"Developers, developers, developers, developers...."
Posted on 01/14/2019 6:37:20 AM PST by ShadowAce
You have many options. You do not even need to install a OS for the short term if all you need to do is surf the Internet and email, write documents, for a Linux Live distro will enable that.
You can choose and download one via https://distrowatch.com, and use Rufus https://rufus.ie/ to create a bootable USB, and then find out which key to tap with your computer is booting to choose btwn boot devices, and run that. And USB drives are as cheap as 4.99 for 32Gb now.
Or you can try Windows 10 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
While your OS is loaded delete all that immoral and nasty stuff
As for which OS you should choose to install, that depends on what you want to do and ease of functionality, and whether money is an issue.
Too much for my time and my arthritic fingers, but here are 80 more https://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/tutorial/77-Linux-commands-and-utilities-youll-actually-use
PFL
Yep. everything in the Mint cinnamon 18.3 works almost just like Win 7. The right click options, Drag and drop, send to, Etc. They have “labeled” some of them a little different but they all work the same. I found that some of the right click menu has even more options depending on what the file is than Win 7. I think you would like it, very user friendly even if you are coming from windows. And it comes bundled with a great starter package of software out of the box. All point and click Graphic User Interface.
The only thing about running it as a live CD, you can’t download or save anything onto the harddrive until it is installed. But to try it and get a feel for how it handles including internet access it does do that for you from the CD or USB. Then there is an “install” icon on the desktop if you are brave enough to click it. lol
Ubuntu user since 2003ish. Havent looked back. Neither have then 8 people I brought with me over the years.
Actually the rather static (last update about 2016) linuxlive creator https://www.linuxliveusb.com/en/features#persistence has an option that says:
Persistence Having a Live USB key is better than just using a Live CD because you can even save your data and install software. This feature is called persistence (available only on selected Linux
Still, i may install Mint XFCE (better for old hardware) on it.
Wow... Cool, didn’t know this. I am fresh to it but not sure I personally would want to be using anything other than what is included in a distro package while in live CD just in case there are any compatibility issues. If I’m going to be using it full time and saving stuff I might as well just install it and have it done with. Keep it simple is my motto and it has served me well. lol
Welll.....according to your own link, they are not lawyers, and it has not been tested in court.
I wouldn't worry too much about that. The codecs aren't really illegal.
Here’s one for you... I just installed Mint Cinnamon 18.3 (32 bit) version on an old E machine just to see if it would work. lol It runs a little slow, but I think the early slow hard drive and low Ram has a lot to do with this. But it works fine and cruises the net great!
"Developers, developers, developers, developers...."
My disk drive is broken so I haven’t tried it yet. But this cinnamon package comes with VLC Media player. Has anyone tried it yet? I recently installed this distro on my Wife’s brand hew HP, I will see if it will run on hers. Don’t think we have tried it yet.
“Or you can try Windows 10 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10";
Wait... The object of this thread is to GET RID of Win 10... lol
Just messing with you man... :)
Know what? I think there very well might be a lot of myths out there about Linux that may need to be addressed.
Hi. Please add me to the ping list.
You’ve been added. Welcome Aboard!
Good idea. I want to do an installation thread first, and that way we can get the very basics out of the way.
>>> You mean now you can right click on a icon in the Start menu equivalent and then go to the source of the program? Or are they still hard to find? <<<
Not sure why one would want to delve into the program files but the directory set up is definitely different. There's no Programs folder full of the individual folders for each program. Technically windows programs don't have everything inside those folders either. Things like drivers go elsewhere a lot of times.
With linux, most anything you'd want access to is in your Home folder, including all .config files for your programs. Those are hidden files as they start with a dot/period but I think every file manager has a toggle to "view hidden files". There are more files in folders called usr and share that can be accessed/edited by you. Then there's folders named bin, etc, var that can only be edited by the root user. That means you have to open those files as root and there's different methods for that including being able to use a gui based text editor by opening the file manager(explorer) as root and then opening the file you want to edit. That method requires a utility called gksudo. Start the terminal and type gksudo thunar and that would open the thunar file manager as root and then any file you navigate to and open, you're opening it as root as well and have edit/save capabilities as can be seen by the warnings below telling me I may harm my system.
I think I may have done that once or twice but don't remember why I was wanting to edit a program or system file. I think one was to change the default OS listed in a dual boot system. Normally linux is up top and windows down lower but I wanted to put windows up top for my wife. Whichever one is up top, it will auto boot to in 30 seconds if no keys are hit. The file open above, grub.cfg is what I edited but it's no longer necessary as there's a gui based program, grub customizer, to do that now.
I can press the Super Key(aka Windows key aka meta key) and my full screen dashboard/menu pops up. Right clicking the super key pops up options to change to a different menu, edit settings or add/manage applications on the menu.
To start a program that's not already in my favorites, which is on the left panel(task bar like thing), I hit the super key and just start typing the name of the program. when it becomes highlighted, hit Enter
They're also organized by category and it also shows recent programs. Also, when typing, it will search documents. That can be turned on/off.
I'm running Linux Mint KDE Edition which has plasma as a desktop. Different distributions of linux have different desktops. Some are highly customizable, some not so much. Some are reminiscent of windows or mac, some not so much.
The Plasma desktop has widgets that can go on a panel or on the desktop. I have a to do list widget on my desktop. There's widgets for various clocks, cpu meter and all sorts of other stuff. I have a bottom panel that has most of the same stuff as the windows task bar(time/date, quick start programs, wifi meter, battery state, volume, open windows) and a virtual desktop switcher. I have a left panel with program icons that when clicked, start those programs. A panel can go on any screen edge, top, bottom, left, right.
Virtual desktops are just what it sounds like. I have 4 desktops and can have a few programs open on one and a few different ones open on another. A program can also be made to show on all desktops. I rarely use more than one but I have used two before. I navigate between virtual desktops by holding Ctrl+Alt and using the right/left arrow keys.
Here's my full screen dashboard/menu. As you can see, it has some transparency but I could make it opaque.
The thing I like most about linux, is FREE. It may not have the widely used commercial software like photoshop but there's an equivalent for almost anything. Gimp will do almost everything that photoshop will. There's some programs that are familiar like I use thunderbird for my email client, vlc for my media player, sublime for a text/code editor, my vpn, PIA(private internet access). PIA had to be installed via the terminal which is just a matter of copying and pasting the commands from their website. Pasting into the terminal isn't Ctr+V. It's Ctrl+Shift+V, copying would be Ctrl+Shift+C etc.
Then of course, there's no shortage of those small/utility type programs, like a unit conversion program called ConvertAll(no more running to the web to do a conversion), a dozen choices for text editors, a few different file managers(explorer), a few different media players with or without library management, a reader that will read kindle, epub, pdf and most any other kind of e-book format and also convert between any of them and has library management and will manage a reader device like kobo. Full blown programs like; multiple screenshot programs, screen recorder programs for making a video of what you're doing on the computer, multiple pdf/document readers, video/audio editing, LibreOffice and OpenOffice to replace the retail windows equivalents, a few CAD programs etc etc.
Many, many programs and they're all kept in official software repositories. There's a Software Center app for searching, installing/uninstalling these programs and since they're in official repositories, they're safe. So much better than the old days of searching download.com (which is now cnet) and hoping it's not junk, adware, malware or spammy or simply a virus. Or having to pay for it.
No need to use the terminal to type in commands for any of this but there are some neat things you can do at the terminal. wget is a function that will download files from the web at record speed. I do install programs from the command line sometimes and also upgrade linux. They don't call it update as that's reserved for updating repository info which you do before installing a program. When you install via the Software Center, it will do that for you in the background. Upgrading can be done via a program also.
There's a command line based image editor which is strange to use as it doesn't open the image in a window/gui(graphic user interface). Does what it does really well though. Handy for optimizing pics for the web in bulk. I can resize and optimize a folder of hundreds of images way faster than in a gui setting and with a fraction of the cpu usage as drawing the gui takes a lot of processing power as does drawing/rendering an image. H
otKey aka keyboard shortcuts is accessed in Settings and called simply shortcuts. I've never delved deep into it but have created shortcuts to start a program. Ctrl+Shift+T will start the terminal. If I want to start Gimp, I could make a keyboard shortcut for that or just hit the super-key and type gimp and hit enter or start the terminal, type gimp and hit enter.
One major downfall of linux is home networking. There is no decent gui or wizard to do it and it's very techie with Samba, the official networking program for linux.
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