Switching from Windows to Linux

A gathering place to discuss and explain all forms of communications - radio, telephone, internet, visual, voice and other methods the mind can conceive. As a separate issue, the care and use of all types of electronics, most important, how to protect them.
.
Post Reply
User avatar
bee_pipes

Switching from Windows to Linux

Post by bee_pipes »

I'm putting this on the communications board because I can't think of anything more appropriate. With email, internet browsing, etc. it seems to pertain to communications. I also understand that linux sees a lot of applications for digital radio in ham circles.

I had wanted to look into linux for some time. When I worked with computers, it seemed like a natural pursuit. Now with a homestead to maintain and no longer involved with computers except as a user, it seemed like a black hole for time better spent doing other things.

An acquaintance of mine recommended a distribution of Puppy Linux.

He made a lot of outlandish claims about speed and such, and I gotta say he was right on all counts. I downloaded the distribution, burned it to a CD and booted up on it. It was fast. We were currently using windows XP, after going through 95 and 98. There's no comparison. The most tedious part of the whole thing was going between windows and linux - waiting for windows to boot. I had a small problem getting my mouse to work, which his suggestion (switching from a selection of Xorg to Xvesa for the graphics driver during installation) fixed. Up to that time I had not installed the system on the computer - it was all on the CD and the computer was running much faster. After clearing up the mouse problem I was able to get on-line and into this forum. When everything seemed to be working well, I installed it to my hard drive in some unused disk space. I now have the option of booting windows or Linux. Nothing has been changed on the computer, save that some disk space was used. The original windows environment is still in-tact and waiting to be booted.

Right now I'm working through a book written on the system to learn how to get old windows programs running under the new system. The idea is to get this as close to windows as possible so that there is no trouble for my wife to use the new system. So far, everything you could want is on the desktop - media player, word processor, spreadsheet, web browser, painting and drawing programs, etc. The time consuming part will be migrating everything over from windows and making it act the same. This may take some time, and I have other stuff to do around here, but when it's done - goodbye windows!

And I have barely scratched the surface. There are FREE applications out there - like Open Office - that mimic ms windows applications found in office. Virtually everything is free.

So: runs faster, free software, did I mention it is not as susceptible to virus attacks as windows?

Here's the basic steps/obstacles:

1. we were on dial-up and had a winmodem - a brain dead modem that windows uses to get to the internet. Linux does not like these. We could have gotten a replacement modem for anywhere from $15 to $25, but never got around to it. If you are on dial-up and have the modem that came with your computer, you may need to replace the modem. We recently got on DSL and Linux recognizes the connection.

2. I downloaded the Puppy Linux distribution to my computer - a file that just sits there on the hard drive and doesn't affect anything. I then downloaded a program (BurnCDCC) that burns the distribution to CD. I burned the CD and booted off of it.

3. Once I got everything working and was happy with it, I installed it to the hard drive.

4. I downloaded a pdf book on the system and am now going through it.

So far I have not spent a cent and the computer is in tact.

I spent a lot of time trying to give the new linux the look and feel of windows, out of consideration to my wife. No go. She has no interest in learning a new system or new programs. She likes her MS IExplorer and Outlook. I even used a program called WINE to install windows programs in the linux environment. When you start looking at IE and Outlook, you are talking about MS software that is so entangled with the Windows system that it is not productive to try and port them. Eventually conceding to my wife, in the interest of domestic harmony, we returned to windows. Another free program - VirtualBox - lets you create a virtual computer on your system. Since Windows is a tremendous volume of disk space, the path of least resistance seemed to be to install VB in windows and install the Linux system within VB. I can now operate on the windows system and not affect her activities.

The longer I work with this system, the more I like it. Being out from under the Microsoft thumb is a real plus! The system is so small and lean, it can breathe new life into old laptops and desktops you might have in the closet or garage.

If you have been considering an alternative to Windows, I can't recommend Puppy Linux enough. There are more comprehensive linux distributions out there, but none that are as lean and friendly as Puppy. Mint and DSL (damn small linux) are supposed to be other lean distributions, but I understand they require a lot more tinkering with the internals to get them to run. Try Puppy on a bootable CD. At worst you're out a CD. At best you may find that you have a viable alternative to the MS Windows monopoly.

I am involved with a project right now and don't make it here often enough to check on the forum. If you have questions or comments, please PM me and I'll respond as quickly as possible.

Regards,
Pat
User avatar
whitewolf

Re: Switching from Windows to Linux

Post by whitewolf »

I have Linux, an old copy of SUSE on one of my laptops and it is a lot simpler,cuts right to the chase its funny you mentioned your wife because My wife could not get used to Linux , this is an appropriate place as far as I'm concerned for Linux to be mentioned, but it could also be mentioned in other topic categories like technical computers and such, as far as communications perks Linux has a LOT, however make no mistakes Ham rad ops helped to design it and it is one of the best programs for packet communication and rtty type communication also code software is the best I know of this type of technology has preempted the whole cell phone industry using repeaters and digital communications and patching to repeaters and making calls 15 to 20 years before it was dreamed could be done on a large scale .

SUSE and 7.2 professional Linux are the two best I know for communications and this is indeed an angle to survival communications that we should not ignore however make sure you can always make do with just a radio/ antenna combo and a battery....

Whitewolf
Post Reply