Computer operating systems

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Re: Computer operating systems

Post by GiveMeABreak »

Here is a basic breakdown from DSG:
"... in a nutshell, the exploit allows access to your operating system’s sacrosanct kernel memory because of how the processors handle “speculative execution,” which modern chips perform to increase performance. An attacker can exploit these CPU vulnerabilities to expose extremely sensitive data in your protected kernel memory, including passwords, cryptographic keys, personal photos, emails, or any other data on your PC.

Meltdown is the more serious exploit, and the one that operating systems are rushing to fix. It “breaks the most fundamental isolation between user applications and the operating system,” according to Google. This flaw most strongly affects Intel processors because of the aggressive way they handle speculative execution, though a few ARM cores are also susceptible.

Spectre affects AMD and ARM processors as well as Intel CPUs, which means mobile devices are at risk. (We have a separate FAQ on how Spectre affects phones and tablets.) It’s “harder to exploit than Meltdown, but it is also harder to mitigate,” Google says. There may be no hardware solution to Spectre, which “tricks other applications into accessing arbitrary locations in their memory.” Software needs to be hardened to guard against it. "
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Re: Computer operating systems

Post by demag »

I've just had my first big falling out with Win 10, it was only a matter of time really I'm surprised it's lasted this long. The wizards at MS have decided that 10 is that good it doesn't need a safe mode any more, dreamers. At the moment it thinks the HDD is faulty and is scanning and repairing, at the rate it's going it might be done by August. Linux continues to perform in an exemplary manner. :lol:
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Re: Computer operating systems

Post by Spurious »

Linux can be reliable. Though if you're using the bleeding edge distros, it can be a bit hit and miss sometimes.

I've been using Linux for years in one form or another. I get bored easily as it's just a hobby, so I flip and flop between distros. Quite liking the new Fedora. It's a nice usable distro. I've given up with Arch and the likes and gone back to the usability of a deb/rpm packages and a package manager.

Windows? Yep, still use it. It has its place.
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Re: Computer operating systems

Post by demag »

I have used Peppermint Linux for years. It's a Debian/Ubuntu spinoff but just does everything I want. I'm beginning to think my Win 10 hdd is failing, I ran a few tests tonight and it wasn't very healthy. I've given it the benefit of the doubt and ordered a new one from Amazon, should be here about Wednesday. I like the look of Fedora but it was always a bit bulky for me, Peppermint is very basic and I just add bits from Synaptic as I need them. I've played around with loads of distros even Puppy which was fast but the early versions took a lot of messing about to set up well. I used to like the look of the Kde distros but comparing them to Gnome/Debian found them a bit slow.
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Re: Computer operating systems

Post by Spurious »

I could never warm to the look of KDE. It always looked a bit like someone had tried to modernise Win98. It was just a bit too busy. I quite like minimalist desktops.
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Re: Computer operating systems

Post by CitroJim »

Since I went to Debian Mint I've never looked back - or at any other distros...

I used to use Fedora and that was good... Ubuntu eventually got too bloaty and windows-like for me...
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Re: Computer operating systems

Post by demag »

I fitted a new hdd and Windows has been quite stable. In fact I'm quite surprised, it's also been updating and keeping itself in order in the background. I'm amazed it hasn't been downloading hundreds of security updates upon shutdown like 7 used to but checking just it says it's all up to date.

Is Windows particularly hard on drives? It seems over the years I've worn a few out but I don't recall any Linux ones failing. Different file structures maybe? I can imagine Windows being a lot more active accessing files not that I really know.
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Re: Computer operating systems

Post by GiveMeABreak »

The updates will download in the background without you really knowing. They are a lot more passive than previous versions of Windows. They will normally wait til you are going to shutdown anyway if there is anything to be done, then it will just shutdown. Ditto when you next start up.

Hard drives will simply wear regardless as they are constantly spinning, but Windows 10 defragments the drive in the background so again your really don’t notice it. But like anything it depends on the hard drive spec., the types of applications used, the file system, allocation unit size etc as to how it performs and lasts.
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Re: Computer operating systems

Post by CitroJim »

demag wrote: 23 Jan 2018, 20:53 Is Windows particularly hard on drives? It seems over the years I've worn a few out but I don't recall any Linux ones failing. Different file structures maybe? I can imagine Windows being a lot more active accessing files not that I really know.


Yes, I believe Windows is harder on drives whereas all the various 'nix-based OSs seem much more gentle on them...

You don't see 'nix thrashing the disks like Windows often does for one thing...

The last time I had a hard disk fail was after years and years of faithful operation running Linux and the HDD failed on a reinstall of a different version of Linux. It appeared all the high activity associated with an install killed it!
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Re: Computer operating systems

Post by demag »

The drive that just expired was only three years old, that has to be the shortest lived one I've ever owned.
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Re: Computer operating systems

Post by CitroJim »

demag wrote: 24 Jan 2018, 08:36 The drive that just expired was only three years old, that has to be the shortest lived one I've ever owned.


What make was it Dave? Maxtor used to be terrible a few years ago...
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Re: Computer operating systems

Post by demag »

A Toshiba 2TB Jim, August 2014. I remember buying it because I'd seen some good reviews and yes I've had a Maxtor fail after 2 years thinking about it. Just outside the warranty period and no one was interested. Binned it (after judicious modification with a 2lb ball pein hammer!) :lolhit:
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Re: Computer operating systems

Post by Zelandeth »

All the Windows machines we have here (2x running 7 and one running 10) seem to be perpetually thrashing the drives.

I've had one fail under Linux in my early days of using Ubuntu - which I had plenty of time to deal with as it actually does something with the SMART data and warned me that the data throughput was dropping off. Gave me ample time to get everything backed up, and the drive was promptly shipped off to Hitachi and was replaced under warranty without any trouble whatsoever. That was in 2009, and its replacement is still going. It's very noticeable that the Hitachi drive at idle runs a good 20C warmer than the Samsung one that the OS lives on.

The only other recent one was in my server - in which the ancient 10Gb Seagate which was three machines old and had bearings that sounded like they were made of gravel when I first got it, recently gave out - having been running 24/7 since late 2006! I strongly suspect that it was killed though rather than dying of natural causes as the power supply it was attached to went out with a bang.

I've got a mid 90s IBM 2Gb drive (DORS-32160 - I don't *want* to know what it cost new...) which has had a startup issue since we first got it in the late 90s, but it's been utterly predictable since. Only drives I've routinely seen failures of with the ancient tech I mess about with have been Kalok (don't think I've ever seen one that worked!), Samsung drives from anywhere prior to about 2005, and Connor could be a bit hit or miss - they seem to really dislike sitting unused for any period of time.

I think a lot of the issues with drives these days is just that the data density is so ridiculously high...At least the older drives that were large (like the 1.2Gb Micropolis 1589-MD) did a lot of getting silly capacities for the time by adding extra platters...

Kind of dislike the fact that modern drives are so quiet...A lot of my older machines give you a real feeling of occasion when you power them on and it sounds like you've just switched on the starship Enterprise...The old IBM drive I mentioned earlier was good for that in particular.

It's slightly scary that with a lot of 80s or 90s computers that between the sound of the spindle motor starting and the seek pattern I can very often identify which manufacturer the hard drive came from - and on occasion the actual model. Think that's when you know you've been involved in a hobby for too long!
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Re: Computer operating systems

Post by demag »

Yes I remember old drives grinding and zizzing as they went about their business. They are a lot quieter now.
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Re: Computer operating systems

Post by GiveMeABreak »

I use SSDs for the main drives in my rigs and hybrid drives in the Laptops, the only noise I have is from the liquid cooling system to keep everything from melting 😁
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