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

You could say that FOSS realises the dream of Adam Smith, a world in which competition for market share drives up quality and keeps prices low for everybody's benefit. Proprietary software allows scandalously high prices and poor quality software because legal restrictions hobble competition. Yet in America, Microsoft is regarded as the fulfilment of the American dream and Linux is something that only commies and criminal hackers use.

Originally Posted by hazel Yet in America, ..... Linux is something that only commies and criminal hackers use.

I am not sure if this is serious or sarcastic? But, a LOT of businesses / universities and government systems (in the US) now run Linux. I've never actually heard anyone say that here; perhaps, I missed the memo??

It's not entirely sarcastic. You used to see a lot of American literature on how to spot if your child had been radicalised. Apparently using Linux was regarded in those days as a danger sign.

Originally Posted by dc.901 I am not sure if this is serious or sarcastic? But, a LOT of businesses / universities and government systems (in the US) now run Linux. I've never actually heard anyone say that here; perhaps, I missed the memo??

I have seen Linux described as "communist" before both as a pejorative and as praise, depending on the viewpoint. I think Steve Balmer was, perhaps, the most famous to say it but I've seen anything from forum posts to YouTube videos mention it with varying degrees of seriousness.
Sadly I can't find the quote where Linus states that Linux is more "everyone for themselves" than communism.

[QUOTE=hazel; $ounds like 75% of the workforce, at least stereotyping anyhow... not that we all aren't?

Story time. This

$ inxi -M
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: Q302LA v: 1.0 
  serial: <root required> 
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: Q302LA v: 1.0 serial: <root required> 
  UEFI: American Megatrends v: Q302LA.203 date: 05/15/2014

Is my wifes touchscreen laptop and was stuck in Windows 10 boot loop going no where. No way to even run F8 and try and restore from backup partition. This all happened and the wife never made a recovery usb or dvd disc. Long story short. Nuked Windows. Installed MX linux. Now. The laptop only freezes up after a hour of running. You guessed it Failing hard drive.

So. My inept fingers took this laptop apart and proceeded to fubar the sata interface wiring hookup . Bios now does not see any hard drive. Old one or New one. Me, like a bear in china cabinet.

So. Posting this on persist usb of AntiX. Live run with root being changeable. That was how I got the wifi working

$ inxi -N
Network:
  Device-1: MEDIATEK MT7630e 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter 
  driver: mt7630e

Cuz kernel did not have that module. Wondering how well a external slim 1TB super glued to back of lcd monitor will run on usb connection with a conventional install.

Just crazy thoughts one does not have while using Windows. If I was Windows centric. Trash laptop after pulling ram and other parts.
Buy new Windows 10 laptop. Which I did. Wife now has a new Dell 17 incher Windows 10 laptop. I just keep the dregs here in the motorcycle shop.

demo@antix1:~
$ su
Password: 
root@antix1:/home/demo# inxi -v8 -z
System:    Host: antix1 Kernel: 4.9.182-antix.1-amd64-smp x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 
           Desktop: IceWM 1.5.5+git20190610 dm: SLiM 1.3.6 Distro: antiX-19.b2_x64-full Marielle Franco 13 July 2019 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: Q302LA v: 1.0 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: ASUSTeK model: Q302LA v: 1.0 serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: Q302LA.203 date: 05/15/2014 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 43.7 Wh condition: 44.5/50.1 Wh (89%) volts: 11.3/11.3 model: ASUSTeK UX3-44 type: Li-ion 
           serial: <filter> status: Discharging cycles: 88 
Memory:    RAM: total: 5.72 GiB used: 1.07 GiB (18.7%) 
           Array-1: capacity: 32 GiB slots: 4 EC: None max module size: 8 GiB note: est. 
           Device-1: ChannelA-DIMM0 size: 4 GiB speed: 1600 MT/s type: DDR3 detail: synchronous bus width: 64 bits 
           total: 64 bits manufacturer: Hynix/Hyundai part-no: N/A serial: N/A 
           Device-2: ChannelA-DIMM1 size: No Module Installed 
           Device-3: ChannelB-DIMM0 size: 2 GiB speed: 1600 MT/s type: DDR3 detail: synchronous bus width: 64 bits 
           total: 64 bits manufacturer: Hynix/Hyundai part-no: HMT425S6AFR6A-PB serial: <filter> 
           Device-4: ChannelB-DIMM1 size: No Module Installed 
PCI Slots: Message: No PCI slot data found. 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-4030U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Haswell family: 6 model-id: 45 (69) 
           stepping: 1 microcode: 17 L1 cache: 128 KiB L2 cache: 3072 KiB L3 cache: 3072 KiB bogomips: 15164 
           Speed: 1800 MHz min/max: 800/1800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1800 2: 1664 3: 1800 4: 1800 
           Flags: abm acpi aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts clflush cmov constant_tsc cx16 cx8 de 
           ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept erms est f16c flexpriority fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr ht invpcid invpcid_single kaiser 
           lahf_lm lm mca mce mmx monitor movbe msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs pge 
           pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pts rdrand rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep smep ss sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 syscall tm tm2 
           tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid x2apic xsave xsaveopt xtopology xtpr 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
           Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: spec_store_bypass status: Vulnerable 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
           chip ID: 8086:0a16 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Haswell Mobile v: 4.5 Mesa 18.3.6 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:03.0 chip ID: 8086:0a0c 
           Device-2: Intel 8 Series HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
           chip ID: 8086:9c20 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.9.182-antix.1-amd64-smp 
Network:   Device-1: MEDIATEK MT7630e 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Foxconn driver: mt7630e v: 2.3.8 port: f040 
           bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 14c3:7630 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
           IP v4: <filter> scope: global broadcast: <filter> 
           IP v6: <filter> scope: link 
           WAN IP: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 7.61 GiB used: 2.03 GiB (26.7%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda type: USB vendor: PNY model: USB 2.0 FD size: 7.61 GiB block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B 
           serial: <filter> rev: 1100 scheme: MBR 
           Message: No Optical or Floppy data was found. 
RAID:      Message: No RAID data was found. 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: N/A size: 2.89 GiB used: 419.1 MiB (14.2%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102 label: N/A uuid: N/A 
           ID-2: /live/boot-dev raw size: 7.55 GiB size: 7.50 GiB (99.32%) used: 1.62 GiB (21.6%) fs: ext4 block size: 4096 B 
           dev: /dev/sda1 label: antiX-Live-usb uuid: ed29debf-52b2-487b-9664-2c9371b53218 
           ID-3: /live/linux raw size: 1.03 GiB size: N/A (hidden?) used: N/A (hidden?) fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop0 
           label: N/A uuid: N/A 
           ID-4: /live/persist-root raw size: 3.00 GiB size: N/A (hidden?) used: N/A (hidden?) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/loop1 
           label: N/A uuid: cdf86e04-4511-46a2-b87c-f41c8874c530 
Unmounted: ID-1: /dev/sda2 size: 50.0 MiB fs: vfat label: antiX-uefi uuid: 1992-CD1A 
USB:       Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 1-1:2 info: Intel ports: 8 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 8087:8000 
           Device-1: 1-1.3:3 info: PNY Classic Attache Flash Drive type: Mass Storage driver: usb-storage interfaces: 1 
           rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 154b:007a serial: <filter> 
           Device-2: 1-1.4:5 info: MediaTek type: <vendor specific> driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
           chip ID: 0e8d:763f serial: <filter> 
           Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 9 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 38.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2500 
Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list 
           1: deb https://mirror.freedif.org/MXLinux/repo/antix/buster/ buster main nonfree
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/ buster/updates main contrib non-free
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/onion.list 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Processes: CPU top: 5 
           1: cpu: 5.9% command: firefox-esr pid: 18035 mem: 457.8 MiB (7.8%) 
           2: cpu: 3.3% command: firefox-esr pid: 29418 mem: 201.6 MiB (3.4%) 
           3: cpu: 1.8% command: firefox-esr pid: 30337 mem: 181.2 MiB (3.0%) 
           4: cpu: 1.7% command: xorg pid: 6610 mem: 67.5 MiB (1.1%) 
           5: cpu: 0.4% command: firefox-esr pid: 18082 mem: 202.0 MiB (3.4%) 
           Memory top: 5 
           1: mem: 457.8 MiB (7.8%) command: firefox-esr pid: 18035 cpu: 5.9% 
           2: mem: 202.0 MiB (3.4%) command: firefox-esr pid: 18082 cpu: 0.4% 
           3: mem: 201.6 MiB (3.4%) command: firefox-esr pid: 29418 cpu: 3.3% 
           4: mem: 181.2 MiB (3.0%) command: firefox-esr pid: 30337 cpu: 1.8% 
           5: mem: 67.5 MiB (1.1%) command: xorg pid: 6610 cpu: 1.7% 
Info:      Processes: 148 Uptime: 2h 34m Init: SysVinit v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 
           Shell: bash (su) v: 5.0.3 running in: roxterm inxi: 3.0.33 
root@antix1:/home/demo# exit
exit
demo@antix1:~
$

And they lived happily ever after.

I have an Acer old laptop here which was previously running OpenBSD, but which I have wiped and was intending to restore to it's previous state of running Windows Vista and pass on to others... one of the annoying things about Windows is that you just can't get hold of installation media and/or if you do get hold of an old disc, it's often the wrong edition, architecture, OEM anyway...

And, if you do try running it!

I bought an old Apple at a thrift store one year they thought it was a television set, 20 bucks. Got the old thing home and updated the operating system all the way to the current version, Leopard or something like that at the time... I could leave it at the market took care of that but instead I run Linux, updates forever because that's how long we will live! LOL

The next time I tried updating that old Apple, bricked it thanks Apple. Now I got a drive to put into an older computer and gave to some kids at school with Linux on it.

Because Linux is for kids.

Right...

You just said that.

Originally Posted by YesItsMe Because Linux is for kids.

Looks like today's "kids" are spoiled then, since it's some form of Linux that runs almost everything like supercomputers, servers, etc... and that's right, doesn't M$ have their own Linux distro? And I seem to recall they have, now, what was that called... that's right, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)? Don't some of the most famous websites run on Linux too? Wonder why, must be a lot of "kids" out there...

Wonder what happened to that Windows Phone OS...

Originally Posted by YesItsMe You just said that.

Kids in college at that time...

but yes as you may know my two-year-old nephew started out with one, he's eight now...

we all know here, only incredibly old people use Linux‽

Originally Posted by jsbjsb001 And I seem to recall they have, now, what was that called... that's right, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)?

WSL and now WSL2. It's an attempt to keep Linux systems off "bare metal" and maintain the market for Windows server. When all is said and done, the competitor is Red Hat, when it comes to "the cloud", etc.

Originally Posted by jsbjsb001 Don't some of the most famous websites run on Linux too? Wonder why, must be a lot of "kids" out there...

I'm sure that most of the WWW runs on Linux.

Yeah, I was thinking a very similar thing about WSL/WSL2 only today. In that: why would someone what to use Windows to run Linux apps, when they can just use Linux [some distro of] itself? The only real benefit I can see for anyone to do that would be, if you were developing both Windows and Linux apps. Beyond that kind of situation, I don't see any real benefit to using WSL/WSL2 if one wants to run Linux apps. I think M$ also knows this, and you've more or less said the real motivation above. In that, if you can run your Linux apps on Windows, and you particularly if you also need Windows as well, then you can install WSL/WSL2, and therefore forget about installing Linux on bare-metal - what better way to keep you from installing Linux proper/on bare-metal. You can just use M$ Linux/WSL instead, therefore Windows is still installed as the OS on the bare-metal. Similar story regarding GitHub no doubt.