Switching from Windows to Linux

[StrikeBack]

This very forum runs on Linux, like most of the Internet.

My parents are computer illiterate and they can use Ubuntu Linux just fine. They don't really care what they use, they just know it's something fast for their older computers and they don't have to pay for or worry about antivirus. Dad even installs Ubuntu from a USB stick himself. It's pretty much click click type in your name click, reboot once, done.

You don't have to use apt to install stuff. For n00b users like my parents, they can use something like Ubuntu Software Center, which is like the App Store or Google Play. Dead simple.

If I want to get up to par on Linux from a job perspective to bump my resume a bit, what is the best way? Shall I load one onto some vms and go from there and if so, what flavour? Also, what's the most straightforward BS free documentation out there that I can use to go step by step through it?

Get a VM, install Ubuntu, try to do some stuff with it first, get a feel for things. Ubuntu Wiki can be of great help here.

Then, get on Linux From Scratch: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org

Start with LFS.

It's a rather steep learning curve, but it will explain to you what's underneath all that. The step by step walkthrough is excellent. Once you've done LFS, it's relatively easy to pick up most of regular Linux stuff. You can go on the other LFS subprojects as well, or you can go learn other things.

 

[Andy_B]

I have a question:

Can you run photoshop, illustrator or office on linux?

IMO, this would be the key question for me. GIMP and Inkscape are such garbage it's almost unbelievable.

 

[Menace]

I believe Moma's question was in the context of becoming familiar with Linux for job purposes, not to fuck around with it at home and replace windows.

 

[Hannibal]

What Linux distro do you guys recommend for retards like myself?

I heard some good things about Mint.

I was thinking about making the switch from windows 10 to Linux because this computer seems to freeze far, far too often. After some cursory research, I learned there is an error with the operating system (DC 00179 or some shit) where it references a piece of infrastructure from windows 8 that doesn't synch up with 10, then the whole operating system fucking rage quits.

Yesterday the laptop froze over a dozen times in six hours.

 

[GlobalMan]

^Stick with Ubuntu. The latest version is extremely simple and user friendly.

 

[262]

I've been using Ubuntu for several years to keep this old laptop useful. Fairly easy to install for the average Windows user, and super easy once it's installed.

 

[Phoenix]

My experience with linux was generally:
- OK now I have linux.
- How do I do this ultra simple thing?
- No idea whatsoever after looking around.
- Go on linux forum
- Ask "how do I X"?
- Get one of two responses:
-- Why would you want to X? Nobody who's smart does X. Don't do X.
-- Oh, you just (cunts always say 'just') open up a terminal, and execute the following 10 commands perfectly in the right order, assuming you have all the dependencies
- I hate them a little bit more. Console myself that they never get laid.
- I buy a new Windows laptop.

I used Mint, Ubuntu, bunch of other things. Just fuck that stuff off unless you're using it for tech work purposes. Linux was designed with IT snobbery in mind. Apple and Microsoft products are designed with consumers in mind. So if your Microsoft stuff is fucking up, just buy an Apple.

 

[Ithrynor]

Linux just isn't for everybody. I think I prefer it the most from a user's standpoint (I mean, I can turn into anything I want). But then, I like using UNIX terminals and writing settings using Python. :-D

For for getting actual work done, aside from specific things, I'm always in some other OS. The unfortunate thing is the lack of killer apps. Photoshop? Time to grab Windows/MacOS. Modelling? I'd rather have a hot poker in the eye than be forced to use Blender. I do like the trend of some dev studios releasing games for Linux. If... only the games were worth playing. (That's for another topic!!)

That said, it does really shine for specific jobs. Like... a movie theater. Or, a computer that is -just- for surfing the web. A print server. If you have little computers for one job only, it's the best way to go. For general use, I think people are better off elsewhere.

 

[michelin]

I've been testing DEEPIN Linux, and was skeptical about it being a Chinese distro. Yet it turns out to be one of the most consumer friendly distros I've ever seen.

Main advantages: the App store (a big plus!), the pre-loaded Apps (including Skype, spotify, Crossover for running windows programs, etc) and a full fledged Office Suite called WPS, which is as close as it can get to MS Office.


https://www.deepin.org/index.html

https://www.linux.com/news/deepin-linux-polished-distro-thats-easy-install-and-use

My major problem with Linux so far was its lack of compatibility for simple MS Word, Excell and PP docs. Deepin seems to be a game changer, also because of its integrated easy updates system.

 

[John Michael Kane]

For those of you not quite ready to make the jump to Linux, but might want something else than Windows, there is actually a new OS out:

https://www.reactos.org/

It isn't Windows, but can run Windows programs. Haven't tried it myself to test it out, but it is a free download, so all you could lose is a bit of your time.

 

[Leonard D Neubache]

My experience of Linux was basically that it turned an old, slow machine that Windows was fucking into a new, fast machine that now does 90 percent of what I wanted it to.

It's that 10 percent that gets annoying over time though.

For instance, last week I was on the road and had access to good wifi. I went to open a movie in Netflix for the first time on the laptop.

Nope.

How to remedy it? Don't bother. By the time you've done it your two hours to watch the movie is gone.

Small annoyances like that can get under my skin from time to time, but having said that at least the machine boots up in less than ten minutes and responds to commands in less than 60 seconds. And I'll put up with it, until I can afford a gaming level PC and then I'll bite the bullet and go to Windows 10.

As suggested elsewhere, make a bootable USB of Linux and try it out before you switch to it.

 

[John Michael Kane]

Regardless of which OS you go with, if you have an older computer a realatively cheap and super powerful upgrade is to run the OS on a solid state drive instead of the old school spinning platter hard drives. When I made the switch, Windows 10 boots up literally within seconds to the desktop.

 

[Valentine]

Also you can get cheap used ThinkPads with decent specs for ~$200, pretty good investment if you're running on outdated tech.

 

[MikeS]

I installed Ubuntu on a Core i3 laptop a little while ago (last time I experimented with Linux for a few months was around 15 years ago). Aside from needing some Google help and some commands added to a file to get the wifi up and running the installation went smoothly.
Then I was looking at a GUI that didn't look all that different from Windows or a Mac, just with things in different locations. My admittedly brief tests (it wasn't a laptop I was intending to start using again) showed web browsers (Firefox and Chromium) that were a bit more sluggish than my Windows browsers (Vivaldi and Chrome) and a fairly handy set of utilities and media applications I would need at various times, but nothing that seemed better or faster than whatever I'm using on my Core i5 Windows 10 laptop.

And then there are the few but critical things I'm using on Windows that as far as I know have no direct Linux alternative (only simpler, inferior applications) - Clip Studio Paint with a Wacom tablet.

Privacy concerns aside (it's not a major one for me, I've decided that Google and Android in particular are just too useful for me to give up or cripple) I rather like Windows 10. No issues at all with it so far and it's very fast (faster CPU and particularly an SSD disk obviously helps, and I certainly won't rule out that it might get as bogged down over time as previous Windows versions).

 

[michelin]

I went to open a movie in Netflix for the first time on the laptop.

How to remedy it?

What Linux distro do you use? I don't use Netflix, but if you install VLC it should definitely work. VLC comes preinstalled on quite a few Linux distros, such as Ubuntu Mate and debian

 

[Leonard D Neubache]

I use Zorin.

 

[zoom]

I mentioned this in the other Linux thread, but making the switch from Windows to Linux was one of the best decisions I have made in recent memory. My computer runs so much faster and I'm able to get more work done.

 

[The Wire]

My experience of Linux was basically that it turned an old, slow machine that Windows was fucking into a new, fast machine that now does 90 percent of what I wanted it to.

It's that 10 percent that gets annoying over time though.

For instance, last week I was on the road and had access to good wifi. I went to open a movie in Netflix for the first time on the laptop.

Nope.

How to remedy it? Don't bother. By the time you've done it your two hours to watch the movie is gone.

This is mainly why I don't want to switch. I don't want to spend my time fucking with the OS to get basic tasks done. Is there even an option to get 1080 stream from a browser in Linux for Netflix? Most browsers are 720 except Edge and Safari I think. Things like that would even annoy me. Lack of DMR in the browser preventing you from getting the stream which is just a time sink if you try and get around it.

I've spent many hours working in the shell on Red Hat servers at work so I'm pretty confident I could make a switch but I like using polished OSs like OSX and Windows.

 

[michelin]

I use Zorin.

If you use VLC on the latest version, it should definitely work

 

[PepeLePew]

My experience of Linux was basically that it turned an old, slow machine that Windows was fucking into a new, fast machine that now does 90 percent of what I wanted it to.

It's that 10 percent that gets annoying over time though.

For instance, last week I was on the road and had access to good wifi. I went to open a movie in Netflix for the first time on the laptop.

Nope.

How to remedy it? Don't bother. By the time you've done it your two hours to watch the movie is gone.

Small annoyances like that can get under my skin from time to time, but having said that at least the machine boots up in less than ten minutes and responds to commands in less than 60 seconds. And I'll put up with it, until I can afford a gaming level PC and then I'll bite the bullet and go to Windows 10.

As suggested elsewhere, make a bootable USB of Linux and try it out before you switch to it.

Sacrificing netflix for freedom? Seems like a pretty good deal to me.