Best Linux distro for crunching?

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
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RE: I went from Ubuntu

Quote:

I went from Ubuntu 12.04 to Ubuntu 14.04 and did not notice any changes in the "software center" except for the icon - it is now a suitcase with the letter "A" imposed ontop of the "suitcase". The "software updater" changed slightly with a new icon - a "circled A". It offers some more visibility into what it is doing if you "click on details". Other than these minor changes I did not notice any major change in either tool. /quote]

Maybe it was further back then that then, it has been awhile, I like the one where a nice big clean box came up and you put in your search term and it came up with a list of what you wanted. This new one, to me, is similar but more complicated looking. Yes I put in a search term and yes it came up, it is just different to me I guess.

I did not choose the LVM encryption either, it just isn't what I need on that laptop.

And I too have never gotten a BSOD on an Ubnuntu installation, I am knocking on wood right now!!

robl
robl
Joined: 2 Jan 13
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RE: RE: I went from

Quote:
Quote:

I went from Ubuntu 12.04 to Ubuntu 14.04 and did not notice any changes in the "software center" except for the icon - it is now a suitcase with the letter "A" imposed ontop of the "suitcase". The "software updater" changed slightly with a new icon - a "circled A". It offers some more visibility into what it is doing if you "click on details". Other than these minor changes I did not notice any major change in either tool. /quote]

Maybe it was further back then that then, it has been awhile, I like the one where a nice big clean box came up and you put in your search term and it came up with a list of what you wanted. This new one, to me, is similar but more complicated looking. Yes I put in a search term and yes it came up, it is just different to me I guess.

I did not choose the LVM encryption either, it just isn't what I need on that laptop.

And I too have never gotten a BSOD on an Ubnuntu installation, I am knocking on wood right now!!

Here are some pics of the 14.04 software center with comments below each pic. They are left/right scrollable.:

This is the 14.04 desktop. On the extreme left the 5th and 6th icon are the software center and the software updater icons.

In this picture if you scroll right you will see that I searched for nvidia and a list of items were presented. What is important to note in this pic is the very bottom left where is says: "show 214 technical items". For some reason Ubuntu's software center does not show all available software unless you click on the "show 214 technical items" phrase. If you do click then you will get the entire list of options shown in the next pic.

I do not understand why they omit certain options but this behavior has always existed since 12.04 and possibly earlier.

I show you these pics so that if you did not see this during your romp with Ubu 14 you might want to revisit the distro. I waited for a couple of month to pass before downloading Ubu 14 so this might account for our different experience with the software center.

yo2013
yo2013
Joined: 26 May 14
Posts: 8
Credit: 464962
RAC: 47

There is a distro targeted to

There is a distro targeted to BOINC crunching: http://www.dotsch.de/boinc/Dotsch_UX.html but I never tried it. I'm using now a non-GUI Debian Testing. To control BOINC I use boinctui: https://code.google.com/p/boinctui/

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 11888
Credit: 1828033366
RAC: 208115

RE: RE: RE: I went from

Quote:
Quote:
Quote:

I went from Ubuntu 12.04 to Ubuntu 14.04 and did not notice any changes in the "software center" except for the icon - it is now a suitcase with the letter "A" imposed ontop of the "suitcase". The "software updater" changed slightly with a new icon - a "circled A". It offers some more visibility into what it is doing if you "click on details". Other than these minor changes I did not notice any major change in either tool. /quote]

Maybe it was further back then that then, it has been awhile, I like the one where a nice big clean box came up and you put in your search term and it came up with a list of what you wanted. This new one, to me, is similar but more complicated looking. Yes I put in a search term and yes it came up, it is just different to me I guess.

I did not choose the LVM encryption either, it just isn't what I need on that laptop.

And I too have never gotten a BSOD on an Ubnuntu installation, I am knocking on wood right now!!

Here are some pics of the 14.04 software center with comments below each pic.

I show you these pics so that if you did not see this during your romp with Ubu 14 you might want to revisit the distro. I waited for a couple of month to pass before downloading Ubu 14 so this might account for our different experience with the software center.

That WAS helpful thanks!

TimeLord04
TimeLord04
Joined: 8 Sep 06
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I, too, am primarily a

I, too, am primarily a Windows guy. (Up to Win 7 Pro...) I have been dabbling around with Ubuntu Linux. I started with 12.0.4 on an old Athlon XP 1.79 GHz system with 512 MB RAM. 12.0.4 did well with this limited hardware. Through much fiddling; I got the software updater to auto-update BOINC when new releases rolled out. This took A LOT of effort, and help from others on the BOINC boards.

I recently installed on VM, (VirtualBox), on my Win 7 laptop, Ubuntu 14.04 with Unity and another install of Ubuntu GNOME 14.04. DIFFERENT looks and feels between the two distros. I REALLY like the Ubuntu GNOME desktop. It reminds me of how clean MAC is. If you have even seen MAC OS X, you may like Ubuntu GNOME 14.04. I found it simple to use and get around in. If I can get some money freed up to buy another machine, I would install Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 without hesitation.

TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
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mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 11888
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RE: I, too, am primarily a

Quote:

I, too, am primarily a Windows guy. (Up to Win 7 Pro...) I have been dabbling around with Ubuntu Linux. I started with 12.0.4 on an old Athlon XP 1.79 GHz system with 512 MB RAM. 12.0.4 did well with this limited hardware. Through much fiddling; I got the software updater to auto-update BOINC when new releases rolled out. This took A LOT of effort, and help from others on the BOINC boards.

I recently installed on VM, (VirtualBox), on my Win 7 laptop, Ubuntu 14.04 with Unity and another install of Ubuntu GNOME 14.04. DIFFERENT looks and feels between the two distros. I REALLY like the Ubuntu GNOME desktop. It reminds me of how clean MAC is. If you have even seen MAC OS X, you may like Ubuntu GNOME 14.04. I found it simple to use and get around in. If I can get some money freed up to buy another machine, I would install Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 without hesitation.

I have no idea where right now but saw a Dell 760 MT box on sale yesterday for 125 US dollars, it had Win7 Pro, 1gb of ram, an HD, cd/dvd and one 16x pci-e slot. I almost bought it, but with only 1gb of ram it needed upgrading and I sold most of my old memory.

TimeLord04
TimeLord04
Joined: 8 Sep 06
Posts: 1442
Credit: 72378840
RAC: 0

RE: RE: I, too, am

Quote:
Quote:

I, too, am primarily a Windows guy. (Up to Win 7 Pro...) I have been dabbling around with Ubuntu Linux. I started with 12.0.4 on an old Athlon XP 1.79 GHz system with 512 MB RAM. 12.0.4 did well with this limited hardware. Through much fiddling; I got the software updater to auto-update BOINC when new releases rolled out. This took A LOT of effort, and help from others on the BOINC boards.

I recently installed on VM, (VirtualBox), on my Win 7 laptop, Ubuntu 14.04 with Unity and another install of Ubuntu GNOME 14.04. DIFFERENT looks and feels between the two distros. I REALLY like the Ubuntu GNOME desktop. It reminds me of how clean MAC is. If you have even seen MAC OS X, you may like Ubuntu GNOME 14.04. I found it simple to use and get around in. If I can get some money freed up to buy another machine, I would install Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 without hesitation.

I have no idea where right now but saw a Dell 760 MT box on sale yesterday for 125 US dollars, it had Win7 Pro, 1gb of ram, an HD, cd/dvd and one 16x pci-e slot. I almost bought it, but with only 1gb of ram it needed upgrading and I sold most of my old memory.

Well, besides the memory limitation, it is a Dell... They burn out their own parts within three years of use... (My dad had a couple.) Plus, Dell is proprietary on their hardware; so, if the PSU fails, you MUST get a Dell PSU to replace it... NOT worth it.

At least HP, (so far), is NOT proprietary. We switched from Dell, (after many issues), to HP and have never looked back.

The only non-HP system is my new cruncher; which was built by Central Computers, Pleasanton, CA. We have three HP laptops; one XP Pro 32-bit, one that came with Win 7 Home Premium x64, one that came with Vista SP-2 x64 and was upgraded to Win 7 Home Premium x64. ...and finally an HP Desktop with Win 7 Home Premium x64.

The XP laptop is SLOOOOW to boot and run; it also overheats from age. We got it in either 2002 or 2003. It is time to retire it. All the other HP's run perfectly.

TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join SETI Refugees

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 11888
Credit: 1828033366
RAC: 208115

RE: RE: RE: I, too, am

Quote:
Quote:
Quote:

I, too, am primarily a Windows guy. (Up to Win 7 Pro...) I have been dabbling around with Ubuntu Linux. I started with 12.0.4 on an old Athlon XP 1.79 GHz system with 512 MB RAM. 12.0.4 did well with this limited hardware. Through much fiddling; I got the software updater to auto-update BOINC when new releases rolled out. This took A LOT of effort, and help from others on the BOINC boards.

I recently installed on VM, (VirtualBox), on my Win 7 laptop, Ubuntu 14.04 with Unity and another install of Ubuntu GNOME 14.04. DIFFERENT looks and feels between the two distros. I REALLY like the Ubuntu GNOME desktop. It reminds me of how clean MAC is. If you have even seen MAC OS X, you may like Ubuntu GNOME 14.04. I found it simple to use and get around in. If I can get some money freed up to buy another machine, I would install Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 without hesitation.

I have no idea where right now but saw a Dell 760 MT box on sale yesterday for 125 US dollars, it had Win7 Pro, 1gb of ram, an HD, cd/dvd and one 16x pci-e slot. I almost bought it, but with only 1gb of ram it needed upgrading and I sold most of my old memory.

Well, besides the memory limitation, it is a Dell... They burn out their own parts within three years of use... (My dad had a couple.) Plus, Dell is proprietary on their hardware; so, if the PSU fails, you MUST get a Dell PSU to replace it... NOT worth it.

At least HP, (so far), is NOT proprietary. We switched from Dell, (after many issues), to HP and have never looked back.

The only non-HP system is my new cruncher; which was built by Central Computers, Pleasanton, CA. We have three HP laptops; one XP Pro 32-bit, one that came with Win 7 Home Premium x64, one that came with Vista SP-2 x64 and was upgraded to Win 7 Home Premium x64. ...and finally an HP Desktop with Win 7 Home Premium x64.

The XP laptop is SLOOOOW to boot and run; it also overheats from age. We got it in either 2002 or 2003. It is time to retire it. All the other HP's run perfectly.

Generally I have had very good luck with Dell's, the psu is a problem as you say though due to the non standard mb plugs they use. My old work used dell's, my department alone had 1600 of them and we replaced them every 4 years with new Dell's. Although the new contract is with HP so everyone now has those instead. I left just after they replaced all the Dell's and the HP's are still doing fine several years later. I don't have any problems recommending either, as long as people know the limitations. But for machines I use for crunching I always build my own now, too many generic parts need replacing in a store bought pc, unless it is customized for you.

Phil
Phil
Joined: 8 Jun 14
Posts: 579
Credit: 228493502
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Well, I finally landed on

Well, I finally landed on Linux Mint. I tried PCLinuxOS and the installer kept freezing up.

So all my crunchers will now be Linux Mint. I'll probably revisit the issue about once a year just for grins and giggles, but for now I'll work on stripping it down to make it as fast as possible for pure crunching machines.

I've been building machines from my numerous boxes of pieces and parts but I think I only have enough parts for one more machine. Almost time to start buying parts for new ones.

I have one Windows machine left to convert and I'll be free of Microsoft after 30 years, oops, showed my age there...

robl
robl
Joined: 2 Jan 13
Posts: 1709
Credit: 1454479783
RAC: 8906

We all have different

We all have different experiences with each distro. I tried Linux mint once and tossed it. Why? The version I downloaded could/would not update to the latest fixes. I modified the requisite files as suggested but still could not update the original distro. So I moved on. I did like the way it looked and others had a positive experience but this particular distro flavor had issues and I was not the only one.

Your mileage will vary.

You might want to be sure that the Mint you have can update to the latest fixes before committing.

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