Distrowatch.com -anything better?

[MrGaoMungGawn]

OK, OK! It is now coming down like THUNDER on my seedbox!

I am getting 5 MEGABYTES per second on this torrent from OpenSuse! BRILLIANT boys!

(And by the way, it is now finished and I am now editing, but it is really interesting to watch which countries are downloading this ISO suse torrent. I have got the Ukraine Turkey India USA and a few others. I will continue to seed this full ISO file until the cows come home. So, if you are having any trouble downloading from the direct link, then you can use the magnet link I posted above, It works! Have a lot of fun!)

Edited December 31, 2013 by MrGaoMungGawn

[MrGaoMungGawn]

No, Folks, I am not drunk.

I have not even been drinking alcohol this New Year's Night.

But I just finished trying to download the completed 4.3GB ISO file from my seedbox in Russia, and I can only download up to 98 MB.

Is it possible that some IT Goon who manages our internet network in this hotel/guest house has somehow managed to tweak the settings so that we users cannot download any files larger than 100MB? How incredible something like that would seem.

But could it be true? And is this possible using some firewalls?

Heavens!

[MrGaoMungGawn]

You will not believe this.

I am still trying to download the completed 4.3GB ISO file from my seedbox in Russia to my laptop or PC in CM.

This is about the 8th time this has failed using various different methods.

These downloads seem to quite when they reach about the 100MB mark.

I have never heard anything like this.

BUT GET THIS:

The download I started about 8 hours ago on my laptop using a download manager, the one that stopped at 100MB, has suddenly started up again and is downloading the rest of the file. AMAZING!

This never happens from this site.

I wonder if one of the IT GOONs in my building complex is screwing around with the settings on this server.

This GOONS are Loony, no doubt about it.

But this is beyond even their lunacy, I had thought.

[Deserted]

Linux Mint.

If my Thai wife can use it and feel comfortable with it anyone can.

Have been using Linux on my desktops at home for the last three years, currently have Linux Mint 15 installed which runs perfectly.

Yeah thanks, though its more the security tools aspect associated with Kali that I am interested in. If they can all be run on Mint, then that's my answer probably

Do we have sound?

[MrGaoMungGawn]

Linux Mint.

If my Thai wife can use it and feel comfortable with it anyone can.

Have been using Linux on my desktops at home for the last three years, currently have Linux Mint 15 installed which runs perfectly.

Yeah thanks, though its more the security tools aspect associated with Kali that I am interested in. If they can all be run on Mint, then that's my answer probably

Do we have sound?

Well, if you do not have sound, but just want a very good clear introduction to what is Kali,

I found one here on the blog.

I would like to try installing this, but I will need to wait until I install my opensuse 13.1 which just finished downloading circuitously,

And also installed virtualbox,

So that I can install Kali on virtualbox and play around with it.

The good link to the descriptive text is here --- http://www.kali.org/penetration-testing/kali-linux-penetration-testing-platform/

(((also, there is no sound to the video you posted.)))

Edited December 31, 2013 by MrGaoMungGawn

[JimShortz]

I also chose Linux Mint after using Ubuntu for several years, simply to get away from their Unity interface (urgh...). I have found Mint with the Cinnamon interface to be an absolute pleasure to use. It is certainly worthy of your consideration.

[raro]

Mr. Gao...why not going Fedora with Cinnamon? Phil and me had no problems with downloads and installation whatsoever.

[edwardandtubs]

The MATE desktop, though Cinnamon isn't hugely different.

MATE seems better as it has Applications, Places and System in the top left but Cinnamon doesn't have that, instead it has a very cluttered single menu in the bottom left.

[edwardandtubs]

Actually I've just seen in Linux Mint they've set it up so MATE and Cinnamon look identical by default. That takes away the whole point of MATE which was to keep the Gnome 2 interface. I'm sure you can faff around and set it up differently but that kind of crap really annoys me.

Edited January 1, 2014 by edwardandtubs

[raro]

what's wrong about having the applications in the lower left corner? It is the place were I would look for them....

[edwardandtubs]

I like the division into applications and places rather than one uber menu and I like having the bottom free for running applications. It's a matter of choice really but why would the Mint team mess around with MATE when the one reason people choose it is because they like the Gnome 2 interface?

[MrGaoMungGawn]

Mr. Gao...why not going Fedora with Cinnamon? Phil and me had no problems with downloads and installation whatsoever.

1. I just enjoy using opensuse, sort of like an old friend in this ever more turbulent world of ours.

2. I very much like the way opensuse works, but this time the downloading process is a nightmare. It IS possible that the firewall which I am behind is causing havoc.

3. Unbelievably, I STILL have not got the ISO I need on my laptop with the correct md5.

This is nuts.

[MrGaoMungGawn]

You are not going to believe this:

I switched to FlashGet and FireFox, and began downloading from the directlink.

I was switched over to RackSpace.HK mirror, and all was progressing nicely at about 5 Mbps.

Then I hit 99% of the ISO downloaded, and the thing just petered out.

Truly this is the download of the year from Hell, which started in 2013 and is still going in 2014.

I am not fooling here, and I am just reporting what happens to me along the way.

I have an existing DVD which I used to install this the first time, but I want to use a fresh DVD with a file that will pass the md5 and other security tests.

What a nightmare.

This time, I know this can have nothing to do with my local firewall.

[edwardandtubs]

Do you think other people are really interested in a blow-by-blow account of your download problems?

[MrGaoMungGawn]

Do you think other people are really interested in a blow-by-blow account of your download problems?

I think this is a perfect example of the unexpected, and the incredible something or other, that sometimes actually happens.

Since this is replying to the topic about what distributions are really worth having, at the very least it shows that if a distro is good enough, then its users will put up with a lot of frustration just to obtain it and continue using it.

I could switch to Ubuntu and use that in place of opensuse, but I will not do so because opensuse is better for my purposes, and I have used ubuntu in the past.

I could use Fedora, but opensuse is better and easier to use.

Others here use Opensuse, and they know it is very good.

But if you really don't want to hear the conclusion and solution to this nightmare, then no skin off my nose.

I just won't post more.

Happy New Year.

[Deserted]

Do you think other people are really interested in a blow-by-blow account of your download problems?

No they are not and furthermore this thread was started so that I can find a better way to review different operating systems. I would be grateful if the offender in question could start his own thread about his own problems rather than hijacking this one.

[Deserted]

I also chose Linux Mint after using Ubuntu for several years, simply to get away from their Unity interface (urgh...). I have found Mint with the Cinnamon interface to be an absolute pleasure to use. It is certainly worthy of your consideration.

How would you say they compare in terms of speed?

[dharmabm]

Sorry, I think I may have misunderstood you. Is Kali an operating system itself with what was formerly the backtrack tool set with it?

Yes, Kali is a full blown distribution, as was backtrack. Not really suitable for everyday use (although it could be), and is not the most user friendly. I use it in a VM for when I need its particular tools

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus SlimKat using Tapatalk

Why is not suitable for everyday use if I may ask?

Kali is geared towards penetration testing and security analysis, and some basic functions (i don't recall exactly what, but maybe basic networking - as an example) are disabled by default - it certainly COULD be used as as a regular desktop, but i don't think you will find it a good place to start. give it a try if you want though - if you don't want to use VBox you can always set up multiple partitions on your machine and multi-boot more than one distro, at one time i had nine partitions running as many different distros for testing, but VBox is a much simpler route.

[dharmabm]

I also chose Linux Mint after using Ubuntu for several years, simply to get away from their Unity interface (urgh...). I have found Mint with the Cinnamon interface to be an absolute pleasure to use. It is certainly worthy of your consideration.

How would you say they compare in terms of speed?

if you really want speed go with something having little bloatware - lubuntu, crunchbang, archbang and antix (and puppy, i suppose) tend to be lightning fast because they are not loaded with crap you don't want or need.

or, you can use a netinstall of ubuntu or fedora (the only 2 major distros i know which have minimal installers available) and build your own, but that is typically not for beginners

Edited January 2, 2014 by dharmabm

[Deserted]

I also chose Linux Mint after using Ubuntu for several years, simply to get away from their Unity interface (urgh...). I have found Mint with the Cinnamon interface to be an absolute pleasure to use. It is certainly worthy of your consideration.

How would you say they compare in terms of speed?

if you really want speed go with something having little bloatware - lubuntu, crunchbang, archbang and antix (and puppy, i suppose) tend to be lightning fast because they are not loaded with crap you don't want or need.

or, you can use a netinstall of ubuntu or fedora (the only 2 major distros i know which have minimal installers available) and build your own, but that is typically not for beginners

okay, well speed will do but in all probability, coming from windows most if not all os will seem fast. It's more stability and security that I am after. Would you say that Mint is quicker than Ubuntu?

[raro]

Do you think other people are really interested in a blow-by-blow account of your download problems?

No they are not and furthermore this thread was started so that I can find a better way to review different operating systems. I would be grateful if the offender in question could start his own thread about his own problems rather than hijacking this one.

I concur. This is about different distros and not about the ongoing saga about download problems with an indvidual distro, especially since alternatives have been offered in this thread.

Back on topic please.

[crabdog]

I have tested many many distros lately and there are lots of options available that will do the job just fine. I'm assuming you have a fairly recent and capable computer so resource usage will not be an issue.

I used Manjaro for quite a long time and it always served me very well. It's quick and responsive and is a rolling distribution so you just need to keep it updated and you will always have the latest version. The only reason I switched from it is because I got bored with the aesthetics of XFCE.

I'm currently running Linux Mint 16 Cinnamon on my laptop and so far it's working very nicely. Not a lot to say about it really...it just works.

I also have a HTPC which is currently running Makulu Linux (KDE). I'm really enjoying that one although it hasn't seen much use outside of playing videos but I really like the theme that comes with it out of the box.

Obviously there are heaps more you could try. I used to test on Virtualbox but found that it wasn't always consistent with a real installation (particularly if you have an Optimus laptop) so nowadays I do most of my testing running distros live from a USB flashdrive.

[52midnight]

You're probably typical of many who'd be well advised to move from M$ to FOSS (ever heard of the NSA? and they're the "good" guys). You'll first need to understand that you're not just changing OS and Apps, but entering a whole new paradign of web use (NO "viruses" for a start - half the world's expert and largely professional hackers would quickly descend on any that appeared, whereas the M$ crowd make money out of them). Distrowatch is a great site for those familiar with Lx/FOSS, but if you'd like a more practical approach, sign on to the newsletters from the guys who make pocket-money from selling new distro releases:

http://on-disk.com

http://www.osdisc.com

Take your time. At first, all distros look alike, but experience gradually engenders preferences. If you're serious about COMPETENT computing (as opposed to being a mug punter), download the ISOs of Knoppix (the best LiveCD) and SystemRescueCD (the best Swiss Army Knife):

http://www.knoppix.com

http://www.sysresccd.org

You'll then realize why Bill Gates is a criminal, and why M$ has been fined BILLIONS of dollars in the USA and EU for decades-long criminal activities:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Microsoft_competition_case