Jacco
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| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 |  Posted - Apr 21 2009 : 1:27PMI've been getting (VERY slowly) acquainted with Ubuntu for the last few weeks. My initial goal was to ditch Windows completely but it's becoming increasingly clear that just isn't going to happen. The simplest things can be maddening to try to accomplish in Linux? I mean, what the fuck? At some point, I'm hoping Ubuntu will be something I can use exclusively. If anyone is using Linux as their main OS, my hat's off to you. [Link] |
Jacco  All-Star Member "liable to deprave and corrupt" 2673 Posts 5/04 | Posted - Apr 21 2009 : 3:03PM Jacco [Link] |
| charn fubar 2880 Posts 12/09 | Posted - May 14 2011 : 9:38PM [Link] |
| Dubious_Leftovers Senior Member And on that fateful day, the hatred consumed me... 1423 Posts 3/09 | Posted - May 14 2011 : 9:52PM I think that's the price you pay: a lack of user-friendliness (despite Ubuntu's deceptively welcoming front-end interface) in return for a very stable, free operating system. It's not for beginners; the computer geeks' OS for sure... [Link] |
| jrv Senior Member 1266 Posts 2/03 | Posted - May 19 2011 : 12:37AM Last year I converted my entire "desktop usage" to a VM model: I installed VirtualBox on the host systems and use bunch of VMs, both for security and stability reasons. My "web browsing" VM is ubuntu. I have a couple of Windows VMs for programs that need Windows but they are used only for the one application in that VM and not for anything else. It doesn't matter what the host system runs as long as there is a lot of RAM available. The complete list of programs installed on my bare-metal desktop *not* in a VM; VirtualBox, PuTTY, WinImage and OpenVPN. The web browser on that machine is never run (proxy set to a non-existent address). I've used BSD for 25 years so linux is a little strange but nowhere near as hard to program in as Windows is. Windows does things well but only if you do them a certain way and don't need to know what's going on, otherwise it's a usability nightmare. PS. My "web browsing" VM is set to "immutable" - every time it shuts down all changes (i.e., viruses) are discarded. A few Firefox files - bookmarks, cookies, etc - are symlink'd to a mounted filesystem outside the VM. Surprisingly this is practical to do and is a real win for security without being a PITA to use: not quite military-grade security yet not a usability headache. No FireFox hacks were needed. [Link] |
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| Dave_K99 Member 497 Posts 12/07 | Posted - May 19 2011 : 8:44PM I'd use Linux exclusively if fewer of the applications I currently want/need to use were Windows only. As much as I like Linux, it usually makes more sense for me to boot into Windows than constantly run software through WINE. [Link] |
| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 | Posted - May 27 2011 : 6:09PM Get it here ) and Mint 11. I used it to put Mint on a Sandisk Thumbdrive. I tried a couple of other Linux flavors and didn't like them at all. Mint seems to be a little more like Windows without all the confusing different names for drives. BUT... This version of Mint comes with Firefox 4 (apparently) and I can't figure out how to downgrade to firefox 3.6 (I like it better for now because many of my favorite add-ons don't work with 4). It's really not bad other than that and the fact that it just locks up every now and then. I tried to play a song on the media player and thought the song played (at full volume) everything else completely froze and I had to shut down with the power button. I also can't seem to figure out how to speed up the mouse wheel. It has one speed. Verrrrrrryyyy ssssssllllooowwww. Now I remember why I got so frustrated with it. Still thinking about keeping it. Any other versions of Linux that would be ideal to try on an 8 gig Thumbdrive? Edited by - randomprecision on 5/28/2011 5:15:37 PM [Link] |
| ninja1 Senior Member 2939 Posts 1/08 | Posted - May 29 2011 : 11:01AM Regarding the freezing, it may be the flashdrive is just too slow to run a big live OS from. Linux Mint is not designed to be lighweight. How much RAM do you have? Are you booting from the flash drive, or running the Live Linux after booting Windows? In my experience the 'live CD' proposition is always a bit flakey, performance-wise. If you want to experiment with Linux while keeping your Windows machine, I'd suggest finding and old forgotten/discarded computer and installing Linux on it. [Link] |
| Dave_K99 Member 497 Posts 12/07 | Posted - May 29 2011 : 4:22PM [Link] |
| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 | Posted - May 30 2011 : 5:40AM This works much better than I expected though. I'll probably keep trying different ones to see if I can find one that works just right. [Link] |
| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 | Posted - May 30 2011 : 6:28AM Edited by - randomprecision on 5/30/2011 6:29:02 AM [Link] |
| charn fubar 2880 Posts 12/09 | Posted - May 30 2011 : 11:21AM [Link] |
| ninja1 Senior Member 2939 Posts 1/08 | Posted - May 30 2011 : 3:05PM [Link] |
| nietzsche Deactivated User 5470 Posts 8/03 | Posted - Jun 11 2011 : 11:10PM [Link] |
| nietzsche Deactivated User 5470 Posts 8/03 | Posted - Jun 11 2011 : 11:19PM [Link] |
| BlackSix All-Star Member pornography wasn't sex but fantasies of an impossibly hospitable world 12377 Posts 9/07 | Posted - Jun 11 2011 : 11:34PM [Link] |
| Keith_1 Member 66 Posts 3/05 | Posted - Jul 2 2011 : 12:17AM Unfortunately I still need some Windows apps so for now my system is dual boot. I think you can also do that with Ubuntu. But when I get my audio tweaked in Linux and find all the apps that I need for Linux, I'll switch to an all Linux system. [Link] |
| Jacco All-Star Member "liable to deprave and corrupt" 2673 Posts 5/04 | Posted - Jul 2 2011 : 6:06AM Jacco [Link] |
| Dave_K99 Member 497 Posts 12/07 | Posted - Jul 2 2011 : 12:33PM Trying to get some software running with Wine can be more trouble that it's worth, but you could always check your applications against their compatibility database first. [Link] |
| jackthetreacleeater Senior Member Shame on you! 2003 Posts 10/06 | Posted - Oct 6 2011 : 5:15PM So I decided to create a dual boot system so as to leave my Windows 7 install unaffected. I was unfamiliar with how Ubuntu or most other Linux systems were before the Unity interface was introduced. I gather Unity is an attempt by the Linux community to make their systems more distinct from Windows. I found it a little difficult to get to grips with to be honest, being non "windows" bases with a more integrated approach. I know you have to give something a little time to get used too, but when I've got Windows still to fall back on, my enthusiasm soon faded. It really made me nervous and anxious trying to do simple things and I got very frustrated very quickly. It's rather tricky to set email up, especially when you're used to using Windows Live software with folders and the like. I think ultimately there are niggly things in Linux, just as there are in Windows, that would annoy me; so there's probably no need to switch. To be honest I'm only using Windows 7 because I got it on student discount, I probably would have never paid full price for it and I'd still be using Windows XP, maybe I would have switched to Linux then. The other problem of course is video games, most of which don't run on Linux. Maybe there will be a time when I'm forced into using a Linux based system, but I can't see it happening yet. I have found myself forced into the world of open source in other areas. One Windows 7 niggle, there I was happily using my old version of Office XP for months and months, then out of the blue and for no apparent reason Word stops wanting to load properly. Despite un-installing and re-installing and going through the usual routine I thought sod it and I downloaded OpenOffice. It's taken a bit of getting used to as well and I've had a few problems with formatting issues porting over old .doc files. [Link] |
| Harri Patel Senior Member #SDNY he's all yours. -- Michael Steele 5110 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Oct 6 2011 : 5:21PM [Link] |
| jackthetreacleeater Senior Member Shame on you! 2003 Posts 10/06 | Posted - Oct 6 2011 : 8:19PM [Link] |
| ninja1 Senior Member 2939 Posts 1/08 | Posted - Oct 7 2011 : 2:09PM [Link] |
| nietzsche Deactivated User 5470 Posts 8/03 | Posted - Oct 17 2011 : 8:24PM [Link] |
| Harri Patel Senior Member #SDNY he's all yours. -- Michael Steele 5110 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Oct 17 2011 : 11:56PM If the former, you need to go into the BIOS (when you boot up, hit Delete or Escape or one of the Function keys - usually there's a message that only lasts for a couple of seconds that says which one it is) and find the option that lets you specify the boot drive order. Make the CD drive the first one and whatever hard drive you're using to boot off of now the second one. Save the changes (usually F10) and the machine should reboot. It might say to press any key if you want it to boot from the CD. If the latter, we're probably going to need more details. [Link] |
| nietzsche Deactivated User 5470 Posts 8/03 | Posted - Oct 19 2011 : 11:39AM [Link] |
| ninja1 Senior Member 2939 Posts 1/08 | Posted - Oct 19 2011 : 12:45PM [Link] |
| nietzsche Deactivated User 5470 Posts 8/03 | Posted - Oct 21 2011 : 1:49PM [Link] |
| K Smitten Kitten Cloud 9 530 Posts 2/06 | Posted - Nov 5 2011 : 5:20PM MUCH faster than CD too. [Link] |
| WideAngle Senior Member GAMBO192 1367 Posts 9/11 | Posted - Jul 18 2012 : 9:01AM [Link] |
| Magician9 Member 14 Posts 8/12 | Posted - Sep 5 2012 : 4:47AM The Xfce desktop environment looks and feels a lot like XP. This can be comforting for a beginner and was how I got started. There are many good online resources for all flavors of Linux. Ubuntu and Fedora forums are very good. There are stickies on most forums to tell you how to install all the drivers you need to make your computer behave the way you expect it to. Right now I'm using Fedora 17, and there are some annoying little bugs but the other side of that is there are no viruses, ever. And it doesn't cost anything. So if you're feeling a little adventurous and would like to try something new, give it a shot. You might be surprised. [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Sep 27 2016 : 3:04PM |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Sep 27 2016 : 3:46PM I'm using Windows 7, and am very happy with it. As you know, I successfully fought-off the "Free Upgrade" forced migration to Windows 10 fiasco. HOWEVER, it is becoming increasingly obvious to me that Microsoft is gearing-up for "Round 2" in their mission to force all existing Windows users to their dystopian Windows 10 and beyond future. The once vaunted Microsoft Update process has been turned upside down, and can no longer be trusted. I honestly now believe that MS is using "updates" to actually break Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1, as opposed to providing actual service and benefit to meet their obligation to provide support for Windows 7 through 2020, and Windows 8.1 through 2013. I have a HUGE investment in Windows 7 machines, hardware and software (many thousands of dollars), and I will fight them off through 2020. BUT, I -- we -- shouldn't have to keep fighting with Microsoft over using software we paid for -- and under support terms that were clearly laid out when we purchased the software! OK, so... I'm strongly considering creating a Linux machine, in order to learn and evaluate the Linux OS as a possible successor to Windows 7 when the time comes. More importantly, to evaluate the available Linux software for potential use. Sure, the basic stuff is out there, and much of it already comes bundles with the Linux OS. BUT, will I be able to perform high-quality video and audio editing like I do now on Windows 7?  So, please, any of you using Linux (and what versions of Linux) talk to me about it [Link] |
| Magician9 Member 14 Posts 8/12 | Posted - Sep 27 2016 : 5:11PM [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Sep 27 2016 : 7:23PM And, are there high-quality video and audio editing programs available? (If VLC for Linux is as good as the Windows version, it will suffice as the player.) [Link] |
| Jacco All-Star Member "liable to deprave and corrupt" 2673 Posts 5/04 | Posted - Sep 28 2016 : 7:23AM I am still using OpenSuse, both at home and in the office. VLC on Linux works the same as on any other platform, maybe even better. Video editing, I think there are some reasonable free programs out there, but I know there are commercial video editing packages for Linux, which are used by major studios, like Lightworks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_editing_software has a list. Jacco Edited by - jacco on 9/28/2016 7:23:53 AM [Link] |
| pringles All-Star Member 1351 Posts 2/08 | Posted - Sep 29 2016 : 12:55PM It sounds like you're in the exact same spot I was in 10 months ago. I'll share my experience. I LOVE Windows 7 and have done everything I can think of to keep it as long as possible. I'm also disgusted by Microsoft's behaviour this past year or two. I have Windows Updates completely disabled. I consider Microsoft to be the biggest threat to my system. I haven't had an issue with malware in many years. Besides privatefirewall and Avast AV, I think the biggest reason for this is AdBlock Plus and spywareblaster. I have a backup of literally everything I can think of and find. This includes a Macrium Reflect image of my Win 7 system. Still, I know Win 7 won't last forever. So I decided to give Linux a serious shot last October. I continued using and learning it through March. So about 4-5 months. I decided to go with Ubuntu if only because it seems to have the most support online. IMO people focus too much on which environment to use and how pretty their desktop looks. Learn Linux instead. No matter what flavor you go with, sign up for UbuntuForums. It's a fantastic community like ADT. They have specific forums for the most common Linux distributions. To summarize my experience with Ubuntu, I think it would be a fantastic alternative for someone who only needs to fire up Firefox and surf the web. There's many things I really really like about it, such as being able to boot it from just about anything. I boot it from a docked external hard drive. My frustration isn't as much with the OS as it is with the software and dependencies. There's alternatives for everything, including photo and video editing. I found too much of the software to either be buggy OR missing just one or two key features that the Windows versions had that make it a no go, unless you're willing to make a significant compromise. Often times I researched for an answer and found it wasn't the program, but it's dependencies. You'll hear a lot about WINE to emulate Windows programs. I spent a lot of time playing with it and couldn't find anything it was useful for. FWIW I don't play computer games. Maybe it works for that. I will try Ubuntu again when the day comes I have to choose between Windows 10 or Linux. I still have it on my external drive but I haven't touched it since April. I DO feel it was a great learning experience, and you should at least try it. I pushed hard to make it work for me, but in the end I feel like it's maybe 60-65% of my Windows experience. You will have to make compromises. Burn a Live DVD and try it. You can also put Ubuntu on a USB flash drive. If you intend for that to be your main system though, there's quite a few modifications needed so you don't burn it out quickly. There's a thread or two on Ubuntu forums on how to do that. Know that Ubuntu can see a Windows partition, but Windows can't see a Ubuntu partition out of the box. Know that you can screw up your boot loader easily if you don't know what you're doing. It can be fixed. Keep your Ubuntu install off your Windows drive if possible to help avoid this. I turn my external drive on, reboot, F12 and select my Ubuntu partition on the external. It works great. Don't think you can get away without learning to use the terminal. Learn to use it. Don't do anything in it unless you know what it will do. Double check what you typed before you hit enter. Backup your system. There's various ways to do it, but one of the things I really liked about Linux is that you can just zip up your OS while it's running! There's a thread on how to do it on the forums. If you have any Wordpad documents in Windows 7... I had a terrible time trying to find a workable solution to keep my RTF (Rich Text Files) or convert them in Ubuntu. I spent considerable time on it. I ended up deciding if I ever make the switch, I'll just re-type dozens of documents I have. So I printed them out for later use. I believe Ubuntu is switching over to something called Snaps. This was beginning after I started so I don't know much about it. You might want to investigate. I believe it is the direction Ubuntu is heading in for future security purposes. My system is Ubuntu 14.04. Download the Ubuntu Manual and read it. Download The Linux Command Line from Linuxcommand.org. It's a great reference guide. Here are some other resources I found very helpful: help.ubuntu.com Ask Ubuntu Easy Linux Tips Project Wine HQ if you decide to venture into WINE OMG Ubuntu psychocats.net - some great beginner info here I apologize for the length of this. I hope something here helps. Good luck. Edited by - pringles on 9/29/2016 1:09:33 PM [Link] |
| Jacco All-Star Member "liable to deprave and corrupt" 2673 Posts 5/04 | Posted - Sep 29 2016 : 2:48PM Jacco [Link] |
| pringles All-Star Member 1351 Posts 2/08 | Posted - Sep 29 2016 : 3:25PM Not in my experience. LibreOffice was one of probably 10-12 programs I tried for RTF. I tried every single program in the repositories. If it wasn't an issue of just being buggy, it was an issue of formatting or something else. I consulted help on the forums. I consulted the extensive LibreOffice documentation regarding "Using Styles from another document or template," "Creating a document template" and "Changing the default template" and couldn't get it to work. As I recall I found out some of the settings weren't saved and it was a known bug. Known bugs are another thing I ran into repeatedly. I gave up after probably 10 hours of trying to solve just this one issue. I'm no longer interested in trying to solve it. I'll just re-type everything if and when I need to. This is one example of how maddening Linux can be. Be prepared to be frustrated. [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Sep 29 2016 : 6:39PM This way, instead of "re-typing" documents, all you'd need to do is set the fonts and formatting to your liking in LibreOffice. One thing I've noticed with Microsoft programs is that they go out-of-their-way to fight with you when you try to do anything reasonable to move them to other company's programs. (I can only imagine the Hell Windows 10 will put people through when they try to move their files and programs as they abandon Windows 10)  I will probably build and entirely new and separate computer for my Linux experiment. I mean, the OS and many programs are free. And, I already have most of the parts in excess inventory to build one for very little additional investment. I'm also wondering what the market might be for pre-built Linux machines? After all, most people don't know how to use their Windows computers right now. Could I make money building and selling Linux computers? Plus, the basic programs most people would get on a entry to mid-priced computer are actually pretty good and mostly free for Linux. Firefox, VLC, Flash, and LibreOffice as a basic office suite, immediately come to mind. [Link] |
| Jacco All-Star Member "liable to deprave and corrupt" 2673 Posts 5/04 | Posted - Oct 1 2016 : 3:32PM Jacco [Link] |
| Magician9 Member 14 Posts 8/12 | Posted - Oct 3 2016 : 9:17AM He's right. Just learn Linux if you want to although I realize this is a time committment many people are not willing to make. One of the best Linux learning tools is the book The Linux Command Line. I have a paperback and a Kindle copy. Regarding RTF documents, has anyone tried AbiWord? I have had great luck with 10 year old or more WordPerfect files that AbiWord handles flawlessly although I can't recall that I specifically tried it with RTF docs. Just a suggestion that might help. Good luck on your Linux journey and let me add a word of encouragement. One key difference between Linux and MS and Apple is this: MS and Apple will make a lot of arbitrary eye candy changes and also changes to the system setup files. While the eye candy on Linux is admittedly somewhat behind, the basic system concepts and configuration stay the same. Once you learn how to configure the system to your liking you are pretty much good to go. A Linux box does exactly what it is told provided you know how to say it on the command line. MS and Apple systems do not, and the programmers go to great lengths to keep you from telling your system what you want it to do. I'm having a similar issue right now with GIMP because it's a little behind with things that PhotoShop Elements does in a more simple way but I know it will be worth the time and trouble to sort this out. Again, good luck and I encourage you to stick with it. The Linux rewards add up more and more the longer you use it. [Link] |
| pringles All-Star Member 1351 Posts 2/08 | Posted - Oct 3 2016 : 3:48PM If you can't make a significant time committment for learning, I might argue that Linux isn't for you. Unless all you need is a web browser. There's a lot to know and it is significantly different than Windows. There's lots of outdated info and bad advice online. I learned a ton from others being corrected (or debate ensued) on Ubuntuforums and AskUbuntu. I was frustrated the very first week and felt like giving up. I kept pushing and eventually forced myself to use Ubuntu only for weeks at a time without Win 7. When I hit a roadblock it was back to Google and Ubuntuforums. I did try AbiWord. I don't remember the specific issue, but I found it to be unsuitable rather quickly. If you're on Twitter, I recommend the following for keeping up with Ubuntu: @omgubuntu and @ubuntugeek I'm still trying to stay on top of new developments even though I'm back to Windows. I invested too much time in it to forget everything before I give it another serious go down the road. [Link] |
| pringles All-Star Member 1351 Posts 2/08 | Posted - Jan 7 2017 : 10:29PM Did you give Linux a try? I've been back at it again with Ubuntu for the past few weeks. I think I've solved the remaining issues that will allow it to be my primary OS of choice after Win 7. I'm preparing to upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04.2 in a few weeks.This turned out to be true. I found out Microsoft's Wordpad doesn't fully meet the RTF specification.  I also didn't realize that LibreOffice was available for Windows. I've converted all my documents to ODF/ODT format and with a few setting changes everything is looking good. I've tested the documents for compatibility on both systems. I really like LibreOffice.Linux Preloaded maintains a list of vendors selling hardware preloaded with Linux. I think it's worthwhile to learn to install it yourself. [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Jan 8 2017 : 12:31PM And, no, I haven't built a Linux machine yet -- but I will. I'm still finishing updating, upgrading and "hardening" my fleet of Windows 7 machines :) I even (finally) finished my final Windows XP Pro machine (i.e. one complete system incorporating all the best XP hardware/software I had on several machines), to serve as a reference system going forward. There are still a lot of people running XP machines (that could become potential customers down the road). What I really want to determine is if XP and Vista machines -- particularly the later ones that came with the 4GB RAM motherboards -- would make satisfactory hardware platforms for running current versions of Linux. This would be a prime market for the "all I do is email and the Internet" older people -- and I hear this ALL the time. (More specifically, when I have to explain to them that email and the Internet are the security threats to their computers) [o\|] I have recently been given such an XP desktop with 4GB of RAM (a functioning one! that I am familiar with), and plan to check out a Linux system with this machine. It was free. So, I have exactly what I need to start playing around with Linux :) [Link] |
| pringles All-Star Member 1351 Posts 2/08 | Posted - Jan 8 2017 : 2:43PM Yup, I knew you were thinking of selling them. I was just letting you know about that site. It's just my opinion, but I still feel like Linux isn't a drop-in replacement for Windows. I think you need a certain level of technical and computer skills. You need to stay up to date on the changes for your distribution. In the short time I've been using it, Ubuntu has gone through a handful of changes, such as the introduction of snaps. Soon they will be changing display servers, from XServer to Mir. There are linux distros specifically for those older systems. Even within the Ubuntu family, there are flavors for varying systems... Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc. You can read more about them here. Xubuntu and Lubuntu are intended to be a "low-system-requirement, low-RAM environment for netbooks, mobile devices, and older PCs." 4GB should be plenty. There are systems running on far less than that. How many computers do you have? [Link] |
| LetTheWookieWin1981 Member 226 Posts 1/17 | Posted - Jan 22 2017 : 11:46AM [Link] |
| Goldstein All-Star Member "You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10 | Posted - Jan 22 2017 : 1:04PM So, sounds like Windows 7 era hardware, etc. is probably the safest bet for building a Linux system, at this moment in time. Thoughts? FYI, I mentioned the Intel 7th generation Kaby Lake processors above, as they will receive absolutely zero support for anything other than Windows 10, by design. Most notably this means that they are purposely designed to not work with Windows 7 (in theory, to not even allow Windows 7 to install in a Kaby Lake system). Microsoft wanted to do this with the Intel 6th generation Skylake processors, but relented (probably due to Windows 7 still being 50% of the installed user base), and will officially support Skylake until support for Windows 7 officially ends in 2020. Adoption of Windows 10, essentially, flatlined after the "free upgrade" campaign ended, so they are now going to force the issue with the Intel 7th generation Kaby Lake processors. Microsoft Massive Backtrack: Extends Windows 7 And 8.1 Intel Skylake Support Microsoft Confirms Windows 7 And Windows 8 Support CutsSkylake systems supported on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 [Link] |
| LetTheWookieWin1981 Member 226 Posts 1/17 | Posted - Jan 22 2017 : 4:26PM [Link] |
| pringles All-Star Member 1351 Posts 2/08 | Posted - Jan 22 2017 : 10:31PM Welcome to the forum. What distro are you using? [Link] |
| snufish Member 580 Posts 4/14 | Posted - Jul 23 2020 : 12:35AM [Link] |
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