Do you laugh at virus/malware ads?

[GreyGeek]

...
BTW, the box that's still running 6.10 would have 12 years of uptime if not for the occasional power outage! ....

That brings back memories of the Windows 95 vs Linux uptime war of the 1995-2000 era. I started using Linux in 1998 and my longest uptime was 460+ days on a SuSE 6.3 server in my office. It ended when a squirrel decided to take a shortcut between two roofs via a 7Kv high tension line. I was watching him do the run when he turned into a plasma ball and landed on the ground 15' away from the power pole. The electricity in the office bldg went out. Out of curiosity I went outside and looked at the remains of the squirrel. Surprisingly, he was almost totally intact, except for a gash in his skin that went from the right front paw to the left rear paw. It looked like he had eaten too much and bloated out of his skin! And, he was pretty well cooked. He was still steaming.

Linux users were claiming 1 to 5 years in uptimes and Win95 users were making the same claim. Then, Microsoft announced a bug in their 32bit clock which caused Win95 to reboot after 49.7 days of uptime. So, all those Win95 fanboys claiming uptimes longer than that were lying.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Listing "malware", a generic term used as the name for all infective agents, is listed as an infective agent. It's like listing a bunch of planes but including the term "airplane" in the list.

Ah ha! That didn't even jump out at me. Thanks.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Thanks SH and GG! That's pretty much how I feel about it--why bother upgrading basically unused machines as long as they're running okay?

BTW, the box that's still running 6.10 would have 12 years of uptime if not for the occasional power outage! When I moved back home to Southern California after living in Dallas--with its tornadoes, torrential thunderstorms, and constant power outages--I thought I was done with electricity issues. I was wrong! Southern California Edison keeps doing this thing where they inform my neighborhood about a week in advance of a planned outage for equipment upgrades. It's happened at least six times in the last five years. I don't know what happened five years ago that made them start doing this, but it sure is annoying even though I understand, and appreciate, the need for upgraded equipment. But the 12 hours or so each time is a LOT of time to kill when you have no power and are stuck at home! Anyway, if not for the electricity going out occasionally, my oldest box would easily have 12 years of uptime because it's never gone down on its own and it's been that long since I installed any new hardware in it.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Thanks SH and GG! That's pretty much how I feel about it--why bother upgrading basically unused machines as long as they're running okay.

BTW, the box that's still running 6.10 would have 12 years of uptime if not for the occasional power outage! When I moved back home to Southern California after living in Dallas--with its tornadoes, torrential thunderstorms, and constant power outages--I thought I was done with electricity issues. I was wrong! Southern California Edison keeps doing this thing where they inform my neighborhood about a week in advance of a planned outage for equipment upgrades. It's happened at least six times in the last five years. I don't know what happened five years ago that made them start doing this, but it sure is annoying even though I understand, and appreciate, the need for upgraded equipment. But the 12 hours or so each time is a LOT of time to kill when you have no power and are stuck at home! Anyway, if not for the electricity going out occasionally, my oldest box would easily have 12 years of uptime because it's never gone down on its own and it's been that long since I installed any new hardware in it.

[GreyGeek]

Ya, what SnowHog says. "If it isn't broken then don't fix it".

[Snowhog]

I'll be corrected if I'm off base, but if you are running an PC that isn't exposed to the 'Net, and is/are only being used (as you state) for local storage, then the age of the OS isn't an issue; if it works, it works. Simple as that.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Here's the EOL for Ubuntu derivatives:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]7363[/ATTACH]
As you can see, the 16.04 LTS will go to 2021, with the hardware maintenance parting ending in a couple months but the software maintenance continuing till April of 2021.

Ha ha, I'm SO FAR BEHIND!! I'm running 14.04 on my System76 laptop and even earlier versions on everything else; I believe I still have 6.10 cranking away on one of my desktops (that I only access via the network). The thing is, I don't have any problems or issues with the versions I'm running, so why bother upgrading? This is a serious question, BTW. I really don't know of any security enhancements or other tweaks that might make upgrading to something more recent look attractive. Anyone? Note that the only computer currently in physical use, i.e., where I sit down in front of it and use its display and keyboard to access it, is the S76 laptop; everything else is running but only being used for file storage and access over the network.

[GreyGeek]

... I'd like to pick a more recent LTS with more life left in it. Many thanks.

Here's the EOL for Ubuntu derivatives:

As you can see, the 16.04 LTS will go to 2021, with the hardware maintenance parting ending in a couple months but the software maintenance continuing till April of 2021.

The 18.04LTS will be released in a little over two months and that will run till 2023.

I'm running KDE Neon User Edition, based on the 16.04 LTS. I'm planning on staying with it till 2021, unless 18.04 shows some really neat stuff AND my NVidia GT650M runs OK under it AND its Btrfs support is equal or better than 16.04. Actually, Btrfs is my "line in the sand".

[PhysicistSarah]

Honestly, Microsoft has done some really shady things with Windows. I can't stand its security model either. Microsoft should not be able to execute code on my machine whenever they want to (Windows 10 upgrade), even if I disable the thing!

[GreyGeek]

Oh, yes, that stick thing--I've seen its ads, too. Offhand I don't know what's unusual about that list. Want to clue me in?!

Listing "malware", a generic term used as the name for all infective agents, is listed as an infective agent. It's like listing a bunch of planes but including the term "airplane" in the list.

[Qqmike]

@ DoYouKubuntu and Snowhog: Thanks for the tips, good points, indeed, esp about the wireless and about trying it out live first. Now I just have to wait to pick a good Kubuntu version to start with, one w/o too many issues, and one I can test myself! I am still only familiar with 14.04, nothing more recent, but I'd like to pick a more recent LTS with more life left in it. Many thanks.

[Snowhog]

Any caveats there that you can see offhand?

As you know, burn a LiveUSB of the flavor of your choice and boot from it. See what does and (maybe) does not work from the Live Session. If you have no issues booting, and are presented with a working Desktop, then the likelihood that it will install/run without issues is high. But, as DYK points out, ensure you are connected to the 'Net via a wired connection, and after you have the system installed and working/connected to the 'Net, get the wireless installed/configured/connected.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Yes, exactly what I expect, I do hope so. If it is a Desktop PC I built, I am totally familiar with the nuts and bolts to do it. My ONLY slow-down on this is that I have never messed with a laptop, this is an ASUS_Q501LA, circa 2013-2015, UEFI. I will assume I can simply treat its hard drive the way I would handle any HD; and that I can go live with a GParted CD/USB, and do the formatting/partitioning work required on the HD to set it up; then run the Kubuntu installer as usual. Any caveats there that you can see offhand?

It should be very straightforward. Until buying my Chromebook and my System76 laptop, every laptop I'd ever had came with window$ preinstalled, and I went about correcting that just as I said earlier: wipe the drive, partition to my liking, then install Kubuntu via hardwired connection to my modem. It's been several years now so things may have changed, but at the time it was necessary to have a wired connection during installation in order to download updates and current versions, etc., prior to getting wireless up and running.

Even with the Chromebook and the System76 laptop, I installed Kubuntu to replace their preinstalled versions of Linux; as above, no issues to speak of.

[Qqmike]

DYK says, How bad will it be? It's been about twelve years since I last [physically] switched a window$ user to Kubuntu, my mom, and it was a cinch.

Yes, exactly what I expect, I do hope so. If it is a Desktop PC I built, I am totally familiar with the nuts and bolts to do it. My ONLY slow-down on this is that I have never messed with a laptop, this is an ASUS_Q501LA, circa 2013-2015, UEFI. I will assume I can simply treat its hard drive the way I would handle any HD; and that I can go live with a GParted CD/USB, and do the formatting/partitioning work required on the HD to set it up; then run the Kubuntu installer as usual. Any caveats there that you can see offhand?

[DoYouKubuntu]

I recently saw an ad for the "FixItStick", or some name similar to that. They listed the threats that the stick "cured":
viruses
keyboard loggers
malware
Trojans
file lockers

Notice something unusual about that list?

Oh, yes, that stick thing--I've seen its ads, too. Offhand I don't know what's unusual about that list. Want to clue me in?!