I stick with PC's running LinuxOriginally Posted by BWT
I stick with PC's running Linux
It has literally been many years since I had any trouble with network interfaces in Linux, but the first thing you might try is simply:
sudo ifdown wlan0
sudo ifup wlan0
(Obviously replace interface name if necessary.)
Funny story (?) about Linux: back when I was a student I had this desktop computer cobbled together from various parts. I had been using one flavor or another of Windows until then, and struggling with the limitations of the operating system. I believe I was running NT4 at the time the computer went kablooey to the point a full OS reinstall was necessary. (I think one of the three or four hard drives I had in that box failed, and of course the failed one was the boot drive. I could misremember though - I reiterate, I was running NT4 at the time. It's been a while.) The kablooey naturally took place during a weekend and it was at that point I realized the only install media I had access to at that time was a Linux distro of some sort (Ubuntu, I think?). I figured I'd at least be able to get basic functionality back until I could get access to a Windows install media the next Monday, so what the hell - let's play with Linux for the weekend.
And that, ladies gentlemen and none of the above, is how I became a Linux user - by the time Monday rolled around I was in no hurry to switch back to Windows, and in fact my personal computers have been Windows free ever since.
My first Linux experience was Slakware. My Dad gave me a Linux book with a CD. At work I had an old PC collecting dust, so I said WTF. It installed with no issues, so I made it our SMTP gateway server when we connected to the Internet back in 1993. Used Red Hat for awhile, then Ubuntu on the recommendation of a friend who worked for Nokia (pre Windows CE). At my last IT job (2011), I installed Ubuntu Server on a couple of dust collectors, and used them for Nagios and OSSEC. Nagois keeps tabs on your running services of your servers, and alerts you when they are down. Really helpful. OSSEC does security audits of your servers, somewhat useful, better than nothing. Never used the wireless stuff, always hardwired (RJ45) Ethernet.
I installed Slackware somewwhere in the 90's, then in 2002 when I finally got a away from windows I went back to Slackware, bee on it ever since.
Maybe I can make this Linux thing work this time.
Got my System 76 Meercat up and running on Pop!_OS 21.04.
So far so good and everything seems to be humming along nicely.
"For a moment he felt good about this. A moment or two later he felt bad about feeling good about it. Then he felt good about feeling bad about feeling good about it and, satisfied, drove on into the night."
-- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy --
This thread prompted me to give Linux on the desktop another spin. My current installation of Win10 is about 2 years old and my hardware is about 8 (minor upgrades of SSD and a newish video card aside). It's been roughly 20 years since I last used Linux as a desktop OS and I'm pleasantly surprised at how much things have improved. I pulled the old Win10 256gb SSD out and replaced it with a new 2TB model and went to work installing the most recent Ubuntu LTS distro.
Stuff that would have been very tedious to get working back then "just work" now. I did have to dump Firefox for Chromium because the former doesn't work with Netflix/Hulu/Amazon despite having the latest version and DRM enabled (I had dumped FF on my Win machines for the same reason). Chromium worked without any fiddling. The Gnome interface is "weird" (mainly the Dock), but I'll get used to it. I have a couple apps for which Linux versions don't exist (VMWare, iTunes). Wine doesn't work for VMWare, at least not without a bunch of troubleshooting. It should work with Itunes, but I may just put that on my wife's laptop since her phone is the only iPhone in the house. So far, everything else is working, including our Xerox laser printer and HP Deskjet Inkjet+Scanner device. I'll need to rewrite my backup script and get a fileshare working so my wife can back up stuff from her laptop to this machine (which then gets backed up to the basement server). Doable, just not an immediate priority...
Team Fortress 2 is definitely improved. Places where it stuttered or hung (mainly during loading of the game) don't do that anymore.
The 2tb SSD will let me get rid of one of the two spindle-based drives, reducing noise, heat, and power consumption.
Overall it "feels" faster, but that could be as much a result of a fresh install as anything. Win10 always feels fast the first few months after a fresh install. I'm not immediately reaching for the Win10 install CD, so that's a plus.
Chris
I've been thinking about installing Linux on one of my laptops but they're both pretty old Toshibas and I would just as soon not as I'm not terribly computer savvy. The reason is Windows updates keep crashing my laptops and I have to reinstall Windows about once every few months.
This System 76 has me interested in buying a new non-windows laptop.
I'm not a gamer so don't need the best graphics.
Mostly I just shop, get the news/weather and bank online.
Maybe stream a movie occasionally.
I'm looking for an operating system other than Windows. Is System 76 laptop a good bet? I know they're expensive but I've learned to hate Windows. I'm not really a MAC fan either. My phone is Android and I like it just fine.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
You might try a Chromebook. I have one as a "travel laptop" and it works quite well for the uses you describe. There's a Linux subsystem you can enable that will let you get your feet wet in Linux. Chromebooks also run Android apps. I use both of those features on my Chromebook and they work well.
A workable Chromebook will run $200-$300 and be pretty trouble free. They're not a replacement for a proper desktop or laptop, but good as a 2nd or 3rd machine.
Chris
I’m surprised System76 doesn’t offer any laptop with a display over 1080. I’m flush with Thinkpads, but I think about going AMD/AMD from time to time, and the older I get, the more I consider crispy HiDPI displays as a mandatory feature.
It's probably a temporary thing. Supply chain if I had to guess. The adder I got from them last year has a 4k/60hz display.
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