Operating Systems
 

Does anyone else have an obsession with reformating harddrives and installing operating systems?

I have recently realized that I'm addicted to this sort of things. Any random OS I can find, I'll swipe my old PC clean, install, play with for 5 minutes, and uninstall; just to start the process over.

Anyone else have any similar odd computer related problems?

VMWare for the win.

yea seriously you need VMWare, however, i know exactly what you're saying. nothing like playing with a new OS.

That's the worst part about it, I don't really play with it; I just install it to install it. I like watching 4 hour installs and clicking random boxes and such.

You have a deep seeded fetish with OS's :p

I actually have been getting more and more addicted to finding more live CDs for various linux distros, so I sorta understand where you're comming from.

thats what the clunker box on the KVM is for.....

I don't know if this is related, but I have a habit of turning old pentium 1 and 2 computers and the like into useful machines. I get them at work and from friends when they say they're "dead" or "obsolete" - for free! All I gotta do is wipe and reinstall some basic shit to make it do something useful. Sometimes I have to do a simple cheap upgrade, but usually a simple wipe and reinstall does the trick. Even my garage has a decent pentium 2 under some sawdust that can go online, play on an old stereo with winamp and a portable hard drive's collection of music, word-process, and save to disc. It can't play intense video games or run video editing software, but it does what I need it to do in the garage.

You wouldn't believe how many people throw out good computers that can still serve basic and useful functions. My obsession is to collect them and revive them for something useful. Sounds silly but it's fun and sometimes people buy them once they see what they can do.

Old copmuters make great print servers or firewalls or things of that nature

Indeed. My only problem is that I seem to amass these things. I currently have a spare room full of old monitors and computers, more than I know what to do with... :)

Also, routers make perfectly good routers, and don't use up nearly as much space or electricity ;)

I'd have to agree with zoot, some linux routers are even flashable. My brother was playing around with one that would even run asterisk, that PBX server thing....

I generaly restrict my OS fetish to live CD's, means I can try out the os without having to format.

But yes, installing Linux distros on a win box dose give a cirtain sence of... ..satisfaction.

I mean though, for many purposes you don't even need a Linux router. I've got a hardware router which is flashable with firmware updates, and does a couple of useful things well, which is generally what you want. Linux is handy for more-advanced features, though (I can imagine it being pretty cool in a wireless setting, in particular).

Sell them on ebay and screw the buyer on the shipping cost and insurance ;)

Im exactly doing the same now, just for learning, not because im a maniac or something similar, but for going deep in OS.

Now im playing with BIOS and everything related to install, tune, uninstall all windows flavors... latter i will go with many Linux flavors and so no.

Whatever happened to BeOS?

The company folded. Pity because it's still had the best media support of any operating system, ever. There's a continuation of it called YellowTAB ZETA, which uses the same codebase apparently, and there's a couple of projects to recreate a similar system, such as Haiku.

:)

If you're nearby, send them to me - I've been getting a lotta requests lately for stuff like that.

My latest project that I just finished today was reviving an old compaq P1 laptop that will sit in the corner of my neighbor's kitchen to dial online for recipes. Just for that she gave me $200.

The laptop was given to me free because the gal that had it wanted something that could handle the sims, and so she trashed this one. I ended up giving her a 6 of smirnoff ice as a lil tip. So far she's only made it through 4...

I don't like doing it, except after anywhere from 4 to 9 months. Other exceptions is when I get a new hard drive, upgrade my OS (From Windows 98 SE to Windows XP Pro), or rare cases. I've had XP Pro for about 57 days or so and that was the last time I reinstalled everything. I only install one operating system (I could add Windows 98 again, but, since 98 doesn't allow for over 512 MB in memory (I have 1.5 GB, triple that), that's out of the question.

ulillillia, how do you pronounce your screen name?

Read section 6.1 here in my website's FAQ. I'm asked this often (and the spelling and where it came from).

Thanks, kinda reminds me of the Alleluia found in a Catholic Mass...

But with a much different meaning...

Currently reformatting a harddrive, it's at 96%.

Gonna throw on a version of suse on it. This should be fun.
;)

Just got done setting up SuSe 10.1 as a dual-boot option on the wife’s computer. Looks pretty sweet but I was a little disappointed the videocard isn’t supported for XGL. I really wanted to play with that, one of the main reasons I was excited about the new release.

On a side note does anyone know of a utility like CrystalCPUID for Linux/SuSe? I am running a mobile AMD 3000+ processor in a desktop. The default frequency for the processor is 2200 but without overclocking the voltage on the mobo it only runs at 1400, and the most it will go and run stable is about 1900. With CrystalCPUID I can change the multiplier in Windows to run at the full 2200. But I haven’t found a way to do this in SuSe, the powersave daemon only throttles the CPU down, doesn’t allow for raising it.

i usually do a fresh install of XP every 6-9 months or so. i don't do a format, i just delete the windows, programs and documents and settings directories and install windows.

Yeah, but their QoS sucks... XD

So what's a good linux flavour for someone who isn't a gigantic nerd?
ie:
I don't really want to/know how/care to learn to use the console.
I don't want to have to install something to install something to install yet another thing so that I can finally install the program I want.
I just want it to work.

Any suggestions?

Knoppix. It's a live cd distro that doesnt need to be installed, but can be installed if you like it.

Fedora Core would be my second choice, however it lacks some functionality out of the box (like the ability to play MP3's/DVD's and read NTFS partitions). It's rectifiable, yum makes updating/adding software fairly easy, but that seems to be broken initially in core 5 (i had to replace yum.conf with the version from fedorafaq.org to get it working).

I havent used mandrake since version 9, but it used to be pretty easy to set up.

Core 5 works fine for me, Atmo.

I'd recommend Ubuntu once they release the "Dapper Drake" version (which is next month), because it's just zero hassle. To make MP3s/DVDs/etc. work you can get an automated system like EasyUbuntu. It's a pity that things have to be that way though.

Knoppix is a good way to start out although if you use a wireless connection to a router it can be a pain getting on the internet, depending on your hardware. I used Mandrake for quite a while on my print server but the current version of Mandriva runs way too slow on that machine so I switched to Ubuntu.

I have never had Fedora on a box for more than a week, nothing specifically wrong with it, a few hardware problems, doesn’t seem to like to multi-boot with other systems, other than that it just hasn’t impressed me. I have the current version of Ubuntu on a couple of boxes now, this has to be the easiest Linux distro to install I have ever used, with the EasyUbuntu script linked above. Worked like a charm for me on two completely different boxes. My distro of choice is openSuSe but it isn’t what I would recommend for a beginner, especially if you want multimedia support, mp3’s, DVD’s, streaming music or video.
Just my two cents worth.

mostly what I want it to do is function as a file/print server and download stuff via bittorrent. Maybe play music, and offer remote control, maybe via VNC.

Any modern distro should do you. You can install Samba fairly easily to interact seamlessly with Windows and Linux systems as a file and print server, and many bittorrent clients (including the official one, and Azureus, which runs with FC5's fancy new Java support) are cross-platform.

Only problem with playing music is MP3 support (licencing issues mean most free Linux distros just don't have it) which can usually be installed with minimal fuss. VNC is available in both Ubuntu and Fedora Core (probably SuSE too) by default.

VNC, at least on debian will not use the :0 display by default. It will use :1 for security reasons (that way anyone sitting at the console can't see what you're doing). I had to install a different version of vnc than the one that came with it to get it to use my normal display.

As far as mp3 support goes, enabling it is trivial and is almost always a matter of installing one package. Don't let it be a deciding factor. Most video files will play in mplayer or xine if you get the codecs although drm'd wmv files have no chance in hell. Even some non drm'd wmv files don't work 100% of the time.

"Remote Desktop" in Ubuntu uses the login display. Or did in Breezy, at least.

It's a pity that getting the codecs is often non-trivial. Although apparently the Drake has double-click .deb installation, which would be awesome.

Wow, that really would be awesome. I remember when I used redhat, I once double clicked on an rpm and had to reinstall. In hindsight, I probably didn't have actually reinstall but it was one of the first packages on a fresh system so it wasn't that big a deal.

I think of the OS my computer runs as a tool to get stuff done. I like using my computer for:

a) watching porn
b) downloading porn
c) listening to music
d) not fiddling and tweaking with it to do the most basic of tasks
e) watching videos
f) using IM programs, including their features not available to thing like gaim
g) Editing photos in PS (mention the Gimp as an alternative and you go on my list of people to kill)
h) Not having to compile mozilla to stop it crashing every 3 minutes.

Frankly XP does everyting I want, is stable, easy to use, compatable with all my hardware and easier to use the way I use a PC.

The only think I wish XP had was a better console for the rare occasion I have to use it and better hardware support for my SATA disk.

Then use XP. I don't think I've ever said people should use an OS just because they should. Personally, for what I use my computer for, linux works better for me.

People should use whatever operating system works best but at the same time I feel very strongly that a person needs to be open to the idea that the OS that ultimately works best for them may not be the default one that ships with their computers and at least be willing to try other ones so they can find out if the actually do like a different OS better.

Thanks for the suggestions. No need to worry about wmv, I knew there was a good reason behind why I inherently didn't like those files. I suppose I need to get my computer back in working order before I switch to linux. Anyone have any old Athlon Socket A processors laying around that they'd like to mail me? Preferably 1GHz or better ;)

Any of the modern popular Linux distros will easily handle a, b, c, e, and h as well as any version of Windows and in some cases better. Now d, f, and g are a completely different story. And hardware compatibility is still very hit and miss, a situation I don’t expect that to ever change as long as MS maintains its monopoly in the OS market.
People bring me there computers to fix mostly because they have slowed down horribly or they constantly crash. When they ask how they can avoid this after I get them running again I usually tell them stop running Windows. But this isn’t a very realistic solution, I know of only one UNIX based distro, OSX, ready for the “average” computer user. As far as that goes I would guess the majority of “average” computer users would have a hard time setting up Windows from a blank hard drive.

I don't think their monopoly is really going to be the deciding factor when it comes to support. nVidia, for example, can't include their closed source drivers with linux because it violates the GPL. Ultimatly the virality of the GPL will limit it because not every company wants to open source their IP.

It's been a while since I used a linux distro but I can remember being tormented getting my standard NIC working simply because I didn't know the intricate technical side of networking hardware. Now, to be honest, I don't think anyone really wants to know about that stuff. I can remember having to go to a shell to unmount the CD drive to get my CD drive to open!

Give it a few years and I might try it again, but I really just don't need to switch, their is no motivation to.

As far as reccomending people to switch to Linux I think that is a poor move. Everyone can trouble shoot Windows, every town has loads of people that can provide tech support. If you recomend linux you'll be inundated with tech support queries you cannot fob off onto someone else. Then they'll get pissy when they can't use MSN messenger like their friends can, or they can't use iTunes with their iPod.

The think Linux misses most is a killer app to make businesses switch en mass. Windows has Excel and games, linux has no killer app that isn't better served by a BSD unix in a server room.