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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Oct 23, 2021 9:50:48 GMT -5
Just out of curiosity, which Operating System do you use?
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Oct 23, 2021 9:51:43 GMT -5
I'm currently running Windows 10 but I am highly interested in looking at alternatives such as a Linux distro.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Oct 23, 2021 14:05:26 GMT -5
I run Windows 7 on one computer and Windows 10 on the other computer. I am usually on the Windows 7 computer because of how bad I consider Windows 10 to be. It is hard to use and not at all user friendly, I don't like the loss of the familiar menu or options and the poor way to access things it is saddled with. I would be happy if I could run Windows 98 or Windows XP updated for compatibility with today's hardware and Internet. The memory leak issue from Windows 95 still exists in Windows 10, contrary to claims, the problem was never fixed. Windows 11 is just a ploy to force you to buy are really expensive new computer, but will not restore any of the features I want. I am trying to find a version of Linux that is close enough in use to Windows 7 that it will work reasonably well for everything on the Internet. Part of that is I want something that I will never need to use the command line/Terminal for anything. I want as much pure GUI as possible. In a perfect world I would use the operating system from the old Mac Plus made compatible with today's hardware and Internet. That was the easiest to use, most intuitive and user friendly operating system ever devised. Everything Apple has done since has been a downgrade from that system for user friendliness. I will run Windows 7 for somethings I want to do, until the time comes when no available hardware will support it. I am going to try to set up a cheap machine I picked up to run Windows XP, since somethings would run better with XP, than with 7. Yeah, you hit a nerve. Oh, and I voted Other.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Oct 23, 2021 18:13:13 GMT -5
I run Windows 7 on one computer and Windows 10 on the other computer. I am usually on the Windows 7 computer because of how bad I consider Windows 10 to be. It is hard to use and not at all user friendly, I don't like the loss of the familiar menu or options and the poor way to access things it is saddled with. I would be happy if I could run Windows 98 or Windows XP updated for compatibility with today's hardware and Internet. The memory leak issue from Windows 95 still exists in Windows 10, contrary to claims, the problem was never fixed. Windows 11 is just a ploy to force you to buy are really expensive new computer, but will not restore any of the features I want. I am trying to find a version of Linux that is close enough in use to Windows 7 that it will work reasonably well for everything on the Internet. Part of that is I want something that I will never need to use the command line/Terminal for anything. I want as much pure GUI as possible. In a perfect world I would use the operating system from the old Mac Plus made compatible with today's hardware and Internet. That was the easiest to use, most intuitive and user friendly operating system ever devised. Everything Apple has done since has been a downgrade from that system for user friendliness. I will run Windows 7 for somethings I want to do, until the time comes when no available hardware will support it. I am going to try to set up a cheap machine I picked up to run Windows XP, since somethings would run better with XP, than with 7. Yeah, you hit a nerve. Oh, and I voted Other. Yes, I did hit a nerve. 😂 I completely understand. If I had my choice of Windows it would definitely be 98 or XP. I was using an XP desktop until it died a few years ago.
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Post by restless on Oct 25, 2021 9:18:12 GMT -5
I am trying to find a version of Linux that is close enough in use to Windows 7 that it will work reasonably well for everything on the Internet. You want Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE as the window manager).
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Post by restless on Oct 25, 2021 9:21:10 GMT -5
My daily driver is Windows 10. I didn't care for it, but I've installed OpenShell so the start menu is a little more like Win7, all the old control panels are still there and if you apply a small mountain of policies to it then it acts more like Windows should (IMO). At work I've got Win10, 7 and even an XP box.
I've also got a littany of Linux boxes, but they're all 100% command-line. No GUIs on any of them. They're all essentially servers, though. I keep saying I'm going to build out a Linux desktop to be my daily driver but there are a few things I can't run in Linux that would be a problem (like Photoshop; I just can't get used to GIMP).
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Post by restless on Oct 25, 2021 12:23:30 GMT -5
What's funny is I actually have a(n incomplete) document on the wiki at work, "Sh*t I had to do to make Windows 10 usable"
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Oct 25, 2021 12:50:24 GMT -5
I am trying to find a version of Linux that is close enough in use to Windows 7 that it will work reasonably well for everything on the Internet. You want Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE as the window manager). restless it seems some form of Ubuntu always shows up in the distro recommendations. Is that your basic recommendation?
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Post by restless on Oct 25, 2021 13:02:38 GMT -5
You want Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE as the window manager). restless it seems some form of Ubuntu always shows up in the distro recommendations. Is that your basic recommendation? In general, yes, because of the helpful community of users.
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Post by hengest on Oct 25, 2021 13:19:48 GMT -5
restless it seems some form of Ubuntu always shows up in the distro recommendations. Is that your basic recommendation? In general, yes, because of the helpful community of users. I'm a know-nothing and it worked great for me without a hitch.
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Post by restless on Oct 25, 2021 13:22:18 GMT -5
In general, pretty much whatever you want to know about Ubuntu is easily searchable on Google.
If it were me, I'd use an LTS branch because then you only have to update every few years rather than after several months.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Oct 25, 2021 23:47:52 GMT -5
I am trying to find a version of Linux that is close enough in use to Windows 7 that it will work reasonably well for everything on the Internet. You want Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE as the window manager). Thanks, I will give it a try!
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Oct 25, 2021 23:52:10 GMT -5
My daily driver is Windows 10. I didn't care for it, but I've installed OpenShell so the start menu is a little more like Win7, all the old control panels are still there and if you apply a small mountain of policies to it then it acts more like Windows should (IMO). At work I've got Win 10, 7 and even an XP box. I've also got a littany of Linux boxes, but they're all 100% command-line. No GUIs on any of them. They're all essentially servers, though. I keep saying I'm going to build out a Linux desktop to be my daily driver but there are a few things I can't run in Linux that would be a problem (like Photoshop; I just can't get used to GIMP). I might have been up for more of the challenges with computers had they been around when I was at least late high school to early 20s, but I was past 40 when I got my first home computer, so using the command line has always been difficult. With Win 95, 98 and XP I did the research for the command line stuff that I had to do, but I don't have the energy to do that anymore.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Oct 25, 2021 23:54:49 GMT -5
In general, pretty much whatever you want to know about Ubuntu is easily searchable on Google. If it were me, I'd use an LTS branch because then you only have to update every few years rather than after several months. The problem I had with Ubtuntu was a complete failure to get the terminal to work. I would copy paste the command from the Google search and it would never work for me. I tried Ubuntu quite a few years ago and the GUI was OK, but the terminal I could not get to work for anything.
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Post by restless on Oct 26, 2021 10:12:50 GMT -5
The problem I had with Ubtuntu was a complete failure to get the terminal to work. I would copy paste the command from the Google search and it would never work for me. I tried Ubuntu quite a few years ago and the GUI was OK, but the terminal I could not get to work for anything. Part of it is understanding which apps need to be run as root and how to achieve that (with sudo or su), and if the commands you are trying to run aren't installed using the package repos to install them (in this case, with apt, or potentially with snap *shudder*).
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Oct 26, 2021 13:11:02 GMT -5
The problem I had with Ubtuntu was a complete failure to get the terminal to work. I would copy paste the command from the Google search and it would never work for me. I tried Ubuntu quite a few years ago and the GUI was OK, but the terminal I could not get to work for anything. Part of it is understanding which apps need to be run as root and how to achieve that (with sudo or su), and if the commands you are trying to run aren't installed using the package repos to install them (in this case, with apt, or potentially with snap *shudder*). That was what I ran into when I tried Ubuntu several years ago was the learning curve. That is why I am looking for a Linux distro where I should not have to use the terminal to do something basic. IMO everything basic should be included in the GUI. That is something even Windows 7 and 10 suffer from is not everything is possible in GUI, even in Windows 10 you are forced to use the command line for some things. Apple has the same problem or at least it had it the last time I touched a Mac in 1997, there are things you need to do with a Mac that you cannot do under the GUI, but it does not have the option of doing it at all for the regular consumer. At this point 24 years later I don't remember what the issue was just that you could not do it on a Mac.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Oct 26, 2021 13:17:08 GMT -5
The problem I had with Ubtuntu was a complete failure to get the terminal to work. I would copy paste the command from the Google search and it would never work for me. I tried Ubuntu quite a few years ago and the GUI was OK, but the terminal I could not get to work for anything. Part of it is understanding which apps need to be run as root and how to achieve that (with sudo or su), and if the commands you are trying to run aren't installed using the package repos to install them (in this case, with apt, or potentially with snap *shudder*). Part of what I don't understand is why commands that a very non technical person would need are one - not installed as part of the basic package and two - why they cannot be run from the GUI. It is like the hidden file/hidden folder problem that all the OSs have now and they make it hard to turn that bug off. I was playing a game a few years back with Linux and the game accumulated hundreds of save files and it took a lot of work to unhide the folder so that I could delete those files. Logically they should have been in a subfolder of the app folder and visible, but they were someplace else entirely and invisible - Windows does the same nonsense except those files are not invisible, but they are in an illogical location.
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Post by restless on Oct 26, 2021 13:58:01 GMT -5
"Unix is user-friendly, it's just particular about who its friends are."
Being someone who uses the command line extensively, I can say there are massive amounts you can do via command-line you can't do in a GUI simply because it's not meant for Mere Mortals™ to do whatever often times, and writing a GUI is serious work. I have written some software where the meat of the work is encapsulated in a database with some stored procedures and functions and a few queries and glue logic, and it works great... then I have to spend a few weeks writing a GUI for it all. Also, console apps are often better-suited to working together or being automated via other methods.
Linux, being a (mostly-)volunteer project means that people write what they write and no more. I mean, heck, I have some github projects and I do the same. (I have some projects at work that are the same way. "If you want a GUI, then you write one. It works as it is, I have other things to do")
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Oct 26, 2021 20:23:58 GMT -5
"Unix is user-friendly, it's just particular about who its friends are." Being someone who uses the command line extensively, I can say there are massive amounts you can do via command-line you can't do in a GUI simply because it's not meant for Mere Mortals™ to do whatever often times, and writing a GUI is serious work. I have written some software where the meat of the work is encapsulated in a database with some stored procedures and functions and a few queries and glue logic, and it works great... then I have to spend a few weeks writing a GUI for it all. Also, console apps are often better-suited to working together or being automated via other methods. Linux, being a (mostly-)volunteer project means that people write what they write and no more. I mean, heck, I have some github projects and I do the same. (I have some projects at work that are the same way. "If you want a GUI, then you write one. It works as it is, I have other things to do") I don't play the lottery, but if I did and if I won it, I would make it worth someone's time to write a Linux GUI version of the old Mac Plus software updated for current hardware and the Internet. I would love to have an OS that never froze again. I understand the whole volunteer thing and I would love to be able to pay the right guys to write. As for the "If you want a GUI, then you write one. It works as it is, I have other things to do", had I grown up with computers, I most likely would be doing just that. I remember about 12 years ago stumbling across a website and this guy was saying now this program that uses 10 MB of space, I can write a program that does everything and it 800KB because I write using this "specific language" and I program it nice and tight. I thought to myself, then why does everyone use bloated computer languages if it can be done like this with a language tha this not bloated and sloppy?
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Oct 26, 2021 20:30:19 GMT -5
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Post by restless on Oct 26, 2021 21:34:41 GMT -5
As for the "If you want a GUI, then you write one. It works as it is, I have other things to do", had I grown up with computers, I most likely would be doing just that. I remember about 12 years ago stumbling across a website and this guy was saying now this program that uses 10 MB of space, I can write a program that does everything and it 800KB because I write using this "specific language" and I program it nice and tight. I thought to myself, then why does everyone use bloated computer languages if it can be done like this with a language tha this not bloated and sloppy? Expressiveness or the structure of a language often makes things simpler than in others. Also, some languages are domain-specific and suited for something. Sometimes you only have the libraries or tools to do the job in a given language. Sometimes a language is mandated by someone. Sometimes it costs more to pay someone to write the code than to just update the memory or storage or CPU power or pay a little higher electricity bill. Sometimes you just don't want to learn another language
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Post by ironnerd on Nov 16, 2021 20:29:57 GMT -5
I like Linux Mint for my Laptop (a Lenovo ThinkPad that came with Win XP). Raspian is also nice for low-horse=power systems (like my Pi-400). And Zorin is ok (but I am dumping it and going back to Mint pretty soon).
My desktop (used by the wife) is Windows 10, which is nice enough.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Nov 18, 2021 14:31:24 GMT -5
I like Linux Mint for my Laptop (a Lenovo ThinkPad that came with Win XP). Raspian is also nice for low-horse=power systems (like my Pi-400). And Zorin is ok (but I am dumping it and going back to Mint pretty soon). My desktop (used by the wife) is Windows 10, which is nice enough. What are the things you like better about Mint vs Zorin?
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Post by ironnerd on Nov 19, 2021 9:00:12 GMT -5
Mint is "nicer" and more complete. I am using Zorin Lite, however, and I should probably give Zorin Core a try before making my final judgement (dang... I had stuff to do today...). I have also run into a few issues with Zorin that I did not experience with Mint. If I let the computer enter sleep mode, it won't wake up. I can't get the fingerprint reader to work. Just little things.
Update I installed the latest version of MINT and it is really nicer than Zorin Lite. I am, once again, enjoying my laptop
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Post by True Black Raven on Dec 27, 2021 17:58:41 GMT -5
Mint is "nicer" and more complete. I am using Zorin Lite, however, and I should probably give Zorin Core a try before making my final judgement (dang... I had stuff to do today...). I have also run into a few issues with Zorin that I did not experience with Mint. If I let the computer enter sleep mode, it won't wake up. I can't get the fingerprint reader to work. Just little things.
Update I installed the latest version of MINT and it is really nicer than Zorin Lite. I am, once again, enjoying my laptop
Fingerprint reader? What is that for? Currently using Windows 7. I have been thinking about Linux, because Wind 10 has way too much phone home built into it. So Mint or Zorin Core, I will have to load those on a thumb drive and try them out.
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Post by ironnerd on Dec 28, 2021 15:32:53 GMT -5
Mint is "nicer" and more complete. I am using Zorin Lite, however, and I should probably give Zorin Core a try before making my final judgement (dang... I had stuff to do today...). I have also run into a few issues with Zorin that I did not experience with Mint. If I let the computer enter sleep mode, it won't wake up. I can't get the fingerprint reader to work. Just little things.
Update I installed the latest version of MINT and it is really nicer than Zorin Lite. I am, once again, enjoying my laptop
Fingerprint reader? What is that for? Currently using Windows 7. I have been thinking about Linux, because Wind 10 has way too much phone home built into it. So Mint or Zorin Core, I will have to load those on a thumb drive and try them out. My Lenovo has a fingerprint reader. I scan my finger to unlock the machine and to approve software updates. It's just a little quicker than typing it in (and one less thing to remember).
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Post by True Black Raven on Jan 11, 2022 1:39:28 GMT -5
Fingerprint reader? What is that for? Currently using Windows 7. I have been thinking about Linux, because Wind 10 has way too much phone home built into it. So Mint or Zorin Core, I will have to load those on a thumb drive and try them out. My Lenovo has a fingerprint reader. I scan my finger to unlock the machine and to approve software updates. It's just a little quicker than typing it in (and one less thing to remember). I never lock my computer, doubt there is anything on it that would do anyone any good. Zero financial or other personal data on it. I only use email as a way to access forums and I always log out and my browser clears the cache when it is shutdown.
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Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:15:51 GMT -5
I see voting has been closed, I use Windows 10.
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Post by DFL_GM on Aug 9, 2022 11:31:23 GMT -5
I see voting has been closed, I use Windows 10. I also use Windows 10. Why was the voting closed?
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Post by restless on Aug 9, 2022 11:34:43 GMT -5
I've not set up a poll on this software before, but it may have a (default?) period for voting activity that passed.
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