New To Free Software Movement
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I came across a Richard Stallman video on Youtube. The Free Software Movement seems logical to me. I've always hated the terms of proprietary software licenses. Now that I know of an alternative I want to participate in it.
Before I take the plunge away from Apple (Mac Book) I need to know some things about installing this OS and getting help. I know very little about installing software and changing OSs. I once had to reload Vista because it got a virus. That was a difficult experience. GNU/Linux seems more daunting. I've got a 2009 HP machine where I could install Trisquel.
Are the developers on this forum? Can I get enough help on this forum to successfully install it? I don't want to disable my computer and be stuck with a tower size paper weight.
My main uses of computers are probably like most people. I like the internet and all it offers. I need to create documents, presentations, videos, audio files to go with the videos, and I need a good screen capture program for creating presentations using all of the other things together.
So Trisquel needs to be able to recognize my video cameras, my audio recorders, and handle microphone input to capture my voice while creating presentations. That is my workflow. I see that GIMP works so that is something about which I won't worry.
Is there a VOIP program that can replace Skype? That would be great. I know Microsoft bought it and I really hate them because of the crap they sold me called Vista.
Let me know if a non-tech person can get through this with the help of people on this forum. It needs to happen in a timely manner, not weeks.
Thank you.
Well, the first thing to do to start is boot the live CD and find out how well Trisquel works with your hardware. If something seems to not work, ask here or on the #trisquel IRC channel and someone will probably help you find out if it just doesn't work or if it can be made to work somehow, or if you just didn't know how to use it properly.
You won't have much trouble with the installation itself; the worst that's happened to me is causing a Windows XP partition to not be bootable after sizing it down (this has only happened to me once, and only with Windows XP; I imagine some sort of Windows utility would correct the problem if I had it).
Regarding VoIP: there are a lot of VoIP programs that can replace Skype; what you want depends on your needs. The major issue is Skype doesn't support any standard protocols, just its own secret protocol, so you won't be able to use any of them to communicate with Skype users; the people you want to communicate with will have to also use some VoIP program other than Skype. Anyway, some that I've heard of are Ekiga, Jitsi, Linphone, and Mumble, and I know that Empathy supports VoIP as well. I don't know how good any of them are because I don't use VoIP myself (though I've tested Mumble briefly), but I'm sure someone else will have more to say about them.
One thing to keep in mind is that Adobe Flash is proprietary, so it is not included in Trisquel. Websites are getting better at this, but some still refuse to work without Flash. Trisquel ships with Gnash, which is compatible with pretty much any Flash 8 and older stuff and also works with YouTube, but very little else. With a lot of video sites, you can get around only supporting Flash by using UnPlug (an Abrowser/Firefox extension), which allows you to download the videos (or "open" them, which in practice causes them to be streamed like an HTML5 video) or ViewTube (a Greasemonkey script), which replaces the Flash-based video players on certain sites with an HTML5/Javascript-based one. Disabling the Gnash plugin (called "Shockwave Flash" in the list of plugins) can also help in some cases, because some video players do support Javascript/HTML5-based fallback, but only use them when Flash is unavailable.
Also, welcome!
This is a good response. I still get frustrated with flash, and had not yet heard of viewtube, I'll try that out.
Two things I'll add:
I'm very low-tech and have still managed to convert from a windows 7 pc without too much trouble. Honestly, the most difficult thing about my switch was getting used to flash player not working for a lot of videos and whatnot. Since it seems like a big step at first, what I did was install it alongside windows 7 so I could have something to fall back on if I needed it. I know some people are very hardline about this, but it can be difficult to make the transition all at once. I'd keep OSX there in case you have the need to go back for flash player or skype, and over time you'll get used to those things being gone.
Also, the main thing you'll want to watch out for when trying it out is that some network card drivers are nonfree, so it may be impossible to use wifi without buying a peripheral. I converted my windows 7 pc without problems, but if you can't use your wireless, you may need an adapter from the thinkpenguin link on the right, they're about $50 I think. If you have this problem and that's not in your budget, you may be forced into using an operating system that is not fully-free. Different people have different opinions about this, but I think this is a realistic problem, and in this case your best option would be to try a different distribution, like Fedora, which does make some attempt to promote free software while keeping non-free parts that are required by some hardware to run.
As onpon4 said though, you can test to make sure everything works before you install, so just booting from the CD puts you in no danger!
Good luck!
Hi there! There are people here who liberated their macs. The easiest way for you to test how your hardware works in Trisquel is to make a live CD or a live USB. I have no idea how to do that on a mac.
Installing Trisquel shouldn't be too hard and you can always ask for help here. There are a lot of people willing to lend a hand.
You can probably do pretty much anything you used to do, at least mostly, it just will be a little bit different.
Welcome to freedom!
I am a member!
Hi and welcome to the community!
I'd like to introduce you to h-node. H-node is a hardware database which categorizes different kind of hardware like laptops, desktops and their internal parts based on their compatibility with free software.
H-node is a good place to find freedom compatible hardware. You should check that out and also contribute your existing hardware to it.
Can you boot your mac with a Trisquel live-cd and report the results to h-node? It would be nice.
Good luck with converting your mac!
Hello Smallwheels and welcome!
of course you can rely on the community helping you in case something doesn't work, people here are very friendly and active.
Some people mentioned yet the possibility of a usb stick to try out trisquel before you install it.
If everything works fine, don't be afraid of the installation. It's a very self-explaining, user friendly routine.
In case some of your hardware is not supported: you will find good advices for replacements in this forum. Very often also cheap solutions are possible.
Please keep in mind that for free computing it's worth making a few sacrifices, although we try to avoid them.
Thank you for the words of encouragement. If I make an ISO image it will be done on my Mac Book since my HP is having difficulty remaining on. It is my hope that booting from the CD will bypass whatever is preventing the machine from staying on. It is just going into sleep mode immediately after booting.
I won't be wiping the Mac Book drive for any other OS. It will remain my backup machine. It is my hope that I won't need to use it for anything else. It is a 2008 model. On Apple computers there are programs that run other OSs in virtual machines. This is common for many Mac users who need to run Windows or others. Anybody wanting to know how Trisquel works on a Mac could find somebody to run Parallels and report about it.
Since this distribution is based on Ubuntu how will Ubuntu updates affect Trisquel?
Are all programs in the Ubuntu repository functional in Trisquel?
Can I use a CD-R to make the ISO image or must it be a DVD?
I am a member!
Trisquel releases are based on LTS releases of Ubuntu. Updates are brought from upstream as far as I know.
Yes, all programs should be functional. Any propietary software that might be included in Ubuntu will not be available in the Trisquel repos however.
>Anybody wanting to know how Trisquel works on a Mac could find somebody to run Parallels and report about it.
But in that case he would know how well Trisquel runs on virtual hardware and not the real thing. This would get you false results since it would use the underlying OS with non-free parts to run the real hardware.
If you are using the default download ISO, a CD-R or a DVD-R would be fine.
Welcome to the forum, OP. According to your HP.. if you get it to boot from the CD/USB without shutdown then good. Otherwise, have you checked if it's an overheating problem? I've fixed a lot of pavilions heating and shutting down quickly after boot. First aid would be to turn it off and use a hoover to suck the dust out from ventilation points. if it helps, good. if doesnt, well take it to someone who's comfortable fixing laptops.
Let us know how it goes.
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