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Which Linux?

I use Ubuntu on several servers, because it is a supported environment for the projects I'm working with. I need Cuda for example. I've no idea about desktop Linux, seems rather pointless to me, so don't know why I'm posting... If I needed a Linux desktop application I'd run an X-Server on Windows and be done with it.

FWIW updates on Ubuntu regularly remove the Nvidia driver, so another step is required. As these are kernel updates it seems sensible to apply them.
 
yes maybe that was the world view a few decades ago, and the origin of the GUI along with the invention of the mouse........... These days the interface and the O/S in many cases are inextricably linked.

They are certainly not "inextricably linked" in Unix/Linux land. The X-Window system is a layer above the command line stuff. If it crashes (and I've never had a single crash in 40 years of designing and writing software for Unix plus 30 years of the same for Linux), then you end up in the CLE and can simply restart it. They are however "inextricably linked" in Windows, where seemingly Microsoft in their utter insanity perverted a derivative of one of the great OSs (Dec Vax/VMS) designed by Dave Cutler by enmeshing the graphics driver with the OS so that any problem with it got you the wonderful "blue screen of death". As an extra bonus, they invented the notorious registry. There is a big no-no in computer land - it's called having a single point of failure. Guess what the registry is.
 
They are certainly not "inextricably linked" in Unix/Linux land. The X-Window system is a layer above the command line stuff. If it crashes (and I've never had a single crash in 40 years of designing and writing software for Unix plus 30 years of the same for Linux), then you end up in the CLE and can simply restart it. They are however "inextricably linked" in Windows, where seemingly Microsoft in their utter insanity perverted a derivative of one of the great OSs (Dec Vax/VMS) designed by Dave Cutler by enmeshing the graphics driver with the OS so that any problem with it got you the wonderful "blue screen of death". As an extra bonus, they invented the notorious registry. There is a big no-no in computer land - it's called having a single point of failure. Guess what the registry is.

In my 30 plus years of writing software for Unix/VMS/Windows) I have had just as many X-Window crashes and UNIXs bailouts as Windows ones.
 
The last distro I used was Kali, and that was for trying to poke holes in my Core firewall. Now years later, retired and out of the loop. My main windoze box is now telling me that it is illegal (was a laptop I built last time in school using my legit educational copy - apparently that has aged out)

Guess I need to build a new Linux distro and tell Microsoft to pound sand.
 
In my 30 plus years of writing software for Unix/VMS/Windows) I have had just as many X-Window crashes and UNIXs bailouts as Windows ones.

This may be the case for you, on your professional level of use. But as a total layman, who uses his computer for Internet, email, writing texts, occasional image manipulation, watching videosI've found Linux much more reliable, trouble-free and easier to tinker with than the various Windows from Win 3.1 to XP, the last version I used regularly. Maybe later versions are better?

Above all, it gives me the feeling of being in control and independent, rather than the consumer-slave of a multinational that decides things on my behalf. Linux is also free, comes in different versions to suit different tastes, and is virtually immune to viruses. I remember with Windows it was compulsory to regularly run programmes that went through the entire computer seeking viruses. Then these programmes had to be updated because new viruses appeared. And of course there was the whole song-and-dance of the licence and its relationship to a single computer. I agree Microsoft has to make a living, but if there is a free alternative....
Also, I find repugnant the attempt to force Windows on everyone by not selling blank computers. I assume the deal is that MS gives cheap licences to big retailers, on condition that they don't sell empty computers. A few offer them with Ubuntu, true, but only on a very, very few models. Which must be part of their pact with MS, to camouflage the appearance of a de facto total monopoly.
 
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They are certainly not "inextricably linked" in Unix/Linux land. .

I'd echo/emphasise that because I add a ROX filer and iconbar (panel) to my xfce Mint installs. This means I can use two different GUis on screen in parallel. I leave the xfce panel at the top and the ROX one at the bottom. Chalk and cheese on the same table. :)
 
This may be the case for you, on your professional level of use. But as a total layman, who uses his computer for Internet, email, writing texts, occasional image manipulation, watching videosI've found Linux much more reliable, trouble-free and easier to tinker with than the various Windows from Win 3.1 to XP, the last version I used regularly. Maybe later versions are better?

Windows 10 is several orders of magnitude better than XP and essentially a very similar experience to MacOS. If your last significant windows experience was on XP then it's definitely out of date and not reflective of the modern experience.
 
Windows 10 is several orders of magnitude better than XP and essentially a very similar experience to MacOS. If your last significant windows experience was on XP then it's definitely out of date and not reflective of the modern experience.

Point taken. Although I remember when Vista came out, and then Win 7, many were grumbling that XP was better. But then there is always an initial negative reaction to "New."
 
Also, I find repugnant the attempt to force Windows on everyone by not selling blank computers. I assume the deal is that MS gives cheap licences to big retailers, on condition that they don't sell empty computers. A few offer them with Ubuntu, true, but only on a very, very few models. Which must be part of their pact with MS, to camouflage the appearance of a de facto total monopoly.

Novatech do both full desktop machines and "bare-bones" machines (case/motherboard/cpu/memory) where you just transfer your hard drives and other peripherals from your old machine. In both cases their machines are available with no Windows and hence no Microsoft tax. I believe they also do their own branded laptops on the same basis.
 
Novatech do both full desktop machines and "bare-bones" machines (case/motherboard/cpu/memory) where you just transfer your hard drives and other peripherals from your old machine. In both cases their machines are available with no Windows and hence no Microsoft tax. I believe they also do their own branded laptops on the same basis.
Dell have been shipping Ubuntu laptops for some time.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/overview/cp/linuxsystems

Lenovo have started to ship their P series with Ubuntu factory installed also suppliers like SCAN will supply built kit without O/S.

You can also find some of these older models on evilBay.

Cheers,

DV
 
My Black MacBook core2duo from 2006 is getting Ubuntu today. It’s not been supported by Apple since OSX 10.7. Still turning heads. Plus things like power supplies and batteries new keyboard tops and even memory and SSD drives are all cheap and still available for this.
 
I installed Lubuntu on an old desktop machine and everything was fine until I clicked "Yes" to update and after that it will not boot - have to boot with shift to gnome and select a particular version of linux.

Does anyone have any idea what might have happened ? I must admit it rather annoyed me after years of problem free windows updating.
 
My Black MacBook core2duo from 2006 is getting Ubuntu today. It’s not been supported by Apple since OSX 10.7. Still turning heads. Plus things like power supplies and batteries new keyboard tops and even memory and SSD drives are all cheap and still available for this.
I am running Ubuntu on my 2006 core2duo with 2GB RAM T.60. Works well although it doesn't have the balls of my Skylake X 8 core i7.

Cheers,

DV
 
I installed Lubuntu on an old desktop machine and everything was fine until I clicked "Yes" to update and after that it will not boot - have to boot with shift to gnome and select a particular version of linux.

Does anyone have any idea what might have happened ? I must admit it rather annoyed me after years of problem free windows updating.
Of course you took a timeshift snapshot before upgrading the kernal and you can roll back no?

Cheers,

DV
 
I installed Lubuntu on an old desktop machine and everything was fine until I clicked "Yes" to update and after that it will not boot - have to boot with shift to gnome and select a particular version of linux.

Does anyone have any idea what might have happened ? I must admit it rather annoyed me after years of problem free windows updating.

No real idea what's wrong but what version of GRUB are you running the old one or the "new" one? If old do you need to edit menu.lst to run the correctly installed kernel, if it's the newer GRUB then it should have run update-grub automatically but it may not have happened. I would recommend you research rather than taking my word on anything though....
 
My Black MacBook core2duo from 2006 is getting Ubuntu today. It’s not been supported by Apple since OSX 10.7. Still turning heads. Plus things like power supplies and batteries new keyboard tops and even memory and SSD drives are all cheap and still available for this.

Not 100% sure if it applies to your blackbook, but when I tried to install ubuntu on a 2007 whitebook-core2duo I ran into the 32 bit EFI firmware/64 bit CPU issue.

I got around it with help from this guy:

https://mattgadient.com/linux-dvd-images-and-how-to-for-32-bit-efi-macs-late-2006-models/
 
Switched to Linux about 8 years ago, and have had surprisingly few issues; Can't recommend it highly enough, and I'm not in any way a 'computer expert', so if I can mange it, it can't be that difficult?!

FWIW, I use Kubuntu (I prefer KDE).
 
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