GNU/Linux a viable alternative to Windows?

On 3/2/2014 3:27 PM, Larry wrote:
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


No it sounds like you are talking about the Media Center, not Windows
Media Player. Yes you could get the Media Center free for a short time
for Windows 8. Now you have to pay $9.95 or something for it. The same
is true for 8.1. The Media Center came with Windows Home, Pro, and I
forgot what else.

--
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 1:14:58 PM UTC-7, Ben Myers wrote:
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

Hi Ben,

I remember sometime back you mentioned Linux mint. After your post I installed it on an old Inspiron 6000 laptop that had Windows XP. It runs fine on that machine. I was wondering if you still felt good about it. You are probably right that I need to look at a number of distributions.

I was hoping to get some ideas of distributions to try from this group, since all my computers are dells.

I presently use open office. It does what I need it to do. The only thing I noticed as a difference between Word and Open Office is that Word allows the use of "stickynotes" that you can attach to a paragraph, however Open Office does not "see" those "stickynotes". But I can work around that.

I am still open to more recomendations about Linux distributions to try. I would like to know what people are using and what they like.

On 3/2/2014 3:21 PM, Larry wrote:
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?

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.

Well I am not worried one bit about Microsoft stopping security updates
for XP at all. I have lots of XP machines and I still love them. One of
the best Windows versions Microsoft ever came out with IMHO.

I also have never been infected with a virus or trojan on any Windows
machine. And I have been running Windows since '93. I did get a trojan
on a Commodore back in the 80's though. I also repair lots of clients
machines that has been infected. So I know what they are like.

What would bother me is the day no antivirus supports XP anymore. Then I
would be concerned. As it doesn't matter how many holes the OS has, but
whether the antivirus can scan in real time before executing anything
that wants to run.

If you like Linux (some people do), then nothing wrong with that. But
most Linux users doesn't even run an antivirus program. And at least one
well known Linux server was passing out trojans for about 7 months
before anybody caught it. On a Windows server, that would have been
crushed in less than a second.

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

On 3/2/2014 3:35 PM, BillW50 wrote:
The Media Center came with Windows Home, Pro, and I
forgot what else.

That should be Windows 7 Home, Pro...

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

Most distributions have Live CD's. Download the ISO, Burn the CD/DVD. Then
Boot it for a full experience without installing

Try Linux Mint . IMHO it is what Ubuntu was a few years ago. Clean!
Ubuntu has become a bloated, ' I wana be a tablet OS ', GUI mess

Also, try the different desktop flavors
Gnome, KDE

See which 'fits'




On Sun, 2 Mar 2014 10:29:15 -0800 (PST), 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

On 3/2/2014 8:06 PM, Steve Urbach wrote:
Most distributions have Live CD's. Download the ISO, Burn the CD/DVD. Then
Boot it for a full experience without installing

Pull your Windows drive out first. As some Linux distros will mount
Windows drives and apparently use or create a Windows swapfile for its
own use. The majority of the time nothing harmful happens, but sometimes
it can cause an unbootable Windows.

--
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 3:41:17 PM UTC-5, 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

Well, that was an excellent exposition of the facts, wasn't it? Got any more Linux invective there?

LibreOffice - Forked from OpenOffice to get out from under the Oracle thumb of neglect. Before that, it was StarOffice, acquired by Sun. So it's been around, not as long as Office, only since the '80s, when Windows was still some [censored] dream of Bill Gates. It does not have a ribbon interface.. Maybe some people like it that way. I've used LibreOffice from back around OpenOffice 2, because I'll be damned if I'll pay for yet another Microsoft license to run Office on my laptop. No problems using it, but, then, I do not write WordBasic scripts or use other features that lock one into the Microsoft way.

Linux - Poorly coded drivers? Using which distro(s)? There seems to be an intent to tar all Linux with the same paintbrush. You could do better than that if you cared to.

Xandros - This is not considered to be a mainstream Linux distro by anyone. So you have to recompile updates for Xandros? So what? Do you have to do the same for Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, Open Suse? No. Your experience with Xandros is hardly representative of Linux at large.

VLC vs Windows Media Player - Well, I prefer VLC on Windows, because it is not bogged down by DRM, as is Media Player due to Microsoft's close cooperation with Sony and other advocates of DRM.

Used any modern mainstream distro of Linux lately? Are you a Microsoft fanboy?

.... Ben Myers

On Sunday, March 2, 2014 9:13:11 PM UTC-5, BillW50 wrote:
On 3/2/2014 8:06 PM, Steve Urbach wrote:

Most distributions have Live CD's. Download the ISO, Burn the CD/DVD. Then

Boot it for a full experience without installing



Pull your Windows drive out first. As some Linux distros will mount

Windows drives and apparently use or create a Windows swapfile for its

own use. The majority of the time nothing harmful happens, but sometimes

it can cause an unbootable Windows.



--

Bill

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

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

"The majority of the time nothing harmful happens, but sometimes it can cause an unbootable Windows." Heard that canard before without any specifics as to distro and version. It seems to be fact challenged... Ben Myers

On Sun, 02 Mar 2014 20:13:11 -0600, BillW50 wrote:

On 3/2/2014 8:06 PM, Steve Urbach wrote:
Most distributions have Live CD's. Download the ISO, Burn the CD/DVD. Then
Boot it for a full experience without installing

Pull your Windows drive out first. As some Linux distros will mount
Windows drives and apparently use or create a Windows swapfile for its
own use. The majority of the time nothing harmful happens, but sometimes
it can cause an unbootable Windows.
I agree with Ben
Someone is spreading FUD

I have tried many a Live CD,
It does do a NORMAL mount of the Windows drive.(you can play music, saved
video)

I have an existing Linux Swap partition... It does not even use that until I
did a Swapon.

Just More M$ fear mongering

Note: I do have more than 256M of RAM (1G). I rarely see Linux use any of the
3G Swap partition.
My W7 uses most of the #G of RAM And a goodly chunk of swap

FUD

On Sun, 2 Mar 2014 18:47:32 -0800 (PST), Ben Myers
wrote:

Used any modern mainstream distro of Linux lately? Are you a Microsoft fanboy?

... Ben Myers

Took the words right out of my mouth.

Bill WINDOWS 50

50 is what he must think our IQ is .