A few new user questions

Quick to answer questions about finding your way around Linux Mint as a new user.
Forum rules
There are no such things as "stupid" questions. However if you think your question is a bit stupid, then this is the right place for you to post it. Stick to easy to-the-point questions that you feel people can answer fast. For long and complicated questions use the other forums in the support section.
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Locked
Alz

A few new user questions

Post by Alz »

Hi everyone!

I recently brought an Asus R101 (1001px) netbook as a Christmas present for my missus. The main things she wanted it for was net browsing and buying on the internet (probably while I'm gaming on the desktop). It came with XP pre-installed on it but as she isn't always the safest internet user I thought I'd make it dual boot with Ubuntu netbook remix as I've heard that Linux is a safer option for browsing. She doesn't tend to download and I know that if she gets something coming up on her screen asking for a password to make changes to her system she'll either cancel it or ask.

I tried the ubuntu live and found it a bit buggy and slow and thinking it was because it was the live version rather than installed version I went ahead and installed it. Unfortunately I found the unity interface really slow to respond and difficult to find my way to places that didn't have a direct short cut. I think of myself as quite a competent windows users, UBR just had me lost. The big mistake I made was not to create a image of the hard disk!!

I then got rid of ubuntu and followed instructions to get the MBR back as it should be. This didn't work, tried every different fix I could find none of which fixed the issues, including reinstalling UBR as dual boot and using super grub. The windows installation just couldn't be booted anymore.

After hours of frustration I gave Linux Mint live a try and found the interface much easier to use and much more responsive. I had some issues getting the headphone socket and internal mic to work but after some searching I found the fix for both issues. Everything else seems to work out of the box, although I haven't been able to check wireless yet as I've been sorting it at work, although I have seen a device show up.

I've got a few questions as a first time Linux user if anyone would be kind enough to answer or point me in a direction that I can find the answer myself:

How stable is linux mint? I've no issues with attempting to fix things periodically but if the fixes are going to be frequent I can see the missus becoming quite frustrated.

I've had one occurrence where the netbook wouldn't wake from sleep, can anyone point me into a direction where I can find some information on a possible fix for this?

From what I've read for straight net browsing only a firewall is required and anti virus isn't really needed on linux operating systems. Is this a correct assumption? Is the included firewall sufficent or is there another one that is user friendly that is recommended? If I need to put AV on it again is there one that is recommended?

Is there any other software that I should take a look at either generic or for eeepc's?

Is there anything else I need to be aware of?

Apologies for the wall of text and thanks for reading.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
admiralspark

Re: A few new user questions

Post by admiralspark »

Hello and welcome to Linux Mint! I had a similar experience with UNR on a netbook, felt far too slow for what it's preached to be. You'll find Linux Mint to be much faster and more stable than UNR (and certainly more than Windows :wink: )
Now, for your questions:
How stable is linux mint? I've no issues with attempting to fix things periodically but if the fixes are going to be frequent I can see the missus becoming quite frustrated.
Linux Mint is built off of the desktop version(s) of Ubuntu (with the current Mint 10=Ubuntu 10.10). However, the awesome team that manages and prepares Mint for the rest of us takes the final releases of Ubuntu, modifies it, and then irons out almost every bug that comes with it. And that's saying something--Ubuntu tends to be stable to begin with.
To be honest, I use Linux Mint as my primary productivity OS. I've gone through a couple phases (especially on my previous laptop) where I got so bored of Mint being ultra-stable that I'd switch to another OS just to try and break something....it's hard to learn to fix broken things when they refuse to break. Mint is more than stable enough for any kind of workload, certainly enough for a netbook.
I've had one occurrence where the netbook wouldn't wake from sleep, can anyone point me into a direction where I can find some information on a possible fix for this?
Ahh, this sounds odd...my first notion is to make sure all updates installed fine, and only begin to worry if it happens again. Usually, sleep troubles are caused by either a faulty X server (rare) or by a not-large-enough swap space on the harddrive (far too common). Your swap file should be twice as big as your system RAM, so if you have 1GB ram you will need a 2GB swap space.
From what I've read for straight net browsing only a firewall is required and anti virus isn't really needed on linux operating systems. Is this a correct assumption? Is the included firewall sufficent or is there another one that is user friendly that is recommended? If I need to put AV on it again is there one that is recommended?
The linux OS is far, FAR more secure than Windows can ever hope to be. Everything from forum posts to doctoral thesis's have been written on the subject, and are available all over the web.
But, bad internet browsing habits can be potentially problematic for any operating system. For what you've described the 'book being used for, I highly doubt you'll ever need an antivirus program--the only reason they exist is for people who are sending files to a windows computer and want to make sure they're virus free--I'm guessing that's not an issue in your case.
The firewall system built into linux distro's is practically bombproof. I've done extensive testing against known attack websites and having network attacks sent from other computers on a local network (through Metasploit etc) used against Linux Mint, Debian, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Fedora, even Knoppix and Puppy, and none of them have failed. It's a well-designed firewall that defaults to closed ports...good safety practices.
IF you still feel a need for an Antivirus, use ClamAV (and ClamTK, the interface). Extremely lightweight and just as good as full-blown AV's such as AVG...oh, and it's Free/Open Source!
Is there any other software that I should take a look at either generic or for eeepc's?
Anything and everything lightweight. If you want faster, try using Linux Mint LXDE Edition (I don't think version 10 is out, but version 9 is).
Faster still? Linux Mint Debian Edition. But that is slightly more unstable....though I haven't killed it yet.
Even faster? Puppy linux, or specifically Pupeee (an Eeepc version). Literally, Puppy linux is lightning fast and boots from a USB stick (100mb!). However, for such great speed you have to either sacrifice for slightly less-awesome programs (Abiword instead of OpenOffice), or use Puppy Linux 5.1.x and use OpenOffice and Firefox (but it'll expand to taking up something like 500MB...still tiny for an OS!). Good stuff!
Is there anything else I need to be aware of?
The community is here for you. We all started somewhere, we know what it's like. Also, if you have an issue, google it first (or do a forum search) before making a post, because more likely than not it's been answered in detail somewhere on the Web.
JasonLG

Re: A few new user questions

Post by JasonLG »

Alz wrote: How stable is linux mint? I've no issues with attempting to fix things periodically but if the fixes are going to be frequent I can see the missus becoming quite frustrated.
Pretty stable. Generally it's been my experience that if things work from install they will continue to work through out the life of that particular release. Things generally break when you go from release to release.
Alz wrote:I've had one occurrence where the netbook wouldn't wake from sleep, can anyone point me into a direction where I can find some information on a possible fix for this?
Sorry I can't help you when it comes to hibernate and suspend as I have very little experience with it as generally disable it on my laptop as it's plugged in most of the time.
Alz wrote:
From what I've read for straight net browsing only a firewall is required and anti virus isn't really needed on linux operating systems. Is this a correct assumption? Is the included firewall sufficent or is there another one that is user friendly that is recommended? If I need to put AV on it again is there one that is recommended?
True, there are very few Linux viruses an antivirus programs is not really needed to protect your Linux PC however just because Linux is immune to most viruses does not mean that a Windows PC can't get a virus from a Linux PC if they share files. Linux does not magically sterilize files. An infected file is still an infected file. Remember to scan all foreign files before opening in Windows.

As far as a firewall is concerned you don't really even need that if you're behind a secure router as most have a NAT firewall built in to them.
Alz wrote:Is there any other software that I should take a look at either generic or for eeepc's?
I couldn't tell you as I don't have a eeepc.
Alz wrote:Is there anything else I need to be aware of?
Absolutely, More then can be mentioned here. Many books have been written on the subject.
Locked

Return to “Beginner Questions”