linuxgeek: Re: [LINUX_Newbies] Downloading Problem

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Re: [LINUX_Newbies] Downloading Problem

Hi Roy,

You wrote:

> The lack of an upgrade tool comes into play when you want to upgrade
> from one version to the next. There are two development cycles in the
> Ubuntu family, which includes Linux Mint. One is the six month
> "regular" release cycle and the other is the two year LTS (long term
> support) cycle. You follow one of the two paths. Do not attempt to
> upgrade an LTS to regular unless you are prepared to do it every six
> months.

Unless you need a particular feature, "upgrading"
an LTS to a regular doesn't sound like any kind
of improvement LOL.

> The alternative for Mint and some users who choose to start fresh is
> to to a re-installation. If you have an out of the box installation
> that means backing up files in your home folder and downloading a
> fresh ISO and getting onto installation media. ...

That's what I assumed the worst case senario
would be--a bit of a nuisance to back up all
my files and a repeat of the "great fun" getting
a valid iso, but no more impossible than what
I'm into now. I gather from what you said, the
Linux way to keep files is, like Mac, in a home
folder that would make the backup a single-
step process as long as the backup medium
is big enough.

> I follow the six month cycle in Kubuntu because I like the idea of
> having the latest and greatest applications. A person who craves
> stability and less work might opt for the LTS cycle.

At this point I assume I could get by with the
LTS cycle--The old unit would be mostly for
having a portable web browser. I do like
FireFox, but one of the techies who did one
of the repairs I needed, said he thought
FireFox was likely too big a job for the
processor on a netbook. Perhaps Opera
would be the way to go (when I get that
far).

> ... the lack of an upgrade tool. You get an upgrade by changing a text
> file in your root file system. You have to do this as root using sudo
> from the commandline to locate the file, change it and save it. You
> have to do this carefully by changing each instance of the version
> name without typos or you can mess things up. That is not an newbie
> friendly skill. Most are put off by the terminal in the first place.

I might look into this after getting some
experience living with Linux--I agree going
to a command line may be a bit "too much"
for calling something a good option for
newbies, having seen mentions of using
sudo.

> Try this for a Windows open source download manager:
>
> http://dfast.sourceforge.net/
>
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/urlget/

Thanks--that clears up a lot. my fast peek
at the urlget one lead directly to an url for
uget, a nice sounding download manager,
but in the absence of a recommendation (or
even knowing sourceforge was involved), I
had to consider the two bad possibilities;
now I have two recommended programs,
both from sourceforge.

--

Regards,

Gene Falck
gfalck@merr.com