Solved Switch to Linux

PaulGo said:

In the Linux Mint software manager you can uninstall applications. You only need the terminal to uninstall software that you installed by downloading it.

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Also less and less apps require you to do this. When you install your app manually, many include a script that adds the software repository to the apps manager, which will help keeping your app up to date or in the case where you want to uninstall, it's as simple as going to the software manager and clicking uninstall.

This however applies mostly only to major software vendors. But more and more are starting to give their love for Linux support and make app management as easy as it can get. We have to thank Microsoft for this. Them adding WSL and "waking up" people, has led to a lot of positive progress in the Linux world. It's not just Linus and alike "hobby project" anymore.

SlicEnDicE said:

QSV is a really good feature in Premiere. I am not quite convinced about CUDA on Adobe products yet though. I guess someone finds that useful too. Nevertheless both good technologies. Adobe tools are quite chunky boys.

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It doesn't necessarily have to be CUDA anymore nowadays, but the only type of hardware acceleration that the old Photoshop 5 could support was CUDA. ATI Stream was unsupported by almost all commercially available software packages on Windows 7 back then, though. But anyway, the kind of GPU hardware acceleration that is both compatible and powerful enough is extremely important to have for certain, specific, features of Photoshop. To get a full list of these particular features, you can scroll down to "Which features in Photoshop use the graphics processor?" on this page. Photoshop is only one example of a fairly popular application for which there exists no fully equivalent, direct alternative choice on Linux. If you also count software solutions outside the category of photo/graphics editing and effects, then the total number of examples that could be considered to be similar to this one is rather astronomical.

The "app gap", or lack of available apps choices on Windows Phone 8.1 also was among major reasons why it was a (near-vertical) uphill battle against Android and iOS. This was regardless of the fact that, back in those days, a lot of available apps on Android were useless and/or rife with ads, and a lot of them still are. I know this very well, as I used to own a Nokia Lumia 625 phone myself. For the simplest of the simple type of everyday basic tasks, in pure terms of ease-of-use, Windows Phone 8.1 was superior overall to both Android and iOS, but a lot of other stuff that a lot of people found important too was very close to hopelessness or even downright impossible on it.

Windows Phone/Lumia was amazing in all aspects except for the UI design which I disliked. Could have gotten used to it though. Great battery life and very responsive UI. A bit sad that the franchise died along with Nokia.

MS and Nokia had something great going on. MS had the OS expertise while Nokia was really good with hardware that doesn't break when you sneeze at it.

That's what people want. Many applications to choose from to do their job or gaming. Then they want hardware support. In Windows you just buy the device you can afford or that does your job without concern of compatibility. In Linux you have to make sure you can find drivers before you buy anything and often you pay more for a device with Linux drivers, or you compromise buying an older model. Then is the ease of use. Most want to make their lives easier, not to Google everything they want to do.

Major hardware is fully supported in Linux or by the hardware vendor. This isn't really an issue anymore, except when hardware is so brand spanking new in the market that nobody has had time to update the Linux kernel and it's modules. Usually this doesn't take that long though.

spapakons said:

That's what people want. Many applications to choose from to do their job or gaming. Then they want hardware support. In Windows you just buy the device you can afford or that does your job without concern of compatibility. In Linux you have to make sure you can find drivers before you buy anything and often you pay more for a device with Linux drivers, or you compromise buying an older model. Then is the ease of use. Most want to make their lives easier, not to Google everything they want to do.

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on the most part that doesnt happen much anymore. Windows now uses the same driverless install for printers that Linux has been using for the last couple of decades .. the Linux driver data base is enormous now thanks mainly to the partnership between Ubuntu and Microsoft.
yes there is a partnership between the two.

Microsoft has taken onboard some of the Linux ideals MS servers are mainly Linux based now. Linux has also taken onboard some of the Microsoft ideals such as open source software does not always have to be free.
thats how a MS computer tech found the hidden code in SSH within the Linux kernel while connecting to MS servers. the relationship between Microsoft and Linux now is more along the lines of how can we compliment each other while both keeping separate identities instead of outright software and corporate warfare.

as much as some may not like it Linux and Microsoft need each other the world has moved on and the systems and connections within that world have grown and for any single company has grown far beyond anything that they themselves can handle, to many nasties out there.

i do wonder what type of OS will be around in 100 years, i wont be here, as the systems have moved mountains in the last 20/30 odd years but i sometimes think it may very well be the best of all the OS's that are about now blended into something that at this time no one can imagine.

everybody, of course, still has the choice and its that choice which is important. its a matter of horses for courses kind'a thing.
a bit long winded .. sorry. best of luck, Steve ..

SlicEnDicE said:

Also less and less apps require you to do this. When you install your app manually, many include a script that adds the software repository to the apps manager, which will help keeping your app up to date or in the case where you want to uninstall, it's as simple as going to the software manager and clicking uninstall.

This however applies mostly only to major software vendors. But more and more are starting to give their love for Linux support and make app management as easy as it can get. We have to thank Microsoft for this. Them adding WSL and "waking up" people, has led to a lot of positive progress in the Linux world. It's not just Linus and alike "hobby project" anymore.

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We have Canonical and their Ubuntu to thank for this - as the first Linux Distribution intended as an easy-to-use Linux Desktop. Mark Shuttleworth is the one who planted this seed (that Linux can also be shaped into a mainstream Desktop environment) - almost 20 years ago. The name "Ubuntu" is actually inspired by an ancient African ideology meaning “humanity to others” or “I am because we are” - which Mark picked-up from South Africa or maybe heard it from Mandela, but... "since he's an entrepreneur" - his main motivation was more then likely... some form of profit. But the name also conveys his goal: a Free Desktop Linux for the people (mainstream). Back in mid 2000s - when the internet connection was very slow (up to 16 kb/s) - was enough to make a request on the Ubuntu official site - and they would sent a package with multiple Ubuntu CDs (Free of charge). That's how i got my fist copy of Ubuntu.





And even then - specific/preferential apps which were good/popular enough - could be added as repositories. The Terminal was simply - the easiest (most convenient way to do things). Not to mention the many sources - for doing a specific thing - starting with the official site/forum but also many blogs. And i don't mean - for learning terminal commands - but Dummy Guides with step by step Copy + Paste terminal lines. Same goes for the support available on forums - for anyone lazy enough to use google - you just asked a question and the Copy + Paste entries or a link to someone who already gave that answer - was given. Ubuntu forum was more like elevenforum - in the sense that there was always someone around (or multiple individuals) - whiling to answers even the simplest of questions (like "what is Root" or "how do i copy+paste a line in the terminal)".

Same couldn't be said about pretentious (rather elitist) communities like Arch - where even question of medium difficulty would piddle someone of and direct you the manual to find the answer yourself. But hey, to be fair.... Arch was truly not for anyone - both in terms of learning difficulty - but also dabbling with the unknown/under-tested or barley tested - kinda like Windows Insider but the bleeding edge Windows builds - which worked on certain machines while really buggy on others (which is something i found out the hard-way - while trying it on a less than ideal system). Arch had the opposite ideology of Ubuntu. But that too has changed - with projects like Manjaro or even EndeavourOS (which takes only a medium level of difficulty), but still not for everyone.

As for Microsoft - it's more like the other way around: WSL was not meant to introduce Windows users to Linux (nor am i aware of it having this incidental effect... i presume it's ignored - same as multiple other Windows features - which most Windows users - don't even understand their purpose). WSL was intended for already the already formed Linux user-base - especially those who have Windows + Linux on Dual Boot and keep switching between them - just to use a given Linux or Windows app. WSL was okish (a bit of Linux Preview) - but WSL2 is actually worth taking into account - performance wise. Another way to put it: Microsoft goal with WSL is actually to win-over Linux users - and to some extent (maybe quite large - but not really aware of any stats in this regard - just a guess) - it probably succeed... So yeah, Microsoft is in it - for increasing the Windows follower base.

Despite the far larger number of OSX users compared to Linux - OSX is still a hardware dependent OS (part of Apple's ecosystem). And thus, Linux is the only OS posing any risk as an alternative to Windows. This year alone - Linux grew by 1.40% Worldwide (might not sound like much - but it's still millions of users). Tho, hard to say - from where they came from - since Apple's OSX lost close to 5% (which is around 20+ millions of ex OSX users). That being said, Microsoft - definitely takes Linux seriously.

spapakons said:

In Linux you have to make sure you can find drivers before you buy anything

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I think that when I was using Madrake Linux, the only printers I could find drivers for was the Lexmark printers. That was back in the days before Windows 7.

spapakons said:

In Linux you have to make sure you can find drivers before you buy anything and often you pay more for a device with Linux drivers, or you compromise buying an older model.

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The older model of my Eastern Electric MiniMax DAC Supreme is the MiniMax DAC Plus. I own both models. The Plus model uses an M2Tech USB 2.0 input interface and that should be able to work on Linux AFAIK (although I never verified that it does), but the Supreme model uses XMOS USB Audio 2.0, and, also AFAIK, there is no Linux driver to be found anywhere for the latter. Even though it's old now, you'd still have to pry my MiniMax DAC Supreme from my cold dead hands. ESS Sabre DACs let you hear gobs of detail, but almost all of them sound too artificial and/or harsh for my taste. Whereas, when hooked up to my Emotiva XPA-2 gen 1 power amp that I use with my Canton Vento 890.2 DC speakers (bi-wired with inakustik Referenz LS-1002 cables), the MiniMax DAC Supreme sounds absolutely stunning to my ears. It's not the best setup that money can buy, but it wasn't exactly cheap either. In its price range it's the bees knees, and I use it for listening to the Bee Gees. (And to various other music.)

I never had much luck with Mandrake. We did not quite click.

PaulGo said:

In the Linux Mint software manager you can uninstall applications. You only need the terminal to uninstall software that you installed by downloading it.

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I gave you five points for "mostly" filling out your computer specs.

SlicEnDicE said:

I never had much luck with Mandrake. We did not quite click.

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You mean Mandrivel surely !!!.

Cheers
jimbo

XxXxX said:

everybody, of course, still has the choice and

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lol...

neves said:

That being said, Microsoft - definitely takes Linux seriously.

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But but.. I don't take Microsoft seriously.

PaulGo said:

I am somewhat happy with Windows except with it being a somewhat blotted OS that tries to be all thing to all people.

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Listening to Blotted Science "The Machinations Of Dementia" now.

PaulGo said:

Many older computers will not be supported by Microsoft Windows in a year. If you need a secure system that is fully supported, then Linux is a great alternative,

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For doing what?

When I was a Senior Linux Developer for IBM, the standard laptop build for that role, was machine running RHEL, with Windows VM.
Simple, effective, all eventualities covered.

Many can "attempt" to scrape by with Linux instead pf Windows, but IMHO, just is not worth the huge amount of time and effort, dealing with issues.

Linux is great for Linux stuff, and Windows best for Windows stuff.
You can buy 10th gen PC for peanuts, and run Win 11, just depends, if you would rather waste time, pointlessly, doing something else.

Silvio said:

not worth the huge amount of time and effort, dealing with issues.

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Issues like what?

SlicEnDicE said:

Issues like what?

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Issues like being able to install WebSphere on RHEL but not knowing what it can be used for. Just kidding...

SlicEnDicE said:

Issues like what?

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Issues like downloading a driver or software and the instructions to install it doesn't work or you realize is not compatible with your distro and you need to find another version. In Windows you never have such ridiculous issues.

SlicEnDicE said:

Issues like what?

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No Linux drivers for your hardware peripheral,
You have to compile the driver for your hardware but build fails for your distro/gcc/kernel version
You cannot install your nvidia gfx driver, with secure boot enabled, you need to sign driver,
Software you need is on Mac/Windows only
You are subscribed to AV supplier, but no version available for Linux
Version of Citrix available for Linux, is not compatible with version of Citrix at work