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Welcome to America: Here's Your Linux Computer

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Re: Welcome to America: Here's Your Linux Computer

#51

Post by jfuhrman »

kenrikm wrote: post #17
w1ntermute wrote: post #2

It's good to know that you're providing Linux PCs to those who can't afford them, but let's be realistic - unless they turn out to be really interested in computers, as soon as the kids start working and get some money, they'll go out and buy the same shiny iDevices that all their peers covet.

~95% of the developers I know in the Bay Area use MacBook Pros. The underlying Unix base Apple runs on is nothing to scoff at and the majority of things someone learns about the command line on a linux machine will be the same on a OSX machine. I'm surprised you point out iDevices, what we should be worried about is keeping them away from the Windows ecosystem.

>I'm surprised you point out iDevices, what we should be worried about is keeping them away from the Windows ecosystem.

I thought iDevices meant only iPads, iPhones and iPod Touch(es?).

Re: Welcome to America: Here's Your Linux Computer

#52

Post by JupiterMoon »

psykovsky wrote: post #38
mwcampbell wrote: post #9

I have to admit I'm surprised to find that anyone is still trying to make desktop Linux work for normal people, i.e. non-programmers who aren't free-software fanatics. I think to myself, don't they realize that it's pointless, that the year of the Linux desktop will never come, that Linux will always be the distant third-place desktop OS? More constructively, I wonder if recent Linux distros and desktop environments…

You know how you make linux work? Never install pirated versions of any software on someone else's computer. When you start talking about how much they have to pay to use windows and office legally they'll change their mind and use whatever you put in there.

Never install pirated versions of software on any computer. It is simply not worth it.

Re: Welcome to America: Here's Your Linux Computer

#53

Post by psykovsky »

JupiterMoon wrote: post #52
psykovsky wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know how you make linux work? Never install pirated versions of any software on someone else's computer. When you start talking about how much they have to pay to use windows and office legally they'll change their mind and use whatever you put in there.

Never install pirated versions of software on any computer. It is simply not worth it.

That also, ofcourse. But on our own machines we can decide, and if you're like me, every computer in your house uses a flavour of Linux and you don't even think about pirated software or software licenses most of the time.

Re: Welcome to America: Here's Your Linux Computer

#54

Post by dodders »

mwcampbell wrote: post #9

I have to admit I'm surprised to find that anyone is still trying to make desktop Linux work for normal people, i.e. non-programmers who aren't free-software fanatics. I think to myself, don't they realize that it's pointless, that the year of the Linux desktop will never come, that Linux will always be the distant third-place desktop OS? More constructively, I wonder if recent Linux distros and desktop environments…

> My guess is that GNOME 3 and Unity require roughly as much CPU power and RAM as Windows 7

I have a 7 year-old Dell laptop that wouldn't run Vista with anything like acceptable performance. I installed Debian/KDE and performance is absolutely fine.

The only tricky bit (as other comments have pointed out) was the wireless device driver, which I had to download from the Broadcom website.

Re: Welcome to America: Here's Your Linux Computer

#55

Post by gh02t »

bdcravens wrote: post #40
omarforgotpwd wrote: post #12

"Remember that shitty computer we got when we were first came to the US?" -- Kids, recounting this experience in 15 years

I'm typing on the highest end MBPr you can buy, but my first computer was a 286 with DOS and a handful of programs - this was just after Windows 95 came out, so it was quite shitty for the day. However, no computer has been quite as magical as that one. While I get paid good money to produce code every day, and I think it's damn good code, I don't feel nearly as productive as I did when I was learning to write QBasic…

My first computer (I didn't own it, but I got to use it often when I was about 4-6) was a Sun SPARCstation pizza box. Fond memories, I think most of my later interest in computers came from playing around on that thing when I was hardly older than a toddler.

Re: Welcome to America: Here's Your Linux Computer

#56

Post by microtonal »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #8
w1ntermute wrote: post #2

It's good to know that you're providing Linux PCs to those who can't afford them, but let's be realistic - unless they turn out to be really interested in computers, as soon as the kids start working and get some money, they'll go out and buy the same shiny iDevices that all their peers covet.

Reminds me of the OLPC failure. Turns out cheap netbooks, the intel classmate, etc was what the market really wanted, not a top-down academia led turkey. We've been doing "here's a linux distro on some old windows hardware" for literally decades now. It just won't catch on, especially in the age of mobile where people want less technical hassles, not more. A cheap/used android tablet with a BT keyboard is probably th…

We've been doing "here's a linux distro on some old windows hardware" for literally decades now. It just won't catch on,

And yet, this is how I started when I was 12 years old. We had a 386SX-25 with 4MB RAM and a 40MB hard disk running DOS/Windows 3.11. I couldn't afford a commercial compiler, I got a magazine with Slackware 1.1.x, and installed it.

I took some years before I got further than writing some basic programs. But I read any documentation I could find (IIRC it had the TLDP HOWTOs on the CD-ROM), and not much later there was a Dutch book about Linux on the market. Halfway high school, I knew enough about networking and UNIX that I was paid to set up and maintain servers/firewalls, etc. at my school.

Sure, 90% of the people will probably buy an iDevice or Android tablet. But lets not forget that there are also tens of thousands (if not more) whose technical interest was ignited by installing Linux on an old Windows machine.

Me, I am still thankful to Pat Volkerding. I would probably be in a different place without his (and others') heroic work.

Re: Welcome to America: Here's Your Linux Computer

#57

Post by hauget »

ilaksh wrote: post #45

I do most of my computing on cheap 7" Android tablets. I also ssh in to my Linode for programming but I could use Debian under Linux Deploy too, its just slow compared to the Linode. The onscreen keyboard works great for typing both in portrait or landscape. You just have to get used to it. Keyboards are mostly a hastle to drag around/setup and they break. If I was on my laptop I would ssh in on a slightly larger scr…

Couple of things:

1. Your particular computing experience vastly depends on what type of connectivity you have access to. Some people, for example, don't even have access to broadband.

2. Computing needs vary from person to person. For example, using spreadsheets for financial analysis isn't ideal on Google Spreadsheets, not because it's impossible but because a lot of plugins tie into Excel.

Now, I'm not saying most things we do now on a more powerful offline/desktop won't ever be eclipsed by their online counterparts, it's just that we're not there YET.

I'm with you on the VR setup! Can't wait to strap on some VR goggles and do all my computing there!

Re: Welcome to America: Here's Your Linux Computer

#58

Post by hamitron »

austenallred wrote: post #15
omarforgotpwd wrote: post #12

"Remember that shitty computer we got when we were first came to the US?" -- Kids, recounting this experience in 15 years

"Remember that shitty computer we had 15 years ago?" -- Everybody

I loved that Macintosh Performa 630CD

Re: Welcome to America: Here's Your Linux Computer

#59

Post by ilaksh »

hauget wrote: post #57
ilaksh wrote: post #45

I do most of my computing on cheap 7" Android tablets. I also ssh in to my Linode for programming but I could use Debian under Linux Deploy too, its just slow compared to the Linode. The onscreen keyboard works great for typing both in portrait or landscape. You just have to get used to it. Keyboards are mostly a hastle to drag around/setup and they break. If I was on my laptop I would ssh in on a slightly larger scr…

Couple of things: 1. Your particular computing experience vastly depends on what type of connectivity you have access to. Some people, for example, don't even have access to broadband. 2. Computing needs vary from person to person. For example, using spreadsheets for financial analysis isn't ideal on Google Spreadsheets, not because it's impossible but because a lot of plugins tie into Excel. Now, I'm not saying most…

Right but we are talking about kids. Kids can use an offline spreadhseet app, they don't HAVE to use Excel. They can also use an offline Wikipedia app, or offline "learn-programming" app.

Re: Welcome to America: Here's Your Linux Computer

#60

Post by kriro »

w1ntermute wrote: post #2

It's good to know that you're providing Linux PCs to those who can't afford them, but let's be realistic - unless they turn out to be really interested in computers, as soon as the kids start working and get some money, they'll go out and buy the same shiny iDevices that all their peers covet.

I'll disagree with this. As long as they don't find any stuff that they need Windows/OSX for they might be converted for life. There's also a very human tendency to get attached to the stuff you grew up with.

Even if they switch...so what. They got a free computer and a chance to learn a lot. That's a pretty awesome head start.

I also hope that the library has some nice "here's why programming is awesome and here's the books that'll get you there" type of course set up :D

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