The longer I run it, the more I love it

Discussion in 'GNU/Linux' started by DarkLight, Aug 6, 2016.


  1. DarkLight

    DarkLight Live Long and Prosper - On Hiatus

    So, I haven't had my "own" computer in quite some time. Every job I've had for the last 10 years has provided me with a laptop which I have always found one way or another to make my own without breaking.

    Most recently that has been in the form of a USB 3.0 external hard drive (500 GB). That drive has Fedora 23 installed (updated 3 times over the last 2 years) and has now officially been booted on 4 different devices with ZERO issues. It just freakin works.

    This fourth device is a 5 year old Acer laptop that has been used by my wife, my daughter, my son and now me (temporarily...had to turn in the "nice" laptop when I left the job yesterday).

    If you are a Windows person but getting fed up with Microsoft, please, please seriously consider Linux. Running it with Cinnamon is VERY similar to a windows experience. I won't tell you it's the same because it isn't, but it is one of the closest iterations you will use.

    I know I keep threatening to do this, but I think I'm going to create a base image of Fedora running Cinnamon (and hardened) for VirtualBox and a walk-through to install VirtualBox on your Windows machine so people can see it, use it, and then decide to switch from one to the other.

    Seriously, the ability to take a drive from new to old, from AMD to Intel, and continue to have an identical experience (speed not withstanding) is life changing!
     
    Joe13, Ganado, duane and 1 other person like this.
  2. duane

    duane Monkey+++

    Please expand on this. I have played around with Raspberry pi and a memory stick and love it, but what would you suggest for a real "hard" drive that won't fail in 6 months, could use a pair of them with updating, and one in a faraday cage. I lost all of my stuff about 6 months ago on a laptop computer and while I had most of it backed up, I still lost a lot.
    Need to set up a system that works like the disc I now use to boot and test, but contain the whole memory and operate from scratch on another computer. I know it is old hat to a lot of people and I may just need to be referred to the right place.
     
    Joe13 and Ganado like this.
  3. DarkLight

    DarkLight Live Long and Prosper - On Hiatus

    For me personally, I'm using an actual hard drive:
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009F1CWZ6/?tag=survivalmonke-20

    It is USB 2.0/3.0 (but not USB C). The laptop I used when I installed it had no CD-ROM so I created a bootable USB thumb drive with Fedora 18 on it, booted to the laptop with both the thumb-drive and the external drive plugged in and installed Fedora to the hard drive.

    The main reason for this (for me) was that my work laptop used McAfee Drive Encryption on an NVMe SSD/Flash Drive for the main boot drive and I couldn't hot-swap it or dual-boot it. So, I would come home, plug in all my peripherals (USB 3.0 hub for mouse, keyboard and external drive), monitor and network cable, boot it up holding F12 and select the external disk.

    This way, nothing on my work partition was accessible or really even visible and nothing on my personal drive left a trace on the machine.

    If you were going to go this route, I would suggest that you use some sort of mirroring technology rather than booting and updating each disk. Keeping all the files, etc. in sync is a PITA. Norton Ghost and Acronis are two systems that work very well but are not free to clone disks. On the other hand, depending on the disk you buy for your external drive, it may come bundled with disk cloning software that you can use to keep the drives in sync. I would suggest, if you own all the hardware, that you use one drive internal to the machine (laptop, desktop, whatever) and the other in an external drive holder. Then, install the OS on the internal disk and configure it as required and then plug in the external disk and clone. Then, you can clone to the external disk every so often and keep it in the Faraday cage.

    The reason I would suggest two physical drives and a USB drive chassis is that you want to be able, if necessary, to pull the drive from the external chassis and throw it in to the machine rather than being stuck with an external drive forever should the internal drive die. Plus, you can upgrade either or both at any time to a larger disk and just keep using the external chassis.

    Get a USB 3.0 chassis (no preference) for future compatibility even if your machine doesn't currently support USB 3.0.
     
    Joe13 and Ganado like this.
  4. marlas1too

    marlas1too Monkey+++

    every computer I have ever owned I have wiped windows off and had Linux installed -no crashes no spyware love Linus-with unbutu
     
    Joe13 and arleigh like this.
  5. Salted Weapon

    Salted Weapon Monkey+++

    The only issue I often have is software compatibility, so many formats are hard to use.And getting proper drivers
    for what is on your PC can be tough. I have considered buying a smaller PC to use this old tank is about done being upgraded.
    Its 2.4 quadcore and about 8 years old, it has 8 gigs ram 3 gigs video but even then the internet is slowly getting slower and games on Steam are getting slower. I have not used Unbunto for awhile maybe I should recheck on it see if there are more advances, in hind site I should have made this machine XP Pro , not win7 64 that upgrade is cool and all but makes the machine slower. I have tow large back up drives I may someday dump this pc and upgrade and build a news one. This one has a 750w powersupply hopefully I can use on new machine.
     
    Joe13 likes this.
  6. Joe13

    Joe13 Monkey

    Apple is my friend.

    2005 Mac Tower 1.8 dual quad- runs Final Cut Pro and Adobe suite as well as streams video to the TV and plays house server. Never had a hickup or virus. $300 in processors and memory and it would be the equiviant of a 2013 high end machine but I have not found the need to do so yet.

    2008 MacBook - has great battery life and rarely crashes.

    Kid has a MacBook Air, 1 year old 500gig SSD, tons of ram and had both windows 7 and max OS X on a partitioned drive.


    All the above work, free OS upgrades and no fiddling with components, software or settings.

    Was a PC tuner from 1990-2005 and just got tired of the hastle.
     
    Pax Mentis and Salted Weapon like this.
  7. Salted Weapon

    Salted Weapon Monkey+++

    I used to build PC and such from dumper diving Intel, AMD and Atari over the years I built allot and enjoyed quite a bit.
    I have slowed down keeping up with technology advances in PC's had a mac one time the fact I couldnt tinker as much at the time
    made me less inclined to use it. I guess Mac was too easy to use lol. I want to build a linux/unbunto machine but been putting allowances into more things that go bang bang then beep beep.
     
    Joe13 likes this.
  8. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    My iMac 27" is the current Model...3.2Gb Four Core, 32Gb Memory, running OSX10.11.5. 1TB Fusion Drive, with a 27" second LCD, a ThunderBolt Dock, that feeds an eSATA FourBay Enclosure with a 4TB Drive, a 2TB Drive, and a 960GB SSD installed. I have a ThunderBolt/FireWire 800 plugged into the Dock as well, but Nothing on that Buss at this time. A whole Ton of USB3.0 and 2.0 stuff, connected. I have a pair of Black MacBooks running OSX10.6.8, that also run the Virtual Windows XP Machines, when I need MicroSquash stuff. I have an iPad Retina, an iPhone 5S, There are a Pair of G4 MDD PowerMacs, one os a OS X 10.4.11 Server, and one that runs just straight OSX 10.4.11, and a Pair of MacMinis, one is a OS X 10.5.8 Server, that runs the Home entertainment System, and one runs OSX 10.6.8 Server, which is the Backup Server, for my Network, and that doesn't include all the Legacy MacOS 9.x.x Stuff, that Runs the Cannery Stuff. AlaskaChick has my old iMac27", running OSX 10.10.4, an iPad Pro, and an iPhone 4.... Lots of Mac in our household....
     
    Salted Weapon, Joe13 and Ganado like this.
  9. Salted Weapon

    Salted Weapon Monkey+++

    Ya but you'll shoot your eye out with it kid !!
     
  10. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Could be, but only if that Eye, happens to be 1000Yds down range........
     
    Salted Weapon likes this.
  11. Pax Mentis

    Pax Mentis Philosopher King |RIP 11-4-2017

    My 2010 model MacBook Pro is currently having it's first official glitch...pretty sure it is just a matter of the fan duct stopped up with dog hair and I will get to it soon. Right now I get by fine with my '09 model white MacBook also running 10.11...with 6GB of RAM...and I can't tell the difference between either of them and my new iMac. Bought my first Mac in May of '84.
     
    Joe13 and BTPost like this.
  12. Idahoser

    Idahoser Monkey+++ Founding Member

    why would you need to do that? Why not just boot to a live dvd or flash drive freely available from linuxmint.com?
    Like ham radio, learning to use Linux is a process, not an event. Go ahead and get started, don't jump all the way into deleting Windows until you know you can do everything you want to do with it. There IS going to be a little fiddling required and you ARE going to have some frustration, but if you keep looking for help you WILL find it and be glad you did.
     
    Joe13 likes this.
  13. Joe13

    Joe13 Monkey

    Big fan of partitioned or dedicated drives for operating systems personally. They are so cheap now that it's hard not to justify it unless your machine is maxed out for space.
     
  14. DarkLight

    DarkLight Live Long and Prosper - On Hiatus

    Because while I agree with you, there are several folks here on the monkey that either won't or can't take that first step, even with a live cd. I've heard some of the same folks "talk about it" for at least two or three years and still not take that step.

    Because I see a need and as a former technical trainer, I know that some people need to literally have their hand held to make changes like we are suggesting, even to run a live CD.

    Because some home machines, especially new ones with Windows 10, are running UEFI instead of BIOS and creating the bootable USB incorrectly causes things to not work at all (in some cases, not all) and leaves a bad taste in their mouth.

    Because virtual box and/or VMware is a good tool to have in your back pocket regardless.

    Because I don't have the attitude that you have to jump into the deep water and either sink or swim, especially if that really isn't required.

    Because running them side by side rather than dual booting or different disks is a "gentler" introduction.

    Because I don't like Debian distributions or there derivatives.

    Because I have issues with canonical and their approach to privacy (Ubuntu) and their recent track record.

    Because I want to.

    If anyone is interested after I put it up, super fantastic. If not, it's really no big deal at all.

    If you are already Linuxified, great, you won't need it or use it. Please feel free to move on.
     
    Ganado likes this.
  15. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    @DarkLight ignore the 'I'm right crowd' on comps, This was a great thread for the dual boot topic so, thank you for posting!

    I have businesses to run so I need dual boot. I need the window's environment because I'm in business to make money and fiddling with my comp all the time doesn't make me money. I need the damn thing to work out of the box, and I don't want to have to redesign and integrate all my database crap and then test its integrity.

    So dual boot is a good option for me
     
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