Anyone else using Linux?

[ATruepatriot]

Hope you don't mind, but I am curious who all here is also using Linux. Like to talk shop if anyone is interested? I have been using it for about a year now and I am loving it. I switched because I decided I will never use Win 10 after the very first time I used it. I now believe that security and reliability starts with Linux. It is great to finally break those MS chains after so many years that started with the first DOS. Now I wish I had done it much much sooner.

[RonZeplin]

I'm running Debian Linux which started out as Squeeze, and was upgraded by changing the repositories to the next newer version Wheezy. Even so, there have been no updates available for this version for ~a year or so.

When that becomes a problem, I'll try pointing to the next newer version repository, and see how it goes. I've got a dozen or so versions of Linux on this machine, but most of them are so out of date that you can't really do much web surfing with them anymore. Got a lot of LVM's (Logical Volume Manager) partitions set up to help with getting that all done.

Been running linux for quite a while.

Version

	Code name	Release date	Toy Story character
1.1	Buzz	1996-06-17	Buzz Lightyear
1.2	Rex	1996-12-12	Rex (the T-Rex)
1.3	Bo	1997-06-05	Bo Peep
2.0	Hamm	1998-07-24	Hamm (the pig)
2.1	Slink	1999-03-09	Slinky Dog
2.2	Potato	2000-08-15	Mr Potato Head
3.0	Woody	2002-07-19	Woody the cowboy
3.1	Sarge	2005-06-06	Sarge from the Bucket O' Soldiers
4.0	Etch	2007-04-08	Etch, the Etch-A-Sketch
5.0	Lenny	2009-02-14	Lenny, the binoculars
6.0	Squeeze	2011-02-06	Squeeze toy aliens
7	Wheezy	2013-05-04	Wheezy the penguin
8	Jessie	2015-04-26	Jessie the cowgirl
9	Stretch	2017-06-17	Rubber octopus from Toy Story 3
10	Buster	not yet released	Andy's pet dog
11	Bullseye	Not yet released	Woody's horse
	Sid	"unstable"	The next door neighbour

https://www.electrictoolbox.com/debian-release-names/

[dannno]

I've been running Ubuntu for about 12 or 13 years now.

First time I tried it was about 20 years ago, Red Hat, couldn't get all the drivers working tho.

[ATruepatriot]

I'm running Debian Linux which started out as Squeeze, and was upgraded by changing the repositories to the next newer version Wheezy. Even so, there have been no updates available for this version for ~a year or so.

When that becomes a problem, I'll try pointing to the next newer version repository, and see how it goes. I've got a dozen or so versions of Linux on this machine, but most of them are so out of date that you can't really do much web surfing with them anymore. Got a lot of LVM's (Logical Volume Manager) partitions set up to help with getting that all done.

Been running linux for quite a while.

Thank you!

Yep, sounds like you have been in it for awhile. Tell you what... You would like some of the newest distros, slicker than snot and they have finally moved past the "techy" stage and into a fantastic "common user" point and click graphic user interface. The available software packages are now comprehensive and competitive with about everything available for windows. I am running Mint 18.3 with the cinnamon desktop and it is fantastic, it is of course built on ubuntu-debian . Absolutely no glitches in a year now and it will run all software prior to it. It feels and functions just like win 7 but twice as fast and has even more features. I highly suggest it if you haven't tried it yet. It is touted as the best OS available right now and so far I agree. And it comes boxed with a fantastic program bundle. They just came out with a couple newer versions but I am letting the dust settle for a bit on those. It is an incredible feeling to actually own my machine outright rather than just having a lifelong "subscription" to Microsoft. I commend you for getting into it early... wish I had. Never going back now.

[ATruepatriot]

I've been running Ubuntu for about 12 or 13 years now.

First time I tried it was about 20 years ago, Red Hat, couldn't get all the drivers working tho.

Sure has come a long way hasn't it? It is finally a very good option for the average user. I'm running Mint and digging it!

[pcosmar]

https://www.pclinuxos.com/
https://distrowatch.com/table.php?di...tion=pclinuxos



Been using this since 2004... Played with many,, Started with Slackware. This is the most user friendly I found.

Once past the learning curve,, any can be fine tuned to your liking.

I am using the Enlightenment Desktop currently.. and am liking it better than Plasma.

[Matt Collins]

I ran Mint on my desktop for about a year and it worked out. But the OS updates were a real problem. So now I am back to Windows 10.

However on my laptop I dual boot between Windows 10 and Ubuntu. I use Ubuntu whenever I need to open contents from a thumb drive that may originate from a questionable source.

[ATruepatriot]

https://www.pclinuxos.com/
https://distrowatch.com/table.php?di...tion=pclinuxos



Been using this since 2004... Played with many,, Started with Slackware. This is the most user friendly I found.

Once past the learning curve,, any can be fine tuned to your liking.

I am using the Enlightenment Desktop currently.. and am liking it better than Plasma.

I'm kind of new to Linux so I will have to check it out. Soooo many options. Thank you!

[ATruepatriot]

I ran Mint on my desktop for about a year and it worked out. But the OS updates were a real problem. So now I am back to Windows 10.

However on my laptop I dual boot between Windows 10 and Ubuntu. I use Ubuntu whenever I need to open contents from a thumb drive that may originate from a questionable source.

You may want to give mint a try again. The newest versions have been revamped and greatly improved. They cured all those issues and recompiled all the best of Linux into one OS that just plain works very well. I was intimidated by the "techy" aspect of Linux for a long time because I was using Win 7 with no problems and knew I just would not have the time to go through the learning curve. But now that we are down to the wire with being forced to use win 10 because they are going to stop updating win 7, I chose to pull the trigger and try Linux. After a LOT of research on the newest distros I ran across the article below and chose mint first, I have to say, after using win 7 I was totally impressed and so far haven't had any reason to look any further.

It is immediately familiar in feel and function for a win 7 user, and it blows win 10 out of the water with ease and is 4 times faster. It is a fully graphical user interface with all the point and click and plug&play drivers just like win7. So far I have only had to use the command line/terminal function twice. once because I was setting up a local VPN tunnel server on my machine, and once because I set up a virtual machine. Everything else has been dependable point and click for a year now just like Win 7 is. Honestly... They have done a good job with this, it blows MS away and is easy to use. And like you mention very secure as Linux always is. I just wanted to share this fantastic experience with everyone, there actually is a much better easy to use OS out there than Win 10 will ever be.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/mint-1...thumb_featured

https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_sylvia...n_whatsnew.php

[pcosmar]

Haven't been Distro Hopping for a while.

I wish I had some spare machines to play with,,, but I got real Comfy..

I did an LCARS desktop for a while.

//// and oh COOL... somebody else made one in GNOME.
https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1006793/

great minds do think alike

[pcosmar]

long time back,,,

[ATruepatriot]

Haven't been Distro Hopping for a while.

I wish I had some spare machines to play with,,, but I got real Comfy..

I did an LCARS desktop for a while.

//// and oh COOL... somebody else made one in GNOME.
https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1006793/

great minds do think alike

Seriously... It would be worth your time to read those links above in my previous post. They took the best of everything Linux including gnome and assembled it all into a very full and comprehensive out of the box bundle with an installer that works slick as snot. The best way of course is to build a USB stick and I highly recommend the "Rufus" program to do it. I am going to bet that you absolutely dig it, like I say it is now a full point and click OS like Win 7 and a normal user would probably never heed the command line interface. Here is what the package comes with, I had to compile the list myself because I could not find this lust anywhere on the net. Partial, but not the full list. like this. If you need any links just holler I have them all handy.

Mint Cinnamon 18.3 package.

Accessories:

Archive Manager - Calculator - Character Map - Disks - Document viewer - Files - Font viewer - Help - Image Viewer - Password and Keys - Redshift - Screen Reader - Screenshot - Text Editor - Tomboy Notes - USB Image Writer - USB Stick Formatter - Virtual Keyboard.

Graphics:

Gimp - Pix - Simple Scan.

Internet:

Firefox- Hexchat - Pidgin Messenger - Thunderbird Mail - Transmission.

Office:

Libreoffice - Libreoffice Base - Libreoffice Calc - Libreoffice Draw - Libreoffice Impress - Libreoffice Math - Libreoffice Writer.

Sound and Video:

Install Media Codecs - Media Player - Rhythmbox.

Administration:

Backup Tool - Disk Usage Analyzer - Driver Manager - GParted - Install Linux Mint - Login Window - Power Statistics - Printers - Software Manager - Software Sources - Synaptic Package Manager - System Log - System Monitor - System Reports - Terminal - Timeshift - Update Manager - Users and Groups.

Preferences:

Accessibility - Account Details - Applets - Backgrounds - Bluetooth - Color - Date and Time - Desklets - Desktop - Desktop Sharing - Disks - Display - Effects - Extensions - Firewall Configuration - Fonts - General - Graphics Tablet - Hot Corners - Input Method - Keyboard - Languages - Mouse and Touchpad - Network - Network Connections - Notifications - Online Accounts - Panel - Power Management - Preferred Applications - Privacy - Screen Saver - Sound - Startup Applications - System Info - System Settings - Themes - Welcome Screen - Window Tiling - Windows- Workspaces.

[ATruepatriot]

[pcosmar]

Seriously... It would be worth your time to read those links above in my previous post. They took the best of everything Linux including gnome and assembled it all into a very full and comprehensive out of the box bundle with an installer that works slick as snot. The best way of course is to build a USB stick and I highly recommend the "Rufus" program to do it. I am going to bet that you absolutely dig it, like I say it is now a full point and click OS like Win 7 and a normal user would probably never heed the command line interface. Here is what the package comes with, I had to compile the list myself because I could not find this lust anywhere on the net. Partial, but not the full list. like this. If you need any links just holler I have them all handy.

Mint Cinnamon 18.3 package.

Accessories:

Archive Manager - Calculator - Character Map - Disks - Document viewer - Files - Font viewer - Help - Image Viewer - Password and Keys - Redshift - Screen Reader - Screenshot - Text Editor - Tomboy Notes - USB Image Writer - USB Stick Formatter - Virtual Keyboard.

Graphics:

Gimp - Pix - Simple Scan.

Internet:

Firefox- Hexchat - Pidgin Messenger - Thunderbird Mail - Transmission.

Office:

Libreoffice - Libreoffice Base - Libreoffice Calc - Libreoffice Draw - Libreoffice Impress - Libreoffice Math - Libreoffice Writer.

Sound and Video:

Install Media Codecs - Media Player - Rhythmbox.

Administration:

Backup Tool - Disk Usage Analyzer - Driver Manager - GParted - Install Linux Mint - Login Window - Power Statistics - Printers - Software Manager - Software Sources - Synaptic Package Manager - System Log - System Monitor - System Reports - Terminal - Timeshift - Update Manager - Users and Groups.

Preferences:

Accessibility - Account Details - Applets - Backgrounds - Bluetooth - Color - Date and Time - Desklets - Desktop - Desktop Sharing - Disks - Display - Effects - Extensions - Firewall Configuration - Fonts - General - Graphics Tablet - Hot Corners - Input Method - Keyboard - Languages - Mouse and Touchpad - Network - Network Connections - Notifications - Online Accounts - Panel - Power Management - Preferred Applications - Privacy - Screen Saver - Sound - Startup Applications - System Info - System Settings - Themes - Welcome Screen - Window Tiling - Windows- Workspaces.

Not entirely comfy with Ubuntu,, and played with a couple..

besides,, I custom partition and like a separate root account. not a fan of /sudo
It's lineage is Red Hat rather than Debian.

and PCLinuxOS comes either Full Monty or stripped down depending on needs,,, and offers several desktop environments.

like I said,,,Comfy

[ATruepatriot]

Not entirely comfy with Ubuntu,, and played with a couple..

besides,, I custom partition and like a separate root account. not a fan of /sudo
It's lineage is Red Hat rather than Debian.

and PCLinuxOS comes either Full Monty or stripped down depending on needs,,, and offers several desktop environments.

like I said,,,Comfy

I got you... And I understand. But I can share that the install does exactly that for you. It automatically partitions for a separate root partition that requires secure log into it to make any changes to the root. They though of that advantage and built it in by default. They really did do a great job with putting this package together.

[pcosmar]

I got you... And I understand. But I can share that the install does exactly that for you. It automatically partitions for a separate root partition that requires secure log into it to make any changes to the root. They though of that advantage and built it in by default. They really did do a great job with putting this package together.

But it does not arrange my partitions the way I like,,, and this gives me options and tools to do so.
( I have a preference from Slackware days)
I understand that a lot of folks like Ubuntu,, but it is based on Debian,,and does root differently..

From Live CD to Install this one runs "out of box" in most cases... and with minor fix in rare cases.

[heavenlyboy34]

Tried running an Ubuntu distro a year and a half ago or so from DVD. (not quite ready to make the leap to installing it yet) For some reason, my PC just boots to Windoze when I have an Ubuntu disc in. Also tried a thumb drive to no avail. #kurwa :'( The distro I wanted to try was specially oriented toward musicians/producers, and I'm uber disappointed it didn't work.

[ATruepatriot]

But it does not arrange my partitions the way I like,,, and this gives me options and tools to do so.
( I have a preference from Slackware days)
I understand that a lot of folks like Ubuntu,, but it is based on Debian,,and does root differently..

From Live CD to Install this one runs "out of box" in most cases... and with minor fix in rare cases.

I get it... There are a lot of longtime Linux users who like to tweak it to their liking because they have the tech skills to do so. I am just recommending this great package for the average user who does not have the skills to do that. For a first time Linux user with limited skills it is the only way to go for power, security, ease of use, and reliability out of the box with no headaches at all.

[dannno]

Tried running an Ubuntu distro a year and a half ago or so from DVD. (not quite ready to make the leap to installing it yet) For some reason, my PC just boots to Windoze when I have an Ubuntu disc in. Also tried a thumb drive to no avail. #kurwa :'( The distro I wanted to try was specially oriented toward musicians/producers, and I'm uber disappointed it didn't work.

You probably have to go into your bios and set your boot priority to DVD or USB first, then hard drive.

[pcosmar]

I get it... There are a lot of longtime Linux users who like to tweak it to their liking because they have the tech skills to do so. I am just recommending this great package for the average user who does not have the skills to do that. For a first time Linux user with limited skills it is the only way to go for power, security, ease of use, and reliability out of the box with no headaches at all.

"skills" lol

I bought a Book and Disk my first time.. and barely had a clue.

I still only do a little command line when necessary. but went looking for user friendly.

there are,, and have been many..

if I had "skills" I would boot strap one from scratch.

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

[ATruepatriot]

Tried running an Ubuntu distro a year and a half ago or so from DVD. (not quite ready to make the leap to installing it yet) For some reason, my PC just boots to Windoze when I have an Ubuntu disc in. Also tried a thumb drive to no avail. #kurwa :'( The distro I wanted to try was specially oriented toward musicians/producers, and I'm uber disappointed it didn't work.

Depending on brand of PC there are different settings in the Start up Bios and boot order to make it boot from the USB or CD correctly. Were you able to find those? It probably wanted UEFI boot turned on and "virtual hardware" turned on to recognize it and boot from it.

[ATruepatriot]

You probably have to go into your bios and set your boot priority to DVD or USB first, then hard drive.

I agree, and if I remember right, Linux boot likes UEFI boot and hardware virtualization turned on.

[ATruepatriot]

"skills" lol

I bought a Book and Disk my first time.. and barely had a clue.

I still only do a little command line when necessary. but went looking for user friendly.

there are,, and have been many..

if I had "skills" I would boot strap one from scratch.

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

Well I can tell you for a fact that this version is very user friendly! Had no clue about Linux at all and took off flying immediately! Everything I knew about Win 7 all worked the exact same on this. It blew me away.

[heavenlyboy34]

Depending on brand of PC there are different settings in the Start up Bios and boot order to make it boot from the USB or CD correctly. Were you able to find those? It probably wanted UEFI boot turned on and "virtual hardware" turned on to recognize it and boot from it.

Haven't tinkered around with it since then. Now that y'all have inspired me, I'll give it another whirl ASAP.

[Matt Collins]

[Matt Collins]

Also I use Vera Crypt on my laptop that travels with me... the SSD gets fully encrypted.

https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Home.html

[ATruepatriot]

Haven't tinkered around with it since then. Now that y'all have inspired me, I'll give it another whirl ASAP.

Your box is full... Can't reply.

[fisharmor]

I expelled microshaft from my home in 2003.
I was using Red Hat at the time (Fedora didn't exist yet).
I played around with Knoppix and Mepis after that, then early Ubuntu, and when Gnome jumped the shark I went to Xubuntu.

Somwhere in there I went window manager crazy, even ran Ratpoison for a couple days, before recognizing XFCE does what I need on the hardware I use.

Ubuntu got me using apt-get and I have stuck with it, and that led me to Mint, largely becuse it was on top of distrowatch and hd xfce built in...

...but I am rebuilding currently and am probably going to go with Fedora for professional reasons, because I use RHEL occasionally at work and would like to work on cert or two.

[fisharmor]

But shout out to Pete, I do like enlightenment. Does PCLinuxOS have an enlightenment build? And am I seeing you say it uses rpms?

Edit: just looked it up, and it uses a custom apt that operates on rpms? How did that get so popular?

[fisharmor]

Interesting point I just discovered within the last week: Raspbian is pretty terrible for HTML5 support. Can't watch YouTube, play Pandora, or watch Netflix in-browser.
It's literally worse at supporting everyday functions than Linux was in 2003.