Linux in VirtualBox without admin rights (Windows host)

[Tom]

and it has Gnome 3 which is the basic GUI which I am quite familiar with now

Gnome 3 comes with only one real window manager which is compositing only (Gnome Shell), and emulates a touch interface like ubuntu's retarded crap (Unity) does. It's not your standard desktop interface. Linux got infected with the touch too sadly.

I am not a fan of touch interfaces on workstations. also those two only support compositing, meaning you need a decent gpu to handle the fancy rendering effects.

KDE 4 at least lets you pick between a touch and desktop interface, as well as between compositing on and off.

You could go lighter still with XFCE (Semi heavy), LXDE (light) or Razor-Qt (light, my fav of the three for weak computers).

[Tom]

As for that bill 9/10 stuff, can you (Darren) link to a decent article (or two) that goes over both?

[Darren Dirt]

As for that bill 9/10 stuff, can you (Darren) link to a decent article (or two) that goes over both?

There's plenty of critiques and summaries out there -- just Google Alberta bill 9 pension reform. But what I wanted was less of a "news copy" angle, instead I was seeking the Personal Touch here. I wanted to hear word-for-word the stories of Real Albertans who have been working in public sector for 25 or 20 or even 2 years who were Speaking Truth To Power about how the proposed changes to retirement pension (it's not just amounts, but # of years) would impact them personally ... and what that would mean for their industry as well (most of them: even harder than it already is to convince young ambituous smart workers to even bother coming aboard at the expense of their own economic security)


re. Bill 9: in brief, the government is trying to push so-called "reform" which will add 5 more years to most people's length of time they must work before getting "full" pension, and the current penalty of "3% per year" for "early" retirement will go up to 5%. In my personal case if I stayed here and wanted to retire @ 60 after vs before these proposed changes, I would be losing $500/month. And a lot of people at these meetings were calling bull@%&# on the claim that "reform" of this type is even needed for so-called "unfunded" liabilities, which they all claim are just fear-mongering and not based on proveable facts. The media have talked a bit about that, but so far I have not seen any stories including the government's official fact-based rebuttal. One thing that is not made clear often enough to the mass audience: these pensions are not a "free gift" from our employer; they are a 50:50 split -- personally I am forced to contribute nearly $500 every single 2-week payday into a retirement plan that if I am lucky I will be able to enjoy for 20 years, although most likely less.


Anyway... enough polyticks for now

What about cloud virtualization? Then you could play with it anywhere

On that note:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2368200/google-reacts-to-office-365-momentum-with-beefier-apps-suite.html

Google. $10/month. NO LIMITS.

Take that, M$!

[Tom]

Darren, thats the kind of thing I was looking for I did google bill 9 and read a bit, but I don't much like reading "main stream" (god that made me shudder saying that) news.

[Thorin]

Jebus, I had no idea that you were referring to Bill 9 with your link.  Seriously, the words that are only in your head and not on the screen, we can't read them.

If I follow your train of thought correctly, you're thinking of quitting your public sector job and moving to the private sector because your pension plan might get altered and pay out less than is currently planned?  And you figure that switching to the private sector, you'll make more money and/or have more money put into a pension plan?  Remember, we compared incomes and you make more money than us in the private sector and also we don't have a pension plan at all?

Also, this thread took a weird turn.  Linux on the old laptop is probably the best idea for you, so you don't have to follow any crazy government rules.  Except you'll still have to figure out how to get internet - I still suggest an internet stick, or even using your phone as a hotspot if you have a data plan.

[Darren Dirt]

If I follow your train of thought correctly, you're thinking of quitting your public sector job and moving to the private sector because your pension plan might get altered and pay out less than is currently planned?  And you figure that switching to the private sector, you'll make more money and/or have more money to put into a pension plan?

Linux on the old laptop is probably the best idea for you, so you don't have to follow any crazy government rules.  Except you'll still have to figure out how to get internet - I still suggest an internet stick, or even using your phone as a hotspot if you have a data plan.

[Darren Dirt]

Oh yeah. I have an old dell laptop you can have.  It'll run Linux just fine. The battery won't hold a charge but it's yours if you want it

Thanks dude! Def no harm in trying it out (leaving it plugged in when I need it if the battery is that bad) and as a bonus nobody @ home will be tempted to borrow it

Hey bud not sure if you've had the time to prep that laptop yet? If so I could meet with you tonight, message me on the forum ok...

[Mr. Analog]

I have not, I can get it ready in a couple of days if that works

[Darren Dirt]

Yeah that would be great -- the laptop at home went kaput, seems the charging cord ain't working, and it's like $50 for a new one and a 2-week order wait @ MemoryExpress because it's rare (3 year old laptop) ... vs $400 or less to get a new low-level family laptop hmmm...


But yeah I would appreciate having "my own" for my developer training self-directed fun... thanks!

[Mr. Analog]

Just as a warning this beast is O.L.D.

[Darren Dirt]

Just as a warning this beast is O.L.D.

Any idea of specs or make/model (if it was a pre-built from FutureShop or Walmart etc.) ... just curious re. HD space and RAM and cpu speed mainly... decently powered @%&# is cheap nowawdays... (example)

[Mr. Analog]

It's a Dell Latitude C610
http://www.pcworld.com/product/8423/latitude-610c-notebook.html

I was running Eclipse on Ubuntu on it for a while, seemed fast enough for what I was doing with it.

[Tom]

It's a Dell Latitude C610
http://www.pcworld.com/product/8423/latitude-610c-notebook.html

I was running Eclipse on Ubuntu on it for a while, seemed fast enough for what I was doing with it.

Does it still have 128MB ram, and a 10GB hard drive? I seem to recall eclipse needing a bit more memory than that lol.

[Mr. Analog]

It's a Dell Latitude C610
http://www.pcworld.com/product/8423/latitude-610c-notebook.html

I was running Eclipse on Ubuntu on it for a while, seemed fast enough for what I was doing with it.

Does it still have 128MB ram, and a 10GB hard drive? I seem to recall eclipse needing a bit more memory than that lol.

Oh the Java hate is strong with this one...

[Darren Dirt]

It's a Dell Latitude C610
http://www.pcworld.com/product/8423/latitude-610c-notebook.html

I was running Eclipse on Ubuntu on it for a while, seemed fast enough for what I was doing with it.

Ummm... 10gb hard drive and 125MB of RAM with max of 1.0GB? I think with those specs it might actually be even too old for this old geezer (who keeps computers for 4 or 5 years at a stretch)

Thanks though -- but I doubt it will be as useful to me as I had hoped (e.g. was hoping to install Windows XP/7 with VirtualBox with a Linux GUI guest, ideally) ... don't worry about spending any time on it for me 


Guess it's laptop bargain hunting time... There is a super-sweet deal I found from Future Shop but apparently sold out :grumble:
http://www.futureshop.ca/en-ca/product/asus-asus-k53z-15-6-laptop-black-amd-a4-3300m-1tb-hdd-8gb-ram-windows-7-k53z-fh41-cb/10233051.aspx?path=2886d636a8f910037a47c83f54d85929en02