Haha, I thought that there was a balls up there I read it and my initial thought was "WTF?! Has it really chnaged that quick?" Oh well, people make mistakes.
Well it is getting there... most professional software has an open-source counter-part - eg. Photoshop -> GIMP (some even say GIMP is better); Sibelius -> MuseScore/Rosegarden; Office -> LibreOffice; Visual Studio -> Any editor + GCC. Gaming is still a bit weak but this is mainly due to developers not wanting to develop on Linux due to the few numbers of people using it. And people don't want to use it because no games have been ported to it. The worst kind of vicious circle There are games such as Xonotic which are very good for group events like LAN parties, but pretty much suck when it comes to single-player or Internet multiplayer. Minecraft made a step in the right direction by being coded on Java - language problems aside it allows the game to run on anything with Java. Now if only Valve ported the Source engine to Linux - suddenly all the Half-Lifes, Counter Strike, Team Fortress 2, etc. all available on Linux. Then if Steam had Linux support - much like Valve did with Mac OSX, then other developers would cotton on. Before you know it, client Linux market share jumps from 3% to 20%.
All it takes is for one of the big companies (Adobe, Valve ect.) to have some balls to try something new to them, and it could open doors for everyone else. Yes, in these days of economic strain, it's harder to take risks, as the consequences could be massive if done wrong, but the big companies can afford the risks. We need the big companies to do something about this lack of support for Linux, and they'll benefit from it too.
Not too fond of Ubuntu (Vanilla Debian is far better), have my old P4 system running Fedora which connects up fine on my Windows based network. Linux is by far the best way to utilise an old machine - especially as a server. Sent from Bittech Android app
Right guys, quick update: I'm going with an XP install. It'll be massively lightened, as I don't really want to mess with Ubuntu all all the packages. What FTP programs could I use for Windows?
I didn't read the whole thread, but did anyone suggest Fedora 15? I find it awesome on one of my small, underpowered laptops. Ubuntu would run just as well but I love Fedora too
I think it's an amazing little OS. I also have a couple of F15 VMs on my main Windows (7 Pro) machine for various tasks
I'll definately take a look at it in my spare time For this machine, however , I just want to get a completely familiar OS (XP) installed because I want it up and running ASAP.
Something like Fedora is incredibly easy to get up and running, especially if not trying anything fancy, But fair enough if you want windows, atleast you went for the best of them (XP ) Filezilla is a FTP program I've used in the past, been good for transferring my media collection across computers during a restructure.
I disagree on that one, but that's fine. XP is a great OS, but I prefer 7. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it requires the "Server" version on this machine and the "Client" version on the machine I want to access the files from?
Err, not as far as I remember? Do you want to access the files remotely, or be able to take files from another computer?
Must have been a different programme I was thinking of then, oops. I want to access the files on both my machines at home, and remotely. I can sort the Windows file sharing out, it's just the FTP I need the help with.
For transferring files to/from a computer, when I used it, you just installed the program on the computer you're on, and then connect to the one you want stuff off of/want to put stuff on, then drag and drop.
XP has an FTP client accessible via the command file (though the Filezilla client should be easier to use). You will need an FTP server on the machine you're connecting to - XP has an FTP server (see here for how to activate it). It does rely on IIS being installed so a third-party option like the Filezilla server would probably be more secure. Speaking of security, FTP traffic is totally insecure and anyone with access to an FTP connection can see everything being transferred - including the passwords used. Filezilla does offer encryption (either using FTPS for SFTP) and should be seriously considered for that alone. The computer running the FTP server needs to have it locked down as tightly as you can manage (using a firewall to allow incoming (S)FTP(S) connections only from your PC's IP address, having the FTP server run with minimal privileges, etc). Since your FTP server also has to be publicly accessible as a web server, you won't be able to lock things down completely, but FTP has more scope for mischief.
I've got a SpiderOak account, so would that be a better way of accessing my files remotely? I say that because my account currently has 10GB of storage, but I could quickly take that up to the 50GB limit. Would this be an alternative?
Transferring files via a third party site would be more work and slower, so only makes sense if you really want to avoid setting up new software. As for SpiderOak, I don't know enough about the service to comment in detail, but their site is based in the US so whatever claims they make about privacy and security are undermined by their need to comply with US legislation. Another option could be remote management software like UltraVNC which can be configured to use encryption (requiring a keyfile on source and destination systems) as well as a password - you could then transfer files and do remote management should anything go amiss on your server.
They do offer a 2 step encryption process should you want to opt in for it - makes it harder for intrustion. I get your point on the speed issue though, and didn't think of that. Hum.... Think I'm going to have think, do a bit of research and if any more questions need to be answered, then I'll post back. EDIT: I've just tried out UltraVNC, and it's a nice programme to use. My only question though, is how do I access it away from home? I've just managed to gain access to the VM from my network, but obviously, when I'm not at home, I won't be on the network...
