GNU/Linux a viable alternative to Windows?

Looking to slowly change from Windows to Linux.

There seems to be many Linux distributions, anyone here have a favorite?

I am mostly a writer. Word processing and spreadsheets are my two main uses. Email and web browsing also, of course.

I do create and read pdf files and some graphics software like Adobe photoshop. Not really into gaming much.

Would like to hear about which distributions of Linux you are all using and why...


TYIA

Larry

On Sunday, March 2, 2014 12:29:15 PM UTC-6, Larry wrote:
Looking to slowly change from Windows to Linux.



There seems to be many Linux distributions, anyone here have a favorite?



I am mostly a writer. Word processing and spreadsheets are my two main uses. Email and web browsing also, of course.



I do create and read pdf files and some graphics software like Adobe photoshop. Not really into gaming much.



Would like to hear about which distributions of Linux you are all using and why...





TYIA



Larry

This is what I would look into...although I don't know about it fist hand.
http://zorin-os.com/releasecandidate.html

On 3/2/2014 12:29 PM, Larry wrote:
Looking to slowly change from Windows to Linux.

Why? Every time I run Linux I am so very disappointed. So what's your angle?

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Thunderbird v24.3.0
Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 4GB - Windows 7 Home SP1

On Sunday, March 2, 2014 1:29:15 PM UTC-5, Larry wrote:
Looking to slowly change from Windows to Linux.



There seems to be many Linux distributions, anyone here have a favorite?



I am mostly a writer. Word processing and spreadsheets are my two main uses. Email and web browsing also, of course.



I do create and read pdf files and some graphics software like Adobe photoshop. Not really into gaming much.



Would like to hear about which distributions of Linux you are all using and why...





TYIA



Larry

I tend to like Linux Mint with either the Cinnamon interface or the Mint interface. I've also had a brief look at LXLE, based on Ubuntu. The advantage of LXLE is that it has a skin to set it up to look like and to operate like Windows. And then there is Ubuntu itself, quite popular.

With either of these, you get LibreOffice with a full complement of document, spreadsheet, presentation and data base capabilities. LibreOffice operates a lot like Microsoft Office before the ribbon interface and it can read and write Microsoft Office files with almost 100% success. I would claim that if you've used Office without any of the fancier features, any Office files you have will work perfectly with LibreOffice.

Dealing with Microsoft Office is a lot like being Charlie Brown kicking a football held by Lucy. Office is not an open spec, despite its Orwellian name of Open XML. Microsoft changes it, and anyone wanting to be compatible needs to reverse engineer it and make their own changes.

I would suggest downloading the ISO files for a number of Linux distros, and either burning DVDs or making up bootable flash sticks. Then you can try out Linux "live", without installing it and you can then see what you like best.

Unfortunately, the Linux world is very much fragmented, so the choice of which Linux is never an easy one. Too damned many egos in the Linux world, with the notion that "their" distro is the best... Ben Myers

On 3/2/2014 2:14 PM, Ben Myers wrote:
With either of these, you get LibreOffice with a full complement of document, spreadsheet, presentation and data base capabilities. LibreOffice operates a lot like Microsoft Office before the ribbon interface and it can read and write Microsoft Office files with almost 100% success. I would claim that if you've used Office without any of the fancier features, any Office files you have will work perfectly with LibreOffice.

Try search and replace EOL characters with LibreOffice. You have to be a
programmer to pull it off. Heck anything else is so much better than
LibreOffice.

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Thunderbird v24.3.0
Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 4GB - Windows 7 Home SP1

On Sunday, March 2, 2014 2:13:50 PM UTC-5, BillW50 wrote:
On 3/2/2014 12:29 PM, Larry wrote:

Looking to slowly change from Windows to Linux.



Why? Every time I run Linux I am so very disappointed. So what's your angle?



--

Bill

Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Thunderbird v24.3.0

Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 4GB - Windows 7 Home SP1

And why are you so disappointed with a free product when Microsoft is regularly manipulating its world to extract more and more money from everyone? And when Microsoft has such an abysmal track record with Windows, oscillating alternately between good and bad-ugly releases (homage to Clint Eastwood..) We've had to live with Windows 95 (buggy/incomplete), Windows 98 (AKA Windows 95 stabilized), Windows ME (not born right), Windows XP (very good by SP1), Windows Vista (Bloatware), Windows 7 (real good), Windows 8 (fantasy marriage of touchscreen tiles with menu interface; unusable if you do not have a touch scree; marginally productive if you do).

How about installing a recent and modern Linux distro on a system and giving it a try for a while? Do not get me started on Microsoft paranoia that software pirates are stealing all of its revenue... Ben Myers

On 3/2/2014 2:21 PM, Ben Myers wrote:
On Sunday, March 2, 2014 2:13:50 PM UTC-5, BillW50 wrote:
On 3/2/2014 12:29 PM, Larry wrote:

Looking to slowly change from Windows to Linux.

Why? Every time I run Linux I am so very disappointed. So what's your angle?

And why are you so disappointed with a free product when Microsoft is regularly manipulating its world to extract more and more money from everyone? And when Microsoft has such an abysmal track record with Windows, oscillating alternately between good and bad-ugly releases (homage to Clint Eastwood.) We've had to live with Windows 95 (buggy/incomplete), Windows 98 (AKA Windows 95 stabilized), Windows ME (not born right), Windows XP (very good by SP1), Windows Vista (Bloatware), Windows 7 (real good), Windows 8 (fantasy marriage of touchscreen tiles with menu interface; unusable if you do not have a touch scree; marginally productive if you do).

How about installing a recent and modern Linux distro on a system and giving it a try for a while? Do not get me started on Microsoft paranoia that software pirates are stealing all of its revenue... Ben Myers

Well LibreOffice seems like it was developed by first graders. Do
everything the hard way and people will love it, right?

Linux is also poorly coded. All of the drivers I have run into can't
even take advantage of the special abilities of the hardware. I was just
talking about today that Linux couldn't even pan and scan or even access
downscaling the Intel 915GM. Even the Android can do that, what happened
to Linux?

I do have a fondness toward my Xandros (Linux). It isn't free and you
have to pay for it like Windows. Although they never updated the kernel
and if I want to continue to use it, I must recompile it. Lots of fun
there. You just can't do it the easy way like clicking update and let it
do its thing.

And Linux applications are also featureless. Nor very powerful either.
Comparing say VLC on Linux and comparing it to say Windows Media Player
on the same machine, WMP blows it away (especially for WMA and WMV
files). Far faster frames rates and everything.

Even my Keurig Coffee Maker requires constant reboots. No doubt that is
using Linux too.

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Thunderbird v24.3.0
Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 4GB - Windows 7 Home SP1

On Sunday, March 2, 2014 12:13:50 PM UTC-7, BillW50 wrote:
On 3/2/2014 12:29 PM, Larry wrote:

Looking to slowly change from Windows to Linux.



Why? Every time I run Linux I am so very disappointed. So what's your angle?



--

Bill

Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Thunderbird v24.3.0

Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 4GB - Windows 7 Home SP1

My angle?

Have two WindowsXP machines that I want to keep running because of the large investment I have in software.

So the WindowsXPs I have now taken offline.
However, I am thinking about installing Linux in a dual boot so I can still have Internet access for those machines. I would boot into WindowsXP when I need to and boot into Linux to connect to the Internet when I want to.

I also have a Windows Vista machine. Vista support is ending 2017. If the dual boot works for me on the Windows XP machine, I will also use it on the Vista computer.

And if I really like Linux, I might become a Linux convert before, God forbid, Windows 7 expires.

I guess that's my angle.

On Sunday, March 2, 2014 1:41:17 PM UTC-7, BillW50 wrote:
On 3/2/2014 2:21 PM, Ben Myers wrote:

On Sunday, March 2, 2014 2:13:50 PM UTC-5, BillW50 wrote:

On 3/2/2014 12:29 PM, Larry wrote:



Looking to slowly change from Windows to Linux.



Why? Every time I run Linux I am so very disappointed. So what's your angle?



And why are you so disappointed with a free product when Microsoft is regularly manipulating its world to extract more and more money from everyone? And when Microsoft has such an abysmal track record with Windows, oscillating alternately between good and bad-ugly releases (homage to Clint Eastwood.) We've had to live with Windows 95 (buggy/incomplete), Windows 98 (AKA Windows 95 stabilized), Windows ME (not born right), Windows XP (very good by SP1), Windows Vista (Bloatware), Windows 7 (real good), Windows 8 (fantasy marriage of touchscreen tiles with menu interface; unusable if you do not have a touch scree; marginally productive if you do).



How about installing a recent and modern Linux distro on a system and giving it a try for a while? Do not get me started on Microsoft paranoia that software pirates are stealing all of its revenue... Ben Myers



Well LibreOffice seems like it was developed by first graders. Do

everything the hard way and people will love it, right?



Linux is also poorly coded. All of the drivers I have run into can't

even take advantage of the special abilities of the hardware. I was just

talking about today that Linux couldn't even pan and scan or even access

downscaling the Intel 915GM. Even the Android can do that, what happened

to Linux?



I do have a fondness toward my Xandros (Linux). It isn't free and you

have to pay for it like Windows. Although they never updated the kernel

and if I want to continue to use it, I must recompile it. Lots of fun

there. You just can't do it the easy way like clicking update and let it

do its thing.



And Linux applications are also featureless. Nor very powerful either.

Comparing say VLC on Linux and comparing it to say Windows Media Player

on the same machine, WMP blows it away (especially for WMA and WMV

files). Far faster frames rates and everything.



Even my Keurig Coffee Maker requires constant reboots. No doubt that is

using Linux too.



--

Bill

Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Thunderbird v24.3.0

Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 4GB - Windows 7 Home SP1

Bill,

My understanding is Windows Media Player was not included with Windows 8. I believe it was offered free for a short time. Don't know about Windows 8.1..

Larry

On Sunday, March 2, 2014 12:12:51 PM UTC-7, Bob_Villa wrote:
On Sunday, March 2, 2014 12:29:15 PM UTC-6, Larry wrote:

Looking to slowly change from Windows to Linux.







There seems to be many Linux distributions, anyone here have a favorite?







I am mostly a writer. Word processing and spreadsheets are my two main uses. Email and web browsing also, of course.







I do create and read pdf files and some graphics software like Adobe photoshop. Not really into gaming much.







Would like to hear about which distributions of Linux you are all using and why...











TYIA







Larry



This is what I would look into...although I don't know about it fist hand.

http://zorin-os.com/releasecandidate.html

Hi Bob..

Zorin looks interesting, thanks for that link!

Larry