# Linux



## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

Have you tried it?

How do / did you get on with it?

Which distro do you use?

What do you like / dislike about it?

Why is it better / worse than Windows? :devil:

What level of IT experience is required to install and run it?

How well do the music players such as Banshee and Rhythmbox and CD burners like Brasero compare to itunes, WMP etc?


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

Yes, I have been running it on one of my PCs for a year or so - Ubuntu, currently 14.04. It boots up and runs _very_ quickly even on a 10 year old machine (which has since died, but I stuck with Ubuntu on its replacement to keep the costs down)

It seems very easy to install and run, and glory be, when the old PC I was running it on died, we took the hard drive out and put it in a second hand machine, and it booted up from the disk.

Once it corrupted horribly and my son Robert had to partition the hard drive and reinstall, then we transferred the data - mostly FLAC files - over.

If things go wrong - but this has happened rarely - I have needed his IT support to get things going again, but I'm getting more confident at working things out with the help of the Ubuntu online forum.

Rhythmbox is OK but I'm running Foobar 2000 with Wine Windows emulator without any problem.

Not all DACs will run on a machine running Linux - as I discovered with my ARCAM rPAC, but that's now with my Windows PC and I use an inexpensive Epiphany eDAC with the Linux PC (I'm told this uses the O-DAC design)


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I ditched Windows in 1997 and went to Red Hat, which evolved into Fedora in 2003. I have it on both my desk- and laptop computers: presently Fedora 21. It is easy to install: just burn it to a CD or DVD or copy it to a USB stick and boot. Follow the directions. If you are familiar with the partitioning of your drive(s), there is no risk of accidentally overwriting or erasing your data. Best is to use a separate drive for personal data, so there is no risk of loss, in the event of accident. I think there is little expertise required to use it. Most people confine themselves to the graphical desktop. If you like to do custom configurations on the text level, then you will need to read a bit. I like it because I am not forced to be a software pirate. With Windows, you have to pay for a new version every few years, plus any additional programs cost extra. With Fedora, everything you need is included, updated daily, and totally free of cost. The operating system is cutting edge: developers are working round the clock and updates are yours at the click of a button. I have no problems playing multimedia files, but, since many codecs are still patent-encumbered, they require an extra download to get them installed. I use LibreOffice for the word processor and spreadsheet functions. It is completely equivalent to MS Word and supports the international standard Open Document Format (ODF). I also like the many different desktops that are possible. With Windows, you have no choice. I prefer KDE, which comes with it's own programs: calendar, email, browser (but I use Firefox for Linux), etc. As I use KDE, I use K3B for burning. It is full-featured, with far more settings than Brasero. Again, I prefer Amarok for digital music file playback to Rhythm Box. I have never had data loss or any of the problems, like viruses and 'blue screens' etc., that are part of the daily Windows experience. And guess what? If you have an Android smart phone, you're using Linux.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I am running LinuxMint Mate on a 2006 HP Pavillion with 2GB memory. It is way better than Microsoft. I never have forced reboots, it is more efficient on memory (by the way, Firefox is about the most memory efficient of the major browsers). Updates are simple and don't take forever, and don't require a restart. I have been running Linux for about 8 months as it was used to revive my dead computer that required reloading the Windows Vista OS every time I started the computer. My son has Linux on several of his computers and my wife's computer. He is our household IT tech person.

I use Assunder to rip CDs, Brasero to burn CDs, Audacity to edit music tracks, and VLC media player for videos and music playback. Brasero will make an iso file (xxx.iso) of your DVD disc and that is meant to be used to burn a second disc, but the iso file is a great way to watch the video as it comes up very quickly and the whole DVD is one file. Also have AdBlocker. 

The nice thing is you have a software center with all kinds of programs that do not try to load malware toolbars as do most downloads from CNET (downloads.com).

Only drawbacks I am aware of are I can't watch a CD ROM on Linux and Amazon's digital music downloader (which they require you to use if you want to download your purchased tracks) won't run on Linux.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

I've used Linux exclusively for a number of years now. I've used a number of distros, but I've been sticking with Arch for the past few years. The documentation is excellent and I've never used a better package manager than pacman. Not for neophytes, however.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Florestan said:


> I am running LinuxMint Mate on a 2006 HP Pavillion with 2GB memory. It is way better than Microsoft. I never have forced reboots, it is more efficient on memory (by the way, Firefox is about the most memory efficient of the major browsers). Updates are simple and don't take forever, and don't require a restart. I have been running Linux for about 8 months as it was used to revive my dead computer that required reloading the Windows Vista OS every time I started the computer. My son has Linux on several of his computers and my wife's computer. He is our household IT tech person.
> 
> I use Assunder to rip CDs, Brasero to burn CDs, Audacity to edit music tracks, and VLC media player for videos and music playback. Brasero will make an iso file (xxx.iso) of your DVD disc and that is meant to be used to burn a second disc, but the iso file is a great way to watch the video as it comes up very quickly and the whole DVD is one file. Also have AdBlocker.
> 
> ...


Sounds like a reason not to use Amazon rather than a reason not to use Linux!

We don't have Linux on our computers yet, as my son is also in charge of IT in our household, and he's yet to show an interest in Linux. If you don't mind my asking, how did your son become so knowledgeable about IT, since he was home schooled and you say you know less about computers than he does? Is he self taught in that respect? I'm only asking because my children are also home educated and have taught themselves and each other to use computers. I'm curious how others have managed to deal with this.


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## Kibbles Croquettes (Dec 2, 2014)

I did use Linux for a number of years. It does have its good sides, but I did have quite a lot of problems with it too. I'm not sure if it was really Linux's fault or my computer's. I think it mighy have been more my computer's fault. I did have a constant struggle with flash players: one player worked on one site but not on another; second player would do just the opposite. Audio recording was a hassle with all the JACK-routings, patching synthesizers to Ardour etc. Well, that is Linux's downside. I did have constant problems with some software like PsychoPy and SciLab. Running software through Wine was terrible.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Figleaf said:


> Sounds like a reason not to use Amazon rather than a reason not to use Linux!
> 
> We don't have Linux on our computers yet, as my son is also in charge of IT in our household, and he's yet to show an interest in Linux. If you don't mind my asking, how did your son become so knowledgeable about IT, since he was home schooled and you say you know less about computers than he does? Is he self taught in that respect? I'm only asking because my children are also home educated and have taught themselves and each other to use computers. I'm curious how others have managed to deal with this.


Right, there are other download sites. But I am not into digital downloads, except I could not pass up a couple of great deals on Amazon (one was 276 tracks of Handel oratorio's for 99 cents!).

Not sure how my son came across Linux but it was about when he was just getting into online college for Info Tech and Security and had just recently bought his first computer. I recall we were trying various antivirus programs like AVG and Avast. We had been getting some false warnings from one of the popular free antivirus programs. He did a lot of research online and I think that is when his interest in computers really took off. The online college is a great deal, especially in cost savings over attending on campus. But most of what he learned was on his own because so far he has had more prerequisite courses than actual computer courses.

He definitely knows a lot more about computers than I do. He just dove right in on replacing motherboards, and other parts, where I would be very cautious. I know the major internal parts, but am mostly content just to have a working computer. I have had computer courses, mostly a couple programming classes in college, and wrote programs in Basic and Fortran back in those days.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Used Ubuntu distro recently and really liked it. However couldn't get iTunes to function at all under WINE. So I gave up and returned back to Windows 7 and now I am using Windows 8.1 happily.

I would love to use Ubuntu again someday if I can get iTunes to work on it.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

I've been using various Linux distributions for about eight years now. For a few years, I used Linux Mint exclusively on my desktop, but later went back to dual-booting with Windows for video games. I currently dual-boot Windows 8.1 (primary) and Elementary OS (secondary, an Ubuntu-based distro designed to mimic the look, feel, and ease-of-use of OS X), although I plan on replacing Elementary with something else soon. Maybe Fedora, OpenSUSE, or Debian.

I've also experimented with Arch in the past, and I tend to prefer it for headless systems (i.e. no GUI/desktop environment, designed to run without a monitor, via remote access) because it's so lightweight. For my remote server, though, I use Ubuntu Server 14.04. I still have Mint Cinnamon on my old desktop and use it mostly for backing up my remote server.

Linux distributions generally aren't any more difficult to install than Windows or OS X unless you get into something like Arch, Slackware, or Gentoo (or if you're _really_ adventurous, Linux From Scratch ). Most of them will handle disk partitioning for you automatically, and even give you the option to install alongside whatever OS you might already have installed without losing any data. Using Linux is typically just as easy for most of your everyday tasks (internet, music, movies), and the package managers that most Linux distributions have make finding and installing software incredibly easy and secure. It might take a little while to get used to the "Linux way" of doing things (filesystem organization, where things are in the menus, etc.), but it's neither more or less difficult than going from Linux to Windows or OS X without prior knowledge. Nowadays, the only time you'd have to open the terminal is for advanced tasks which would require special software on Windows or OS X anyway.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

Many thanks for all the detailed replies, both pros and cons.

I tried Ubuntu four or five years back. It was fine on the internet but I really struggled with AV applications and was unable to do the fairly simple projects I had on the go at the time. OpenOffice didn't work well either. I therefore returned to Windows.

In the last few days I have bitten the bullet and loaded Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu) Cinnamon on both of my computers. It seems to have come a long way in a few years. Everything I have tried so far has worked at least as well as Windows.

However, I have some software and hardware over ten years old which I still use a fair bit, and in case any of it doesn't work with Linux, (and re the point about the Amazon downloader above) I partitioned one of my computers, keeping Windows 7 in a small area of the hard drive. This process was a bit fiddly and required more than one attempt, but it is working fine now.

Cost savings are not confined to avoiding paying for new generations of Windows software. Also, it is possible to buy second hand PCs which are ex-lease and have had their Operating System removed. These are very cheap. I recently got an HP laptop in like new condition for £88 delivered from ebay.

Aesthetically it is nice to be part of a global community project rather than giving money to the monstrous corporations which are far too intrusive in modern life. :tiphat:


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

I too have dabbled in Linux off and on for a decade or so. The current issue of ubuntu is on my 'netbox', which is also my backup computer.

I haven't 'migrated' to ubuntu mostly because I haven't found audio processing software I like nearly as well as I like GoldWave. There is also that different way of doing the basic things; my brain may have shrunk too far to even make that switchover.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

It is not a bad idea to keep a copy of Windows 7 for those occasions you need to run a CD ROM or something, but I would think it best to be on a separate computer because if you dual boot and get a virus attack while in Windows it will mess with your files and then they will be messed up when you go back on in Linux. 

Open office not the greatest. Libre Office pretty good though.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Wood said:


> Aesthetically it is nice to be part of a global community project rather than giving money to the monstrous corporations which are far too intrusive in modern life. :tiphat:


Amen to that!!!!!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I love this time of year, especially A Charlie Brown Christmas with Charlie Brown, Linux and the entire Peanuts gang.


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## GhenghisKhan (Dec 25, 2014)

I dabbled with Lubuntu a lot. 

I prefer it as a programming environment. 

Can`t say it has any huge advantages over windows otherwise.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

Update: replaced Elementary OS on my desktop with OpenSUSE. Tried to use Fedora, but the live disk wouldn't boot for some reason (stuck on "A start job is running for Rebuild Dynamic Linker Cache" for some reason, whatever the f*** that means). I gave my old laptop to mom (with Windows 7) and took her old, considerably less powerful laptop for myself, on which I installed Manjaro (a derivative of Arch that's a bit easier to set up but still lightweight).


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I am installing the latest distro for Ubuntu onto one of my desktop. We will see how it goes.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Hmmm, I have heard that Mint is the best and easiest to use Linux distribution.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Florestan said:


> Hmmm, I have heard that Mint is the best and easiest to use Linux distribution.


Dunno about "best", but it's certainly one of the more noob-friendly ones.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

ahammel said:


> Dunno about "best", but it's certainly one of the more noob-friendly ones.


That is what I should have said. Thanks for clarifying. I think it also is better if you don't have a lot of RAM (I run it on 2GB ram)


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Florestan said:


> That is what I should have said. Thanks for clarifying. I think it also is better if you don't have a lot of RAM (I run it on 2GB ram)


It's probably one of the more ram-heavy distros, actually. Dunno if 2gb would be enough for the cinnamon DE, but any of the lighter ones should be fine.

In other news: the new job has forced me to become an OSX user again. Pleasant enough, but I'm not sure what the deal is with the slow desktop animations in Yosemite.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I run Mint Mate.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Oh, I misread that. I guess if you do it, then it must be possible! (Mate and Cinnamon are very similar. Both disks of Gnome 2.)


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Got my Ubuntu desktop up and running and now it handles exclusively all of my FLAC music files that iTunes doesn't play.

Works smooth as butter and loving the UI.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

ahammel said:


> Oh, I misread that. I guess if you do it, then it must be possible! (Mate and Cinnamon are very similar. Both disks of Gnome 2.)


My son tells me that Mate uses less memory than Cinnamon, which is why he put it on my computer.

Yeah, in fact I have an ASUS netbook with 1 GB ram that is running Mint Mate.

We have a half GB setup in the living room to run DVDs since our DVD player broke. It is running Linux Puppy. Very strange user interface. To copy from a thumb drive to the hard drive you rename the file extension from the thumb drive to the hard drive. No drag and drop.


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