Posted on 08/09/2024 12:55:38 PM PDT by ShadowAce
Here ya go:
Linux pre-installed on Dell desktops and laptops (www.dell.com)
Well, that’s interesting!
But we just bought a new box and did all the stuff ourselves; so maybe in another ten years :-)
Well, we might be a customer for a laptop in a while...I hate them, but my husband likes them.
An OS is the Operating System (duh!) of the computer. It handles all the communication between the ports (USB, HDMI, etc), video, storage, memory, screen, mouse--essentially all the hardware that makes up your computer. The OS is what handles the communications and translations of the various languages they "speak" so that one piece of hardware can communicate with other pieces of hardware.
A Desktop Environment is the screen that the user sees and and uses to operate the computer. I *would* say Graphical User Interface (GUI), but some DEs can be nothing more than a console screen with a prompt (not very graphical).
Windows typically has just one DE, and that is what people just use. Linux comes with a choice of DE to better fit one's style of usage. COSMIC is the latest DE, joining old-timers like GNOME, KDE, and XFCE (among others).
I really like my System 76 laptop.
I started out with engineering software on Unix..., now everything is ONLY ported to window$.
I hate giving any money to that goblin, gates, but I am forced to. No matter what people say there are no linux based engineering cae cad cam programs worth a darn on the platform. Maybe when it is all cloud based but by then I will be dead or retired.
Where does Ubuntu fit in that picture?
I've been running on Apple hardware for 20+ years (since OS-X came out) because it's basically UNIX underneath and a great GUI Desktop Environment on the top. Back then, Linux DEs sucked, and the only other choice was Windows. But Mac hardware is pricey.
My experiences with System76 at work have all been good, and I would seriously consider them as a hardware vendor for a Linux machine.
Dangit, ya beat me, lol!
Over the years they've largely converged, although some of the distinctions remain.
What I posted on my FR Profile page remains pretty accurate:
My standard answer to "What kind of computer should I buy?" is:"You, like all of us, are going to have issues with your computer. They're unavoidable, and how you solve them is your choice.
If you follow the Windows, Mac, and Linux threads here on FR, you will see that although the above is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, there's a lot of truth to it.
- If you want to solve issues with money, get a Mac.
- If you want to solve issues with time, run Linux.
- If you want an unpredictable hybrid of the two, try Windows."
Thanks for posting this.
THIS looks promising to replace my Apple iMac OS. Several upgrades ago I lost ALL email msgs prior to 2021 for some weird reason, HOURS wasted with online forums, tech help, Apple bar geniuses. NOT retrievable from hard drive backups. ALSO all my music’s scrambled. Several hundred gBytes worth. One folder held nearly 500 Irish songs (first guy who says that’s really only 1 song and 499 repeats get’s clobbered with me Da’s Shilleighleigh), I’d synch iPhone and four songs transferred. Weird. All were on my desktop. Synched again and BAM, there’s only 4 songs in the same folder on BOTH iMac AND iPhone. This was an all-day fix (I had all but maybe two CD’s on hand), then it did it again with a country/western swing folder. Many Album covers don’t match bands, about HALF the songs have “SKIPS” in them… other data like dates corrupted. Hours, WEEKS rebuilding volumes, only to have it happen AGAIN
Running Linux MINT Virginia on two former PC systems, Laptop and Desktop, VERY FAST, faster than Windows. thinking I’ll tinker with a thumb-drive load or dual install of COSMIC first, but Apple’s OS must go.
Ubuntu and its derivations let you use whatever desktop environment you want, like other Linux distros.
As others have stated in more detail, Windows and its desktop environment are monolithic; not independent and separable like the architecture of Linux.
Thx
Thanks. Not sure I understand the difference but again I’m low tech.
Anyway I’ve got Windows 11 on a Dell computer. I use it for basic stuff including replaying audio/video, but that’s about it.
Works OK for me but higher speed sounds nice.
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