Linux Lite Forums

General => Off Topic => Topic started by: bermudalite on December 11, 2017, 11:56:50 PM

Title: Before Linux Lite
Post by: bermudalite on December 11, 2017, 11:56:50 PM
Hi Jerry,
If you feel like sharing...I'm curious as to what distro(s) was your preferred daily driver prior to creating Linux Lite.

Thx
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: Jerry on December 12, 2017, 01:06:17 AM
Arch Linux.
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: bermudalite on December 12, 2017, 11:24:52 AM
That's interesting. 
I don't know much about Arch, I've read comments that it's not typically recommended for Linux beginners. 
I know your goal with Linux Lite was to dispel the myths about Linux being difficult. 
Is that why LL is based on Ubuntu? 
Were you ever tempted to create Linux Lite distro based on Arch?
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: Jerry on December 12, 2017, 11:50:55 AM
Was not interested in building a rolling release distro. Ubuntu base is more suited for beginners than Arch base. Better, easier to follow documentation too.

Sent from my Mobile phone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: Teddy on February 16, 2018, 12:15:09 AM
Before Linux Lite, I mainly used Ubuntu circa 2011-2013. At that time, it was still the Unity desktop, which is still a favorite of mine in some of its features. After Ubuntu, I went to Arch Linux and built a KDE desktop. That lasted from 2013-2014 and then switched to Linux Lite. Learned many things off of Arch, and probably will not attempt to do that again! Dumped LL for OpenSUSE Leap 42.1, also KDE but wanted to experience an RPM distro for a change after using Ubuntu/Debian based for years, and I absolutely refused to use Fedora. Bought a "new" barely used for less than 1 year ASUS gaming laptop for very cheap at a local pawn shop in March 2017. I didn't install a Linux distro on that for a few months because the touchpad did not function in every distro I tried it with, including LL. I tried Manjaro KDE and stuck with it because the touchpad did work, but barely. Right click button did not function and left click button only worked about 50% of the time. This was fixed later with a Linux kernel update, and hopefully by now has trickled down to LL. I will try it again and see...
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: m654321 on February 16, 2018, 03:42:24 AM
Bought a "new" barely used for less than 1 year ASUS gaming laptop for very cheap at a local pawn shop in March 2017. I didn't install a Linux distro on that for a few months because the touchpad did not function in every distro I tried it with, including LL. I tried Manjaro KDE and stuck with it because the touchpad did work, but barely. Right click button did not function and left click button only worked about 50% of the time. This was fixed later with a Linux kernel update, and hopefully by now has trickled down to LL. I will try it again and see...

I was interested to hear your experiences of a recently bought i7 core Asus gaming laptop. I have the slightly older G750, compared to your more recent G752 model. My experience was that everything worked smoothly with LL or other distros I've tried (PCLOS, Manjaro, et, etc) on this laptop, if I didn't have a UEFI setup.

Did you use UEFI - maybe this is the source of your problems with the G752? The only pain I had was getting UEFI to work satisfactorily - you can see a tutorial & troubleshooting on this that I posted elsewhere on the forum. In the end I found it was just simpler to install without UEFI, using an msdos (MBR) formatted drive.  I get the impression, that with UEFI, some firmware wont work properly so the computer can be compromised. UEFI is not considered very highly on this forum and seems to be just an added complication.
 
When you said you bought your laptop cheaply from a pawnshop, this made me wonder if the previous owner got rid of it because it wasn't working properly, hence the problems you experienced - just a thought ...  These laptops are normally very expensive to buy (£1200 or more), not cheap by any means.
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: Teddy on February 16, 2018, 10:30:08 AM
I was interested to hear your experiences of a recently bought i7 core Asus gaming laptop. I have the slightly older G750, compared to your more recent G752 model. My experience was that everything worked smoothly with LL or other distros I've tried (PCLOS, Manjaro, et, etc) on this laptop, if I didn't have a UEFI setup.

Did you use UEFI - maybe this is the source of your problems with the G752? The only pain I had was getting UEFI to work satisfactorily - you can see a tutorial & troubleshooting on this that I posted elsewhere on the forum. In the end I found it was just simpler to install without UEFI, using an msdos (MBR) formatted drive.  I get the impression, that with UEFI, some firmware wont work properly so the computer can be compromised. UEFI is not considered very highly on this forum and seems to be just an added complication.
 
When you said you bought your laptop cheaply from a pawnshop, this made me wonder if the previous owner got rid of it because it wasn't working properly, hence the problems you experienced - just a thought ...  These laptops are normally very expensive to buy (£1200 or more), not cheap by any means.

I bought the laptop for about $780 USD in Mar/2017. My configuration is worth about $2000 USD when new in 2016. Everything was working, touchpad, CD drive, keyboard and the backlighting, came pre-installed with Windows 10. The charger still had the plastic wrapping on it. It still had some data from the previous owner, so I did a factory reset and used Windows 10.

ITried lots of live USBs of Linux, with Secure Boot off and BIOS mode on in the case of Linux Lite (No UEFI support with LL). I looked up the problem and the touchpad issue was because of a driver in Linux. The touchpad is an ELAN touchpad with two physical click buttons. Ubuntu and Linux Lite didn't even recognize it was there, forcing me to use an external mouse. Manjaro KDE was the exception, though the driver still didn't cooperate well. The ELAN driver bundled with the kernel thought that my touchpad was one of those "clickpad" units, where the entire pad presses down to initiate a left click (or right click) where mine has physical buttons for left and right click. Kernel update fixed it and works as it should now. No hardware error from my experience.
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: bitsnpcs on February 16, 2018, 10:52:37 AM
Before installing Linux Lite I had only used Windows install.
I am one of a typical Linux Lite target audience.
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: 97trophy on February 19, 2018, 09:53:28 PM
I have been away from Linux for almost 10 years. The last distro I used was Freespire.

In the old days laptops would never last but now I have an 8 year old Acer 10 inch that works fine but not with Windows.
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: ptyerman on February 19, 2018, 10:25:44 PM
My first trial with Linux was at the end of the nineties with Red Hat Linux, I still have the installation CD somewhere, it came as a magazine cover CD. Not too long after that I installed Mandrake Linux and was very impressed, I think it was version 5 or 6, I stuck with that for quite a while. My next one was Suse Linux Professional, I loved that and stuck with it until Novell gave it up and it became OpenSuse.
After that I've pretty much hopped between distro's and not been stuck to one in particular. All of these have been dual boot with Windows which I still do now.
I use what I find most suitable for the task at the time, I use Bodhi Linux on a couple of machines, Antix, Damn Small Linux and various incarnations of Puppy Linux gets used on some old PC's, and now 3 of my systems have Linux Lite on them including my main PC.
I also have a few machines running Amithlon and X-Amiga, both of which use a custom Linux with a Gentoo 2.6 kernel to boot the Amiga system and Workbench so I'll include them as Linux machines.  ;)
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: TheDead on February 20, 2018, 06:20:19 PM
Before Linux Lite? There was only darkness... ;)

Had an Amiga... was great but company died.
Had a BeOS machine... was great but company died.
Had/have Windows machine(s)... not great but need for work and gaming.

I then tried Ubuntu 9-10-11 a few years back. Played around with it a few weeks, just long enough to get World of Warcraft working on Linux/Wine at the time... a pain in the posterior. Had to recompile my own sound and video drivers and got the thing running fine, but this was more trouble then fun so I went back to the Dark Side a few years.

Came back about two year ago tried about 30 distros other than a plain ubuntu and landed on Linux Lite (insert angels singing or the 2001 monolith song, your choice :D ) . Now I spread this new found hapiness and joy to everyone! ;)
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: Artim on February 20, 2018, 08:32:05 PM
In the Beginning...

There was nothing.

And God said, "Let there be Light!"

And there was still nothing.

But

You could see it.


Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: TheDead on February 21, 2018, 04:26:30 PM
[/size]You could see it.

Never heard that one... I LoL'ed ;)
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: CSNLinux on February 22, 2018, 06:49:04 PM
In the Beginning...

There was nothing.

And God said, "Let there be Light!"

And there was still nothing.

But

You could see it.



If you really want to quote the Holy Book, than do it properly

Quote
1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2And the earth was without form, and void; 
and darkness was upon the face of the deep. 
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: Aguilar on March 01, 2018, 04:57:05 AM
Before Linux Lite? There was only darkness... ;)

Had an Amiga... was great but company died.
Had a BeOS machine... was great but company died.
Had/have Windows machine(s)... not great but need for work and gaming.

I then tried Ubuntu 9-10-11 a few years back. Played around with it a few weeks, just long enough to get World of Warcraft working on Linux/Wine at the time... a pain in the posterior. Had to recompile my own sound and video drivers and got the thing running fine, but this was more trouble then fun so I went back to the Dark Side a few years.

Came back about two year ago tried about 30 distros other than a plain ubuntu and landed on Linux Lite (insert angels singing or the 2001 monolith song, your choice :D ) . Now I spread this new found hapiness and joy to everyone! ;)

I was using Ubuntu before Linux Lite. I think have Ubuntu installed on one machine that I use from time to time.
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: TheDead on March 01, 2018, 10:01:43 AM
If you count computers that I had when I was a kid... we had a Texas Intrument TI99/4A, a Coleco Adam, a PC(with turbo ;) ) then a Commodore 64.
Weird thing, over the years, went from Memory Module, to cassette tape, to big floppy, to small floppy, to CD, to DVD and now... to Memory Module again. ;)
Like the lady in Poltergeist said... "The circle is complete...!" (insert the Inception sound).

Cheers!
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: Nyto on May 11, 2018, 03:09:16 PM


LOL, my first distro was Mandrake Linux many many moons ago  ;D.

Then it was Mandriva. Then I tried Red Hat. Then I stuck with SimplyMepis for a few years. Then I tried Suse (before OpenSuse existed), then I withdrew for a few years. Then I bought a netbook and installed Netbuntu. Then I tried Ubuntu (before the "Unity fiasco"), then went for Fedora, Lubuntu, then tried Xubuntu and stayed there for a few years.
One of those days while in Distrowatch, I read about certain Linux Lite, so I said 'why not?' Donloaded, installed, booted...
...and I could heard the "Haaaleluyah!" singing in the air  ;)

I keep trying out new (as in "trendy in the news") distros, like MX, Manjaro, PCLinuxOS, Devuan, etc. But that's on my backup computer. My main computer has LL 3.8  8)
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: TheDead on May 11, 2018, 03:35:44 PM
Stupid as it sounds... a lot of distros just "don't get it" ;)
They should stop trying to reinvent the wheel... "Creators Update" anyone? That one made me LOL.
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: Ottawagrant on May 11, 2018, 07:27:54 PM
to 'TheDead'- couldn't agree more. There is a fun post that shows what Windows XP would look like if it was still in development in 2018. That is one thing about XP. It worked. I love a quote I read one time. 20 years ago we wished Linux was like Windows. Now we wish Windows was like Linux.
https://www.onmsft.com/news/what-if-windows-xp-came-back-in-2018-check-out-this-fun-concept-video
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: TheDead on May 12, 2018, 08:25:03 PM
I never used XP personaly. I used Windows 2000. Tried XP 64 bits for a week went back to 2000. Then when Windows 7 came out I used RC1 for many years and never looked back.
Giving credit where credit is due, Windows 7 WAS the best Windows for users ever, until W10 came out and in a "strange coincidence", MS broke Windows updates for 2 years turning lots of computers in turtoises.
I only have a W10 machine for DirectX 12 with W10 privacy options all enabled (no updates, etc.). W10 being the reason I have came back in Linux full force (tried Ubunto 9-12 a few years back).

XP is a monster on ressources, but if you have XP without SP2 or SP3 it can work on 256MB RAM quite nimbly... but thats ancient history.
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: Nyto on May 12, 2018, 09:09:35 PM
I have been away from Linux for almost 10 years. The last distro I used was Freespire.

In the old days laptops would never last but now I have an 8 year old Acer 10 inch that works fine but not with Windows.

Ah, Freespire, the former Linspire from the former Lindows.
Remember Lindows?  It was doing OK, until Microsuck sued the sh*t out of them :(  .."because it was misleading potential customers to believe they were getting Windoze XD
...sometimes judges are sooo stupid...
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: TheDead on May 14, 2018, 10:39:54 AM
Wonder if they called it something else like Lindoors, Lindoze or "This is not your average Mucrosuck OS!", would it have went to court?
To the Time Machine, Doctor!

Cheers!
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: kpanic on June 23, 2018, 07:08:43 PM
I guess I'm an ol'-school Linux user (My late father actually knew Linus Torwald's mother, not that it has to do with anything else, than the fact that Helsinki is a small city), I began installing some old Red Hat distro around ~96-97. Then I began to use SuSE Linux - and I still don't know why! However, I used it about 20 years or so until the openSUSE distro became practically unusable this year - it has been long time coming though.

So, I began to search for a lighter and more consistent distro for personal use and after testing a couple of Ubuntu flavors, I found this one. And man, I love it! No bells and whistles, just everything you need - and of course the huge repository full of software. Super fast, well polished and very consistent Linux Distribution.
As a professional System Administrator since year 2000, I give this distro 9.5 out of 10
Title: Re: Before Linux Lite
Post by: mdiemer on June 24, 2018, 12:24:03 AM
My first Linux was Ubuntu 13.10. Then I tried Mint. Then Zorin, Ubuntu Mate, LXLE, Solus, MX, Manjaro, Deepin, elementary, Fedora, Ubuntu Budgie, and some others I can't remember. Currently, I have Linux Lite on one drive, Windows 7 on another, and True OS (BSD) on another. Another computer has Windows 7 Pro but that is my music machine. My wife has W7 on a Dell laptop (both of my computers are desktops). and we have an old Gateway with windows 98 that never gets used and was never online.

Many of the above systems are not stable on my Gateway GT5656. Manjaro and any of the Ubuntus work well, besides Linux Lite. Zorin and Solus I really liked, but they always break down on me. Mint just bores me for some reason. I settled on Linux Lite because of the stability, intuitiveness and easy transition from Windows. This is important because I want to put Linux on my wife's laptop as a dual boot. I think LL will be easy for her to learn. And I will have exactly the same thing on mine, so I'll be able to take care of hers more easily. I'm hoping my distro-hopping days are over, at least for awhile. The BSD I just fool around with. You can learn a lot about computers with it. It's a unix system, kind of in-between unix and linux. Many of the commands are the same. But it's a challenge, no doubt about it.