What is your OS -- windows, mac, linux?

[Boston]

I just stay away from any micro soft product
as they have never worked well for me

I had a really funny experience with my last and I'll never do it again Toshiba pc
it ended up in flames in front of a class off Toshiba repair men whike the instructor was in mid speech about how simple the fix was 4 this computer

I had given it to him as a class project after about ten people had tried to fix it and given every imaginable reason as to why they couldn't

it was hilarious

[plebusmaximus]

So, live up to it and run linux.

Unfortunately the silicon illuminate ensure that some specific apps that I use wont make it to the Linux OS and in some cases the the Linux based OS on MAC.

I had a really funny experience with my last and I'll never do it again Toshiba pc

It sounds like you had a unique experience as Toshiba tend to be one of the more durable manufacturers of computers.

CAD apps especially renders can put extreme load on machines more so laptops. They get very very hot.

MACs are great however PC enables customisation of hardware specific machines.

When I get a new machine Ill put Linux on the old.

With the new SDX format and Terabytes cards we'll be able to unplug OS's and plug another OS in on the same machine soon.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0901/09010803sdxc.asp

[masalai]

No need - dual boot or wine works, I prefer wine.... and with hdd now in terrabytes and SD cards quickly catching up, the screen (LCD) keyboard and mouse are the big in volume items, and the speakers... I have a 600 x 800 projector that nestles nicely in my palm, so many things are changing....

Limiting factors are cpu performance and heat dissipation - which means more energy, and I am after low (voltage/amperage) power and reduced thermal issues and an OS that is lean and elegant and does not need hundreds of widgets running in the background, just those needed for current tasks...

[CDK]

This is a useful site for WinXP users. It tells you which services you can safely remove to make the O/S more stable and less time consuming:

http://www.governmentsecurity.org/fo...showtopic=1480

[marshmat]

Handy list, CDK. And it confirmed my suspicion that the DNS client (which has been running away on me and causing all sorts of hell lately) can be disabled with no ill effects.

Mas - Mint's installed and working peachy fine here. Installed in two hours with minimal attention (including some partition reworking and a boatload of software), compared to the better part of an afternoon to install Windows and all the common apps. Thanks for the tip! (I had Debian 4 on before, so I know GRUB can handle the boot sequence on this particular Toshiba.) Now to learn how to administer it....

[masalai]

tickle its tits gently and all should be apples...

On economics, have a look at post #2278 Global Politics and economics (lies and witchcraft) and the link really pissed me off about government manipulation of the markets GLOBALLY - those officials are worse than COMMUNIST dick-taters or whatever you feel is the worst type of political grouping....

[Boston]

Mas
tell me something I didnt already know



Plebus
I heard that a lot, as one after another tecs opened it up and started poking around,
a look of confusion slowly coming over them
it was entertaining to say the least as that thing made monkey's out of one after another and finaly burst into flames in front of about twenty people
I suppose I may have just had a bad one
but
I learned to appreciate that machine, in time
it taught me a lot about Microsoft and cheep hardware
thing is I had several bad experiences with pc and then let a friend convince me to try it again even though I was literally on my way to the Mac store when I bumped into him ( he is some big shot for sun systems )
that thing was like the last straw
was a perfect lesson from above to be standing there when it finally went up in flames
so now I run on a Mac and all is well
never a problem
never a moment wasted on anti anything
its flip a switch and start right in

best of luck with whatever your preference

Marshmat good to hear you are up and running again

B

[Mychael]

I am convinced of that now. I use a program called mailwasher to protect my mail, I run a firewall, a virus checker (always kept up to date) and various other aftermarket things to guard me from all the holes the ms is supposed to have. In any case I just got a spam email which happens to have the name of a person (who does not use email) but I have mentioned his name in emails to another person as well as asking about this person in a yachting forum.
Coincidence? I don't think so.

Mychael

[Boston]

yikes

[Mychael]

As we have been discussing Linux I was wondering what peoples thoughts are on UBUNTO and DEBIAN? I've been doing a bit of research and they both seem to be pretty good.
I'm going to build up an old pc to try them out.

Mychael

[marshmat]

Mychael,

I had Debian "Etch" (stable version) on this machine for a while before switching to Mint last week. (Debian is maintained in three releases- currently "Etch" (stable), "Lenny" (testing) and "Sid" (unstable), I would recommend Lenny if you decide to go this way.) Several friends who are more computer-oriented than I swear by Debian. I found I spent more time swearing AT it. The stable releases are somewhat outdated and proprietary drivers can be difficult to handle. But if you really want to learn the intricacies of Linux administration, Debian is probably a good way to go. I liked it, but gave up on it mainly because of the driver issues and the tendency for stable releases to be outdated. If you don't have proprietary wireless, printer, etc. drivers and want to learn all the tricks and details, Debian is a good way to go.

Ubuntu (Debian-based) and Mint (Ubuntu-based) tend to be somewhat more user-friendly to the novice. Some of the GUI tools they add are rather useless, others are very handy. Mint is even easier to get going with than Windows, so you probably won't learn as much about the innards as you would with Debian, unless you browse developer wikis for fun in your spare time. But Ubuntu or Mint will get you up and running pretty quickly, and with a decent collection of software.

Boston et al: I assure you, I would not buy another Toshiba. Not after this thing's been in the shop time after time (speaker ground short, defective power adaptor, defective power connector, several unexplained BSoDs before I clued in and reinstalled windows from the MS disc instead of the Toshiba one, and most recently a hard drive failure). And not after the hell they gave me this week over the warranty on my DVD player- Toshiba Canada is now voiding warranties at will if they decide they don't like the store the unit was purchased from. So it's off to find a new brand for me, next time....

[masalai]

Debian is the father of Ubuntu which is the parent of Linux Mint - - so - - in using "mint" one gets the benefits of a solid lineage and ease of use from Ubuntu but improved with all codecs and plugins & propriety drivers "in the box" - - - therefore for a newbie try Mint then if you like to seriously delve into compiling your own, Debian, or RedHat....

[Mychael]

okay one more question. How about an O/S called 'Linspire'? Or if you want the free one 'Freespire' ?

Mychael

[masalai]

Not really inspired..... check out things here http://distrowatch.com/ as they have a finger on the pulse of ALL linux flavours...... and the links will connect to each distribution and reviews by whom etc.....

[Mychael]

okay, so I have mint running successfully on an old pc. (My good pc) is trashed from the attempt, had to reformat the hdd's lost everything.

Anyway on the old machine mint loaded easily and runs fine but I cannot get any of my peripherals to work, cannot find drivers.

Got linux drivers for my canon printer and that works after a fashion but has no printer maintenance/adjusment controls in linux.

No drivers for my netcom adsl modem, or logitech cam or microtek scanner.
Any suggestions?

Also cannot seem to find any system maintenence/housekeeping controls in the Linux o/s.

Mychael