Greetings from the Empire State

[Rocktman2]

Hi everyone. I've been dabbling with Ubuntu for about 2 years. I started with 6.06LTS & I'm now at 8.04.1. I still consider myself a newbie with Linux because I mainly use Windoze. However, I did administer a RHEL server hosting an ERP app last year.

A little about me? I've been in IT for 15-27 years, depending upon how you count. I was already in IBM when the IBM PC debuted (1981) & started servicing it shortly thereafter. I left IBM in 93 when management decided they didn't want employees anymore & abolished what was probably their second most treasured policy: full employment. Their most treasured policy, respect for the individual, had fallen by the wayside a few years earlier.

I've been familiar with Linux for many years, but never tried it until a couple years ago. An observation: for an OS that's supposed to be so stable, how come it's constantly D/L'ing updates? Isn't that a major complaint about Window$ (its patching)?

I have another observation, but please don't take it personally & no flames please. One of the reasons I'm trying Linux is because of all of the performance claims. "Runs faster on any old hardware than Window$." Well, I beg to differ. I don't find Ubunbtu or the apps any faster than my Window$. I dual-boot & my Ubuntu seems to actually take longer to boot than my XP. Is that an effect of the dual-booting?

I'm slowly getting all my peripherals to work under Ubuntu. I just got the scanner in my MFP to work in Ubuntu (FINALLY!!!) & I think my modem is recognized & will work for faxing (yeah, I know, who faxes anymore when you can email PDFs? But sometimes you have to deal with unenlightened people).

All that said, my favorite OS was OS/2 (v2.11). I used it for 5 years at home & at work until I had to give it up for Win 95 in 1997 (a very sad day).

I do have 2 issues with Ubuntu. Should I post them here or in the appropriate forum? I should warn you that I've posted them in other on-line forums w/o any responses, so I'm hoping this forum is better than the others are.

Sorry to ramble on for so long. Hi again.

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

Yes, post any specific issues in the proper forums with the details.

Linux isn't for everyone, so you should use whatever works for you, whether that be Linux, Mac, BSD, Windows, etc.

Hope it all works out for you whichever route you should take.

[rokytnji]

Howdy and Welcome. There are some good people here.

[elija]

I have another observation, but please don't take it personally & no flames please. One of the reasons I'm trying Linux is because of all of the performance claims. "Runs faster on any old hardware than Window$." Well, I beg to differ. I don't find Ubunbtu or the apps any faster than my Window$. I dual-boot & my Ubuntu seems to actually take longer to boot than my XP. Is that an effect of the dual-booting?

That's more likely to be Ubuntu. Don't get me wrong I think it's great but I have hardware that it takes Vista to bring to it's knees

There are many different distros and if you want to see something that will run a lot faster try Vector Linux (Welcome to VectorLinux — VectorLinux.com). It's a child of slackware so will be somewhat different to Ubuntu but I'll bet it will be just a tad faster.

I will warn you now, trying different distros can become addictive

I do have 2 issues with Ubuntu. Should I post them here or in the appropriate forum? I should warn you that I've posted them in other on-line forums w/o any responses, so I'm hoping this forum is better than the others are.

Post them in the appropriate forum and you will get good help.

Welcome to Linux Forums dot Org

[Rocktman2]

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

For now I'll stick with Ubuntu because it's what I have. I've spent a bit of blood, sweat, toil & tears & I'm not eager to keep going through getting everything to work. Been there, done that innumerable times over the years.

I actually solved the lesser of my 2 issues just a little while ago. Considering what the fix was, I have to wonder why I waited so long to try it (hint: bad file).

[questio verum]

Hi Rocktman, and welcome to Linuxforums.
I too, rue the changes that have taken place in IBM's (and others) corporate philosophies. I remember a time when IBM employees were unflinchingly loyal to the company, because the company was loyal to them. I could really run with this one, but one of the policies here at Linuxforums is no political or religious posts and this topic could get political, toot-sweet. Suffice it to say... I have experience.

As for Ubuntu slowing down, remember that everything you do, everything you add during and after the initial configuration has the potential to impact the performance of your system. That includes updates, too. Ubuntu has issued bulletins in the past, advising users to roll back or apply a patch because of an issue caused by an update. Your hardware configuration plays a part too. Have you tried running htop and seeing what's running in your system at these times? (It's available in one of the Ubuntu repositories.) Remember, with linux you ultimately have control over what goes and what stays on your system. That's not a minor advantage.

On the topic of updates, take a look at what's being updated next time. I'm not one of the experts here, but I think you'll find it's usually the modules, not the linux kernel itself, that's getting updated. That's a function of the distro you choose and the software you add afterwards. In other words, it's a choice you can usually reverse or undo.

I recommend you try posting this and any other technical issues in the appropriate forum. You might have to wait a little, but someone should eventually come along and answer. If you're not sure where to post, tell us the issues and we'll point you in the right direction. In my 15-plus months here I've only seen one poster get truly sideways of the forum, and he brought it on himself, so relax and know that you are in friendly territory. Again, Welcome!

qv

[Rocktman2]

Hi Rocktman, and welcome to Linuxforums.
As for Ubuntu slowing down, remember that everything you do, everything you add during and after the initial configuration has the potential to impact the performance of your system. That includes updates, too. Ubuntu has issued bulletins in the past, advising users to roll back or apply a patch because of an issue caused by an update. Your hardware configuration plays a part too. Have you tried running htop and seeing what's running in your system at these times?

On the topic of updates, take a look at what's being updated next time. I'm not one of the experts here, but I think you'll find it's usually the modules, not the linux kernel itself, that's getting updated. That's a function of the distro you choose and the software you add afterwards. In other words, it's a choice you can usually reverse or undo.
qv

I'm well aware that hardware has a big effect on performance. My point was that Linux boosters like to say that Linux runs so much better on lesser hardware than Window$ does & my experience does not support that. I haven't installed that much after the initial install, but didn't even think the initial configuration speed was faster than Window$.

Since installing 8.04.1 (last week?), I've gotten 3-4 updates that did include a kernel update.

Please understand, I'm not complaining. I'm just pointing out differences I'm experiencing from the hype. We all know that there's no such thing as a perfect OS (uumm, maybe OS/2? ).

[jayd512]

I gotta give a nod to QV here...

I have one computer. 1 Gig CPU, 512 MB RAM. In other words... a dinosaur. Initially I had WinXP running on it, and had no real complaints. Turned it into a dual-boot... Fedora 7 ran like a champ! Boot times were almost 25-30 seconds faster than XP! Upgrade to FC8... even better times! But I also make sure to disable anything I don't need. Much of the touted speed of Linux happens to be in the fact that you can disable all the things that you don't need (or even want) to speed up the system.


By the way... IMHO WinXP happens to be the best thing out of MicroSoft since 3.1! And if I have my way, I'll eventually have a modern day system running 3.1

[hazel]

If I wanted to use Linux simply because it runs fast on old hardware, I wouldn't choose Ubuntu. I would recommend Ubuntu unhesitatingly to novices as their first serious Linux but it isn't designed for speed; it's designed for novice-friendliness.

[Freston]

Yeah, I really have to agree with hazel here. It's a matter of choice really. *buntu is designed to aim at, I wouldn't necessarily say new users, but people who want the out-of-the-box experience. The machine is ready for a wide variety of tasks and recognizes a wide variety of hardware. By consequence a lot is loaded in the background, taking resources and slowing the system down.
Lighter systems need more setting up, are more specialized towards a specific task and therefor faster.

To sum up
Ubuntu = Linux
Linux != Ubuntu