Why Linux?

[ReformedCharacter]

I wanted (still do really) to change to Unix after my main PC blew up - since replaced by an ex-lease Dell with Windows 8.1 - but when I looked I was horrified by what I found. Things had obviously moved on since as I last looked, many moons ago. There now seemed to be as many species of Unix as there once were personal computers running MS DOS in the days before the IBM PC. I just gave up before I even started.

Windows 10 pushed me away from newer versions of Windows for good. Are you really after a UNIX rather than a Linux distribution? If you are, FreeBSD or OpenBSD seem to be the popular choices. There are many Linux distributions but Ubuntu and Mint seem to be well reviewed. I use Debian myself which I find very reliable and does what I want. I run VirtualBox for the odd occasion when I need to run Windows (Win7).

RC

[Infrasonic]

Very interesting:
"I let the Windows setup procedure run on first boot, until I got to the point where it became clear to me that it is now impossible to install Windows without a Microsoft account. Absolutely impossible."

It is interesting, I'm not convinced it is correct though. I've seen nothing in the technical press to that effect and it's something that would definitely garner significant attention.
It would be a major faux pax if MS have made a MS account compulsory for all W10 clean installs.

The machine I'm currently posting from (not mine) has W10 1809 with 1903 FU alert waiting in the wings for a manually triggered download/install and no Microsoft account, just a local one.
Works fine.
Occasionally it nags to 'sign in' with a MS account in the MS Store, but it doesn't stop anything updating/downloading/working.

I do run a MS account (two in fact) on my own PC's, as well as multiple Google accounts, because I want the full fat experience there. But for day to day operations it doesn't really make that much difference.

[XFool]

Very interesting:
"I let the Windows setup procedure run on first boot, until I got to the point where it became clear to me that it is now impossible to install Windows without a Microsoft account. Absolutely impossible."

It is interesting, I'm not convinced it is correct though. I've seen nothing in the technical press to that effect and it's something that would definitely garner significant attention.
It would be a major faux pax if MS have made a MS account compulsory for all W10 clean installs.

The article goes on to say you can now only install using a MS Account. If you want a standalone version there is some way to fix that up after Windows has been set up.

I noticed when I set up my Win 8.1 machine that you had to try harder to avoid it than on Win 8. For one moment I actually thought I had made a mistake with 8.1 and should have stuck to 8 before I found it was avoidable. It was just pushed on you more than in Win 8.

[XFool]

Windows 10 pushed me away from newer versions of Windows for good. Are you really after a UNIX rather than a Linux distribution? If you are, FreeBSD or OpenBSD seem to be the popular choices. There are many Linux distributions but Ubuntu and Mint seem to be well reviewed.

Even Mint now comes in three versions, with little apparent explanation on the Mint website of why, or what the differences are.

I feel the Unix community has done the whole project harm, wrt to getting Unix more generally adopted by outsiders, by their multiple updating and history of splitting.

[torata]

It is interesting, I'm not convinced it is correct though. I've seen nothing in the technical press to that effect and it's something that would definitely garner significant attention.
It would be a major faux pax if MS have made a MS account compulsory for all W10 clean installs.

The article goes on to say you can now only install using a MS Account. If you want a standalone version there is some way to fix that up after Windows has been set up.

Actually I installed Win 10 1903 on Sunday from an ISO downloaded that day. I didn't have to set it up with a Windows account, but I did have to look carefully to find a way of avoiding it.

torata

[JoyofBrex8889]

Switching to Linux is an easy decision theses days: Windows 10 divorced the user from any control of the system and its update and telemetry behaviour became so egregious that I could tolerate it no more. Linux was the only solution: now happily running Debian on my daily main box.

Libre-office is great these days. The command line is not that intimidating and there is loads of how-to advice out there to help.

I can run free, powerful software without Microsoft’s Clippy throwing a fit. it’s great!

To anyone fed up with Windows: Linux gives your computer back to you.

[servodude]

Linux was the only solution

BSD wants a word
- he was hanging about with MacOS and Solaris last time I saw him


- sd

[hiriskpaul]

You can definitely install W10 without a MS login. I did a fresh install the other day on a PC I use at our holiday home after the PC would not boot for some reason. Easily installed with a local login. We don't have a TV license at this property, so just use the PC for radio, music, Netflix or (rarely these days) DVDs.

[hiriskpaul]

I cannot remember a time when Unix was not splintered. Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, Ultrix, SCO, etc. Lots of initiatives to attempt to bring them together, such as with OSF and Motif which never quite got there and that was long before Linux and MacOS came along to further complicate the picture.

[Infrasonic]

You can definitely install W10 without a MS login. I did a fresh install the other day on a PC I use at our holiday home after the PC would not boot for some reason. Easily installed with a local login. We don't have a TV license at this property, so just use the PC for radio, music, Netflix or (rarely these days) DVDs.

There was some debate over on the Windows Ten forums recently about this, the same conclusion was reached, local login is still possible.
I think either MS or the OEM's have made it less obvious than before with factory installs, hence the confusion in the article I linked to upthread.

[Breelander]

Very interesting:
"I let the Windows setup procedure run on first boot, until I got to the point where it became clear to me that it is now impossible to install Windows without a Microsoft account. Absolutely impossible."

There was some debate over on the Windows Ten forums recently about this, the same conclusion was reached, local login is still possible.
I think either MS or the OEM's have made it less obvious than before with factory installs, hence the confusion in the article I linked to upthread.

I tested this thoroughly. The conclusion is that there is a problem ONLY in version 1809 and ONLY for W10 Home and ONLY if you have an internet connection during the initial setup. This affects both an OEM pre-installed OS and the plain-vanilla MS install media.

Under those circumstances there appears to be a bug in Setup that makes the option to set up a local account disappear. You are only offered the choice of using an MS account or a phone number. There are two workarounds for this, the first being not to connect to the internet during setup. The second is to use a non-existent phone number such as 1234567890. The next screen telling you the phone number is wrong DOES have the local account option available.

This bug only seems to exist for 1809 Home (Pro offered a local account as normal) and has been fixed in 1903.

[XFool]

I cannot remember a time when Unix was not splintered. Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, Ultrix, SCO, etc. Lots of initiatives to attempt to bring them together, such as with OSF and Motif which never quite got there and that was long before Linux and MacOS came along to further complicate the picture.

Yeah. But that was the day of just commercial Unix versions. In my day there were basically two 'species': ATT System V or BSD Unix. All the others seemed to be computer manufactures adaptations on one or the other.

I used BSD variety (Sun OS) and was familiar with that. Also, from what I could see, the commands in BSD were more consistent and thus far easier to remember than System V. I've always wanted to go with BSD.

[hiriskpaul]

I cannot remember a time when Unix was not splintered. Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, Ultrix, SCO, etc. Lots of initiatives to attempt to bring them together, such as with OSF and Motif which never quite got there and that was long before Linux and MacOS came along to further complicate the picture.

Yeah. But that was the day of just commercial Unix versions. In my day there were basically two 'species': ATT System V or BSD Unix. All the others seemed to be computer manufactures adaptations on one or the other.

I used BSD variety (Sun OS) and was familiar with that. Also, from what I could see, the commands in BSD were more consistent and thus far easier to remember than System V. I've always wanted to go with BSD.

This is true, but they all looked different. You are a little (!) out of date with respect to Sun OS. Sun moved to Solaris 2 in the early 90s. Solaris 2 was based on AT&Ts UNIX System V Release 4, which merged in BSD differences, e.g. from memory BSD Sockets were added. This made SVR4 much better than SVR3. Where there were clashes, such as the ps command, the AT&T version was the default, but it was straightforward to flip back to the BSD tools instead and from memory everything compiled without a hitch. After a few tweaks I barely noticed a difference going from SunOS to Solaris 2.

[Infrasonic]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMT5YKiPVEg

ExplainingComputers
Published on 28 Jul 2019

Khadas Edge-V SBC review, including Android and Ubuntu demos, 1080p and 4K local and YouTube video playback, and speed tests using a WD Black NVMe SSD and an external SSD connected via USB-C.

You can learn more about the Edge-V on the Khadas website here:
https://www.khadas.com/edge-v

[ReformedCharacter]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMT5YKiPVEg

ExplainingComputers
Published on 28 Jul 2019

Khadas Edge-V SBC review, including Android and Ubuntu demos, 1080p and 4K local and YouTube video playback, and speed tests using a WD Black NVMe SSD and an external SSD connected via USB-C.

You can learn more about the Edge-V on the Khadas website here:
https://www.khadas.com/edge-v

Thanks (again) for posting that. It's amazing how good SBCs are getting. Interesting to see Android running on one, I've been thinking about doing some Android development and that looks like a good candidate, much better than getting an Android emulator. I think one of these would probably cover 98% of my computing needs.

RC

[Infrasonic]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DINmS5YBD4

ExplainingComputers
Published on 11 Aug 2019

UDOO BOLT V8 review, including specifications, Ubuntu demo, M.2 and eMMC speed tests, Windows 10 demo, and a Passmark benchmark of this embedded AMD Ryzen maker board with Radeon Vega 8 graphics.

Cont.

[fourtwentyfour]

I have used Linux Mint for a while on a spare computer. Recently I upgraded to Debian Buster to try it.. the installation was very fast and looked neat and clear. I had high hopes for it.

Sadly, it was impossible for me to use it, nothing worked or seemed so different that I couldn't figure it out. Dragging shortcuts to the task bar failed, the programme manager seemed to contain no programmes etc. I realise it is my inexperience that is to blame, but I gave up and installed Mint 19.2 which works well, except for one thing, see next post.

I also have windows 10 and recently cleaned it up. I keep files on a NAS so it is not cluttered.

[Infrasonic]

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/08/2 ... ux_kernel/

...Today's publication of the exFAT specification is the first stage in what Microsoft hopes will be its inclusion in the Linux kernel. The Windows giant says it will support the inclusion of exFAT in a future revision of the Linux System Definition published by the Open Invention Network (OIN). This would mean that the exFAT patent would be covered by the OIN patent non-aggression pact...

Cont.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/window ... cification

[Infrasonic]

https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-on- ... t-options/

A review of what EFI boot (UEFI firmware) is, how it works, how it interacts with Linux installations, and a few tips and personal experiences on how to configure and maintain it.

Cont.

[ReformedCharacter]

I've also read that Linux isn't totally immune to viruses. Should I install some protection? Any recs?

Cheers

Sounds as if Pulseaudio isn't getting started at boot time, I'll do a little more research...

I don't use an antivirus on Linux myself but don't take my opinion:

https://www.howtogeek.com/135392/htg-ex ... en-you-do/

However, you are very unlikely to stumble on – and be infected by – a Linux virus in the same way you would be infected by a piece of malware on Windows. Whatever the reason, Linux malware isn’t all over the Internet like Windows malware is. Using an antivirus is completely unnecessary for desktop Linux users.

RC