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Fastbooting Linux For Dummies?
Linux First timer writes "I wonder whether the Linux Gurus of Slashdot could help me with some advice on setting up a Linux system for my wife. She is not at all computer literate, but likes to get on the net for a few minutes every morning to read news etc. She is always bitching that our XP desktop takes way too long to boot 'just to get on the net for a few minutes.' I was thinking that I could take an old laptop we have, do a little first time test drive installing and using Linux, and possibly solve her problem in one go. The requirements for the system are simple: fast as possible boot/load Firefox, easy for a computer dummy to get onto the net, hard to break through random incompetence, and comes with Open Office.org or similar for occasional use. Wouldn't be used for much else. Any useful advice for us two poor Linux newbies? For example, is Ubuntu the best choice for this, or is there a better Linux flavour for the purpose? Any useful tweaks a novice can handle to make it work better for these simple tasks only?"
The reason she boots every morning is because she thinks she will "break" the computer by leaving it on. Not sure if she is afraid of malware or thinks the computer is suffering 'wear and tear' in hibernation mode, but she just thinks its safer to turn it off. And before you say "educate her" - she doesn't listen to me when her 'intuition' tells her something.
The reason she boots every morning is because she thinks she will "break" the computer by leaving it on. Not sure if she is afraid of malware or thinks the computer is suffering 'wear and tear' in hibernation mode, but she just thinks its safer to turn it off. And before you say "educate her" - she doesn't listen to me when her 'intuition' tells her something.
Then it is her ignorance that's standing in the way of a fast-access system, not software.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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The theoretical throughput might be 480 Mb/s, but I have yet to see any real-world benchmarks above about 300 Mb/s (37.5 MB/s), and if my own experience is any indication you'd be lucky to get even 20 MB/s on bulk transfers without high-end (read: expensive) hardware.
"The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
Did you note, you'll be wasting equal amount of electricity as a printer printing 10000 pages if you leave your computer on all night long?
[Citation needed]
Dot-matrix? Ink-jet? Colour laser? Laptop? Desktop? Server? Display on or off? CRT? TFT? Storage? Power saving mode?
Notwithstanding that I challenge your statement to be anywhere within an order of magnitude or two off target as a generalised rule, the usage can be radically different depending on the combination. CRT's are different from TFT displays in energy use for example, rather dramatically in fact.
And my work laptop - a Dell Latitude D620 / XP Pro gets unplugged and locked into a desk drawer each night. I close down Outlook and shut the lid. Resumes in about 6 seconds the next morning. Whatever power usage it's consuming in that state, it's not enough to warm the desk drawer it resides in appreciably, and I don't see it spending much time recharging.
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Why is everyone rebooting? Just leave it on and reboot once a week if it is XP and about 45-60 days if it is Linux. Always on rules!
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I suggest installing Ubuntu (or some derivation) and go to System-->Preferences-->Session and add a new startup item like, say, Firefox. Have Firefox defaulted to opening the sites she likes to go to. Also, auto-login her user. I basically have this setup at work where I turn on my Ubuntu machine, go pour a cup of coffee, and when I get back Firefox is open and my mail client is open.
Life==Jeopardy. All the answers are right in front us - the hard part is coming up with the correct question.