 'web, every problem can be solved, so having a "tame computer" to do the searching for solutions can be really good thing!!
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Post by remmington on Feb 24, 2020 23:58:04 GMT 1
Thanks for the feedback - I am gonna have a play - when I get some time. Like Valhalla - I too have loads of PC's and laptops - some are very new - plus a I have few old ones lying dormant - I just wondered if I could get them loaded with a linux - and use them for one application - instead of trying to use one or two desktops for everything. Even if I get one up and running on the internet - and just used it for a radio - it will save another radio being made just for my use. It's well worth having a good play! It's also fairly easy to string the PCs together if you go for a wired ethernet connection between them, so having dedicated machines for each task is less of a hassle. Just make sure you have a low-cost switch box to join them together, then the rest is trivial.
Exactly as Rhyds says, making some proprietry devices work "nicely" with Linux can be a trail, but the bigger distros these days tend to have the necessary libraries built-in to work with most things. Things that are a pain are ; 1) Scanners - I'm still not sure I can make my Xerox semi-industrial scanner work with any flavour of Linux 2) Some types of printers, it depends on make and model, but these are becoming easier each month now 3) Some external hard-drives seem to play-up a bit, especially where they are codged-together SDD drives 4) USB devices vary from "OK" to "right - I've had enough of this game!!!" 5) Sharing some file-systems with Windoze softwares can be a bit fraught; I have to keep my Linux machines away from my NAS drive that holds the Thunderbird "Local Folders" for all my mail, otherwise the UNIX filing system goes berserk and starts duplicating all the individual stored Email messages (going back 15years......) and that can be a lorra, lorra fun to sort out afterwards.
The more time you have got to "play" where it doesn't matter, the easier it gets. Some things can make you scream (such as NAS drive recognition, even where that drive is basically a Linux box itself !!!) and then the rest of the time it is brilliant. The main thing is, there's so much information out on the 'web, every problem can be solved, so having a "tame computer" to do the searching for solutions can be really good thing!!
I am a big fan of wired ethernet connections - whole workshop is on cables - it is so much easier - to network the whole lot. At home we are on wireless everything - except my garage at the bottom of the garden. Kids tablets, TV's, phones and laptops don't have sockets for Cat5 cable. I would think there maybe tens of bluetooth things going on at the same time at home - wonder if the radio waves are killing me? |
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Post by rhyds on Feb 25, 2020 0:00:44 GMT 1
Things that are a pain are ; 1) Scanners - I'm still not sure I can make my Xerox semi-industrial scanner work with any flavour of Linux 2) Some types of printers, it depends on make and model, but these are becoming easier each month now 3) Some external hard-drives seem to play-up a bit, especially where they are codged-together SDD drives 4) USB devices vary from "OK" to "right - I've had enough of this game!!!" 5) Sharing some file-systems with Windoze softwares can be a bit fraught; I have to keep my Linux machines away from my NAS drive that holds the Thunderbird "Local Folders" for all my mail, otherwise the UNIX filing system goes berserk and starts duplicating all the individual stored Email messages (going back 15years......) and that can be a lorra, lorra fun to sort out afterwards.
The problem with a lot of kit is that they can rely very heavily on getting the PC itself to do a lot of the processing (so the hardware itself can be cheaper). This makes writing linux drivers a right pain in the ar*e for some things. |
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Post by remmington on Feb 25, 2020 22:22:20 GMT 1
Well I have loaded it - Linux Zorin 15.2 (Ubuntu) lite.
Aging version of Windows Vista all history now - did not even go for a partitioned drive.
Opened a Firefox account.
Rhyds is right - these Ubuntu derived distros are more windows user friendly.
Playing with it now....
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Post by givusaclue on Feb 26, 2020 10:13:55 GMT 1
it's all greek to me  |
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Post by remmington on Feb 26, 2020 15:42:13 GMT 1
it's all greek to me I don't mind "a play" with this sort of stuff - but I do find it frustrating when it does not go well. Also I have lost hours (no days) researching things on the internet on how to overcome software issues. |
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Post by studabear on Mar 3, 2020 22:32:03 GMT 1
I've just set my Dads laptop off upgrading to windows 10. That's adventurous enough for me. 🤣
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Post by chippie on Mar 4, 2020 9:41:24 GMT 1
I've just set my Dads laptop off upgrading to windows 10. That's adventurous enough for me. 🤣 So you'll be buying a new laptop then ? 😂😂 Hope it goes well for you....I steered clear on any upgrades for fear of it not working afterwards... Pc is on Win8 ( I turned off automatic updates....pita..) I think and laptop on Win 10. |
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Post by studabear on Mar 4, 2020 14:24:28 GMT 1
Well it completed the installation last night. Haven't had a chance to use it much yet mind.
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