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Post by mikkh on Nov 4, 2012 2:42:50 GMT
www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.aspStatistics from the last 10 years shows Linux users overtaking Vista users in the last two years - that's quite an eye opener and a pretty pleasing statistic for me personally. It could and should be lot's higher though, if people would give it a proper go. The average user does little more than surf the internet, maybe print a few things and transfer pictures/music to various devices. All of which can be done in Linux too. There's very little can't be done and there's probably more genuinely free software in Linux than Windows ever had or ever will have. All without a mountain of security software running in the background slowing your machine down. The only people who might not take to it, are hardened gamers because the latest greatest (yet another clone of a previous) game are not available for Linux. Gamers only account for about 25% of the market and if you generously add another 10% to include those who can't seem to function without Microsoft Office - that leaves 65% of people using Windows solely for familiarity purposes. People who have even heard of Linux have some very strange ideas about what it actually is. It's NOT a geeky, text only mess that needs a degree to understand it. At advanced level it does have some weird and wonderful commands to use, but so does Windows at that level and without being rude, the majority of Windows users barely reach intermediate level, yet still manage to run the system. It's the same with Linux, at grass roots level it's a point and click interface just like Windows with no specialised skill needed for day to day tasks. It's different to what you're used to, but so is every new version of Windows and yet people adapt, even if they do whinge a bit along the way. I use Linux myself obviously, and there were times in the past when I've booted Windows because an equivalent didn't exist in Linux. This year, I can't remember booting it once and that is a true test of it's progression
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Post by vikingken on Nov 4, 2012 9:30:47 GMT
How do they arrive at these figures and what counts as a Linux OS Mick??? There are millions of Linux smart phones and they are small computers. There is a plague of tablets, released before there was a Windows alternative. Even I have got 2 NAS running and they both Linux. Not conventional operating systems but computers all the same. In reality there might be you, your dad, Elvis and wee Jock in Aberdeen. In the words of Winny or some such parliamentarian: "There are lies, da mn lies and statistics."
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Post by elvis on Nov 4, 2012 10:48:35 GMT
H! Mikkh,
Well i am a W7 user & a Linux user and too tell you the truth i never use W7 much when i do i normally spend the first half hour down loading update for one thing or the other, but as you say Mikkh Linux dose every thing W7 dose and more for me.
Nice to her from you Mikkh on the boards
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Post by jojo on Nov 4, 2012 16:33:55 GMT
I'd love to try Linux.
But....
What I get from windows is, reasonable stability, I know it works with my machine and won't screw it up, leaving me with a hunk of metal, I can locate programs to use on it and know where to find them; there's loads of people with advice that doesn't consist of treating me like some idiot whom it might be briefly amusing to mess with for a few mins, before chucking off the site altogether.
Where can I get a decent copy of a decent version that will actually work, without someone claiming I need to buy a new machine (Duh!) as soon as I have any problems?
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Post by vikingken on Nov 4, 2012 19:38:08 GMT
Personally if I was going to run Linux Jojo, I would put it on a separate machine from my Windows. If I didn't have an old machine to put it on, I would at least put it on a different drive to Windows. I would use the BIOS to choose what drive to boot off and not start any dual booting idea. Unless your some kind of an expert, dual booting can get you into trouble and really bugger your Windows system up. If you decide you dont like Linux, you have then got to sort the boot out and its easy to upset a perfectly good Windows installation. When I said an old machine for Linux, there are versions of Linux that will run on just about anything. You can get used to using it without endangering your Windows. I've even seen it on this site, novices install Linux to sort out a Windows system and finish up with two broken systems instead of one. Windows 7 will take care of itself, if you do all the things you should and you dont need to use Linux to fix it. All versions of Windows XP can easily be repaired from boot, as long as you install SP3 on Home Edition. So if your Happy using Windows, dont mess with Linux. I'm not anti Linux, it has its uses. I'm running Linux right now, but its on two separate machines and only connected to this one via the router. Windows and Linux will coexist, but they dont mix.
Now Mikk will come along and say I'm wrong, but he's a Linux expert and doesn't even run Linux on the same machine as Windows. He would install Linux on both machines, but his daughter wont let him.
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Post by johnnybee on Nov 4, 2012 23:41:37 GMT
Well I've finally got round to having a look at Linux Mint V.9 on this PC, just to see whether it's any improvement on the others I've tried - Ubuntu, Mandrake, Sabayon & Fedora - and I have to say that it's no easier to use (by comparison with Windows) but it is far more responsive in most respects. Not happy with the paranoid requirement for password-protecting everything - smacks of WinVista - and the way they put everything in different places; Firefox isn't the brightest bulb in the box either; you have to hunt around for functions that are readily visible in IE, and changing the default setting for your home page is a bloody nightmare! The other disappointment was the fact that despite describing the OS as 'being installed within Windows' it isn't - it winds up as a dual-boot system, which is one thing I wanted to avoid. I'll give it a go for a while and see how I fare with it, but first impressions aren't that good - we'll see.
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Post by elvis on Nov 5, 2012 9:47:50 GMT
Linux Mint 9? i am on Linux mint 13-14 is out soon
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Post by johnnybee on Nov 5, 2012 15:48:28 GMT
Elvis me ole m8, I'm not that keen TBH; I've had the install DVD for over two years now, and only just got round to doing something with it. Frankly, the way things are looking right now it's gonna be a reformatting job anyway; however, I did say I'd give it a chance so that's what I'm gonna do. If I do manage to get my head round where they've hidden everything in v9, I might then consider upgrading to a later distro - meanwhile the jury's still out!
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Post by johnnybee on Nov 5, 2012 15:50:59 GMT
...and can anyone tell me why my avatar has suddenly been removed? It didn't come from Image Shack as far as I'm aware, so what the hell's going on?
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Post by Lynnrose on Nov 5, 2012 15:55:45 GMT
I can see your avatar
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Post by elvis on Nov 5, 2012 16:57:39 GMT
So can i johnnybee
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Post by johnnybee on Nov 5, 2012 18:53:10 GMT
Well, that's bloody funny - I can see my avatar on this PC in the lounge, but it's been removed on the display on my main PC upstairs! There's a couple of Jojo's avatars missing off his posts too - same dialogue. Hey-ho, another of life's little imponderables!
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Post by vikingken on Nov 6, 2012 4:20:38 GMT
I can see it fine John, maybe you need to update your Java or sommit daft.
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Post by Lynnrose on Nov 6, 2012 5:58:31 GMT
Oh dear, I think I know why......I have been into Image Shack which I have not been in for years!...I cleared out loads of stuff and some Avatars were in there. If you remember, years ago I had used a code that allowed members to pick an Avatar from a list via their Profiles, all were uploaded to Image Shack! Anyway, I have replaced yours JB from TinyPic, will have to sort out Jojo's. Sorry people!
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Post by Pete on Nov 6, 2012 16:13:23 GMT
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Post by johnnybee on Nov 6, 2012 22:48:22 GMT
Thanx for sorting that out, Lynn babes - I thought I was losing the plot there for a minute!
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Post by mikkh on Nov 9, 2012 22:20:57 GMT
Sorry, been busy since I posted that.
I've always dual or multi-booted with Windows since day one of trying Linux and never felt the need to use a separate drive. Access to Windows has occasionally been lost over the years, but that's just a simple boot-loader problem that is easily corrected. Linux is very aware of Windows and always makes provisions for keeping it. Windows turns a blind eye and refuses to acknowledge Linux at all though.
I always partition my drives to have Linux and Windows partitions and in the past have kept the Linux partitions reasonably small and kept the majority of the drive for Windows. For at least 3 years that situation is reversed. I keep the bare minimum for Windows now and happily let Linux have the lions share.
Most of the year I've been using Stella Linux (based on Red Hat Enterprise) and it's rock solid stability is what prompted this thread in the first place. I have found the perfect Linux several times in the past, only to have them snatched from me by some very sad coincidences. Libranet was the perfect Debian clone years before Ubuntu and Mint came on the scene. Conectiva was the first distro to play DVD's natively by default and work perfectly well on an old pentium II, and good old Xandros, another superb Debian clone that made the early editions of Ubuntu look like badly designed kiddies toys. Now all gone unfortunately, though strictly speaking, Conectiva lives on in Mandriva (when they merged with old Mandrake Linux) but like most mergers, one side exerts far more influence than the other, and Conectivas strong points have all but disappeared in the corporate bullnuts of Mandriva. [bullnuts! haha thanks over zealous censor]
Anyway, I digress and hope Stella doesn't suffer the curse of me liking it like the others
And Ken, the only reason Windows still exists on my daughters PC, is because I keep forgetting to install Linux on it - She's quite happy to jump on my PC and use it I'm going to sort that out tomorrow to check out Stellas stability on different hardware
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Post by johnnybee on Nov 9, 2012 23:05:22 GMT
Hehe! 'Bullnuts' indeed! You know what, I'm gonna try a few things on posts to see if I can get one over on this software censor mullarkey! How's about 'bollox' for a start?
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Post by vikingken on Nov 10, 2012 11:15:40 GMT
You have had a wee bit of experience with both Mick; in fact I dont know anyone with more experience with Linux, except Penelope Garcia in Criminal Minds. The point I was trying to make, its almost impossible to break Windows 7 and if someone is such a novice they dont know how to fix it, installing Linux will prove a disaster. Anyone trying Linux for the first time, would be well advised to keep the two OSs well apart. You can easily fix a broken boot; not so easy to fix a dual boot, when they cant even fix the first one. Using BIOS to select the boot drive, makes things much easier for someone new to the game, if theres a simpler way I dont know it. You can install Linux on a toaster, so an old obsolete computer is an ideal testbed to learn on and leave your brand new Windows 7 computer perfectly clean. So you talked your daughter round, you must have been studying Hypnotism while waiting for the fish to bite.
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Post by mikkh on Nov 11, 2012 0:46:45 GMT
No, she's not bothered now - the few things that didn't work in Linux, all work perfectly well now and have done for a long time. She basically wants access to Facebook and Youtube on her weekend visits. It was only when MSN messenger was the preferred social software that she didn't like the rather basic Linux equivalent, but now Facebook rules the teenage world, she's quite happy to use Linux.
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Post by johnnybee on Nov 11, 2012 11:21:03 GMT
Yeah, most peeps I know are on Basefook now, Mikky; I got a slot on there back in Jan 2008, mainly because a lot of my kids' friends were already on it for one thing, and also many of my council colleagues had already started pages for their respective wards. Couldn't be left out, now could I? Very useful app for getting in touch with folks without the formality side of things.
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Post by vikingken on Nov 12, 2012 16:47:12 GMT
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Post by mikkh on Nov 13, 2012 1:33:18 GMT
Facebook is handy for me, teenagers post every thought in their head and I'm pretty sure she forgets she added me to hers. I learn more from facebook than she would ever tell me normally
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Post by johnnybee on Nov 14, 2012 0:59:00 GMT
Dead right there, Mikky - all my kids are on it, and all their friends are likewise; going back to when they were kids, all these "mates" of theirs became Hil's and my mates too, and we watched them grow up, get married (or whatever) and have kids of their own. I vowed that when my kids moved on in their lives, I would let them get on with it, knowing that if they DID need us for any reason we'd be there for them; however that can be looked on as disinterest in a way, so some of the day-to-day stuff that we would have discussed, didn't get discussed - I found out about it from their FB walls. Obviously things did change a lot after Hil died as that brought us a lot closer, but now that Ange is with me, it seems that they now don't want to intrude on what is now my life with her. Just google up "Isn't life strange" by the Moody Blues - that about sums the whole thing up nicely!
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Post by jojo on Nov 14, 2012 14:58:26 GMT
I was chattng to a niece of mine, on Facebook, who is now in her 20s, but was quite a handfull in her teens. Anyway, showed her your post mikkh and it raised a good laugh.
Though I'm mention it.
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Post by vikingken on Nov 16, 2012 4:29:31 GMT
My family live all over the country, so FB does help keep in touch. I have never had any trouble talking to my daughter, she speaks to me like a school teacher, talking to a naughty little boy. Admitted she waved me goodbye at Heathrow when she was 7 and I didn't see her again for 12 years. If I had been press-ganged 300 years ago I would have got shorter trips. She dont treat me bad, just not very often. My granddaughter treats me like a big brother, but I'm her hero in a nasty sorta way.
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