I think I'm moving to Linux...

Disk access on Linux is different than windows, but not all that different. Usually when the entire OS is slugging it out after a SATA device is attached it's because the controller on the disk is locking up the controller on the board. Linux will manifest this as ATA reset errors in the messages log. The OS itself is still usually responsive however, because Linux unlike Windows operates entirely out of RAM, and doesn't usually need the disk at all once it's booted. But that doesn't mean the platform is working while that broken disk is attached, because you cannot open anything still on the disk because you cannot get to the disk while the controller freaks out.

No OS is going to be able to compensate for a hardware fault. How they react changes... Linux specifically can have bad RAM actually look like a bad hard disk. Crash differently...
 
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That brings a question to mind. How is Linux for mounting a damaged drive?
You shouldn't be trying to mount a damaged drive in any OS.

ddrescue is your friend, but use a specialist Linux, such as SystemRecueCD or PartedMagic. Unlike the popular desktop distributions, they don't automatically mount drives on boot or on connecting the drive.

Linux unlike Windows operates entirely out of RAM, and doesn't usually need the disk at all once it's booted.

Oooh, that's a bit general! Some of the diagnostic distros (e.g., SysRescCD) can be cached to RAM on boot, but a full-fat desktop distro wouldn't like it.
 
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So a VM would be ideal, though on emulated hardware, I believe.
One of the beauties of Linux is that it is very easy to move an installation between different hardware configurations. It's best to stick to the same CPU architecture (e.g., 32 or 64 bit x86). You could, for example, develop your Linux HTPC in a VM and then move it to real hardware without much effort. The hard drive in my travelling laptop has been in three different machines (spanning manufacture dates of about seven years) without reinstalling or sysprepping or any drama. Just swap the hard drive and boot.
 
Don't you dare.
:p
Four if you inlcude BSD...:D
Five, if you include Qubes OS :D

PS.: My router uses Pfsense, so BSD forever and ever :D

I don't disagree with most of that except that...
Anyway, the truth is that the Linux ecosystem topic is quite more complex than one single post... It all depends of the use you are gonna give to your computer. For instance, my mother uses Ubuntu Mate since 2 years and is quite happy with it. I only had two issues with Ubuntu drivers and (once i got used with Linux) I have very few issues with it. Yes, sometimes you have to find an alternative way/software to do some things and yes it lacks of support from the manufacturers and developers and yes I miss some apps, but are very fewer (Stannis fan here LOL) than It was some years ago .

But my point is that the shell is not than mandatory like it was in the past (to do the basic stuff). Anyway, you have to dive into Linux world and be prepared to have some difficulties (specially at the beginning), but is incredibly heartwarming when you setup your system correctly and it feels more yours than ever.

The important thing in my post and the truth inspiration to write it was there is not one single mainstream os that is a ****. If you are gonna do some professional Windows editing, obviously Windows has the Market and support. I you work as professional photographer, you can complete your workflow in Linux but not with the same efficiency and possibilities than Windows software gives to you. If you are a web developer, probably you are gonna use MacOS (for instance, if you have to code in ruby, most of the gems/packages are not updated in the Windows port...). If I gonna setup a server in a company sometimes I use Linux (or pay for Redhat) or maybe a BSD installation but if I need to create a domain network with a centralized control there is nothing quite like Windows Server + active directory + GPO.

That was I think is an incredibly exciting thing the new projects like Vulkan with brings Linux to the table. A market than important like video games with so many players involved (manufactures, gamers...), if the great houses (like Blizzard), the triple AAA companies start to develop their products for Linux too, there is gonna be a lot of new Linux users and more support for it. And those problems we are talking here are be smaller and smaller with the years...

PS. What do you thing about my english? I think is fucking terrible. I certainly hope to not make so many mistakes. I still have to improve it quite a lot.
 
:p

Five, if you include Qubes OS :D

PS.: My router uses Pfsense, so BSD forever and ever :D


Anyway, the truth is that the Linux ecosystem topic is quite more complex than one single post... It all depends of the use you are gonna give to your computer. For instance, my mother uses Ubuntu Mate since 2 years and is quite happy with it. I only had two issues with Ubuntu drivers and (once i got used with Linux) I have very few issues with it. Yes, sometimes you have to find an alternative way/software to do some things and yes it lacks of support from the manufacturers and developers and yes I miss some apps, but are very fewer (Stannis fan here LOL) than It was some years ago .

But my point is that the shell is not than mandatory like it was in the past (to do the basic stuff). Anyway, you have to dive into Linux world and be prepared to have some difficulties (specially at the beginning), but is incredibly heartwarming when you setup your system correctly and it feels more yours than ever.

The important thing in my post and the truth inspiration to write it was there is not one single mainstream os that is a ****. If you are gonna do some professional Windows editing, obviously Windows has the Market and support. I you work as professional photographer, you can complete your workflow in Linux but not with the same efficiency and possibilities than Windows software gives to you. If you are a web developer, probably you are gonna use MacOS (for instance, if you have to code in ruby, most of the gems/packages are not updated in the Windows port...). If I gonna setup a server in a company sometimes I use Linux (or pay for Redhat) or maybe a BSD installation but if I need to create a domain network with a centralized control there is nothing quite like Windows Server + active directory + GPO.

That was I think is an incredibly exciting thing the new projects like Vulkan with brings Linux to the table. A market than important like video games with so many players involved (manufactures, gamers...), if the great houses (like Blizzard), the triple AAA companies start to develop their products for Linux too, there is gonna be a lot of new Linux users and more support for it. And those problems we are talking here are be smaller and smaller with the years...

PS. What do you thing about my english? I think is fucking terrible. I certainly hope to not make so many mistakes. I still have to improve it quite a lot.
I am not talking about Linux for a particular use. I am thinking of the varied customers I have, each of them using their computers in different ways, and saying, "This won't work". Sure, it would be fine for some.

As for the command line, if you Google Linux problems you get command line answers. That's still a problem.

As for your English, that reminds me of a joke:
If you speak two languages you are bilingual. If you speak three languages you are trilingual. If you speak one language you are American.

As an American, I think your English is frigging amazing.
 
Oooh, that's a bit general! Some of the diagnostic distros (e.g., SysRescCD) can be cached to RAM on boot, but a full-fat desktop distro wouldn't like it.

Yes you are correct. I'll amend my statement, any Linux OS using a swap partition or file on a hard disk can appear to have a defective hard disk in the case of defective RAM.

Live systems will just be unstable as all get out, which is a pretty good indicator of bad RAM. Memtest is our friend!
 
IMHO - Prime95 is the way to go. Memtest just checks the memory address and says hello. Prime95 beats the snot out out of memory.
Prime95 beats the snot out of just about everything. I use it occasionally to check if CPU overheating issues have been adequately fixed.
 
I am not talking about Linux for a particular use. I am thinking of the varied customers I have, each of them using their computers in different ways, and saying, "This won't work". Sure, it would be fine for some.

As for the command line, if you Google Linux problems you get command line answers. That's still a problem.

Yeah, that's totally true. Linux is a OS that allows you more control over the system (even if you are a Powershell advanced user, but is true it lacks of the advanced GUI Windows has (after all that was the propose of "Windows" and the first Apples at the beginning of the computer revolutions, the GUI) and Linux was a Kernel without the GNU GUI completely naked and was improving the GUI subject over the years (still needs more improvement).

That the the thing with private software, Windows has more developers in a payroll (with multiple zeros) and Linux Foundation doesn't has too much resources (and most of the devs are not Linux foundation related) so I love FOSS software but is quite difficult to reach the quality of private software (in the Operative System area). That's where companies like Red Hat (with its subscription model) and Canonical behind Ubuntu achieve better results in some aspects. They have more resources and visibility talking with the manufacturers and making more money through other means.

I still need a file explorer like windows has in other to see all my devices in a graphical way and with better control over my searchs or the menus with more options. Or a process explorer which gives me the control over my resources that process explorer does, but the distros are making great progress over the years :D (BTW I am more a CLI guy, but i realize some times are quite more efficient or, at least practical, to use a GUI).


As for your English, that reminds me of a joke:
If you speak two languages you are bilingual. If you speak three languages you are trilingual. If you speak one language you are American.
As an American, I think your English is frigging amazing.

Hahaha Thanks for your compliment. I start with the english thing playing online games, so piked up a bit of the language by ear. I learn it the hard way over the years (probably 10 years), by ear which is the toughest part for an Hispanic guy, the listening (and without living in a country where english is spoken). So the easiest part for an Hispanic is the writing, but is the part where I make many mistakes (particularly, the grammar structure). Is much more difficult to you, native english people (uk/americans) to learn Spanish properly than to us learn your language. Our grammar is quite more complex and rich but your phonetics kill us.

Actually, IIRC the most of my friend list on my games were americans and the joke is true :D, they spoke only American (most of them at least).

But this, usually, happen for a reason: Spanish is the 2º most spoken language in the world, but 80% of the most interesting documentation (especially Tech) is written in english (it's like the standard language; in terms of communicate knowledge internationally), so... the odds of finding someone who speaks multiple languages is higher if they are non english native parlant .

Your English is fine.
Jeez, I'm Australian and my English is terrible!

Haha I talk with some Aussie guys in the past, yeah is difficult to understand your accent. But to me the Scottish one is the toughest english accent I found.

BTW I love your country, incredible landscapes... but I am fucking afraid of move my ass there because when I see an insect (bees in particular) I run like the fucking bloody dam bitch I am. Period. So you can I imagine how "calm" I would be living in a place where bees are the tiniest source of my fears. To me would be like visiting Jurassic Park (the part where the animals are running free of their jails, into the fucking wild) hahaha.


And the hardest part is swearing in a foreign language. I'm reminded of a lovely phrase I read decades ago - I can't remember who wrote it but this has stuck with me:

Yes, in your case is difficult because you speak a different form of English, and you know the different between your words (the British and the americans ones). I speak mixed and the people don't care about that because they know it's not my first language, so i can make that kind of mistakes but to you is normal (is like to me try to not use Mexican, Argentinian or Colombian words). Thus, I love to swearing in english you can concatenate multiple swearing words so easily hehehe (for example in the paragraph before in this post, you can say f#cking this f#cking that and use bloody or similars in the same sentence, wonderful).
 
When Windows 8 first came out I put Startisback on every computer if the owner wanted it, then one-day M$ did an update
windows
would stop just after login to a black screen I got maybe 50 calls that day it was very easy to fix if you knew how like everything else
the first one took a long time, all you had to do was control alt del new task type in appwiz this took you to control panel
uninstall Startisback problem fixed.
A lot of my customers tried to save money taking it back thinking warranty would cover it, in every case the tech could not fix this simple problem and nuked the system, most of my clients I did it for free
This is why I will only use Classic shell as it so mainstream and I am sure M$ will test it before any updates
 
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@johnrobert, are you sure you got the meaning of the topic? And just for your information: the developer of classic shell gave up because of the "waas"-thing m$ trys at the moment.
Please allowe me the question what your contribution has to do with the topic of the thread. Don't feel defensive. I am german and I am often absolutely unable to get the story behind the scene.
 
Your English is fine.
Jeez, I'm Australian and my English is terrible!
I missed that. Australian, huh? We Americans were fascinated by your country because of Crocodile Dundee in the '80s. Then there was Borderlands: The Pre Sequel (I may forgive Australians for that some day, but not today). Did you know that Australians aren't funny? Like, at all. And then our great and marvelous president said, "Screw you, greatest ally ever!" So...that happened... We have had a long and strange relationship with Australia.

That being said your country is a terrible, scary place with spiders as big a dogs and I will NEVER go there. Did you know that pretty much every one of the scariest animals on earth lives in your country? You watch a show about Australia and you think, "I might like to go there some day", but then you watch a NATURE show about Australia and you run out to the gun store to buy more guns and board up the Windows. But the, being American and all, you get on the Internet and look up Australia and see that you can't walk there from here and calm down a bit.
 
The best part about Australians is how they react when you ask if they're from New Zealand.

Coincidentally, the best part about New Zealanders is what they do when you ask if they want to put another shrimp on the barbie.
 
Yes, the terrible terrible Drop Bear
That's pretty scary, but the real animals are even scarier. The most poisonous snakes, the biggest spiders (there was an "incident" when I was about 6 which makes spiders extra scary to me), everything scary is bigger and badder in Australia.
 
Yes, the terrible terrible Drop Bear
You do know that's a myth. Right?
Like most wild animals Koala's will bite and scratch but they're generally not hanging around in trees waiting for unsuspecting Americans to walk underneath! lol

In fact you have to look pretty hard into the trees to even see them.
Yeah, we do have some nasty "bities" here but you guys have alligators, Water Moccasins, Rattlers, Black Widows, guns.....
 
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