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Why Linux?

Seek assistance with all types of tech. - computer, phone, TV, heating controls etc.
Wooster
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Joined: November 7th, 2016, 2:21 pm

Re: Why Linux?

#2823

Postby Wooster » November 9th, 2016, 2:19 pm

As a Linux user for the last six years or so, I would add to the reasons given that something I have found is that there is a learning curve to using Linux, as with anything, but the benefit as you progress with it is that you know more about how your computer operates and can fix problems more easily. This contrasts with my experience as a long-time Windows user, when I knew about as much about how to use the operating system, but far less about how it worked.

The fact that it is free (gratis) is very helpful, but the fact that I am free (libre) to control my upgrade schedule, to choose my distribution, to customise so much more of my operating system's behaviour -- these too are all positives.

The main drawback for me is not in fact for me but my wife, who finds that she cannot collaborate as easily with colleagues who are Windows users, as documents shared between the two operating systems do not translate very well.

Infrasonic
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Re: Why Linux?

#2831

Postby Infrasonic » November 9th, 2016, 2:35 pm

Wooster wrote:The main drawback for me is not in fact for me but my wife, who finds that she cannot collaborate as easily with colleagues who are Windows users, as documents shared between the two operating systems do not translate very well.


How are they sharing and what kind of documents, MS Office?

One way to get around the multi OS problem is to use Office Online, which is browser based and free...
So for instance if you were emailed an office attachment to your Outlook.com address you could view it online either as a MS doc or PDF.
It will auto convert PDF's to Word docs if you want, as long as they aren't locked.

I doubt you'll be able to work on any serious macros this way, the only way around that is to use the dedicated software packages, although Libre Office is getting better on that front I hear (I have no recent experience to go on).

There's also a 'cloud' version of Libre Office up and running now, although still in the development phase so might be a bit buggy.

Wooster
Posts: 5
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Re: Why Linux?

#2938

Postby Wooster » November 9th, 2016, 5:40 pm

Infrasonic wrote:
Wooster wrote:The main drawback for me is not in fact for me but my wife, who finds that she cannot collaborate as easily with colleagues who are Windows users, as documents shared between the two operating systems do not translate very well.


How are they sharing and what kind of documents, MS Office?


Yes, Office: Word is the main issue, as they make heavy use of commenting facilities etc. An online-only solution wouldn't work terribly well, as she'd want to be able to edit things on the move. Currently, things are being shared around by email and Dropbox.

Infrasonic
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Re: Why Linux?

#2954

Postby Infrasonic » November 9th, 2016, 6:14 pm

Wooster wrote:
Infrasonic wrote:
Wooster wrote:The main drawback for me is not in fact for me but my wife, who finds that she cannot collaborate as easily with colleagues who are Windows users, as documents shared between the two operating systems do not translate very well.


How are they sharing and what kind of documents, MS Office?


Yes, Office: Word is the main issue, as they make heavy use of commenting facilities etc. An online-only solution wouldn't work terribly well, as she'd want to be able to edit things on the move. Currently, things are being shared around by email and Dropbox.


Tethering via a 4G mobile or wifi hotspots (with HTTPS)?

Google Docs will work offline and open/edit and save in Office formats. I have all my stuff mirrored on both Google and MS. (Drive/OneDrive)

IFTTT will sync Dropbox and Google Drive https://ifttt.com/connect/dropbox/google_drive, or there are other solutions like...https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sync-google-drive-with-dr/iobcbdgacfkninlcbphihhdlkobkehia?hl=en

staffordian
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Re: Why Linux?

#2965

Postby staffordian » November 9th, 2016, 6:30 pm

ten0rman wrote:Staffordian,

There is next to no need to use the command line. Mint can be used quite satisfactorily with a graphical user interface such as Mate, Cinnamon etc. I used Mate because that was what the User Guide recommended and covered.

You will have to set it up as you like it, but in reality, it's no different to Windows which also can be personalized as you wish.

Go for it man, go for it.

Regards,

ten0rman


I ditched Ubuntu and removed the partition so I'm currently back to 100% windows but I will give Mint a try.

Staffordian

MDW1954
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Re: Why Linux?

#2988

Postby MDW1954 » November 9th, 2016, 7:22 pm

I have made fairly extensive use of Ubuntu Linux since 2008. My home office systems are a mix of Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux, and I'm a huge fan of Ubuntu.

But... not the standard Ubuntu that you get by default. I use the Ubuntu MATE (pronounced "Mah-tay") version, which is very similar to Ubuntu 8.04 and 10.04, ie nice friendly menus etc.

If I didn't use that I'd probably use Linux Mint.

MDW1954

quelquod
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Re: Why Linux?

#2990

Postby quelquod » November 9th, 2016, 7:33 pm

With an engineering background I've been an intensive UNIX/Solaris/Linux etc. user for many years and the OS has made huge moves away from its fairly tecchy, command-line orientated roots. But for most users it is the applications rather than the OS platform which matters. There's no doubt of course that Linux offers developers and power users tools and interfaces that Windows users can only dream of.

My take is that for casual users the major Office-style applications and other mainstream products offer equivalent functionality to their Windows equivalents although there is a number of high-end Windows (and Mac) professional applications which have no peers under Linux (and vice versa - I routinely use engineering packages which are unavailable under Windows). I have found lots of minor incompatibilities when trying to collaborate with Windows Office users - whilst the basic file formats can be exchanged it's commonplace to find niggling formatting and font problems, oddball feature omissions and differences which whilst allowing adequate exchange prevent collaborative working. Documentation generally is poorer and quickly becomes obscure for the non-tecchy at levels below major applications.

Linux doesn't protect itself against the user as well as Windows does. Most home installations can be destroyed by casual tinkering - on the occasions when superuser authority is needed it is easy to do damage and the cryptic error messages don't give an inexpert user many clues. Linux is even more fragile than Windows when it comes to incorrectly shutting down and whilst Windows usually recovers from a blackout, Linux much more often damages the file systems.

So I'm of mixed views. Linux suits me fine, I have plenty of background, but I'd hesitate to recommend it to all and sundry.

Tymeric
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Re: Why Linux?

#3013

Postby Tymeric » November 9th, 2016, 8:36 pm

Is there more to it than this?

Yes, transferring email files...

I use Linux Mint with Thunderbird as the email programme.

To transfer all emails, addresses and settings from one computer to another, or saving for reloading, it really is just a case of copy and paste the 3 or 4 files/folders in thunderbird.

pgray999
Posts: 1
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Re: Why Linux?

#3073

Postby pgray999 » November 9th, 2016, 11:31 pm

First post here - hi everyone!

I've been using Linux Mint for quite a few years now and would never go back to Windows. i find that it is much more straightforward to use once past the initial learning curve.

I started tinkering around 10 years ago with various Linux distributions via dual boot - Fedora, Mepis, Slackware, Ubuntu etc. When I discovered Mint I was impressed enough to take the plunge and replace Windows completely. I find that i can install from scratch in around 15 -20 minutes with minimal intervention and updating is also a piece of cake. Very easy on the wallet too!

If you have an ongoing need to access a Windows installation you could always install VirtualBox and create a Windows virtual machine to run under Mint.

staffordian
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Re: Why Linux?

#3077

Postby staffordian » November 9th, 2016, 11:37 pm

Thanks for the recent comments.

Ten0rman, I've loaded Mint and so far it seems to suit me quite well; I'm getting on with it better than I did with Ubuntu.

Early days, but so far I'm impressed, though I've much to learn, I suspect.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Staffordian

ten0rman
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Re: Why Linux?

#3209

Postby ten0rman » November 10th, 2016, 11:17 am

Tymeric,
I use Linux Mint with Thunderbird as the email programme.

To transfer all emails, addresses and settings from one computer to another, or saving for reloading, it really is just a case of copy and paste the 3 or 4 files/folders in thunderbird.


In effect, yes it is, but...

This applied to Linux Mint - I have no knowledge of any other system

What you will find is that somewhere in your installation there will be a "profile" folder. (This presumes that you are running Thunderbird on two different systems.) Essentially all you need to do is to copy the profile folder from the old installation to the new one. Now for the fun part. In your new machine you will find a file named ".thunderbird". (The "." indicates that the file is normally hidden.) If you open your Linux "Home" folder, and then use Control-H all the "hidden" files will be displayed.
Within that ".thunderbird" folder will be found a file "profiles.ini". Open this and you will find seven lines of text. Now, the line "IsRelatave=x" indicates how Linux should search for the actual profile, and the values are either "0" or "1". Also, there is a line "Path=......". This line should give the folder address of your profile folder, and in all probability may not show your new profile. So change this line to give the new address, and change the "IsRelative=" line as appropriate. If you show the full address, then IsRelative=0 is appropriate, otherwise use 1.
eg, from my system,

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=0
Path=/home/ten0rman/UserData/TBirdProfiles/
Default=1

And of course, as long as you are only copying, then you will still have the original untouched if it all goes pear shaped. FWIW, when I was doing this, I ended up with four identical profiles, one each on Windows and Linux on both computers and I was able to swop data willy-nilly between them.

Also, although the above is for Thunderbird, Firefox is more or less identical.

Staffordian,

Well done, and welcome to the ranks of happy escapees from the malign clutches of Microsoft.

Regards,

ten0rman

ReformedCharacter
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Re: Why Linux?

#3216

Postby ReformedCharacter » November 10th, 2016, 11:36 am

Why not build your own version of Linux, a Lemon Fool distribution, perhaps.

http://linuxfromscratch.org/

Only for those hard enough, though.

RC

andycowl
Posts: 43
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 12:20 pm

Re: Why Linux?

#3220

Postby andycowl » November 10th, 2016, 11:43 am

Clementine as the media player ?

Tymeric
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Re: Why Linux?

#3223

Postby Tymeric » November 10th, 2016, 11:46 am

In effect, yes it is, but...

You've lost me completely... :? ..I just delete everything in the new .thunderbird file and replace it with the backed up files/folders(including profiles.ini) from the old .thunderbird file/computer. Updating the backup files/folders on a regular basis

Works for me anyway.

Ty..... who very rarely ventures into the dark world of the Terminal and the like...

Tymeric
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Re: Why Linux?

#3240

Postby Tymeric » November 10th, 2016, 12:12 pm

Clementine as the media player ?

Looks quite good. I like the idea of accessing LastFM through it.

Thanks for that

shinygoldcar
Posts: 49
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 2:04 pm

Re: Why Linux?

#3292

Postby shinygoldcar » November 10th, 2016, 2:06 pm

I don't have much new to add, but I'll share my views and experiences anyway to back up what others have said.

I have no Windows PCs for personal use, not since Windows XP became obsolete. I have moved over to Chromebook (and I guess we all use tablets and phones more nowadays), which is great for browsing, and I use Google Docs for office stuff, but I was without a fully functional computer: I had nothing to operate a scanner or rip/burn CDs, especially when iTunes stopped working on Windows XP.

I installed Lubuntu (a flavour of Ubuntu) on my 2003 Windows XP desktop, and regular Ubuntu on a Windows XP laptop that I used for paperwork. The desktop is severely lacking in grunt and can't do any proper browsing, but it can scan and rip/burn CDs, which is all I need. The laptop works great for me too: Libreoffice works for me instead of Excel and Word, and Thunderbird works for email.

I echo advantages others have stated, plus have a couple more of my own:
- Both computers start up and switch off much more quickly than with XP
- Windows XP is obsolete, and computers of that era might struggle with newer versions of Windows, but can run Linux. So no need to buy new computers!
- For people like me who like computers to do exactly what they ask, nothing more, and who like command lines, and who don't like the blue circle or hourglass and who don't like wondering "what is this computer doing?", Linux fits the bill

One disadvantage is you can spend a lot of time trying to make things work. I found this more with Lubuntu than with regular Ubuntu though. Lubuntu can fit on a CD though, which is great if your computer isn't able to boot from USB!

Infrasonic
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Re: Why Linux?

#3301

Postby Infrasonic » November 10th, 2016, 2:32 pm

shinygoldcar wrote:... which is great if your computer isn't able to boot from USB!


And for that (USB boot) there is...https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanagers.html

shinygoldcar
Posts: 49
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 2:04 pm

Re: Why Linux?

#3310

Postby shinygoldcar » November 10th, 2016, 2:42 pm

Infrasonic wrote:And for that (USB boot) there is...https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanagers.html

I've learned something new! Thank you!

ManInTheStreet
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Re: Why Linux?

#3315

Postby ManInTheStreet » November 10th, 2016, 2:57 pm

Why Windows?

I want a browser.
I want email (oh, that's in my browser).
I want wordprocessor/spreadsheet/powerpoint... Open Office.

What else do you use Windows for?

I don't want an OS that gobbles up all my resources. I remember my daughter buying a laptop and it came with Vista. It was awful. It took the whole resources of the laptop to just run Vista. As soon as you tried to do any real work it ground to a halt.

I don't want an OS that keeps changing the damned interface. When I log in I expect to see what I've always seen. Once I've learned how to navigate the windowed environment that's all I need. I don't need a company whose raison d'etre is to sell me more software; so they'll keep 'improving' it. No thanks.

Ubuntu have recently been guilty of this, too. But at least with Linux you can configure your own system the way YOU want it.

Oh, and I don't want a OS company that suddenly says we all have to be on their latest OS version, because it helps them sell their latest crap.

Every machine I've had -- every one without exception -- has had its hard disk formatted within 5 minutes of first using it. I want Microsoft NOWHERE NEAR my systems, thank you very much. I don't trust them; I won't use them.

Right! Next question... :D

staffordian
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Re: Why Linux?

#3323

Postby staffordian » November 10th, 2016, 3:32 pm

ManInTheStreet wrote:Why Windows?

I want a browser.
I want email (oh, that's in my browser).
I want wordprocessor/spreadsheet/powerpoint... Open Office.

What else do you use Windows for?

I don't want an OS that gobbles up all my resources. I remember my daughter buying a laptop and it came with Vista. It was awful. It took the whole resources of the laptop to just run Vista. As soon as you tried to do any real work it ground to a halt.

I don't want an OS that keeps changing the damned interface. When I log in I expect to see what I've always seen. Once I've learned how to navigate the windowed environment that's all I need. I don't need a company whose raison d'etre is to sell me more software; so they'll keep 'improving' it. No thanks.

Ubuntu have recently been guilty of this, too. But at least with Linux you can configure your own system the way YOU want it.

Oh, and I don't want a OS company that suddenly says we all have to be on their latest OS version, because it helps them sell their latest crap.

Every machine I've had -- every one without exception -- has had its hard disk formatted within 5 minutes of first using it. I want Microsoft NOWHERE NEAR my systems, thank you very much. I don't trust them; I won't use them.

Right! Next question... :D


But have you any decent reasons for preferring Linux ;) :lol:


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