[ubuntu-us-mi] Might switch; questions...

[Rene Hogan]

Good evening Mr Larry David

A quick answer is go for it. Ubuntu has everything that you could want or
need plus there is one hellva a support staff willing to work with you. They
call themselves the Ubuntu community. I have even resurrected a six year old
computer using Ubuntu 8-10 OS. All this when Microsoft retired the "Me" OS
and my little chugger did not have enought umph to run Windows Vista. I am
not a big fan of Mac OS's since they almost have the same business model as
Microsoft.

You can even go live with the OS before you make the decision to install. I
think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Please pay the community a visit then settle in.

Hogi

hogi at comcast.net



On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 2:28 PM, Larry David <larrydavid07 at comcast.net>wrote:

> Hi everyone - just subbed to the list.  I am hoping someone(s) here
> can answer a few questions for me.
>
> First, to help better understand where I'm coming from, a little
> background.  I studied EE in the 80's, using DOS, Mac, and Unix
> machines.  DOS was ok, Mac was cool, and Unix was awesome (and
> Windows, when it arrived, was a blatant and poor rip-off of Mac OS -
> and still is!)  Later in the 90's I worked at GM for a while and used
> a proprietary GUI (maybe by HP?) over Unix, and I was in heaven.
> Terminal right there when I needed it (which wasn't all the time - I
> was a user, not an admin or programmer), and a nice, uncluttered, non-
> resource-wasting desktop - with switchable workspaces(!) so I could
> have all kinds of windows up at once and stay organized.
>
> At home I have had Macs since 98 or so - haven't owned a windows
> machine since, to my great joy.  I like Macs a lot, but there are
> drawbacks, not the least of which is the price.  (Also Apple's social/
> political worldview is sometimes in conflict with my own, but that
> has yet to keep me from buying their stuff.)  I think Apple computers
> are worth every penny they charge, but they are like Cadillacs, and I
> drive a Daewoo Kalos (called an Aveo in the US). :-)
>
> So my G4 powerbook is showing its age and I am thinking of a new
> laptop.  I use it for work (teaching math part-time, 80 hours a week,
> since losing my job along with half the state), and rely on it
> daily.  I can't really afford a new macbook (though they look really
> cool) - I've considered a refurbished one, but they are still a
> little pricey for me.  Long story short, I checked into Linux again
> (knew about it for years, but never had a reason to investigate as I
> was happy with Macs when I could afford them).  Linux on a cheaper
> laptop sounds promising; if it works and if I don't have to become a
> programmer get software and hardware to work with it.  (I'm also kind
> of excited by the idea of FOSS - mostly the open source part, but
> won't take the time to get into that now.)
>
> Which leads to my questions:
>
> 1. I am under the impression that Linux (ubuntu in particular) is
> much like the GUI-on-top-of-Unix OS that I loved at GM - only on my
> little laptop and not a $30k workstation, and its "GNU Not Unix", and
> its open source, etc.. - but the general idea is the same.  Is this
> the case?  (This aspect of OSX is the main thing I like about it,
> though the GUI is more than a bit overdone for my tastes.)
>
> 2.  Does ubuntu use less system resources for the GUI in particular,
> and generally have less bloat, than Windows and/or Mac OS?  (I am
> thinking about the built-in obsolescence of proprietary OS machines
> and hoping that a Linux machine will have a longer lifespan and be
> more tweekable to that end.)
>
> 3.  Is there a good web filter for Linux?  I use K-9 web protection
> on my macs and it seems to work fine (but they don't seem to have a
> Linux version, though it is freeware) - I like to have a filter to
> help me and my kids avoid all the crap I don't want to run into on
> the web...
>
> 4.  Does anyone here do music on a Linux machine?  What SW/HW do you
> use?  Ardour looks cool, but its hard to believe that it could be
> really useful *and* free.  (I use DP 4 on my G4s with an 828mkII, I
> don't need all of its capabilities - but I do need a MIDI sequencer
> and 24+ tracks of audio, with plug-in capability - and the ability to
> use soft-synths would be nice too.)  I have checked the alsa and
> ffado sites for HW compatibility and all the devices listed seem
> several years old - and many of them are "unkown" or "untested",
> which makes me leery to be the guinea pig.  At this point I would
> still have my G4 desktop, but I am thinking about switching all my
> machines to Linux, since I don't want to buy a new machine/software
> every few years just to be able to do the same thing I could years
> ago.  (This question may best be taken off-list if people don't want
> to hear about it - I don't know how much traffic there is, etc.)
>
> Well if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading!
>
> Larry David
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
R.L.Hogan
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