Best Foot Forward
There is a time in everyone’s journey ( through this thing called Life aka Linux) that you have to ask yourself the question, “ Is this really worth it or am I simply making the motions?” Well I have decided that the motions have gotten the better of me, and I need to re-trace my steps with my Linux plan. After downloading 6 disks for Fedora Core – yes 6- I simply didn’t relish the idea of partitioning my drives again and getting ready for the dual boot process which would indubitably fail.
So I went back and re-read some of my Linux escapades, the valuable comments my committed ( no, no spelling error) readers have added and decided I should learn from the mistakes, not simply trudge forward until I find the ‘Golden distro” that will work with my broadcom 4318 and on my Acer laptop. I I keep on trying to only work with distros that I can install on the laptop, I will never actually experience any of the distros and all they have to offer. It was like cutting off my nose in spite of my face ( what sicko made that up anyway?)
With that in mind I am keeping with the live CDs and will be looking for new wifi hardware to aid in my quest. I will also start using VMware so that I might at least taste the distro prior to flagging it because my laptop is too pigheaded to allow it to work.
In this fashion I am re-vamping my position on Linux and what is right for me ( yes I did just see Bush’s address on the Iraqi plan). I will sample distros, on my laptop, in anyway that I can – whether through, VMware, new wifi, or fairy dust.
That being said, my first feat will be to figure out where the hell Jonathan put those extra wifi cards……or buy some cheap ones off eBay…..so stay tuned…..
K
January 10th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
I use my laptop quite a bit. I also use my desktop a lot. I actually link the two with Synergy (windows and linux) so that when I’m at my desk, I can use one keyboard and mouse to work both computers. I decided that since I don’t do much other than web, email, office stuff, and various other more “work-ish” things with my laptop, I’d just format the drive and install linux on it, not looking back to windows. It has now had linux on it for about 6 months, with only one reinstall in the middle because I broked it (intentoinal typo
). My desktop continues to run Windows, but as I watch linux (and more specifically, Ubuntu) mature for desktop use, I may be switching it to linux eventually.
I honestly can’t understand all of the problems yall have had with Ubuntu. It installs quickly for me and it just plain works. I had to install my graphics and wifi drivers (much like I would have to in Windows), but since I’d been through it many times, it became painless. I’ve been watching some of the progress of Foxy for a bit and it is suppose to boast better networking support, so you might take a look at that when it’s released in April.
I’ve only ever used a live distro for troubleshooting purposes. I don’t really consider them to be a good introduction into linux. Installation of ANY OS will require extra things to install, and many live distros just don’t facilitate that. Even a fresh install of Windows from a retail package will lack some drivers…in fact, when I recently upgraded my desktop computer, I had to make a driver floppy (who uses floppies anymore?!) to be used when booting the install cd because the windows installer couldn’t use the onboard sata on my new motherboard.
One live distro you may want to consider, though, is damn small linux (damnsmalllinux.org). Its goal is to be no more than 50 mb, and can be installed on a usb key with a data area so you can save changes and boot it anywhere. I haven’t messed with it since about version 2.1 (it’s at like 3.1 now) so I can’t say what hardware compatibility will be like, but it was pretty good when I tried it. Also, it has a menu driven system for installing additional packages, and if you boot with a usb flash drive, will save those packages on shutdown and reload them on next boot.
Looking forward to the next JAK Attack!
January 11th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
I agree that Live CDs make poor introductions to Linux. I don’t understand the herd mentality to go with these distros. They are slow, slow and slow. If you really need to experience the GNU/Linux system in all its glory, you’ll need to do a full install in a dual boot partition, virtual machine, or whole hog.
I have to admit it took me some time before I shed Windows on my desktop, but after having taken a Unix admin class at school (for $26/unit, you can’t go wrong), I was able to do much of the administration myself and had a better understanding of the system.
January 11th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
About the broadcom driver thing, I did a quick search and here is a good forum post on how to extract the firmware from the windows driver to use in linux:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1071920&mode=linear
After I extracted the firmware, I saved it somewhere safe so that if I needed to reinstall linux, I’d have the files read to go. I think with Edgy you just need to put the files in a specific location, I think it’s /usr/firmware/. Reboot and the wifi should start working.
I’d send you my firmware files, but I’m not sure licensing would allow it
January 17th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
If you’re looking for a live CD based on Fedora cora there is Berry linux. I’ve used it on Desktops before, but never my laptop(which is using PcLinuxOS). Berry seems pretty decent and stable although during boot up you have to watch for the screen that selects languages. If you don’t it will boot into Japanese. English is the second choice in the list if I remember. and of course it is a one CD download so no disk swapping.
May 21st, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Read post #3 and this should solve your wireless problem, it did for me.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=419262