Computer operating systems

[CitroJim]

I really cannot fault Debian Mint. I've just subjected it to a stern test that always made Ubuntu cough a bit on the same hardware - that of processing all of today's parkrun photos... There was a lot...

Betsy just took it in her stride She's a cracking operating system!

[myglaren]

I have downloaded it in the first step to inflicting it on the laptop.

[CitroJim]

I have downloaded it in the first step to inflicting it on the laptop.

Your laptop will love you for it Steve

[myglaren]

Posting from Linux Mint Debian Betsy

Only running from the dongle at the minute but if I can't break it I'll install it later.

At least with Linux, if I do manage to break it, it is a quick fix to reinstall.

Main problem is saving all the accumulated crap. Have a collection of dongles and transfer to another computer but this has been going on so long that there are multiple examples of everything going back years and even all the files from my late wife's computer splattered all over the place.
I really must consolidate them but it is going to take days.
Of course, the longer I leave it, the longer it will take

[CitroJim]

Posting from Linux Mint Debian Betsy

Excellent It runs well from a dongle but is a lot quicker on an HDD

At least with Linux, if I do manage to break it, it is a quick fix to reinstall.

Yes, Betsy makes herself at home on your hard disk very quickly Updates are rapid too...

Main problem is saving all the accumulated crap.

I keep all my stuff on my VPS... My laptops hold no significant data on them at all so a rebuild can be done at any time with no worries...

In case my VPS falls over I keep take regular tarball backups and keep them on a little local server here...

[myglaren]

Good practice Jim but takes discipline

[Zelandeth]

Steve - a little program called rsync (or grsync for the version with a gui attached, so easier for mere mortals like me to use) is a *huge* help with keeping a central backup up to date.

It allows you to synchronise folders across drives - in my case it just creates a duplicate of /home/ from the hard disk to the backup drive. Once that's done once, it will only copy stuff in the future which has changed, so generally a backup only takes a couple of minutes.

There are also options you can set so that it will only copy files that are newer on the sending location as well, so you don't accidentally end up storing older versions of documents and such. Likewise you can tell it not to delete files (i.e. if copying photos from a second machine to a main archive). Once you've set the options up, you can save presets as well so future backups are a matter of opening the program, selection of a drop down list, then clicking "go" and just waiting a couple of minutes.

In my case that's to an otherwise redundant drive in the desktop, a drive attached to the network, and an external drive which is only physically plugged in to anything a few times a year, that lives in another area of the house well remote to the PC, and stored such to make it as safe from theft, flood or fire as I reasonably can.

Without grsync there's no way on earth I'd keep up with this mess. Firstly I'd never get my last tail in gear to do it - and secondly I'd get hopelessly lost in no time!

I've spent a lot of time working on the laptop in the last couple of years - this has made transferring the stuff being worked on and accumulated junk back to the desktop so much easier.

A similar utility does (or at least did) exist in Windows - xcopy (though I think it may have been renamed to Robocopy at some point), though that is entirely command line based and I always found it somewhat prone to randomly falling over in the middle of things, especially when dealing with large directories containing lots of small files.

[Michel]

I simply run Windows with Office 365 and get a couple of TB storage in the cloud.

Everything gets dumped in the folders which sync. It syncs between my various devices - IOS, Windows and Android. It's saved my bacon twice now when a hard disk died, and once when my laptop was nicked. I do make a copy on my USB HDD once or twice a year but since MS Cloud services have come on leaps and bounds, it's my preferred option.

[Zelandeth]

If only the current versions of Office came with a UI not designed by a blind Chinese baboon after drinking several bottles of cheap wine...

Seriously - I started taking my own laptop into work when we switched over to 2010...my productivity had dropped so far and my stress level increased so far that it was the only choice I really had open to me. Swore after that debacle that MS would never get another penny of my business. ...which I already had after the abomination that was Vista.

Do wonder occasionally about a cloud based backup now and then, but have yet to find a properly seamless solution, especially for the multimedia side of things which is probably going on for a couple of TB.

[myglaren]

I have used various backup programs in the past but stopped when the external drive died. Will replace it one day but probably not any day soon.
I just need to bite the bullet and consolidate it all. Some stuff is kept in Google Drive and that's pretty good.

Installing Mint Debian did not go well. First attempt on reboot decided the partition table was screwed, retried but without any success.
Couldn't find GParted so downloaded a fresh version that just stalled at each attempt to repartition.
Tried it with the Ubuntu partition program but that went the same way.
In the end just installed Ubuntu as I had wiped the Mint dongle to put the Debian version on it.

They are all much of a muchness though, any of them is quite acceptable.
Just fine not having to battle with Windows.

[CitroJim]

Installing Mint Debian did not go well. First attempt on reboot decided the partition table was screwed, retried but without any success.

Yes, you have to tell it explicitly where to put GRUB Steve - don't take the default... Default will be offered as /dev/sda

Change it to your boot partition - for example /dev/sda2

I simply run Windows with Office 365 and get a couple of TB storage in the cloud.

I still use a little of MS One Drive (ex - Sky Drive) for some legacy data and I agree it's a good place to store stuff centrally. Unlike most of MS it is reckoned to be quite secure. But Zel, I agree with you that Office 365 and related items are bloody horrible...

MS products in general just give me stress and therefore they are ruled out of court. I have to use them at work but for that they pay me so I tolerate... At home it's a different matter...

Give me LibreOffice any day...

[myglaren]

Debian Mint running fine now, thanks for the GRUB advice Jim
Up to now there is no discernible difference to Mint 18 Sarah and 18.2 Sonya or either of the Ubuntu's.

[CitroJim]

Excellent Steve Pleased about that...

I think you only see a significant difference on marginal hardware...

I do believe it's more stable than Ubuntu-based versions though... Time will tell...

[myglaren]

Can't say I have noticed any instability with any of them Jim.
Hardware is hardly gaming-machine spec, just noodling sufficient.
It does have the reputation of being more stable though.
Will see how it goes.

[myglaren]

Just seen this on an electronics website.

It may have been more accurate in the early days but - and it is a big but - apart from a bit of confusion with Linux Mint Debian Betsy" recently, there is nothing whatsoever difficult about installing Linux - even about 15 -20 years back installing from five cds (which I still have, I discovered just a couple of days ago) Linux is remarkably simple to install.

From "All About Circuits