Calling all linux gurus

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:14 pm

Have you seen this site?

http://jacklab.net/jacklaborg/english/? ... stribution

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:19 pm

^ nice!

Fall_X · Post by **Fall_X** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:35 pm

Moody wrote:
nebulae wrote:werd...are you using Vista?
XP Pro SP3, Vista is a pig! Reminds me of what Windows ME was. Some half ass attemp of an upgrade.

[hijack]

Nah... I'm on Vista (I was forced, I use my work laptop, and it came with Vista), and even though XP is a bit more stable, Vista isn't as bad as ME at all.

ME used to crash constantly, Vista doesn't. And it has all sorts of nifty improvements which I didn't think would be a big deal, but I miss them when I'm on an XP machine. For instance, the clickable-path-in-the-location-bar-thingy (while still being able to type there and copy-paste). Or the fact that, if you type in the path to a new directory in a save as dialog, and press return, the file name will still be there. The fact that XP doesn't do this drives me NUTS. You always have to copy-paste the filename when changing directories that way.

[/hijack]

Martyn · Post by **Martyn** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:45 pm

adventurepants_ wrote:+1000 for Ubuntu.

+1

It's by for the most developed for the task of ease of migration from windows and has most of the past problems with codecs/drivers etc already sorted out. My mum could install it!

(edited, dead link)

I have a "WUBI" install on my laptop, http://wubi-installer.org/ this installs ubuntu into a windows directory, so you can dual boot without partitioning. It works as well as the install I have on a separate drive in my main machine.

Debian is a very mature distribution but pretty hardcore where installation is concerned. You'd have to commandline install things just to be able to play mp3's let alone get your graphics card running. AVOID unless you really know what your doing. Ubuntu is based on Debian anyway, except everything has already been sorted out for people with no Linux experience

Suse is also supposed to be pretty easy to set up. Novell own it though and they've been recently cosying up to microsoft who are allowing them to waive certain "patents" in return for some deal or other.

With Ubuntu a beginner will have the best chance of a good working Linux install with the minimum of fuss. You're free to move on to a different distro once you've learned a few basic things.

Ubuntu works fine for me though, I don't see myself switching anytime soon, it has the best development cycle out of any of the distros. Just download a copy from here http://www.ubuntu.com/ burn the iso to a disk, set your computer to boot from CD and try it out, you can have a good look round without installing anything.

Martyn · Post by **Martyn** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:47 pm

Moody wrote:Have you seen this site?

http://jacklab.net/jacklaborg/english/? ... stribution

That's supposed to be really good but not a huge amount different to this http://ubuntustudio.org/

Probably the easiest way to install the realtime kernel.

I think the Jacklab install sets up WINE though, it's probably the better one for audio, probably a good one to install after cutting your teeth on ubuntu.

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:16 pm

FYI, Martyn, that link is http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ubun ... eview.html

Martyn · Post by **Martyn** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:13 pm

Ah thanks, a bit too much hastey cut'n patstey

Bear in mind that that's a review of the beta so some of the problems that the reviewer experienced should be ironed out by release.

djsynchro · Post by **djsynchro** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:50 pm

Ubuntu. "Almost there" in terms of being user friendly.
Prettier than Windows, faster, more stable.

First there was Netscape, then Explorer, then Firefox maybe Chrome next.
When Linux overtakes Windows I'll put it on my Internet computer, see how it goes. If Live were available for Linux I would definitely change I hate Micro$$oft

djsynchro · Post by **djsynchro** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:51 pm

there is an ubuntu Audio distro by the way.
http://ubuntustudio.org/

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:55 pm

still unanswered: does linux need antivirus software?

djsynchro · Post by **djsynchro** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:48 am

A firewall
http://www.linux.com/articles/55319

Lo-Fi Massahkah · Post by **Lo-Fi Massahkah** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 4:35 am

nebulae wrote:still unanswered: does linux need antivirus software?

Don't think so. It's so small no one really writes anything nasty for it. That was the situation when I ran Linux 18 months ago. I got by without it.

.m

napalmskatterjazz · Post by **napalmskatterjazz** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:56 am

wow... yeah clamAV is virus scanner... I will generally run nmap or nessus against all my machines nightly as well as have a dedicated snort IDS in between my gateway router and switch, and route all my traffic from router to third party proxy... Any of you subscribe to milworm rss?..

As for creating audio on Linux I would recommend any red hat based distro as the CCRM (google is yer enimie) kernel is designed to easily be built in this environment as well as many of the packages needed are available in a .rpm.

I have given up on debugging live to work under wine and you should too. If you can't get a system using jack/PureData/freewheelin/terminatorX/ all the rest to interact maybe you should go back to making music and not try being a hacker (and in no sense the malicious version, a tinkerer). The workflow is not as smooth but what are the personal payoffs of knowing how much work it takes just to set up a system that can do that all on open source software.

And the idea is someday people will combine ideas and code to make bigger things that could happen in a company. And look at what eboman is doing with his software...

oh. firewalls-iptables and don'r run any services or get pwned and run 1337 and not even know it...

Linux is for sysAdmins, codeMonkies, and $(R|p7 |<iDD\3S, the creative culture is not ready to handle Linux until nuclear holocost.

QUOTE: It's so small no one really writes anything nasty for it.
WRONG... uh Linux runs most web servers, database servers, dns/dhcp/radius/smb/nfs servers, So many inline IDS/IPS black ice systems. Linux is for the enterprise, the enterprise is the target as that is where intellectual property and everything vulnerable to the corporation is. Sure many enterprise networks are run from a MS domain controller and MS services, but as long as they get updated every tuesday they should only be vulnerable for a week (sometimes 2-3).

I hope that wasn't too in-depth... Linux is much deeper than this post.. hell there is google.com/linux just for linux searches. The more you learn, the less you know.

mdk · Post by **mdk** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:24 am

napalmskatterjazz wrote:wow... yeah clamAV is virus scanner... I will generally run nmap or nessus against all my machines nightly as well as have a dedicated snort IDS in between my gateway router and switch, and route all my traffic from router to third party proxy... Any of you subscribe to milworm rss?..

thats a fantastic opening line.

next time maybe throw in some 'bastion in the DMZ with some honeypots on the side', really scare the fuck outta people

as for linux distros, as most people say ubuntu is a good choice for home use.

you definitely dont want debian, its great if you know what you're doing and dont mind waiting for software to work its way into 'stable'.

also i just tried openSuse the other day, was quite impressed, fairly easy installer, system maintenance stuff is fairly straightforward.

Martyn · Post by **Martyn** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:40 am

There are no viruses on linux. The only reason to use ClamAV is so you can scan Windows drives with it possibly to rescue an infected system. Or to check downloaded files before transferring to a Windows install. I did read that somebody made a Linux virus to see if it could be done, you practically had to install it yourself to run it though, so it only counts as proof of concept. Students eh.

The RedHat fedora "planet CCRMA" install is pretty hardcore, you'd be advised to avoid it mainly because you'd have very little in the way of online help if you didn't know your way around a commandline interface. http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/
It is good and mature though, probably the oldest music distribution.