One more reason to go Linux

My windows 10 machine will not sleep on its own, even though it is set to. When I put it to sleep when I go to bed it is ways on when I get up. I never notice any obvious additional processes running, everything looks normal when I check but obviously something is going on. I replaced the entire PC a year ago, didn't migrate any software, and it did the same thing. Makes me think it's an app I have installed but I have no idea what it would be.

I've begun using Brave and DuckDuckGo, but I think Linux is in my future. Probably via a dual boot, I have to keep windows to game with my son.
 
Last edited:
Disable the firewall on Win 10 and it won't update.
 
I don't own a computer anymore. No need. I am looking for a better tablet. My phone and tablet do everything I need. I think windows days are numbered. App based devices can do 99.9% of the average computer user's needs and they are much more secure.
 
Linux is too easy not to use it. If you get really concerned about spyware (governmental or otherwise), you can boot up your linux computer from a linux distibution on a DVD disk. That way the operating system files and config files can't get compromised and you can restore a known-good system just by rebooting.
 
With the rise in Ransomware how does Linux do with that? Several cities have been hit with it and I’ve windered what OS they are actually running and if the hackers target Windows based the most.
 
Linux is stronger against all types of malware (including ransomware) because it is open-source and the code is open to scrutiny by very smart people with the intellectual curiosity and the time to find weaknesses. Those people then share the vulnerabilities with the coding team, who make the patches and the version updates. Msft, on the other hand, keeps their source code secret and only the coding team have access to it. They may know about a vulnerability in the code, but they think they have time to fix it another time. It's like someone who knows there's a loose connection in their home circuit breaker box, but figures they can get to it another day before it becomes an issue - or like someone who knows they've got a small oil leak on their car engine but they just haven't made time to get it fixed. That's how Msft is with their own vulnerabilities. Linux doesn't have that because it isn't for sale and they aren't trying to get rich from it.
 
dkmatthews said:
Linux doesn't have that because it isn't for sale and they aren't trying to get rich from it.
Click to expand...
Hence rise to the argument the Linux detractors use that it lacks market share. Market share implies purchase of commercial products. Very little Linux is sold commercially, mostly Red Hat and Canonical (Ubuntu), and what is being sold is more of a support system around a distribution than anything else.
 
Last edited:
I believe that Ubuntu is a form of Linux. You can burn it to a disk and install it on a spare machine. I've been playing around with it but haven't really dived deeply into it yet.
 
Flashpoint said:
My windows 10 machine will not sleep on its own, even though it is set to. When I put it to sleep when I go to bed it is ways on when I get up. I never notice any obvious additional processes running, everything looks normal when I check but obviously something is going on. I replaced the entire PC a year ago, didn't migrate any software, and it did the same thing. Makes me think it's an app I have installed but I have no idea what it would be.

I've begun using Brave and DuckDuckGo, but I think Linux is in my future. Probably via a dual boot, I have to keep windows to game with my son.
Click to expand...

I don't know about Win10, but when a Win 7 machine does that, it means that something called "magic packets" is turned on. Certain packets of data coming through the internet can tell the computer that they are important and the computer will wake up. You may have to do some searching, but see if you can find the option to turn the magic packets off, and it should stay asleep after that.
 
Now this is my kind of thread; I don't claim to be an expert but I've been using Linux almost exclusively since 2005 and have been on a big privacy purge lately if anyone wants to talk about it.
 
Again the only problem with any kinda of Linux is the compatibility and availability of software. You do not need an office product at least because of open source office products like libre office. I do video and picture editing and there really isn't anything quality out there for linux. Even the browser experience is lacking. I hate that my life is an open book now to these people. EVIL people is what they are. This is all going to end very badly anyway. I mean you can almost taste the calamity coming the worlds way.
 
GeorgeBush said:
Now this is my kind of thread; I don't claim to be an expert but I've been using Linux almost exclusively since 2005 and have been on a big privacy purge lately if anyone wants to talk about it.
Click to expand...
So....how do I go about a Linux computer?

I need a new laptop. Mine is Win 7....i5 ,6GB Ram, 500Gb HD. It's on it's last leg. Sometimes it charges... sometimes not. It's probably 7 years old.

I'd like something with some "balls" to it....either a more advanced i5...or an i7. Having an independent graphics (nVidia) would be nice too as I want to do some CAD.

So how do I get Linux? But a Win 10 machine....and go buy Maximum PC that has the Linux disk and set up a dual boot somehow?

Teach me ol wise one ....lol


DS
 
DirtySCREW said:
So....how do I go about a Linux computer?

I need a new laptop. Mine is Win 7....i5 ,6GB Ram, 500Gb HD. It's on it's last leg. Sometimes it charges... sometimes not. It's probably 7 years old.

I'd like something with some "balls" to it....either a more advanced i5...or an i7. Having an independent graphics (nVidia) would be nice too as I want to do some CAD.

So how do I get Linux? But a Win 10 machine....and go buy Maximum PC that has the Linux disk and set up a dual boot somehow?

Teach me ol wise one ....lol


DS
Click to expand...

Dell used to sell Linux loaded machines mostly Ubuntu check there.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Any computer can run Linux; for weaker computers you choose a lightweight desktop environment. If you're buying something with "balls" that's not a big deal; I would pick one of the more popular / streamlined versions.

I am using Ubuntu right now and have used Linux Mint for years as well (which is basically Ubuntu underneath). Mint might be an easier transition for a Windows user (with its conventional start menu and all).

Basically just buy whatever computer you want and get one of these guys to put Linux on it for you. You would want to preserve your Windows partition so you could reinstall it if you don't like Linux.

-GB
 
DirtySCREW said:
So....how do I go about a Linux computer?

I need a new laptop. Mine is Win 7....i5 ,6GB Ram, 500Gb HD. It's on it's last leg. Sometimes it charges... sometimes not. It's probably 7 years old.

I'd like something with some "balls" to it....either a more advanced i5...or an i7. Having an independent graphics (nVidia) would be nice too as I want to do some CAD.

So how do I get Linux? But a Win 10 machine....and go buy Maximum PC that has the Linux disk and set up a dual boot somehow?

Teach me ol wise one ....lol
DS
Click to expand...

You don't really NEED a laptop with some "balls" to it because linux runs more efficiently than windows. If you're going to run/try to run linux, I'd recommend that you get a decent laptop with Windows already installed and then download a linux distribution (like Ubuntu) and put it on a DVD or USB stick. Then you can boot up the computer into linux and try it out. Once you decide you like it, you can install it as a dual-boot system with both Windows and linux on the HDD or you could remove Windows altogether.
 
Last edited:
Not a linux guru by any means, but I would start with something simple. My first distro was Red Hat, but it drove me crazy getting it done.

My very first computer was a Mac SE, operating off those floppy drives. I thought it elegant, but only used it to do cool graphics and typesetting for our church bulletins (I was a pastor, and would go places to "start" new churches).

When family health issues moved me to my background (Chemistry, where I kind of morphed into an environmental engineer), I "backed into" Linux thru commodity trading. I traded on the side, and then left my job to go to the floor and trade. I used to make markets in wheat options (floor trader) and have always thought math was "beautiful" even if I am not naturally gifted in it. I became enamored with the idea of spotting small mathematical divergences from a linear regression and using a trading system that focused on selling option premiums (going short the option, or short a spread) to wait for a return to the normal bias. I would download LARGE amounts of data and look for deviations from the line.... I started out using MS Windoze 3.1, which had a cap on memory from the DOS that was a part of it. (Windoze was a gui that sat on top of dos). You could "watch" the calcs shift in and out of that 640K packet of memory as LOTUS 123 did 35 years of price analysis to look for patterns. Many of the systems would take 8-14 hours to run to backcheck them.

I was ecstatic when I discovered OS/2, an IBM OS which utilized all the RAM you could throw at it. It would zip thru those calcs in 15 mins (or less!). I paid $600 dollars (I think that is right) for 4 meg of RAM (it was a fabulous deal at the time, and I was rocking and rolling!

I became a MS hater then, as I discovered an alt-world that pointed out the horrible spaghetti code ugliness of everything MS. I saw Steve Monkey Man Ballmer as just a thug, propaganda artist, and incredibly dishonest man, who feared OS/2 for all the reasons I loved it. Win 95, which was a piece of excrement, killed OS/2, and I just kept it on a separate machine to run trading systems.

I discovered Linux about the time Red Hat came out with the first family of gui interfaces. I was not a codehead, and had to teach myself how to make the @&!($#&^ thing work, but I recognized the potential of open source. I even toyed with the idea of learning coding and trying to write/develop, but was unsure if this was a wise course, as I had just taken a 6 figure hit in my trading equity (I have gone bust twice trading), and wanted a steady income.

Not too long afterward, I discovered MEPIS, a distro released by a brilliant but socially maladapted guy that finally made linux "easy" for non gearheads. About this time, Linux became virtual systems friendly for the average guy, and I began to run windows "inside" linux at my work ( owned an insurance brokerage by that time, having transitioned out of engineering). I did Ubuntu for a while, and transitioned to Mint, which was easy for my wife and kids to "get."

It is not very robust for heavy duty photo and film editing (but then again, neither is Windows/Photoshop... you really should get a Mac for that).

Over the years, I have watched colleagues struggle with viruses, oceans of protective software and patches and firewallstuff, deal with scammers, piddle with the nonsense that MS foists on people, pay outrageous upgrade and support fees etc etc. I ran my business software in a virtual box, which gave me fantastic security. I had stupid secretaries who would go to sites and d/l music and get viruses IN MY VIRTUAL WINDOZE BOX, which I could just nuke and restore. I had total control over what went onto my network, and I had two teenage daughters who were typical silly twits who were totally irresponsible in the sites they visited (my wife, too!), and I never suffered any issues about security. No virus checkers, no worms, no nothing. I use "GIMP" for image manipulation, and I don't play games online. If all you do is read email, chat, surf the web, play music, and do social media, with its attendant picture posting and receiving, along with some spreadsheet calcs, online banking etc, there is precisely ZERO excuse not to use linux. Spend a few hours learning some basics, and you will breathe easier.
I would recommend MINT if you have a robust and vigorous system (or MANJARO, which I dont have but have heard it also is very noobie friendly), or one of the older versions like PUPPY if you have an old antiquated machine (I used Puppy on a laptop that could only take less than a gig of ram and it ran like a song).

There are lots of guys in this forum WAY smarter than me who would probably help you set up your machine for beer and a pizza (or less).

You should try it.
 
bigfelipe said:
I don't own a computer anymore. No need. I am looking for a better tablet. My phone and tablet do everything I need. I think windows days are numbered. App based devices can do 99.9% of the average computer user's needs and they are much more secure.
Click to expand...

If someone develops a really good PHONE docking station that interfaces with a mouse and screen (the problem is touch screen), that person will make a pile of money, and desktops will vanish, along with the traditional OS. My money is on Google Pixel for the future of this.

Much as I hate Google (and I do!) it is hard to argue that their software/apps are not first rate. They are what Apple used to be, imo.
 
GeorgeBush said:
Any computer can run Linux; for weaker computers you choose a lightweight desktop environment. If you're buying something with "balls" that's not a big deal; I would pick one of the more popular / streamlined versions.

I am using Ubuntu right now and have used Linux Mint for years as well (which is basically Ubuntu underneath). Mint might be an easier transition for a Windows user (with its conventional start menu and all).

Basically just buy whatever computer you want and get one of these guys to put Linux on it for you. You would want to preserve your Windows partition so you could reinstall it if you don't like Linux.

-GB
Click to expand...


I thought I read Mint was discontinued?
 
Goofyfoot2001 said:
I thought I read Mint was discontinued?
Click to expand...
Nah it's going strong. According to distrowatch their website gets more hits daily than Ubuntu's does. They actually just came out with a new version less than 3 weeks ago.

They have a desktop environment called Cinnamon that I think is very nice. But MATE is another good one for transitioning from Windows and uses less resources.

I am a big fan of Mint but I tend to favor the latest Ubuntu release ability to do a bare-bones install that I can build upon myself. Mint is very plug and play but I often find uninstalling a lot of stuff and installing others... it gets a little messy. My OCD especially prefers a computer system to be very tidy.

EDIT: I should clarify I am a big fan of the Mint project. They do excellent work. My personal reasons for using stripped-down Ubuntu have nothing to do with their very high quality product.
 
Last edited:
tanstaafl72555 said:
If someone develops a really good PHONE docking station that interfaces with a mouse and screen (the problem is touch screen), that person will make a pile of money, and desktops will vanish, along with the traditional OS. My money is on Google Pixel for the future of this.

Much as I hate Google (and I do!) it is hard to argue that their software/apps are not first rate. They are what Apple used to be, imo.
Click to expand...

Have you used the Samsung Dex? Works with Galaxy phones and tablets.
 
Chrome* is the single worst piece of widespread "surveillance-ware" I can think of. I use the analogy of my losing 30 pounds last year. I still ate like crap, maybe I exercised a little more... but really I just cut out sugary soda.

Chrome is the Mountain Dew of internet privacy issues. It doesn't matter what you do to that browser it's still spying on you in some capacity.

I agree it's fast but...
 
I've been using Zorin and been fairly happy with it. It was designed for people transitioning out of Windoze. I need to look at the others, when I have time. Like, maybe next year. :rolleyes:
 
You can try most Linux flavors risk free. Download the ISO that interests you and write it to a USB drive using the appropriate utility. Restart your machine and boot to the USB stick. It will run the OS off the stick itself so you can play around with it WITHOUT touching your Windows install and personal files. Restart again and remove the stick... Windows comes back like Linux was never there.

I think Linux Mint - Cinnamon edition is a good place for most people with decent computers to start.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom