Linux - how few know of it

[miriam_e]

When I meet people and discussion falls to computers, as it often does, I've often been surprised at how few people know of Linux. They generally think that putting up with Microsoft Windows is their only option. When told that Linux is a free operating system that can either replace, or co-exist with Microsoft Windows they tend to be either surprised or skeptical. This astounds me. How did Microsoft manage to so impoverish the computing world? Not only have they retarded computing technology by a decade or more, but they have blinded many people to even the possibility of advancement -- a very sad state of affairs.

Thank heavens it is slowly changing. Years ago Linux was something only computer geeks used. Now I know a broad range (but still a tiny minority) of people who have dropped Microsoft Windows, preferring the safety and lower cost of Linux... and in the case of Puppy Linux, the ease of use, speed, tiny size, and ability to revive old computers making them usable again. I think part of the change is coming simply from word of mouth, but also from live CDs, where people can try Linux before installing it on their machines.

On that last point, I've noticed an annoying number of computers recently that have their BIOS set up to prevent booting from a CD. It is easy to change, but most people don't even know what a BIOS is, let alone how to go into their SETUP to change the boot-device order. [sigh]

A ray of hope: lately Linux users seem to outnumber Apple Mac users on the net. (Thank heavens Apple didn't win the war for the desktop -- computer use would be even further retarded than with Microsoft. Apple are masters of propaganda.)

Comments

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

It is no trouble to post a CD if you have difficulty burning the iso to a disk (just remember that an iso file is a disk image, not ordinary data, so look for where your CD-burning software lets you burn a disk image). It costs hardly anything to post to the other side of the planet, and honestly, what else can you buy with a couple of dollars these days? :)

I used to use MSWindows all the time because of my work, and had felt that MSWindows was pretty intuitive and easy to use, however after having been away from it for some years now I can tell you that it isn't. I originally found Puppy a bit confusing, but now I find it much, much easier than MSWindows. How much of that is just being used to it? Probably quite a bit, however I installed Puppy Linux on my parents' machine some years ago when their MSWindows installation became flakey and crashed badly. They are in their 70s and 80s and have had little problem adapting to it.

Linux is much safer from viruses and other malware. There are hundreds of thousands of viruses written specifically for MSWindows, but only a few for Linux.

Linux is generally extremely difficult to break into because of its design, whereas MSWindows seems to have been designed explicitly to allow intrusions. (The French secret service released a report exposing a number of NSA spooks who work as executives at Microsoft, and various backdoors into MSWindows have been found, along with the weird ability of people sharing MSWord documents being able to steal other documents by getting MSWord to sneakily embed them in a document. Add to this the fact that Microsoft's MediaPlayer reports to a database at Microsoft on what you watch and listen to, and when you register a Microsoft program online it sends them a list of all your software. And also there is the strange fastfind program that comes with MSOffice which compiles lists of everything on your machine, but doesn't seem to speed your searches at all, and there is the fact that MSWindows quietly records everything you view in a folder which is kept invisible. You simply can't access it under MSWindows. I was astonished that there was gigabytes of hidden stuff on my last MSWindows machine.)

Linux distributions also include an excellent firewall that blocks all unwanted traffic, letting your machine remain invisible on the net. Imagine a street of houses with a burglar walking to each in turn trying the front door to find an unlocked, or easily picked one. One of the houses is cloaked in an invisibility shield so he doesn't even bother with it thinking it is an empty lot. Microsoft's firewall doesn't work very well. If you use MSWindows you would be better off using ZoneAlarm's free firewall.

My parents have Linux, and my nephew recently installed MSWindows on it too so that my Dad could play some games. We thought it might be useful because it would force him to focus his attention, but in an enjoyable way. So, yes, having both operating systems can be useful. When I was moving to Linux I kept MSWindows for a long time too.

A daughterboard is one of those cards about (4x5 inches) that plugs into your motherboard to give you extra capabilities, like video card, ethernet, internal modem, extra ports, video digitiser, sound card, and so on. You don't see them as much anymore now though, because most motherboards have all these (except video digitiser) integrated into their own chipset. You can still add daughterboards though if, for example, the sound dies on your computer, or you want faster video output, etc.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

I'll let you know if I have trouble downloading it and putting it on a cd.
Microsoft is creepy for sure. That's pretty obvious.
Okey so if I get the Puppy Linux, MS and Puppy are both operating systems right? So how do I figure which is operating what?
Right now for security I use Trend Micro which I'm not terribly impressed with but I've got a subscription so till it runs out I'm not too concerned about switching to something else. Though I'm not exactly sure what I'll switch to when it does. I probably ought to be prepared for that.
This computer is getting older (for a computer) and unlike many people I don't figure it's a given that I just chuck it out after a while and get another. I'd rather make it last as long as possible. I don't like wasting money. I wonder if Linux can extend the life.
I know there's loads of shit stuck in this computer I don't need but I've not the expertise to know how to clean it all out without throwing away something vital.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

It is easier than you think.

If you boot from the CD you can leave it in the drive each time you want to use Linux and take it out when you want to use MSWindows.

If you decide after some time (weeks or months?) of getting used to Linux that you like it enough you can install it on the machine so you don't need the CD anymore.

But that is some time away and there are about 5 different ways to do it, each variation suiting a different person and how they use the computer. Each different way is simple and easy to do, with Puppy holding your hand each step of the way. I'll also talk you through it if you don't feel confident about it.

In MSWindows all your data should be in the user's documents and settings folder. I so rarely use MSWindows anymore I can't recall off-hand exactly where, but just a few minutes of patient looking around with Linux will show you where MSWindows keeps your stuff. When it is found you can save it off to either DVDs or an external hard drive in case MSWindows dies at some future date. I would not advise getting rid of MSWindows for perhaps a year or two... until you are fully certain that you won't need it again. If there is any uncertainty on that then you should keep MSWindows on the machine indefinitely, even if you swap over to using Linux 100% of the time. Puppy Linux takes up so little room it doesn't matter much if MSWindows stays on the drive. Who knows when you might need to use it again?

I advocate the most cautious approach possible.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

I think I'd rather just install it than leave it on cd.
If I download puppy linux from here
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/puppy-4.3.1/pup-431.iso
like you said and just want to install it instead of keep it on the cd, would there be any reason to burn it to a cd?

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure it would be impossible to install without burning it to CD. It might be possible to install to a flash drive without booting from a CD first, though I'm not sure how... I haven't done it (I can find out if you'd like). I can't imagine how you would install directly to the hard drive without booting from a CD.

I'd never thought about it before. Interesting point.

It really is easiest to burn the image to CD so that you can boot from it and then decide whether to keep the Puppy CD for occasionally booting to Linux or perhaps installing it to your machine later so it runs from your hard drive. If you install to the hard drive then you will probably want to install grub (it is an optional part of the Linux installation process) to give you a boot menu which lets you choose whether to boot to MSWindows or Linux.

But I'd leave hard drive installation til later. Burn to CD first and test drive it first.

If you really want it on the hard drive it is always a good idea to back up your MSWindows data. It is very unlikely anything will go wrong, but MSWindows doesn't play nicely with others and you never know.

If you have another old obsolete computer perhaps try installing it there first. You can pick up old second hand computers for $10 or $20, sometimes even less. The good thing about installing Puppy on them is that they will run faster than they did under MSWindows and make the machines usable again.

I'd advise that you DON'T get rid of MSWindows on your main machine. Much as I dislike Microsoft and their operating systems, I have known some people who really don't like Linux. I would feel terrible if you did something irreversible and found yourself regretting it. Always give yourself a way back out of a situation.

When I changed over to Linux I did it gradually and pretty painlessly. I started with a bootable CD that I would play around with at odd times til I got the hang of it enough to want to install it. Then I shared the machine with Linux and MSWindows. Over time I gradually used Linux more than MSWindows, and after some years eventually deleted it from my drive(s) when I realised I just wasn't using it anymore. Now I don't have MSWindows on any of my computers, however I keep a spare drive with MSWindows on it for one of my laptops that I can swap into it if I ever need to use MSWindows. It has only been necessary once in the last couple of years, but it is nice to always have the option there.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Hmm, okay. I'm just less likely to use it if I have to keep using it from cd. I like my cd drive available for other things.
I don't tend to mess with such things much. I don't know enough to really and if anything I've often found it annoying. Who knows, that could just be my experience with Microsoft.
I don't have any spare computers or drives I can store stuff on so that's not an option.
Well, we'll see I guess.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Booting Puppy, even from from CD, generally takes a lot less time than booting MSWindows, and once Puppy is running you can take the CD out of the drive, freeing the drive for other things. Puppy is so small it can sit entirely in RAM... providing you have enough memory in your computer, and most reasonably modern machines do.

You'll find booting from CD is less bother than you think. When you shut it down Puppy will ask if you want to save your session to a file on your computer. If you answer no then when next you boot MSWindows or Puppy there will be no trace of the fact you'd previously been running Puppy. But if you choose to save what you'd done it will store a small file on the hard drive which will not interfere with MSWindows, but will contain all your changes so that on your next reboot of Puppy it will remember what you have done... sort of a halfway point between installing and not installing Puppy.

I used to run one of my machines entirely from a Puppy CD because it was a very old, slow computer. It had plenty of RAM, and because RAM runs much faster than a hard drive I never bothered to install Puppy onto that machine's hard drive -- it actually ran considerably faster by booting from the CD. I used the hard drive purely for storing data. So in certain cases it can be preferable to not install to the hard drive. It boots a little slower from the CD than the hard drive, but still faster than MSWindows does.

I have to go out today, so I can't look now, but I recently stumbled across a tiny, free program that burns iso disk images to CD. I can't remember its name offhand, but I have a note somewhere here about it. I'll be back home tonight and can find it then if you like... or I can post off a Puppy CD to you... absolutely no trouble.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Well if I can take it back out and have it still run that's cool.
I'm thinking my partner might want to convert his older desktop computer too.
And I'm thinking I will take you up on the offer of the Puppy Cd. :)
You're so kind.
Thank you.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Hey, we got the CD and DVD. Thank you!
I haven't tried it yet but I will. :)

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Yay!

Okay, two important things to do when you set it up...

First, click once (single-click in Puppy, not double-click) the "console" icon on the desktop. That opens the command line. Now type in "passwd" (without the quote marks). This will prompt you to set the password for the "root" user. Unlike most versions of Linux Puppy makes you the superuser, also known as root. Set the password to something that you will remember. Make it longer than 6 characters, don't use a normal word that can be found in a dictionary search. I tend to use numbers in one or more parts of the password too as that makes it even harder to break. Now that you have a private password it becomes virtually impossible for anybody to break into Puppy from outside, yet it is exceptionally easy to use from the keyboard.

The second thing to do comes after you have set up the network connection, which is done by clicking once on the "connect" icon on the desktop and choosing the button that is relevant (most probably "internet by network or wireless LAN"). There are help buttons at the bottom of the dialog that give you more info. When you have connected to the net then click on the "connect" icon again, and this time choose "setup a firewall". Follow the prompts and you will have a machine that is virtually impenetrable, yet extremely friendly for you to use.

If you get stuck with anything (you will -- you are not used to it yet) then try Puppy's help system (the "Help" icon on the desktop). If you still can't work it out (bound to be a few things you can't understand in the early stages) then please do contact me and I'll do what I can to help you sort it out. There is also a forum for Puppy users that is great for finding out answers to odd things:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/

When you get used to Puppy I'm sure you will find it a delight.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all your help with this. I've been pretty busy but I want to get to this soon. Maybe tomorrow.
I'm sure I'll be okay with it but I'll let you know if I'm stumped.
:)
Again, thank you.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

No worries. Always happy to help. Ask anything any time. If I don't know the answer I'll do my best to find out.

Just go at your own rate and when you feel like it. No sense rushing it or trying to explore when something else is pushing at you. This way exploring the machine can be fun, in spite of the frustration that can occur... like how a puzzle or a suspense story can be enjoyable because of the frustration. :)

You'll find it will open a new door in your life.