Ended up getting a heck of a virus on my laptop not that long ago. My laptop is normally my "do not do anything fishy" computer but I ended up having to take apart my desktop so I could do work on someone else's computer and while I was waiting for the OS to install I was like heck with it. So I went to my normal anime site and sure enough... the ONE time I go to that site with my laptop I get a virus.

Normally it's a standard restart into safe mode and do a restore kind of thing... but this time it knocked out my MRB and I couldn't get it recovered.

So, being the WIndows 95 person that I am (though I'm running windows 7 now) I figured FDISK cures ALL!!!

No big, lost about 25 gigs of music... other then that I had everything else on a different partition of the hard drive so it wasn't bad. But still. Getting sick of reinstalling windows every time I watch some cartoons =/

Windows 7 has been a FANTASTIC OS... but it's not Linux.

So I figured download a new Ubuntu (the live boot CD I toyed with a few years ago was REAL old I guess) and low and behold it's a bit different then I remembered it.... REAL different.

It sorta feels like Windows 7 with the new UI and the search field for inside the "start menu" / app menu. And the kicker, the part that I'm liking the MOST... is the installer for applications.

I grew up with DOS. I know DOS. Linux is like growing up with English and having to learn Latin to me. Before I had a heck of a time trying to install a program onto Linux and now I'm just one click away from installing new things (even though I've been lucky enough to get grub-customizer installed through the terminal on two computers now).

I might be a sally for not being able to do Linux like a true geek, but it feels good to be able to get something accomplished for once on a Linux distro.

Just thought I'd share. 

I had three different machines bunch on me due to worms, bugs, virus's and holes in the MS software that any creep could drive a truck through. I finally bought a MacBook Pro and have never had as much as a glitch. Get a Mac and be happy!

I kept getting viruses on Windows 7, so my partner got fed up with fixing it for me all the time and installed Ubuntu. I'm starting to get the hang of things. Of course, the fact that I'm running Linux makes my technologically impaired mother think I'm a computer god, but I really have no idea what I'm doing.

Wow I didn't know that there were other Linux fans here!   I am a huge linux fan.  I am using Fedora 16 at the moment.  I love Ubuntu and I love apt and dpkg, but I want to get as  familiar with rpm and yum as I am with those other package managers.   Anyone reading this will be thinking 'dpkg? Yum? rpm? What on earth are these things?'

Windows is good for games, but it does compare with linux!!

Quote from: Julian on February 21, 2012, 05:28:24 PM
I kept getting viruses on Windows 7, so my partner got fed up with fixing it for me all the time and installed Ubuntu. I'm starting to get the hang of things. Of course, the fact that I'm running Linux makes my technologically impaired mother think I'm a computer god, but I really have no idea what I'm doing.

Julian here are some basic commands:

sudo apt-get update
then
sudo apt-get upgrade

To clean your system type:
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get autoremove

To install a package from the repos:
sudo apt-get install package

To install a .deb file:
cd to the directory where the deb file is located:
sudo dpkg -i package.deb

If there is a dependency problem:
type.
sudo dpkg --configure package.deb

To convert a tar file to deb:
type:
sudo apt-get install alien
then
sudo alien --to-deb package.tar

If that doesn't work then type
tar -xvf package.tar
then cd to the untarred file
then type:
./configure
make
sudo make install

rkhunter is good for searching for rootkits:
sudo apt-get install rkhunter
sudo apt-get --update
sudo apt-get --propupd
sudo apt-get --check

if you want to keep a log:
sudo rkhunter --check | tee -a rkhunter.txt ; echo $?

the command df -h will show you how much of the hard drive has been used.

Has anybody tried Arch Linux?   I' m thinking of installing Arch on VirtualBox.    If you don't like Ubuntu but like debian you could try Linux Mint.

Thanks, Princess! I was having problems with Skype the other day, and I was able to run a few commands with my partner guiding me via IM. I felt so smart.

The last time my computer had a virus  it cost me 85 dollars to get it cleaned.

Quote from: gennee on February 22, 2012, 10:07:26 AM
The last time my computer had a virus  it cost me 85 dollars to get it cleaned.

It gets rather pricey thanks to those young geeks sitting in their PJ's in momma's basement in front of the computer with mischief on their minds and time on their hands.  Grrrrrrr!

I have been using Linux exclusively since August 2008 and in all that time I have never needed an anti-virus program a firewall or a malware scanner.   Linux doesn't require these things as it is so secure.

Quote from: Princess of Hearts on February 22, 2012, 12:14:32 PM
I have been using Linux exclusively since August 2008 and in all that time I have never needed an anti-virus program a firewall or a malware scanner.   Linux doesn't require these things as it is so secure.

I wouldn't say "as it's so secure"... More like the kids who pump out the viruses are sending things for Microsoft running machines (.exe files and such). The reason why Linux seems more secure is most of the people writing these viruses are Linux users and write them with Linux to effect computers running Windows. Even if Linux users "get" the virus nothing will happen because Linux can't run .exe files (as best as I know).

Oddly enough, Linux can get viruses (like cell phones running Android which is built on Linux) but it's exceedingly rare since most viruses are meant to disrupt people using Windows.

and the sudo get-apt is what I had to use for getting Grub-Customizer installed. It wasn't a program offered in the program list.

Quote from: gennee on February 22, 2012, 10:07:26 AM
The last time my computer had a virus  it cost me 85 dollars to get it cleaned.

I guess I'm lucky on that one. I spent as much time as I could when I was a kid learning about working on computers and kept up with it thus far. I'm to the point where I can do most any basic computer work like ordering a box of parts from Newegg and getting it all running a few hours after getting the parts in. I also do a lot of computer work for family and friends (though sometimes I do charge a minimal 'beer' fee). I'm fixing a laptop right now for a family member, she needs a new hard drive and Dell said it would cost $250 after shipping to have them do it. It's like O.O are they nuts??? $85 on Newegg for a 2.5 inch sata hard drive and 30 seconds of my time I can do it no problem. Heck it'll take longer to reinstall Windows and drivers then it will to get the new hard drive in. It actually took longer to run the test to find out it was the hard drive then it will to reinstall Windows.

Only thing I didn't spend a lot of time working with is Linux =/

Heck I didn't try Linux till RedHat 8 ended up getting outdated and turned into a business distro only (still have a massive book that came with RedHat 8 ).