Ubuntu, uhm, wow

[rjisinspired]

I thought I would try out Ubuntu since I was at my wits end with trying to get some form of windows on the new computer with no success at all. The Ubuntu install on the CD went flawlessly with no errors!! My hardware was picked up though there may need to be upgrades but if there is I don't notice it. The OS is clean and organized.

Windows 2000 gave me an acpi not compliant error and XP will not install neither, it would copy files until it hit the 30 second mark and than freeze out. Ubuntu was the only OS I could install on my system. Now I got to experience how fast a modern computer can be/is wow wow wow. Moving up from 1999 specs. Programs opens very swift and almost instaneously especially openoffice

I really like what I see with an alternative OS. The only thing I might run into knots with is the network and internet since I'm on Veri$on DSL, their software I highly doubt will work with it and they don't have any linux versions of it.

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

Yeah the hardest thing to get used to when setting up an ubuntu system is when the install is done, its done -everything works. some features arent enabled because you have to add drivers but usually the system is in a workable state at the end of the install.

as for your verizon issue, if it connects with regular ol' ethernet, then ubuntu should be able to pick up an IP without the software the same as windows. but if its one of those USB modems then youll either have to get divers for it or get a different modem

[bj-kaiser]

...

I really like what I see with an alternative OS. The only thing I might run into knots with is the network and internet since I'm on Veri$on DSL, their software I highly doubt will work with it and they don't have any linux versions of it.

As much as I could find on the Verizon site, they seem to give customers Ethernet/USB-Modems and use PPPoE as protocol. if you don't have a router, its a bit more work to set it up, but nowhere near impossible.

@geek:

I think what you mean about picking up an IP and be done, sounds like a router to me. And even with a router, results may vary. I got a DSL-Modem-Router from my TelCo here, and it worked with Windows like expected (*duh*), but for some reason it doesn't like the default setup of Ubuntu's DHCP-Client.

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

yeah ill be the first to admit that i dont know anything about the USB cable.DSL modems but thats just because i avoid them like the plague. So far I've only encountered 2 at friends houses 1 had a ethernet port so i just made a cable for em and switched to that and the other we called Cox cable and told them we wanted to hook it up to a mac running OS9 which confused them enough to send out a different model with a ethernet port on it.

[rjisinspired]

Yes, Verizon uses winpoet, pppoe. I had a bell atlantic modem that I had since 2002 but it started having issues with timing where it would take many open and closes of the dialer to connect and sometimes I would get the 676 line is busy then I had to reboot. Instead I bought my own modem, a Zoom adsl 5615 ethernet. I told Verizon to stick their modem where the sun don't shine. They wanted like $100.00 for their kind. I paid half that with the Zoom and what's better is I can connect the phone directly at the modem instead of the wall.

I was reading that Verizon has this reactivation scheme for existing users and this can be a major issue for linux users. Verizon doesn't support Linux, so they say. They seem to only accept their specially crafted IE6 browser that is included with their software and windows when going to their activation account page even if you try to spoof the UA of the browser to get to the accounts page they make it impossible. The old Verizon software was easy, just install and be done with it but no, even by installing the old software you won't get on. You have to use the the new software and go through a robotic intro voiced by someone who talks too slow. Voice can be disabled fortunately. The setup screen contains flash enabled windows that contain errors in them and through mouse-clicking the "next" button 5000 times finally gets you to the modem options selection page and after that you have to sign in to reactivate the account. I don't want to call them up either since whomever I call doesn't understand me or I don't understand them.

One year someone crossed the lines in the building and for days my dsl was shifted to a resident on the first floor, I'm on the third. I kept getting phone calls from a Doctor asking for Kate to remind her about an appointment. I kept telling this guy that I'm not her. Kate's Mother also called me. I called Verizon and they said they detected I had a valid connection but they didn't comprehend what I was telling them about the odd calls. The first-floor resident picked up on it and somehow was able to get someone over to look over things. Lo-and-behold the wiring was fumbled. If it wasn't for her I don't know when I would had gotten reconnected. Some lady got free dsl for a couple of days while I got calls for Doctor appointment reminders and one very confused Mother, lol.

Personally I am getting fed up with Verizon. They have also capped the speed once again. There is Comcast but my Mother had that and there were issues with it. The electrical here is probably unchanged since the 70's. Can't have dish or satellite in certain areas of the town/property per contract it looks like. Sucks when you can't allow competition to flourish.

Edited December 24, 2007 by rjisinspired

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

perhaps Ubuntu+ VMware + Windows XP might help you circumvent the account activation page? surely you dont have to visit that page everytime.

[Zxian]

Just try using Linux with some newer hardware. AFAIK, nVidia drivers still don't properly support the old 8800GTS video cards, and definitely aren't up to spec with the new 8800GT/GTS cards.

Other more obscure hardware might not even be recognized either. One more reason why Linux is starting to go downhill... lack of MP3 support. I understand that the devs want to keep everything "free", but at least build in MP3 support to keep up with the times! It's rediculous that I need to use the RealPlayer driver in order to listen to my music...

I find OpenOffice slow... it takes a good 5-6 seconds to open the OO Document program on my Fedora Core system (E2160, 2GB DDR2-667), while my Server 2003 system at home (E2160, 4GB DDR2-800) takes only 2 seconds to load MS Word.

Newer versions of Linux are no more resource friendly than XP. My FC8 system uses 400MB of RAM on bootup, comparable (if not more) to that of a base XP installation.

[bj-kaiser]

Oh great, i wondered when the flamewar would begin.

Here's a try to clear it up a bit (though it still looks pointless to me):

• Would you blame Windows if a GPU wouldn't work as expected?
  No, you'd blame NVidia/ATI/whomever. Same goes for Linux.
  
• The MP3 problem exists because of patents
  Even the free distributions (Debian/KXUBuntu/SuSE and what else is out there) would have to pay for patented technologies, if those decoders where delivered with the base install (IIRC). How'd even guess how high the exact numbers of installations are? There is no such thing as Windows activation or WGA in the linux distributions I have seen.
  
• Is OpenOffice that slow with or without the autostart preloader?
  Same for MS Office, the default install usually installs a preloader for MSO AFAIK. (and even if it was slower, you are talking about what? 2 - 3 seconds ...)
  
• different memory management
  I don't know much about that, but I know that usually the RAM that is not yet used by daemons/applications is used for diskcaching, which explains the high usage. Don't know how that compares to Windows XP.
  

Oh and one last word:

Don't expect Linux to behave like Windows ... it just isn't Windows.

[Zxian]

I'll blame the people who say "linux just works" when as a matter of fact, they don't. I had an interesting system crash with the integrated graphics (G965 chipset) and an OpenGL based program. The whole system would just freeze, forcing me to hard reboot the system. As a second example - our Linux servers decided that they weren't going to implement the routing information given to them by DHCP. Two days later, after various troubleshooting, the problem fixed itself.

The OpenOffice loading times are with the pre-loader. I wasn't aware of any MS Office preloader that was installed on my system... know where I might find it under AutoRuns? I'd like to disable it and compare.

I wasn't just talking about memory management in terms of resources. Modern linux distros take longer to load, perform slower, and use more RAM - in general use more system resources than Windows XP.

[DonDamm]

If you use Outlook, then Word is loaded when you open it and runs in the background. Check Task Manager and see if Word is running. If it is, then it will load very quickly.

Ubuntu is a great OS and the team they have working on it is incredible. They are responsnive to problems and have done an amazing job over the last 18+ months. As a minority OS there will always be some driver issues with some hardware. One of the several machines I have has been running Ubuntu flawlessly for amny months now. I use it for downloading and other things. I like µtorrent which is only written for Windows32 so.... I use it under Wine!

If Verizon requires you ro run some software only for windows, you could run it under Wine. Already mentioned is running a VM with XP installed in it, but that requires a bit more memory set aside and takes longer to setup. Side note: a VM running Windows under linux takes way fewwer system resources than running native! This is particularly true for Vista which will use all the memory you have and then some... :^)

[kof94]

I wasn't just talking about memory management in terms of resources. Modern linux distros take longer to load, perform slower, and use more RAM - in general use more system resources than Windows XP.

I disagree but that's not the point.

I read this article sometime ago and it kind of sums up the whole Windows/Linux divide as far as I'm concerned.

[bonestonne]

The whole system would just freeze, forcing me to hard reboot the system. As a second example - our Linux servers decided that they weren't going to implement the routing information given to them by DHCP. Two days later, after various troubleshooting, the problem fixed itself.

weird, i've had that happen a couple times under ubuntu 7.10, and its like a disease with no cure so far.

well, in ubuntu, while its not perfect, you've got the "ugly set" of codecs you can get in Add/Remove Programs...it lets you play mp3, mp4, m4a, mov, divx, avi, and many more formats that i've never tried before. you have the restricted drivers for nvidia and ati, while not perfect [i know that all too well] they can work, and very well when they do.

it depends on how far you're willing to go for your system with any linux distro..none are perfect, not really work better than any other as a whole...flaws still exist, but maybe not for you.

[S.SubZero]

I thought I would try out Ubuntu since I was at my wits end with trying to get some form of windows on the new computer with no success at all. The Ubuntu install on the CD went flawlessly with no errors!! My hardware was picked up though there may need to be upgrades but if there is I don't notice it. The OS is clean and organized.

Windows 2000 gave me an acpi not compliant error and XP will not install neither, it would copy files until it hit the 30 second mark and than freeze out. Ubuntu was the only OS I could install on my system.

Did you make any attempt to troubleshoot this? I mean if you can't even get XP to install, something is wrong with your computer, plain and simple.

I have an Ubuntu virtual machine in Virtualbox but it is my least favorite VM. The interface feels like cheap plastic, things don't seem to match up, and it also has been the least stable VM I've run. I'm unimpressed.

[Innocent Devil]

I thought I would try out Ubuntu since I was at my wits end with trying to get some form of windows on the new computer with no success at all. The Ubuntu install on the CD went flawlessly with no errors!! My hardware was picked up though there may need to be upgrades but if there is I don't notice it. The OS is clean and organized.

Windows 2000 gave me an acpi not compliant error and XP will not install neither, it would copy files until it hit the 30 second mark and than freeze out. Ubuntu was the only OS I could install on my system.

Did you make any attempt to troubleshoot this? I mean if you can't even get XP to install, something is wrong with your computer, plain and simple.

I have an Ubuntu virtual machine in Virtualbox but it is my least favorite VM. The interface feels like cheap plastic, things don't seem to match up, and it also has been the least stable VM I've run. I'm unimpressed.

How can you make such a comment, if windows isn't working ,then the compuer is crap ???

rjisinspired already said

The Ubuntu install on the CD went flawlessly with no errors!!

It is the problem of Windows incompatibility not the problem of h/w.

[rjisinspired]

Yes I found out the problem with the install. I was hitting the F keys in case I should get an error. I didn't have to do this, I felt stupid at the time to So I restarted over and just let the thing go untouched and the install went smoothly.

Since I have the hardware installed I'm curious to see how Ubuntu would act with it. I'll try this out soon.

Veri$on was a pain to get going. The automator software kept detecting that I didn't have a nic card, or that the service was offline, or some other problem. I had to restart the installer and activation about 20 times before it worked, took hours.

I also had to use my older modem, the old Bell atlantic. My Zoom modem, one I bought, didn't seem to be found by windows and/or Veri$on. There aren't any firmwares at Zoom's site or fixes so I don't know what the problem was. They probably want you to use their modems. Wouldn't surprise me if this was the case. Their modems are ok I guess but they rip you off with the markup of 100% to make the profit, typically $100.00 for a little black westell box, lol.

The CPU is acting normally and appears to be in the normal temp range. The hard drive monitor I'm using is showing my drive at 87F. I did download intel desktop utilities but uninstalled it. It couldn't read certain parts of the computer though it was compatible with the type of board I have, some fields were blank. I tried looking at other CPU monitor software but I haven't found one yet that supports my board. According to the sensor reading on the front panel of the case I am at 27.6C