OT: Gates wants to verify yer copy of Windows?

I got that too. Usually I just accept the updates. Glad I read this one. Now I have to change to manual updates each time. grrrr

Windows Validation.

An attempt to force all those users of both legal and bought not knowing it was a copy, Windows software and ultimately force everyone to move up to Vista.

Vista, which is happy with a 3 ghz cpu and 2 GIGS of ram, leaving most of us with older hardware out in the cold.

Gunner, who is running Win98 on his laptops, W2k on his server, XP pro on his main machine, and is still trying to find a Linux distro that will work as a Windows replacement without becoming a Linux wonk and spending 3 yrs learning Linux

"There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal, kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do." -- Terry Pratchett

When you find it, clue us all in! Fuck gates, windows. BD, I think, has some answers, but he's too much of a prick to be useful.

I'm doing pretty good with Ubuntu, but I've got a lot of bits and pieces of "Linux wonk" in me, so I'm not sure how well my experience applies.

Just think of all the bits and pieces you know about Windows administration that you've picked up over the years -- if you accept that you'll need to learn that much about Linux, perhaps it's not such a bad trade?

Ubuntu is pretty easy to use, well if Tribal Africans can use it I'm sure gunner can ;)

Wayne....

Gunner posted in rec.crafts.metalworking on Mon, 02 Apr 2007 16:52:31 GMT:

Try

Very XP like and from what I've heard a decent enough distro. But it's bare bones.

Lotsa tools/toys/programs.

Well, what do you actually DO on Windows? Spreadsheets? I have a Linux program that I like BETTER than Excel. Word processing? Microsoft Workd makes me NUTS with all the red squiggly lines under perfectly good English words, people's names, and of course, technical jargon. I use emacs, but there are dozens of good editors available. CAD? There are even cad packages for Linux now, but I haven't switched that over, yet. It took me a couple weeks to get really comfortable running Linux. After that point, there was NO turning back, ever!

Jon

==================== If this iwas a Windows Exploder [Explorer] update be warned

--------------------- Sophos is warning email users of a widespread malicious attack that poses as an invitation from Microsoft to download a beta version of Internet Explorer 7.0.

The emails, which claim to come from snipped-for-privacy@microsoft.com and have the subject line "Internet Explorer 7 Downloads", display an image which invites users to download beta 2 of Internet Explorer

1. However, users who click on the image will download a file called ie7.0.exe which is infected by the Grum-A worm.

----------------- for entire article see

Unka' George [George McDuffee]

------------------------------ Watch out w'en you'er gittin all you want. Fattenin' hogs ain't in luck.

Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908), U.S. journalist. Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings, "Plantation Proverbs" (1880).

The closest Ive come so far..is Xandros Linux, but even its qot a bunch of quirks if you are a long term Windows user.

Im posting using Agent (windows) on a Xandros linux box, with a program called Wine..which makes SOME windows software think its running on a Windows machine.

In reality..if you are not an ubergeek and just want the basic internet and business stuff...most Linux operating systems will do just fine.

I put Mepis Linux on a 450mhz box with 256meg memory and a 5 gig hard drive, with an external modem..and the neighbor lady has been running it just hunky dorey now for a couple years. Never gets turned off..never gets a virus, can do all the net stuff including chat, listen to her favorite tunes and so forth.

I tend to be an ubergeek, networking, fileservers and so forth..and have been struggling to learn all the ubergeek stuff..but for the average person...most flavors of linux are pretty decent.

There are a number of "live" cds, where you simply boot the machine up with a linux CD in it..I LOVE Knoppix for this, and it runs linux right off the cd, without making any changes to your hard drive of your regular machine. Some can be installed if you like it, in a "dual boot" configureration..IE..when you turn the computer on..it asks if you want Linux or Windows etc etc.

Best thing though is to find an old beater box...I recommend a minimum of 600mhz and 128meg..256meg is better and a 10gig hard drive, and do a full install. Most have automatic installers that do all the hard work for you.. Xandros is particularly good about this.

Some versions have issues with internal modems...IE the WinModem cards...and its best to put a 56k external on it. If you are on DSL/Cable..your golden as they all find the hardware and put you right on line.

is a good common place to look at the various versions of linux.

If you have a high speed connection..you can download and burn to a CD.

Or have somone do it for you, or even order a set of cds for a couple dollars. You will see ads on the sidebars of the above link for services.

Most Linux versions are free. The highly polished commercial versions are not in some cases.

Gunner

"There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal, kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do." -- Terry Pratchett

Btw.... "xbuntu" is quite good for older hardware..uses a smaller lighter GUI and doesnt take as much horsepower. I installed it on a

250mhz laptop with 32 megs of memory. It was flakey on that but it ran. I went over to Damned Small Linux which ran just hunky.

This one also looks interesting...

The Philippines-based Advanced Science and Technology Institute has announced the release of Bayanihan Linux 4, a single-CD, desktop-oriented distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux: "After months of continuous development and rigorous testing, the team announces the release of the latest version of the Bayanihan Linux distribution. Bayanihan Linux is a complete desktop solution, comes Internet-ready with anti-virus support, has excellent support for mobile computing, offers extensive multimedia and graphics applications, and includes an integrated, full-featured office suite." Read the rest of the release announcement for additional information. Download: bayanihanlinux-4.iso (698MB, MD5).

he minimum system requirements for Bayanihan Linux 4.0 are:

Pentium III or higher

256 MB RAM (Memory) 5GB hard disk space Monitor with SVGA or higher resolution Standard Keyboard and Mouse

Gunner

"There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal, kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do." -- Terry Pratchett

Yes I looked at that earlier after posting above. Will download it later.

Last week I tried puppy linux on an old p150 I found in the back of the workshop. Ran it quite well. Thats a weird distro that runs completely in ram.

I really ought to find new homes for the old pc's I have scattered around the place, I just hated the thought of having them end up in landfill. It may come to that, who wants P75's through to 233 machines, probably no-one.

Wayne....

Gunner wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I'm running Fedora Core 4 on 3 different machines. One is an old PII 450Mhz machine, one a 800Mhz machine and one on a 1.7ghz machine (server). The wife has even figured most of it out in a bit over a week, can't be too bad.

I figure Linux will be there in thee more major releases. Do NOT even think about Vista, at least not for a while. It doesn't bring much to the party anyway. It also disables any way to copy HD content. Although cracks for that are out already. New hardware will have these disabling capabilities built into firmware. What a crock!

I look forward to your supply of free brushes Tom. Jesus, are you sure you haven't a little Chinese in you? Nie Hao Ma Tom.

if it were JUST the office apps or web browsing options, I would have been on linux long ago. When you bring up "drawing" with any Linux guru, they say GIMP. Ugh. They do not understand.

Artistically, DRAW in Open Office is being explored heavily in the hobby level maching segment, and it already could be a suitable substitute for Corel type needs. I mean FREE can be appealing even if you have to wait for a few features.

But real Cad and Cam apps are really the problem. What is out there is NOT enjoyable to use. The only combination program I looked at was Synergy........ I couldn't stick with what I saw, but that is mostly because of how hard it is to change from what one currently does. Then you think about what you have invested in what you have.... Yikes. What we NEED is the ability to run OUR existing windows Cad/Cam apps ON Linux. That was initially the goal of Lindows, and still is lingering as a glimmer of hope in Xandros thru a third party program called Wine. Should have been called wHine, cause thats what you do when it really can only run some MS office programs, and of course is foolish when you could just run Open Office. Oh, it can run IE..... like Ya, thats real important ( IE is some real crap)

A LOT of desktop Linux versions are out there, and each group of users seem to have their particular reason why they like their one best. I have played with Suse (yuch), Linspire, Xandros and Ubuntu.... Soon to try one of the Mepis ones. Now if you have Extra money to throw around, you can BUY win4lin, hold a valid license to a windows OS, and then you CAN run just about any windows app on Linux. (I spend enough already)

Then there is the ReactOS guys.... They are attempting a ground up clean write of NT. Fantastic idea, but I dont think I can wait 10 years for them to catch up with my current needs.

So, how many out there HAVE found a way to replace their favorite Cad/ Cam with ANY linux cad/cam program ?

Grummy

Funny you should mention that Tom. Every major Cad/Cam product in North America will begin adopting a direct sales model in the next 12 to 18 months or so and you will see exactly that happen with pricing.

Oh, BTW. Two years from now your asian competition will be getting bonked with a tarrif if things continue as they are. Care to comment?

On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 20:31:03 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Wayne Weedon quickly quoth:

DOWNLOAD it? 640MB ISO? That's a hefty download.

Speaking of which, I've had it with Starband. Does anyone here use DSL from QWEST over here on the NorthLeft Coast? How fast is it and how's the uptime? Cable still isn't out to my neck of the woods, and the local WIFI doesn't reach around the corner of the little peak between me and town.

Not on north left coast, but I've been very satisfied with Qwest DSL in Minneapolis. Uptime has been 100%, speed has been as advertised when I've tested it.

I won't say I have no unlicensed software but I bought everything I really use. I won't go HD for quite a while but when I do, I have the right to back it up. Do you think MS, other software suppliers, music sellers and DVD sellers would be ahead if they sold their wares at half the price?