PhilDawson8270
Veteran
I use BSD in the form of Mac OSX at home. However, I cannot be Windows free. As I have to run some Windows only software, so I do have a Win10 laptop 
Is anybody else using Linux?
- Thread starter Chris S
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
martint235
Dog on a bike
- Location
- Welling
I've still not managed to replicate iTunes on Linux or to get it to work properly under WINE so there's always going to be a Windows element at home.
swee'pea99
Legendary Member
Have to say one massive difference from the last time I played around with Linux, about three or four years ago, was that on that occasion I had a helluva time trying (and eventually failing) to find drivers for the wifi thingy, whereas this time almost the first thing it did after being installed was ask me which of these wireless networks I wanted to connect to.
mybike
Grumblin at Garmin on the Granny Gear
- Location
- Not 'emel 'empstead
I run a Win7 virtual machine for iTunes and Garmin BaseCamp.
martint235
Dog on a bike
- Location
- Welling
Not me that needs to use it unfortunately and I will never be able to get SWMBO to use a virtual machine. At present if the PC is running Mint which it usually is and she wants iTunes, she just pulls the plug on it and then turns it back on. Thankfully I always make sure Windows is the default boot otherwise there'd be hell to pay.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Yes, I was surprised how straightforward that was ... It suggested that it would be a good idea to connect the wifi so it could grab the latest updates, drivers etc. I typed in the wifi password and off it went!
The one thing it didn't do was to download some Intel drivers for the chipset so I did that manually. I think that speeded the computer up a bit.
The laptop is definitely quicker on Lubuntu than it was running Windows XP. I can see the odd stutter on iPlayer but that isn't surprising considering that the laptop was a pretty basic model over 10 years ago. I'll play about with it to see if I can speed it up a bit more but it is working well enough at the moment to be worth keeping.
Firefox is loading pages faster on that machine than my Win XP version does on the better spec laptop that I am using now. I am tempted to make this a dual-booter (XP/Lubuntu).
swee'pea99
Legendary Member
The other big difference I'm noticing is how quickly it wakes up. In XP, if it's been having a nap, it takes a minute or more till it's back up to speed. It wakes up, but it yawns a lot and grumbles and drags its heels getting back online. With Ubuntu it's like move the cursor and...."Yes Master?"
Custom24
Über Member
- Location
- Oxfordshire
Another Linux convert here.
I am posting this on an 8yr old Sony Vaio that Windows Vista had rendered completely useless a few years ago. Ubuntu rescued it and I've never looked back. I am Windows free - Mac at work, Ubuntu at home.
I've just put a little more RAM and an SSD into this Vaio and it is lightning fast now. I use it for work and even took it to a client's offices today. Amazing.
One tip for anyone running Ubuntu (and maybe some other distros, I'm not sure) is to change the swappiness setting from its default of 60. I was running the system monitor wondering why it was never using anywhere near the available RAM before swapping.
Here's a link - you can just read the section "What is swappiness and how do I change it?" if you are bamboozled by the rest of it.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq
I am posting this on an 8yr old Sony Vaio that Windows Vista had rendered completely useless a few years ago. Ubuntu rescued it and I've never looked back. I am Windows free - Mac at work, Ubuntu at home.
I've just put a little more RAM and an SSD into this Vaio and it is lightning fast now. I use it for work and even took it to a client's offices today. Amazing.
One tip for anyone running Ubuntu (and maybe some other distros, I'm not sure) is to change the swappiness setting from its default of 60. I was running the system monitor wondering why it was never using anywhere near the available RAM before swapping.
Here's a link - you can just read the section "What is swappiness and how do I change it?" if you are bamboozled by the rest of it.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Thanks for that. I'll wait and see if the cheapo memory that I ordered works properly and then experiment with swap setup.
Custom24
Über Member
- Location
- Oxfordshire
With cheapo RAM (or any RAM, in fairness), I would run memtest before using the RAM. I've read that RAM errors can corrupt the system such that you need to re-install the OS.
It's not a big deal - just choose the memtest at the grub screen and let it run for a few hours (e.g. overnight).
http://askubuntu.com/questions/591488/how-do-i-run-memtest86/591502
Note that to bring up the grub menu, you hold down shift on machine boot.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I'm expecting the RAM to be useless, but I was curious to see if it is really possible to get 1 GB of working SODIMM from Hong Kong for less than £4!
swee'pea99
Legendary Member
Absolutely. Some of it was dead bamboozling...glad I cut straight to:
To check the swappiness value
cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
To change the swappiness value A temporary change (lost on reboot) with a swappiness value of 10 can be made with
sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10
To make a change permanent, edit the configuration file with your favorite editor:
gksudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf
Search for vm.swappiness and change its value as desired. If vm.swappiness does not exist, add it to the end of the file like so:
vm.swappiness=10
Save the file and reboot.
Not forgetting
swee'pea99
Legendary Member
I got 2gb for £8 - it's fine! All I need now is a bit of swappiness...I'm expecting the RAM to be useless, but I was curious to see if it is really possible to get 1 GB of working SODIMM from Hong Kong for less than £4!
D
Deleted member 1258
Guest
Changing these settings can speed up firefox
http://www.improgrammer.net/speed-up-firefox-browser/
Changing these settings can speed up Libra office
http://www.codechewing.com/library/speed-up-libreoffice-load-time/
http://www.improgrammer.net/speed-up-firefox-browser/
Changing these settings can speed up Libra office
http://www.codechewing.com/library/speed-up-libreoffice-load-time/
Custom24
Über Member
- Location
- Oxfordshire
swee'pea, did you manage to change the value, to 10?Absolutely. Some of it was dead bamboozling...glad I cut straight to:
To check the swappiness value
cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
To change the swappiness value A temporary change (lost on reboot) with a swappiness value of 10 can be made with
sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10
To make a change permanent, edit the configuration file with your favorite editor:
gksudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf
Search for vm.swappiness and change its value as desired. If vm.swappiness does not exist, add it to the end of the file like so:
vm.swappiness=10
Save the file and reboot.
Not forgetting
Here's a video, that might help you
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwBoHZuauL8
Time index 1:57
She says "making the most out of your memory is key... especially when you don't have a lot of it". That's an understatement. The default of 60 is basically silly on a normal desktop machine, even if you have lots of RAM, since there will be spare RAM that your machine never touches and is wasted. Also, if you have an SSD (Solid State Drive), I've read that you shouldn't use swap unless it's really needed as the constant writing to the drive will shorten its life, so that's another reason to change this default of 60.
