SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - Let's Install Linux on Moonlight's Spare Computer!

Rockin Robbins · 10-22-16, 03:47 PM

Okay, so we've charged into this "install Ubuntu" thing and we haven't even visited what we are basically doing and why we want to do it. I know Moonlight knows, but others reading the thread are probably saying "Big deal!"

My opinion is that trends in the Microsoft Corporation ethically and functionally have limited the future of Windows to the point where we're in danger of losing the use of Windows as our operating system. So, what's wrong with Microsoft right now?

Microsoft no longer looks to Windows and PC software as its major business. Their future plans are to gain the majority of their income from subscription cloud services. You already rent Microsoft Office. That's only the beginning. We, the users of Windows, are no longer the focus of their existence. As you will see, they no longer deserve to be the focus of ours.
Microsoft has been showing moral lapses of staggering proportions. If you are using Windows 10, you have given them the right to access every file on your system. You have given them the right to delete any file on your system for any reason they see fit. You have given them the right to collect any data they want, including confidential commercial secrets, to package and send it to Microsoft and they are doing this twice daily at your expense. What are they doing with the "data" they collect? They don't say.
An operating system used to be a servant, sitting in the background, quietly helping you to run and organize the software and data on your machine. Microsoft has turned that into a tertiary function. The primary function of Windows 10 is to advertise stuff to you. Half of the tiles of the facetiously named "start menu" are advertisements, trying to sell you stuff. The secondary function of Windows 10 is collecting your personal information so they can target you more appropriately for the primary function of Windows 10: selling you stuff. In the pursuit of collecting your data you have given Microsoft rights to every single bit of information on your machine to do with whatever they choose without even notifying you. I think that is abusive and I won't stand for it. Windows 10 will never live on any machine I ever own. For those of you who would say "Google does the same thing with Android" I say no! They do not do any such thing. You can go into your preferences and shut off data collection and targeted ads any time you wish. You will still receive ads but they won't be based on your personal information. Windows gives you no such choices.
During the last two months of the "free Windows 10 upgrade" fiasco, Microsoft was invading your system, resetting your upgrade preferences ONCE PER HOUR! and actually starting the upgrade process, which could only be exited by pressing the x in the upper right corner of the upgrade window.
During the last month, in order to be sure you knew they could care less about what you want for your system, they redefined that "close window" x to mean "slime me with Windows 10." They took a rule established for over 20 years of consistent use and trashed it just so they could trick you into doing their thing on your property.
So we know that Microsoft cannot be trusted. We know they do not feel your computer is your property and they will do with it as they please. If you work for a company which has confidential information in their system, that information is not confidential. Microsoft has it. Therefore your system is not and cannot be made secure.
The "update" process is totally in Microsoft's control now. You are not advised and you cannot refuse to accept "upgrades" no matter what the consequences. Many businesses have software that will not function in Windows 10. Microsoft says "tough toenails."
Having seen this conduct by Microsoft, knowing that they do not see us as the focus of their company any more we know that Microsoft is an untrustworthy company. Their conduct has been an abomination. We don't have to put up with that.

What's right about Linux? Why is it better than Windows?

Linux is quite like Android for your cell phone. In fact, Android has Linux at its core, so you are already using Linux and the world has not ended. You already know there's nothing to be afraid of.
Linux is not a commercial product. Commercial companies support Linux, but they are not the source of Linux' ethics and morals. When companies step out of line, the Linux community steps down on offending companies and they do it HARD.
The whole moral concept of Linux is that your hardware is your property. You have the sole unquestioned right to decide what will live on it and how it will behave. User choice is the mantra of Linux. Service to users it's golden rule.
Linux is secure. Any process wanting to make system changes gets a pop-up requiring administrative identity and password. If it fails, it gets the shaft. You yourself are not an administrator, except for that time when you log in that way to do administrative tasks. The system to do that is much smoother than Windows'.
The operating system and just about all software is free. That doesn't mean it's poor quality. Chrome, Firefox, Open Office, Libre Office, Thunderbird, Inkscape, Keypass 2, Virtual Box, GIMP, VLC media player are all refugees from the Linux universe, where lots of other similarly excellent software lives for free: Gparted partition editor, Rhythmbox music player, Aisleriot solitaire, Boot-repair and others are waiting for you to discover.
All this software lives in curated, virus-proofed Linux repositories, where you just pick it out and download. You know, it's existed for 30 years and the Windows Store is just now copying and warping the idea into laughable idiocy. Well, in Linux it's genius.
The update process: when you start Linux, Update-manager pops up like a butler. "You have 14 system updates and 30 programs that need updating, okay?" You say "okay" and Linux updates your operating system and EVERY PROGRAM ON YOUR MACHINE in the background while you go back to work. You NEVER have to reboot the system unless you have a kernel update and then you don't have to reboot. You can just wait until you restart your machine in the morning.
Linux is MUCH more stable than Windows. It's not rare for a Linux machine to have run for over a year without ever requiring a reboot or a shutdown. It's a reliability that you can just take for granted.
Linux OWNS the Internet. The vast majority of Internet servers are Linux for security, reliability and user configurability, all vastly superior to anything Microsoft offers.
Linux is completely cool! I had a client take me his laptop telling me it was slower than molasses. Of course I did malware scans but came up empty. Then the next thing I did was stick an Ubuntu Live CD into the optical drive and start it up. The text on booting immediately said "CPU running hot. Throttling back to avoid overheating." Shazaam! Problem solved. We cleaned out the cooling passages in the laptop and Linux had a new user. Linux solved the man's problem before it even started up!

Steam has tossed in the towel on working with Microsoft after Windows 8. Steam hardware is Linux hardware. That means that games either work with Linux or will work with Linux. Steam IS PC games. Gaming is moving toward Linux. Who buys more games? A person who bought Windows for $100 or a person with $100 in his pocket because Linux is free? Steam wants that $100.

Linux has a subsystem called WINE, which is a collection of Windows APIs that allow Windows programs to run natively in Linux. Apple, whose OSX is also built on a Linux bedrock core, also has a version of WINE to run Windows programs on Apple machines. Silent Hunter 4 runs magnificently in WINE under Linux. Silent Hunter 3 has been a bit more of a problem, but since Amazon has a downloadable SH3 which doesn't have the DRM, we can still get it to run. I don't know and don't want to know about SH5. I have no interest in that game at all.

Now let's get just a bit technical. One option you get while installing Linux is to shrink the partition Windows is on and install Linux on the same hard drive with Windows. I'm going to tell you that is a bad idea. Windows refuses to have anything to do with Linux. Suppose you start of with a 500GB hard drive and divide it in half. Windows will report you have a 250GB hard drive with 250GB of unformatted space! If you have a problem with Windows and do a repair with your Windows Repair Disk, Windows will set your computer to boot to Windows only and leave Linux unusable and unfindable! Microsoft could care less what your preferences for your property are.

Linux, however, reads and writes to Windows partitions better, quicker, more smoothly, more securely than Windows does. Start up your file manager while running Linux and it will show every partition on every hard drive, whether Windows or Linux without prejudice. Linux never forgets your computer is your sovereign property.

So what is the best way to install Linux on a dual boot system? Install Linux to a separate hard drive and set your system to boot that hard drive. While you are installing Linux, it will automatically sense your Windows drive and put it in your GRUB startup menu to allow you to choose Windows or Linux on startup. This respect for your preferences is all default and you don't have to override anything for it to happen. What should be expected is a very pleasant surprise.

Now you have a Windows disk that is totally untouched. You can run Windows restore routines all you want and it won't touch Linux. It will politely ignore it. Boot the Windows disk and it will start as if Linux didn't exist. Boot the Linux disk and you get a menu letting you choose to boot Windows or Linux. Having the two operating systems on two separate disks allows you to be king of your castle.

We'll have a complete post on the different Graphical User Interfaces for Linux. You're free to choose, even switch between them at will! And if you're a Windows user your mind can't comprehend what having different GUIs means to your ability to use a computer as you deserve to. Stay tuned for that post!

10-22-16, 03:47 PM	#7
Rockin Robbins Navy Seal Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: DeLand, FL Posts: 8,899 Downloads: 135 Uploads: 52	Okay, so we've charged into this "install Ubuntu" thing and we haven't even visited what we are basically doing and why we want to do it. I know Moonlight knows, but others reading the thread are probably saying "Big deal!" My opinion is that trends in the Microsoft Corporation ethically and functionally have limited the future of Windows to the point where we're in danger of losing the use of Windows as our operating system. So, what's wrong with Microsoft right now? Microsoft no longer looks to Windows and PC software as its major business. Their future plans are to gain the majority of their income from subscription cloud services. You already rent Microsoft Office. That's only the beginning. We, the users of Windows, are no longer the focus of their existence. As you will see, they no longer deserve to be the focus of ours. Microsoft has been showing moral lapses of staggering proportions. If you are using Windows 10, you have given them the right to access every file on your system. You have given them the right to delete any file on your system for any reason they see fit. You have given them the right to collect any data they want, including confidential commercial secrets, to package and send it to Microsoft and they are doing this twice daily at your expense. What are they doing with the "data" they collect? They don't say. An operating system used to be a servant, sitting in the background, quietly helping you to run and organize the software and data on your machine. Microsoft has turned that into a tertiary function. The primary function of Windows 10 is to advertise stuff to you. Half of the tiles of the facetiously named "start menu" are advertisements, trying to sell you stuff. The secondary function of Windows 10 is collecting your personal information so they can target you more appropriately for the primary function of Windows 10: selling you stuff. In the pursuit of collecting your data you have given Microsoft rights to every single bit of information on your machine to do with whatever they choose without even notifying you. I think that is abusive and I won't stand for it. Windows 10 will never live on any machine I ever own. For those of you who would say "Google does the same thing with Android" I say no! They do not do any such thing. You can go into your preferences and shut off data collection and targeted ads any time you wish. You will still receive ads but they won't be based on your personal information. Windows gives you no such choices. During the last two months of the "free Windows 10 upgrade" fiasco, Microsoft was invading your system, resetting your upgrade preferences ONCE PER HOUR! and actually starting the upgrade process, which could only be exited by pressing the x in the upper right corner of the upgrade window. During the last month, in order to be sure you knew they could care less about what you want for your system, they redefined that "close window" x to mean "slime me with Windows 10." They took a rule established for over 20 years of consistent use and trashed it just so they could trick you into doing their thing on your property. So we know that Microsoft cannot be trusted. We know they do not feel your computer is your property and they will do with it as they please. If you work for a company which has confidential information in their system, that information is not confidential. Microsoft has it. Therefore your system is not and cannot be made secure. The "update" process is totally in Microsoft's control now. You are not advised and you cannot refuse to accept "upgrades" no matter what the consequences. Many businesses have software that will not function in Windows 10. Microsoft says "tough toenails." Having seen this conduct by Microsoft, knowing that they do not see us as the focus of their company any more we know that Microsoft is an untrustworthy company. Their conduct has been an abomination. We don't have to put up with that. What's right about Linux? Why is it better than Windows? Linux is quite like Android for your cell phone. In fact, Android has Linux at its core, so you are already using Linux and the world has not ended. You already know there's nothing to be afraid of. Linux is not a commercial product. Commercial companies support Linux, but they are not the source of Linux' ethics and morals. When companies step out of line, the Linux community steps down on offending companies and they do it HARD. The whole moral concept of Linux is that your hardware is your property. You have the sole unquestioned right to decide what will live on it and how it will behave. User choice is the mantra of Linux. Service to users it's golden rule. Linux is secure. Any process wanting to make system changes gets a pop-up requiring administrative identity and password. If it fails, it gets the shaft. You yourself are not an administrator, except for that time when you log in that way to do administrative tasks. The system to do that is much smoother than Windows'. The operating system and just about all software is free. That doesn't mean it's poor quality. Chrome, Firefox, Open Office, Libre Office, Thunderbird, Inkscape, Keypass 2, Virtual Box, GIMP, VLC media player are all refugees from the Linux universe, where lots of other similarly excellent software lives for free: Gparted partition editor, Rhythmbox music player, Aisleriot solitaire, Boot-repair and others are waiting for you to discover. All this software lives in curated, virus-proofed Linux repositories, where you just pick it out and download. You know, it's existed for 30 years and the Windows Store is just now copying and warping the idea into laughable idiocy. Well, in Linux it's genius. The update process: when you start Linux, Update-manager pops up like a butler. "You have 14 system updates and 30 programs that need updating, okay?" You say "okay" and Linux updates your operating system and EVERY PROGRAM ON YOUR MACHINE in the background while you go back to work. You NEVER have to reboot the system unless you have a kernel update and then you don't have to reboot. You can just wait until you restart your machine in the morning. Linux is MUCH more stable than Windows. It's not rare for a Linux machine to have run for over a year without ever requiring a reboot or a shutdown. It's a reliability that you can just take for granted. Linux OWNS the Internet. The vast majority of Internet servers are Linux for security, reliability and user configurability, all vastly superior to anything Microsoft offers. Linux is completely cool! I had a client take me his laptop telling me it was slower than molasses. Of course I did malware scans but came up empty. Then the next thing I did was stick an Ubuntu Live CD into the optical drive and start it up. The text on booting immediately said "CPU running hot. Throttling back to avoid overheating." Shazaam! Problem solved. We cleaned out the cooling passages in the laptop and Linux had a new user. Linux solved the man's problem before it even started up! Steam has tossed in the towel on working with Microsoft after Windows 8. Steam hardware is Linux hardware. That means that games either work with Linux or will work with Linux. Steam IS PC games. Gaming is moving toward Linux. Who buys more games? A person who bought Windows for $100 or a person with $100 in his pocket because Linux is free? Steam wants that $100. Linux has a subsystem called WINE, which is a collection of Windows APIs that allow Windows programs to run natively in Linux. Apple, whose OSX is also built on a Linux bedrock core, also has a version of WINE to run Windows programs on Apple machines. Silent Hunter 4 runs magnificently in WINE under Linux. Silent Hunter 3 has been a bit more of a problem, but since Amazon has a downloadable SH3 which doesn't have the DRM, we can still get it to run. I don't know and don't want to know about SH5. I have no interest in that game at all. Now let's get just a bit technical. One option you get while installing Linux is to shrink the partition Windows is on and install Linux on the same hard drive with Windows. I'm going to tell you that is a bad idea. Windows refuses to have anything to do with Linux. Suppose you start of with a 500GB hard drive and divide it in half. Windows will report you have a 250GB hard drive with 250GB of unformatted space! If you have a problem with Windows and do a repair with your Windows Repair Disk, Windows will set your computer to boot to Windows only and leave Linux unusable and unfindable! Microsoft could care less what your preferences for your property are. Linux, however, reads and writes to Windows partitions better, quicker, more smoothly, more securely than Windows does. Start up your file manager while running Linux and it will show every partition on every hard drive, whether Windows or Linux without prejudice. Linux never forgets your computer is your sovereign property. So what is the best way to install Linux on a dual boot system? Install Linux to a separate hard drive and set your system to boot that hard drive. While you are installing Linux, it will automatically sense your Windows drive and put it in your GRUB startup menu to allow you to choose Windows or Linux on startup. This respect for your preferences is all default and you don't have to override anything for it to happen. What should be expected is a very pleasant surprise. Now you have a Windows disk that is totally untouched. You can run Windows restore routines all you want and it won't touch Linux. It will politely ignore it. Boot the Windows disk and it will start as if Linux didn't exist. Boot the Linux disk and you get a menu letting you choose to boot Windows or Linux. Having the two operating systems on two separate disks allows you to be king of your castle. We'll have a complete post on the different Graphical User Interfaces for Linux. You're free to choose, even switch between them at will! And if you're a Windows user your mind can't comprehend what having different GUIs means to your ability to use a computer as you deserve to. Stay tuned for that post! __________________ Sub Skipper's Bag of Tricks, Slightly Subnuclear Mk 14 & Cutie, Slightly Subnuclear Deck Gun, EZPlot 2.0, TMOPlot, TMOKeys, SH4CMS Last edited by Rockin Robbins; 10-22-16 at 04:05 PM.