yea i saw on hte site it said 4-6 weeks i was like AWW SHIT
but thats good cause i need time to get a new hadd ~.~

You can also download it and burn it yourself...

yeah, but if the connection isn't strong, it is hard to resume a download where you leave off usually. Also, what if you don't have a burner?

i have a lg dvd burner w/ light scribe i can burn that shitz in 3 sec.
but its what u said my connection is weak i set my whole family up on this channel so it way over used.. when i do want a fast speed tho for css i change the channels on the other computer (my mom n dad know nothing about computers lol so im good)

I need to dispel another Linux myth. I heard that Linux can't handle power off shut downs. Like if I were to pull the plug or press the physical off button on my computer when Linux is running, it wouldn't be good. I know that windows really doesn't have a problem with this, but I heard that Linux does. I was also told that I could do it three times, without worry, but after that I could do some damage. Any validity in this?

so after the 3rd time, is the myth that linux gets pissed at you or something, and decides to punish you?

there is no validity to it at all, unless, of course, something is reading or writing to a config file (or similar), then that file could possibly get corrupted, but the beauty of linux is that you can repair pretty much anything from the command line

While doing various testing, i've had linux hard-lock on me several times (always while i'm screwing around with it, never during normal use) where i've had to push the reset button. I've also had my dad just push the power button on my comp if i forget to turn it off, since he doesn't know how to do a shutdown in linux from the command line. I've yet to have any damage or corruption caused by this.

Thanks, from now on I'm gonna tell these people to get lost

I installed Ubuntu on a friend's laptop yesterday. Took about 2 hours, I was able to do all of the partitioning from within the Ubuntu installer, and it went flawlessly.

ubuntu's pretty cool, but i never really liked it

i'd take debian over ubuntu any day

FYI: Ubuntu is a modification of debian, the apt-get and synaptic package manager were originally for debian

o rly? Interesting...

yup, and Kubuntu is a subdivision of Ubuntu, its basically the same thing but with the KDE desktop instead of the Gnome

there are many debian-based distro's out there, like KNOPPIX: http://www.debian.org/misc/children-distros

but since all children-distro's are asked to contribute their work to debian, i see no reason to pick one of em over debian (except for ease-of-use or something, as the package selections don't necessarily get added to debian)

Which do you prefer, Knoppix or Ubuntu?

i've never used knoppix

but they are targetted at difference uses. Knoppix is meant mainly as a liveCD, whereas ubuntu is meant as an installed desktop with ease of use in mind

Makes sense. Maybe I'll try dualbooting Ubuntu.

if you feel particularly 1337 and up to the challenge, dual-boot w/ gentoo

Kerm: what's your wireless card? (manufacturer and model)

yeah, Gentoo would take some work. I use Fedora Core 4 on both my computers, but if I ever try a new one, it probably will go on the lappy. I have two physical drives for the lappy, so I pull one and place the other for the appropriate opperating system

argh, i just tried doing some work on my dad's debian, and it just feels horribly restrictive, ugh

i couldn't imagine being forced to run Ubuntu over my Gentoo

Sorry, I'm going to dig this thread out of its grave.

This computer at school finally bit the dust. When we were trying to run anything (even word) it wouldn't let us. Windows would give us an error saying "Windows could not find enough memory to initialize ProgramName. Please close another program and try again." After we rebooted to see if that would fix it, it said that Windows could not find enough memory to initialize Windows

So, I said I had a Windows 98 install disk at home, and I would bring it in the next day to try to reinstall Windows. When we were installing it, it kept not being able to find files. So we gave up on that. But, some idiot ok it was me decided to reformat the harddrive for fun in DOS (since that was all we could get running). We tried again to install Windows with no luck. So, I remember that I had an Ubuntu install disk sitting at home.

The next day, I brought that in to try to install it. Of course the fricken BIOS was configured to boot off of the floppy and then the harddrive (neglecting the cd drive). And the BIOS was password protected. But, we got around that one day after school by detaching and reseting the CMOS (spelling?). Then, it was smooth sailing. Ubuntu installed over night, and we came into school to a new computer. Ubuntu ran pretty slow on these computers, but we couldn't really help that. So we configured it. Then, we had to hide it from my teacher. Although this is a programming class, I doubt they trust us to "tamper" with these computers, which by the way, are being thrown out after the end of this school year because we are moving into the new addition they put on the school.

So we googled "Windows desktop" and stuck a picture of a Windows 98 desktop as the background. It had icons and everything. Then we put the Ubuntu start bar (or whatever it is called) and the task bar on the bottom, auto hid one of them and made the other look like the Windows start bar. We also changed the theme to a more windows like theme. Basically, we made it look like crap (or Windows, which-ever name you prefer). Now, that computer looked perfectly like it had Windows 98 on it. After it updated for like 5 hours (this install disk was a few months old), it was perfect. So perfect in fact, that someone was trying to use it like it was Windows.

They were trying to click on the "icons" in the windows desktop background and getting nowhere beacue it was a picture. Eventually, they called over the teacher. Now, I wasn't there for this, and I only heard about it today. This happened today. The teacher was very confused and someone (I don't know who) said that Linux was on the computer.

Now, tomorrow, I am going to have to go into that class and explain why I put Linux on the computer. Here's what I plan to say to him (his name is Mr. Mitchell, he is approximately 60 years old and getting senile):



I'm also going to mention that these computers are headed for the scrap yard anyways next year, and it's not hurting anyone. I realize that this is school property technically, and I guess I'm not supposed to modify it whatsoever, but what would you call text editing? By saving files at all, you are modifying the harddrive (however small the change is). I don't see where the line is drawn. Plus, we were trying to save the computer, not intentionally destroy it.

Does anyone else have any other arguments as to why Linux should be on there? I'm sure some of you Linux users are just dying to give reasons why it's better than Windows. I realize that alot of you are going to think that I was in the wrong for doing this to a public computer. I realize that this isn't the best thing, but come on. If a computer can do anything, it beats having a thirty pound paper weight.

(CMOS is spelled correctly)
(its a "panel", not a "start bar" or "task bar")

Best reasons for a school:

>Its free

>Its more secure

>Don't need costly anti-virus software

>Don't need to worry about students downloading viruses

>Won't out-date itself (eg, you can't really get win98 software still, but kernel 2.4 modules are still readily available and are often updated just as much as the 2.6 ones)

>Faster - gets the most out of costly hardware

>Since normal users run in limited mode, system wide changes are impossible for a normal account. Period. (unlike windows where accounts often have partial system-wide controls)

>Students can custamize their desktop/appearence to their hearts content, without affecting anyone else, making everyone happy

>Home directories are by default visible only by that user, admins don't have to worry about blacklisting others directories

>For a computer course, it introduces students to the OS powering a good chunk of the websites out there, which is invaluable knowledge for anyone going into IT related fields.

If I think of any more I will be sure to post them, but I am sure the school would rather have a working linux computer than a crash-happy windows one... (although if your teacher has half a brain he won't buy the "there is still a virus on there even though we reformatted it!" crap, so i'd just leave that part out)

Umm, he's not the computer teacher, and I bet he doesn't even know what linux is. I'm trying to keep this as dumbed down as possible. Plus, awhile back there was this spyware that people downloaded with Minitab (a statistics program). He told us to download it (he's the statistics teacher. We share a room with VB and stats). Somebody thought it was a virus for some reason and he got all worried about it. I'm pretty sure he'll believe me if I tell him that.

Those are some great reasons. I'll probably only be able to use about half of them (because of his very limited knowledge, and the fact that I don't want to stand up there and lecture him for a half an hour ). Thanks.

My main argument will be that Windows wasn't working (it really wasn't, I'm telling you the truth--I didn't just install Linux for the heck of it). I'll leave the door open that he can have the tech guy try to put Windows back on it (but probably fail (I'll just say that, I'm not sure if he can or not)), but he should just leave it be because we have like 6 weeks left with these computers anyways.