The best computer I ever had.

[csandste]

Nothing but Linux for me for the last four years. Currently running Linux Mint MATE 17.3 on my primary computer and Peppermint Linux on a decade old laptop that was taking twenty minutes to load on Win 7. Probably going to ditch Mint for Ubuntu Mate 18.04 in April. I've never used Win 8 or 10, but learning curve going from Win 7 to any of the Ubuntu based flavors (including Mint) is probably far less than upgrading Windows. Never going back to Windows, I can assure you of that!

 

[Linctex]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete

By comparison, the read/write speed of Atari's cassette player was 600 baud, and no error correction of any kind, so if there was an imperfection on the tape, you were screwed.

My little brother's first computer was a Tandy CoCo3 (color computer 3) which used a tape drive (& came with 128K RAM)

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Linux works.

Buy a business class machine from a reseller and load it; end of that problem.


and the start of a lot of other ones.

(Fixed that for ya, which is more than I could say for Ubuntu. Long time ago, but IF Microsoft is any guide at all, operating systems do not get better, just bigger)

 

[Garak]

Ahhh, it's easy.

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Ahhh, it's easy.

The basic distro install was fairly easy, in that it worked eventually and gave basic functionality.

Installing anything else broke through the thin, user-friendly crust into a TAR-pit of apparently endless recursive dependencies, confirming my belief that Unix-is-for-people-who-like-pain.

(Windows-is-for-people-who-are-immune-to-rage)

 

[Sierra048]

I'd love to try Linux. But I have no technical skills to make that happen. Respectfully, reading some of these posts on this thread makes me feel like I'm reading some alien language.

 

[Killer223]

Originally Posted By: Sierra048
I'd love to try Linux. But I have no technical skills to make that happen. Respectfully, reading some of these posts on this thread makes me feel like I'm reading some alien language.


download a live image, put it on a USB thiumb drive or even burn a DVD, and reboot the computer, it'll load the linux OS and you can test it for a while and decide if you want to install it or not. very easy.

 

[WyrTwister]

When I was going to college , the IBM 360 was king ( this was right before they introduced the 370 ) . The 360 had ( I think ) 244k of core memory , normally divided into a 100k partition and a 144k partition .

This was a full blown main frame computer with floating point hardware .

Input was mostly punch cards . Output was a line printer .

I suspect all smart phones exceed that 360 .

 

[Sierra048]

Originally Posted By: Killer223
Originally Posted By: Sierra048
I'd love to try Linux. But I have no technical skills to make that happen. Respectfully, reading some of these posts on this thread makes me feel like I'm reading some alien language.


download a live image, put it on a USB thiumb drive or even burn a DVD, and reboot the computer, it'll load the linux OS and you can test it for a while and decide if you want to install it or not. very easy.


Thanks for the tip. Not sure how to do that but I'll do a search and see if I have any luck.

 

[simple_gifts]

Originally Posted By: Ducked
Originally Posted By: Garak
Ahhh, it's easy.

The basic distro install was fairly easy, in that it worked eventually and gave basic functionality.

Installing anything else broke through the thin, user-friendly crust into a TAR-pit of apparently endless recursive dependencies, confirming my belief that Unix-is-for-people-who-like-pain.

(Windows-is-for-people-who-are-immune-to-rage)


Ubuntu, like other distributions, have a package manager that solves dependencies, even Skype and Chrome are installed that way; no tar xvfing

You talk about Ubuntu like the Chevy Vega; GM couldn't build an aluminum engine in the early mid 70s so they can't possibly build one now....

Notice the numerous other people who seem to use it with no issues.....?

 

[ZeeOSix]

My current Windows 7 computer had been running really good, rarely any problems pop up.

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts


Notice the numerous other people who seem to use it with no issues.....?



Sure. Nice for them.

Not much use to me though. I'm the only user I've got.

I know UNIX can work because I used to have to run a SUN network management station, but they had to pay me to do it.

I did try another Linux distribution (with an un-memorable acronym, LMX something?) a couple of years ago recommended as a potential XP replacement for my obsolete hardware but Linux suffers bloat despite the lack of commercial incentive. (I guess its a geek imperative) and there didn't seem to be a fit.

As a bootable USB drive on my new laptop it worked nicely first couple of times, and then it stopped booting, despite not having changed anything. Concluded that life was too short.

If Windows gets even worse, of course (which seems to be company policy) that calculation might change, but I take the Linux love story with a big box of salt.

 

[Mr Nice]

For me it was a Compaq Presario

 

[Ducked]

Toshiba laptop I used as a network analyser (Dongled Network General "Sniffer") platform. Specially argued for despite company being a DELL house.

Can't remember the model but it had an internal mains transformer which is an unusual but very nice feature if you don't like wires. Thing got dropped a lot and just kept going.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Ducked
Installing anything else broke through the thin, user-friendly crust into a TAR-pit of apparently endless recursive dependencies, confirming my belief that Unix-is-for-people-who-like-pain.

(Windows-is-for-people-who-are-immune-to-rage)

Almost every distro these days has a suitable package manager to handle that business. I haven't played around with anything from source code (and then try to resolve dependencies) for ages. Even the last time I did it, I used the package manager to resolve the dependencies.

Installing my HP printer on my Linux box at home was actually faster and easier than doing so at the Windows machine at the office, believe it or not. On my previous box at home, the replacement NIC (yes, I blew a NIC somehow) worked plug and play in Linux, but needed Windows drivers to be downloaded (or off the CD, of course).

 

[eyeofthetiger]

Originally Posted By: Ducked
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts


Notice the numerous other people who seem to use it with no issues.....?



Sure. Nice for them.

Not much use to me though. I'm the only user I've got.

I know UNIX can work because I used to have to run a SUN network management station, but they had to pay me to do it.

I did try another Linux distribution (with an un-memorable acronym, LMX something?) a couple of years ago recommended as a potential XP replacement for my obsolete hardware but Linux suffers bloat despite the lack of commercial incentive. (I guess its a geek imperative) and there didn't seem to be a fit.

As a bootable USB drive on my new laptop it worked nicely first couple of times, and then it stopped booting, despite not having changed anything. Concluded that life was too short.

If Windows gets even worse, of course (which seems to be company policy) that calculation might change, but I take the Linux love story with a big box of salt.


Bootable USB drive? How about an entire computer in a USB stick? Just plug it into a monitor, I guess. edit: nevermind, it plugs into an HDMI port
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/boards-kits/compute-stick.html