How? If there's a bug in something, a new version with that bug fixed is uploaded, then you download the new version. What's it matter what hardware you have? If you have something installed and a bug is fixed and uploaded, you'll get the fix automatically because the version number will be higher.
I'll bite: Computer make and model -- needed for drivers for specific manufacturers and models. Do you really want to apply a HP patch on a Dell system?
Plug&Play ID numbers of hardware devices -- Well, it does update hardware drivers... Why? If you're computer's working just dandy, why change the drivers? Last time I did a driver update through the MS Update thing, I ended up wtih 8-bit color and a 640x480 resolution on an nVidia card (not some relic from the 80s). Update, my ass! That's a downgrade! I don't trust their driver updates. They just break stuff. And hey, if it ain't broke, don't "fix" it!
BIOS name, revision number, and revision date -- I'm not sure, but I believe they may also provide manufacturer-supplied BIOS updates for some manufacturers. Not that I've ever seen. If I recall correctly, BIOS updates are generally done from boot floppies.
Remember, Windows Update updates drivers, hardware, and bundled software too. Microsoft Update services Microsoft software as well.
They update your hardware? I'll take a video card with 512MB VRAM in place of the Intel with 8MB shared, thanks. Oh, and a nice flat screen while you're at it.
The IT guys probably know how Samba works just fine and would be happy to be rid of it. Remember, the majority of servers are running a *nix. They probably have Linux servers running Samba to talk to the Windows desktops. By the way, Gnome Meeting is gone, replaced/renamed Ekiga Softphone. Ekiga uses SIP, though, so working cross country is no big deal. It'll interface with MS Live Messenger. I'd much rather admin Linux boxes. I've spent 10 years babysitting every crash and break on Windows. I've been using Linux for less than a year. Yeah, there was a learning curve, but I'm much better with Linux than with Windows now. When I have to do Windows boxes and I find out "you can't move the hard drive and just shove it in another? it won't boot? what?! that's stupid!" because someone's encrypted hard drive is inaccessible unless you find the exact same computer to put it in (can only get to files if you boot from it cuz of the encryption), I'm glad I can pop a Linux hard drive into any computer and have it boot. There are quite a few things I've done in Linux just assuming it'd work because it seemed logical, and it did, but when I suggest them on Windows, I get stared at and told it's "impossible." Windows makes you do everything the hard way when it comes to repairs.
As far as Office, OOo has a UI that is much closer to that of old MS Office than to Office 2K7. Very little moves going from old Office to OOo. Everything's weird in 2K7. Oh, and Google's web toolkit is Java-based, so if their apps are based on the web toolkit, then yes, they're platform independent thanks to java
"Most people have more than one hard drive"? Since when? I've never bought a computer and had it come with two hard drives. Laptops generally can't have more than one hard drive. Most people do not open their computer and add hard drives. If you are good enough with computers to know how to install multiple hard drives, you should be good enough to know how boot loaders work, that they generally go on the MBR, but can go on a partition to be chainloaded from the MBR, etc. Look, the deal is, if you don't install GRUB *somewhere* it can't load and therefore cannot boot your Linux kernel. You have to install it unless you intend to install Lilo from a live cd after getting Linux installed. Either way, you need your Linux bootloader.
http://ubuntuguide.org/ has everything for the codecs. Feisty Fawn (will be out in April) also has a choice the "add/remove" for a package that installs all of the codecs. Oh, and Ubuntu just hooked up with Linspire to get Click N Run so you can get legal versions of a lot of proprietary stuff.
In Feisty (due out in April), there is an option in the Add/Remove (that's the GNOME equivalent of Adept, I think) for a meta-package that installs all the codec support you need.
Weird. Mine doesn't crash. My mom's computer used to crash with Windows. The video driver would go and you'd have to reboot or sometimes it'd just randomly reboot (which is what XP does to avoid letting you see a BSOD). As far as I'm aware, there have been no issues since I installed Ubuntu. I'm fairly sure I'd get a call in a hurry if there was a kernel panic or something. Instead, I've heard my mom telling her friend who's in the market for a new computer about how much she loves having Linux and how fast and easy to use it is.
Uh, you can buy a support contract for Ubuntu from Canonical. Then you have a nice phone number you can dial and yell at the people on the other end all you want. You can't complain about free tech support on a forum. You CAN complain about the for-pay kind. If the for-pay kind from Canonical wasn't helpful, he could say something about it. These people weren't being paid, they were trying help just to be nice. Do you demand free help from the guy across the street then get mad if he doesn't know the answer or doesn't have time to go through every tedious step with you?
GRUB is recommended to be put on the main hard drive, but that's assuming Ubuntu is on the main hard drive. If Windows is on the main hard drive, you should chainload from the NTLDR in Windows to GRUB on your Ubuntu install. If you put GRUB where NTLDR was, NTLDR can't run. You can use GRUB to boot Windows or to chainload to NTLDR if GRUB/Ubuntu are on main and Windows is on secondary. GRUB and NTLDR just can't be in the same place at the same time. One of them should chainload the other, but you'll have to decide which does which and set it up for that. The "recommended" way is what works on 99% of dual-boots because 99% of the time, you partition 1 hard drive. The fact that you have multiple drives is why you are an exception to the recommendation. If you had told the other forum-member sooner that you had multiple drives, they would have been able to tell you how to set up the chainloading for multiple drives.
Feisty (which will be released in April) has wireless roaming through the network-manager applet by default. That was one of the big things they wanted to get in this time. Another is Compiz being installed (though not enabled) by default.
If that were the case you could "su" and then hit enter. That's not the case. On Ubuntu the root password is by default some crazy random combination of letters and numbers and I wouldn't doubt symbols. If someone tries to get into your box, they know there's root. Root's password won't be guessable. Your password might be guessable, but they'd need to know both your username AND your password.
I wouldn't call System76 too much of a no-name. They are recognized by Canonical as an Ubuntu vendor and they have their own support section on the Ubuntu Forums. They do have some credibility. I played with one at Ubucon. They're very nice.
Yeah, I know there's OOo for Windows. The install files are on the Ubuntu cd, actually. If you put it in while running Windows, you can install Firefox, OOo, the GIMP, and Gaim, I think. That's why I said the office suite pre-installed not just office suite in general. I believe the problem with ClamWin is that it doesn't do real-time virus-stopping. The for-pay ones monitor everything going in and out and then have a scan you can do at specific times. ClamWin only runs a scan when you tell it to, so if you know anyone who doesn't run their AV manually (come on, you have to know someone like that, it's most people), ClamWin is no protection for them. Things like Norton and McAffee run in the background all the time trying to prevent viruses rather than just pointing them out afterward like ClamWin would.
You do don't have Applications > System Tools? Are you using KDE? It's somewhere in the K-menu too. And in case you don't remember being 6, in Simon Says, you have to say "Simon says" for every order you give, or they don't do it.
When hibernate/suspend fail, it's usually a driver hanging it up. In Linux, you can tell it to shut down that driver when you suspend/hibernate and restart it when you unsuspsend/unhibernate if you know which driver is causing it. Figuring out which driver it is can be tough, but if enough people report it, someone will notice which one's doing it.
Well, do you think Microsoft makes the drivers for your hardware? No, the companies making the hardware write the drivers. They figure that if they don't it won't sell because the Windows users won't buy it without drivers. Linux use is starting to reach the point where there's almost enough of us to pressure companies on drivers just like Windows users can.
Actually, System76 (add a.com) sells Ubuntu-pre-installed laptops. I'm comparing a System76 Pangolin with a Dell Inspiron E1505 both with similar customizations because the base ones aren't that great for either.
Core 2 Duo 1.83Ghz
15.4" Widescreen XGA
1GB RAM (2x512)
100GB HDD
CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW)
Intel graphics
Intel sound
Intel Pro Wireless 802.11 ABG
1 year warranty
Total prices:
System76: $1192
Dell: $1103
Now, taking into account that the System76's come with the office suite pre-installed and Dell wants to charge $149 for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, plus you'll probably have to buy an anti-virus ($99 for 3 years from Dell), a Linux pre-installed laptop doesn't come out to a bad price. Ignoring the last stuff I said about office suites and anti-virus, the Linux-pre-installed, where you are guaranteed for your hardware to work is $89 more. When you count that unless you intend to not have internet access you're going to *need* to pay for an anti-virus on Windows, the laptop from System76 actually comes out to being less expensive than getting a Dell.
For Photoshop, check out Crossover Office. The regular version is $30 or it's $70 if you want tech support (Crossover Pro), but there are.debs and.rpms and.sh floating around the web too if you know where to look.
Slashdot Mirror
Why not a boot cd then? I don't want to have to go out and by an operating system for my computer that doesn't use Windows.
How? If there's a bug in something, a new version with that bug fixed is uploaded, then you download the new version. What's it matter what hardware you have? If you have something installed and a bug is fixed and uploaded, you'll get the fix automatically because the version number will be higher.
Computer make and model -- needed for drivers for specific manufacturers and models. Do you really want to apply a HP patch on a Dell system?
Plug&Play ID numbers of hardware devices -- Well, it does update hardware drivers... Why? If you're computer's working just dandy, why change the drivers? Last time I did a driver update through the MS Update thing, I ended up wtih 8-bit color and a 640x480 resolution on an nVidia card (not some relic from the 80s). Update, my ass! That's a downgrade! I don't trust their driver updates. They just break stuff. And hey, if it ain't broke, don't "fix" it! BIOS name, revision number, and revision date -- I'm not sure, but I believe they may also provide manufacturer-supplied BIOS updates for some manufacturers. Not that I've ever seen. If I recall correctly, BIOS updates are generally done from boot floppies. Remember, Windows Update updates drivers, hardware, and bundled software too. Microsoft Update services Microsoft software as well.
They update your hardware? I'll take a video card with 512MB VRAM in place of the Intel with 8MB shared, thanks. Oh, and a nice flat screen while you're at it.
The IT guys probably know how Samba works just fine and would be happy to be rid of it. Remember, the majority of servers are running a *nix. They probably have Linux servers running Samba to talk to the Windows desktops. By the way, Gnome Meeting is gone, replaced/renamed Ekiga Softphone. Ekiga uses SIP, though, so working cross country is no big deal. It'll interface with MS Live Messenger. I'd much rather admin Linux boxes. I've spent 10 years babysitting every crash and break on Windows. I've been using Linux for less than a year. Yeah, there was a learning curve, but I'm much better with Linux than with Windows now. When I have to do Windows boxes and I find out "you can't move the hard drive and just shove it in another? it won't boot? what?! that's stupid!" because someone's encrypted hard drive is inaccessible unless you find the exact same computer to put it in (can only get to files if you boot from it cuz of the encryption), I'm glad I can pop a Linux hard drive into any computer and have it boot. There are quite a few things I've done in Linux just assuming it'd work because it seemed logical, and it did, but when I suggest them on Windows, I get stared at and told it's "impossible." Windows makes you do everything the hard way when it comes to repairs.
As far as Office, OOo has a UI that is much closer to that of old MS Office than to Office 2K7. Very little moves going from old Office to OOo. Everything's weird in 2K7. Oh, and Google's web toolkit is Java-based, so if their apps are based on the web toolkit, then yes, they're platform independent thanks to java
Er, what? Installing is the hardest part of Linux. If that's done by Dell, anyone can use it. Heck, my mom says Linux is easier than Windows.
"Most people have more than one hard drive"? Since when? I've never bought a computer and had it come with two hard drives. Laptops generally can't have more than one hard drive. Most people do not open their computer and add hard drives. If you are good enough with computers to know how to install multiple hard drives, you should be good enough to know how boot loaders work, that they generally go on the MBR, but can go on a partition to be chainloaded from the MBR, etc. Look, the deal is, if you don't install GRUB *somewhere* it can't load and therefore cannot boot your Linux kernel. You have to install it unless you intend to install Lilo from a live cd after getting Linux installed. Either way, you need your Linux bootloader.
http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/06/08/16512 25 says "The Ubuntu installer doesn't set up a root user -- a root account still exists, but it's set with a random password."
http://ubuntuguide.org/ has everything for the codecs. Feisty Fawn (will be out in April) also has a choice the "add/remove" for a package that installs all of the codecs. Oh, and Ubuntu just hooked up with Linspire to get Click N Run so you can get legal versions of a lot of proprietary stuff.
He's using 64-bit. There is no 64-bit Flash for Linux.
In Feisty (due out in April), there is an option in the Add/Remove (that's the GNOME equivalent of Adept, I think) for a meta-package that installs all the codec support you need.
Current kernel is 2.6.20
Weird. Mine doesn't crash. My mom's computer used to crash with Windows. The video driver would go and you'd have to reboot or sometimes it'd just randomly reboot (which is what XP does to avoid letting you see a BSOD). As far as I'm aware, there have been no issues since I installed Ubuntu. I'm fairly sure I'd get a call in a hurry if there was a kernel panic or something. Instead, I've heard my mom telling her friend who's in the market for a new computer about how much she loves having Linux and how fast and easy to use it is.
Uh, you can buy a support contract for Ubuntu from Canonical. Then you have a nice phone number you can dial and yell at the people on the other end all you want. You can't complain about free tech support on a forum. You CAN complain about the for-pay kind. If the for-pay kind from Canonical wasn't helpful, he could say something about it. These people weren't being paid, they were trying help just to be nice. Do you demand free help from the guy across the street then get mad if he doesn't know the answer or doesn't have time to go through every tedious step with you?
GRUB is recommended to be put on the main hard drive, but that's assuming Ubuntu is on the main hard drive. If Windows is on the main hard drive, you should chainload from the NTLDR in Windows to GRUB on your Ubuntu install. If you put GRUB where NTLDR was, NTLDR can't run. You can use GRUB to boot Windows or to chainload to NTLDR if GRUB/Ubuntu are on main and Windows is on secondary. GRUB and NTLDR just can't be in the same place at the same time. One of them should chainload the other, but you'll have to decide which does which and set it up for that. The "recommended" way is what works on 99% of dual-boots because 99% of the time, you partition 1 hard drive. The fact that you have multiple drives is why you are an exception to the recommendation. If you had told the other forum-member sooner that you had multiple drives, they would have been able to tell you how to set up the chainloading for multiple drives.
Feisty (which will be released in April) has wireless roaming through the network-manager applet by default. That was one of the big things they wanted to get in this time. Another is Compiz being installed (though not enabled) by default.
If that were the case you could "su" and then hit enter. That's not the case. On Ubuntu the root password is by default some crazy random combination of letters and numbers and I wouldn't doubt symbols. If someone tries to get into your box, they know there's root. Root's password won't be guessable. Your password might be guessable, but they'd need to know both your username AND your password.
I wouldn't call System76 too much of a no-name. They are recognized by Canonical as an Ubuntu vendor and they have their own support section on the Ubuntu Forums. They do have some credibility. I played with one at Ubucon. They're very nice.
Yeah, I know there's OOo for Windows. The install files are on the Ubuntu cd, actually. If you put it in while running Windows, you can install Firefox, OOo, the GIMP, and Gaim, I think. That's why I said the office suite pre-installed not just office suite in general. I believe the problem with ClamWin is that it doesn't do real-time virus-stopping. The for-pay ones monitor everything going in and out and then have a scan you can do at specific times. ClamWin only runs a scan when you tell it to, so if you know anyone who doesn't run their AV manually (come on, you have to know someone like that, it's most people), ClamWin is no protection for them. Things like Norton and McAffee run in the background all the time trying to prevent viruses rather than just pointing them out afterward like ClamWin would.
You do don't have Applications > System Tools? Are you using KDE? It's somewhere in the K-menu too. And in case you don't remember being 6, in Simon Says, you have to say "Simon says" for every order you give, or they don't do it.
How is 423 days 1951? That's 2005.
When hibernate/suspend fail, it's usually a driver hanging it up. In Linux, you can tell it to shut down that driver when you suspend/hibernate and restart it when you unsuspsend/unhibernate if you know which driver is causing it. Figuring out which driver it is can be tough, but if enough people report it, someone will notice which one's doing it.
Well, do you think Microsoft makes the drivers for your hardware? No, the companies making the hardware write the drivers. They figure that if they don't it won't sell because the Windows users won't buy it without drivers. Linux use is starting to reach the point where there's almost enough of us to pressure companies on drivers just like Windows users can.
Actually, System76 (add a .com) sells Ubuntu-pre-installed laptops. I'm comparing a System76 Pangolin with a Dell Inspiron E1505 both with similar customizations because the base ones aren't that great for either.
Core 2 Duo 1.83Ghz
15.4" Widescreen XGA
1GB RAM (2x512)
100GB HDD
CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW)
Intel graphics
Intel sound
Intel Pro Wireless 802.11 ABG
1 year warranty
Total prices:
System76: $1192 Dell: $1103
Now, taking into account that the System76's come with the office suite pre-installed and Dell wants to charge $149 for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, plus you'll probably have to buy an anti-virus ($99 for 3 years from Dell), a Linux pre-installed laptop doesn't come out to a bad price. Ignoring the last stuff I said about office suites and anti-virus, the Linux-pre-installed, where you are guaranteed for your hardware to work is $89 more. When you count that unless you intend to not have internet access you're going to *need* to pay for an anti-virus on Windows, the laptop from System76 actually comes out to being less expensive than getting a Dell.
For Photoshop, check out Crossover Office. The regular version is $30 or it's $70 if you want tech support (Crossover Pro), but there are .debs and .rpms and .sh floating around the web too if you know where to look.