PC geeks

[ArcRiley]

Right after you finish your back up, scrap WinDoh!s and install Linux. It's free as in speech, and it doesn't get viruses, spyware, adware or any of that crap. It does what you tell it to do. Get a Ubuntu or Kubuntu live CD or DVD, and you can even take it for a test drive before you commit to an install.

... and get my phone number (or some other geek for hire) on hand in case you get stuck :-)

[kola]

thanks all.

linux huh? do many folks here use it?

kola

[dalebert]

linux huh? do many folks here use it?

Me. I use free software for Linux (Inkscape) to draw my toons.

[ArcRiley]

linux huh? do many folks here use it?

Linux, or more properly GNU/Linux, is one of the flagships of the massive Software Freedom Movement.

By large, and casting a very broad net, if you're a Free Software activist you're Libertarian, and liberty-minded candidates know this to the extent of talking directly to local groups/etc in order to win local elections. 

Course you don't gotta be an activist, much less a geek, to use it.  You just want to be a liberty-minded person who wants freedom when they use their computer.

[KBCraig]

I use Linux, although it's all wrapped up in the pretty MacOS X wrapper. I have Ubuntu on a different partition, and sometimes use that too. I also have Ubuntu on a couple of x86 boxes around here, although no one uses them most of the time.

[KBCraig]

Hire someone to look at it.

 

[ArcRiley]

I use Linux, although it's all wrapped up in the pretty MacOS X wrapper.

Um, no.  Apple wants you to think it's Linux under the hood, it's actually Mach derivative microkernel with a BSD compatibility layer so you can run Posix apps.  Yes, that was Russian I just barked.

OSX is compiled using the GNU C Compiler (GCC) and has some of the same tools but the OS is very much different.  The primary difference, of course, is the lack of the four essential software freedoms.

[les nessman]

   Make a Ubuntu live CD.  This means you can boot your computer
from the CD ROM disc.  Very handy, and if you like it, you can install
the system to the hard drive.  Have someone help you thats good with
computers. 

  Instructional video:  Video #1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eah7QXPOPrY&feature=related
Right hand column titled "related videos" displays the next few clips.

   Here is a link to the I.S.O. Recorder program:  http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm


       If that doesnt work I'll mail you a ubuntu live CD free of charge, Kola.

[error]

Eh, Ubuntu is easy enough that you might not even need someone who knows about computers to help you.

And if you are way up in the north country, you only have a dialup connection, and you're perpetually broke, you can always have free Ubuntu CDs sent to you.

[KBCraig]

OSX is compiled using the GNU C Compiler (GCC) and has some of the same tools but the OS is very much different.  The primary difference, of course, is the lack of the four essential software freedoms.

"Essential" is relative. I understand the term, and your position, but one man's "essential" is another man's "useless since I have no knowledge, ability, or skills to de-/re-compile, read code, or otherwise translate the Russian you're barkin'."

But it still works just fine, even when the clooless (like me) dive into Terminal commands.

Kevin

[error]

"Essential" is relative. I understand the term, and your position, but one man's "essential" is another man's "useless since I have no knowledge, ability, or skills to de-/re-compile, read code, or otherwise translate the Russian you're barkin'."

Here's an English translation that hopefully will make it a bit clearer why Arc says that having freedom is essential, even if you are unable to exercise that freedom directly.

[KBCraig]

"Essential" is relative. I understand the term, and your position, but one man's "essential" is another man's "useless since I have no knowledge, ability, or skills to de-/re-compile, read code, or otherwise translate the Russian you're barkin'."

Here's an English translation that hopefully will make it a bit clearer why Arc says that having freedom is essential, even if you are unable to exercise that freedom directly.

Oh, I totally grok what Arc said, and the value of the Free Software -slash- Open Source ethic. I salute the movement. That doesn't make the command line any easier for us ignorami, though. 

[error]

Who said anything about the command line?

[erisian]

Who said anything about the command line?

Using a distro like Ubuntu, you shouldn't ever really need to use the command line. They have GUI programs for almost all administrative tasks. But if you have a geek talking you through a problem, it's a lot easier for the geek to say ; "type tail dmesg" than to wade through a bunch of menus and buttons. You have advanced to true geekhood when you prefer the commandline.

Then there are the old saws:
"Unix is user-friendly, it's just choosy about who its friends are."
"Unix and LSD both came out of Berkeley. Coincidence?"
"Garbage in, Garbage out."

Our household runs GNU/Linux (Kubuntu, Debian, OpenWRT) on our desktops, laptops, and even as the firmware on our wireless router. I shitcanned WinDoh!s^TM in 1995. Twelve years later it is still difficult to buy a new computer without paying the "Micro$oft Tax". Now with Digital Restrictions Management built in to Vista, and God only knows how many backdoors and alarms built-in at the request of the NSA, not to mention the fundamental insecurity of anything that ever came out of Micro$oft, that should be all the reasons that any liberty-minded person would need to get rid of WinDoh!s^TM.

You may not be able to read source code, but the fact that the GNU/Linux source is publicly available means that no one can hide any nasties in it. If you run WinDoh!s^TM, you just never know exactly what your computer is doing, and the people who set it up that way want it to stay that way. The reason you feel powerless to control your own hardware and software is because you have been set up, not because you are too stupid to run a computer. Now WinDoh!s^TM is such a pandemic that most people think that's just the way things work. But back in the depths of time, before Micro$oft, computers were considered to be the standard of reliability and correctness. They did what they were told and nothing more. That's still all they do. The question is; who does your computer obey?

See the Free Software Foundation website, and the GNU Philosophy section for background info on Free Software.

[Kat Kanning]

Make a recording of the noise and share it.

Have you ever listened to Car Talk on NPR?  It's totally hilarious.  People call in and try and reproduce their car noises sometimes.  Maybe you geek guys could have a computer repair show like that.