A Nail in Windows' coffin!

Well, we can hope!

http://www.zdnet.com/article/here-comes-the-first-ubuntu-linux-tablet/

Article from February 4, 2016

Who uses Windows tablets?

Either they are Apple or Android, the Microsoft tablets haven't been well received without significant price cuts.

Many older ones have found new life with fresh installations of Linux.

I think good OSes will always be a niche interest. There's just too much cheap (moreso in initial effort than money) popular junk out there that does what the average Joe needs and breaks down at a rate they will tolerate. Windows is actually not too bad in reliability or security these days, although it continues to lag far behind in functionality and economy.

Mobile OSes are the worst now. You've got Apple's locked-down shiny toy OS, and then Android, which reminds me too much of the bad old days of Windows - an OS that hides too much from its users, comes with poorly configured security and has a well-established ecosystem of malware ready to exploit it, and needs heavy modifications to be useful. Looks like it'll have to be my next mobile OS anyway because even a phone running GNU/Linux becomes impractical when its hardware and software are pushing 8 years old.

Huckleberry wrote: Article from February 4, 2016

Hey, it's news to me! I don't get out much.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

I have tried to use Linux before, and it seems to have a similar problem as a lot of free and open source software where you kinda have to know how to use it already to be able to use it, and asking questions from people who know generally gets a poor response. I tried to install it on my current computer and ended up being told that I should stick with windows when I asked someone about it who used Linux already lol.

How many Linux junkies do we have on here?  (written on a Toshiba Satellite P855 running LinuxMint with Cinnamon)  

FlightService said:

How many Linux junkies do we have on here?  (written on a Toshiba Satellite P855 running LinuxMint with Cinnamon)  

It's gonna take a while for them to reply, they are all recompiling...

In reply to slefain :

Sorry I'm late, I had to connect to a hard line because my Wifi dongle doesn't have drivers for this version of Ubuntu....

Still trying to get the Radeon card to work in my garage box, kinda hard to watch YouTube via the browser when its really jerky.

Could be worse, could be Windblows....

Here I am!  I currently maintain 1 dual-boot machine (win7/ubuntu 16.04LTS) and three Ubuntu-only machines, including the new HTPC running Ubuntu 17.10.  Thinking of defecting to a lighter brand of Linux, as Ubuntu is getting pretty chubby.

Edit:  Ooops!  I forgot the old AMD Sempron system running Ubuntu server (NOGUI).  It exists solely for my kids to host Minecraft games.

All my computers run GNU/Linux (all exclusively except one HTPC which has an old copy of Windows XP dual-booting for LAN gaming), except my gaming PC which runs Windows 10, and my phone and "carputer" tablet which run Android/Linux. My phone even has Busybox and a chroot with a full set of GNU desktop programs so that's sort of a dual boot setup.

Not only my computers in fact, but most of my network equipment as well (OpenWRT).

Other than a gaming laptop, all my E36 M3s run on android. 

Ubuntu user here... 

I've got my backup server, work desktop and living room PC all running Ubuntu.  Work computer runs KVM VMs.  At some point I want to try hardware passthrough when I get a new video card.

GameboyRMH said:

I think good OSes will always be a niche interest. There's just too much cheap (moreso in initial effort than money) popular junk out there that does what the average Joe needs and breaks down at a rate they will tolerate. Windows is actually not too bad in reliability or security these days, although it continues to lag far behind in functionality and economy.

Mobile OSes are the worst now. You've got Apple's locked-down shiny toy OS, and then Android, which reminds me too much of the bad old days of Windows - an OS that hides too much from its users, comes with poorly configured security and has a well-established ecosystem of malware ready to exploit it, and needs heavy modifications to be useful. Looks like it'll have to be my next mobile OS anyway because even a phone running GNU/Linux becomes impractical when its hardware and software are pushing 8 years old.

I've tried a couple antivirus apps for my Androids, but never felt confident they really did anything. Care to expand on the "heavy modifications" and other thoughts on securing my devices?

For an Android device, there are a few basic categories of security problems to take care of:

1. Included crapware with security vulnerabilities/privacy risks

2. The standard security model of just trusting the official app store

3. Lower-level vulnerabilities in the OS that require mitigation

4. Included factory privacy risks (arguably a different category than a security problem)

For #1 you need to identify and disable the offending apps if possible, or root the phone and install an open-source distro if not.

For #2 you just have to be aware that this model is bullE36 M3. Malware does slip through the Google Play Store, and apps that will violate your privacy six ways from Sunday are happily let through. The F-Droid unofficial store also reviews the security (and to some extent, privacy) of their apps, and since they're all open-source software of some kind, it at least allows you or other people to review the source code of what you're installing.

For #3, this is a problem with all OSes but Android seems to get more than most, just something to be aware of.

For #4, I recommend not connecting your phone to Google's services - no Google assistant, Google backup, Google-hosted geolocation assistance, etc. Factory Android distros revolve around connections to Google's services and it's a huge privacy problem - the typical Google-connected Android setup sends them an enormous amount of information they could only dream of otherwise. Some apps in the Play Store won't work without these connections, but it's hardly inconvenienced me - my phone doesn't even have the software for those services anymore.

For functionality improvements, a few choice apps plus Busybox and a Linux chroot get you about as much as you could hope for.

Stefan said:

In reply to slefain :

Sorry I'm late, I had to connect to a hard line because my Wifi dongle doesn't have drivers for this version of Ubuntu....

Still trying to get the Radeon card to work in my garage box, kinda hard to watch YouTube via the browser when its really jerky.

Could be worse, could be Windblows....

Funny. My garage computer is running Windows 10 and hasn't given me a lick of trouble with drivers, YouTube, anything. My biggest annoyance is when it resets itself and I have to click on the FireFox icon again before I can start printing shipping labels or calling up a how-to on YouTube. The horrors!

I run Ubuntu on a couple of servers that have no GUI. It's great for that. As a daily use operating system it would be tiring, due to what you describe. If it's a back office set and forget function, Linux is almost universally amazing at it. The catch seems to be in the user facing arena.

dculberson said:

Stefan said:

In reply to slefain :

Sorry I'm late, I had to connect to a hard line because my Wifi dongle doesn't have drivers for this version of Ubuntu....

Still trying to get the Radeon card to work in my garage box, kinda hard to watch YouTube via the browser when its really jerky.

Could be worse, could be Windblows....

Funny. My garage computer is running Windows 10 and hasn't given me a lick of trouble with drivers, YouTube, anything. My biggest annoyance is when it resets itself and I have to click on the FireFox icon again before I can start printing shipping labels or calling up a how-to on YouTube. The horrors!

I run Ubuntu on a couple of servers that have no GUI. It's great for that. As a daily use operating system it would be tiring, due to what you describe. If it's a back office set and forget function, Linux is almost universally amazing at it. The catch seems to be in the user facing arena.

Yeah that post was mostly in jest.  The Radeon drivers are a known issue and the fact that this is an old AMD powered system doesn't help as they were buggy under Windows too.  There's no replacement for poorly written and supported hardware, except new parts which I'm not interested in spending money on it.

The Raspberry Pi I used instead, running Raspbian, runs YouTube just fine, its just that Google changed the API for YouTube so the MediaPortal add-on for YouTube doesn't work if you're logged in.  Its also smaller and less likely to be damaged by swarf, etc. (I managed to shoot a stream of power steering fluid at the monitor while flushing it on the wife's rig).  So running YouTube via Firefox in the GUI instead of the more handy remote control works for now.

Trust me, I support Windows and have supported Windows for decades now for my living.  There's a reason why I have very few systems running Windows in my home.

Strictly Xubuntu here- thanks to a couple folks who already posted in this thread!