Is anybody else using Linux?

[swee'pea99]

My first post from Ubuntu. Looks a lot like a Windows post!

First impressions, seems fast. But I am finding it a bit of a pain the way the touchpad doesn't work fully...I can't scroll down by stroking the pad on the right margin. I know you have to download a special synaptics touchpad to make that work in Windows - I doubt they do one for linux. Quibble quibble eh?

Does seem quick tho'.

 

[newfhouse]

My first post from Ubuntu. Looks a lot like a Windows post!

First impressions, seems fast. But I am finding it a bit of a pain the way the touchpad doesn't work fully...I can't scroll down by stroking the pad on the right margin. I know you have to download a special synaptics touchpad to make that work in Windows - I doubt they do one for linux. Quibble quibble eh?

Does seem quick tho'.

There should be a settings tab for touchpads, I can't remember exactly where on Ubuntu, somewhere in System Settings I expect.

 

[swee'pea99]

There should be a settings tab for touchpads, I can't remember exactly where on Ubuntu, somewhere in System Settings I expect.

Yes, I tried fiddling with the options, but none of them enabled 'stroke-scrolling'. Which didn't come as any great surprise.

 

[newfhouse]

Yes, I tried fiddling with the options, but none of them enabled 'stroke-scrolling'. Which didn't come as any great surprise.

I'm sure it will be there somewhere. On Mint it looks like this, you probably want to enable 'edge scrolling'.

 

[swee'pea99]

I've discovered two-fingered scrolling, which works fine! It doesn't offer edge-scrolling - just two finger scrolling or 'natural scrolling' whatever that it. I've enabled both, but neither gives me the edge scrolling I'm used to. But I could get used to two finger scrolling, I'm sure.

 

[swee'pea99]

These are my options:

 

[newfhouse]

Natural scrolling is upside down - scroll up to move the page down if you see what I mean.

 

[swee'pea99]

Hmmm. Thought I'd managed to crop that. Obviously Gimp's going to take a bit of getting used to!

 

[swee'pea99]

Natural scrolling is upside down - scroll up to move the page down if you see what I mean.

Ah! That's why it's 'the wrong way round', as I was thinking of it!

 

[swee'pea99]

Disabled it now. Feels more intuitive this way. I can certainly happily live with this, without edge scrolling.

 

[swee'pea99]

If the page is too wide for the screen, I can 'scroll' horizontally! Cool!

 

[Chris S]

I didn't get Windows 7 or 8 to play. XP was ok as I recall. I have a VLC connection to my work desktop PC for if I really, really need Windows, but apart from accessing the (windows only) software that is the sole reason I own the desktop, I haven't needed to.

Remmina will allow you to access a Windows machine from Linux. If I'd known about it earlier I'd have bought a Chromebook instead of another laptop.
http://www.remmina.org/wp/

 

[KneesUp]

Remmina will allow you to access a Windows machine from Linux. If I'd known about it earlier I'd have bought a Chromebook instead of another laptop.
http://www.remmina.org/wp/

I couldn't get Remmina to connect for some reason, so stumped up a few quid for RealVNC, which worked immediately. From memory I concluded it was my version of Windows that was the issue - the basic Windows 8 doesn't allow remote control iirc.

 

[ColinJ]

I installed Lubuntu on my friend's old Dell last night. I was impressed by how smooth the process was.

It was late so I didn't spend much time testing it, but I did get iPlayer working in Firefox, one of the main things that the laptop will be used for.

I liked the way that the install icon was automatically removed after the installation and the trashcan renamed to suit 'UK English' (a.k.a. 'English')!

I discovered that vertical scrolling using the RHS of the trackpad worked inside apps and scrolled to a second desktop outside of apps - neat!

The laptop only has 512 MB of RAM and the docs suggest that at least 1 GB should be fitted for decent performance so I have taken a punt on a 1 GB SODIMM on eBay. It is only £3.70 incl. delivery from Hong Kong so I am fully expecting it not to work properly, but if it DOES work then it will be a bargain. If it doesn't I will demand a refund. 256 MB of the current memory is fixed, so I will replace the second 256 MB module to have a total of 1.25 GB.

That is about all it is worth spending on the old laptop, but if Lubuntu makes the machine usable again then great. It will certainly be interesting to play about with it. I may even install it on my more powerful Dell laptop instead of my planned upgrade to Win 7 From XP.

 

[KneesUp]

And you can also install get_iplayer which allows you to download programmes to watch later. Of course you must manually delete them after 30 days ...