Windows 10 update GRRRRRRRRR

I just did up a home server, repurposing my studio daw pc, which is now 11yrs old 

Firstly I tried the current linux Mint distro ...  it's a nicely put together distro which is quite pleasant to work with ...  with  none of that horrible ubuntu pink/orange color scheme thank you very much!

Without specialist driver support, ie. using generic linux provisions,  the system worked fine (which is huge!)  but the performance was appalling.

Anyway ..  went to set up samba shares for the house network and all that ...  what a nightmare ..  just couldn't get the usb3 4xhdd stack I use for my library working.

No luck integrating a windows style 'workgroup' either .. not even close to authenticating properly.

Tried out the remote desktop facilities ..  no luck there ... couldn't get any of my windows machines remoting in.

So a few more days of idle messing about with samba, authentications etc  and no luck.

Last capability to try was doing backup regimes ...  system disk imaging/recovery ..  that kind of thing. Couldn't get any thing working on that front either!

Gave up at that point.

...

Started the exercise again with windows server 2008 64bit    ... bam!  everything works pretty much as expected.

All my devices working, including audio, with proper drivers and performance is stonking ... fastest file and network connectivity I've measured  ...  by a decent margin.

Shares up and permissioned in a half an hour.
Remote desktop admin right away.
System imaging and maintenance/recovery with 'Acronis' working straight away and tested with full recovery including from emergency DVD.
Version control management with 'GoodSync' working straight away.

Testing across my windows machines,  android media players and mobile devices  - perfect first go.

...

I did spend many years on unix, linux etc - I know generally my way about quite well, although I was an engineer not an IT admin guy. My last big linux gig was overhauling a bank's trading floor 

Things have definitely continued to improve with linux and it does meet many, many needs, but it sure doesn't support high productivity, for me.

Windows Server 2008 on the other hand has made me excited about extending my home IT network, which is now humming along with major speed improvements  (1Gbs networking, 300Mbs wifi, sata HDDs internal and on usb3 stack).



And what a thing is usb3    Really moves with fast hard drives and lan!

@alexc

Did you use the Mint server edition or the desktop edition?

Cheers

Ian

I  used Mint 18.3 Sylvia from here https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

I don't think there is a 'desktop' and/or 'server' version in the basic distro - I could well be wrong.

...

I ran the distro install, updated to current release of the major components and then enabled the samba related packages.

Did maually setup samba config file which did work and the home network became partially visible but no cigar re share setup/authentication.

Also tried the 'Nemo' filemanager extension for 'sharing volumes' ... completely ballsed up eveything, again not even close to working.  Used some more samba management tools to try to resolve with no luck.

Major difficult just setting up multiple routers/gateways and such  ... eventually figured it out and got it working.

Then there is the bizness of adding things into the system startup deamons and what not  ...  uggggg. Resets everything on each subsequent system restart ..

It was, however,  perverse fun  using 'vim'  for editing again     

All in all, it was like catching a nicely appointed bus 30years into the past.

I've been using windows for 20 years. I'm personally aware that more software works on it.

The only thing I use my computer for is banking. When it comes to banking, I trust Linux more.

squarewave said:

But GNOME 3 got rid of that and now you can only move vertically which is a PITA. I tried a grid "plugin" but it was a total joke but I should try again as it has been a while.

Click to expand...

Well I just tried it again (the "Workspaces Grid" plugin for GNOME 3.20 anyway) and it would not even install. It didn't even have the decency to show me an error message. Just a nothing-burger. No effect in the extensions list. I tried both methods using the gnome-tweek-tool and Chrome extension and neither worked or indicated even a sign of life. So either the plugin interface is broken or the plugin is broken but either way, this is a clear example of that "integration with other layers" issue I spoke of. It's a bad sign when the plugin has a different version for each minor revision of GNOME and plugin combination. That means that there's bad API compatibility (again, things keep changing) and / or no binary compatibility. If I had to guess, I would say the good developers are loosing interest in the Linux desktop. It's a bunch of knuckleheads right now.

alexc said:

I  used Mint 18.3 Sylvia from here https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

I don't think there is a 'desktop' and/or 'server' version in the basic distro - I could well be wrong.

...

Click to expand...

I think you are right about Mint. It is a desktop only distro. I notice you were comparing it with Windows Server 8. Perhaps for a fairer comparison you should try one of the server Linux distros of which there are quite a few. They are usually preconfigured with all the tools and set up interfaces you will need (unless you get a headless version).

Cheers

Ian

You are right, Ian - I'm looking at more 'server' oriented linux distros .. now.

I have some  more configs to do on the server, so if I can, I'll try the exercise again on a more suitable distro.

I'll be upgrading the mobo and whatnots in the next few months, so I am  enjoying trying out a few OS options ...