[Politics_Observer]

@MistyTiger

The Latest Debian based Linux Ubuntu version is 20.04 LTS (Long Term Support). I am currently running 18.04 LTS. If you have a laptop running Windows you can set up Linux Ubuntu version 20.04 through the use of a VMWare hypervisor. I think this is the free version here. I am using a school version of VMWare which I didn't have to pay out of my own pocket for. Here is where you can download which I think is the free version of VMWare as long as you don't use it for commercial purposes: https://www.vmware.com/products/worksta ... ation.html .

Here is an FAQ page from VMWare where it talks about the conditions you can use their hypervisor for free: https://www.vmware.com/products/player/faqs.html . Next, once you got VMWare Workstation Player downloaded, you can download Linux Ubuntu version 20.04 here: https://releases.ubuntu.com/20.04/ .

You can then use VMWare Workstation Player to create a Linux Ubuntu 20.04 guest operating system virtual machine on your Windows desktop or laptop. You don't need to be a turbo nerd to use Linux Ubuntu and it's supported for 3 years. So you want to keep it patched up for security purposes. You can use Gnome graphical user interfaces on Linux if you are not familiar with the command line. Eventually, you can buy a book and learn some of the various commands using the Bash Shell command line.

The link I provided is ideal for desktops. You can also create a dual boot laptop which I can do, but that requires me to go into a great amount of detail on how to do. You would need to download Rufus to create bootable USB Flash Thumb Drive and partition out your hard drive correctly.

You would need to know what you are doing otherwise you can lose a lot of valuable data on your Windows computer trying to create a dual boot laptop with Linux as the second operating system. In your case, it's best you use the VMware hypervisor to create the guest operating system that way you don't accidentally delete valuable data on your computer trying to create a dual boot.

Don't be afraid of Linux Ubuntu. It's a great, free to use operating system and you can use it for commercial purposes without paying license fees (most versions of Linux though not Red Hat Linux Enterprise Edition, their license isn't expensive and you get about 10 years of long term support). You don't have to be an expert to use Linux. You can stick with the Gnome GUI interface and buy books and learn some of the commands at your own pace.

[blackjack21]

Any of you Techies out there wanting to use GParted Partition Tool by booting from a "Live CD" via a USB Flash Thumb Drive, make sure you format that USB Flash Thumb Drive with the FAT32 file system and NOT NTFS or exFAT file systems.

Or if you have an ISO, you can just copy it to the USB with dd. That's what I do. I just have to remember to tell the server to boot from the USB drive, otherwise it goes to CD-ROM and then disk.

In case some of you are not in the know, UEFI is really the "new" more up to date BIOS and is more advanced.

Yeah, I've seen some issues with UEFI too. In older versions, sometimes there are issues with newer BMCs like Redfish, and I think we've had some issues with IPv6 as well. That should be resolved on 14Gen servers though.

Linux?

Peasant!

Linux is the aristocracy of the internet. Even Microsoft is making their own version of Linux again. They joined the Linux Foundation and the Open Source Initiative. Azure runs on Linux. Microsoft also bought GitHub. Microsoft even moved their edge browser to use Chromium--same foundation as Google Chrome.

I am using a school version of VMWare which I didn't have to pay out of my own pocket for. Here is where you can download which I think is the free version of VMWare as long as you don't use it for commercial purposes: https://www.vmware.com/products/worksta ... ation.html .

Why not QEMU/KVM and libvirt? Or better yet, containers?

Don't be afraid of Linux Ubuntu. It's a great, free to use operating system and you can use it for commercial purposes without paying license fees (most versions of Linux though not Red Hat Linux Enterprise Edition, their license isn't expensive and you get about 10 years of long term support).

I'd second that. RHEL is for enterprise apps, like running banks, airlines, military gear, private and public clouds, etc. Additionally, LibreOffice is a very decent suite of productivity apps. It used to be that a lot of the open source word processors, spread sheets, etc. sucked. They are very good now and free. I still think the photo editors like Gimp or vector graphics like Inkscape are simply not competitive with Adobe, and sadly Adobe doesn't support Linux nor will they open source their products.

[Politics_Observer]

@blackjack21

I have used KVM in the past on my Linux partition but currently use Virtual Box. However, I didn't mention it to @MistyTiger because it was un-necessary. She is probably using Windows and is new to Linux and probably doesn't know how to turn her laptop/desktop into a dual boot. She probably also isn't familiar with Linux and is a beginner. KVM doesn't run on Windows as far as I know, hence, why I mentioned VMWare Workstation Player which can run off Windows while hosting a Linux guest operating system virtual machine. VMWare Workstation Player does run on Windows unlike KVM. That being said, I think I read somewhere that Virtual Box is available on Windows even though I use it on Linux. That's an excellent type 2 hypervisor to use as well if it is available on Windows.

However, VMWare Workstation Player is probably more user friendly for a beginner than Virtual Box. Which is another reason why I mentioned it instead of the other hypervisors. I don't see how Linux is the so called "aristocracy" given you can be a poor man and not have money and use Linux. You need to be more "aristocratic" meaning have some kind of money to own a license of Windows whereas you don't with Linux. Always twisting and warping reality around blackjack. With today's distributions, you can stick with using the Gnome GUI desktop if you don't know much about Bash shell or the command line. Eventually, you buy a book and learn some of those commands.

[ckaihatsu]

Linux?

Peasant!

But I paid *a lot* for it!


x D

@ckaihatsu No offense, but whats the deal with the convoluted crazy graphics?

What do you mean? What's the crazy part?


---


Btw, on all this system stuff, I recommend Stacer.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/stacer/

[Politics_Observer]

@ckaihatsu

Pretty awesome! I am assuming the optimizer part of this software can be used with defragmenting magnetic hard disk platters for hard disk drives, correct?

[ckaihatsu]

@ckaihatsu

Pretty awesome! I am assuming the optimizer part of this software can be used with defragmenting magnetic hard disk platters for hard disk drives, correct?

Um, *yes*...?


= )


No, seriously, my understanding is that Linux inherently *doesn't have* that conventional problem of fragmented sections on any given filesystem. From recollection I think Linux does defragmenting on-the-fly, so it's never an outstanding issue.

[Politics_Observer]

@ckaihatsu

Yes, you are correct, your knowledge of Linux is impressive. You seem to know quite a bit. I am assuming the optimizer is used for Mac computers. Do Mac computers do optimization on the fly? Do you know? Also, can this software be used on macOS?

[ckaihatsu]

@ckaihatsu

Yes, you are correct, your knowledge of Linux is impressive. You seem to know quite a bit. I am assuming the optimizer is used for Mac computers. Do Mac computers do optimization on the fly? Do you know? Also, can this software be used on macOS?

Jeez, I'd better get some *college credit* for all of *this* -- ! (grin)

Well, I *started* with desktop publishing on a Mac in the late '80s (Atari 8-bit before then), and then switched over to Linux, and I don't recall ever having to do any disk optimization / defragmenting during all that time, so I'll guess 'no', and that it's just a necessity for *Windows*.

Looks like Stacer is only for Linux -- Linux *aristocrats*, that is.


= D

[Politics_Observer]

@ckaihatsu

You have to be one of those rich aristocrats if you want college credit for all this . I found an application called Noah for macOS that can be used to run Linux binaries. I have Wine installed on my Linux partition which is useful for running some Windows applications right off the Linux operating system without having to use the application through a Windows guest operating system off a hypervisor. This makes the application performance much better. I am assuming Noah is the equivalent on macOS for Wine on Linux. Here are the links to Noah and Wine:

Noah:

https://github.com/linux-noah/noah

Wine:

https://www.winehq.org/

[ckaihatsu]

@ckaihatsu

You have to be one of those rich aristocrats if you want college credit for all this . I found an application called Noah for macOS that can be used to run Linux binaries. I have Wine installed on my Linux partition which is useful for running some Windows applications right off the Linux operating system without using to use the application through a Windows guest operating system off a hypervisor. This makes the application performance much better. I am assuming Noah is the equivalent on macOS for Wine on Linux. Here are the links to Noah and Wine:

Noah:

https://github.com/linux-noah/noah

Wine:

https://www.winehq.org/

So one could run Noah on Mac to get an implementation of Linux, and then run Wine on that Linux to get a *Windows* implementation. Perfect.

(grin)


Yeah, I've seen that new WSL thing (Windows Subsystem for Linux), and I can't help but think -- why not just install Linux over the freaking Windows OS -- ! Looks like the commercial world is finally rapidly losing ground, or all of this Linux appeasement would have happened *long ago*....

[XogGyux]

What do you mean? What's the crazy part?

Information overload. The point of charts/graphics is to illustrate trends/connections/etc in an intuitive/easy manner. If you fill it with 20 dozen bullet points, 100 connection points, 1000 footnotes, and add 3D effects that distort everything you are essentially going against the goal.

[Politics_Observer]

@ckaihatsu

Yeah, I've seen that new WSL thing (Windows Subsystem for Linux), and I can't help but think -- why not just install Linux over the freaking Windows OS -- ! Looks like the commercial world is finally rapidly losing ground, or all of this Linux appeasement would have happened *long ago*....

That might be the case that the aristocrats at Microsoft are losing ground . Microsoft, I think, sees the open source community with Linux as a problem. I have the Linux Ubuntu 18.04 command line running off my Windows 10 Professional installation and Windows PowerShell installed on my Linux partition as one of the shells I can use. I absolutely LOVE Linux. And it affords poor people the ability to enjoy computing and technology. Which is abhorrent to Microsoft obviously ha ah ha ha ha! They only want people with money to enjoy computing so that they keep making tons of money!

However, on the other hand, poor people lack education and in some cases internet access which is what capitalist Elon Musk is working on with his satellite launches in space. That is if Trump doesn't destroy the U.S. first before Elon Musk has the chance to succeed. I imagine Putin is celebrating the success of his attack on his long time enemy the U.S. using Donald Trump as the primary means to attack the U.S. I mean just look at all the damage Trump has done to the U.S. on behalf of Putin.

[ckaihatsu]

Information overload. The point of charts/graphics is to illustrate trends/connections/etc in an intuitive/easy manner. If you fill it with 20 dozen bullet points, 100 connection points, 1000 footnotes, and add 3D effects that distort everything you are essentially going against the goal.

It's a decent critique, but for the one I posted the *subject matter* is what was important to me, so I did the graphic around *that*, in particular -- the word labels content.

There's a simpler earlier version of the same graphical content, here:


Leftism -- Want, Get

Spoiler: show

Also, this one, if you like:


Ideologies & Operations -- Bottom Up

Spoiler: show

And the one you're *really* gonna like, probably the simplest of all, is this one:


[2] G.U.T.S.U.C., Simplified

Spoiler: show

[Politics_Observer]

@ckaihatsu

On that encryption script you and I have been talking about, if you want a more secure way to implement it, instead of deleting the directory that was just encrypted with the recursive delete "rm -r" command you can instead replace that command in the script with the secure-delete command which is an anti-forensic deletion command. This prevents anybody with digital forensic software from recovering the directory, sub-directories and all their files that were deleted with the recursive "rm -r" command.

You want to make sure you have secure-delete installed first which on on most Debian installations of Linux you can use "sudo apt-get install secure-delete." After that has been installed the secure delete command to recursively delete the directory, all it's sub directories and all files underneath it including files in the sub-directories would simply be "srm -r <directory name>" the only difference is the "s" in the beginning of the command. If you change that script, for it to work, you want to make sure you have secure-delete installed on your Linux box (I am assuming you are running a Debian based Linux installation instead of a Red Hat based installation). You can check out the secure-delete command in the man files by typing up "man srm."

[Politics_Observer]

@ckaihatsu @ness31 @Unthinking Majority @Godstud

I had to use GParted live boot CD from a USB flash thumb drive. BOOOYYY that was HANDY TOOL TO HAVE! I can't recommend GParted enough and it's free. Much better than the Windows partitioning tools that come with Windows 10. Very handy. If you are going to use it, make sure you disable UEFI and revert back to legacy BIOS in your BIOS settings first. You can re-enable UEFI after using GParted. But tool was definately a big help. I attempted an upgrade from Linux 18.04 to 20.04 LTS on my dual boot computer and it fell flat. So I had to go in and edit the partitions using GParted. I will be installing Linux 20.04 LTS to replace 18.04 LTS.

[ckaihatsu]

Hey, PO --

On the tech side of things, have you ever tried out any kind of *Puppy* Linux -- ?

It's *very* stripped-down, because the *entire OS* loads into RAM upon bootup, and then you launch and run apps lightning-fast as a result. It's not such a big deal, I guess, on *current*, powerful hardware, but on older machines it's incredible.

http://puppylinux.com/

[Rancid]

I use it to wipe porn site cookies off my machine

Fixed.

[ckaihatsu]

I use it to wipe porn site cookies off my machine

Fixed.

Mmmmmmmm, porn cookies!


x D

[Politics_Observer]

@ckaihatsu

I have never tried puppy linux. Is it Red Hat or Debian based? I am assuming the operating system is loaded from mass storage it's just a very lightweight version of Linux. Is it lighter than Lubuntu? Do you know? I just finished using GParted to partition out a 500 GB external SSD drive. Half of it for backing up my Windows 10 partition on my laptop. I am using GPT partitions and then formatted the first partition in NTFS.

Second partition I formatted Linux ext4 file system. That second partition I will use to back up my Linux Ubuntu 20.04 partition from my laptop on my dual boot onto the second ext4 partition of my external SSD drive. That way I can maximize the use of the SSD drive for backing up both my Windows 10 and Linux Ubuntu 20.04 partition on my dual boot. I just got Linux Ubuntu 20.04 installed. I going to be customizing GRUB here in a minute so that it is an effective interface for choosing which operating system to boot into when I fire up my laptop.

Is Puppy Linux also supported? If it is lighter then Lubuntu and it's supported then it's an ideal candidate for laptops, desktops and devices that have older more slower hardware on them.

I got an SSH server running as a Lubuntu desktop but what I want to do is go ahead and use the external SSD drive, back up that server and then install ONLY the server (without any guis or desktop versions on the server ) of Ubuntu SSH with Fail2ban and Samba. I wish I could put Samba on a different old computer but I don't have another old computer laying around so I have to put both on the older laptop and run those three daemons off of it. Fail2ban is good to have with a hardened SSH server though. Samba is not a remote server, just an internal server I use in my home network.

[ckaihatsu]

@ckaihatsu

I have never tried puppy linux. Is it Red Hat or Debian based? I am assuming the operating system is loaded from mass storage it's just a very lightweight version of Linux. Is it lighter than Lubuntu? Do you know?

No, I don't know what they start with, plus there are *many* versions of it floating around.

I just finished using GParted to partition out a 500 GB external SSD drive. Half of it for backing up my Windows 10 partition on my laptop. I am using GPT partitions and then formatted the first partition in NTFS.

Second partition I formatted Linux ext4 file system. That second partition I will use to back up my Linux Ubuntu 20.04 partition from my laptop on my dual boot onto the second ext4 partition of my external SSD drive. That way I can maximize the use of the SSD drive for backing up both my Windows 10 and Linux Ubuntu 20.04 partition on my dual boot. I just got Linux Ubuntu 20.04 installed. I going to be customizing GRUB here in a minute so that it is an effective interface for choosing which operating system to boot into when I fire up my laptop.

Is Puppy Linux also supported? If it is lighter then Lubuntu and it's supported then it's an ideal candidate for laptops, desktops and devices that have older more slower hardware on them.

Okay, sounds like a plan. Puppy is *very* light, and not necessarily that user-friendly, but if you find the right flavor for you, out-of-the-box, then it's all gravy -- it's terrific pass-through for any hardware you're running on.

Yes, it's very compatible with any multi-boot you have going on, and you can easily test it as a Live CD (off a USB flash drive, of course).

I got an SSH server running as a Lubuntu desktop but what I want to do is go ahead and use the external SSD drive, back up that server and then install ONLY the server (without any guis or desktop versions on the server ) of Ubuntu SSH with Fail2ban and Samba. I wish I could put Samba on a different old computer but I don't have another old computer laying around so I have to put both on the older laptop and run those three daemons off of it. Fail2ban is good to have with a hardened SSH server though. Samba is not a remote server, just an internal server I use in my home network.

Yeah, for this kind of setup I highly recommend using the Turnkey Linux server approach, since it has webmin right with the install, and of course SSH and Samba, etc. The install is the simplest ever, though text-based, you can run it headless over your LAN after the install, and it's highly specific / customized depending on the flavor of TurnKey that you select. It's what I used for my last-decade digital music jukebox implementation:


https://www.revleft.space/vb/threads/16 ... ic-jukebox


https://www.turnkeylinux.org/fileserver