Forum Home
Press F1
Thread ID: 135989	2014-01-07 02:22:00	Linux Mint a good alternative for "oldies" ??	Misty (368)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1364539	2014-01-12 19:00:00	If nothing else this thread has given insite to one thing, Linux is not for every home user. AND there HAS to be people willing to offer help when required without looking for ages to find it. looking at it another way, a person has to learn type commands. personally I like doing that. You ask most people to do something Via a Command like and they have no idea what you are talking about. Lots of people partition drives via a program ( GUI) tell them to do it Via Diskpart --- and they have no idea, I like doing it that way. What will be funny is if anyone comes back here to ask for help if Senior net start using some form of linux, it will be interesting to see what happens. Re that link ( Fred) is that the best youcan do ? Its common knowledge that Vista gives problems, and upgrading it there is a high percentage of failures as it often corrupts, as it was pointed out in post #3 Looks like there is a missing or defective file in Windows Vista which caused Windows Vista to not upgrade to Windows 7. If a fresh install was done it should go straight in unless theres some sort of unseen hardware problem. If a person does a quick search from google on how to install fresh from an upgrade DVD theres lots of replies describing how. But I guess you wouldn't have experiance like that since Linux doesn't have faults. ;) Tell me again how you make a living out of supporting an OS that is so easy to use and doesn't have these problems? Please show me where I've said Windows never has problems ?? Dont start gettting insulting -- May I remind you of a "off the cuff, cheeky" - (thats how I read it) comment you made in the PM when I asked if you could help. Now I wont say any more about that as it was not posted out of a public forum.	wainuitech (129)
1364540	2014-01-12 19:35:00	Oh *** ... edit: eff eff ess Are you really so insecure that everything has to become a pissing contest? PM - for the record: Hi Fred, Following on from my last post about Linux, I was going to suggest to the lady to contact you since you know the ins and outs so to speak. BUT she hung up before I had a chance, and I didn't have any contact details aprt from here on PF1. If you are able, would you be prepared to be a contact I can pass onto when people call regarding linux problems. They would be paying jobs, not freebees, and you charge what ever amount you would for your services. If you cant no big deal, only a thought :) Cheers. Thanks for the thought, but I'm not really in a position to be able to at the moment. I have a full time job (so business hours are out) and some (selected) private clients - the ones that don't mind paying and don't give me grief (that I don't deserve, anyway :) ). Also, I'm in Christchurch and remote/telephone support is something that really pisses me off - I get plenty enough of that dealing with our Akl office... I have been in the "home and small biz" PC support business in the past, but where I am at the moment is too good not to keep doing, so I'll have to pass. If you wanted to pick up some 'mad linux skillz', it's really no more difficult (and FAR less random and MUCH more flexible) than windows, but it IS different and requires a different mindset - if you keep trying to apply your learned 'windows experience' it will be an exercise in frustration. It took me some time to unlearn what I thought I knew ... The focus on the command line in most documentation and help sites is simply because that is the common factor across most distro's and environments (although there are some structural differences between Debian/RedHat based distro's). As you rightly observe there is a plethora of GUI's and GUI tools to do all kinds of things and trying to come up with instructions that work in all of them is impossible, but for example, simply opening a terminal and entering 'ifconfig' immediately shows the relevant network info in ANY environment. With the GNU cli tools being pretty ubiquitous, that is the natural thing to learn about to be proficient in a range of slightly different distro's and any gui. You won't be surprised if I recommend Debian to you too as an excellent place to learn, if you so decide. :D It's not one of the flashy, flavour-of-the-month distro's, but it is solid, 'industry-standard', and isn't going away any time soon. It is also the base for most of the systems you would be likely to run into "in the wild". Anyway, thanks again, and sorry I can;t help out. Hey thats no problems fred, I couldn't remember where you were. It was just a thought. I know what you mean about command line & GUI's. One I looked up to change the workgroup in Zorin with a gui app, it installed easy enough, but couldn't find it LOL. Ended up running a terminal and using gedit to change the smb.conf file. I do a know a little, but not enough to really warrant charging people for doing the work or if it all turns pear shaped. "IF" I can find the time I'll try to learn more, but a lot of the times you really need something thats giving problems to work with. Theory is all OK, but hands on is better. ( no matter what the OS or problem) Thanks anyway :) My advice - stick to windows - anything else is obviously way over your head. The 'oldies' however, should cope fine.	fred_fish (15241)
1364541	2014-01-12 20:24:00	Oh *** ... edit: eff eff ess Are you really so insecure that everything has to become a pissing contest? PM - for the record: My advice - stick to windows - anything else is obviously way over your head. The 'oldies' however, should cope fine. LOL :lol: love it when people make comments, then cant back them up, they turn to insults. I'm referring to my question Please show me where I've said Windows never has problems ?? You cant because you know very well its BS. Linux is Ok, nothing wrong with it if you like that sort of thing, as you pointed out you have to change your whole mindset. (those are your words not mine). Interesting though, if its so good why is it not the most used OS in the world, after all its Free, and most people like free stuff ? ( legit, polite question) As I mentioned It's going to be interesting when help is asked from Seniornet ( or others) and see what sort of replies are given. (time will tell) Anyway, got real work to do.	wainuitech (129)
1364542	2014-01-12 20:44:00	Interesting though, if its so good why is it not the most used OS in the world, after all its Free, and most people like free stuff ? ( legit, polite question) It may be for the same reason that IE is the favourite browser since it is the default one in Windows, and Windows is the default OS because when you buy a machine it inevitably comes preloaded with some form of Windows.	Agent_24 (57)
1364543	2014-01-12 21:04:00	lin will be more popular & more commonly used when . . . . . . . . When Lin is compatible with 90% of new PC games , and runs those games just as fast as Win . When Lin can run MS Office, thats MS Office, not some clone that cant run ALL macro's & isnt 100% compatible With docx & xlxs When Lin is just the single distro, not 1000000 completely different distro's that change every year . People dont like change, sad but true When Lin runs everything that home users & Office users expect from their OS . Not some clone app thats not quite same same Its been sooooo many years now, Lin will allways be just a OS for geeks & techies . Joe Public will never walk into Dick Smith and ask for a PC with Linux on it . Thats the bottom line . So why give oldies a OS that just isnt used outside of the geek world .	1101 (13337)
1364544	2014-01-12 22:50:00	lin will be more popular & more commonly used when........ When Lin is compatible with 90% of new PC games , and runs those games just as fast as Win. blogs.valvesoftware.com It's happening, and SteamOS is going to make _huge_ leaps and bounds for the gaming community. Almost single-handedly they could shift the entire gaming scene towards Linux. When Lin can run MS Office, thats MS Office, not some clone that cant run ALL macro's & isnt 100% compatible With docx & xlxs It can: www.codeweavers.com When Lin is just the single distro, not 1000000 completely different distro's that change every year. People dont like change, sad but true Never going to happen. That's like saying "We want one Android that looks all the same". That's the _benefit_ of Linux, is one size does not fit all. There will always be custom tailored versions, such as SteamOS, along with "generic" ones like Ubuntu, and specialized ones such as ChromeOS or Zorin. When Lin runs everything that home users & Office users expect from their OS. Not some clone app thats not quite same same I completely disagree. Linux != Windows, not will it ever, nor is that the goal. It _is_ different, though many of the differences are similar to Windows XP vs Windows 7 vs Windows 8... End users can still run Chrome, can still login to Facebook, can still check emails in Thunderbird, can still hit Ctrl + P to print. If differences were all that's holding people back, then why do people still by Macs and run OSX? I believe it holds around 5% market share? It'd probably be higher too if it was more cost-effective (Read: Cheaper).	Chilling_Silence (9)
1364545	2014-01-12 22:56:00	lin will be more popular & more commonly used when........ When Lin is compatible with 90% of new PC games , and runs those games just as fast as Win. When Lin can run MS Office, thats MS Office, not some clone that cant run ALL macro's & isnt 100% compatible With docx & xlxs When Lin is just the single distro, not 1000000 completely different distro's that change every year. People dont like change, sad but true When Lin runs everything that home users & Office users expect from their OS. Not some clone app thats not quite same same Its been sooooo many years now, Lin will allways be just a OS for geeks & techies. Joe Public will never walk into Dick Smith and ask for a PC with Linux on it. Thats the bottom line. So why give oldies a OS that just isnt used outside of the geek world. NOTE: The original question was regarding Senior Net people moving from XP to Linux. I imagine that they would use mainly email, browse the web, skype the grandchildren, view photos, create documents etc. Linux is perfect for these uses and once installed, needs no more support than any other OS. The thread seems to have been hijacked by the usual Microsoft v Linux arguments. 1 Senior Net people are unlikely to be playing lots of games, but Steam provides a large number of games interchangeable with Linux, Windows and Apple. 2 My wife runs a secretarial business and I have an architectural business. Using LibreOffice, we have had no problems opening MS Office files on LibreOffice. I once used Excell for my bracing calculations, now using LibreOffice with all the previous macros, there is no difference. I understand that MS Office runs on Linux using WINE, but I have had no need to try that out. 3 The number of distros is an advantage rather than a difficulty. You can often select the desktop that you desire - Ubuntu gives you the choice of at least 5 and Mint a similar number. If you can't find a suitable one from those, you are being too difficult to be helped. 4 There is no slowing down of the system over time and no need for virus protection. There are Linux User Groups in many locations in NZ. They would be more than willing to help install a suitable distro on a group of Senior Net people, and to provide ongoing support if required. Any difficulties I have found have always been solved using google. I would suggest that any Senior Net people running Windows 7 would be best to stay with that. It is still fully supported by MS. Those running XP will have to upgrade to a new OS, and the change to Linux is easier than changing the Windows 8. The one thing I would recommend is to check that the computer runs the version properly by trying a before a full install using a live DVD or USB stick. It will be slow, but any driver problems will show up. The only problem I have found is lack of suitable graphics drivers for Radeon cards.	Wilko (17174)
1364546	2014-01-12 23:13:00	lin will be more popular & more commonly used when........ When Lin is compatible with 90% of new PC games , and runs those games just as fast as Win. Valve is moving a lot more to Linux, one of the main reasons being improved performance. When Lin can run MS Office, thats MS Office, not some clone that cant run ALL macro's & isnt 100% compatible With docx & xlxsIf MS would publish the specs and stick to an open document standard, this wouldn't be a problem. When Lin is just the single distro, not 1000000 completely different distro's that change every year. People dont like change, sad but trueGiven the screaming about Win8 you could be right. Those people can choose one of the distro's that don't change. CentOS for example is a 'stable' distro (software doesn't change) with security support for 7 years. XP's long run was exceptionally extended, and I would be very surprised if MS ever let that happen again - gotta keep those till's ringing with new versions... What choice is there if they stick with Windows? "Lin" will NEVER be "a single distro" as that is not how it works, lots of people want different things, and they can have them, and share them with other people with similar goals/likes/dislikes. When Lin runs everything that home users & Office users expect from their OS. Not some clone app thats not quite same same Again, an artificial restriction with the sole purpose of milking maximum profit from a lucrative monopoly. Its been sooooo many years now, Lin will allways be just a OS for geeks & techies. Certainly, some distro's will, as that is who they are built by, and for. As others have attested, there is also plenty of "easy to use" distro's, with icon's and menu's and a Documents folder and everything ... no different to USE than a Win machine. Joe Public will never walk into Dick Smith and ask for a PC with Linux on it. Thats the bottom line. Correct, and not surprising as "marketing" isn't a priority. So why give oldies a OS that just isnt used outside of the geek world.Because for a lot of them, it could be a much better option than a confusing new interface on a system that is the target of all the malware in the world, and needs further funds invested for an office program and AV etc. and downtime and further money to fix when it's gets pwnd after the grandkids visit.	fred_fish (15241)
1364547	2014-01-13 00:38:00	Hmmmn, who'ed of thought this could be such a touchy subject ;) Getting back to the original question If you have to ask here, then perhaps Linux isnt for you. You will have to retain your volunteers in an OS that they probably have no interest in learning or experience with . Will the seneriornet volunteers be willing to learn Linux , & become skilled enough to teach others ? Then there is the issue of loading ANY OS old obselete PC's. Dont assume for an instance that this will run smoothly , no matter what OS. There is no point in teaching an Linux if that user doesnt have a Linux PC at home, or the on PC he wants to use . I guess Im correct in assuming many of these volunteers wont necessarily have the skills to trouble shoot the more complex OS issues: thats not what they are there for.	1101 (13337)
1364548	2014-01-13 00:40:00	When Lin is just the single distro, not 1000000 completely different distro's that change every year. People dont like change, sad but true When has this been true for any new version of Windows? In every new version they change something that pisses a lot of people off. Just look at Windows 8 and Metro... Great thing with Linux you can use whatever interface YOU want, without being at the mercy of Microsoft and whatever they decide you're going to use.	Agent_24 (57)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12