Comments on: Linux at home http://www.owen.org/blog/428 Thoughts on development and beyond Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:50:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Owen http://www.owen.org/blog/428/comment-page-1#comment-1891 Owen Fri, 02 Jun 2006 16:51:48 +0000 http://www.owen.org/blog/2006/01/15/linux-at-home/#comment-1891 Bob<br /><br />You may need to go into the computer's bios, by holding down the ESC key during boot, and changing the boot sequence to boot first from the CD-ROM.  <br /><br />If the computer is very old and the bios does not support booting from CDROM, you will need to create a boot floppy disk instead with the drivers for your CDROM or for your network so that you can complete the intallation.<br /><br />I suggest you consider the new Ubuntu - which seems to install on almost any system.<br /><br />Owen Bob

You may need to go into the computer’s bios, by holding down the ESC key during boot, and changing the boot sequence to boot first from the CD-ROM. 

If the computer is very old and the bios does not support booting from CDROM, you will need to create a boot floppy disk instead with the drivers for your CDROM or for your network so that you can complete the intallation.

I suggest you consider the new Ubuntu – which seems to install on almost any system.

Owen

]]> By: bobnan http://www.owen.org/blog/428/comment-page-1#comment-1890 bobnan Fri, 02 Jun 2006 07:27:38 +0000 http://www.owen.org/blog/2006/01/15/linux-at-home/#comment-1890 hi, i have a toshiba portege with an external cd rom and it wont read the cd rom on boot. i have looked at linux suse 10 and am wondering if it woulif it would boot.please let me know what you think ...thanks...bob.  hi, i have a toshiba portege with an external cd rom and it wont read the cd rom on boot. i have looked at linux suse 10 and am wondering if it woulif it would boot.please let me know what you think …thanks…bob. 

]]> By: Jason Monty http://www.owen.org/blog/428/comment-page-1#comment-1889 Jason Monty Fri, 20 Jan 2006 10:41:45 +0000 http://www.owen.org/blog/2006/01/15/linux-at-home/#comment-1889 Thanks Owen - nice to be back in touch. Having dabbled with a few Linux distros before, Ubuntu was by far the easiest to install. It picked up all my hardware with no problems. It was all the more impressive considering it was a Tablet PC. I didn’t have any additional work to do other than a standard install. In the past I have had difficulties with Linux detecting wireless adaptors – but no problems this time. This process did highlight how far Linux has become and I think it is almost ready for the masses.  What remains is a dummy-proof way of installing software for newbies.  Ubuntu certainly comes close. As a Power Book owner and a massive fan of OS X I can see the similarities. I like to see them as close cousins from the same UNIX family. Thanks Owen – nice to be back in touch. Having dabbled with a few Linux distros before, Ubuntu was by far the easiest to install. It picked up all my hardware with no problems. It was all the more impressive considering it was a Tablet PC. I didn’t have any additional work to do other than a standard install. In the past I have had difficulties with Linux detecting wireless adaptors – but no problems this time.
This process did highlight how far Linux has become and I think it is almost ready for the masses.  What remains is a dummy-proof way of installing software for newbies.  Ubuntu certainly comes close. As a Power Book owner and a massive fan of OS X I can see the similarities. I like to see them as close cousins from the same UNIX family.

]]> By: Jason Monty http://www.owen.org/blog/428/comment-page-1#comment-1888 Jason Monty Thu, 19 Jan 2006 16:43:48 +0000 http://www.owen.org/blog/2006/01/15/linux-at-home/#comment-1888 <p> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ubuntulinux.org/">Ubuntu</a> is a fantastic distro. My WindoZe Tablet PC gave up the ghost (or so I thought) a while ago. I was unable to reinstall the special tablet pc edition of WindoZe XP, as the OS failed to recognise the external USB CD-Rom drive. I then decided to install Ubuntu and it booted immediately from the external drive and installed with no glitches.  It’s been running perfectly ever since. The next step is to try and find a stable tablet PC Linux distro…..if any one knows of any please let me know. </p><p>If anyone is interested in open source with an international development angle they should check out the latest edition of DFID’s ‘<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.developments.org.uk/">Developments'</a> publication. I managed to pull off quite a stunt by suggesting they write an Open Source story and put the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.theopencd.org/">OpenCD</a> on the front cover. (Incidentally it contains an evaluation copy of Ubuntu Linux on the CD).</p><p><em><strong>Owen replies:</strong> Jason - great to hear from you.  Well done on getting the OpenCD on the front of Developments magazine - a real coup.  Very interesting to hear that Ubuntu would install where Window$ wouldn't on your laptop.  I think we are nearing a tipping point at which Linux is ready for the desktop of non-specialist users.  I suspect the success of Firefox has contributed a lot to user willingness to use free software.  </em></p><p><em>I understand the Ubuntu has a reputation for being a distro that 'just works' - not too much choice, not too many different components; but what there is works right away with no additional configuration.  Is that right? (It reminds me of OSX - Macs are very popular here on the West Coast).  </em><br /></p> Ubuntu is a fantastic distro. My WindoZe Tablet PC gave up the ghost (or so I thought) a while ago. I was unable to reinstall the special tablet pc edition of WindoZe XP, as the OS failed to recognise the external USB CD-Rom drive. I then decided to install Ubuntu and it booted immediately from the external drive and installed with no glitches.  It’s been running perfectly ever since. The next step is to try and find a stable tablet PC Linux distro…..if any one knows of any please let me know.

If anyone is interested in open source with an international development angle they should check out the latest edition of DFID’s ‘Developments’ publication. I managed to pull off quite a stunt by suggesting they write an Open Source story and put the OpenCD on the front cover. (Incidentally it contains an evaluation copy of Ubuntu Linux on the CD).

Owen replies: Jason – great to hear from you.  Well done on getting the OpenCD on the front of Developments magazine – a real coup.  Very interesting to hear that Ubuntu would install where Window$ wouldn’t on your laptop.  I think we are nearing a tipping point at which Linux is ready for the desktop of non-specialist users.  I suspect the success of Firefox has contributed a lot to user willingness to use free software.  

I understand the Ubuntu has a reputation for being a distro that ‘just works’ – not too much choice, not too many different components; but what there is works right away with no additional configuration.  Is that right? (It reminds me of OSX – Macs are very popular here on the West Coast). 

]]> By: Alex Singleton http://www.owen.org/blog/428/comment-page-1#comment-1887 Alex Singleton Wed, 18 Jan 2006 20:21:21 +0000 http://www.owen.org/blog/2006/01/15/linux-at-home/#comment-1887 Great to hear that you're using Linux. I just made the switch to Ubuntu Linux from a Mac. Not regretting it at all. Great to hear that you’re using Linux. I just made the switch to Ubuntu Linux from a Mac. Not regretting it at all.

]]> By: blogscot http://www.owen.org/blog/428/comment-page-1#comment-1886 blogscot Wed, 18 Jan 2006 01:33:23 +0000 http://www.owen.org/blog/2006/01/15/linux-at-home/#comment-1886 <p> I tried installing Ubuntu 5.10 on my laptop a couple of weeks ago - that was a real barrel of laughs. After several messing about for a few hours (fretting about partitioning my harddrive and possible losing my XP operating system - it was a risk I was prepared to take) the installation process finally came to an end. Unfortunately, there was something wrong with the video drivers so I couldn't make head nor tail of the screen's output. Pah! I also tried installing FreeBSD, but that never got off the ground, and also installing linux on to my iPod, which killed that off too. I did however notice later that there's a version of linux tailored for the iPod, but by this late stage I'd already decided to give the whole thing a rest.</p><p><em><strong>Owen replies:</strong> I am sorry you had problems with Ubuntu.  It is a common experience that Linux is harder to install on laptops than on desktops, because the hardware is often less standard.  (The same is true of Windows - my laptop would not install a retail version of Wiindows - you have to use the CDs that come with it and then upgrade from there).  But I did install SUSE Linux on my laptop and it recognized all the hardware perfectly, so you can be lucky.   Now that Linux has good support for suspend/resume and wireless cards, it works pretty well on laptops too.</em><br /></p> I tried installing Ubuntu 5.10 on my laptop a couple of weeks ago – that was a real barrel of laughs. After several messing about for a few hours (fretting about partitioning my harddrive and possible losing my XP operating system – it was a risk I was prepared to take) the installation process finally came to an end. Unfortunately, there was something wrong with the video drivers so I couldn’t make head nor tail of the screen’s output. Pah! I also tried installing FreeBSD, but that never got off the ground, and also installing linux on to my iPod, which killed that off too. I did however notice later that there’s a version of linux tailored for the iPod, but by this late stage I’d already decided to give the whole thing a rest.

Owen replies: I am sorry you had problems with Ubuntu.  It is a common experience that Linux is harder to install on laptops than on desktops, because the hardware is often less standard.  (The same is true of Windows – my laptop would not install a retail version of Wiindows – you have to use the CDs that come with it and then upgrade from there).  But I did install SUSE Linux on my laptop and it recognized all the hardware perfectly, so you can be lucky.   Now that Linux has good support for suspend/resume and wireless cards, it works pretty well on laptops too.

]]> By: Phil Hunt http://www.owen.org/blog/428/comment-page-1#comment-1885 Phil Hunt Tue, 17 Jan 2006 18:43:25 +0000 http://www.owen.org/blog/2006/01/15/linux-at-home/#comment-1885 <em>I installed the lastest version of <a href="http://www.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org" rel="nofollow">SUSE Linux</a> on my home computer last weekend. </em>Good for you!  I installed the lastest version of SUSE Linux on my home computer last weekend. Good for you! 

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