Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux
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@Catchmonster said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:
... galaxies ahead of anything Microsoft could ever develop.
My main issue over the years has been that my work has required Windows-specific software. I haven't researched the latest software that runs on Linux, but when I tried Ubuntu in 2014, some of the equivalent Linux software was still lacking features and/or functionality that I must have (ex: Photoshop vs Gimp - good apps, but not a match).
I do want to go back the Linux, however, so I'll be looking into ways I can do that without much trouble. My work situation and needs have changed the past couple years, so it might be possible to make the switch now.
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@akapune Vivaldi doesn't have "distros". It's a Web browser that works on Windows, Linux and Android.
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@JoelYoung said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:
@Catchmonster said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:
... galaxies ahead of anything Microsoft could ever develop.
My main issue over the years has been that my work has required Windows-specific software. I haven't researched the latest software that runs on Linux, but when I tried Ubuntu in 2014, some of the equivalent Linux software was still lacking features and/or functionality that I must have (ex: Photoshop vs Gimp - good apps, but not a match).
I do want to go back the Linux, however, so I'll be looking into ways I can do that without much trouble. My work situation and needs have changed the past couple years, so it might be possible to make the switch now.
The Gimp of now is not the same as in 2014 and perhaps it will be worth it now, Krita (KDE) can also be a good complement and is even used by professionals.
Apart Photoshop and many other Windows applications work perfectly with Wine.
Maybe it suits you to try different distros on USB, to see which one best suits your needs, before finally moving on to Linux -
I have been using Solus for the better part of a year now. Prior to Solus, I hopped from distribution to distribution.. and broke them all.
In less than a year I broke Ubuntu Mate, Parrot OS, and Zorin OS (although Zorin is really a great distro.. I tweak to much).
I found my way to Fedora which is a strong, solid distribution but it is the testing distribution for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and something they did broke my install. Fedora is better for experienced users especially because of their emphasis on staying true to open-source ideology. It takes forever to get proprietary codecs and repositories working properly.
Solus is a completely different experience entirely.
Initially I had issues installing Solus alongside Windows but when Solus 4 'Fortitude' was released in March of this year all of those issues were resolved.
I was able to completely ditch Windows. I have two dozen devices in my home and none of them run Windows at all.
Solus is so reliable that I would feel comfortable enough installing it on my mother's computer and not having any worries wondering if she could maintain it. This is coming from someone with a degree in computer science who fixes computers. In fact, Solus would likely mean I would have to go fix her less often.
I have never felt as secure, happy, or in control of my computing experience as I do using Solus. Josh Strobl is a GREAT Project Lead.. he answers questions on the discussion forum at https://discuss.getsol.us on a daily basis.
Linux is the future of computing and Solus has risen to the forefront of the Linux community. This is definitely an operating system everyone should get a chance to use.
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@joelyoung: Try checking out Flatpaks or Snaps which are distribution-agnostic and can be run from virtually any version of linux.
Flatpaks (which are more reliable) can be downloaded from multiple sources but the biggest repository is located at https://www.flathub.org
Flatpak Software:
Discord, Dropbox, Filezilla, Open Drive (Google Drive Client), Signal Desktop, Skype, Slack, Steam, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, ZoomSnaps (which I distrust because they are centralized and have allowed third parties to put telemetry into code) have a really, really large selection of apps can be found at https://snapcraft.io/store
Snap Software is even more fleshed out and has obscure programs like Wickr and browsers and email apps.
Both of these package managers have tons of development software like Webstorm, Pycharm, Visual Studio Code, Unity Software, Postman, PHPStorm, IntelliJ IDEA, NetBeans, Eclipse IDE, DataGrip and Android Studio
Both also have tons of graphic design and audio/visual software that can compete with Adobe like Blender (Adobe Premier/2D), DarkTable (LightRoom), GIMP (Photoshop), InkScape (Illustrator), KdenLive (Premier/Video Editing)
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@Catweazle I am only now fully understanding the benefits of running Flatpaks fully but one of the biggest, in my opinion, is the fact that even if Krita is a KDE program you can install it on a GTK based Desktop Environment like Gnome or Budgie without having to worry.
When you download and run an app from Flatpak you download everything you need to run the app INCLUDING the relevant runtimes. So when you download Krita, you download all of the dependencies AND all of the KDE runtimes needed.
Rather than mess up your dependencies (which can be very bad for a Linux system if you blend Gnome's GTK and KDE's QT libraries together) Flatpaks by their nature containerize the apps and the runtimes and those KDE dependencies never touch your actual system.
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This talk on Flatpak is interesting, since I saw it mentioned when looking at 32 bit distros to replace Lubuntu and one thing I couldn't install on Lubuntu was Skype, which was just mentioned as a Flatpak
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@jrsilvey said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:
@Catweazle I am only now fully understanding the benefits of running Flatpaks fully but one of the biggest, in my opinion, is the fact that even if Krita is a KDE program you can install it on a GTK based Desktop Environment like Gnome or Budgie without having to worry.
When you download and run an app from Flatpak you download everything you need to run the app INCLUDING the relevant runtimes. So when you download Krita, you download all of the dependencies AND all of the KDE runtimes needed.
Rather than mess up your dependencies (which can be very bad for a Linux system if you blend Gnome's GTK and KDE's QT libraries together) Flatpaks by their nature containerize the apps and the runtimes and those KDE dependencies never touch your actual system.
I mentioned Krita as a complement, because Gimp does not fully offer the capabilities of Photoshop, Krita is a design and drawing program mainly and also lacks some Photoshop functions, but many others that the PS does not have. It is then that Gimp and Krita as a whole allow much more functions than the PS.
PD Curious that some Photoshop functions come from patents from the Gimp developer, for example the smart fill function (which also has the online editor Lunapic with "Cut and inpaint"), to remove objects from a photo.. -
@JoelYoung
OK – then I’ll state more precisely: Which Vivaldi built for Linux runs under Solus? DEB, RPM or non-DEB/RPM? -
@akapune Solus does not use .deb or .rpm files. They have a package manager called eopkg and are working to migrate to a package management system called Sol in the future.
Solus is a new distro with fresh code. Their repositories are surprisingly fleshed out and you can download Vivaldi directly from their local repo.
sudo eopkg it vivaldi
Solus has more web browsers in their local repos than any other distro I have ever seen. Opera, Tor, Firefox, Krusader, Falkon, Midori, Epiphany, Lynx.. on and on and on. And they have a third-party repository where you can download Chrome as well.
Despite being a young project with a small team they have a very strong set of software available locally that is enhanced by using Flatpaks and/or Snaps.
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@mossman PeppermintOS is based off of Lubuntu and is a really light weight distro that blends LXDE/Xfce. They have the Nemo file manager and integrate Vivaldi or Firefox with something called Ice which integrates websites into your desktop as though they were built in apps.
If you can't get Skype on that distro through a Flatpak, I am certain you could access it using the web version.
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Hi, tried Solus today from USB3 pendrive and seams quite speedy but it is only a basic installation. You have to install 80 dependencies to run Vivaldi, 120 to install Dolphin.
May it need restart but Dolphin does not work without.
Vivaldi is not installed in the default directory so propritary media does not work without fiddling. It is nice but no distro for Linux beginners.
Will check other media later, btw. no Gimp installed per default.Cheers, mib
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@Para-Noid Brasero should be able to burn music to a disc and fix your problem.
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@mib2berlin What do you mean only a basic installation?
Do you mean you are running it as a LiveUSB without installing it?
I don't remember having to download so many dependencies. Also, all of the media worked out of the box with no problem.
Which desktop environment are you running? Budgie, Gnome, MATE or KDE?
Installed package: Name : vivaldi-stable, version: 2.9.1705.41, release: 85 Summary : Vivaldi Web Browser Description : An advanced browser made with the power user in mind. Licenses : Distributable Component : network.web.browser Dependencies : libgtk-3 dbus libxcomposite libxi expat libxcursor libxtst libgcc libnspr libxcb pango cups libxfixes glib2 util-linux libnss libcairo alsa-lib glibc libx11 libxscrnsaver gdk-pixbuf libxrender libatk libxdamage libxext libxrandr at-spi2-atk at-spi2 Distribution : Solus, Dist. Release: 1 Architecture : x86_64, Installed Size: 216.42 MB Reverse Dependencies:
As for Dolphin, that file manager is designed for the KDE platform. Solus KDE is currently in testing and is only available on the unstable branch. There are issues with the theming that can be fixed if you know how to alter .config files.
Caja integrates very well into the Budgie desktop.
There is a very powerful multi-paned file manager capable of letting you work with your files stored in the cloud called Polo that is not in the official repos. It is a beta release but on my system has proven to be quite stable.
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Thanks for help but I am long term OpenSuse user since 20 years or something.
I tested Budgie, never liked Gnome based distros.
With basic I meant a Opensuse iso is 4 GB, most software you can imagine is already installed.
It was only a quick test, all hardware was working but I cant create a desktop shortcut for Vivaldi, for example. Horror for a Windows user.
Solus seams nice and fast so far-Cheers, mib
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I like to mention today Windows Server 2012 update leads to a update loop, real embarrassing.
Breaking your installation, reset defaults and/or spy settings after update happens several times on Windows 10 last years, too.
If your hardware can manage Windows 10 I am fine with it, many of my customers and friends use it but say Windows is working seamless compare to Linux is really to simple.Cheers, mib
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Basically, for users who 90% use their PC to surf the web, the OS they use is irrelevant.
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@Catweazle Yes, but it's always better when it perfectly integrates with the browser
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@akapune again, there is no "which Vivaldi". It's just Vivaldi, there's only one, it doesn't have different versions of itself for different Linux OS's.
I think what you're actually asking is which flavor of Linux does Vivaldi work with? I can't answer that with certainty, but since Vivaldi works on Linux, I'd assume that it works on any Linux distro, because bottom line is, Linux is Linux, in any flavor. -
@jrsilvey Thanks for that! Very informative.