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You know you can just use a 'sensible version of GNOME' on Ubuntu if you want right? It's really easy.

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-install-cinnamon-1-8-on-ubuntu-13-04.html

Or for the lazy: http://lartc.org/wondershaper/

Slick script that sets up all your QoS rules for you to prioritize interactive traffic over bulk traffic, makes it easy to limit bandwidth used by a "guest network" interface to an arbitrary limits to leave some headroom for your gear , etc. etc.

Some examples:
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/use-bandwidth-shapers-wondershaper-or-trickle-to-limit-internet-connection-speed.html

If you're having problems recording a playing audio stream, have a look at this page

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-recording-internal-audio-in-ubuntu.html

If you don't want to invest in new hardware, you could use DAR or KDAR (KDE front-end for DAR).

With KDAR, what you want is the slicing settings.

There's an option to pause between slices, which gives you time to mount a new disk.

I as much as anyone else hate when an OSS user tells people who are looking for help that they're doing it wrong, but this is clearly the case here.

You should not be moving files you don't have persmission to move using a GUI. You don't need admin prvileges to do even 99% of your everyday file operations. If you absolutely must, there's this extension. But I can't see any reason why you would need to do this, and it strongly suggests to me that your setup is wrong. Sometimes stuff does happen, like a root-owned file ends up in $HOME, but the solution is to change the owner, not to use root access all the time.

And there's really no way to correct a typing mistake in command line. That got to really be annoying.

You are probably using the wrong terminal emulator. Left and right keys work even in the most basic ones.

As for the rest of your points, you could have just used a VM. And if you hate proprietary plugins so much, then why do you keep using Netflix? You're supporting the thing you proclaim to hate - so don't waste your time saying that you don't like it.

I'm sorry, but you never tried Linux. You tried Windows on a different OS. You need to be willing to relearn how to do things you've gotten used to and it doesn't hurt to have a friend help show you how it's done. While there are some things that you're just not going to be able to do without a VM, there are others which you claim you can't do when the problem really is that you're doing it the way you're used to it, rather than how it should really be done. It sucks having to accept that you need to change the way you think, but if you get it out of the way when you start, then things will only get better from there.

The assumption for linux these days is that the distributions will take the source and provide a distribution/version/architecture specific offering.

For ubuntu there is a PPA and therefore an install process. I would assume that it's multi-architecture.

Netbook edition wasn't designed for a big screen... it was designed for Netbooks.

I dunno, when I saw it originally I thought they designed it specifically for touchscreens - http://www.ubuntugeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/ubuntu_netbook_remix_beta.jpg

Looks to be allright for a tablet.

It has been fixed.

No, it hasn't.

They're going to roll back the patches the caused the problem, but this isn't a "fix" for the main issue.

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/x-org-server-memory-leake-bug-fix-released-for-ubuntu-10-04-call-for-testing.html

Well, I found a program in the Ubuntu repository that can create a random mac address for my wifi card :)

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/change-your-network-card-mac-address-on-ubuntu.html

macchanger -r wlan0

Creates a new random mac address for the wifi card. But first you have to disable it so it is not in use at the time.

Happy Dance !

-Joe

Since "Linux" is not one operating system as Windows is, I'll stick to a Linux-based OS that is easy to install, very popular and that I know best: Ubuntu.

With respect to your tasks, Google instantly found me: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/allow-remote-control-to-your-desktop-on-ubuntu/ , http://www.ubuntugeek.com/unison-file-synchronization-tool.html , and
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-ubuntu.html

I'm no kernel hacker (hax0r implies cracker) but I do know how to type search terms into Google. I'm genuinely curious about how one would quickly figure out how to do those things on Windows without using a web search engine.

Well the command line would be one good way.
If you want a GUI gnome-schedule looks good too.

I just upgraded my Eee901 to the current eeebuntu standard this weekend and was pretty impressed. They have compositing working on the desktop and it's pretty slick.

Add the Chromium nightly repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list and you have Chrome running as well. With the virtual desktop, it's pretty easy to run it in full screen on one display and slide back and forth to the other desktop apps as well.

I'll have to go home later and time the boot / suspend / resume, though.

I only wish Google Maps Mobile ran on it.

This help?

Just for the record, VirtualBox can use VMWare images. I am running a VMWare HaikuOS with VirtualBox.

If you want to convert a VMWare image to VirtualBox format, you need QEMU and follow these instructions.

Ubuntu users are blessed with Back in time. All it is is a gui interface to rsync, but the gui is quite nice. Since the rsync keeps the same directory structure, you can always check your backups by simply viewing the files on the backup drive.

It's probably not that safe/secure, if the 'admin' can't login to verify the update actually worked,

Well, the output of the log file that gets emailed to the user account would verify the update. You wouldn't need root privileges to view that and assuming whoever is in charge of grepping through it does their job, it could be possible that no updates have failed. I generally run my updates through test systems before going into production machines.

or periodically check the update didn't unexpectedly do something stupid like leave a world-writable executable (that a critical program runs in a privileged context from time to time).

In mandrake, msec is installed as a base tool. It can be loaded adjusted and loaded in other distros with some minor work but I believe that there is already something similar in most other distros. For instance Ubuntu has Tiger, Denyhosts, and tripwire, which are all likely to be able to be installed on other distros as well as other tools like SELinux.

Now don't get me wrong, and please understand that I'm not saying a system set up in this way "will" remain secure. I'm saying that it is possible to remain secure for quite a while without the root passwords and there can be situations where years go by before anything or anyone needs the root password. Distros will usually drop support for the distro (unless it's debian which seems to take 10 years to move the stable branch to unsupported. Or it did a few years ago) before a well secured *nix box gets compromised. Scripts to provide reports covering all you mentioned and probably more have been and can be set up in almost any distro. One of my favorite distros has been doing it since 1999/2001 for addon options and base installs. These scripts can be enough to maintain a reasonable level of assurance that everything is fine and the person reviewing them doesn't need a root password at all. I am also talking about Unix/Linux systems, not a windows box. While something like this may be possible in a windows box, it is less likely to just work without a root password or the Sudo equivalent.

Add additional support like Snort, properly configured firewalls, umask set up right and so on, years can go by before anyone ever needs the root password.

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-set-a-static-ip-address-in-ubuntu-810-intrepid-ibex.html

I'm not sure if it still exists in 9.04.

Phoronix stated in the second paragraph: "For our testing we had used the final Intel 32-bit releases of the four most recent Ubuntu releases except for Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" where we used the Intrepid release candidate."

This benchmark would be more valuable if it compared how the ubuntu repository fared when compiled with the different available compilers:
-Intel compiler
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/howto-install-intel-c-compiler-10-on-ubuntu-feisty-fawn.html
-GNU compiler
-SunStudio compiler
http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio/downloads/index.jsp
-Portland group has unifying binary for both intel 64-bit and amd 64-bit
http://www.pgroup.com/about/why_pgi.htm
-Pathscale compiler
http://www.pathscale.com/node/189

It would also be nice to discuss benchmarks for:
-AMD 32-bit Kernel
-AMD 64-bit Kernel
-Intel 64-bit Kernel

Make Your Own Ubuntu Live CD/DVD or Distro with Remastersys

I'm surprised this isn't more well known, Ubuntu + Remastersys is very nice and easy:

http://www.remastersys.klikit-linux.com/

Official Remastersys forum, here's where you ask and learn:
http://loscompanion.com/forums/index.php?board=58.0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remastersys
http://lifehacker.com/software/linux-tip/make-an-ubuntu-backup-live-cddvd-with-remastersys-330181.php
http://klikit.pbwiki.com/Remastersys
http://www.ubuntu-unleashed.com/2007/09/remaster-and-clone-your-ubuntu-install.html
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/creating-custom-ubuntu-live-cd-with-remastersys.html
http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu-linux-mint-livecd-with-remastersys

For those that don't already have it handy, here is the repo info for you /etc/apt/sources.list file.

# Remastersys
deb http://www.remastersys.klikit-linux.com/repository remastersys/

Please MOD this up if you find it useful, I think it is, but it gets buried with time and people don't see it because I'm posting as anonymous coward, thanks!

In short, I don't need Windows, it failed me long ago and fails me now, no reason to expect or care for it (or the convicted monopoly) to improve.

Make Your Own Ubuntu Live CD/DVD or Distro with Remastersys

I'm surprised this isn't more well known, Ubuntu + Remastersys is very nice and easy:

http://www.remastersys.klikit-linux.com/

Official Remastersys forum, here's where you ask and learn:
http://loscompanion.com/forums/index.php?board=58.0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remastersys
http://lifehacker.com/software/linux-tip/make-an-ubuntu-backup-live-cddvd-with-remastersys-330181.php
http://klikit.pbwiki.com/Remastersys
http://www.ubuntu-unleashed.com/2007/09/remaster-and-clone-your-ubuntu-install.html
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/creating-custom-ubuntu-live-cd-with-remastersys.html
http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu-linux-mint-livecd-with-remastersys

For those that don't already have it handy, here is the repo info for you /etc/apt/sources.list file.

# Remastersys
deb http://www.remastersys.klikit-linux.com/repository remastersys/

Please MOD this up if you find it useful, I think it is, but it gets buried with time and people don't see it because I'm posting as anonymous coward, thanks!

Why are you installing if you have a previous version of Ubuntu installed already? Change your repo's and apt-get dist-upgrade.

There's even an easy way.

Unless there is an problem with the link that can be immediately identified at the time you tested, like a physical problem, then you should develop a baseline of the customers network utilization. Generally, a single download provides insufficient information to in order for to give the employer or customers a recommendation related to their link utilization. This is especially important when the upgrade costs money.

Trending the link utilization is easy to do with free open source tools that will run on Linux, Windows, or a Mac. Or you can pay some $$ and buy software that will perform network utilization trending. Many protocol analyzers have this feature too. As a network administrator/engineer I expect that you can figure how how to tap the link or access the link devices network interface utilization, SNMP, RMON, or even NetFlow/sFlow information.

This is easy to do, just setup an extra PC or laptop on the customers premise for a week, just lock it down logically and physically. Free tools that I regularly use are Ntop (http://www.ntop.org/news.html) and Cacti (http://www.cacti.net). I'm sure that someone on this list can recommend a dozen other solutions.

These tools provide a graphical means to display the link utilization over time, providing greater information over a single download test, thus allowing you to make a more informed recommendation. And the graphics make nice additions to your reports! One scenario would be that the customer is seeing a slow down of their internet connectivity after lunch or late afternoon. Well, trending might reveal that indeed the network utilization peaks at these times when workers get back from lunch and just before they go home. And maybe it's only a few people hogging the bandwidth. On customer networks I've discovered P2P file sharing, large file downloads (movies and ISO's), and even infected computers used as repositories. The customer would have plenty of bandwidth if they just cleaned up that mess or better managed the limited resource with both technical or administrative (policy-based) controls.

And if you have more time, then check out the list of even more network management tools at http://www.slac.stanford.edu/xorg/nmtf/nmtf-tools.html or http://www.ubuntugeek.com/bandwidth-monitoring-tools-for-linux.html.

HTH someone.

[root@linuxgutt etc]# more mandriva-release
Mandriva Linux release 2007.0 (Official) for i586
[root@linuxgutt etc]# uname -a
Linux linuxgutt 2.6.17-5mdv #1 SMP Wed Sep 13 14:32:31 EDT 2006 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) GNU/Linux

might help.. http://www.ubuntugeek.com/playing-encrypted-dvds-i n-ubuntu.html

You can install Internet Explorer 6 on Linux. Now, if there is other software that is also necessary, (like an active x control) that might prevent it from working. Here's a howto install IE on Ubuntu:

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/running-internet-explore r-in-ubuntu-linux.html