Why was I ever afraid of Linux?

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Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
I may be a nerdier fellow, but as someone that enjoys computer gaming, I never really saw the appeal for Linux. I definitely saw that there's quite a bit of crazy mojo magic that you can do with the command line, and I do such at work, but ultimately, I rarely need to do that sort of thing at home. Windows has pretty much always suited my needs and didn't really present any sort of challenge in getting something to work.

I am interested in this Ubuntu Netbook Remix though. I have an old ASUS EeePC 4G Surf, which I believe is listed under the compatibility list (as the 701). I have it running XP right now, but the screen's resolution is so small that the desktop scrolls. I don't use it for much, but as long as I can access NTFS formatted drives (connected via USB) and play some media files off a SDHC card, I'm happy as a clam.
 

Jodell88

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2007
8,762
30
91
I may be a nerdier fellow, but as someone that enjoys computer gaming, I never really saw the appeal for Linux. I definitely saw that there's quite a bit of crazy mojo magic that you can do with the command line, and I do such at work, but ultimately, I rarely need to do that sort of thing at home. Windows has pretty much always suited my needs and didn't really present any sort of challenge in getting something to work.

I am interested in this Ubuntu Netbook Remix though. I have an old ASUS EeePC 4G Surf, which I believe is listed under the compatibility list (as the 701). I have it running XP right now, but the screen's resolution is so small that the desktop scrolls. I don't use it for much, but as long as I can access NTFS formatted drives (connected via USB) and play some media files off a SDHC card, I'm happy as a clam.
Ubuntu Netbook Remix has been discontinued. You should use the standard Ubuntu as it uses unity which was what the netbook remixed used. Before you try out GNU/Linux on your netbook, please make sure you do not have the poulsbo(sp?) graphics chipset. There are no drivers for GNU/Linux.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
60,030
10,521
126
I am interested in this Ubuntu Netbook Remix though. I have an old ASUS EeePC 4G Surf, which I believe is listed under the compatibility list (as the 701). I have it running XP right now, but the screen's resolution is so small that the desktop scrolls. I don't use it for much, but as long as I can access NTFS formatted drives (connected via USB) and play some media files off a SDHC card, I'm happy as a clam.

AFAIK, the netbook remix is dead. You may find the packages around to do it yourself, or someone else may be doing it, but as an official thing, it's no more. Unity took it's place.

Checkout these two. I've played with both, but haven't done a full install. I still have Ubuntu 10.04 on my netbook, but I've been toying with installing one of these...

Bodhi - Uses E17 as the windows manager. E17 can be hard to setup due to a ton of options, but they give you a nice start, and sane defaults...
http://www.bodhilinux.com/

Zenix-os - Based on Debian, and uses the OpenBox window manager. Light, and lovely...
http://zenix-os.net/

Edit:
Ubuntu Netbook Remix has been discontinued. You should use the standard Ubuntu as it uses unity which was what the netbook remixed used. Before you try out GNU/Linux on your netbook, please make sure you do not have the poulsbo(sp?) graphics chipset. There are no drivers for GNU/Linux.


The Eees work great with GNU/Linux. I have a 2g Surf, and an Eee900, and both have worked flawlessly with a few distros.
 
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0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
91
now read some man files and use vi. stuff is useful but i wouldn't say its intuitive.
 

Lean L

Diamond Member
Apr 30, 2009
3,685
0
0
And you can change right back. There's nobody telling you what you can and can't do with your system like there is with proprietary O/Ss

Right, all comes with work.

GNU/Linux's strong suits are absolute control, and freedom. If you want to install it on 10 different computers, you can. Install it to a thumb drive so you can use it on foreign machines? Gravy. A monkey could do it. The only limitations are technical. You're free to change any portion of the system to make it work for you, and you're free to give or sell your changes to someone else. There's no black box where you don't know what's happening. If you think your system's spying on you, you can look at the source code and see; not that that happens with libre software, unlike its proprietary counterparts...

Very true. But with that much rope, you can hang yourself.

Not really arguing against it since it is fully changable. With user computers I don't want that. I don't want to have to figure out every individual's computer to do a quick thing here or there. I also don't want to have to recustomize every computer that I use.

Idk where the blackbox idea came from.

If you like it for those purposes then great. I personally believe uniformity is a good thing for ubiquitous computing. I had to make a prototype of a vital signs monitor recently. When my team deviated too much industry standards, all the user feedback demanded us to stick to standards again. Granted these were ICU nurses with 30 years of avg experience. Maybe linux can be the future. I just don't see it.

Btw, look into the design concepts behind unix and compare that to a more user orientated system such as IOS(also unix I know... but had a drastically different agenda). Unix was barely meant to have an UI.

Rule of Modularity: Write simple parts connected by clean interfaces.
Rule of Clarity: Clarity is better than cleverness.
Rule of Composition: Design programs to be connected to other programs.
Rule of Separation: Separate policy from mechanism; separate interfaces from engines.
Rule of Simplicity: Design for simplicity; add complexity only where you must.
Rule of Parsimony: Write a big program only when it is clear by demonstration that nothing else will do.
Rule of Transparency: Design for visibility to make inspection and debugging easier.
Rule of Robustness: Robustness is the child of transparency and simplicity.
Rule of Representation: Fold knowledge into data so program logic can be stupid and robust.[4]
Rule of Least Surprise: In interface design, always do the least surprising thing. One mention of interface. This is not even pertinent to HCI.
Rule of Silence: When a program has nothing surprising to say, it should say nothing.
Rule of Repair: When you must fail, fail noisily and as soon as possible.
Rule of Economy: Programmer time is expensive; conserve it in preference to machine time.
Rule of Generation: Avoid hand-hacking; write programs to write programs when you can.
Rule of Optimization: Prototype before polishing. Get it working before you optimize it.
Rule of Diversity: Distrust all claims for "one true way".
Rule of Extensibility: Design for the future, because it will be here sooner than you think.
 
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lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
60,030
10,521
126
Btw, look into the design concepts behind unix and compare that to a more user orientated system such as IOS(also unix I know... but had a drastically different agenda). Unix was barely meant to have an UI.

Rule of Modularity: Write simple parts connected by clean interfaces.
Rule of Clarity: Clarity is better than cleverness.
Rule of Composition: Design programs to be connected to other programs.
Rule of Separation: Separate policy from mechanism; separate interfaces from engines.
Rule of Simplicity: Design for simplicity; add complexity only where you must.
Rule of Parsimony: Write a big program only when it is clear by demonstration that nothing else will do.
Rule of Transparency: Design for visibility to make inspection and debugging easier.
Rule of Robustness: Robustness is the child of transparency and simplicity.
Rule of Representation: Fold knowledge into data so program logic can be stupid and robust.[4]
Rule of Least Surprise: In interface design, always do the least surprising thing. One mention of interface. This is not even pertinent to HCI.
Rule of Silence: When a program has nothing surprising to say, it should say nothing.
Rule of Repair: When you must fail, fail noisily and as soon as possible.
Rule of Economy: Programmer time is expensive; conserve it in preference to machine time.
Rule of Generation: Avoid hand-hacking; write programs to write programs when you can.
Rule of Optimization: Prototype before polishing. Get it working before you optimize it.
Rule of Diversity: Distrust all claims for "one true way".
Rule of Extensibility: Design for the future, because it will be here sooner than you think.
If more devs followed these rules computing would be much nicer. These apply equally to libre and proprietary software.

Edit:
There really isn't much to say about the UI. The one specific mention fills in the holes left by the general guidelines.
 
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Lean L

Diamond Member
Apr 30, 2009
3,685
0
0
If more devs followed these rules computing would be much nicer. These apply equally to libre and proprietary software.

Edit:
There really isn't much to say about the UI. The one specific mention fills in the holes left by the general guidelines.

I guess what I'm saying is if it were catered towards the ui it would show up in that list a whole lot more.