The Linux Platform has positioned itself as becoming the next best alternative to using Windows. The following links have been re-posted by request for anyone wishing to learn more about Linux:
Post by big bad bombastic bob on Nov 21, 2015 10:11:55 GMT -6
you could ALSO try installing cygwin in your windows environment for practice with the command line interface.
Linux shells are superior to anything Microsoft has shat out over the years. Microsoft sorta went the "CPM" route with their command line, as I understand it. The UNIX world devotes the command line to "simple utilities chained together" more or less. the idea is to be able to easily send output from one utility to the next, and have a LOT of them. A well written shell script is better than something hacked up in VB or 'Windows Scripting Host' by a HUGE margin.
you can get cygwin here: cygwin.com [the installer is difficult to work with, but the default should get you started]
the shell used by most Linux distributions is 'bash'. Lots of tutorials exist.
It probably wouldn't hurt to learn 'Perl' either. It's a bit like bash on steroids.
Microsoft used to have 'Interix' which changed its name to 'SFU', then 'SUA'. I have a web page that might be helpful, since it's the same POSIX utilities that you find in Linux:
This is a simple utility program that make it easy to set-up your default boot loader on your system when using Linux and Windows in a dual boot configuration. Included are instructions on how to do it manually, but by using the utility, the process is done automatically making it very easy to do.
GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) is the default bootloader for Linux Mint, Ubuntu, and a host of Linux Distributions. When we are dual-booting with Windows, Linux sets itself as the default boot choice. If we prefer Windows to be the default, though, it's easy to change the GRUB boot order.
We have prepared this guide in Linux Mint 17.2 and Ubuntu 15.10. It should also work for earlier and later versions, and for most distributions based on Ubuntu/Debian.
There are a lot of discussions elsewhere going on about "Secure Boot" functionality shutting out Linux, and that one actually has to beg Microsoft for something to be signed to even hope to boot Linux on a new PC. What I don't know is how many new PCs have a "Secure Boot Only" BIOS. I know the Dell PowerEdge T20 I bought new in April 2015 offered, in its F2 Setup screens, the choice to use plain old BIOS.
-Noel
Author of the "How to Configure the 'To Work' Options" series of Windows books. Not feeling enough love to do one for Windows 10.
Well, that certainly gives new meaning to the following statement that was passed on to me a number of years ago:
From The Internet... Author unknown....
Windows 95... 32 bit extensions and graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit operating system, originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company, that cant stand 1 bit of competition...
The statement does need to be update to say Windows 10, but you get the idea.
Anyway, here are a couple of links referring to what secure boot is doing to the PC industry for those who want to run an alternative Operating System such as Linux or even an older version of Windows:
A nice little beginner's guide on how to do basic Linux tasks from IBM.com
The following has been excerpted from IBM developerWorks® The complete article can also be downloaded as a PDF file. If you check around on the web page, you will find many links to advanced Linux topics and courses.
Help! I got my Linux installed. Now what?
If you're a Windows user, you may find your new Linux system to be a bit different from what you're used to. One of your first tasks will probably be installing additional software, including some of IBM's extensive software for Linux. In many cases, installing software on a Linux system requires you to log in, become the super user (or root) for some tasks, open a terminal or shell window, and mount a CD-ROM, DVD, or USB drive. This article guides you through these basic first-time user tasks and more.
The Tutorial goes on and explains some basics to the following:
Login Logging in and understanding the Linux desktop
Navigation and settings Tweaking settings to suit your personal needs
Command line access When you really need to work at the command line
Becoming superuser (or root) When ordinary user authority isn't enough
Using a GUI application as another user Getting comfortable with multi-user system capabilities
Removable devices Using removable media and making sure you don't lose data when you detach removable devices
Logout When you're done for a while or need a panel icon for logout or other applications Adding users and groups Adding more users or user groups to your system...
How to Re-Instate the GRUB Boot Loader after installing or updating Windows
The Grub Boot Loader, when installed with Linux as the last OS on a dual/multi-boot system, is very good at adding in Windows as a boot option to it's list of OS's to choose from at boot-up time. The problem is, Windows can and will disable GRUB, rendering your Linux installation as being inaccessible after a major windows update that requires a near re-installation such as what Windows 10 does.
I'll try and make them easier to understand as when I first saw them it looked a bit complicated. Please don't look at this post thinking its gonna take forever it wont. Just take your time and follow them correctly.
1. Ok 1st thing you want to do is boot into your LiveCD of Mint. (best to use the same version as the one you are running on your computer)Once everything is loaded and your at the mint desktop. Open the Mint Menu and type "gparted" into the filter text box. When it loads you should see all the partitions that are on the hard drive. Linux Mint partitions will probably be EXT4 and the windows partitions will probably be NTFS.
2. Look at the list of partitions and see what one is the Linux Mint partition. You can tell this by looking at the Mount Points of the partitions. You should see one with a "/" under Mount Point and its File system will likely be EXT4. When you have located this partition look to the left and see what it is called. For example mine is called dev/sda6 (yours may be something different like dev/sda1 etc)Now that you know what partition is the Linux Mint partition, just leave gparted open so you can look back at it again incase you forget. Now open up a Terminal by clicking the Mint menu then clicking "Terminal" under System. Now we need to mount the Linux Mint partition so that we are able to use it (access it) . To do this copy and paste this code into the terminal sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt You will need to change the XY part of the code to match the name of your Linux Mint partition. For example my mint partition is dev/sda6 so I would change the code to - sudo mount /dev/sda6 /mnt
Now that you edited the line of code to match your mint partition, go ahead and press Enter on your keyboard then type in your password if your asked for it then press Enter again.(When your entering in your password you will not see any characters, letters numbers etc). It may look as if nothing has happened, but your Linux Mint partition will now be mounted. The terminal will display nothing after the $ sign like it did when you 1st open it.
3. Now we need to tell the computer to reinstall grub2 to the Linux Mint partition we just mounted. To do this copy and paste this line of code into the terminal sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sdX Again you will need to change this line of code to match your Linux Mint partition. Change the "X" at the end to match your mint partition. My partition is dev/sda6 so I will change the line of code to - sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda It is IMPORTANT that you do not enter any number just the letters of the partitions. When you have edited the line of code press Enter on your keyboard. You should then see a message saying Grub installer finished or something like that. Now close the terminal and gparted and reboot your pc/laptop without the LiveCD in the disc drive. To restart click the mint menu then click "Quit" then "Reboot".
*Note after you reboot you should see the grub2 menu you had before you installed/repaired windows. You may need to refresh (update) this menu so that it detects the new windows partition. This can easily be done by logging into your Linux Mint, opening a Terminal then copying and pasting sudo update-grub then press Enter then enter your password then hit Enter again. You will then see it detecting all the bootable partitions on the Hard drive. When it displays 'Done', reboot again and you should be able to boot into windows again.
If you have a UEFI system, install EasyUefi on Windows. It just takes a mouse click or two to change boot order. Point it to GRUB's EFI file, or Windows' EFI file, or systemd, or anything else you have.
<Rick> Good video. It's almost hard to believe that at one time Windows 98 was the resource hog, but even then, it still ran circles around what Windows 10 can do on today's modern hardware and look a heck of alot better doing it.
May 25, 2021 22:55:12 GMT -6
<Rick> As stated elsewhere, So much for the launch of Windows 11, "The Great Crash." Myself, I had a hard time getting into the site listed above, when I did get in, the video was partly done and then it crashed. There has been many other reports of crashing.
Jun 24, 2021 9:52:33 GMT -6
*
<Rick> I see Microsoft has been very quick to pull down reports of site crashing regarding the Launch of Windows 11 on the Microsoft Insiders forum.
Jun 24, 2021 9:57:31 GMT -6
*
<Rick> The rebroadcast is working okay.
Jun 24, 2021 11:00:25 GMT -6
<Rick> With reports of people being able to install the dev-edition of Windows 11 on machines not meeting spec, I thought I would give it a what-the-heck try. Lucky me, I'm caught in the downloading, doesn't meet spec, clearing, re-downloading loop on my machine!
Jul 2, 2021 7:08:46 GMT -6
<Rick> I've recently purchased a license for ArcaOS from www.arcanoae.com/ to play with. First impressions, it's still OS/2, but it now has a Linux twist to it.
Jul 2, 2021 7:32:53 GMT -6
*
<dozrguy> laptop shit out and am stuck buying a new one. os win11 as fucked as win10 was?
Oct 2, 2021 12:56:10 GMT -6
<Rick> Let's see ..., my impression of Windows 11 is that it is a spruced up version of Windows 10 requiring a 64-bit processor plus a piece of security hardware that is less than 4 years old in order for it to run.
Oct 4, 2021 18:25:49 GMT -6
*
<Rick> On the plus side, Microsoft is supposed to be supporting Windows 10 for some time to come for those of us still using systems with I7 or older processors.
Oct 4, 2021 18:44:35 GMT -6
*
<dozrguy> i tried installing win10 om the 'shitout' pc this morning usung media creation. EPIC FAIL! went into an endless bootloop. win7 reinstalled just fine
Oct 21, 2021 11:23:38 GMT -6
<dozrguy> STILL so much bullshit and so little time for the kiddie ideas from the hill. My new laptop (MSI GE 11-UH461) would be an awesome "10" machine but because of Winblows I can only give it a "2"......wasted $3500
Oct 27, 2021 9:36:47 GMT -6
<Rick> Hello. Just checking in.
Mar 17, 2022 10:46:54 GMT -6
<isidroco> Each new w10 update adds >100000 useless files to \Windows\Servicing\LCU\Package_for_RollupFix... folders. Even in a SSD takes time to delete that stuff. In each version they manage to worsen stuff.
Mar 27, 2022 16:14:51 GMT -6
*
<dozerguy> still traffic here?
Oct 9, 2022 17:32:44 GMT -6
<Rick> No, there does not seem to be very much traffic these days. I still check in from time to time.
Oct 9, 2022 20:08:58 GMT -6