Why not Linux?

[chal]

To the OP: If you want to breed life into an old laptop install Ubuntu .... If you value time get a Mac.

+1 - I generally tell people Mint, which is basically Ubuntu plus a few extra bits and bobs, seems to install very easily and some people prefer the desktop.

If people have money to spend, I also recommend a Mac - I personally don't like the interface but it is a best of both worlds: it really does just work, and anything you might want to do with Linux if developing geeky tendencies can be done on a Mac.

Would I have my Mum use Linux. No.

I got sick to death of fixing up my dad's Windows box every time I was there so put Linux on it and he got used to it and it did almost everything he wanted (mostly Firefox and Open Office) - he was 83 at the time. It ran fine for 3 years when something went wrong with the quite old machine. He'd always slightly resented that some of his games wouldn't run on it, so bought a new Dell and decided he'd stick with the Vista it came with. Net result: half the time it's not working and I'm back to fixing it up when I go round, a task I've only recently started to get out of because he's pretty much given up using the thing now.

 

[BlackPig]

Some people must have big boats servers and networks installed.


The only downside appears to be navigation.
There are loads of applications but no charts.
http://tuxmobil.org/linux_gps_navigation_applications.html

Has anyone tried using vistmyharbour.com's dongle with Linux wine?

"Note: Dongle/SeaClear works with Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 and Windows 8 (intel based). USB drive needed at all times. (won't work with Macs or Linux) . Android full installation will need "Marine Navigator" app from the Google PlayStore (under £5), and an Android device with GPS built in."

 

[Irvine_himself]

I don't know if it helps but you could try here http://opencpn.org/ocpn/chart_sources

In an earlier post, JumbleDuck implied that there was a problem using these charts on a Linux installation? (Like I said, I am currently using windows, so I have no idea what the problems are.)

A few years ago, on "Cruiser and Sailing forums", there was a very long thread for converting images of US government charts for use on OPenCPN. The project itself died a death when the federal government withdrew legal permissions, but the methodology and technical fixes were still available the last time I looked.

I am not a lawyer, but I believe it would be perfectly legal to use this methodology to produce personnel electronic copies of your own paper charts, (which I believe you are legaly obliged to carry.)

If you are interested, I could try and find the thread.

 

[JumbleDuck]

In an earlier post, JumbleDuck implied that there was a problem using these charts on a Linux installation? (Like I said, I am currently using windows, so I have no idea what the problems are.)

I'm only going by the VisitMyHarbour website, which says it can't be done. My guess is that they have encrypted the charts and supply some sort of decrypting driver for the stick.

 

[wizard]

Oh.

To the OP.

If you want to breed life into an old laptop install Ubuntu as long as you understand that you might have to give OS support.... but then again breeding life into an old laptop implies that you are trading new/seamless for saving money but maybe giving up time.

If you value time get a Mac.

Most of my hosts run Ubuntu, but I know what trade offs I am making ...

Getting back to the original purpose of this thread I now have three computers running Linux (Ubuntu) - two of which are very old laptops and one of them I use on the boat. This used to take 6 or 7 minutes to boot XP and was extremely slow. It now has a further life under Linux and very fast.

They all run firefox, thunderbird, open office suites, and Quicken on two of them under wine. The maintenance is far less than windows and for that I am extremely grateful.

I hope the trolling doesnt start on the correct pronunciation of Linux

 

[chal]

I hope the trolling doesnt start on the correct pronunciation of Linux

great, I'm just in the mood for an xmas joke

 

[JumbleDuck]

I hope the trolling doesnt start on the correct pronunciation of Linux

<rms>
nyoo
</rms>

 

[GHA]

Getting back to the original purpose of this thread

Another experience...

A few reasons why the onboard computer is dual boot linux/xp....

Xp needed for jvcomm, Navtex engine software, RMS for winlink email through ham radio, also ham radio deluxe and finally the konni logbook for OpenCPN doesn't seem to record the date/time correctly under Linux. Both boot about as quick from a ssd drive and from measuring the current both operating systems pull about the same power running Opencpn.

 

[mjcoon]

Changing OS or other types of "must have software" is very much like moving to live in a foreign country. Many people prefer to give the experience a miss...

My comment about case-sensitive file names had nothing to do with changing OS; just that using http to reach a web server which happens to use *nix can expose you to case-sensitive file names while being totally ignorant of OS behaviours. (Which was relevant to the item I commented on, if not to the general thread.)

Mike.

 

[st599]

<rms>
nyoo
</rms>

Fraud! RMS wouldn't post on this site, vBulletin is closed source.

I've no idea why anyone thinks POSIX compliance is of interest to the OP. Linux is reliable, requires less processing power but there are no charts of this ye EU available for navigation.

 

[lustyd]

I hope the trolling doesnt start on the correct pronunciation of Linux

There isn't a correct pronunciation, it's a localised thing like many other words (the word "one" for instance is different all over the UK). The guy in charge starts it with Lynn rather than Line though, his voice used to be on every distro saying something like "Hi I'm Linus Torvalds and I pronounce it Lynn-ux". It was a terrible recording though and is probably not in many distros these days as a result.

 

[BlackPig]

I got opencpn to work not hard and downloaded charts from .openseamap.org unfortunately they do not cover the Clyde off line.

Might be worth helping this lost out by editing my area.
Merry Christmas

 

[Bosun Higgs]

Another experience...

A few reasons why the onboard computer is dual boot linux/xp....

Xp needed for jvcomm, Navtex engine software, RMS for winlink email through ham radio, also ham radio deluxe and finally the konni logbook for OpenCPN doesn't seem to record the date/time correctly under Linux. Both boot about as quick from a ssd drive and from measuring the current both operating systems pull about the same power running Opencpn.

Lets not just stop there. I have 104 programs listed under "program files" on this PC currently running XP. Sure I do not use all of them, probably not even the majority. But they have accululated over the years since XP was introduced and many are very useful. So what are my chances of getting my weather station software ( station bought mid 90s) to work on Linux? And even where there are Linux alternatives for example for spreadsheets, it requires me to learn to use a different program and to find a way to translate all my old Lotus spredsheets. Plus Linux itself requires me to learn things like how to mount a program. In short a changeover to Linux present a lot of work so it needs to be for more definite reasons than a minute saved on boot, no need to use an av, and a cost saving which isnt really that big.

So a question to the nerds on here. For a non nerd user like me with lots of legacy windows software is there any real compelling reason to abandon windows or it it more an issue of preference for those who are "into" computers and systems?

 

[chal]

For a non nerd user like me with lots of legacy windows software is there any real compelling reason to abandon windows or it it more an issue of preference for those who are "into" computers and systems?

Probably not terribly compelling. A few thoughts

• XP is not very secure if used in various networked situations - not relevant to stand-alone machine
• If you have all this lot running on a fairly ancient machine, it will pack up eventually and then you'll probably have to switch in some way, as newer versions of Windows tend not to run on ancient hardware, or support ancient software, so there might be some benefit in switching now while it's not urgent.

Just my opinion, but an advantage of Linux is that upgrades are more incremental, and support for even ancient hardware lasts a lot longer.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Lets not just stop there. I have 104 programs listed under "program files" on this PC currently running XP. Sure I do not use all of them, probably not even the majority. But they have accululated over the years since XP was introduced and many are very useful. So what are my chances of getting my weather station software ( station bought mid 90s) to work on Linux?

Perhaps better than you think. There is a package called Wine which allows many Windows programs to run under Linux. You can check whether anyone else has tried your weather station program at http://appdb.winehq.org/. In any case, it's not at all certain - to the point of fairly unlikely - that 20 year old Windows software will run under Windows 8.

And even where there are Linux alternatives for example for spreadsheets, it requires me to learn to use a different program and to find a way to translate all my old Lotus spredsheets. Plus Linux itself requires me to learn things like how to mount a program. In short a changeover to Linux present a lot of work so it needs to be for more definite reasons than a minute saved on boot, no need to use an av, and a cost saving which isnt really that big.

LibreOffice is trivially easy to learn to anyone who has used MS Office pre-ribbon interface. No need to "mount" a program, whatever that means. Installing software under any vaguely sane distribution of Linux is dead easy. Open graphical software manager -> choose what you want -> click "install" and it's done.

So a question to the nerds on here. For a non nerd user like me with lots of legacy windows software is there any real compelling reason to abandon windows or it it more an issue of preference for those who are "into" computers and systems?

If you have a system which works and which suits you then there is no need whatsoever to change.

 

[GHA]

Lets not just stop there. I have 104 programs listed under "program files" on this PC currently running XP. Sure I do not use all of them, probably not even the majority. But they have accululated over the years since XP was introduced and many are very useful. So what are my chances of getting my weather station software ( station bought mid 90s) to work on Linux? And even where there are Linux alternatives for example for spreadsheets, it requires me to learn to use a different program and to find a way to translate all my old Lotus spredsheets. Plus Linux itself requires me to learn things like how to mount a program. In short a changeover to Linux present a lot of work so it needs to be for more definite reasons than a minute saved on boot, no need to use an av, and a cost saving which isnt really that big.

So a question to the nerds on here. For a non nerd user like me with lots of legacy windows software is there any real compelling reason to abandon windows or it it more an issue of preference for those who are "into" computers and systems?

For a boat computer I'll stay dual boot. Xp has crashed but never Linux. And Linux is free. If I could get those few programs running under wine xp wouldn't be on there. But that's for a boat computer existing only to do a few specific tasks.

 

[st599]

I have a Linux PC at work that currently has an uptime of over 4000 days. Last rebooted in 2001.

Can't see Windows managing it.

 

[Neil_Y]

One compelling reason I found recently was when working away from the office and needed to print a document to a different new printer, windows 7 got stuck looking for drivers and failed to be able to communicate with the newer model printer, so re booted with Linux Ubuntu and there were no issues hit print and it worked. I've had far fewer (if any) compatibility problems between Linux and other devices than I have with Windows. With spread sheets the new Office 2010 documents can't be opened with older office software but open office reads them all with no problems, so I know I can send open office spreadsheets and word documents to any PC/tablet and they will work.

But I understand the comfort of being familiar with where the buttons are and what they do, change is always difficult.

 

[lustyd]

I have a Linux PC at work that currently has an uptime of over 4000 days. Last rebooted in 2001.

Can't see Windows managing it.

Impressive lack of patching you've done there. Or are you assuming Linux doesn't need patching? Uptime over about a month on Linux means bad admin.

 

[wipe_out]

Impressive lack of patching you've done there. Or are you assuming Linux doesn't need patching? Uptime over about a month on Linux means bad admin.

All depends if it's internet connected or not.. If not then the risk of exploit is significantly reduced..

I have clients that still have NT systems that have NEVER been permitted to be connected to the internet so the security risk due to it no longer being supported is small.. At the last hardware upgrade the NT wasn't happy with the new hardware so I virtualized the NT server onto a Linux server..