Linux Mint - Windows Network

N/A | 12/5/2019 | Me

[ducttape45]

Good evening all.

I'm new at the Linux game and I'm trying to get Linux Mint 19 to work for me. I got a number of things I've been trying to get done but probably the most frustrating thing has been trying to find a simple, blow by blow, explanation on how to make Linux see my Windows network. I've read confusing articles about Samba but I don't know that's what I need to install in order make Linux see Windows and visa versa.

I've also been trying to figure out how to put shortcuts to files on the desktop and find Linux printer drivers for an Epson WF-2540, but I've been searching the Internet for 2-3 days with no success on the networking issue and I'm getting frustrated that I can't find simple instructions.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Nateman]

A GUI text editor is called Gedit. Simple and it works. By

[blogOps]

You can go to the lower left LinuxMint toggle button to Preference;Display - for monitor settings.

But I’ve not had multiple monitors with different bg images - they’re all the same image. The Nvidia drivers are somewhat quirky btw.

Text editor is in the Accessories menu of the lower left LinuxMint toggle button.

Or you can go download gedit; or be brave and go vi within commandline.

Enjoy =)

[Pollard]

32 bit or 64 bit?

Not that I have a choice on that.

I do have 32 bit machines here so I could make it work but I’m really wanting two 64 bit laptops, both running linux, being able to file share and see a printer. One for the house and one for the shop.

I’ve never actually sat here for a full day trying to network linux machines. Doing it on windows takes minutes. Ya go through a home network setup wizard. So after an hour or two of trying to get linux networking, I lose patience.

[ducttape45]

I got 64-bit. And what was cool is that when I was done programming it in, the network was just “there,” I didn’t have to do a thing to get it running!

[ducttape45]

Update on my progress.

1. I got the O/S programmed in and working (Linux Mint Cinammon 18.3 64-bit), my network is fully operational and I can save items to the portable hard drive plugged into my router via Windows or Linux (yippee!)

2. I got Master PDF and Shutter programmed in and working, and I also got the latest version of GIMP (2.10) installed as well.

3. I got Flashpeak Slimjet and Palemoon 28.7.2 programmed in as my web browsers. Sorry, but no Firefox for me after they went all politically correct and fired Brandon Eich.

4. I'm using Thunderbird as my email client though I wish I could find something that looked and felt more like Outlook 2010.

And I think that's about where I sit. I'm using LibreOffice as my office suite unless someone knows of better software.

Thanks for all of your help!

[Pollard]

Check out Spectacle, another screenshot tool. It can be opened by hitting the PrtSc button. I have Shutter too but ended up preferring Spectacle.

I liked slimjet but had read that it was made by the Chinese. I just did a web search for slimjet + china and got zilch so I don’t know ... google hiding that?

Only other thing in the way of email clients somewhat like outlook is kmail as well as accompanying PIM(personal information management) programs but to get kmail plus another 4-7 accompanying would probably require the whole KDE package which is quite large. Kontact is actually the mother program of the suite.

> Kontact is the integrated Personal Information Manager of KDE, but can be used with other systems as well.
> It supports email, address books, calendars, tasks, news feeds and much more.

> These programs together form Kontact:

> Akregator - Read your favorite feeds
> KAddressBook - Manage your contacts
> KMail - Mail client
> KNotes - Sticky notes for your Desktop
> KOrganizer - Calendar and scheduling, Journal
> Summary - Summary screen in Kontact
> KJots - Your ideas organized in a Notebook

https://userbase.kde.org/Kontact

KAddressBook, KMAil and KOrganizer are the three that would equate to Outlook. IIRC, KNotes and KJots are kinda hokey. In fact the entire bundle was a little buggy last time I used it but it might depend on the desktop that’s being used. Caveat of linux/ubuntu.

The KDE people are ‘supposed’ to be revamping all their applications and Kontact is ‘supposed’ to be a priority but it’s open source so all that stuff takes time. Volunteer work tends to be that way and I don’t think they’ve done much monetization to support things. (and to name all the programs starting with a K is just Kgoofy)

Just realized that since I’m running Mint KDE, I have Kontact/Kmail etc installed. I’ll have to go through it and see if it’s improved. Seems like I couldn’t get it to connect to certain email accounts now that I think of it(and opened the prog).

Just decided to check for a calendar program and actually found Lightning, a calendar extension for thunderbird. I found it in synaptic which is sort of like Software Center/Manager but with fuller, albeit techie, results. The real name is xul-ext-lightning and short description, Calendar Extension for Thunderbird. Ah. I see it in Software Manager too by searching for “lightning”.

Just installed. It adds Events & Tasks to the menu bar and clicking on that shows Calendar menu item, that opens the a calendar in a new tab. cool

You can get themes for thunderbird too, just like firefox since it’s also made by mozilla.

So Kontact if it works for you or Lightning extension and maybe a theme for thunderbird. Pretty much it.

It’s either LibreOffice or OpenOffice, both of which are completely MS Office compatible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_OpenOffice

Now of course the question is, when/if you upgrade from 18.3 to something newer, will networking break?

Take care and congrats

[ducttape45]

Since I have Cinnamon, will Kontact work with that? I don't know if KDE and Cinnamon are similar enough. Also, I just looked in the Software Manager and there is an entry for Kde-spectacle, but the review doesn't give me warm feelings. It says,

Being a long time user of former Ksnapshot (now KDE-spectacle), I would have rated it 5/5 if it were on a Plasma desktop... But the issue with Cinnamon has always been that feature "capture a region" does not work. Worse, it's impossible afterwards to get back to the Cinnamon desktop!"

What do you think?

[Pollard]

Now that you mention it, that’s the reason I have Spectacle and Shutter installed because Spectacle doesn’t work right in Cinnamon.

As far as Kontact/Kmail, it always had issues the last time I used it. Probably best to stay away. I think I mentioned it mostly because it would be an awesome suite if it worked and it’s been a few years since I used it.

Thunderbird, plus that Lightning extension if you want a calendar and then maybe a theme. Made by Mozilla but closest to outlook for linux/ubuntu?

I used outlook for years.

Search for ‘email client’ in Software Manager/Center. Whatever it lists should be compatible. Synaptic, another software center type program, tends to show more but not all are completely compatible sometimes.

I did see another one that I hadn’t seen before, Claws Mail.

http://www.claws-mail.org

Looks pretty decent. I might try it sometime because I agree with you as far as firefox/mozilla goes.

[ducttape45]

I tried Spectacle and it didn’t work. KMail, same thing. I’ll stick with Shutter for now, and I’ll give Claws Mail a glance.

[Pollard]

That's the tricky thing about linux. Most of these programs are made with a specific desktop, desktop rendering engine or linux version but it's not always clear which one and in general, they're "supposed" to be compatible. The independent ones you find on the web, such as Claws Mail that have multiple linux downloads, Debian, Ubuntu etc, tend to work on most anything. If there's no specific Ubuntu version, the Debian version will usually work too as Ubuntu is based on Debian.

This is just the Ubuntu Family

One thing I will say though, you may be aware, even with the program/desktop compatibility issue, your home folder can be backed up and then you can install any other ubuntu flavor and restore the backup. Home is all your docs, plus config files which windows keeps in a bunch of different places. Any program your new ubuntu flavor can run, will be restored completely. I've been dragging my thunderbird profile across 4-5 different flavors of ubuntu and when I open thunderbird on the new setup, it looks just like it did before the swap. All accounts are there, all mail is there. All those config files are hidden files. The file name starts with a dot/period which tells the system they're hidden files. In your file manager, you should have a menu item to Show Hidden Files. Tick that and you'll see them.

[ducttape45]

WOW! That graphic makes my brain hurt. And yes, it does explain a lot.

[Pollard]

WOW! That graphic makes my brain hurt. And yes, it does explain a lot.

That's just Ubuntu. See a graphic with ALL linux here. http://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3800159/posts?page=62#62

[ducttape45]

If I could find a picture of the top of my head blowing off, that’s about what I feel after seeing that graphic.