ANNOUNCING The best linux distro ever for desktop use!
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From: Mark Warner on 1 Sep 2006 23:15 Richard Steven Hack wrote: > On Sun, 27 Aug 2006 20:44:24 -0700, Daze N. Knights wrote: > >> Mark Warner wrote: >>> mike wrote: >>> >>> Yes, getting the lingo can be difficult. One reason is that using Linux >>> gives you so many choices, and all those choices have different names. >>> >>> In very non-technical terms: >>> >>> "Linux" is the kernel -- the base layer that interacts with the >>> hardware. It is strictly command line. Everything is built on top of it. >>> This alone can be considered an operating system, though only a few >>> uber-geeks would find it useful. > > Well, true enough for end users, but UNIX has been run like that for > thirty years. And it's damn nice to have a command line system underlying > the GUI when the GUI for some odd reason dies. I had a client running a > Linux file server for a law office. The /tmp directory filled up due to > the idiots who installed in dumping everything including games on a file > server. The X server dies when /tmp fills up. But their file serving just > kept on keeping on. The only issue was the office manager couldn't run the > backup system since it depended on a GUI frontend. Redirecting /tmp to > some open file space on another partition brought the X server right back > up. Not the best solution - the best solution would be redesigning their > partitions to free up adequate space on root for /tmp - but it worked. > > In Windows, when the GUI dies, you have to resort to the lame Recovery > Console - which has barely enough tools to resuscitate a system. > >>> "KDE", "Gnome", "xFce", "Fluxbox", etc. are window managers -- they are >>> essentially the GUI interface and a set of included applications. >>> Windows-think prevents us from thinking of the kernel and the window >>> manager as being separate, but they are -- W2K, XP, and 2K3 are all >>> built on the Microsoft NT kernel. > > Just a pedantic nitpick - XFce, Fluxbox and the like are "window managers" > - KDE and GNOME are desktops/application layers. There IS a difference. A > window manager just does that and little else. A > desktop/application layer provides window management and a lot more - such > as APIs for applications to communicate with each other and the like. It's > more like the Windows shell. > >>> Then there are the applications. Some are essentially stand-alone, >>> others "depend" on other components found in KDE or Gnome or elsewhere. > > That's the difference between a window manager and an application layer. > >>> Fortunately, the 'apt' and/or 'rpm' systems that are used to download >>> and install most applications are able to seamlessly find these >>> 'dependencies' and include them in the download and installation. > > MOST of the time...:-) > >>> Other bases are Red Hat, which has spawned Mandriva > > Used to be - Mandriva has been entirely separate from Red Hat for some > years. But yeah, they started out as a derivative of Red Hat and they're > both rpm-based (i.e., they use the same underlying package management > tools, although the GUI front-ends to those tools are entirely different.) > > All in all, a nice recap, though. That little rundown was the best I can do. It is the extent of my admittedly shallow understanding. I knew up front that there would be several points that would be less-than-accurate, but that it would still be a good starting point for someone trying to get a rudimentary conceptual grasp of all this "gnu" stuff. Appreciate the gentle critique, and your clarifications. -- Mark Warner PCLinuxOS v.93 Registered Linux User #415318 ....lose .inhibitions when replying
From: Sietse Fliege on 1 Sep 2006 23:48 Richard Steven Hack wrote: > In Windows, when the GUI dies, you have to resort to the lame Recovery > Console - which has barely enough tools to resuscitate a system. The Recovery Console is very restricted, but see Fred Langa's article on removing limitations on XP's Recovery Console ( <http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=187000225> Also: for Langa's article on the Recovery Console's little known boot data "Rebuild" command that can cure many boot-related problems: <http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=185301251> His article on reinstalling XP without losing any software or settings: <http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897> Also, there is e.g. BartPE and UBCD4Win (Ultimate Boot CD for Windows). -- Cheers, Sietse Fliege
From: Richard Steven Hack on 8 Sep 2006 22:12 On Sat, 02 Sep 2006 05:48:02 +0200, Sietse Fliege wrote: > Richard Steven Hack wrote: > >> In Windows, when the GUI dies, you have to resort to the lame Recovery >> Console - which has barely enough tools to resuscitate a system. > > The Recovery Console is very restricted, but see Fred Langa's article on > removing limitations on XP's Recovery Console ( > <http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=187000225> > > Also: for Langa's article on the Recovery Console's little known > boot data "Rebuild" command that can cure many boot-related problems: > <http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=185301251> > > His article on reinstalling XP without losing any software or settings: > <http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897> > > Also, there is e.g. BartPE and UBCD4Win (Ultimate Boot CD for Windows). Yeah, I use UBCD4Win all the time - it's a must have tool. But it had to be developed by outsiders because of the lame recovery abilities Microsoft provided. Thanks for the Langa article references, I'll add them to my store of Windows tricks. I've used that "Rebuild" command before - only problem was, unlike LILO or GRUB, the stupid thing just ADDS the OS's to the existing menu, so you end up with duplications and have to edit the file to remove the duplications and avoid confusion. I've also got a version of the Recovery Console that boots from a CD which comes in handy, if UBCD4Win won't even boot, which can happen if things are really hosed. It's amusing that a number of tools people rely on to fix Windows - such as the utility that resets the Administrator password on XP machines - had to be developed on and run in Linux. Or DOS - I just discovered today that the Access database performance can suffer because - get this - Windows XP is optimized to cache ONLY 8.3 short filenames! DOS lives! You can change the behavior of XP to cache long file names, however it's bizarre that Microsoft still obsesses over short file names. They actually recommend shortening all Access database names to 8 characters and no more than 3 letter extensions. Makes it hard when your database has been split into a front-end and back-end and you want to call it dbData_fe.mdb and dbData_be.mdb. Oops! Lost your file name caching and just reduced Access's performance! Braindead.
From: Michael Wardreau on 22 Sep 2006 18:48 Based on recommendations, I ordered a set of BigDaddy and Junior. They came today. When I ran them from my desktop, the boot went along OK and then the Black Screen of Death. The screen had a cursor mark but it wasn't blinmking. I waited like 5-6 minutes and there was no disk activity. I tried both Big Daddy and Jr, live CD and Install, with and without some function or feature that I didn't write down. Any Ideas? I've a PC 1.25 GHz P5, lots of hard drive space. With noting on the screen there isn't anything to work on. I'll let it run overnight tonight and see if the live CD takes. I'm reading Linux for Dummies and PCLinux isn't listed in the book. I'm not much of a Dummies reader, but with Linux one needs that kind of material. Thanks, Mike On Sat, 26 Aug 2006 20:20:45 +0300, "humphry" <humphry(a)i.com> wrote: >I installed the latest PCLinuxOS 0.93a Bigdaddy (or full Monty) and I was >pleasantly surprised, > >Better than ubuntu, suse, mandriva and all the other distros {I am talking >about desktop use not server}(and yes I have tried 90% of whats out there >and 100% of the major distros). > >Everything just worked... and it was beautiful, even windows media played >from out of the box with >an included player. > >Things working in linux and beauty are things that linux lacked (without >geeking around for several hours)... But this is history. PClinuxOS is >here......! > >http://www.pclinuxos.com/
From: Ivan Tisljar on 23 Sep 2006 06:24
Michael Wardreau wrote: > Any Ideas? I've a PC 1.25 GHz P5, lots of hard drive space. With > noting on the screen there isn't anything to work on. > > I'll let it run overnight tonight and see if the live CD takes. > I'm reading Linux for Dummies and PCLinux isn't listed in the book. > I'm not much of a Dummies reader, but with Linux one needs that kind > of material. If you want to try on Linux @home, I can reccomend Ubuntu (with Gnome desktop), or KUbuntu (same, but with KDE desktop). It's the most complete Linux distribution for home use. Ivan. |