Because Shiny Things Are Fun - The New New Windows v Linux Thread

Originally Posted by Kenny_Strawn Well, distros like Ubuntu, Mint, and Fedora make that easy: From the graphical installer, you have the option to select *your* time zone from a "time globe". There. You've just selected *your* time zone. I think the problem with Barney Rubble is that he chose Slackware or Arch as a newbie instead of an easier distro.

You don't understand. Linux knows your time zone, and the time is shown in local time, even in advanced distros like Arch.

But the system clock (the chip on the mobo that counts time, that has the coin cell battery to keep it going during a power outage) is assumed to be set to Greenwich time in Linux. It adds/subtracts your time zone from this to display your local time.

On the other hand, Windows assumes it's set to your local time.

I keep seeing 'Microsoft this' 'Microsoft that.
I thought this was a Linux v Windows thread, not a
Microsoft v GNU thread. o.o

To me, Linux is much better because it comes with
essential programming utensils. Whereas in Windows,
you have to find them and install them.

@Barney_Rubble and if windows is that good with each new release that's why you use a 10 year old operating system? LOL

First, my main distro was/is Ubuntu. Just a quick rundown, here...

Started in Sept '06 with 6.06/WinXP which worked flawlessly with Gnome and KDE. Upgraded to 8.04 in Oct '08... no Grub menu, and therefore, no Windows. Ubuntu froze with a blank black screen with white cursor, but no keyboard, mouse, etc. Reinstalled 6.06 then did fresh install of 8.04. Gnome screensavers didn't work. Got the same multi-colored dotted horizontal lines. Installed KDE. Config changes didn't do anything, and I didn't have "permission" to use the sound with KDE games or music CDs. Used Gnome with Pictures Folder screensaver until Nov '10. Upgraded PC and installed 10.04. Grub2 broke the MBR. Couldn't boot anything. Reinstalled Windows, installed a second HDD for Ubuntu, unplugged the Windows drive during installation and used the BIOS "Boot Drive" setting to switch between the two. Encountered the aforementioned problems in my earlier posts.

After venting my frustration, I realized I had to try again. I WILL NOT upgrade Windows from XP just to spend $500+ on yet another upgraded version of the same games. Once support for XP expires, Windows will only be an offline gaming OS.

So, today I installed 8.04 on my newer PC. So far, I've installed all updates, restricted extras and other software, and have changed configurations to my liking; I've also rebooted into Windows and back several times, all with no problems...

*Jeebizz*: For your entertainment...

Originally Posted by tiredofbilkyyaforallican Ok Barney Rubble or is it Fife? if you want to go back to M$ nobody is stopping you.... Come to think of it, It was Fred Flinstone with the big mouth!

This is one glaring example of how immature and unfriendly some can be here at LQ.

As for Kenny_Strawn and the rest who allowed me to rant and even tried to offer suggestions over the past couple days... THANK YOU for your patience and consideration.

Barney Rubble

Originally Posted by Barney Rubble First, my main distro was/is Ubuntu. Just a quick rundown, here... Started in Sept '06 with 6.06/WinXP which worked flawlessly with Gnome and KDE. Upgraded to 8.04 in Oct '08... no Grub menu, and therefore, no Windows. Ubuntu froze with a blank black screen with white cursor, but no keyboard, mouse, etc. Reinstalled 6.06 then did fresh install of 8.04. Gnome screensavers didn't work. Got the same multi-colored dotted horizontal lines. Installed KDE. Config changes didn't do anything, and I didn't have "permission" to use the sound with KDE games or music CDs. Used Gnome with Pictures Folder screensaver until Nov '10. Upgraded PC and installed 10.04. Grub2 broke the MBR. Couldn't boot anything. Reinstalled Windows, installed a second HDD for Ubuntu, unplugged the Windows drive during installation and used the BIOS "Boot Drive" setting to switch between the two. Encountered the aforementioned problems in my earlier posts. After venting my frustration, I realized I had to try again. I WILL NOT upgrade Windows from XP just to spend $500+ on yet another upgraded version of the same games. Once support for XP expires, Windows will only be an offline gaming OS. So, today I installed 8.04 on my newer PC. So far, I've installed all updates, restricted extras and other software, and have changed configurations to my liking; I've also rebooted into Windows and back several times, all with no problems...

May I ask why you didn't try a different distro than Ubuntu, if you have such problems with it? The decreasing quality of Ubuntu (and the way Canonical goes in general) have led me to give Debian a try, and it works perfectly fine. You can't measure the quality of Linux with only one distro. I see that you only seem to use versions with long time support, so I would recommend to give CentOS, Slackware, Debian or Scientific Linux a try, that are those distros that come to my mind when I think about long time support.

Originally Posted by Barney Rubble First, my main distro was/is Ubuntu. Just a quick rundown, here... Started in Sept '06 with 6.06/WinXP which worked flawlessly with Gnome and KDE. Upgraded to 8.04 in Oct '08... no Grub menu, and therefore, no Windows. Ubuntu froze with a blank black screen with white cursor, but no keyboard, mouse, etc. Reinstalled 6.06 then did fresh install of 8.04. Gnome screensavers didn't work. Got the same multi-colored dotted horizontal lines. Installed KDE. Config changes didn't do anything, and I didn't have "permission" to use the sound with KDE games or music CDs. Used Gnome with Pictures Folder screensaver until Nov '10. Upgraded PC and installed 10.04. Grub2 broke the MBR. Couldn't boot anything. Reinstalled Windows, installed a second HDD for Ubuntu, unplugged the Windows drive during installation and used the BIOS "Boot Drive" setting to switch between the two. Encountered the aforementioned problems in my earlier posts. After venting my frustration, I realized I had to try again. I WILL NOT upgrade Windows from XP just to spend $500+ on yet another upgraded version of the same games. Once support for XP expires, Windows will only be an offline gaming OS. So, today I installed 8.04 on my newer PC. So far, I've installed all updates, restricted extras and other software, and have changed configurations to my liking; I've also rebooted into Windows and back several times, all with no problems... *Jeebizz*: For your entertainment... This is one glaring example of how immature and unfriendly some can be here at LQ. As for Kenny_Strawn and the rest who allowed me to rant and even tried to offer suggestions over the past couple days... THANK YOU for your patience and consideration. Barney Rubble

Well, Ubuntu is becoming increasingly unstable, and Fedora is no help when it comes to that either. Luckily, however, Linux Mint seems to fix most of the bugs Ubuntu introduces, despite being based on Ubuntu. Thankfully, however, if you don't want to try anything Ubuntu-based, there is a Debian-based version that is more up-to-date (albeit with more problems, especially with package management).

Ubuntu 8.04 also won't be supported for very long, however, either, with support ending in April. It seems you only like LTS versions. In that case, you can try Mint 9 LTS; it is the newest LTS version of Mint (based on Ubuntu 10.04 [Lucid] but fixes its bugs) that will be supported for longer.

It seems you only like LTS versions. In that case, you can try Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Originally Posted by Barney Rubble Nov '10. Upgraded PC and installed 10.04. Grub2 broke the MBR. Couldn't boot anything

Apparently he's already tried Lucid...

Originally Posted by MrCode Apparently he's already tried Lucid...

Post edited to *only* Mint 9.

Originally Posted by TobiSGD May I ask why you didn't try a different distro than Ubuntu, if you have such problems with it? The decreasing quality of Ubuntu (and the way Canonical goes in general) have led me to give Debian a try, and it works perfectly fine. You can't measure the quality of Linux with only one distro. I see that you only seem to use versions with long time support, so I would recommend to give CentOS, Slackware, Debian or Scientific Linux a try, that are those distros that come to my mind when I think about long time support.

Fact is, I did try a few others- CentOS, Fedora, OpenSuSE, Puppy, Mint... I just didn't bother to mention them because I couldn't even get them to finish installing.

Originally Posted by Barney Rubble Fact is, I did try a few others- CentOS, Fedora, OpenSuSE, Puppy, Mint... I just didn't bother to mention them because I couldn't even get them to finish installing.

Must be some unusual hardware because with all of those you can pretty much successfully install it by repeatedly clicking on the Next key.

Well, if it came preinstalled with XPee, it could in fact be something from late 2001 -- a full 9.5 years ago.

Such hardware that came from way back then would have to be old, and if it had Windows for so long, the HDD or other hardware could be failing. I would suggest getting (or building, if you must, so that you don't have to give Microsoft money and so that you can also save your own money [when you build a computer you essentially get it wholesale]) a newer computer and *then* installing Linux on it.

Originally Posted by Kenny_Strawn Well, if it came preinstalled with XPee, it could in fact be something from late 2001 -- a full 9.5 years ago. Such hardware that came from way back then would have to be old, and if it had Windows for so long, the HDD or other hardware could be failing. I would suggest getting (or building, if you must, so that you don't have to give Microsoft money and so that you can also save your own money [when you build a computer you essentially get it wholesale]) a newer computer and *then* installing Linux on it.

LOL... A little older yet, Kenny. 1999. Came with Win98 installed. Installed XP in '05. Win98 couldn't hold a candle to XP on it. I did mention ,however, that I upgraded to a newer PC last Nov. before trying 10.4.

May be you can open a new thread with an exact description with your hardware and what troubles you have installing, error-messages and so on.
May be we can help you with your issues.

Barney Rubble: I am sorry if I hurt your feelings but just what are you trying to get at? I just find it very hard to believe so many problems could be possible with a reasonably good computer,unless you are downloading bad distros, burning the disks too fast, have a HDD that is on its way south, bad motherboard/Ram,or not partitioning quite correctly. How about opening a thread on what problems you seem to be facing...Ranting on and on is not going to get your computer working any better than it is ! If you tried as many distros as you claim that failed did you not feel something was wrong especially every one failing?

The reason some of use were rude is because we were almost certain you was either a troll or someone who made up their mind to hate Linux and will stubbornly and closed-mindedly refuse to think otherwise.

I mean, what would be your first impression if you saw this:

Originally Posted by Barney Rubble Have fun with your tinker-toy OS... I have too much real work to do.

Or this, which is downright insulting:

Originally Posted by Barney Rubble I consider myself the more intelligent one for using something that works.