Linux instead of Windows 8 - and is it smartphone friendly?

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Dutchuncle777

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I am in the market for a new phone and a new laptop.

I am a user of both Linux and Windows XP SP3. Linux = Mint, Ubuntu, Sabayon, SuSe, AriOS.

What about Debian & Fedora?

My needs are very basic. All I require is a notebook or ultrabook that can do web browsing, emails, basic spreadsheets and word processing. Add to this internet voice and possibly video calls. System security is essential as I am dealing with high profile clients' data as a financial advisor.

I love Android but am going with Windows Phone 8 for security reasons, or I might even stay woth Nokia's Symbian 60 for now.

The ability to sync between and computer via USB cable or Bluetooth is essential as I often operate on premises where there is hardly any mobile signal. Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 seems to have thrown a spanner in the works as far as that is concerned, but someone may have a solution for that.

The solution needs to be valid for the next three years, or longer. I really don't need the latest, fastest system around.

What are the pitfalls with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8? I am also looking at Blackberry only for its superior systems security features. I don't quite like BB or Nokia, but they are the safest to use for businessfolks. Data security and integrity is not negotiable. As much as I like the Galaxy S3, it is not secure enough for my requirements.

What OS and how much RAM will I need? Will Windows 7, for instance, integrate seamlessly with Windows Phone 8? Or should I buy a Nokia Lumia 900 and not the 920, to stay with 7 on both phone and laptop?

Linux Mint and smartphones...........?
 
A system or phone, is only as secure as the person using and configuring it. This means, windows phone 8 won't necessarily be any more secure than a Galaxy S3.

Using a specific OS or system doesn't make it any more secure, though I guess it will give you a false sense of security. This goes for both Linux and Windows.
 
Tinuva said:
A system or phone, is only as secure as the person using and configuring it. This means, windows phone 8 won't necessarily be any more secure than a Galaxy S3.

Using a specific OS or system doesn't make it any more secure, though I guess it will give you a false sense of security. This goes for both Linux and Windows.
Click to expand...


Not quite true. I agree that the user holds much of security in his own hands BUT most Android Approved Apps already put user data at risk. Perhaps you would like to reasearch the subject, like I did. Also, for Android, there are roughly 2,000 malware apps out there to infect your device; for Windows Mobile > Windows Phone, there are about 80. While assaults on all mobile devices increased by 155% over the past year, the rate for Android was roughly 3,325%. Some are less safe than others, with Blackberry still being light years ahead of MS, Apple & Android.

My quest is to manage the risk in a sensible way. I cannot see how using Android will help reduce risk, hence my original post here.

I also need to get a solution to sync data between the phone and the computer without it being cloud-based.

"Trust" is relative when it comes to phones, especially.
 
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You posted this in two places. Maybe you should get one of the threads deleted.

You could consider going Apple and buying a MacBook and an iPhone. Synching via cable is literally plug and play. Spreadsheets and other docs can be sorted out with Office 2011 or iWork. iWork can also be loaded on the iPhone as well. There are relatively very few security issues with the Apple platform. Needless to say, the risk will increase/ decrease depending on the user's security habits.

You could also load Windows 7/8 via Parallels for seamless integration of OS X, Windows and Linux if other OS's are required. RAM is cheap and upgrading a MacBook Pro non-Retina display is very easy to do. I installed 16GB of DDR RAM on my 13" MacBook Pro for R800. That is more than sufficient to virtualize Windows and a Linux OS at the same time.
 
vinodh said:
You posted this in two places. Maybe you should get one of the threads deleted.

You could consider going Apple and buying a MacBook and an iPhone. Synching via cable is literally plug and play. Spreadsheets and other docs can be sorted out with Office 2011 or iWork. iWork can also be loaded on the iPhone as well. There are relatively very few security issues with the Apple platform. Needless to say, the risk will increase/ decrease depending on the user's security habits.

You could also load Windows 7/8 via Parallels for seamless integration of OS X, Windows and Linux if other OS's are required. RAM is cheap and upgrading a MacBook Pro non-Retina display is very easy to do. I installed 16GB of DDR RAM on my 13" MacBook Pro for R800. That is more than sufficient to virtualize Windows and a Linux OS at the same time.
Click to expand...

iOS6 and Mountain Lion already don't have iSync but use the iCloud service. I specifically said I don't always have "cloud access." Future updates and editions of Apple's OS's will flag iSync for deletion at boot-up.
 
I don't know what "iSync" is but my Mountain Lion based MacBook Pro synchs via USB to iTunes and synchs and backups my iPhone and iPad. You don't have to use iCloud at all. It's completely optional.
 
Read up now on iSync and found out that its legacy software that is not used by Apple anymore.
 
Here's list showing what can be synchronized via iTunes:


Applications
Audio content—music, podcasts, audiobooks, and iTunes U content
Bookmarks
Books
Contacts
Calendars
Movies and TV shows
Photos
Notes
Documents (File Sharing apps only)
Ringtones
 
vinodh said:
Read up now on iSync and found out that its legacy software that is not used by Apple anymore.
Click to expand...

The iStore consultants in my neighbourhood echoes what I read on an Apple forum which said that sync via USB will no longer be supported in future. They keep telling me that I will have to make use of the iCloud instead. My own idea was to marry iPhone + iPad + Macbook Retina via Time Machine or whatever the wireless backup server device is called. So they told me that it will work for now, but not in the near future. I was really disappointed by that.
 
Tinuva said:
A system or phone, is only as secure as the person using and configuring it. This means, windows phone 8 won't necessarily be any more secure than a Galaxy S3.

Using a specific OS or system doesn't make it any more secure, though I guess it will give you a false sense of security. This goes for both Linux and Windows.
Click to expand...

This is only correct to a point.
The mere fact that iOS and WP8 are much more sandboxed than Android mean that they are more secure.
For instance, on WP it is impossible for an app to send an SMS on your behalf or make a phone call. As an example, I remember reading this: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/19/instagram_android_sms_trojan/ That would be impossible on WP (not sure about iOS).

But being walled up comes at a cost. There are legitimate reasons for an app to send sms's - and those apps will not be possible on WP.

I installed a game on my Galaxy tab a while back and it had a list as long as my arm of what it wanted permission to do. The publisher seemed legit so I installed it anyway, but who knows, it may be ordering me a russian bride.
 
vinodh said:
Ignore everything I said. The iStore guys must be right.
Click to expand...

Same iStore consultants tried to convince me that iCloud will work at Riemvasmaak, Kuboes and similar little outrcrops in the Northern Cape. My son is spending the weekend just 20 minutes out of Cape Town and he only has a 1/5 GPRS signal from Vodacom. Cloud-based computing seems to be a pipe dream in our country.

I won't discount your advice just like that, for various reasons. Firstly, you already proved them wrong, at least for now. Secondly, the posts on Apple forums may have been placed there by folks not having the facts. If your setup is guaranteed to be working in, say, 3 years from now, it really is worth a look. I like the Unix underpinnings of Apple;s OS.
 
roguemat said:
This is only correct to a point.
The mere fact that iOS and WP8 are much more sandboxed than Android mean that they are more secure.
For instance, on WP it is impossible for an app to send an SMS on your behalf or make a phone call. As an example, I remember reading this: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/19/instagram_android_sms_trojan/ That would be impossible on WP (not sure about iOS).

But being walled up comes at a cost. There are legitimate reasons for an app to send sms's - and those apps will not be possible on WP.

I installed a game on my Galaxy tab a while back and it had a list as long as my arm of what it wanted permission to do. The publisher seemed legit so I installed it anyway, but who knows, it may be ordering me a russian bride.
Click to expand...

That poses no threat! You could still communicate with her via translate.google.com :D
 
Dutchuncle777 said:
That poses no threat! You could still communicate with her via translate.google.com :D
Click to expand...

You misunderstand. I'm not worried about the russian bride. It's my current wife murdering me when she finds the russian that is terrifying.
 
Unfortunately everything is moving towards cloud computing. Since I only use Linux this is a blessing since I do not have to worry about hacking a phone and getting it working on Linux, everything is handled by the cloud and every device is thus updated.

That poses a problem like you mentioned, what if there is no strong enough internet signal?

* Symbian is a dying platform and you will be hard pressed to find developers still actively developing for this platform. It has been years since I last tried to get it to make nice with Linux and it was always a hit and miss situation, more miss than hit.
* BB I cannot personally respond to since I have never owned a BB device so I have no expertise in this area.
* Android is rather straight forward. I update my contacts, email, sms and other information via cloud but transfer files directly between devices via USB. All you need to do (if it doesn't work out of the box) is modify a udev rule and Bobs your uncle.
Samsung Kies (Kies air) (or Airdroid on Google Play) can connect via your internet browser (wifi or GSM) and you could do all sort of maintenance and whatnot via this interface that worked well on Linux. http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/usefulsoftware/KIESAIR/JSP
Security, you do get firewalls for Android that is very powerful and flexible. You can specify what services should be locked for which apps or create a "whitelist" for apps that can access more sensitive areas like GSM services, maybe have a look at them?
* Windows Mobile... don't get me started... I had 3 of them over the years and I never ever want to see another WM device, ever. Each time someone promised that they cleaned up their act, that they improved and made everything "sunny and smiling faces" again. It was short of insanity to get something useful out of these devices on a Linux machine.
* iPhone I do not consider a "smartphone", it is a fashion accessory that can make calls and play Angry Birds.

I can also just echo what the store employee said, smartphones are increasingly moving to cloud only services, so to have a solution that would last you three years, I'm not sure anyone would like to take a gamble on that since the market is changing extremely rapidly atm. Who know what the next iTunes update will bring, or Windows Mobile PC software update, or even Android versions. From Android 4.x the kernel handles mounting external SD cards differently, I'm not going into that now, the point is this little update almost left us Linux folk out in the dark since we could no longer connect our devices (mounting internal and external partitions) like in the past. The market is just changing too fast to give guarantees.

Get something that works for you now and works well and stick with it. That is the best "future proof" advice I can give.

I love Linux and am obviously biased towards it, but for your purposes I would say get yourself a Windows 7 laptop with 4Gb of RAM minimum and a Windows 8 phone (since you do not want to go with Android). Just make sure you get a flagship Nokia, the cheap devices are not powerful enough to handle WM8. Our local MTN store had a line of customers wanting to return their entry level Lumias when they were introduced a while back.

I am no industry expert, but this was my experience of using phones on Linux for the past 11 years.
 
MyWorld said:
Unfortunately everything is moving towards cloud computing. Since I only use Linux this is a blessing since I do not have to worry about hacking a phone and getting it working on Linux, everything is handled by the cloud and every device is thus updated.

That poses a problem like you mentioned, what if there is no strong enough internet signal?

* Symbian is a dying platform and you will be hard pressed to find developers still actively developing for this platform. It has been years since I last tried to get it to make nice with Linux and it was always a hit and miss situation, more miss than hit.
* BB I cannot personally respond to since I have never owned a BB device so I have no expertise in this area.
* Android is rather straight forward. I update my contacts, email, sms and other information via cloud but transfer files directly between devices via USB. All you need to do (if it doesn't work out of the box) is modify a udev rule and Bobs your uncle.
Samsung Kies (Kies air) (or Airdroid on Google Play) can connect via your internet browser (wifi or GSM) and you could do all sort of maintenance and whatnot via this interface that worked well on Linux. http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/usefulsoftware/KIESAIR/JSP
Security, you do get firewalls for Android that is very powerful and flexible. You can specify what services should be locked for which apps or create a "whitelist" for apps that can access more sensitive areas like GSM services, maybe have a look at them?
* Windows Mobile... don't get me started... I had 3 of them over the years and I never ever want to see another WM device, ever. Each time someone promised that they cleaned up their act, that they improved and made everything "sunny and smiling faces" again. It was short of insanity to get something useful out of these devices on a Linux machine.
* iPhone I do not consider a "smartphone", it is a fashion accessory that can make calls and play Angry Birds.

I can also just echo what the store employee said, smartphones are increasingly moving to cloud only services, so to have a solution that would last you three years, I'm not sure anyone would like to take a gamble on that since the market is changing extremely rapidly atm. Who know what the next iTunes update will bring, or Windows Mobile PC software update, or even Android versions. From Android 4.x the kernel handles mounting external SD cards differently, I'm not going into that now, the point is this little update almost left us Linux folk out in the dark since we could no longer connect our devices (mounting internal and external partitions) like in the past. The market is just changing too fast to give guarantees.

Get something that works for you now and works well and stick with it. That is the best "future proof" advice I can give.

I love Linux and am obviously biased towards it, but for your purposes I would say get yourself a Windows 7 laptop with 4Gb of RAM minimum and a Windows 8 phone (since you do not want to go with Android). Just make sure you get a flagship Nokia, the cheap devices are not powerful enough to handle WM8. Our local MTN store had a line of customers wanting to return their entry level Lumias when they were introduced a while back.

I am no industry expert, but this was my experience of using phones on Linux for the past 11 years.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your comprehensive response.

* Symbian: yes, I know that it is dying a slow death. The phones using it won't stop working overnight, though. I don't really need to remain current but rather just to see that my setup continues to work. If Lumia, I will only consider the 920 for now.

** Linux is my favourite. I presently Google to host my domain and I have many Google apps running. I also have various cell phones, one being a Nokia E63 with Symbian 60v3. I am using Emoze for PIM functions and it syncs beautifully via the cloud. Of course, when up in Botswana or the Kgalagadi, it will not be functional. I will most likely install Ubuntu or Mint on a SD card for dual-boot.

*** Android: the recent Galaxy SIII security breach gave me a fright. I may consider a Razor Maxx HD as the battery life is fantastic and construction solid. It is virtually unbreakable and ideal for my life out in the wild. However, nobody seems to be selling these for cash in SA and I also don't want to be tied to Vodacom.

**** Laptop: I am going to follow your advice and order a custom-built ultrabook with 16GB RAM, because RAM is cheap and this will extend the useful life of the machine. It will have Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit as OS. I am not always using software updates as MS have caused machines to stop functioning in the past. "If it ain't broken, don't fix it."

Thanks again for your trouble in answering me and for the very reasonable comments and recommendations.
 
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Dutchuncle777 said:
It will have Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit as OS. I am not always using software updates as MS have caused machines to stop functioning in the past. "If it ain't broken, don't fix it."
Click to expand...
Yeah usually that's the rule...except on Windows its a good idea to rather take the update and deal with breakage that could potentially happen, as opposed to having a machine left with a vulnerability that could potentially allow in trojans, virus', rootkits and I think you get the idea.

Just saying, for someone who values security, that's a big gaping hole you leave there.
 
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