The Linux.uk Community Forum

Matilda,

I don't think computer users have needed maths for (at least) the past 20 or 30 years.  Even modern programming languages don't require it - although logic (which has it's basis in maths) would be considered important for any complex programming. 

But if you look at the prerequisites for the  course you're considering, that should clearly state if maths is required (i suspect not)

not knowing the course nor its content, I find that Linux runs on almost any hardware - from a £5 RaspberryPi Zero with half-a-gig of ram, to modern servers with several hundreds!  Reading this forum, you'll see many of us use old hardware, often something like "dual-core with 2gig RAM".

If you're concerned, it may be worth emailing the course provider and asking them for their recommended spec and installation. in fact, i'd expect the course notes to detail the distro you should be using too.

hope this helps - but I think you'll be fine & good luck...

One obvious option to copy files to/from machine - is to setup a HTTP server somewhere - if you don't have another PC, Android has many options for this (but I can only guess that iOS does).

that would side-step any drive or physical media issues. 

Most distro will allow an ISO to be mounted via mouse-double-click, and viewed like any other disk.

you can then copy/paste files to the ISO, and burn the ISO to the disk... remembering it's the image you are writing to the CD, and not the ISO file itself.

Matt,

what is your current PC or was it a custom build?

you can of check for hardware compatibility before committing to the switch.

MattC,

ah... i see, for VMs you want something with RAM to spare (which I'll guess you have); but I've run 3 or 4 VM on 8gb without too much issue.

I think you have a few options - but they largely depends on how much you want your windows 10 OS....

Either way - I think the start point is the same:
1) find somewhere to backup everything from your old computer (a spare drive, USB, cloud - doesn't matter; just to keep it safe...

1a) (at the same time, you can "play") Download & try a few LiveCDs.. most Linux distros will boot straight from CD/DVD/USB and run without altering your system at all.

2) once your happy with the LiveCD, you can bite the bullet and install it onto your drive (removing windows)

3) enjoy!

You'll find other posts about which Linux distro is "better" but having an i7 I doubt you'll have the hardware concerns of many others.... And most seem to agree that it's best to stick to well known distros like Ubuntu - although many (many) others exist - www.distrowatch.org - so it's hard to say which is "better" or "best".

Grap the LiveCD for Unbuntu and have a play... there are different "flavours" which you can think of as "desktop look and feel", so have a read / but importantly have a play too....

keep an eye on the spec because each is different, but with an i7 (how much RAM?) you should be clear for any issues..

https://ubuntu.com/desktop/flavours

By the way; you'll find other & quite different options for VMs under Linux.

hope this is helpful..

@Gaz511, Thanks, now updated



I have had a few barebones; a Gigabyte Brix for a good 5 years, and before that a Zotac Zbox mini and currently use a HP EliteDesk -- they vary in price and each gave me many years of trouble free Linux usage (although it's true, I have swapped each time due to hardware failures. Something that (in my experience) seem to effect micro form factors more than others (considering my "always on" HP MicroServer (2011) has out lived all of those)... & is why I've bought HP this time around.

Regards safeboot and TPA (just read about) they sound to be MS "standards" - so as long as you can format the disk, you should be fine.

mores what I read:
https://www.novatech.co.uk/blog/windows-tpm-and-secure-boot/
 
hope this helps....

MattC,

hi..... 

Others may have different experience or thoughts..... but my initial thoughts for hardware are below.

When you say "Main PC". what are you using it for (that will greatly influence your requirements & costs).
For example, if you only really browse; then a RaspberryPi4 could do (4gb ~£55) but other routes for cheap hardware if secondhand.  Many companies pay companies to recycle their computers - finding one of those may save you a lot compared with buying new.  I've also had good use from both Amazon reconditioned and https://www.bargainhardware.co.uk/refurbished-desktop-pcs

But if you stick to main hardware providers - HP have good linux support, and I'd expect others to too.

Unless you are doing things with graphics or especially modern games - you may be surprised how little spec you require for Linux.... which may also help reduce your anticipated costs.

Brian

thinking about it....

/home or /home/keith isn't on another partition is it??? check /etc/fstab isn't mounting them as 'non executable'

Keith,


it looks like you've done this, but I'll add it here for others:
https://www.poftut.com/set-path-bash-shell-linux/

I assume that these work:
/home/keith/.bin/script.sh
and
~/.bin/script.sh
?

i'd check the directory permissions too....may ensure those permit execute too (just in case)

I found this Microsoft article which may help explain the situation from their perspective
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/technet-magazine/dd228986(v=msdn.10)?redirectedfrom=MSDN

& I'll add that Samba is used by many enterprises/companies, so is considered suitable for production use.

There are other options you could look at too, FTP and Webdav being two of the obvious alternatives. And/or  applications like SeaFile or Own/Next-Cloud could (briefly discussed in another post within this forum) provide both file integration and additional features.

hope this helps....

I have no experience of any of these, but you can also look here:

https://alternativeto.net/software/foldermatch/?p=2

FSlint is in there and reported to be available on Ubuntu (& maybe others).

if you want a file sync - rsync is commonly used tool too.

Thanks MP, that'll save me a bucket of time!
x

hi,

I think most media players (inc. VLC) will rip CDs, and most distros allow you to search the repo for software - displaying anything which may be suitable.

Have you looked at diff?
https://www.tecmint.com/compare-find-difference-between-two-directories-in-linux/

I used to use Seafile but moved to NextCloud for the extra functionality, but I ran them both on virtual machines (qemu/kvm). And like seafile, nextcloud has a windows client. see also OwnCloud.

My files are hosted from a separate file server, so i can backup and recover the files which protects me from a loss of the VM or a virtual disk. That way if I do need to rebuild, I just remount and resync the files.

I can't righty remember, but i think part of the reason I moved from Seafile was because NextCloud retains my directory structure - certainly others, move files into it's own structure which makes it hard to find without an app.

I've not considered snapshots as a solution for backup and recovery as I currently backup my whole VM (~15g) - but I can see some testing coming my way, to look at Borg if MP is right (which is frequently the case!)

I found this which may help...

but as MP suggests, Linux distros are quite varied and the reasons I like "X", is the reason somebody else does not.  If you're looking for a distro, then it also depends on the use case - do you want stability or bleeding edge features? desktop or server? what Support do you expect? and any hardware compatibility considerations, etc...

https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki

I'll add a link to DistoWatch too, which lists all distros and provides details about each.

https://distrowatch.com/