England Bans Pirate Bay

[Seth King]

If you want to open yourself up to all of the wonders of the internet, which I highly suggest, you'll want to switch to Linux.

Check out these articles to introduce yourself to Linux:

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/22/open-source-software-is-for-activists/

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/24/linux-and-anarchy/

I'll consider it. The only hesitation I have is that I do not use my computer for anything but surfing the web. I am barely literate at computer anything. When I say this, I mean that I am as literate as an 80 year old. I've never been inclined to peak into the IT realm. So I have no idea what value the perks of changing OS's would bring to me, nor would I know how those perks would work.

A friend of mine swears by Ubuntu and has mentioned it before to me. He, like you, mentions the ethical perspective, which I absolutely agree with. On that matter alone, I seriously consider the switch. Aside from that, I'm lost. I've only ever rarely used MSWord and rarely use MSPaint. I use no other programs beyond an occasional (and I do mean occasional) computer game that loses my interest quite quickly.

I see no reason NOT to switch. I'm just afraid I won't know what to do after the switch. You know? What little knowledge I have of Windows I do posses is far from enough to keep me from feeling awed by a person who can retrieve files when I don't know where they saved to.

And yes, I do see the very ironic metaphor between my caution about Linux and the statist dismissal of anarchism. ;p

Actually, the fact that you only browse the web makes you a perfect candidate for Linux. Have your friend install it for you. Once it's installed, all you have to do is open Mozilla Firefox and browse the web. It's just like Windows in that regard, only everything is faster, safer, and a lot more ethical. Plus, if for any reason you do desire to start getting into the cool stuff, you're already prepared by using Linux. Baby steps to awesomeness.

[DROI]

Hey Seth I'm a newb like Distruzio and have a question.
I have a relative who has a laptop which runs Windows 7 and the computer has been having problems with the blue screen of death and viruses, but she can still browse the web some. Do you think she could download linux and ditch windows 7 along with all the problems she's been having?

[Seth King]

Hey Seth I'm a newb like Distruzio and have a question.
I have a relative who has a laptop which runs Windows 7 and the computer has been having problems with the blue screen of death and viruses, but she can still browse the web some. Do you think she could download linux and ditch windows 7 along with all the problems she's been having?

Abso freakin lutely!

Have her go here and download Ubuntu:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

And make sure she follows the instructions here:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/help/install-ubuntu-desktop

[braindead0]

Hey Seth I'm a newb like Distruzio and have a question.
I have a relative who has a laptop which runs Windows 7 and the computer has been having problems with the blue screen of death and viruses, but she can still browse the web some. Do you think she could download linux and ditch windows 7 along with all the problems she's been having?

Depends on the laptop, most are well supported however some features may not work *nix..  Historically wireless networking has been a problem due to proprietary firmware and the like.  However if you install Ubuntu I'm fairly sure that the default installation options will install it 'next to' windows, i.e. your windows installation can still be booted to.

For an easier transition, it might be beneficial if you can find someone with a bit of tech knowledge to put documents and personal settings somewhere handy.  I use mozbackup to clone my firefox setups for example.

NOTE: Linux is not a panacea, it does not make you malware/trojan/virus/worm proof..  Currently it is not a high profile target like Windows or Mac so there isn't much bad stuff out there, however that doesn't mean you can let your guard down completely.

[Seth King]

Hey Seth I'm a newb like Distruzio and have a question.
I have a relative who has a laptop which runs Windows 7 and the computer has been having problems with the blue screen of death and viruses, but she can still browse the web some. Do you think she could download linux and ditch windows 7 along with all the problems she's been having?

Depends on the laptop, most are well supported however some features may not work *nix..  Historically wireless networking has been a problem due to proprietary firmware and the like.  However if you install Ubuntu I'm fairly sure that the default installation options will install it 'next to' windows, i.e. your windows installation can still be booted to.

For an easier transition, it might be beneficial if you can find someone with a bit of tech knowledge to put documents and personal settings somewhere handy.  I use mozbackup to clone my firefox setups for example.

You just went right over any noob's head with this.

If their laptop is running Windows 7, it's a good chance that their hardware is modern and there will be firmware patches easily found afterward. That's IF there's even a problem.

[DROI]

Thanks for the help Seth and braindead!

[braindead0]

Hey Seth I'm a newb like Distruzio and have a question.
I have a relative who has a laptop which runs Windows 7 and the computer has been having problems with the blue screen of death and viruses, but she can still browse the web some. Do you think she could download linux and ditch windows 7 along with all the problems she's been having?

Depends on the laptop, most are well supported however some features may not work *nix..  Historically wireless networking has been a problem due to proprietary firmware and the like.  However if you install Ubuntu I'm fairly sure that the default installation options will install it 'next to' windows, i.e. your windows installation can still be booted to.

For an easier transition, it might be beneficial if you can find someone with a bit of tech knowledge to put documents and personal settings somewhere handy.  I use mozbackup to clone my firefox setups for example.

You just went right over any noob's head with this.

If their laptop is running Windows 7, it's a good chance that their hardware is modern and there will be firmware patches easily found afterward. That's IF there's even a problem.

Older is actually better for full laptop support.  Many laptop brands are problematic, in particular full support for all of the power saving features.  Lenovo and Toshiba both cooperate with open source, however Dell is problematic.

It might look like everything it working, until you notice that battery life is 1/3rd what it is under windoze or wpa2 doesn't work..etc..  

It's something to watch out for.

Further you might want to check out http://linux-laptop.net/, select your brand then try to find the model.  You'll often find that most everything will work, however the amount of tweaking necessary varies from simply installing a package to editing text config files.  Odds are that full support for all of your hardware will not be a slam dunk, however it may support everything you care about.  One of the things that tends to be really problematic is the funky hotkeys.. some work fine (my netbook does).. some require a lot of tweaking.

My fairly new Lenovo is running windows now because so far nobody has had much luck with the dual video cards, getting full sata III speeds on the controller and working USB.  This machine is for productive work, rather than monkey around getting things working under *nix I just left win7 on it.

[Seth King]

Hey Seth I'm a newb like Distruzio and have a question.
I have a relative who has a laptop which runs Windows 7 and the computer has been having problems with the blue screen of death and viruses, but she can still browse the web some. Do you think she could download linux and ditch windows 7 along with all the problems she's been having?

Depends on the laptop, most are well supported however some features may not work *nix..  Historically wireless networking has been a problem due to proprietary firmware and the like.  However if you install Ubuntu I'm fairly sure that the default installation options will install it 'next to' windows, i.e. your windows installation can still be booted to.

For an easier transition, it might be beneficial if you can find someone with a bit of tech knowledge to put documents and personal settings somewhere handy.  I use mozbackup to clone my firefox setups for example.

You just went right over any noob's head with this.

If their laptop is running Windows 7, it's a good chance that their hardware is modern and there will be firmware patches easily found afterward. That's IF there's even a problem.

Older is actually better for full laptop support.  Many laptop brands are problematic, in particular full support for all of the power saving features.  Lenovo and Toshiba both cooperate with open source, however Dell is problematic.

It might look like everything it working, until you notice that battery life is 1/3rd what it is under windoze or wpa2 doesn't work..etc..  

It's something to watch out for.

Further you might want to check out http://linux-laptop.net/, select your brand then try to find the model.  You'll often find that most everything will work, however the amount of tweaking necessary varies from simply installing a package to editing text config files.  Odds are that full support for all of your hardware will not be a slam dunk, however it may support everything you care about.  One of the things that tends to be really problematic is the funky hotkeys.. some work fine (my netbook does).. some require a lot of tweaking.

My fairly new Lenovo is running windows now because so far nobody has had much luck with the dual video cards, getting full sata III speeds on the controller and working USB.  This machine is for productive work, rather than monkey around getting things working under *nix I just left win7 on it.

That you for this information.

I would also like to ad that for Ubuntu noobs it's imperative to join ubuntuforums.org and create an account. You'll have a ton of questions at first and they will help walk you through whatever you need help with. I haven't needed to go there in a while, myself, but at the beginning I had a ton of questions and the people there were very helpful.

[braindead0]

For those who aren't quite ready to dive into *nix on their main machine, or just want to try it out without any commitment there are a couple of options. 

The easiest (IMO) is a LiveCD: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD You can boot this up and be in a full Ubuntu linux environment, browse around play with settings..etc..  Changes will not be persistent, so don't create your PhD treatise on it. 

Another option is via a virtual machine, however I'm not finding any really recent VM images that are complete.. so that one is tougher.  I probably have a VM image of Ubuntu around here already, but it may be a version or two out of date.

[MAM]

If you want to open yourself up to all of the wonders of the internet, which I highly suggest, you'll want to switch to Linux.

Check out these articles to introduce yourself to Linux:

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/22/open-source-software-is-for-activists/

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/24/linux-and-anarchy/

I see no reason NOT to switch. I'm just afraid I won't know what to do after the switch. You know? What little knowledge I have of Windows I do posses is far from enough to keep me from feeling awed by a person who can retrieve files when I don't know where they saved to.

And yes, I do see the very ironic metaphor between my caution about Linux and the statist dismissal of anarchism. ;p

You can always partition your hard drive so that both OSs are on it and you can switch back and forth to make the transition easier.

[Seth King]

If you want to open yourself up to all of the wonders of the internet, which I highly suggest, you'll want to switch to Linux.

Check out these articles to introduce yourself to Linux:

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/22/open-source-software-is-for-activists/

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/24/linux-and-anarchy/

I see no reason NOT to switch. I'm just afraid I won't know what to do after the switch. You know? What little knowledge I have of Windows I do posses is far from enough to keep me from feeling awed by a person who can retrieve files when I don't know where they saved to.

And yes, I do see the very ironic metaphor between my caution about Linux and the statist dismissal of anarchism. ;p

You can always partition your hard drive so that both OSs are on it and you can switch back and forth to make the transition easier.

This is what I did. I no longer use the Windows partition.

[braindead0]

If you want to open yourself up to all of the wonders of the internet, which I highly suggest, you'll want to switch to Linux.

Check out these articles to introduce yourself to Linux:

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/22/open-source-software-is-for-activists/

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/24/linux-and-anarchy/

I see no reason NOT to switch. I'm just afraid I won't know what to do after the switch. You know? What little knowledge I have of Windows I do posses is far from enough to keep me from feeling awed by a person who can retrieve files when I don't know where they saved to.

And yes, I do see the very ironic metaphor between my caution about Linux and the statist dismissal of anarchism. ;p

You can always partition your hard drive so that both OSs are on it and you can switch back and forth to make the transition easier.

I believe ubuntu installer has a built in option for that.. I would certainly recommend that over a complete nuke at least initially.

[MAM]

If you want to open yourself up to all of the wonders of the internet, which I highly suggest, you'll want to switch to Linux.

Check out these articles to introduce yourself to Linux:

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/22/open-source-software-is-for-activists/

http://dailyanarchist.com/2010/11/24/linux-and-anarchy/

Haha I nuked my laptop completely, but Windows Vista was the epitome of garbage. I still use Windows 7 on my Desktop but that's because I use it for recreation, I use my laptop with Debian Squeeze on it for all business related stuff.

I see no reason NOT to switch. I'm just afraid I won't know what to do after the switch. You know? What little knowledge I have of Windows I do posses is far from enough to keep me from feeling awed by a person who can retrieve files when I don't know where they saved to.

And yes, I do see the very ironic metaphor between my caution about Linux and the statist dismissal of anarchism. ;p

You can always partition your hard drive so that both OSs are on it and you can switch back and forth to make the transition easier.

I believe ubuntu installer has a built in option for that.. I would certainly recommend that over a complete nuke at least initially.

[Aegidius]

The easiest (IMO) is a LiveCD: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD You can boot this up and be in a full Ubuntu linux environment, browse around play with settings..etc..  Changes will not be persistent, so don't create your PhD treatise on it. 

Live CD's are great, but people should be aware that the live CD will run much slower than a real install.  I wouldn't want anyone to be deterred by the speed.