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More Robolinux
In light of our experience with the Robolinux Stealth VM Software, we were dismayed by the flame of Robolinux and John Martinson in FCM#86. We were excited by the possibility mentioned in issue 85 that we could finally get free of Windows after years of staying with Windows just to have Quicken, Dreamweaver, and SketchUp. So, we downloaded the software, made our small donation, and did the changeover.
Now, we're running Linux Mint. If we need to do something with Quicken, Dreamweaver, or SketchUp, we run them on a Windows 7 virtual machine that's running under Linux. The Linux and Windows applications can access the same data files, and we can copy something we've selected in the virtual instance of Windows and paste it into something we're running under Linux, or vice-versa. Short of having fully-capable open source substitutes for the Windows apps, this is just as sweet as it can get for us. The virtual Windows looks and feels like the original, accepts updates, loads quickly, and correctly runs all of the applications we have accumulated over the years.
Getting this running wasn't as easy as we'd hoped. The whole Windows installation, with all installed applications, goes through two transformations along the way. First, it is copied into a VHDX (Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk) file (ours was 115 GB). Then, the VHDX file is converted to a VDI (Virtual Disk Image) file, which can be installed in the Oracle VM VirtualBox application running under Linux. There's an extension pack to be installed in the VirtualBox (so that it can deal with USB2 and some other things), and there's a set of Guest Additions that need to be installed once the virtual instance of Windows is running in VirtualBox (to allow the Linux /Documents directory to be shared as a drive in Windows).
We got seriously hung up on converting to the VDI file (the installer refused to accept our sudo password) and installing the Guest Additions (virtual Windows couldn't seem to find them). Through a long series of emails, the Robolinux support staff patiently nursed us through the process. Even though our particular installation had issues they had not previously encountered in more than a thousand successful installations, they never resorted to that old favorite of support staffs: blaming some other organization's product. When we reported what was happening at our end, a helpful response came back, and the responses were fresh, on-target thoughts about what to do next. It was the best software support we've ever experienced.
In fairness to the FCM#86 letter writer, we didn't try the Robolinux distribution of Linux, so we have nothing to share about that, either good or bad. And we weren't running a dual-boot machine; we were working with a Windows PC and a new Linux machine.
Jim & Celeste Parsons
ENCFS GUI
I just read FC87 and want to comment on the security article. For ENCFS, there is a GUI front-end that makes it more user friendly. Just install Cryptkeeper, it is in the Kubuntu repositories. You can see how it works on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlIfTBKK6EI
Marc Bohets
Ubuntu Woes
Two things caught my eye in FCM#87. First the article about installing Ubuntu on old computers. It mentioned the Dell Dimension 3100, which is exactly what I'm typing this on! I bought this machine nearly 10 years ago and it came with a Pentium 4, 160GB HDD, 512MB of RAM, and ran XP. Once I discovered Ubuntu (8.10 IIRC), I never looked back, but I've noticed that, as Ubuntu has got bigger, it has also got slower, at least on my machine. I upgrade religiously and noticed that each new version was slightly slower than the previous one. With 14.04, it got so bad that I wiped the disk (after having done a full backup) and tried Lubuntu. This ran noticeably faster, but I just couldn't live with the looks (vain, I know!) and so I put Ubuntu back on and lived with it.
I should add that I have upgraded the RAM to 2GB, which is the maximum the motherboard will take, and have also upgraded the hard disk to a 2TB, 7,200rpm disk. Fortunately, I have been saving up for a brand new, high spec computer, and I hope to have that in September. I really look forward to seeing how Ubuntu will work on a core i7 with 16GB of RAM and a 2TB hard disk!
Also, I sympathize with Jan Mussche, who says that all the various distros make Linux weaker and that they should all combine to make a better distro. Unfortunately, that's the price of freedom! Being free allows us to alter things, for better or for worse. I very much agree with his comments about the command-line. I try to avoid the command-line wherever possible. Also, I rather like the idea of having an OS that very few people have as opposed to one that everyone and his dog has. It makes you feel exclusive!
Chris Burmajster
Jan is 100% correct in the article about Linux taking over the desktop and laptop world. Everyone from all the different distros wouldn't have to come to an agreement, just some of them could form a group and follow Jan's suggestion. It would be revolutionary and like a breath of fresh air to the computing community. A lot of people don't even know what an operating system is. If you ask them what their OS is they are liable to say anything. They just want something to use to do whatever they do with a computer. They want it to just work. I know that for things to 'just work' involves a lot of variables, but I believe that it could be done. I am just a user myself that started with Windows 3.0 and Lotus 123 and got the 123 macro bug when in my late 40s – back in the early 1990s. After using XP for a while, I started dipping into the Linux pool in 2007. I bought a linux distro (can't remember the name) but it was not that good or stable. I have used many different distros since and have settled on a couple that just keep working for me. Some might say that Canonical and Red Hat have done that but obviously not for the masses.
Harold