Messages

1

On Topic / Re: Should we take the elementary OS approach?

« on: August 12, 2021, 01:27:14 AM »

Try the elementary OS approach and see how it works for the LL project. I do agree with @TheDead about making a zero dollar option obvious for those unable to donate or just looking for a download link only.

Another idea could be to put more emphasis in the Linux Lite welcome screen when the OS boots up, about why it would be helpful to donate and ways your donation benefits the project, whether it be web hosting costs, electricity, new hardware for continued development, miscellaneous costs, etc. Even a simple few sentences could make the difference.


LL is a project worth keeping alive.

2

Installing Linux Lite / Re: Thumb drives how to install LL and make the extra space available as storage

« on: February 07, 2020, 11:51:19 PM »

Interesting question and I recently did this to a 64GB SanDisk Cruzer Spark, though in a much different way than a Live USB of Linux Lite.

A full installation of Linux Lite would be better because Linux will run in the exact same fashion that it does off of your internal hard drive in your PC and it will also not nag you to install Linux Lite every time you boot from the flash drive. It will boot into Linux Lite to the login screen without any interruption. It is also easier to modify the partitions of the Linux install easier than you can if it was in Live USB mode.

You can use VirtualBox and a live ISO image, and attach the physical flash drive to the Virtual Machine as a hard drive to install Linux Lite to. A flash drive with a full Linux desktop and not in Live USB mode.

Here is how I did it:
1. Install VirtualBox and create a new virtual machine.
2. Select "Ubuntu Linux" (32-bit or 64-bit doesn't matter) and give it a name ("Live ISO mode" is the name I used). Click next. Leave the memory RAM setting at default and click next again.
3. On the virtual hard drive screen click on "Do not create a virtual hard disk file".

Once the virtual machine has been created do these preparation steps:
1. Click "Settings" and go to the "Storage" section on the left side.
2. Click on the CD Icon that says "Empty" and click on the second CD icon on the very right side next to the drop down IDE menu. Find your ISO file of Linux Lite ("Choose Virtual Optical Disk File").
3. Go to the "USB" settings section on the left side and enable "USB 2.0 (EHCI) Controller".
4. On the very right side of the window there are 4 blue icons. Click the blue icon with the green + plus on it. In the drop down menu find your flash drive. It can be many different names depending on your make and model of flash drive.
5. Click OK on very bottom of the Settings window to confirm your changes.

The fun part:
1. Boot your Linux Lite virtual machine. It is just like booting a Live USB on a real PC. Select install Linux Lite.
2. Go through all the installation steps (Language, Keyboard, Username, Password, etc.).
3. When asked to "unmount" the flash drive, click Yes if the dialog appears. Ignore this step if it doesn't appear.
4. Click on "Something else, you can create or resize partitions yourself" option. Here you can setup an EXT4 system partition for the system, Swap space and an NTFS partition that you can access.
5. Install Linux Lite!

This video has good instructions too but using a physical machine but similar process (A warning though: Disconnect or remove your internal hard drive before doing this like the video said to ensure no data loss or mistakes can happen):

3

Introductions / Re: Another Linux Noob!

« on: January 06, 2020, 12:17:18 AM »

Welcome Al! Enjoy your stay and enjoy Linux Lite!

Most of us (me included) essentially use the terms 'Terminal', 'Command Line' or 'CLI' interchangeability as synonyms. Even Linux Lite itself lists its command line interface as the 'Linux Lite Terminal'.

Kind regards,
Theo

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On Topic / Re: January 14th - Big Announcement

« on: January 06, 2020, 12:01:33 AM »

I shall wait until morning Jan 14th (CST for me) to see  . Umm............................ wait wait wait (brain clicked as I wrote this!) I think I have a rough idea as the date I've heard somewhere before and the image being awfully familiar to something. Hmm  .

5

Introductions / Re: New to Linux Lite

« on: January 03, 2020, 03:00:04 AM »

Welcome aboard! Happy new year also! There is alot to like about Linux Lite and happy it piqued your interest!

Kind regards, Theo.

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Off Topic / Re: Music Thread

« on: January 03, 2020, 12:50:33 AM »

For those of you who remember MTV!

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On Topic / Re: XFCE vs KDE

« on: January 03, 2020, 12:25:20 AM »

I would definitely throw out a dev edition on any drastic change to LL, including a change in DE. To release suddenly a LL KDE without any prior warning or consultation, well, it's simply unthinkable for me. To reiterate, this thread is asking for opinions on such a switch. A thread title does not imply an impending move to KDE. It simply asks the question...what if?

It's always fun to experiment  . If a test version comes about I will help. KDE with LL is a galvanising idea to me.

P.S. Forgive me if my first couple sentences of my last post appeared to be a bit inimical, but then again, this is one of those 'opening a can of worms' kind of topics.

I ... will welcome it if you decide so ...

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On Topic / Re: XFCE vs KDE

« on: January 02, 2020, 01:53:08 AM »

Why I'm in favour of a future with KDE.

- It is Windows like
- Massive development team
- Detailed, almost to a point of overdoing it, configurability
- Stunning themes
- Mobile phone management with KDE Connect
- Continuously improving performance
- Konsole, has to be one of the best ootb Terminals available


Sent from my Mobile phone using Tapatalk

Everything here I agree on and am (of course) biased towards KDE. Of course I'm no stranger to other DEs either (using MATE Linux Mint on another machine for example) and I have no problem with XFCE at all. Just don't use GNOME whatever you do  !

That disclaimer aside, I am going to go out on a limb and say that it would NOT be a good idea to change LL to KDE for the benefit of the community and your target userbase. I mean don't get me wrong, better development pace, good features are great assets to have, but do those things really warrant the risk of potentially alienating a good chunk of your userbase? I may like the change, and will welcome it if you decide so but I must disclose myself as someone who isn't the target demographic of LL generally speaking. We gained many LL users from the support closures of Windows XP/Vista and probably will receive many former Windows 7 users when support ends for it on 2020-01-14. Those people most likely appreciate the no-nonsense feel and arrangement of XFCE, while KDE can be overwhelming to someone completely brand new (it certainly was to me until after a month or so back during the KDE4 days). Even after all this time I still don't understand what the purpose of the 'Activities' feature that KDE has had for a long time. Never used it and I feel that the virtual desktops do the same thing anyway. The KDE settings and widgets panel alone can literally scare someone away from changing anything because of how detailed it is. Those already used to XFCE will want to stay with it most likely as well (my grandparents who use LL are a good example of this, they came from Windows XP).

In my mind, I think of Linux Lite as a 'Function over Form' style of distro, where productivity/usability/ease of use are at the foreground of priorities and the looks/theme/eye candy supplement the productivity/usability. KDE is all about eye candy and is a tinkerer's dream. As an example: I can only think of KDE Connect as a gimmick in many ways: Notifications that sync with a smartphone, ability to use smartphone as a touchpad & remotely controlling multimedia with a smartphone. Yes these features are nice but are they essential? The cool thing about KDE Connect though is sending and receiving files wireless which is very helpful and the only non gimmick service that KDE Connect provides. XFCE fits that 'Function over Form' mission better for LL I think.

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Off Topic / Re: Happy New Year :)

« on: January 02, 2020, 12:37:13 AM »

Happy 2020! Jan 1st for me still! Posted from Central Time USA!

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On Topic / Re: Should Series 5.x include VirtualBox support ootb?

« on: January 02, 2020, 12:33:16 AM »

Thanks folks, the way forward seems clear. Community in action

I concur as well. While it has never caused me any trouble, anything to remove unnecessary used disk space is always a plus. Since most LL installs are done on real hardware, it makes perfect sense.

However, if you still want to include it out of the box, just have the Vbox service and related services disabled by default and have a command or two (or a tiny one-click bash script) that users can input into a terminal after the VirtualBox install is complete. <-- Might be a good compromise but it would be just as easy to include in the Lite Software app and have users install it on their own terms.

11

Installing Software / Re: Hard Disk error message after OS update

« on: December 21, 2019, 05:28:02 PM »

@Tyrannocaster Most likely you are fine, but check your hard drive SMART data for bad sectors and other data it gives you on your hard drive. Go to the 'Disks' application, click your hard drive on the left side and click the 3 dots menu (next to minimize/close buttons) and SMART data/self-test.

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On Topic / Re: XFCE vs KDE

« on: December 21, 2019, 05:08:34 PM »

How has that happened?  KDE on par with Xfce?!  Not long ago I would have thought it impossible.

The main difference is that KDE has a massive, almost inexhaustible supply of developers, where as XFCE have just a handful. I really like KDE and how close it is to Windows and the level of configuration available. Plasma is really nice too.

Sent from my Mobile phone using Tapatalk

KDE has been my go-to DE for many years. Back in the KDE4 days, it was a bit heavy on RAM usage but still, many levels ahead of GNOME which is a downright pig on RAM usage with not that many features to back it up (at least this used to be true a few years ago). KDE5 (Plasma 5) is mostly at the point now where it can compete with XFCE's RAM usage with the compositors and extra eye candy effects disabled. At idle from a cold boot on OpenSUSE (probably KDE's flagship distro besides KDE Neon) it always was below 1GB of usage and more often than not under 650MB.

XFCE's level of polish really doesn't compare to KDE when you compare default look vs default look. With the right theme, fonts and icons and extra applets on the notification area, XFCE isn't that far off from KDE either (LL theming is spot-on!).

I wonder how LXDE and the Enlightenment Desktop compare to XFCE now in polish/features/RAM usage (and the Moksha Desktop fork from Bohdi Linux which I believe came from E17). Clearly its been a few years since I've hopped distros lol. Guess it's time to experiment again!

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On Topic / Re: The Glitz and Glamour of maintaining an OS

« on: December 11, 2019, 11:24:39 PM »

More lol's...

*Image*

Ouch! Had a good laugh at that one and the previous ones in this thread xD. Love how it is in all caps. And my gosh does the 'ILL HAVE MORE. . .' sound so threatening lol. Let's just say that name-calling a developer is not a step closer to getting issues solved. (especially someone who is donating their time & money for a greater cause, thank you LL team!)

I wonder if they would say the same things to you in that email, face-to-face or a phone call. I wonderrrrrrr . . .

(P.S. 'RETAREDED' is misspelled, just noticed that lol)

14

Off Topic / Re: "Do Not Track" - does it do justice? Answer: No.

« on: December 11, 2019, 01:10:39 PM »

Do Not Track doesn't seem to be something that works anymore. Mozilla Firefox has it enabled by default for what it's worth. It is up to the website developer or server administrator to choose what to do (or not do) with these requests. Your better off installing web browser ad-blockers/analytics blockers like uBlock Origin on Firefox or others of your choice on your preferred browser. This is about the most you can do short of a VPN (which is what I use most of the time), or TOR or a combination of both (or a VPN provider that has TOR setup on the server side of the VPN connection, NordVPN and others have servers that will do this).

The other option: *drumroll* Disconnect from the internet and pretend it doesn't exist. This isn't realistic for nearly everyone reading this forum or posts. It's become a necessity for nearly everything we do now.
The next paragraph relates to Linux/Windows as a whole on tracking, a bit beyond the scope of this topic but still relevant.

What we do know is that Linux is far-far-far-far-far-far-far-far better at privacy than Windows is (data/analytics tracking/anti-virus submission samples). There are many utilities out there for Windows now that remove the default tracking settings to not track, and incorporate IP addresses and URLs in the operating system hosts file to redirect those bad addresses/URLs to null or 127.0.0.1, essentially ignoring those requests. Still though, the problem then becomes: How do I know that Windows isn't talking at all to Microsoft and sending data behind my back? The answer to this is that you don't. Windows always checks to see that your copy of Windows is genuine. Windows is proprietary and closed-source, which are two big NO-NOs in regards to transparency and honesty of the code behind. Microsoft's Bitlocker encryption is a perfect example of this. Bitlocker encryption keys are now sent to Microsoft in case you lose them (this can be defeated, but again, how do you really know?). Law enforcement can summon Microsoft for that information and all that time that you took to encrypt that valuable information now goes to waste. Back-doors can be hidden in Windows, but very hard to do the same in Linux because of transparency of the code, and all of the eyes looking upon it. There is safety in numbers; in this case it's everyone who looks at/modifies/submits Linux kernel code.

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On Topic / Re: What year is your computer? How old?

« on: February 21, 2018, 01:23:02 PM »

My daily driver is a 2016 ASUS ROG G752VT-DH74. The specs are in my signature. My dad happens to have the same laptop as well, but his is slightly weaker than mine and had no preinstalled SSD in it (though I fixed that for him within weeks of getting the machine refurbished from eBay.) Both of these machines are "laptops" but only in the name. These are really desktop replacements because they are so large. 17 inch screen size. I had trouble finding a backpack that could fit a machine this large and thick. Battery life: 30mins-1hour, cut that in half if gaming unplugged.

My travel laptop is a 2013 HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11-e015dx, little 11 inch netbook. Has a swappable battery bay which is something that's becoming rare these days. This one is also touchscreen, but it's next to useless on Linux. It's now a strictly Linux machine, Linux Lite of course, but have run Linux Mint, Ubuntu and Manjaro at one point or another in the past. Battery life I get about 3-4 hours, and am looking to purchase another (maybe 2) batteries for uninterrupted unplug sessions out and about on college campus. AMD A6-1450 APU processor with AMD Radeon HD8250 graphics, 4Gb RAM.