Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
The perfect 10 is out! Just to break your modes of speech. -- Next meeting: Crown Hotel, Blandford Forum, Tuesday 2010-11-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://goo.gl/4Xue
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
My upgrade just aborted. Simono On Sun, 2010-10-10 at 11:42 +0100, Dan Dart wrote: The perfect 10 is out! Just to break your modes of speech. -- Next meeting: Crown Hotel, Blandford Forum, Tuesday 2010-11-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://goo.gl/4Xue -- Next meeting: Crown Hotel, Blandford Forum, Tuesday 2010-11-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://goo.gl/4Xue
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
On Sunday 10 Oct 2010, Simon O'Riordan wrote: My upgrade just aborted. Downloading has stopped too. I've had no data since around midday. I did try bittorrent, but that only gave me about 1 kb/s. -- Terry Coles 64 bit computing with Kubuntu Linux -- Next meeting: Crown Hotel, Blandford Forum, Tuesday 2010-11-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://goo.gl/4Xue
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
On Sun, 10 Oct 2010 12:45:56 +0100, Terry Coles d-...@hadrian-way.co.uk wrote: I did try bittorrent, but that only gave me about 1 kb/s. I find torrents can take a few minutes to get up to full speed. This is of course presuming everyone in the seed pool is uploading at a decent rate. Also note that until there are a decent number of full copies of the file in the pool things will be slow. -- Robert Bronsdon -- Next meeting: Crown Hotel, Blandford Forum, Tuesday 2010-11-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://goo.gl/4Xue
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
On 27/09/10 17:02, John Carlyle-Clarke wrote: On 27/09/10 16:52, Natalie Hooper wrote: Seems like ArchLinux is great for old hardware but not really suitable for my spanking new hardware ;-) I run it on old and new hardware, and it works well on both ;) Having said that, I'm also looking to change my Linux distro on my Dell netbook - currently, I've got Ubuntu but I find it bloated so I've been looking at Jolicloud and PuppyLinux, as well as Ubuntu Netbook edition of course, but should ArchLinux be a candidate as well? My Dell netbook is old for a netbook, as I bought it the second month Dell ever did netbooks and of course, netbooks aren't really powerful to start with (compared to current laptops) so I guess ArchLinux might be suitable for it, assuming it copes well with the netbook environment (can I install it from a USB stick for instance?). Sure you can! http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Install_from_a_USB_flash_drive Another one to watch is http://crunchbanglinux.org/ which is currently making a transition from an Ubuntu remix to a Debian-based distro. The last release was really nice, but it's quite old now, and the transition is delaying the new release quite a bit. I just discovered http://archbang.org which reminded me of this thread. The nice thing about Archlinux is that the base is so minimal that it lends itself to these remixes. ArchBang is a simple GNU/Linux distribution which provides you with a lightweight Arch Linux system combined with the Openbox Window Manager. Suitable for both desktop and portable systems -- It is fast, stable, and always up to date. You can customise your install to suit your needs, and draw on the vast resources knowledge of the Arch Linux community http://archlinux.org/. The download http://archbang.org/download page has links to both 32 64 bit versions, bootable as a live CD / USB -- allowing you to easily test it out before doing a full install. There's also http://chakra-project.org/ which is a cutting-edge KDE/Archlinux distro that offers both a live CD and an installer. If the idea of finishing an installer at a shell prompt is a bit scary, but the other parts of Archlinux sound good, then why not try one of the above? -- Next meeting: Crown Hotel, Blandford Forum, Tuesday 2010-11-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://goo.gl/4Xue
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
Just a suggestion from the West Indies. I'm running LinuxMint, latest edition and am well pleased with it. Its based on Ubuntu and is sympathetic to ignoramuses like me. Richard On 9 October 2010 08:59, John Carlyle-Clarke j...@wormdrive.net wrote: On 27/09/10 17:02, John Carlyle-Clarke wrote: On 27/09/10 16:52, Natalie Hooper wrote: Seems like ArchLinux is great for old hardware but not really suitable for my spanking new hardware ;-) I run it on old and new hardware, and it works well on both ;) Having said that, I'm also looking to change my Linux distro on my Dell netbook - currently, I've got Ubuntu but I find it bloated so I've been looking at Jolicloud and PuppyLinux, as well as Ubuntu Netbook edition of course, but should ArchLinux be a candidate as well? My Dell netbook is old for a netbook, as I bought it the second month Dell ever did netbooks and of course, netbooks aren't really powerful to start with (compared to current laptops) so I guess ArchLinux might be suitable for it, assuming it copes well with the netbook environment (can I install it from a USB stick for instance?). Sure you can! http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Install_from_a_USB_flash_drive Another one to watch is http://crunchbanglinux.org/ which is currently making a transition from an Ubuntu remix to a Debian-based distro. The last release was really nice, but it's quite old now, and the transition is delaying the new release quite a bit. I just discovered http://archbang.org which reminded me of this thread. The nice thing about Archlinux is that the base is so minimal that it lends itself to these remixes. ArchBang is a simple GNU/Linux distribution which provides you with a lightweight Arch Linux system combined with the Openbox Window Manager. Suitable for both desktop and portable systems -- It is fast, stable, and always up to date. You can customise your install to suit your needs, and draw on the vast resources knowledge of the Arch Linux community http://archlinux.org/. The download http://archbang.org/download page has links to both 32 64 bit versions, bootable as a live CD / USB -- allowing you to easily test it out before doing a full install. There's also http://chakra-project.org/ which is a cutting-edge KDE/Archlinux distro that offers both a live CD and an installer. If the idea of finishing an installer at a shell prompt is a bit scary, but the other parts of Archlinux sound good, then why not try one of the above? -- Next meeting: Crown Hotel, Blandford Forum, Tuesday 2010-11-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://goo.gl/4Xue -- Next meeting: Crown Hotel, Blandford Forum, Tuesday 2010-11-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://goo.gl/4Xue
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
On Sat, 2010-10-09 at 09:57 -0400, Richard Johnston wrote: Just a suggestion from the West Indies. I'm running LinuxMint, latest edition and am well pleased with it. Its based on Ubuntu and is sympathetic to ignoramuses like me. Richard On 9 October 2010 08:59, John Carlyle-Clarke j...@wormdrive.net wrote: On 27/09/10 17:02, John Carlyle-Clarke wrote: On 27/09/10 16:52, Natalie Hooper wrote: Seems like ArchLinux is great for old hardware but not really suitable Which reminds me - I discovered that 2/3 of my class on thursday were running Versions of Linux. One was Mint and the other was Ubuntu. -- wasn't a very big class:) -- Next meeting: Crown Hotel, Blandford Forum, Tuesday 2010-11-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://goo.gl/4Xue
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
On 09/10/10 14:57, Richard Johnston wrote: Just a suggestion from the West Indies. I'm running LinuxMint, latest edition and am well pleased with it. Its based on Ubuntu and is sympathetic to ignoramuses like me. Richard I was looking at Mint's website because we were talking on #dorset about distros that have changed from Ubuntu base to Debian base (e.g. Crunchbang) and I thought that Mint was one. However, Mint have just added a Debian edition. Having not looked for a long time, I'd not seen their LXDE edition (presumably using Openbox) , the Fluxbox edition, the XFCE edition Looks like Mint is going strong! -- Next meeting: Crown Hotel, Blandford Forum, Tuesday 2010-11-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://goo.gl/4Xue
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
To be honest, I'm not even sure how AutoCAD compares to other packages for highways. From my experience with Solidworks and what I've heard about ProE and Catia, you wouldn't want to design highways with them, they're far too 'technical', for want of a better word! -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
Ah so you need 3d... Ok... I generally assume that people doing 3d don't use Autocad as I know of a lot of people who just don't like the way it works and use more heavyweight stuff like ProE/Catia/Solidworks/Inventor etc etc... It's a damn shame that ProE isn't available on Linux anymore, I believe there were a lot of people who wrote to them to complain when they dropped support... We need more 3D packages, HeeksCad is nice, but sometimes it would be nice to have some consistency with windows folk, I'm sure Mac users feel the same. On 28 September 2010 09:43, Natalie Hooper nataliehoo...@virginmedia.com wrote: On 27 September 2010 22:25, Hugh Frater hugh.fra...@gmail.com wrote: Natalie,Nicely done sir :) Dasault systems are due to release they're new 2d cad package 'draft-sight' I think it's called for linux later this year. Worth a look if you want some 'what looks like' half decent 2d cad on linux? I'm going to give it a roll when it comes out Thanks for the tip, I'll take a look out of curiosity but this won't suit my needs as I actually need 3D and looking at the video for DraftSight, it is aimed at the early stages of product design and does not appear suitable to produce construction drawings for highways. It might just be the video but the software does seem too lightweight for my use. As I have a copy of AutoCAD courtesy of my last job and AutoCAD freelancing is just a way to make a bit of money on the side to supplement my income as a programmer, I really don't want to mess about with CAD software - I'm fully proficient with AutoCAD, I've done it for 8 years as my day job, so I really don't want to learn another CAD system ;-) It's encouraging that Dassault is releasing its software for Linux though. Dassault might not mean anything to most people on this list but it's a huge French company - the head company is an aviation company, then they created some spin-offs, including Dassault Systemes. I take it as a good sign when a big company recognises Linux as a player in the computing business - we all know Linux is but sometimes, big companies are the very ones that try to trap users in using one system or another. -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
On 27 September 2010 22:25, Hugh Frater hugh.fra...@gmail.com wrote: Natalie, Dasault systems are due to release they're new 2d cad package 'draft-sight' I think it's called for linux later this year. Worth a look if you want some 'what looks like' half decent 2d cad on linux? I'm going to give it a roll when it comes out Thanks for the tip, I'll take a look out of curiosity but this won't suit my needs as I actually need 3D and looking at the video for DraftSight, it is aimed at the early stages of product design and does not appear suitable to produce construction drawings for highways. It might just be the video but the software does seem too lightweight for my use. As I have a copy of AutoCAD courtesy of my last job and AutoCAD freelancing is just a way to make a bit of money on the side to supplement my income as a programmer, I really don't want to mess about with CAD software - I'm fully proficient with AutoCAD, I've done it for 8 years as my day job, so I really don't want to learn another CAD system ;-) It's encouraging that Dassault is releasing its software for Linux though. Dassault might not mean anything to most people on this list but it's a huge French company - the head company is an aviation company, then they created some spin-offs, including Dassault Systemes. I take it as a good sign when a big company recognises Linux as a player in the computing business - we all know Linux is but sometimes, big companies are the very ones that try to trap users in using one system or another. -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
On 23/09/10 18:30, Natalie Hooper wrote: I'm getting a new computer built and for work reasons, I will have Windows 7 on it but of course, I want to install a dual boot system. Currently, I have Ubuntu on my desktop and my netbook. My netbook came with Ubuntu installed and as I share my current desktop with my partner who has no previous experience of Linux, I thought Ubuntu would be the easiest. Also, I had Debian in 2005/2006 and after a few years on Windows, I thought it was good to get back to Linux using a distro based on Debian. My new desktop will be solely mine (partner will keep on using the old desktop) so I'm free to install a perhaps less user-friendly distro. I mostly use the computer for 3 things: AutoCAD (thus requiring Windows), music (again, I prefer Windows software like Cubase - I have used Ardour before and recorded an entire album on it but Cubase suits me better because I collaborate with other musicians who use Cubase sometimes) and programming, for which Linux is the best. I also use my desktop for the usual stuff, like browsing, Open Office etc. With the above in mind, which distro would you advise me to install on my new desktop? I was thinking of perhaps openSuse or Fedora but not too sure if there is one distro considered better for programmers? Which distro do I think you should install - probably Debian or Ubuntu as others have suggested. Which distro would I install? Archlinux :) Since no-one else has mentioned it, I thought I'd get my oar in! Archlinux ( http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Linux , http://www.archlinux.org ) gives you a minimal environment on first install (basically a root shell) and it's up to you to build your system from there. It has a superb package manager. The Arch Build System ( http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ABS ) allows you to rebuild any package from source very easily. Creating new packages is also very simple, which means that while the official repositories are not as big as other distros, the AUR (Arch User Repository http://aur.archlinux.org/ ) has a very wide range of contributed packages. This means you get some of the advantages of systems like Gentoo without the need to build everything from source. Archlinux is a rolling release distribution, meaning you get the latest stable release of everything pretty much as soon as it becomes available. This does lead to occasional breakage, but that is surprisingly rare in my experience. You do avoid all the breakage and problems associated with big upgrades and new distro releases that you can get with other distros. The Arch Way ( http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/The_Arch_Way )promotes a philosophy of keeping things simple. The core system is the minimum functional GNU/Linux system. You can add as much or as little as you like. Configuration is normally by editing text files. The boot is done by BSD-like /etc/rc.conf scripts. Archlinux has a superb wiki ( http://wiki.archlinux.org ) which makes configuring things normally fairly straightforward. Arch is also very fast., and can be very light (if you want it to be) so is superb for limited hardware. If you like to have complete control of your system, or if you want to learn a lot about how your system works, then Arch is a great distro. I've learned so much about Linux from running it. It probably does suck more of your time, but there are payoffs. I run it on home machines and work machines and find it stable enough for day-to-day use (once I found a setup that I liked and stopped fiddling!). In fact, it's incredibly stable -- I'm the weak point. It's not for everyone, but if you've an old machine lying around why not install it and have a play? You may end up getting totally hooked like I did. -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
Seems like ArchLinux is great for old hardware but not really suitable for my spanking new hardware ;-) Having said that, I'm also looking to change my Linux distro on my Dell netbook - currently, I've got Ubuntu but I find it bloated so I've been looking at Jolicloud and PuppyLinux, as well as Ubuntu Netbook edition of course, but should ArchLinux be a candidate as well? My Dell netbook is old for a netbook, as I bought it the second month Dell ever did netbooks and of course, netbooks aren't really powerful to start with (compared to current laptops) so I guess ArchLinux might be suitable for it, assuming it copes well with the netbook environment (can I install it from a USB stick for instance?). -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
On 27/09/10 16:52, Natalie Hooper wrote: Seems like ArchLinux is great for old hardware but not really suitable for my spanking new hardware ;-) I run it on old and new hardware, and it works well on both ;) Having said that, I'm also looking to change my Linux distro on my Dell netbook - currently, I've got Ubuntu but I find it bloated so I've been looking at Jolicloud and PuppyLinux, as well as Ubuntu Netbook edition of course, but should ArchLinux be a candidate as well? My Dell netbook is old for a netbook, as I bought it the second month Dell ever did netbooks and of course, netbooks aren't really powerful to start with (compared to current laptops) so I guess ArchLinux might be suitable for it, assuming it copes well with the netbook environment (can I install it from a USB stick for instance?). Sure you can! http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Install_from_a_USB_flash_drive Another one to watch is http://crunchbanglinux.org/ which is currently making a transition from an Ubuntu remix to a Debian-based distro. The last release was really nice, but it's quite old now, and the transition is delaying the new release quite a bit. -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
Natalie, Dasault systems are due to release they're new 2d cad package 'draft-sight' I think it's called for linux later this year. Worth a look if you want some 'what looks like' half decent 2d cad on linux? I'm going to give it a roll when it comes out Hugh On 27 September 2010 17:02, John Carlyle-Clarke j...@wormdrive.net wrote: On 27/09/10 16:52, Natalie Hooper wrote: Seems like ArchLinux is great for old hardware but not really suitable for my spanking new hardware ;-) I run it on old and new hardware, and it works well on both ;) Having said that, I'm also looking to change my Linux distro on my Dell netbook - currently, I've got Ubuntu but I find it bloated so I've been looking at Jolicloud and PuppyLinux, as well as Ubuntu Netbook edition of course, but should ArchLinux be a candidate as well? My Dell netbook is old for a netbook, as I bought it the second month Dell ever did netbooks and of course, netbooks aren't really powerful to start with (compared to current laptops) so I guess ArchLinux might be suitable for it, assuming it copes well with the netbook environment (can I install it from a USB stick for instance?). Sure you can! http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Install_from_a_USB_flash_drive Another one to watch is http://crunchbanglinux.org/ which is currently making a transition from an Ubuntu remix to a Debian-based distro. The last release was really nice, but it's quite old now, and the transition is delaying the new release quite a bit. -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
Hi, On Thu, Sep 23 at 06:30, Natalie Hooper wrote: ... With the above in mind, which distro would you advise me to install on my new desktop? I was thinking of perhaps openSuse or Fedora but not too sure if there is one distro considered better for programmers? With all the above in mind I'd suggest Ubuntu as being easy. Not really what I'd call a programmers system but good enough for PC only GUI programming. For hardcore embedded systems programming there's really no choice, Gentoo all the way. No other system lets you set up an entire cross development tool chain and library for a custom target with a single command. I've currently got six cross development environments installed on my work machine and a further three at home. Deleting them is likewise a single command so I only keep the current working set. Gentoo is okay for all the other features but will involve a lot of setup if you want an intergrated multi-media experience. Installation takes a while most of it waiting for things to compile, actual interaction required for a minimal install is under 30 minutes. As for maintaining the system I probably average about 10 minutes a week. So for hardcore programming and PCB design I use Gentoo, but if I'm lazy or for doing anything else I have a netbook with Ubuntu on it. -- Bob Dunlop -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
On Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:30:28 +0100, Natalie Hooper nataliehoo...@virginmedia.com wrote: With the above in mind, which distro would you advise me to install on my new desktop? I was thinking of perhaps openSuse or Fedora but not too sure if there is one distro considered better for programmers? With all of the above in mind I would say use Ubuntu - you're familiar with it, seems logical. However if you have the itch to try something new then I'd go with Fedora. It's my distro of choice. It gives you the most rpm based distro in my experience. I would argue SUSE is a very good enterprise desktop. Fedora is a little experimental, though you don't really notice it too much day to day. There are differences to Ubuntu, some config files etc. are in different places and there are times you'll want different packages for things etc. It's your choice if the learning if fun or a chore. There's always a community out there you can call for support ;) Some people will warn you about rpm dependency hell. TBH I don't find that problem in any recent release. One word of caution, try not to install too many random repositories. Thats where you'll hit problems. At the same time, *DO* install rpmfusion, this brings the package count back up near the Ubuntu level and will avoid rpm hell. -- Robert Bronsdon -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
Hi Natalie, With the above in mind, which distro would you advise me to install on my new desktop? I was thinking of perhaps openSuse or Fedora but not too sure if there is one distro considered better for programmers? Stick with Ubuntu. You get six monthly updates. There's a wide range of packages. Many others use it so the number of people irked in the same way as you will be higher meaning there's more chance one of them has documented a solution. It's perfectly fine for programming. Depending on your needs you may have to build some cutting edge stuff from source for programming no matter what distro you use. If you really wanted something different then I'd go wildly different, e.g. Gentoo. But that's if I wanted to spend lots of my free time tinkering, tailoring, and generally keeping the system running. It sounds like you're busy enough already and just want something reliable that starts on cue. You can always tinker with other distros using VirtualBox, as others have said. Then you can choose to play with Plan 9, etc. Cheers, Ralph. -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
Thank you all for your answers. It seems that the consensus is to stick with what I know, ie Ubuntu or Debian. Gentoo seems like too much work involved just to get it running... I have found Ubuntu quite unstable at time - the last upgrade was quite stressful for example. Eclipse, which is an IDE I use fairly often, is a lot less stable than it was - in fact, it isn't stable at all, it crashes about once every half hour at the moment. The frequent Ubuntu upgrades are actually a negative for me, too many risks of things going wrong too often. Sometimes, it takes up to 2 months to get the system working as well as it did before the upgrade - in fact, right now, I haven't got mine working as well as it did with 9.10. I think that perhaps Debian is the way forward then... I'll sleep on it before making a decision - not getting the new computer until week after next anyway so got time to think about it... -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
If you're using Eclipse for C/C++ programming with CDT, you might try MonoDevelop. It doesn't have the 'intellisense' feature when dealing with C++, but it is a reliable IDE and has a nice package manager which makes integrating libraries automatic. I use both and have had few problems. Of course if you are using Eclipse for JAVA then that might be another story. Simono On Thu, 2010-09-23 at 21:39 +0100, Natalie Hooper wrote: Thank you all for your answers. It seems that the consensus is to stick with what I know, ie Ubuntu or Debian. Gentoo seems like too much work involved just to get it running... I have found Ubuntu quite unstable at time - the last upgrade was quite stressful for example. Eclipse, which is an IDE I use fairly often, is a lot less stable than it was - in fact, it isn't stable at all, it crashes about once every half hour at the moment. The frequent Ubuntu upgrades are actually a negative for me, too many risks of things going wrong too often. Sometimes, it takes up to 2 months to get the system working as well as it did before the upgrade - in fact, right now, I haven't got mine working as well as it did with 9.10. I think that perhaps Debian is the way forward then... I'll sleep on it before making a decision - not getting the new computer until week after next anyway so got time to think about it... -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
On 23/09/10 21:39, Natalie Hooper wrote: The frequent Ubuntu upgrades are actually a negative for me, too many risks of things going wrong too often. Sometimes, it takes up to 2 months to get the system working as well as it did before the upgrade - in fact, right now, I haven't got mine working as well as it did with 9.10. I think that perhaps Debian is the way forward then... Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) might be what you're looking for Natalie: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTS The current version, 10.04, is an LTS release and will be supported until April 2013 in the desktop version. Sean -- music, film, comics, books, rants and drivel: www.funkygibbins.me.uk -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
Eclipse, which is an IDE I use fairly often, is a lot less stable than it was - in fact, it isn't stable at all, it crashes about once every half hour at the moment. I've Eclipse on a (virtual) XP machine but have never used it under Linux, so far no problems -- touch wood. The frequent Ubuntu upgrades are actually a negative for me, too many risks of things going wrong too often. concur, a stable (working) environment is very important. -- regards, jr. time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
On 23/09/10 21:39, Natalie Hooper wrote: I have found Ubuntu quite unstable at time - the last upgrade was quite stressful for example. Eclipse, which is an IDE I use fairly often, is a lot less stable than it was - in fact, it isn't stable at all, it crashes about once every half hour at the moment. Googling for 'eclipse + ubuntu' revealed quite a few hits that imply the packages that are installed from the repositories may not be as compatible with one another as the Sun equivalents. Might be worth investigating as it sounds like your current setup is bordering unusable. Sean -- music, film, comics, books, rants and drivel: www.funkygibbins.me.uk -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
On 23/09/10 22:25, Dan Dart wrote: Let others volunteer to be guinea pigs. :-) Oh, me! me! me! Pick me! I install betas occasionally and see if they're good enough in a VM. As soon as they are I use them full time. And make sure everything is fixed before release day (submitting bug reports etc) THEN being confident of being able to use the stable system. VMs are for scaredy-cats - I installed Maverick Meerkat on my desktop a week or so ago! That said, I do daily backups and my desktop machine is hardly what you would call 'production'. Sean -- music, film, comics, books, rants and drivel: www.funkygibbins.me.uk -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
I never use the packages for eclipse and instead download the latest tarball and run it from my homedir. Most ide packages suck whatever distro I've found. Let others volunteer to be guinea pigs. :-) Oh, me! me! me! Pick me! I install betas occasionally and see if they're good enough in a VM. As soon as they are I use them full time. And make sure everything is fixed before release day (submitting bug reports etc) THEN being confident of being able to use the stable system. -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
On Thu, 2010-09-23 at 22:29 +0100, Sean Gibbins wrote: On 23/09/10 22:25, Dan Dart wrote: Let others volunteer to be guinea pigs. :-) Oh, me! me! me! Pick me! I install betas occasionally and see if they're good enough in a VM. As soon as they are I use them full time. And make sure everything is fixed before release day (submitting bug reports etc) THEN being confident of being able to use the stable system. VMs are for scaredy-cats - I installed Maverick Meerkat on my desktop a week or so ago! That said, I do daily backups and my desktop machine is hardly what you would call 'production'. Sean Pah I upgraded to Maverick Meerkat 2 weeks ago on my day to day netbook. It collapsed in a heap and I had to blat it and start again going back to 10.04. I really shouldn't make decisions to do stuff like this at midnight VM's are the future Where else would I run that single app that only runs on windoze ;). Bryn wandering off topic. -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
On 23/09/10 22:38, Bryn Jones wrote: On Thu, 2010-09-23 at 22:29 +0100, Sean Gibbins wrote: On 23/09/10 22:25, Dan Dart wrote: Let others volunteer to be guinea pigs. :-) Oh, me! me! me! Pick me! I install betas occasionally and see if they're good enough in a VM. As soon as they are I use them full time. And make sure everything is fixed before release day (submitting bug reports etc) THEN being confident of being able to use the stable system. VMs are for scaredy-cats - I installed Maverick Meerkat on my desktop a week or so ago! That said, I do daily backups and my desktop machine is hardly what you would call 'production'. Sean Pah I upgraded to Maverick Meerkat 2 weeks ago on my day to day netbook. It collapsed in a heap and I had to blat it and start again going back to 10.04. I really shouldn't make decisions to do stuff like this at midnight Heh, sounds familiar. I usually get a nagging doubt creep into my head, too, which I immediately dismiss and then later regret. In fairness though, this time around my doubts were unfounded and Meerkat was my 'best install ever' of recent Ubuntu incarnations. The last few have struggled with my monitor (a 17 Acer) and required serious amounts of faffery to get them to play nice. This one worked from the outset, as did everything else I use regularly enough to know whether it is working or not. There have been a few minor hiccups (unmounting USB drives seems to provoke the occasional crash in Nautilus for instance), but no show-stoppers. VM's are the future Where else would I run that single app that only runs on windoze ;). I run an XP VM on VirtualBox here for a couple of apps that have no Linux equivalents and aren't worth a dual-boot environment. My ancient P4 hyperthreading processor (2 cores-ish) and 2GB RAM lacks the oomph for anything more ambitious than that. That's what I get for donating my newer machine to my son for gaming I guess! Sean -- music, film, comics, books, rants and drivel: www.funkygibbins.me.uk -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
Re: [Dorset] Which distro would you install?
I'm aware that the trend is towards VMs - I've been putting it off for a few months but I guess it might be time for me to experiment with them a little bit... I'm a little scared - see, I'm worried that it will mean more time troubleshooting my computer and less time actually using my computer... in an ideal world you'd have two computers, one (server setup) to run your vm's on, the second (your day-to-day favourite) to remote desktop into your vm's. both VMware and VirtualBox are pretty painless, stable and free (though, personally, I did loathe the VMware web administration thingy and stopped using it last year), the Sun software has the advantage of allowing very easy VM management from the command-line (ie you don't need to run a X server for the graphical i/f). both VMware and VirtualBox are very well supported via their respective 'communities', but there are other virtualisation products too. as to losing time troubleshooting, I think it's safe to say that the advantages of going virtual will outweigh the initial investment in time (of getting used to). a big advantage of virtualisation, IMO, is that each vm is just a set of files and, if something does go wrong, as in rootkit or malware, delete them, retrieve a copy from store, and you're back in business. there's also the fact that you can have multiple virtual hard disks which you connect and disconnect as needed, allowing you share/transfer data between systems as you please. (sorry for going on and on) -- regards, jr. time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. -- Next meeting: Bournemouth? TBD, Wednesday 2010-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://bit.ly/4sACa
