Fun with ubuntu.

R

ReubenRosa

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 29, 2004
Messages
326
I recently was lent an Ibm thinkpad x20 laptop. p3-600,320mb ram ,12.1 screen with addon that included dvd-rom drive and floppy. My gf had assumed it was running xp and knowing I am an onsite pc repair tech thought I could utilize it. I currently don't own a laptop. so I told her I wouldn't take it as a gift but I would check it out. well of course I learned to my suprise it was running a win98se. So I thought I would install win2k since I had a licenced copy I hadn't used. found out it had a bad 256 ram chip. Ordered a replacement and while waiting for it to ship.. I out of curiousity decided to install Ubuntu 7.04.

Using a Dlink Wireless Extreme G pccard and a logitech wireless optical mouse that had been on sale at Circuit city for 19.99. I gotta really say. ITs been suprising me every day since. Now mind you I am not using it for Gaming or doing any type of high end Multimedia encoding. but for Browsing,Note taking(visa openoffice2.2), Listening to mp3s. And the sheer fact many times I am working on clients pcs who are infested with malware its nice to know I don't have to worry about my system being compromised. Its really reawakened my interest in Linux. and the news of Amd releasing code and drivers for Linux gives me hope that maybe just maybe there might be more multimedia and 3dgaming in the future for Linux.
 
i've been fucking with linux for awhile now. its a pain in the ass if you ask me. more trouble than its worth if you don't have a need for it or need to use it for work or something. but if you like tinkering with things to the max, i suppose its worth it. for now though, i'll take my open source software on windows thanks ;)

/me waits to be shot and hung from a tree :rolleyes:
 
I am praying for your virtual soul. For I know now you will be flogged burned and tortured at the stake! ;)
 
ReubenRosa said:
I am praying for your virtual soul. For I know now you will be flogged burned and tortured at the stake! ;)
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hahahahaha...either way. i'm just kinda fed up with it all. its like i get something working good. then i wanna try something else, and it ends up breaking what i just got working before that. sure there are headaches trying to learn something new but it just gets ridiculous after awhile.
 
well once you tinker and and figure out linux its pretty much destorys windows, apart from gaming, day to day stuff is much much better but thats just my opinion.
 
As I Lay Dying said:
well once you tinker and and figure out linux its pretty much destorys windows, apart from gaming, day to day stuff is much much better but thats just my opinion.
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i'll agree with you....but its a damn pain in the ass to get there lol
 
well as long as you use Ubuntu for everday pc use.. seriously its friggin incredibly stable and the fact its practically immune to 99.9% of all spyware out there makes it a pleasure to deal with.
 
markt435 said:
i'll agree with you....but its a damn pain in the ass to get there lol
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I read your thread in GM about your linux issues... and I agree, you gotta use it exclusively for a while, force yourself to figure out the little problems and in the long run you'll (I think) find yourself loving it...

I know I do... hated it at first, but kept trying and did my research and I am really loving Ubuntu....
 
ReubenRosa said:
well as long as you use Ubuntu for everday pc use.. seriously its friggin incredibly stable and the fact its practically immune to 99.9% of all spyware out there makes it a pleasure to deal with.
Click to expand...

yeah thats an advantage.
 
I have tried probably 30 different distros of Linux out just to see the differences between them all. Out of all of them that I have tried.. Slackware is my favorite and Ubuntu comes in second place.

I'm hooked on Slackware because it is a good learning platform. It is easy enough to get around in just about anything, but if you want to tinker/toy with things, it makes everything available.

Ubuntu is GREAT for people new to Linux. It's easy to use, easy to update, looks good, and just plain works.

Honestly, I'd much rather use Linux over windows. I like having control over my computer, unlike windows, which tries to take everything over for you.
 
+1 for Ubuntu lovin'.

After a 3-day attempt to get Vista working on my sig machine (during which time it annoyed me, ate all my files, and then annoyed me some more), I gave up and put Feisty on there - after about 3 hours of messing about I had everything configured and ready to go...all the eyecandy, Java, Rails, Eclipse/Aptana, UT2k4 (can't live without it). I actually found that getting from scratch to a working, comfortable installation was easier on Ubuntu than it was for Vista (bear in mind that, while I'd handled a fair bit of command line stuff managing Linux servers, I hadn't done anything with GUIs at all before this point).

I think it's fair to say that, until you invest yourself 100% in making the switch, you can't possibly get the most out of it - there's too much temptation to go back to your comfort blanket to get stuff done. I can honestly say that I've never been happier with my rig than I am right now. It's fast, it's stable (when I'm not screwing around), and the variety of free software available is simply mind-blowing. What a lot of people don't expect is that some of it (like Pidgin and Amarok) is actually way better than the Windows alternatives.
 
As I Lay Dying said:
well once you tinker and and figure out linux its pretty much destorys windows, apart from gaming, day to day stuff is much much better but thats just my opinion.
Click to expand...

well... things are looking good for gaming on linux
http://www.valvesoftware.com/job-SenSoftEngineer.html
as well as UT3 and Quakewars with linux-native coming out this year, and hopefully the new Starcraft with linux as well


@markt434
Linux is just different, its NOT hard!. infact the desktop (GNOME or KDE) is alot easier to use then 2k,XP or Vista (wife has a windows laptop but prefers my GNOME desktop and want me to put linux on her machine).
With a fully setup system and configured the way you want it is alot better then anything MS has to offer, BUT it can be a pain to get it to such a state (one of the downsides of too many options ;) )
take a week and just use linux, choose a week where you don't need windows-specific things (games, MS-apps...) and just use it for email,web,chatting....
 
I personally use Ubuntu for everything but gaming. I find the gaming support pretty lacking but other that 500% better than windows
 
eeyrjmr said:
and just use it for email,web,chatting....
Click to expand...


LOL, might as well use WFW3.11...



doesn't take alot of machine for email/web/chatting... doesn't take much at all. Therein lies linux's problems, too much chatting, no real productive work.
 
Yeah, you're saying the same thing I was during the honeymoon period with Ubuntu. Wait until it randomly breaks with no user input - you won't be singing the same tune then. :rolleyes: I'm going to use an OS that doesn't just randomly decide to stop working for now, maybe I'll give it another go with the next Ubuntu spin.
 
Verge said:
LOL, might as well use WFW3.11... doesn't take alot of machine for email/web/chatting... doesn't take much at all. Therein lies linux's problems, too much chatting, no real productive work.
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Yep, 'cos that's all it's good for, isn't it? Well over 70% of the company I work for now use Linux as their sole desktop, and they have fewer problems and higher productivity as a result. If all they did all day was email/web/chatting, I suspect we'd all be in the dole queue by now.
 
InorganicMatter said:
Yeah, you're saying the same thing I was during the honeymoon period with Ubuntu. Wait until it randomly breaks with no user input - you won't be singing the same tune then. :rolleyes: I'm going to use an OS that doesn't just randomly decide to stop working for now, maybe I'll give it another go with the next Ubuntu spin.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's just funny :D In my mind that is the very definition of ironic. Saying, and believing exactly the opposite of reality. Wow :D
 
I have been using ubuntu 7.04 all patched up using the ubuntu update for a month actually.
so far very stable. I haven't had the laptop lock up on me once. Only issue I have has nothing to do with ubuntu its related to the fact the bios on the laptop is 1999 not 2000+ so that means I don't power management in ubuntu running . But I just set the power management options to be laptop friendly and for a Laptop that has an 8 YEAR OLD battery its still has 3 hours battery life on ubuntu. Thats stellar in my opinion for an old piece of hardware.


As to the comments about gaming I think with the news of Amd taking a serious stance to finally support Linux 3d card wise I think you might just see more development gaming wise on the linux side.
 
duby229 said:
Wow, that's just funny :D In my mind that is the very definition of ironic. Saying, and believing exactly the opposite of reality. Wow :D
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Windows and OSX may be very suspectable to user screwups, but that's the difference. In the case of those, it's the user who screws up the OS, not the OS just randomly breaking. ;) Users can be educated, an OS can not.
 
InorganicMatter said:
Yeah, you're saying the same thing I was during the honeymoon period with Ubuntu. Wait until it randomly breaks with no user input - you won't be singing the same tune then. :rolleyes: I'm going to use an OS that doesn't just randomly decide to stop working for now, maybe I'll give it another go with the next Ubuntu spin.
Click to expand...

Windows randomly breaks on me without me doing anything. And then what happens when Microsoft stops supporting XP (which I assume you're using) and you have a problem no community can help you with? At least all the linux distros have nice big, useful, official communities.

By the way, not trying to start an argument here or anything... :)
 
I'm currently using a 5 month old install of Ubuntu and it has yet to lock up on me once. I use it for a file server & a mythtv front&backend.
 
InorganicMatter said:
Windows and OSX may be very suspectable to user screwups, but that's the difference. In the case of those, it's the user who screws up the OS, not the OS just randomly breaking. ;) Users can be educated, an OS can not.
Click to expand...

Put a windows machine on the internet, and let it idle for three days, then try saying that again. Go ahead and get all the updates, and put a firewall on, and use virus scanner, and an ad blocker.. Whatever else you want. Once your done setting it up, let it idle. Dont touch it... Thats a little challenge for you.

If you can come back here and say that it was not infected with some kind of malware within that three day period, you'll get a cookie, becouse you have managed something that no other human being has ever done before.
 
duby229 said:
Put a windows machine on the internet, and let it idle for three days, then try saying that again. Go ahead and get all the updates, and put a firewall on, and use virus scanner, and an ad blocker.. Whatever else you want. Once your done setting it up, let it idle. Dont touch it... Thats a little challenge for you.

If you can come back here and say that it was not infected with some kind of malware within that three day period, you'll get a cookie, becouse you have managed something that no other human being has ever done before.
Click to expand...

pretty much all of my windows machines don't have thier updates, don't have a virus scanner, or an ad blocker... and they run beautifully... only a firewall [hardware... ipcop] between them and the internets...

its called safe surfing... and some people really need to learn how


now wheres my cookie
 
goodcooper said:
pretty much all of my windows machines don't have thier updates, don't have a virus scanner, or an ad blocker... and they run beautifully... only a firewall [hardware... ipcop] between them and the internets...

its called safe surfing... and some people really need to learn how


now wheres my cookie
Click to expand...


Because non-naughty websites can never do bad things to users.

[H] front page: Hacked GOP Site Infects Visitors with Malware
 
duby229 said:
Put a windows machine on the internet, and let it idle for three days, then try saying that again. Go ahead and get all the updates, and put a firewall on, and use virus scanner, and an ad blocker.. Whatever else you want. Once your done setting it up, let it idle. Dont touch it... Thats a little challenge for you.

If you can come back here and say that it was not infected with some kind of malware within that three day period, you'll get a cookie, becouse you have managed something that no other human being has ever done before.
Click to expand...


i went from 95->NT->2k->xp...


i have never once used antivirus of any sort...i disable the windows firewall with each install, and if it's sp2 i disable security center. On one of my main machines, it is running my first copy of xp professional... it doesn't have service pack 2... it doesn't have service pack 1... IT DOESN'T HAVE A SINGLE F'N UPDATE, automatic updates were disabled before the NIC drivers were even installed. The only reason i would go to sp2 is if it had more storage, and the 137gb limit was being hit. This computer is WIDE OPEN, and it has yet to have a single infection. i have never once had a virus, despite leaving it on for days and days... You sir, need to venture back to captain happy's SUPER COOL computer training school, if you cannot manage to avoid troublesome webpages and downloads. I'm honestly appauled at the comment you made, it only shows how terrible you are at operating a modern computer.
 
Frobozz said:
Because non-naughty websites can never do bad things to users.

[H] front page: Hacked GOP Site Infects Visitors with Malware
Click to expand...



ie, there's ur problem. Been using opera for years... since before the term "spyware" even really existed. True, some pages didn't work properly, but chances are the page sucked anyway. Occasionally i will have to venture to IE, like for msconnect... but it is rare



I agree with ubuntu being pretty solid, worked great for me till i started messing with compiz... trouble trouble, laptops+docks+nvidia+compiz fusion = bad... too many black screens for me
 
Verge said:
i went from 95->NT->2k->xp...


i have never once used antivirus of any sort...i disable the windows firewall with each install, and if it's sp2 i disable security center. On one of my main machines, it is running my first copy of xp professional... it doesn't have service pack 2... it doesn't have service pack 1... IT DOESN'T HAVE A SINGLE F'N UPDATE, automatic updates were disabled before the NIC drivers were even installed. The only reason i would go to sp2 is if it had more storage, and the 137gb limit was being hit. This computer is WIDE OPEN, and it has yet to have a single infection. i have never once had a virus, despite leaving it on for days and days... You sir, need to venture back to captain happy's SUPER COOL computer training school, if you cannot manage to avoid troublesome webpages and downloads. I'm honestly appauled at the comment you made, it only shows how terrible you are at operating a modern computer.
Click to expand...

You see the problem with you "theory" is that you dont even have a virus scanner, or any kind of malware detection installed. So how can you justify these claims? How? I'll promise yotu that your heavily infected, and somebody is making a small furtune off of you.
 
goodcooper said:
pretty much all of my windows machines don't have thier updates, don't have a virus scanner, or an ad blocker... and they run beautifully... only a firewall [hardware... ipcop] between them and the internets...

its called safe surfing... and some people really need to learn how


now wheres my cookie
Click to expand...

No virus scanner? No malware detection? So how do you know? Ohh OK, I get it... You "know" I see, it just makes so much more sense now.
 
you can make a windows PC very secure
you can make a linux PC very unsecure

difference is the out of the box config

there are plenty of honeypot machines out there that are windows and linux-based (and pretty sure there are some OSX ones as well)
 
Verge said:
i went from 95->NT->2k->xp...


i have never once used antivirus of any sort...i disable the windows firewall with each install, and if it's sp2 i disable security center. On one of my main machines, it is running my first copy of xp professional... it doesn't have service pack 2... it doesn't have service pack 1... IT DOESN'T HAVE A SINGLE F'N UPDATE, automatic updates were disabled before the NIC drivers were even installed. The only reason i would go to sp2 is if it had more storage, and the 137gb limit was being hit. This computer is WIDE OPEN, and it has yet to have a single infection. i have never once had a virus, despite leaving it on for days and days... You sir, need to venture back to captain happy's SUPER COOL computer training school, if you cannot manage to avoid troublesome webpages and downloads. I'm honestly appauled at the comment you made, it only shows how terrible you are at operating a modern computer.
Click to expand...

W32/Blaster worm
and the only thing you have to do is .. nothing.
 
Frobozz said:
Because non-naughty websites can never do bad things to users.

[H] front page: Hacked GOP Site Infects Visitors with Malware
Click to expand...

...

so... now all of a sudden you can get a virus from just looking at a webpage? come on... somebody enabled some sort of activex or something to get compromised...


safe...


surfing....

stop downloading buddy icons and free wallpapers...

Verge said:
... need to venture back to captain happy's SUPER COOL computer training school, if you cannot manage to avoid troublesome webpages and downloads.
Click to expand...

amen brother...

i'm not saying its easy to do, just that people need to learn how...
 
I hate to be the bearer of Reality for you but I have do this as a service for those who are not
as experienced in windows xp and net safety. A windows xp machine with just service pack2 and No monitoring up to date av and anti-spyware software is just a tragedy waiting to happen. My profession involved repairing and upgrading pcs. I make house calls. I also have a
shop I work out of. the Sheer incredible variety of malware out there now compared to what was out there 8 years ago is unimaginable. I have seen it practically every type of nasty obvious malware out their and many other infamouse variety that code wise is brilliantly written to allow themselves to infect machines in just the slightest ways.

Just an example.. Did you know you can get your pc infected without ever venturing on the internet? And I am not even talking about the classic case Sony's worm.

I always remember this classic case from 5 years ago. My shop sold a man a new pc.
we advised him that he should get some antivirus and anti-spyware software installed.
He declined with this statement.. "I have had pcs for 10 years and been online and I have never Gotten a virus ever. I have no need for it." And he left the shop. He lived only 5 minutes away. 20 minutes later the same man returned . He began to berate the sales person who had assisted him with his purchase. He screamed WTF piece of crap are you selling me here? this machine is a pos! He got so loud that he disturbed other customers in the store. Finally we convinced him to allow us to put in on our tech bench. we connected it to your ethernet network. And nearly instantly upon boot up 5 other pcs who were also connected to the same network proceeded to blue screen. Immediately we disconnected them from the net. And connected a laptop and began doing some research and found out that morning one of the newest and nastiest of worms had been released.
After safely updating our laptops av we were able to repair all the rest of the systems and his and he proceeded to purchase the av and anti-spyware we had recommended in the first place.

I have since had many too many to count experiences where I enter a residence to setup a wireless network and determine the older pcs are infected to some degree with malware and before setting up the network I have to clean them of the infections.

Linux and Macs to a degree are really the only os'es that can safely say 99.9% are practically immune to Viruses and spyware. And its not because of their inherent security built in its just because the size of their customer base dictates that many of the malware companies just don't find targeting them as fun or lucractive.

Having a windows based pc without adequate internet Security software is akin to the typical fool who says I don't need to wear a seatbelt. I have never been in a car accident.

Oh and a cookie to someone who can figure out how a windows based pc can get a virus/malware without ever hitting the net. :)
 
ReubenRosa said:
<snip>
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Um... ok, I'll bite...

I don't want a cookie, I don't have any idea how a clean install of any os, on a new machine with brand new, never used before hardware and factory supplied drivers (a'la the disc's that were provided with the mobo, nic, video and sound cards.. and any peripherals that may require a driver) that has never, ever seen the internet could possibly pick up spy/ad/malware or a virus.... assuming that the machine in question was indeed "brand new" as I said....

So... care to share? Cause if there is some sort of renegade ghostlike virus out there that could infect a build like the one I outlined above... I would really like to know what to do in the event I ever encounter it....

Regardless, I do agree with the point of your post 110%.. any Windows user that doesn't run behind a hardware firewall with quality a/v software is doing nothing more than fueling the fire.. zombie and honey pot machines are far too common, and really, seeing people on this forum claiming to have un-protected installs running "clean" is sort of sad...
 
digital_exhaust said:
I don't want a cookie, I don't have any idea how a clean install of any os, on a new machine with brand new, never used before hardware and factory supplied drivers (a'la the disc's that were provided with the mobo, nic, video and sound cards.. and any peripherals that may require a driver) that has never, ever seen the internet could possibly pick up spy/ad/malware or a virus.... assuming that the machine in question was indeed "brand new" as I said....

So... care to share? <snip>
Click to expand...

I have a guess. There have been several times where malware/virii have gotten onto a factory image &/or driver cd. So you can get screwed by a brand new peripheral, or even after a system format/reload.

and then I guess there's the classic sneakernet + bootsector virus.

I'm curious about the answer too.
 
Frobozz said:
I guess there's the classic sneakernet + bootsector virus
Click to expand...

That's a possibility, I suppose... but the odds of a brand new hard drive having a bootsector virus are......slim, to non-existent... but then there are those that say nothing is impossible........
 
Frobozz said:
W32/Blaster worm
and the only thing you have to do is .. nothing.
Click to expand...


apparently blaster/sasser lack the proper coding to infect people behind routers... since i never got it... still don't have it... and never installed the updated fix. It just isn't as simple as pinging an IP address


No suprise really, it's supposed to be a DOS attack that ends up breaking the computer its running from... bad code all together...


next




I did throw up a default NT installation with IIS on my old dsl modem with static ip addresses... within a week some script kiddie replaced my wwwroot with some german trash and claimed a richeous hack... LOL... but it wasn't a virus
 
duby229 said:
You see the problem with you "theory" is that you dont even have a virus scanner, or any kind of malware detection installed. So how can you justify these claims? How? I'll promise yotu that your heavily infected, and somebody is making a small furtune off of you.
Click to expand...



I spent my time in home computer repair... i can assure you, i'm not infected in the least. If you used my computer you'd probably be amazed at how fast an installation of xp is supposed to run... Poor you with all your toolbars and security software, no wonder you switched to linux, i wouldn't want to use your computer either.
 
Verge said:
apparently blaster/sasser lack the proper coding to infect people behind routers... since i never got it... still don't have it... and never installed the updated fix. It just isn't as simple as pinging an IP address


No suprise really, it's supposed to be a DOS attack that ends up breaking the computer its running from... bad code all together...


next
Click to expand...
oh common. you have to just be trolling now. There's no way you can think that running everything unpatched is a good thing. There are ways this junk gets around routers and firewalls. With the scenario of your uber router protecting you it would just take putting a machine that wasnt under your control for its entire life onto your network. Could easily happen with having a friend over to lan party, classmates over to study, family comes to visit, or even when you're b0rking around with your router and goof up the security.
This very thing happened a lot when blaster first went out. Companies and Universities responded quickly, blocking it at the edge firewall. Then a worker drone from sector 7G, shows up to work after stoping by starbucks to have a late and checks cnn on his laptop . Bam, crap is behind the firewall and IT people have to stay late. grumpy times.

But enjoy your network. Try not to play with others.
 
sorry about the threadjacking

Grats on finding something new to do/explore with computers and in particular a compter that most would consider past EOL. :) The hook for me with linux was all the tinkering and exploring to do. Reminded me of goofing around in DOS trying to get the most conventional memory possible for a game, and all the batch file hackery. :D The biggest fuzzy for me came when I listed out all of my work activities and found that I could accomplish everything I needed & wanted to from linux.

Linux everyday! :D
 
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