Cross-reference of Windows (or Mac) apps/programs with best Linux Substitutes

General Linux Question
41

@Deby.
Yes, I have an old one cpu Pentium laptop, and Debian is fine on that with xfce. It is slow, especially booting, but it gets there. I have done lots of programming work on it .
Regards
Neville

42

My CPU is fairly recent - dual core Apollo Lake J3355. Not the power horse, but with 10 Watt TDP it is very efficient and powerful enough for my usage (mostly Internet browsing and Home Theater - HTPC). I am trying to make everything functional and efficient and use my bicycle instead of a car when I need to buy a loaf of bread at a grocery store. I choose my hardware, OS and software according to this principle. It must be tough to do programming on an old single core CPU, since compiling takes a lot of CPU power.
Regards,
Deby

43

Yes too slow for big jobs. It also has an HD, not an SSD, so that is slow too. I use a desktop with a 6x cpu for big jobs. I am doing the KDE tryout in the desktop

I tried a refurbished computer. I got a corei5 4x with a 500Gb ssd for $300 (Aust). It is a fine machine for Linux. If you wanted a computer upgrade you might consider refurbished .

Regards
Neville

44

Hi Neville,
I always build desktops from parts and install an OS of my choice (from Windows 95 to 7 and now Linux). I am happy with a power efficient Celeron J3355, 4 GB DDR3L RAM and Kingspec 120 GB SSD. I’ve had this inexpensive PC (less than $200 for all brand new parts) for 2 years and don’t feel the need to upgrade. When it comes to CPU choice, it is more important to choose the best CPU architecture (intel calls it generation) you can afford. For example, Intel keeps the same name hierarchy, such as Celeron, Pentium, core i3, i5, i7, but the new generation always outperforms the older one with better power efficiency. The latest Celeron can outperform an older core i5, consuming less power. The CPU Passmark ( https://www.passmark.com/ ) gives accurate enough info for comparing different CPUs.

1 Like
45

Wow, you are hands on. I have not done that since I built a 486 and installed FreeBSD. That was before Linux was available.

I can see now how you get your understanding of hardware. My corei7 is about 10 years old now, so it must be an early generation. It was custom built and has an enormous 64Gb of ram - i needed that for my maths work. That was as much ram as I could get onto a PC motherboard 10 years ago. Dont plan on replacing it soon, it is still a very good desktop.

Regards
Neville