Reached 1% of total browsers on internet recently.
-Significant considering how many of us are at work or in cyber cafes.
Often screamingly faster than windows

Is anyone here using it?

It has taken revolutionary steps of newcomer accessability in this decade.

Many versions (¨distros¨) of Linux can work of a usb stick these days. -¨Puppy¨ is the favourite for that at the moment. you can download it and browse and edit your microsoft files even if your windows has crashed.
Thereś a top 100 with links and reviews of various distros here: http://distrowatch.com/

Some histories of the open source revolution, hacker culture and Linux here: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/

Hereś a founding document for debian and open source: http://www.debian.org/social_contract.html#guidelines
I reckon Debian is pretty awesome, a big tradition going way back and takes care to succeed.
Ubuntu is a more impatient form of Debian (defaults for the less well developed, newer cyber toys, and is slower than Debian). Both are produced by huge communities Ubuntu has turned a lot of heads away from windows.

The fastest thing I ever used was Slackware but itś made by one old hacker (officially) one of its strengths though is some cyber savvy is required to adapt it -adding new programmes etc can be confusing, even installing it daunting.
there is a new version of another old distro (live cd and installable), based on slackwareś structure but more user freindly and loaded with, video, sound and picture editing tools called zenwalk.

Sabayon (based on gentoo) is very easy to use also.

I like how Various governments have developed their own Linux structures to replace windows.
Turkey developed one called Pardus that got rave reviews. Linux DEFINTELY adds life to very old machines windows would not bother to serve these days.
mandrake, redhat and suze are also significant. Suze signed a pact with microsoft at one stage
all over the place here Iĺl stop.

All microsoft has over it is Monopoly.

You can dual install it onto a windows machine: worth a try, or just run one off a cd or usb stick without even installing it to the hard drive. I flinux is for cyberpunks Grandma can hack.

Yeah, I've been using linux for over a decade now. I won't touch windows with a barge pole unless absolutely necessary. I'm using ubuntu and gentoo at the moment.

Ahh gentoo, I haven been there yet but read the builds idea is getting more noob friendly, will go there soon.
I can imagine will eventually settle on a pure branch distro and something like that ubuntu mongrel.
Tried the crunchbang variant of ubuntu recently - BEAUTIFUL openbox desktop, -reminded me of Factory records sleeves.

I tried to load Ubuntu onto an old laptop the other week, but I had to give up because there was not enough memory on the laptop and it can't go up any higher. I might investigate one of these stick versions though, that sounds like fun.

Puppy is hilarious!
There are a few other memory conscious options, one that modifies ubuntu is called crunchbang, can't remember checking out its memory usage though, being based on ubntu maybe not stellar
puppy is about 75 mbs for the whole thing -plenty of room on a usb for the programme and a few files.
zenwalk bends over backwards to be snmall but functional and fast.

I use ubuntu sometimes, but can't say I have the hang of it; sometimes I download something & can't find it.
Love the installer.

best thing is when I start my pc I have the choice.
It is faster & more stable.
But I only really use it for browsing the net.

Yeah it's easy to install. Most the other distros have caught up in that respect.
I had a problem with the downloads thing too the default for firefox was I think to keep downloads in a hard to find corner of hidden folders on your home folder. I'm flitting from distro to distro and learnt to change that settin g in firefox first thing, though I'm not finding I need to lately, they may have changed the defaults so that downloads are kept in a file automatically you can see (called "downloads"). Maybe an update would be rewarding.
There's a new version of crunchbang out now (Ubuntu based, reviewed here: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/crunchbang.html).

The new ubuntu is out tomorrow and I'm going for it on my secondary PC and then I'll think about my main PC once I've done the learning. I must say, the outgoing ubuntu 9.04 running off the CD is very impressive.

ubuntu home page

Already! Great news!
If the live c.d. is impressive (surprises me they'd do an impressive one of those) a hard drive install should be quicker.
Think I'll get that too I'm haveing trouble with my soundcards at the moment that were resolved in an otherwise clunky alpha of that.

I am using Bodhi linux as the alt. boot for my eeepc; if all i want to do is browse the net (midori) , write emails or word docs with Abisoft this is the one; so light & fast. seems very stable. Bit hard to navigate at first, finding things like.
looks nice and installed beautifully automatically doing the partitioning for me.
It supports VLC and a lots of other software, but I just don't use this on my netbook.


http://www.bodhilinux.com/about.php
:applaud:

wel I have had a couple of torrid weeks; I gave up Bodhi linux after some keyboard issues (which turned out to be the tracking pad)

I have tried a number of distros (& managed to use up all of my download limit in 2 weeks!).

Ones I have tried;

Jolicloud; best connectivity but seems restrictive.
Pepeprmint 2; worked well, but connectivity issues
Eesypeasy; clunky & couldn't connect wireless.
Eeebuntu clunky & connectivity issues
Crashbang; talk about basic!! worked great though.
puppeee; slightly less basic but no decent word processor.
Pinguy eeepc version; like this best but again some connectivity issues (there seems to be a chronic problem with Asus eeepc wireless connection & Ubuntu distros).

so for now I have a dual boot;

Jolicloud fro my uni stuff, things I need to get done & Pinguy for mucking around, hoping I can resolve the connectivity stuff.
Pinguy is really good; sits somewhere between Windows & mac with its cute docking app.

any ideas on connectivity? I look at the forums but they mean little to me. System is all up to date.

I am no expert, but the times I installed LINUX I had to be connected by a wire to run the first couple of times in order to download special drivers for the wireless card that was in my machines. When I was connected thru a wire, then there were prompts about these special drivers and warnings about how they weren't fully supported (or something). Nevertheless, each time I got the machine fully loaded up by running wired, then I could switch to wireless no problem. In fact, the only machine of mine that still runs LINUX is the one I gave to my mother -- and I gave it to her precisely because it maintains a wireless connection best (my mother freaks out when she loses her connection).

I have used Linux for a few years. I'm using the Ubuntu distribution, I recently updated to the 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx version. Very good although it does crash out sometimes, this never happened with the Hardy Heron version.

I'm using Linux Mint, and it's grand. I still have trouble finding my data though. I wish they would make that aspect a bit easier.

tried all of this as well as some very scary & archaic entries into terminal beginning sudo apt-get.... no luck.

so frustrating.

I think this Pinguy is a variey of mint. It is very tantalising, it looks great.

I agree Chipper, all of that archive management stuff is nowhere near as intuitive as with windows.

I really want to try linux but I'm too scared to atm...

You can download Linux Mint from it's homepage, burn it to a DVD and run it from the DVD without updating anything or risking anything on your PC. You can check that all your stuff works (comms, drives, printers etc), get a good look at what it all does, and look at all the great free applications there are to use (thousands of them). And it's so fast compared with Windows. When you've had enough, shut your PC down and take the DVD out and Windows starts up as normal next time. It's great fun, do try and have a go.

Blimey, I didn't realise you could do it that way. I'll sort my DVDs out and have a go tomorrow. Thanks, CP. :beer:

you can do even smaller versions to try, run something from a "live USB" use the Universal USB installer http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb...-easy-as-1-2-3/ which also links you to various distros.

look here for options

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distrib...r_distributions

The thing I wish people had warned me about was driver compatibility. Back when I first tried LINUX around 2002, the driver compatibility problems were typically fatal (at least for a novice). Either my monitor wouldn't work, or my disc drive or my floppy drive orsomething else.

When I tried again in 2007, there were still enough driver compatability problems that it wasn't worth my time to solve them.

When I tried again in 2010, there was much less driver compatability problems. the problem with my wireless card, I solved by going wired until all the special drivers were acquired. It took me a LOOOOOOONG time to figure out this problem and its solution. Beyond that, LINUX doesn't talk to my printer perfectly (although good enough for most print jobs). Also, LINUX won't talk to my scanner at all. There may be solutions to these problems -- there probably are -- but it is not worth the frustrating time required to solve driver compatability problems.

What, I am saying BiKurious is that you should expect some drive compatability problems, even at this late date in history. It doesn't mean don't try LINUX (LinUX is cool), but just don't go in with expectations too high.

what he said.
Until I fooked up my netbook I used a dual boot set-up and would choose Win XP for things I knew weren't so good on Linux.

works with my current printer.
Connectivity... grrr...
about to try fuduntu.

I downloaded it and burned to DVD, but haven't tried it yet - I'm just going to check it out this way for now rather than going the full nine yards, given what CT says.
I've never tried a different OS before other than Windows, so I just want to see what it's like.
Thanks, everyone. :beer:

(if I don't post anymore after tomorrow you'll know what happened... :D )

You have to make sure your PC will boot from the DVD drive, you need to go into the BIOS and change where it boots from so that it checks the DVD drive first before the hard drive.

One option you will be given, if you go the next step and do a "FULL install" is to choose a dual boot machine set-up(it may default this way). This means you keep your windows and your linux (without the dvd), and you just choose between them each time you turn your computer on.

Does this software effect what computer games you can run?

I've got to admit that reading these posts it sounds pretty bloody good.

yes.

games and much other software is platform specific (windows, apple, linux, etc). For example, I needs to run windows to run all my songwriting and recording and audio manipulation software.

Many programs have acceptable LINUX equivalents (for example, equivalents to Microsoft WORD). Other programs do not have LINUX equivalents.

Of course, if you maintain a dual boot system then you can always boot up in old windows to use the programs you have that require it.

and being Linux is much safer against malware etc.

Cheers for the info CT.

couln't install Fudunu, no idea why.

but now OpenSuse 11; best yet; superfast, easy connection but less intuitive.

http://en.opensuse.org/Main_Page

more adventures in Linux if anyone cares.

I was getting frustrated with Opensuse and my failure to install dropbox (or the one time i did, fail to have it restart on reboot); which was a pity, although it has quite a long boot up period, it was very stable & although not exactly intuitive, has a nice interface. The best things about it were stability & speed; when it was up, everything went like a rocket; docs would launch & webpage load faster than any other in my experience.

I know Chipper has exacting standards so I thought I'd give Mint a go; worked like a charm until I disconnected the mains; battery power & wifi do not seem compatible. Connection very scratchy. Seems to be a problem with all of the Ubuntu setups.

so I thought about Fedora, 3rd most popular selection.. completely unstable; connected well but crashed repeatedly.

Then a brainwave.
I retried Fuduntu, using unetbootin to install (rather than the universal USB installer & this loaded perfectly).

and Fuduntu connects & works superbly. Perhaps not the prettiest desktop but the dock at the bottom makes switching between applications easy. And it has dropbox integral to its set-up.

been using it all weekend.. so far so good....

if I could choose one (excluding connectivity) it would be Pinguy I think.

I think I'd better stop now, how many times can you install an OS without buggering up your computer??

p e e n u s

is this a distro I haven't heard of or is ta poorly spelled attempt at calling me a dick CT??

Inspired by this thread I've given it a go and it looks promising as a dual boot to Windows. I'm using the latest stable Ubuntu 11.04, and managed to get quite a lot of software directly - there is loads- quickly from the inbuilt software centre and other stuff online. I managed to load a couple of Windows only programmes from the Wine application as well.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

I've been impressed with how easy it is to get problems solved (concerning software and configuration) by searching the internet. It's quick although the browser does not look quite as good as in Windows, and I've got used to using the command lines in the 'terminal' to very easily load some software.

As a dual boot if anything goes wrong you can just uninstall the whole thing via Windows like any other software so it's good to have a play around with.

Some tips - when installing, you may get an error message concerning your hardware not being up to scratch but carry on and it will load anyway but you will not initially get the snazzy desktop. It may do this automatically but you can go to System Settings (right click power button top right hand corner and it's at the bottom) and open Additional Drivers and it will search for your Nvidia or whateveryou have graphics drivers to install and once they are installed it will be ready to go.

You will also need to install the updates to Ubuntu via Update manager as well, in a similar way to Windows Update.

I'm also now using Ubuntu 11.04 and my machine has not bombed out at all like it did with the last distro.

I'm not very keen on that "Unity" look. They are supposed to be losing a lot of fans due to that evidently.

Yeah, the Unity desktop is a bit fiddly and the 'Applications' window is not very well designed. There isn't a lot of choice to easily configure it but you can put programs into the equivalent of a program quickstarter on the left hand side pane. I still prefer putting my favourite programs on the main desktop itself.

I had to have a couple of goes at putting Google Chrome on as the first time every time it was minimized and you had the browser on a website. and then maximised it would bring up the homepage. Apparently this happens occasionally when you install it. It's fine now.

Apparently, there is a beta out at the moment which might improve things, and it does have a work in progress feel about it. Quite impressed with the Movie Player that comes built in - I like it better that Windows Media at the moment, and although I've not used it much, it played an mkv better than VLC which was a bit out of synch although that can be adjusted.

Good to hear it's an improvement on the last distro in terms of reliability though.

Still with Fuduntu; good sign after my fickle tribulations.

Message deleted

Changed my mind - gave up on this.

In Windows if something goes a bit wrong with a programme you uninstall it, maybe delete the program folder and reinstall and it's as good as new. Not in Ubuntu - reinstall and same shit comes back.

Back to Windows. Shame.

try some of the others I have.

Pinguy is nice.