Upgrade to Linux

[Russell Kanning]

I recommend open source stuff like linux to anyone. I currently am using freespire on my older computer. I was using Ubuntu before that.

[PowerPenguin]

Why'd you switch to Freespire, Russ? BTW, I just got a really great book on The GIMP called Beginning GIMP: Novice to Professional. It is very straightforward, has full color photos, and teaches you how to do pretty much everything.

[Russell Kanning]

I liked the idea of them putting in all the commercial stuff to make things work right from the beginning.

[Dan]

Better than books nowadays for graphics programs are screencasts.

Go look up 'inkscape tutorial' on youtube.

Or gimp.  Or photoshop.

[Insurgent]

Here is a glowing testimonial from a very satisfied customer 

About six years ago I spent over $3,000 on a top-of-the-line Dell 8200, with all the bells and whistles. It's served me pretty well over the years but I've had to reformat the hard-drive every now and then because of all the bugs that I would catch, despite running anti-virus software.

Lately I had thought my machine to be on it's last legs; when I would power it up the hard drive would make an awful grinding sound, it would try unsuccessfully to launch in to a drive scan right away, would take four minutes to power up, would turn off on a whim and just generally ran horribly.

I'd been resistant to trying new operating systems since I am not a computer geek (I actually thought that Linux users only saw a black box!) but when I saw this offer, I thought--what the hell?

ArcRiley came over to my place today and allayed my fears of Linux. Since I had nothing to lose, I let him work his magic. Fortunately the memory hadn't been compromised and the install was pretty easy for him.

To make a long story short, my machine now boots effortlessly in less than a minute and runs cool and fast. Ubuntu is very colorful and user-friendly, possibly more so than that other OS. Nothing lost and everything gained! Thanks, ArcRiley--your knowledge and services are incredible, much-appreciated and worth every penny!

[PowerPenguin]

I got Ubuntu preinstalled on my laptop here and I highly recommend it.

[EJinCT]

About six years ago I spent over $3,000 on a top-of-the-line Dell 8200, with all the bells and whistles. It's served me pretty well over the years but I've had to reformat the hard-drive every now and then because of all the bugs that I would catch, despite running anti-virus software.

Lately I had thought my machine to be on it's last legs; when I would power it up the hard drive would make an awful grinding sound, it would try unsuccessfully to launch in to a drive scan right away, would take four minutes to power up, would turn off on a whim and just generally ran horribly.

Same here, right down to the same model; but I need to ask, what types of sites were you surfing and what did you have stored on your HD!? 

I currently have 90% of my HD full (with many start-up apps) and my PC doesn't take 1/2 that long to boot, nor has it ever needed to be reformatted.


:Disclaimer: by no means is this a dismissal of Arcs skills, nor of the value of running alternate O.S.'s. 

[Insurgent]

About six years ago I spent over $3,000 on a top-of-the-line Dell 8200, with all the bells and whistles. It's served me pretty well over the years but I've had to reformat the hard-drive every now and then because of all the bugs that I would catch, despite running anti-virus software.

Lately I had thought my machine to be on it's last legs; when I would power it up the hard drive would make an awful grinding sound, it would try unsuccessfully to launch in to a drive scan right away, would take four minutes to power up, would turn off on a whim and just generally ran horribly.

Same here, right down to the same model; but I need to ask, what types of sites were you surfing and what did you have stored on your HD!? 

I currently have 90% of my HD full (with many start-up apps) and my PC doesn't take 1/2 that long to boot, nor has it ever needed to be reformatted.


:Disclaimer: by no means is this a dismissal of Arcs skills, nor of the value of running alternate O.S.'s. 

Funny, you've got the same machine and haven't had any issues? Perhaps you're better protected than I was; I just ran standard Norton anti-virus software, etc and left all else to chance.

I like to surf the usual anti-government sites, MySpace and news sites, nothing out of the ordinary. After I discovered I-Tunes, I bought an external hard-drive to hold all my music, videos and pictures so as to free up space on my hard drive, but things still went downhill.

Seems like it boils down to the fact that I was using a bad OS and didn't know how to protect myself against attacks and viruses. Now that I've paid someone who knows what they're doing to fix the machine, she's smoking! Lesson learned--when you don't know what you're doing, hire someone who does 

[Pat McCotter]

Thanks for the discussion on this guys. I hadn't been able to install any Linux release I tried before this but I tried Ubuntu 7.1 and it went quite smoothly.

I've been able to "Remote Desktop" into the Windows machines I have access to and I'll be looking into all that I can do with this.

Again, thanks.

[Pat McCotter]

Of course, I am not able to run the VBA code in the Excel files to access the OPC Servers at the dams we operate and I haven't found any Linux OPC Clients, yet. We'll see, though.

[error]

Of course, I am not able to run the VBA code in the Excel files to access the OPC Servers at the dams we operate and I haven't found any Linux OPC Clients, yet. We'll see, though.

That is truly frightening. There aren't any humans living beneath these dams, are there?

[Pat McCotter]

Of course, I am not able to run the VBA code in the Excel files to access the OPC Servers at the dams we operate and I haven't found any Linux OPC Clients, yet. We'll see, though.

That is truly frightening. There aren't any humans living beneath these dams, are there?

I would hope not! They're anchored on granite ledges! The humans would be crushed!

[error]

Maybe I should say downriver from those dams... Not a safe place to be if a Windows box is controlling them.

[Pat McCotter]

Maybe I should say downriver from those dams... Not a safe place to be if a Windows box is controlling them.

No, a Windows box is used to monitor them. They use Allen-Bradley and GE Fanuc PLC's for control.

[EJinCT]

Funny, you've got the same machine and haven't had any issues? Perhaps you're better protected than I was; I just ran standard Norton anti-virus software, etc and left all else to chance.

Ahhh, that makes a little more sense now.

I have had no major issues running Windows XP on this box; the worst I have had to deal with is reinstalling some app.'s due to their bugged updates.

But..... I have always had multiple forms of protection running simultaneously. Pop-up blockers, Symantec Corp. Ed. AV, PC Doctor, On-line virus scanners, etc.

I did use Norton and McAfee at one point, but noticed many more compromises when I did so. No memorable issues since switching to Sym Corp. Ed.

I also regularly do maintenance ( scan-disk, defrag, registry scanning, etc; with Ashampoo Platinum Windows Optimizer, WebRoot Windows Washer, AdAware SE 


I'm hoping to get a laptop sometime in the near future and will likely wait until then to use an alt. O.S.

I still need to research what alt. O.S. will be 100% compatible w/ the music prod. app's I will be running.