Linux virgin has questions

Hey everyone,

I have no interest in using Linux myself but was wondering if it would be ok to use to set an old PC up as an internet appliance for my father.

The projected use of the PC is:

General surfing
Email
Facebook
internet radio
youtube
netflix
skype

The hardware I have available:

Core 2 Duo E6550
ASUS P5Q-E (P45)
2x1GB DDR3 1066
ASUS Xonar D2/PM PCI (sound card)
GeForce 8800GTS (512MB)

Are drivers available in one of the 18 billion Linux distros that will suit the hardware I have? I'm willing to remove the sound card if no drivers exist.
Do Netflix and Skype work on Linux?

What about printer support? He has no printer now, but if he wanted one in the future, what's support there like?

Thanks.

Theocnoob said:

Hey everyone,

I have no interest in using Linux myself but was wondering if it would be ok to use to set an old PC up as an internet appliance for my father.

The projected use of the PC is:

General surfing
Email
Facebook
internet radio
youtube
netflix
skype

The hardware I have available:

Core 2 Duo E6550
ASUS P5Q-E (P45)
2x1GB DDR3 1066
ASUS Xonar D2/PM PCI (sound card)
GeForce 8800GTS (512MB)

Are drivers available in one of the 18 billion Linux distros that will suit the hardware I have? I'm willing to remove the sound card if no drivers exist.
Do Netflix and Skype work on Linux?

What about printer support? He has no printer now, but if he wanted one in the future, what's support there like?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Most of the hardware should be fine. The only one I am not sure about is the Xonar, mostly because I have not experience with it.

Skype has linux binaries provided by Skype.

Netflix has a workaround because it uses silverlight. There is both a project called PipeLight and one called "Netflix Desktop". I have had the most success with netflix desktop, but Pipelight is coming along nicely as well.

My self, I havent had problems with netflix in almost 2 years. The caveat is that it is not hardware accelerated in either project. I would say my success rate with various hardware is about 75% (for netflix)

For example on Netbook style hardware its a no-go. On a core2duo with crappy integrated video card it was fine for SD content, HD content was hit and miss.

All of your other concerns should be fine, Internet Radio would depend on what technology the given station is using. There is the odd site that uses microsoft only junk which can be difficult.

All told mostly you should be fine. For printers, old stuff works great, newer stuff works pretty well too but I would definitely do a google search before you buy

Here is a resource for checking printer functionality with Linux:

http://www.openprinting.org/printers

My alternative to Linux is Win XP Home 32 bit (which I own)... The problem with that is no more updates. Also, AFAIK, Linux is more secure against viruses and malware... My father is a computing virgin so I'm trying to make this as easy as possible for him.

i dont think linux is as scary as it once was 10 or so years ago!


they really have come a long way since 2004.

gangaskan said:

i dont think linux is as scary as it once was 10 or so years ago!


they really have come a long way since 2004.

Click to expand...

Its really not scary at all. The OP asked to know what works and what doesnt. The only cause I have to fire up Windows is at work because we use some funky printer. If I never had to print anything, i wouldnt have use for it at all anymore

I say check out Ubuntu for the intended uses.

Will Ubuntu come with drivers for all my hardware or do I have to download them? Where would I get Linux drivers from?

Thanks.

if my friends want to try linux I point them at the Mint Cinnamon releases - it's easy for me to walk them through and the system is similar enough to win7/xp that most people can figure it out.

what gets people into trouble is playing with all the settings/downloading emulators and stuff like that.

Theocnoob said:

Will Ubuntu come with drivers for all my hardware or do I have to download them? Where would I get Linux drivers from?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

This is precisely what made me fall in love with linux (ubuntu based linux mint to be precise). I needed something to replace a windows xp install on a wonky old hp my son had bought at a garage sale. Installing xp had been a pain, with hunting down all the right drivers to make it work... and it never working well. Put linux mint on a usb drive, fired it up and everything worked out of the box, network adapter, video card, sound, even an old webcam I never could get working on windows. Everything he needed, firefox, plugins, home office, etc., installed and ready to go.

With ubuntu/mint there really isn't any hunting down drivers, either it works or it don't, and usually it does.

I liked it so much I switched to mint on my computer, keeping windows for occasional gaming only.

Sorry for all the questions. What about viruses and malware, what's the situation/protocol there with Linux?

Theocnoob said:

Sorry for all the questions. What about viruses and malware, what's the situation/protocol there with Linux?

Click to expand...

There really aren't many virii to speak of on linux. Not that code cannot be exploited on Linux but the barrier is much harder to cross. (For example, your password is required to install things or modify the system, the fact that everything runs as a different user... i.e. the sound, video, networking, web all run as different users). This doesn't mean its immune, but virii are a whole lot less likely and therefore if you *insist* on running AV there are only a handful available (Sophos, ClamAV and a few others).

I have never run AV on linux, never had a problem. At work with over 600 linux machines only about 25 of them are running Sophos due to requirements from our clients. Right now there just isnt any demand/reason for it

Most of "bad stuff" comes from Flash and/or Java exploits which AV doesn't protect against anyways. Therefore the same "safe" habbits used in Windows for Surfing the web, applies in linux.

To that end Linux is completely different. For example, if you want software you don't fire up your web browser and download it, you use a centralized package system.

I would really recommend (if you are interested) checking out the shows on Jupiter Broadcasting, particularly How To Linux, a lot of good information/podcasts available there

The proliferation of viri is the main reason I want to transition to some distro of Linux.
Every day on my wintel box, I get a virus update, and Avira wants me to upgrade to the payed version to protect me from all the so-called newer viri...even today, I get a msg stating that some 1.8million new viri are out there that I should be scared of. I have heard of Linux users that have never run any antivirus software and in ten yrs never had any issues with viri. By comparison, I cannot count on one hand how many times I had to fdisk and re-inatall windows,
And then I see those idiotic commercials about "My Clean PC dot com" and other "services" to clean up a computer that shouldn't have those problems.
With windows 8 they finally added antivirus security into the os where they should have done it in the 1st place, but I feel as many others out there that it is too little too late, as I'm already a linux convert and windblows can svck eggs when I finally get my Nvidia card going with proprietary drivers.

One other note, if your system can support 64 bit code, I would recommend KAOS as it is the only distro that allows Nvidia "non free" drivers to be loaded upon startup which will eliminate most headaches related to the video card.

I currently run PCLinux OS KDE full Monty and they really mean FULL... It has evrything KDE related, and quite a few games pre-installed, but I still have not been able to get non free drivers to work for my video card, but I attribute that to my own inexperience with the Linux command line which is why I will try installing KAOS when my video card gets here (used GForce 8600GT). When you 1st boot KAOS, it asks if you want to boot to "Nvidia non free"
Srry fer the long reply,
doc

OOPS! I forgot to add that KAOS is the only distro that I know of that will allow you to load "non free" drivers for Nvidia cards

DocClock aka MadClocker said:

OOPS! I forgot to add that KAOS is the only distro that I know of that will allow you to load "non free" drivers for Nvidia cards

Click to expand...

erm...? All of them?

Ubuntu even has a utility that lets you select which one to install. Virtually every linux distro I have ever used works with the Nvidia drivers. Some of them you have to do a tiny little dance (ctrl + alt +f1, stop the display manager and install the drivers) but they all work

Maybe I should have said that KAOS is the only distro that allows Nvidia Non free from the live setup menu...so far it is the only distro that I have seen this option in the main screen.

It doesn't matter because none of the OS's so far have been able to "see" my screen because it is a Sansui 19" TV instead of a monitor...always returns with error EE No screens visible. I will drag out my 17" gateway monitor from my shed and see if the OS's will "see" my gateway monitor.

DocClock aka MadClocker said:

Maybe I should have said that KAOS is the only distro that allows Nvidia Non free from the live setup menu.

Click to expand...

What does this mean exactly?

Most other distro's have a nice splash screen saying "start live session" or Install. and they usually have a few options that you have to press f4, f6 to get to, while with Kaos the second choice is "nvidia non free" at the splash screen...ubuntu does not have that, nor does Linux Mint. I haven't tried Fedora lately, or Arch which I understand is one of the easiest to configure Nvidia cards.
For those of us that don't know squat about Linux, it is very confusing to have to blacklist drivers to get the "real" drivers to co-operate...and so far I have not found a complete guide to get Nvidia drivers to work rather than the default....maybe I'm looking in the wrong place?
I need to download a linux for dummies book.

Not that I'm giving up on Linux...the opposite in fact.
It has so far been a wild ride and I will continue to distro hop till I find one I can easily configure, or I learn enough to configure any distro myself. Eventually, I will do both learn all that is Linux, and find a distro to suit my needs or tastes.
BTW, Thanks for being there Stratus_SS...we noobs need all the help we can get

DocClock aka MadClocker said:

it is very confusing to have to blacklist drivers to get the "real" drivers to co-operate...and so far I have not found a complete guide to get Nvidia drivers to work rather than the default....maybe I'm looking in the wrong place?
I need to download a linux for dummies book.

Click to expand...

Lets try and tackle this. If you have some time and want to work through this so that you can do a small write up from a newbie to newbies, pm me and we'll chat over gchat or irc or something. I'll work with you on whatever distro you want. I havent had to do any blacklisting (manually) for ages so I'd be interested to do this with you