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George Ledo Magic Café Columnist SF Bay Area 3042 Posts |
Didn't want to derail the other thread...
Have any of you switched from Windows to (some flavor of) Linux? I'm mostly curious as to how the existing software on the machine would work under Linux.
That's our departed buddy Burt, aka The Great Burtini, doing his famous Cups and Mice routine
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Magnus Eisengrim Inner circle Sulla placed heads on 1053 Posts |
I switched about 15 years ago. Later I switched back to Windows because some software I use doesn't have a linux equivalent. Currently I have a single linux machine.
What uses do you have? OpenOffice and LibreOffice are excellent substitutes for MS Office. There are a number of fast, stable Linux distributions. You cannot expect to run Windows software directly on Linux.
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.--Yeats |
George Ledo Magic Café Columnist SF Bay Area 3042 Posts |
Thanks, Magnus. That's pretty much what I thought - you can't run Windows software directly on Linux.
I use a fair amount of open source stuff now, including OpenOffice, but I'm stuck with using some industry-standard things like AutoCAD, SketchUp, and the like. I know there are some open-source CAD and 3D programs, but converting the files to what a client uses can be a real pain, and they don't always translate correctly. Even yesterday, I had to translate a SketchUp file to AutoCAD so a client could convert it to VectorWorks, and it was a mess.
That's our departed buddy Burt, aka The Great Burtini, doing his famous Cups and Mice routine
www.georgefledo.net Latest column: "Sorry about the photos in my posts here" |
Lewis Marks Maintaining a perfect score of 0 Posts |
You can indeed run Windows programs on Linux. You need an add-on called WINE or you can use Virtual Machine.
I use Linux Mint MATE 17.3 with WINE. I run: Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel Paint Shop Pro Cool Edit Pro (although there's a Linux version of Audacity, nearly the same thing.) Visio Guitar Pro (again, there is a Linux version of Guitar Pro.) Windows Movie Maker Free Studio Suite Chess Master IrfanView AnyRail model railroad design software and a few others I can't think of at the moment. You can see that at least half of those are old programs, but they do the job for me and I don't like buying new stuff to replace old stuff that works. I do recommend using native Linux programs when possible, like Firefox, but I've had no problems with the Windows-based programs I've tired so far. I use MS Word because I had some specially formatted documents that didn't translate properly to LibreOffice and I didn't want to take the time to reformat everything. There are Linux versions of a lot of the others in my list but by using what I was familiar with I didn't have to re-learn stuff. I had the same type of problem others mentioned in the other thread - a forced upgrade to Windows 10 that caused many problems. After three months, and absolutely no help from Microsoft, I went to Linux in December 2015 and all is well. You can download Linux and create a bootable DVD or USB drive and run it off of either. You may have to set the boot order in your BIOS, and it will run a little slower than if you install it on your internal hard drive, but it's a great way to try the different distributions of Linux. Just one man's experience. |
George Ledo Magic Café Columnist SF Bay Area 3042 Posts |
WINE or VirtualMachine. Thank you.
That's our departed buddy Burt, aka The Great Burtini, doing his famous Cups and Mice routine
www.georgefledo.net Latest column: "Sorry about the photos in my posts here" |
Magnus Eisengrim Inner circle Sulla placed heads on 1053 Posts |
Happiness with WINE is, well, variable. That said, perhaps the latest versions will work with the software you wish to run.
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.--Yeats |
foolsnobody Special user Buffalo, NY 843 Posts |
I have Mint and Ubuntu on a thumb drive. I've played with Mint but not Ubuntu. Unlike the Linux in the olden days it is easy and everything works smoothly. Some of the Technischbegabt here will recall when there was a new kernel every hour practically. Tweak tweak tweak! Strictly for geeks.I gave up in total frustration, but I did learn something. They say Linux is great for servers but not so good as an end user OS. I don't think that's true any more. One reason why I haven't switched is totally psychological in a perverse way: I can't believe it runs so smooth and is so easy to adapt to! But I'll be getting back to it one of these days. Also sometimes it seems *too fast* and *too responsive*; thus it makes me nervous.
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Magnus Eisengrim Inner circle Sulla placed heads on 1053 Posts |
The single distro I use now is Mint. I have a woefully underpowered netbook. It simply couldn't do anything in Windows because of processor and memory limitations. Installed Mint and it's exactly the traveling companion I was looking for.
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.--Yeats |
ringmaster Inner circle Memphis, Down in Dixie 1974 Posts |
AOX can be converted directly to Linux.
One of the last living 10-in-one performers. I wanted to be in show business the worst way, and that was it.
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Tree Loyal user Wiggle Wiggle 295 Posts |
Plain ubuntu is my flavour
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Peter McMillan Elite user St. George, Utah 497 Posts |
I have Ubuntu. Unless you are well versed in all the computer speak and know how to line type codes and addresses in stay with MS or Mac. I have tried to work with this but have lost all the things I did on MS. I know they say that your files can crossover, but they do not. Word, Publisher, PowerPoint, Excel are programs I understand and can work with.
Linux is for real in the know geeks, not us mortals. Very high learning curve. For me anyway.
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~ www.SantaPeteUtah.com |
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