My 40th Thread...Linux Life

[Golden Mean]

I've been using Linux since the early 2000s and moved exclusively to it in probably 2008. My (step) father did the same. The one hold out was my mother. Well, last week as we talked about her visit next week, she said she wants to finally drop Windows and would like me to walk her through Zorin when she is here. Woot!

Loaded up Zorin on a USB drive and tried it out. Seems fine. Supposed to make Mac and WIndows peeps feel more comfortable about changing to it. It uses the crap CSD stuff where no windows have a titlebar, but other than that, seemed just fine.

No too crazy about the fact they have a "pay" version or that they call it Zorin OS, but whatev's.

I run Mint on my HTPC and will try to get her to try that out too. I think Mint is a better choice but won't push it.

 

[target2019]

I've been using Linux since the early 2000s and moved exclusively to it in probably 2008. My (step) father did the same. The one hold out was my mother. Well, last week as we talked about her visit next week, she said she wants to finally drop Windows and would like me to walk her through Zorin when she is here. Woot!

Loaded up Zorin on a USB drive and tried it out. Seems fine. Supposed to make Mac and WIndows peeps feel more comfortable about changing to it. It uses the crap CSD stuff where no windows have a titlebar, but other than that, seemed just fine.

No too crazy about the fact they have a "pay" version or that they call it Zorin OS, but whatev's.

I run Mint on my HTPC and will try to get her to try that out too. I think Mint is a better choice but won't push it.

"It uses the crap CSD stuff where no windows have a titlebar, but other than that, seemed just fine."

Could you ELI5?

 

[earlierme]

I run Mint on my HTPC and will try to get her to try that out too. I think Mint is a better choice but won't push it.

I have found that forums with video intensive ads that my Linux Mint PC will lock up and the hard drive access is at 100%. There is nothing I can do to get control back except a hard reset by a long press of the power button.

 

[Turbo29]

I have found that forums with video intensive ads that my Linux Mint PC will lock up and the hard drive access is at 100%. There is nothing I can do to get control back except a hard reset by a long press of the power button.

Which browser? I have that problem with Firefox sometimes. My workaround is to open Firefox using the terminal. If the browser locks up (and for me it's always the browser, not the whole computer) I just bring up the terminal and hit CTRL-C to terminate the browser.

 

[Golden Mean]

I have found that forums with video intensive ads that my Linux Mint PC will lock up and the hard drive access is at 100%. There is nothing I can do to get control back except a hard reset by a long press of the power button.

Weird. I have Mint on my HTPC and a laptop that's used on my dining island, to watch during meals. I've run Vivaldi browser on both for years with no issues. That said, I don't see many ads. Vivaldi filters out most/all ads from random sites (via uBlock Origin) and I have YouTube Premium.

 

[frank05]

I have found that forums with video intensive ads that my Linux Mint PC will lock up and the hard drive access is at 100%. There is nothing I can do to get control back except a hard reset by a long press of the power button.

Why not an ad blocker extension or at minimum an extension to stop video auto play?

 

[jim584672]

I tried to install CachyOS on my 2011 laptop, no luck it just wouldn't work. So I tried EndeavourOS which is another Arch based distro and it is working fine. Using the Gnome Desktop. Installed Windows 11 LTSC in a QEMU VM no problems.

 

[earlierme]

Why not an ad blocker extension or at minimum an extension to stop video auto play?

I should look into that.

Do you have one you can recommend? I use Chromium and Brave web browsers mainly.

 

[earlierme]

Weird. I have Mint on my HTPC and a laptop that's used on my dining island, to watch during meals. I've run Vivaldi browser on both for years with no issues. That said, I don't see many ads. Vivaldi filters out most/all ads from random sites (via uBlock Origin) and I have YouTube Premium.

It's the pop-up ads.
It is extremely frustrating when it happens.
I'll give uBlock Origin a try.

 

[target2019]

There's always Pi-Hole. Build it and they can't come!

Pi-hole – Network-wide Ad Blocking

pi-hole.net

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I missed this thread when it started....and just as well, because only 4 days ago I installed Linux Mint as my first *nix install!

I decided to tinker with virtual machines again, although it had been a few years, so I set one up on Windoze 11, so I can check sketchy links and downloads safely, and then I realized that, since I'm not working any longer, I don't need to worry about MS/Office/Outlook compatibility any longer, and I could (and probably should) make Linux my primary operating system. So I installed it on another VM to just see what it was like, and check if there was anything that I would want to do on it that might be inconvenient, but without having to commit to it.

So far so good! 98% of what I do is in a browser now anyway, but I do want to test for that 2% first.

 

[jim584672]

I missed this thread when it started....and just as well, because only 4 days ago I installed Linux Mint as my first *nix install!

I decided to tinker with virtual machines again, although it had been a few years, so I set one up on Windoze 11, so I can check sketchy links and downloads safely, and then I realized that, since I'm not working any longer, I don't need to worry about MS/Office/Outlook compatibility any longer, and I could (and probably should) make Linux my primary operating system. So I installed it on another VM to just see what it was like, and check if there was anything that I would want to do on it that might be inconvenient, but without having to commit to it.

So far so good! 98% of what I do is in a browser now anyway, but I do want to test for that 2% first.

I do Win 11 in a VM mainly for tax software.

 

[target2019]

I missed this thread when it started....and just as well, because only 4 days ago I installed Linux Mint as my first *nix install!

I decided to tinker with virtual machines again, although it had been a few years, so I set one up on Windoze 11, so I can check sketchy links and downloads safely, and then I realized that, since I'm not working any longer, I don't need to worry about MS/Office/Outlook compatibility any longer, and I could (and probably should) make Linux my primary operating system. So I installed it on another VM to just see what it was like, and check if there was anything that I would want to do on it that might be inconvenient, but without having to commit to it.

So far so good! 98% of what I do is in a browser now anyway, but I do want to test for that 2% first.

The 2% you mention looking for may be challenging. But knowing eyes watch this thread. I am not that knowledgeable.

 

[jim584672]

There is a good guide to setting up QEMU and Virt Manager in Arch based distros...

How to install Virt-Manager

Written by s4ndm4nCleaned up by joekamprad 10 nov. 2022 joekamprad Added user mode setup and some cleanup (3.4.2023) thanks at Prathamesh on telegram for the hint and the code lines! joekamprad cle…

discovery.endeavouros.com

 

[target2019]

The ancient Dell Latitude D630 with 80GB and 2GB -- it's running 14.04 LTS, and I use it to configure routers, etc.

Is there a distro w/gui better suited that will run in i686 architecture? I have no problem wiping it.

Thanks, guys.

 

[jim584672]

The ancient Dell Latitude D630 with 80GB and 2GB -- it's running 14.04 LTS, and I use it to configure routers, etc.

Is there a distro w/gui better suited that will run in i686 architecture? I have no problem wiping it.

Thanks, guys.

Debian with XFCE or LXQT. Since you like Mint Debian will be very familiar to you.

 

[target2019]

Debian with XFCE or LXQT. Since you like Mint Debian will be very familiar to you.

I found that 18.04 LTS was the last 32-bit version of Lubuntu.

I'll read up on Debian versions.

Thank you.

 

[jim584672]

I found that 18.04 LTS was the last 32-bit version of Lubuntu.

I'll read up on Debian versions.

Thank you.

Looks like the Dell Latitude D630 has the Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 which is a 64 bit processor.

 

[target2019]

Looks like the Dell Latitude D630 has the Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 which is a 64 bit processor.

Centrino from Vista era.

32-bit, 64-bit

 

[jim584672]

Centrino from Vista era.

32-bit, 64-bit

I have Debian in a VM and tried out XFCE, takes about 590mb on start. LXQt about 640mb, Mate 660mb, Openbox 525mb.

 

[jim584672]

Chris Titus has a video on Pop OS! He is not recommending it.

Stop Using Pop!OS — It's Failing New Linux Users in 2026

 

[target2019]

Looks like the Dell Latitude D630 has the Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 which is a 64 bit processor.

I realized after a bit that there is no wifi. I can use it as is, no need to go further.

I will try the lightweight distros on my dell all in one. That's got more beef...

 

[jim584672]

I realized after a bit that there is no wifi. I can use it as is, no need to go further.

I will try the lightweight distros on my dell all in one. That's got more beef...

I think it will be a painful experience with only 2GB ram and such an old processor. Maybe Puppy Linux but that isn't like a standard distro.

 

[target2019]

I think it will be a painful experience with only 2GB ram and such an old processor. Maybe Puppy Linux but that isn't like a standard distro.

I agree. This is hardware of minimal use. It's in my travel backpack and I have a specific use for the browser and Ethernet port in a day or so.

 

[Turbo29]

Why not an ad blocker extension or at minimum an extension to stop video auto play?

Not the person you responded to but I did post about the lock-up problem (Linux Mint / Firefox) in this thread. This morning, having had enough, I installed uBlock Origin in my Firefox browser and I haven't had a lock-up since.