

Time to get back to Linux
#1 OFFLINE
Posted 07 July 2018 - 04:45 PM
I was using PCLInuxOS full time but sadly my PC bit the dust. I have a laptop running Windows 7 and a new PC running Windows 10 which I've been using for awhile but I miss Linux. I don't like how Windows wants to connect everything, your email, your social accounts etc... Paranoid maybe but it just seems to me that its unnecessary.
Anyway my real question is what distro is everyone using? I see tutorials about dual-booting Ubuntu and Mint with Windows 10 but are they the best options?
Anything I should keep in mind before going ahead with this project?
#2 OFFLINE
#3 OFFLINE
Posted 07 July 2018 - 04:51 PM
There's heaps and piles of wonderful Linux distributions out there in the wild. Grab yourself one and GO!
Ubuntu
Mint
Arch
OpenSuse
Debian
et cetera...
Put all the names on little pieces of folded paper into a bag and pick one. You might get lucky! You can't lose any way.

#4 OFFLINE
Posted 07 July 2018 - 05:02 PM
As far as distros are concerned, perhaps LinuxMint or Fedora.


Configs/PGP Key/comhack π ∞
"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain." -George Orwell, 1984
#5 OFFLINE
Posted 07 July 2018 - 08:39 PM
As an experienced Linux user you can choose whatever you want. I use Debian, Arch, Linux Mint and MX-17 on various machines I have around here. No Windows on these.

#6 OFFLINE
Posted 07 July 2018 - 09:00 PM


I highly recommend MX-17 for a nice stable, functional distro with friendly and helpful developers who often post on their forums.




For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
#8 OFFLINE
Posted 08 July 2018 - 01:32 AM
I mostly use Debian Stable, and I prefer that over anything else I've tried. I've been running that one here for almost 11 years now. Also, I enjoy using Arch -- almost (but not quite) as much as Debian.
I don't use Ubuntu anymore, but I have a Kubuntu installation. Lubuntu is another one that has worked out quite well for me in the past.
Two other distros installed here: BunsenLabs and SalentOS, both based on Stable. I like those because they ship with Openbox, and I wanted to see what they were doing with that window manager.
And, I like having MX Linux and GParted Live on flash drives, although I don't boot up with either of those very often, only on those rare occasions when I want/need to do something in particular from within a live session.
Oh, almost forget, I also have an Antergos installation. I was attracted to that one because of the quick, easy installation; because it mostly uses Arch repos; and because the installer allowed me to choose Openbox for the desktop. I removed many of the default packages, and for the most part I treat it the same as Arch -- I mean, I use the same pacman commands for package management and so forth.
I've continued to use more than one distro ever since I realized that I could. I can't see myself ever going with only one distro, except perhaps Debian, sometime down the road. I kinda doubt that that day will ever come.
I haven't used Windows at home for several years now. Before I stopped running Windows altogether, I had some Windows+Linux dual- or multi-boot setups; then I decided to keep Windows and Linux on separate computers, and that seemed like a much nicer arrangement for me. This was back in XP days. But then I started to realize that I didn't need Windows for anything anymore, and that was the end of that.
Well, that's where I'm at these days. Lots and lots of excellent choices out there.
#9 OFFLINE
Posted 08 July 2018 - 07:10 AM
- Many friends and family use it and I want to offer some limited tech support. I only support Windows 10 though.
- The grandkids like some Flash-based browser games that for better or worse work with Windows best.
- My Train Simulators only work with Windows.
- A few things I do like income tax work best with Windows.
My preferred way of doing stuff is in Linux. When I got my refurbished Thinkpad I got rid of Windows 10 and installed Debian.

#10 OFFLINE
Posted 08 July 2018 - 08:08 AM
raymac46, on 08 July 2018 - 07:10 AM, said:
- Many friends and family use it and I want to offer some limited tech support. I only support Windows 10 though.
- The grandkids like some Flash-based browser games that for better or worse work with Windows best.
- My Train Simulators only work with Windows.
- A few things I do like income tax work best with Windows.
My preferred way of doing stuff is in Linux. When I got my refurbished Thinkpad I got rid of Windows 10 and installed Debian.
Besides the train emulator, the rest can all be done via a VM. Have you tried running the train emulator via wine or see if there is one you like available in Steam?
Railway Empire is a nice one that runs on linux and windows https://www.gog.com/.../railway_empire


Configs/PGP Key/comhack π ∞
"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain." -George Orwell, 1984
#11 OFFLINE
Posted 08 July 2018 - 09:11 AM
However, with that being said, I also remember MY attempts to start using linux, and the PLETHORA of choices available. Coming from Windows, where everything was chosen for me, I was truly concerned with making a mistake and choosing the "wrong" distro. It would have been helpful if a mentor was available and they had said "you're too focused on the distro, just start using linux and the rest will sort itself out over time." When I'm bringing a new user into the fold, I provide my custom Lubuntu re-mix and inform them that "this is what I use, and this is what you're going to be using also. at such time as you no longer like it, or it no longer works for you, or you're wanting to try something else, talk to me and we'll move you onto something else." While a few moved on by themselves (kudos to them for assimilating the knowledge to effectuate their own natural progression), most are still using what I provided. Most don't care, and it's just easier for me to support the quirks of ONE distro.
With all that said, I'd ask Rolana how she feels about PCLOS. PCLOS is a perfectly fine distro with a large & friendly community to support it. Unless something is not working to her criteria, there's nothing wrong with sticking with that distro!
#12 OFFLINE
Posted 08 July 2018 - 10:39 AM
I am not so fed up with Windows that I need to find alternatives. I do use mostly open source apps with Win 10 anyway.

#13 OFFLINE
Posted 08 July 2018 - 10:46 AM
securitybreach, on 08 July 2018 - 08:08 AM, said:
raymac46, on 08 July 2018 - 07:10 AM, said:
- My Train Simulators only work with Windows.
Railway Empire is a nice one that runs on linux and windows https://www.gog.com/.../railway_empire
https://www.ranker.c...-list/reference
I had not realised there were so many train sims out there.

#14 OFFLINE
Posted 08 July 2018 - 10:48 AM

#15 OFFLINE
Posted 08 July 2018 - 10:51 AM
abarbarian, on 08 July 2018 - 10:46 AM, said:
securitybreach, on 08 July 2018 - 08:08 AM, said:
raymac46, on 08 July 2018 - 07:10 AM, said:
- My Train Simulators only work with Windows.
Railway Empire is a nice one that runs on linux and windows https://www.gog.com/.../railway_empire
https://www.ranker.c...-list/reference
I had not realised there were so many train sims out there.

Yeah, me neither. Of course, I have never played a train sim before.


Configs/PGP Key/comhack π ∞
"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain." -George Orwell, 1984
#16 OFFLINE
Posted 08 July 2018 - 10:52 AM

#17 OFFLINE
Posted 08 July 2018 - 11:04 AM
sunrat, on 07 July 2018 - 09:00 PM, said:


I highly recommend MX-17 for a nice stable, functional distro with friendly and helpful developers who often post on their forums.
MX-17 gets a vote from me too. It runs very sweetly of a usb 3 stick nearly as smoothly as running on a desktop. It has an easy to use persistence when run of a usb so with a 16/32 GB usb it could be used as a daily driver.
That Endless OS I mentioned in my Linux Fringe Distros thread would be a very easy to use os with hardly any input or maintenance needed. Though the lack of ability to fiddle with it may be a downside.
Something like Robolinux with its built in Stealth VM feature may be an alternative to dual booting with Windows. You could of course use a VM with any linux flavour but you would need to set it up manually.
Don't know about dual booting with Windows 10 but Windows 7 was easy to set up for dual booting on my UEFI set up and on my old MBR set up. On the UEFI set up I use rEFind as the boot manager and it works very well and is easy to set up with Windows and a penguin.
Back in time I had two hdd/ssd's on my desktop and installed Windows on one and Arch on the other and used the motherboard boot menu to choose which to boot into. This meant it took slightly longer to boot but there were no set up or maintenance hassles as there can be with dual booting. Mind you apart from operator error my present dual boot has been running for several years with no problems.

#18 OFFLINE
Posted 08 July 2018 - 01:12 PM
#19 OFFLINE
#20 OFFLINE
Posted 09 July 2018 - 03:53 PM
Edited by ebrke, 09 July 2018 - 03:53 PM.
#21 OFFLINE
#22 OFFLINE
Posted 09 July 2018 - 06:39 PM
One thing you need to do with Win 10 is disable Fast Startup which can leave NTFS partitions locked in a read-only state when accessing from Linux.




For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
#23 OFFLINE
Posted 10 July 2018 - 05:04 PM
raymac46, on 08 July 2018 - 10:52 AM, said:

Mel
Mint 18.1 Cinnimon, MX-16, Siduction LXQT, Debian Stretch, and Other Linux Distro's
https://pctechman.wordpress.com/
#24 OFFLINE
Posted 10 July 2018 - 09:36 PM
Quote
I didn't worry about the warranty, just got rid of Windows and installed Debian. I have had no issues with my Thinkpad T430. I am sure a dual boot would have been no problem as my machine was old enough to have a legacy BIOS.
My best results with Linux have been when/with:
- I built my desktop and chose the hardware to be Linux friendly.
- Old Dell desktops - they are always good Linux machines.
- Thinkpads - the laptop of choice to install Linux.
Edited by raymac46, 10 July 2018 - 09:41 PM.

#25 OFFLINE
Posted 11 July 2018 - 06:59 AM
ebrke, on 09 July 2018 - 03:53 PM, said:
Do not go there, simply go to ebay and look up the business class thinkpads. Companies can only use them for three years (due to warranty) so you can get high end laptops for cheap that are mostly in great condition as most never left the docking stations. They will not come with an OS as they have been wiped but that is easy to fix.
For instance, a bunch of us at work have bought the HP 9470s from ebay. Mine came with an i7, 8gb ram and a 250gb ssd for $180. I bumped the ram to 16gb and added a 1tb ssd. So now I have a very powerful, thin laptop that costs me less than $300. Plus since they are business class, they are made much better and have accessories like docking stations easily available.


Configs/PGP Key/comhack π ∞
"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain." -George Orwell, 1984
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