Posts by TCook1943 42 publicly visible posts • joined 3 May 2015
I'm an 81 year old "Boomer" and respectfully you are talking from an area of your anatomy for which it was not designed. People of my generation are likely to have run both Windows and Linux, certainly I have since version 0.1 or thereabouts.
Currently I am dual booting Windows and Deepin which I note was not mentioned either in Liam's original post or so far in the comments but which can do every thing that Windows can and do so with élan.
I am a long term user of Deepin Os and I would venture to suggest that the problems which afflicted Suse were of their own making. I have NEVER had any problems with the Os at although version 23 is in my view deeply flawed.
For some strange oriental reason they have banished synaptic from that version which for me ruins it. At 81 I am past feeling any urge to get creative with my operating system and find synaptic to be essential to install the wide range of utility's I like to run in batches, I probably won't last long enough in any case.
I've been using computers since CPM was the new kid on the block and Windows since 3.1 which incidentally was probably the best version M.S. ever produced. With an interval running Amiga Os which in my view was THE best system ever.
I've been running PCLinuxOs for ages but am switching to Deepin right now. I've tried it a few times before but now that it has reached version 20.5 it seems to me to have matured into a very usable operating system more than capable of finally replacing M.S. products while possessing the ability to run programs developed for that company's product.
It's Chinese origin was initially a downer due to it's default language but is not a serious problem with 20.5. Plus points as far as I am concerned is that it supports the use of Synaptic as its software installation tool as I have a rooted objection to such alternatives as Yast or Flatpack which I find clumsy and awkward.
Your analysis of Windows versions is just a tad too sweeping. Many, including myself, consider that XP was - in its day - the best ever.
Windows 7 was a worthy successor, Vista by the time it reached SP3 and was to all intents and purposes itself 7 was equally good.
Windows 8.1 is probably the most underappreciated member of the tribe while 10 represents the peak that mot PC's of today can actually run.
Although I was back in the day one of the earliest trialists of the system I was discouraged when Mandrake folded and am only now again knocking at the door with PBLinuxOs which I regard as being its modern successor.
Deepin is not just a DDE it is very much an operating system in its own right and is a very sophisticated Linux version capable of running ANY DDE not just its own. Personally I am very much a fan of the DDE, perhaps less so of the Os which as others have noted is very Chinese indeed.
Having said which a little patience goes a long way towards giving you a very good system indeed. On a par with Mint, Manjaro or any other.
I'm senile, demented and I had a rotten memory to start with but I know I ran USB devices on a later release of Windows 95. BTW I started with Windows at version 1, ran 2, skipped 3 and went on to 3.1.
I later went to an Amiga till the crash then to XP, Vista and in time to 10. In all honesty all were manure.
I have been using Linux since the late 80's and was one of the pioneers at no time have I had any problems in installing any distribution.
An earlier respondent put his finger on one of the possible causes of the O/P's issue when the comment was made that possibly support for the hardware had been removed from the basic set of utilities to be installed. That these would include his network card this would leave him between a rock and a hard place.
Generally speaking it might be wise to opt for a distro no more recent than the latest Windows version the machine is capable of running, Windows 10, the latest, XP a very early one.
The other possible source of the basic issues experienced might be a corrupted install media.
The best way to retrieve the situation if the O/P still wants to proceed would be a live install of a suitable distro, I'd recommend either PCL or Rosa both of which are straightforward starting with the current version and working back if necessary.
Starting with Debian was not the ideal procedure for someone who is clearly a novice was not ideal and he would have done well to seek advice BEFORE commencing.
Why IS it that "Mint" has become another word for Linux. It isn't, its a distribution based on Ubunto which is itself crap.
There are literally hundreds of distributions out there which do not have the bugs reported here. Just as a suggestion you could always try OpenSuse, an independent RPM based distribution one of the Mandriva based distriibutions like PcLinuxOs, (Which BTW is a rolling release which makes use of Synaptic as its installer) or Mageia.
If you are drawn to Debian based packages, which I can well understand, try a package a wee bit closer to the baseline.
Either way the niggles you report will be behind you.
Wine runs MS Office, Photoshop, popular accounting and business software flawlessly unless of course your, "Popular" includes some very exotic software indeed you should have no trouble. Games, quite a lot run well enough on Wine & of course for those who don't object to non free software Steam is well worth a look.
Wine is quite capable of running virtually all applications & quite a lot of games these day's & contrary to another post is very easy to use. I am 74, suffer from the dreaded Al & have some brain damage from a mini stroke & wasn't that bright to start with & even I find it a doddle.
@AC-
Maybe re Littler but old enough to remember life pre EU, (Believe me we were far better off economically - a matter I'd be delighted to discuss @ length) between 5 - 7 years post Brexit the economy will so improved as to convince the thickest student though possibly not yourself that returning to the EU fold as a new member would be nothing short of potty.
So what makes your opinion more valuable than others?
I assume you probably live in London/Home Counties & have a thoroughly suburban life style & a positive experience of EU membership. Most people don't!
For those of us living in for example the Midlands, eg north of the Watford Gap, East Anglia & most of the rest of the country who live with the reality of unrestrained immigration bringing with it as it does all the ills and few of the benefits of EU membership its a totally different picture.
Our young are not necessarily yuppies, can't afford to buy and are unable to find homes to rent because they have been taken by "deserving" immigrants straight from the back of the lorry.
Oh & by the way I'm not a racist, just a realist who had to forgo a comfortable retirement to fund my daughters house purchase, I'm 73 & my mortgage will finally expire in December when I hope to be finally able to commence to save not for retirement but for planting.
As one who remembers the hit our people took when we first joined the "Common Market" & who has finally been able to vote on the changes the EU introduced over 50 years without a UK vote I am frankly surprised the margin was so narrow.
The freedom to return to our own subsidy program for British farmers saving chunks of money from going to French farmers and structure our own indirect taxation to suit us rather than Europe will compensate to a very large degree any short term additional cost increases, (Back in the day costs rose over a few weeks by up to 25% variable by commodity)
Even potential runaway inflation has its appeal, our children would for example be able to pay off a substantial mortgage while still young enough to enjoy it as again back in the day did I.
Only Scotland where even the indigenes have to be induced to reside is there presently space to spare though if they get their way there won't be for long.
I seriously could not resist having a pop @ this one because in so many ways its no more than the simple truth though overly harsh towards Linux software's.
Para 2 is where in my view you run off the rails and suffer a major crash, you not I state, "WinME was a bomb...you gained nothing. Vista was a bomb...you gained nothing. Windows 8 was a bomb.." etc.
How much did those systems cost you? I assume you did buy them and not knock them off - as against the cost of Linux systems over the same period. Answer umpety £ as against SFA. How many options did you have within those systems, nada versus infinity? Are you, "starting to sense a pattern here?"
Many of the admittedly excellent packages you quote, (And their more modern successors) actually do run pretty well under Linux via Wine & its derivatives while all and virtually everything else you might fancy run on virtual machines.
"I always reply "If I still have to buy Windows, what do I need your OS for?" to which I might answer "To stop MS from stuffing my box with malware I didn't ask for or want". In the past I've used every MS product from Dos 3.1, (Which was the first remotely reliable version) to Win 10 and ripe Gorgonzola most were.
With the release of Win 10 MS plumbed new depths however, I'd long been accustomed to coping with outside threats against generations of poorly programmed operating systems but now MS themselves have now riddled all their current operating systems with, "Tell me your inmost secrets" write home "Features" to the point where the only really safe option is to deny them internet access. Which of course renders those same operating systems useless unless you are prepared to lie back and think of England while MS rapes your machine or restrict access to a parent Linux system.
"So as long as Linux is openly hostile to commercial software, the kind the vast majority of the planet has literally invested billions of dollars in purchasing?". Which planet do you call home anyway?
Linux as an entity just doesn't exist in the sense you use it, every user has his or her own take on what is or is not acceptable. Mine incidentally is to use the handiest and best tool for the specific job a view with which most users would I believe agree. Choice is not just key here its the entire point of buying a computer.
While I can to an extent relate to suggestions that Linux users tend to go overboard in praise of the system as a recent refugee from Windows I can take their point.
Windows appears to be an imminent train crash of monumental proportions in an uncomfortably large set of area's of which the central theme seems to be, "We know best".
Inescapable "upgrades", "write home to mother" and the attitude that buying the damned product conveys no rights to you the poor bloody user are just the tip of the mountain up which I slid, thanks to my anti-gravity drive, towards Linux.
Given that the vast majority of people here prefer, to and are well capable of, managing their own systems I am truly surprised by the anti Linux attitudes often expressed.
I would not advocate leaving MS completely, I have a copy of XP running off line for special purposes and a VM running Win8.1 for Netflix for example but always have the comfortable knowledge that I am in control of my system and that to quote others here that MS can go urinate up a rope.
I have been a dedicated MS customer since DOS 3.1, throughout the Gates years in fact putting up with some of the most sexually abused systems of all times but enough is enough.
Nadella has changed the ball game so much that whereas at one time you had to carry your sick Windows to a virtual veterinarian for a health check to get rid of third party malware it now comes with its very own inbuilt and hard to treat versions.
I now triple boot, XP offline to run all those older games, Win 7 for newer stuff and Linux for on line access.
Win 7 is about to go virtual and Linux is to take over the drive, as soon that is that this dedicated distro hopper can finally settle on which distro.
Its likely that Windows share of the desktop market is in process of flying out of the Window itself.
While you have my personal admiration for your support? and work as a Linux developer? you might have picked up that while Debian and its multifarous forks are doing well as distributions for the masses RPM based distro's like Red Hat and Suse are masters when it comes to commercial usage.
I used to regularly purchase from these sharks until they refused to accept the return carriage charge of a misdelivered item within 24 hours, yes thats HOURS, of delivery.
I'd purchased through Paypal who forced Excreta to cough up, problem solved, not on your life as Excreta's next step was to use the provided bank details I'd given them way back when for an earlier supply to create a charge directly on my bank account without either my knowledge or authorisation.
It took ages to eventually get my bank to defray the costs of this fraudulent action.
BTW Excreta the facts are still on file so if you'd like to sue - go right ahead, pretty please!
Have you never heard of virtual machines?
For example XP Pro sans direct net access is not only, (By windows standards) reasonably fast but carries no fleas, midges or ticks.
Or are you so committed to the MS dream as to keep paying more for less solid value with a fixed grimace on your features until either death or senility strikes your box down?
Possibly alone amongst others here I freely admit to knowing far too little to materially improve a Windows box. I have already binned Windows 10 due to the admission by MS that they could and would monitor what was on my box & am presently using Win 7 in native mode.
I am as near to taking the Linux + VM route as a gnats cock is thick,
I could, and did, cope with things like the menu and everything else others appear to have mentioned, what I could not accept was WIndows 10 phoning home to Microsoft 24/10.
The rmere thought of being bombarded with, "Targetted Advertising" or still worse thought police gave me the shivers.
If I should install it again it will be in a virtual machine with no access to any of my real time information.
I am a Linux, (And Windows) user & I am honest enough to admit up front that I don't have much of a clue about what the system is doing behind the screen & whats more I've no particular need to know.
Windows 10 at first sight is a bit of a disapointment, it seems clunky and is certainly slower than Win 8.1 by some margin in booting and getting down to work. I have Classic Shell installed and am presently unable to see how to download and install apps. (Don't write to tell me how because I'll have fiixed it by the time you respond.
My impression currently is that MS have laid yet another pretty operating system on us, and pretty it certainly is, representing yet another barrier to actually doing anything.
That may, and probably will, with further usage change in the future. Meanwhile I am very glad that I set it up to dual boot with Win 7. Touching on speeds again my Win 7 system is loaded with everything including the kitchen sink and it still holds its own against Win 10 with almost nothing installed.
Meanwhile a tip for anyone toying with the idea of using Linux, go for a system like PCLinux which updates, "on the roll" and is never outdated. About as idiot proof as a system could well be in fact.
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