* Posts by czarnajama

6 publicly visible posts • joined 25 May 2017

Linux 5.0 is out except it's really 4.21 because Linus 'ran out of fingers and toes' to count on

czarnajama

IIRC, the 5.0 meant for Windows 2000 was NT 5.0; at that point, NT became Windows and the old DOS-based Windows line (3.1, 95, 98) became extinct after Windows ME, when Windows XP with the NT 5.1 kernel came out. NT was a modern kernel, whereas DOS-based Windows did not make full use of the 386 architecture.

Official: IBM to gobble Red Hat for $34bn – yes, the enterprise Linux biz

czarnajama

Re: At least is isnt oracle or M$

But Microsoft just bought GitHub ...

Leave it to Beaver: Unity is long gone and you're on your GNOME

czarnajama

Re: On the face of it

I switched to MATE shortly after Unity replaced Gnome as the default. It's stable and configurable ... and in a few days I'll be upgrading from 14.04 to 18.04. MATE has really served me well.

Samsung to let proper Linux distros run on Galaxy smartmobes

czarnajama

Important for air travel

Laptops face ever more restrictions on aircraft, and it is quite likely that they will be permanently banned from both checked and carry-on luggage. In that case, smartphones will have to take their place, and having a true Linux-capable smartphone will get around the problem, especially if airlines make the seat back monitor usable with a smartphone (the whole smartphone screen can then be used for a keyboard). Such a laptop ban will very quickly lead to the minor modifications needed to make the phone substitute for a laptop.

Distro watch for Ubuntu lovers: What's ahead in Linux land

czarnajama

Re: I've moved a lot of people to Linux.

Unless you ABSOLUTELY have to use some Windows-only software, Linux is much better than Windows for everything. Even then, there are some workarounds, such as WINE, or better yet, a virtual machine setup which allows you to run both systems simultaneously (or in extremis, dual booting).. Of course, it very much helps to know a bit about your system and computers in general. If you don't, and you don't have people at hand to help, you can find answers to most problems via Google... if you can ask the right questions.

czarnajama

Re: Now if just 1 major PC maker installed Linux by default...

I don't quite understand why there's a fuss about Linux not being pre-installed very much. So long as your system isn't some bleeding-edge gamers' laptop, most current distros should install painlessly. Search on Google for possible incompatibilities. I recall my first laptop, an IBM T20, installed Redhat 7.1 as a double-booter flawlessly in 2001, after I repartitioned the disk with some standard software. I recall that Slackware in 1995 and early Redhats needed manual editing of the Xwindow config file ... but since 2000 or so, mainstream Linux distributions install automatically and more easily than Windows installs, even automatically doing the disk repartitioning and booter install to allow easy coexistence with Windows. Since 2005 or so, I have used Ubuntu, now Ubuntu MATE and a Mint-derived distribution using MATE called Distro Astro. GNOME was fine, but I converted my main system from Unity to MATE, because I just couldn't get Unity to do what I have become accustomed to since Sunview back in the 80's. Long term support is crucial, I believe, so Ubuntu LTS works really well, ditto RHEL (at an institution). Google allows you to find answers to all problems, and to find needed software. I don't see why there's an issue with Unity being dropped, since other window interfaces are very well developed and being maintained (the KDE universe is one example), and Ubuntu supports the main ones. A little bit of reading is needed, perhaps a bit of trial and error, to find the GUI which suits one the best, and use it on one of the mainstream distributions supporting it and which offers good updating and long term support. This article pretty much names them all. You won't go wrong.

In any case, if it's a stationary PC, it's more fun to configure your own box. Then you can check that each subsystem is compatible with Linux, and usually it will be, because you will be choosing known components and not what was cheapest that week in the Chinese supply environment of your integrator. A modern system can give you ten years of good service with some care.