A new year!

[Deleted]

Thanks a lot, Chaz. Not making any moves on the Dell at this time. From Dane.

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 That's cool! But if you ever want to do a change to it. Let me know, I can help you out with it. I could even walk you through it over the phone. 

 Well, I went back to Mint on the HP. Mint is so easy to use. It, too, has some things that are odd. But for the most part, everything seems to be working. Still having the problem with the WI-FI shutting off when I close the lid. Then I have to do a restart. But at least the Bluetooth works. LOL!

 I made up my mind to go ahead and buy an inexpensive laptop. Under the $500.00 mark. I can get one that will work for me as far as the internet goes. It will be new at least.

My two laptops have gotten so old, and I have used them and abused them a lot over the last 10 to 15 years.

[antares]

I didn't go down the USB dongle route, I bought an interal card to replace the recalcitrant one in the Lenovo S10e netbook. I noticed that the card in my IBM X60 worked, so because Lenovo = IBM, I bought the same make card for the Lenovo S10e. Fixed.

IBM X60 and Lenovo S10e- "How old?" ;<D

[Deleted]

Jan 14, 2024 13:27:39 GMT -6 antares said:

I didn't go down the USB dongle route, I bought an interal card to replace the recalcitrant one in the Lenovo S10e netbook. I noticed that the card in my IBM X60 worked, so because Lenovo = IBM, I bought the same make card for the Lenovo S10e. Fixed.

IBM X60 and Lenovo S10e- "How old?" ;<D

Think I am going to end up buying a new laptop. I won't happen right away but in a couple of months. The HP is getting slower and slower. I think the intel processor is getting tired. But everything the HP is old. LOL! The Dell is not far behind the HP.

 Both are in good and worn shape. The touchpad in the Dell stopped working some time ago. The outer case of the HP is cracking up. Guess the plastic is getting old. Or has gotten old. A whole lot of data has gone them both.

 But in buying a new laptop, I will be going to the big city to buy one. I also decided not to buy online. At least not from Amazon or eBay. Too many scams going on with people taking computers and selling them as new. After all the reading I have done today about how people are getting scammed in buying things off of eBay and Amazon and other online stores, Really made me to do a lot of thinking if I want to buy anything online anymore.

 I don't own a tower computer these days. They were cool to have because you could change and do so much with them. Now that Tiger Direct is gone, I probably will never own another PC tower computer. 

   The last one I built was for Windows Vista before Vista came out. I had that computer for a long time. Sold it after installing W10 on it. But at the time of the build, I put a lot of money into that system. It had the best of the best in it. But the case was made so that things could be changed out in no time at all. I was running 4 hard drives in it at one time, with a different OP system on each. The thing sounded like a rocket with all the cooling I had going on with it. The AMD processor was running so cold in it. It never ran hot! But then I quit using it, because the monitor I had stopped work, and that forced me to use my laptop more. Now I would rather use my laptop. But I do love my Mini Mac M2 running on my 55" TV screen. LOL! I'm a lost cause!

 The big problem for me is having a computer that will keep up with the internet. Old systems cannot support a fast enough interface to keep up. If a mother board can support a good video card and a lot of ram, then there's not much of a problem. But a lot of laptop computers have built in video that cannot be changed. As well as hard drives and memory. Everything is soldered onto the mother board. No upgrading it at all.

 That is why I am looking at laptops that can be upgraded. Like the hard drive and so on. I just read today about the MS "S" mode. That is interesting. For now, one can turn off the S mode. But you will need to download the switch from MS store. What an ordeal one has to go through to get it from the MS store. But I bet in a short time MS will not offer that option. They say they are doing that to keep people from changing things. To help people to stay safe while using their computers. You cannot use any outside apps or software on the computer while in the S mode. You will be forced to get things through the MS store. You are also being forced to use MS Edge only! Anything that is Linux based will not run while the computer is in S mode.

 So if you like to use Fire Fox, or tweak your computer, you are not allowed to in S mode. Again, MS is telling people that is to make the computer run faster and to keep everyone safe. WOW!

 But you can still buy computers not in S mode. They are hard to find. But they are out there. But if I did get one in safe mode, I would turn it off. Don't see the need of it for one. But I will have to watch for the ones they are selling in S mode that cannot be changed at all. I guess Google already does that. Google Chrome computers use S mode on all their computer that cannot be changed.

 Seems we keep on losing our rights to do things or even own things. This kind of thing is proof of it.

[antares]

That kind of restrictive practice sounds a lot like Macs to me Dusty.

[Deleted]

Jan 15, 2024 3:33:08 GMT -6 antares said:

That kind of restrictive practice sounds a lot like Macs to me Dusty.

They are all going that way, it seems. Been looking at so many new laptops. Dell is about the only one so far that still is playing a fair game when owning a computer. There are a lot of Dells being sold without the "S" mode. So that is cool.

 But I still like the Mac I have. The thing works well, so much better than any MS computers I have ever owned. I have owned a lot of them. Like I said, before is the MS has the gaming down. But as far as everything else? Not so good. MS is supposed to release MS 12 in a couple of months. Looks like they have gone back to releasing a new OP system every 3 years, like they did back in the old days of MS.

 Well, glad to put the Linux Mint back on the HP. The HP is back to running pretty well. It is fast once again. I don't know what Linux does to the CPU and ram, but they seem to have it down. The HP laptop is even running cooler. So for now, I am a happy camper! At least I can get online and do stuff without the computer bogging down.

 When the HP was on W10, it was real slow and would give me problems in trying to do things online. Like watch videos. At least now websites load fast! NO waiting around for a web page to load.

 Here is what I found out using Linux OP systems. Here is a list of the ones I tried out;

  1: Ubuntu; Now to me, this OP system is not for everyone. It is still not as easy to use for the average person. One still have to be a geek of some kind to use it. You will need to know how to use commands to get some things to work. And even then it still won't work. So I do not recommend this OP system for the everyday use.

  2: Debian; I like this one a lot! It's easy to install, and works out great on my Dell. I could not get it to work well on the HP. Could not find driver for the Wi-Fi. Even using the command lines, It still would not work on the HP. That was an Issue with Ubuntu as well. Blue tooth and WI-FI now working or not working well. But I did find the driver for WI-FI for Ubuntu. But was still a problem in getting to work correctly.

  3; Fedora: Not a fan of it at all. Worked OK when using it on USB, but after install it was a mess, on both the HP and the Dell. I didn't spend a lot of time on it.

  4; Arch: Now this is another one for the person that has time to Geek out. I only tried it out on my HP. But there was just too much to do in getting it to work well.

  5; Linux Mint 21.3 "Virginia" Now this is one is based on Debian, it has been a pleasure to install on my HP. The HP plays well with this OP system. I did have it on the Dell, but I wanted to try Debian on it, and it plays well the Dell. So I have Debian on the Dell and Mint on the HP. Both computers are running great! I did have to download the Wi-Fi driver for the HP. But it is working great!

  6; POP OS system 76: This is a great OP system. It works well on both the HP and Dell. It does take some time to install. But once in, it works and works well. My only complaint is that it wants to update almost every day. I used this system for about 7 years, and of resent I put back into the HP. But eveytime I went to use that computer, there was yet another update. I still have installed on an external hard drive and still use it through the USB port.

 When I started this adventure, I was looking for something easy to use and would work well with the two laptops I have. I think I found what works well for me. I did not want an OP system that I have to tweak it lot and have to spend hours on tweaking it. The POP OS can be tweaked all you want if you want too. But works well out of the box. The Debian and Mint are the same way. But are so easy to install and use. New on the HP, I did have to get the driver for the WIF, but the Bluetooth works just fine.

 I will be looking into the Linux video software at some point. But for now I'll leave that up to my Mac. So nice to be typing right now on the HP and there is no lag at all! When the HP had 10 it, it would lag while typing. And take its time to load things. It will be nice to see how fast the HP will load this post now.

 In conclusion, I'll see how things hold up. I need to wait until I can get me a new laptop. I only hope between the HP and Dell I can limp along a little longer. I only like to use my Mac for making videos and paying bills. LOL! That is such a great computer. I wish it could use it like a laptop. HA!

There were a few other Linux OP systems I tried out. Some worked pretty well and others did not even load onto the Dell or HP. Don't know why they just didn't want to play.

Was going to try Red Hat and there was another one I can't remember the name of. Wound up not trying them because the downloads were like one was 8 hours and the 12 hours to download them. My internet is way slow. But I think they would not be all that user-friendly.

 Wanted something easy to use. That is the biggest reason I am using the ones I put onto the computers. But in it all, I had a lot of fun trying them out.

   I will say that if it has been a while since you have used Linux, I would say try one of these out. You don't have to install them to try them out. That is another thing cool about Linux.

 Linux has come a long way in the last 3 to 5 years. Now, with computers being built with Linux Mint and POP OS already on them, Linux needed to get them more user-friendly.

 Been using Linux for a lot of years now. I started using it back in the Windows 95 times. No, I take that back, it was back in the DOS days. LOL! Before windows of any kind. Back when, one had to know how to do programming. Did a lot of that way back when... We are now so spoiled.

  

[antares]

Redhat = Fedorah Dusty, so no problem.

[Deleted]

Jan 15, 2024 14:06:38 GMT -6 antares said:

Redhat = Fedorah Dusty, so no problem.

I tried to post a response yesterday, and it showed I did, but now it's not there! Hum...

 I did try to download Red Hat. But the download was going to take 8 hr. So I decided not to. I used it a long time ago. Did not care for it. I do see where they are now restricting some of the downloads. Seems that Read Hat is now wanting to charge for it. There are still some free Read Hat OP systems, but from what I read they will not be as good as the ones you buy.

  I have a real slow internet. DSL, comes though a phone line like they, used to you for telephone. It does OK at best. I miss the fiber Optic cable I used to have years ago. Things were so much better. But living in the country, we can't get that.

 Looked into StarLink, all in is around $800+ to get it up and going. Then it's over $100.00 a month after that. The internet I get is free because that is part of our rent. So I guess it depends on how you look at it, guess in some way I still pay for it! LOL!

 The fiber optic I once had was around $250 a month. Was the top of the line in speed. But back then I was working and making a lot more money than I do on retirement.

It would be nice to have a better Internet service. So that uploading videos would not take 3, 4, to 5 hours to upload. That's on a good day.

 I also looked into making a laptop computer. But wound up not being able to find all the thing needed. The things I could find wound up costing more than what I can buy one for. Some of the processors are over $800.00. I know you get what you pay for. But wow!

 The video cards, Same thing for a good video card, they start around $400 and go up!

Well, as you can see, there is no way I can do that. After looking at laptops for the last week, seeing the cost of them, it seems that Mac is the way to go. There are MS laptops put there that are double in price of a Mac.

 But I will more than likely end up with a Dell That can do most of the things I need. The one I am looking at is under $700.00 The $300 to $400 ones just don't cut it for me. Not enough ram and disk space. Most of them you cannot upgrade. And there are some that are S mode locked. That means you cannot un lock it from MS and from what I read you can't make any changes to the computer. You cannot put another OP system in it. MS has locked people out of the Bios. The only way around it, you have to pull the Bios chip and have it reprogrammed. Or buy the device to reprogram the chip. So I will not be getting anything like that.

 Windows 12 is soon to be released. It is going to a subscription based OP system. You will have to pay MS a fee to use your computer with MS. Don't know what that fee will be, but it will be around what they charge for office every year at the least. You can count on it.

 Seems to be a big effort with the computer community to get people away from MS. I tend to agree. But, in a few more years, it will all change. They are working on a way right now that all your computing will be done online. In other words, there will be no more computers with an OP system in them. At least not like we have today. It will be more like turning on the TV and logging into your paid subscription to use the internet. Like it or not, that is coming. Everything will be done and saved on a cloud. I am sure there will be a new way of downloading and printing things.

 But the future of computing is going to change, It has too.

[antares]

From memory, RedHat started charging years and years ago, but in context they were / are providing a support network too. Perhaps Fedora is the unsupported flavour of RedHat? The same happened with SuSe Linux. I bought a boxed set of Version 6 SuSe, (about 6-7 CDs) prior to their introduction of a charging model, and I never did get it to work. It was sending eMail that was the problem, everything else was fine. Eventually I gave up. Have you tried Puppy Linux? They focus on "light" distros and sit very comfortably with older hardware. Keep in mind that dependent upon what Puppy distro you choose, they are based upon different systems albeit under the Puppy banner. Worth a look though if only because the downloads are a fraction of the mainstream bloaters.

We have fibre here. We were beaten into it by totally unrealistic prices for DSL. Because you're only ever as good as the weakest link in the chain, I barely notice the difference. That said, fibre has removed one of the RF noisy services that enter Château Hippy which improves my shortwave radio reception a little.

I have yet to come across any guitars that "run on Linux", although such things as the Kemper almost certainly do. Just sayin' ...

[GuitarAttack Forum]

Jan 16, 2024 11:38:41 GMT -6 antares said:

I have yet to come across any guitars that "run on Linux", although such things as the Kemper almost certainly do. Just sayin' ...

True, guitars do not run on Linux, but people who make guitars use them for a variety of tasks. There was a mention of CNC earlier; lots of guys I know with CNC machines run them with MS-DOS or Linux machines.

And for the Kemper, the Rig Manager editor runs on Windows or Apple OS, but I am sure there is a Linux version floating around out there!  It is pretty powerful and reminds me a lot of the old Line6 POD Editor that required MIDI.

It is funny - it used to be that guitar- and computer-centric people tended to be exclusively one or the other. Now, with computer recording and modeling amps along with the home-built CNC machines, the two communities are coming together.

I feel like I am behind -- I have never used Linux, and I was sorry to see TigerDirect is no longer in business.

John

[antares]

Hey John, I was suggesting that the Kemper unit hardware runs under an embedded Linux rather than the interface with humans. If I was to venture off into such an enterprise, I don't think I'd factor in paying Redmond a licence for every unit shipped.

[Deleted]

Steve,

 It's been a while but yes I have used Puppy Linux a long way back. At this time, I don't remember if I liked it or not. But stinting here thinking on it, I think I didn't end up using it because at that time it too had a hard time with hardware. At least on the computer I had at that time.

 My wife today had an eye surgery done. She did well. But I brought my Dell laptop with me to give it a run for its money to see how well Deblain would work on the road.

The Dell is working better than I thought it would!  I am able to stream movies super smooth. Get on the internet without any issues at all. I am impressed!

John, it does not take much to get lost in the world of computers. Some things are changing so fast, while other things are not. I try to keep up with most of it, But sometimes it gets so over whelming.

 Right now, it's hard to know what kind of new Lap Top I want to get. So many out there to look at. I know what I want in a laptop, but it's hard to pick the one that I want. 

  My wife and I were talking about it today. You see, all I need is one that will last me for another 6 to 8 years. Being up front, I don't know if I'll be around in 10 years. In 10 if I make I'll be turning 80. With the health issues I have and with what the doctors are saying, I may be lucky to have another 8 to 9 years.

 So knowing that, I have been wondering even if I need another laptop or not. But at the same time, I know the 2 laptops I have are on borrowed time.

The Dell and HP both have the same hard drive (make) and same amount of memory in them. But the Dell is AMD and the HP is Intel. The Dell is at least twice faster than the HP. The Dell run hotter than the HP. The Dell will load things like videos superfast. The HP will linger.

 I learned today that Google is launching a strike against Fire Fox. So has MS. Google only want you to use Google for a web browser, as well as MS wanting you to use Edge. The thing is, when you load Fire Fox on as web browser, it puts Google on as default. You have to change it in settings. The thing is, Firefox is Linux based. So it will always be a part of Linux as far as I can tell. But if you like Chrome, you can use it on Linux, but you can't use MS Edge on Linux. Linux has a lot of things you can use on MS. Even on Mac.

 So here what is happening with YT. Since YT is Google, YT is now slowing down Fire Fox when trying to view YT videos. They are trying to say that it's on your end. But I guess it's how you look at it. If you are using Fire Fox, you have control, a lot of control over the things. Like using ad blockers and other thing to help keep you safe on the net. Google does not have that same amount of control. Nor does MS Edge. But yet this is all NS and Google is talking about, how they are keeping you safe, when in fact they are not.

 I have been using Fire Fox since it first came out. They were the first to have a way for you to have Tabs. MS and Google took them a long time to catch up to Fire Fox. But even now, Tabs work the best in Fire Fox. I'll be a die hard to stop using Fire Fox. I think MS and Google need to grow up and realize they aren't the only fish in the sea!

Also on the horizon is some other OP systems that are not macOS, Linux, Google, or MS. At the moment I forget the names of them. I only learned about them today. So I will be looking more into that. I think what will happen if MS and Google keep at it, people will rebel against them in a big way. At this time, the average user may not care. But there are a lot of people out there that are rising up. I did see where some videos are being taken down on YT that promote Linux and other OP systems. It happened to one that I was watching. I was watching it, and then it was gone, not to be found. Then two days later, I saw a video from the maker of that video that said that YT removed it. Under user right kind of thing. There was nothing in the video that I have seen that had a user right thing in it. But was taken down before I could get to the end.

Just like Guitars, there seems to be this thing of who has the right. We builders cannot copy a guitar that the manufactures have a copyright on the design of a head stock. I understand that to a point. But a one-off guitar being made by someone is not going to hurt anyone. Much like this whole thing with the web browser or OP systems. There is no copy right in what people can use as an OP system. But MS and Google are tying to change all that. It will be interesting to see how all this will play out in the near future.

 I feel we the people are the ones loosing in all this. Just like anything we think we own. Do we really own anything? If you own or buying a house, it can be taken away for you at any time. The land your house sit on, you do not own the mineral rights to it. In most cases, when sign the paper for your property, I bet you singed a paper stating so. So if they find something on that property, they can take it away from you. I have had a couple of friend in life that lost their homes because developers wanted the land. So tell me how we own anything. Think about it. This is what is happening in guitars, computers and so on. The people that are large and in charge will control the outcome of what they want people to do, think and live. I wonder how many can survive without the net? Little anything else. It all started a long time ago. When the internet was born. Someone got the idea they could change people to use it. That took off pretty fast with dial up. And has not stopped. So now the big greed has gotten into the game. How much will people keep paying for something we the people do not own or have rights to it?

This is a huge thing to me. Been around for a lot longer than the computer or internet has been around. It is a changing monster, a one eyed demon that has spell bound so many. Sorry to say, I am one of them.

 Guess it will someday all come to an end. HA!

Sorry I went on so much. SIFI is real!!! LOL!

[GuitarAttack Forum]

Jan 16, 2024 16:07:01 GMT -6 antares said:

Hey John, I was suggesting that the Kemper unit hardware runs under an embedded Linux rather than the interface with humans. If I was to venture off into such an enterprise, I don't think I'd factor in paying Redmond a licence for every unit shipped.

I did not know it was Linux….how do we get into it? Lol

Joh

[antares]

Jan 16, 2024 20:08:52 GMT -6 GuitarAttack Forum said:

Jan 16, 2024 16:07:01 GMT -6 antares said:

Hey John, I was suggesting that the Kemper unit hardware runs under an embedded Linux rather than the interface with humans. If I was to venture off into such an enterprise, I don't think I'd factor in paying Redmond a licence for every unit shipped.

I did not know it was Linux….how do we get into it? Lol

Joh

You don't / can't- it's embedded code like the Linux running your internet router (and pretty much eerything else these days.) Often there is a facility for the user to flash/upgrade the firmware, but you still can't "get into it). All you can do is make configuration changes using (in the Kemper example) Windows.

I am of course making an assumption regarding the Kemper and Linux under the hood.

Just imagine if Linus Torvalds had created a revenue stream from Linux and Tim Berners-Lee had monetised hyperlinks? Like Gates and Jobs? It's heartening to think that not everyone is a grasping clawing syphoning toad.

[Deleted]

After all the time I spent on looking at new computers from all price ranges. I have decided not got buy anything for a long while. I just can't bring myself at this time to buy a new computer.

 But here is what I am going to do this weekend. I ordered me a swivel TV stand. My Mini mac is hooked up to my big screen TV. So once the TV is on its new stand, I can the turn the TV towards my big chair where I sit to be on my laptops. That way I can use my Mac in comfort and be close to the screen.

 The wife made me realize the Mac was made to use, so why not use it? I was trying to use it only for the videos. But I don't plan on doing a lot of them anymore.

  Looking into trying Linux to make videos. But so far most of the software I found has a big leaning curve.

  I am having fun trying out Linux. Going to try out a few more. I have waiting on a USB Puppy. Looks like fun. It says that it was made for old people! LOL! I will see! Wait, where are my glasses? What? On top of my head? LOL!

[Deleted]

OK, Puppy was a no-go. I did not like it at all. It is a pretty simple OP system to use. But it still won't work with Bluetooth or my WI-FI on the HP. without jumping through a lot of hoops. Too much work to get things working.

 I also tried out Only a couple of others that were way out there to use. Everything has to be loaded through the console. For me, just too much tweaking around to get things and some things that are supposed to work, don't.

Tried to get Debian to work on the HP once again. But it, too, just won't see the Bluetooth or wife on the HP. No mater what I did or tried. Too bad, too, I really like it on the Dell. The Dell is still working like a dream computer.

 I also tried to reinstall POP OS on the HP. It worked before without a hitch. But this time it was doing the same as the others in not wanting to see WI-FI and Bluetooth. I guess it too has stopped supporting old WI-FI and Bluetooth.

So I wound up putting Mint back in it. I had to use the "get new drive button" That comes with Mint. But it found it and all is good. The Bluetooth worked right out of the box. Why can't the others be that easy to use?

 The HP is going to stay with Mint on it. In another month or two, I will more than likely put the HP to rest. It has served me pretty well over a lot of years, and it needs to go to computer heaven. LOL! I have used it a lot! The HP started out in life with Windows XP. Right before MS stopped support on XP, MS let me upgrade to Windows 10. It has been on 10 for a lot of years, and I was using the HP with a dual boot to Linux. But now, after MS tried to lock me out of Bios, the HP is fully on Linux.

Looks like there is a lot going on, between MS, Linux and Google. Huge fight going on between them. MS and Google are trying to get rid of FireFox. FF is Linux based. Google only wants us to use Google. And you guessed it, MS only wants up to use MS. I bet this all will end up in a court at some point.

 Who do think will win?

 Also, looks like more software companies are now jumping in the monthly and yearly charge thing. They will not be offering a one time fee like they once did when we could buy a CD and go on our way. A lot of them now want to charge you for using their product by monthly or yearly. No lifetime kind of thing.

 It may all sound OK, but it's not! Every time I turn around, there is someone wanting to charge me for something. I pay out enough to use video streaming, internet services, not to mention other daily things. Already this year, all the bills have gone up. Paying more for health care insurance. It not for free! Like so many think.

 Every time I get a raise in SS, it gets eaten up with medical insurance rates going up! So when Google, YT, FB and MS start in on wanting to charge... Well, one has to draw a line and say NO! I will not! And I will not pay to keep on playing. Enough is enough!

 YT is the one that started to pay people for their videos. So in order to keep paying those that get paid, they are needing to start charging. Just read today that YT is loosing a fair amount of people in the last few months. Why is that? I think it's because of their crack-down on people using Ad blockers. Just wrote to YT the other day after they had blocked me for about the 5th time. I told them I am sick and tired of them blocking me because I want to block ads that to me are not ads but spam. And some ads are nothing but sexual related. Shame on you for letting this kind of content being shown as an ad.

 They did unblock me for now. But in a week or two, I bet they will do it again. Funny thing is I can use private browsing and I get no Ads and I don't get blocked. This might be why YT/Google is trying to get rid of FireFox. Hum...