Switching from Windows to Linux

Discussion
42

Just realized there are some questions here…
-What did you find out that you needed to change?

A that time recent hardware upgrade forced to me to Widows 10 because of lacking Windows 7 drivers. I was quite happy with Windows 7 before.
I used Windows 10 for about 18 months. In that time it produced for me way much more inconvenience than Windows XP and Windows 7 together in the last 15 years before. Most of them caused by impossible-to-diable-silent-updates, that broke something in my system. Additionally the look and feel of Win10 always disgusted me.
These were heavily pushing me towards Linux.

-Why did you keep a copy of Windows if you did?
I’m a videographer, and for my work I need a powerful, usable NLE. That’s not something easy to find in Linux world. Sadly, WINE is not an option here too…
The big change here was to discover Davinci Resolve, which can work -and in fact it works for me quite well on Linux.
I still may need Windows, and I have it as a VB guest, because:
-In case I need to touch an older project, I still may need to start my Vegas pro on Windows.
-DVD/Bluray authoring still doesn’t work on Linux. I need this ability occasionally, so the tools required for this are installed in the VB guest.

Of course as VB guest Windows has a limited performance, but for those tasks I need it for, it’s enough.
And having a 17GB vdi file worths better than having a 60GB partition dedicated to Windows :wink:

-Windows can not read Linux ext formatted disks.
Yes it can, with an additional program. I used Paragon extfs on Winodws 7 few years ago.

-I should (?) reformat NTFS disks to Fats32, ex3, or ex4?
On USB drives with 8GB or more, I use exfat. That does not have a 4GB size limit, and windows can read it too. I reformat ALL my HDD’s to ext4, be it external or internal. (That’s still in progress, I need to move around dozens of TB’s)

-Linux can not scan / repair a NTFS disk.
Not sure, but if that’s true: once you quit Windows, and you don’t have a single NTFS drive, there’s no real need for the ability, right?

2 Likes
43

Interesting story. I hear of Virtual Machine / Virtual Box mostly here on this site. So, it seems most people keep a copy of Windows as a fall back or to perform things not completely supported by Linux. I’m sure, I will will do the same. Already, days will pass before I use Windows.
Like you, I became disgusted with Windows 10. I actually like Windows XP and did not mind Windows 7. I need to read up on this virtual feature of Linux and give it a try.

2 Likes
44

Yeah, VM is a workaround. It needs however amount of RAM, and CPU! Before making that you should try all your best to make your Windows program to run under WINE. If that succeeds, fraction of RAM and CPU will be used for the task. For for example, Subtitle Edit, Photoshop CS2 works under WINE even better than on Windows (probably because of Linux more efficient file system).
After that my kids use frequently MS Office 2007 because of the school, sometimes this is unavoidable. That runs on WINE perfectly too. But my Vegas pro 16 and DVD Architect 7 don’t work on WINE. For them I need the VM :slight_smile:

2 Likes
45

There’s maybe 4 things I still need Windows for :
@work :

  • Cherwell : Sevice Desk ticketing system (there’s a web client but it hardly ever works)
  • Skype for Business : my employer doesn’t put phone handsets on desks - everyone uses Skype for Business telephony (while yes, there is a Skype version for Linux - this is NOT “Skype for Business”).

@home (and work) :

  • CheckPoint SSL VPN
  • Various products to remove DRM from e-books I purchase (the DRM removal plugin in Calibre won’t do this for any ebooks I’ve tried it on - not from Google Play, from Amazon Kindle or Rakuten Kobo)

For the stuff @work - I keep my employer supplied Win10 laptop on my desk, but mostly use my personal Ubuntu 19.04 hooked up to work’s docking station and dual monitor setup, and I used Symless “Synergy” KVM (which I purchased a full license for), anyway - I can drive Cherwell and Skype4Bu from my Linux laptop keyboard/mouse to the Win10 laptop using Synergy KVM (vers. 1.10.2). I’d like to wipe this Win10 laptop, and run Linux on it (it’s slightly better hardware-wise than the personal laptop I keep at work), looked at trying to use VMware converter to run my employer’s SOE/MOE Win10 as a guest, but that seems like a lot of work - and - last time I tried this (4-5 years ago) I ended up with an 80+ GB VMDK file - and NO way to shrink it… I’d need to pretty much strip everything out of Win10, and force a defragment, to minimize the size of the VMDK - and don’t even know if that will work, with all the hooks this Win10 SOE/MOE has with EUFI, SecureBoot, HyperV (yeah Win10 itself actually runs inside some kinda HyperV hypervisor :face_vomiting: - and as a hypervisor, HyperV is the worst :face_vomiting: ).

For the stuff @home -
I managed to get the CheckPoint SSL VPN client to work via CLI (I use an expect script to connect me) in Linux - but for who knows how long, if my employer patch the VPN software, it will probably break, and I’ll have to go back to using Windows 7 in a virtualbox VM and the ASPX client through Internet Explorer, and that REALLY SUCKS BALLS!

Removal of DRM from BOOKS I OWN - this really niggles me - I really HATE DRM, I think it’s evil, and I’ve never managed to get the DRM removal plugin in Calibre on Linux to “do anything” : so I need Windows only tools like ePUBee DRM Removal, Adobe Acrobat Digital Editions, Epubor Ultimate, “Any eBook Converter”, and “Kindle”.

For sharing files between Linux and Windows?

I use both Dropbox and Resilio Sync on both platforms. I keep ALL my data (photos, pictures [even screenshots], stolen memes, documents (including e-books), music, shell scripts) on either of those - never have to worry about partitions and filesystems… or even backups really…

That’s it… everything I might need MS Office for, I can do in Google Docs… I really kinda hate using Libre Office, so mostly avoid it… but I do use Libre Write when I need to update my CV in docx format, and that just seems to “work”…

All the Windows games I’d like to play, seem to work flawlessly in Proton via Steam Play (“special” version of Wine supported by Valve for gaming).
I used to spend a fair amount of time using CorelDraw (been using it since about version 3.x on Windows 3.0 circa 1991/1992) - but Inkscape performs just as well (one feature that Inkscape lacks, that Corel has, is multiple page documents). Never got my head around Adobe Illustrator.

I used to spend a similar amount of time using Adobe Photoshop… I’m no professional photographer or anything, and Gimp can do ANYTHING that I might have needed in Photoshop (I get sick of seeing people whining about no photoshop in Linux, I reckon probably 90% of these people probably only use about 15% of Photoshop’s features anyway! Sure there are professionals who NEED the whole Adobe Creative Suite [my daughter for example, she has a Macbook Pro for that]).

Actually - there’s one piece of software I’d love to see get ported to Linux : Autodesk Sketchbook! I run it on Android and iOS and I’ve tried it on Windows (and the “pro” version is now FREE everywhere)… This product was originally developed by the people at Alias/Wavefront, then owned by Silicon Graphics, a big Unix vendor - and I’m pretty sure there was a Unix version of Sketchbook for SGI Irix (their “UNIX” - i.e. the Unix that Lex discovers in Jurassic Park “It’s a UNIX system. I know this.” : image
image

3 Likes
46

according to another source (and it sounds that way when i re-read the rolling stone article as well) the replacement of itunes is only for mac users. windows users will still have to use itunes.

1 Like
47

My wife had to keep her windows machine for Quicken (home bookkeeping app) and Turbotax. (Boo, Hiss on them!)

2 Likes
48

Interesting exchange.

Additionally:

I could not agree more. I guess most people here are not in the right generation to be naturally aware of what I’m about to say, but I still remember how a game made by EA, called SimCity (not the first one, the newer one), was so disgustingly bloated with DRM that it actually was unplayable. You could not start the game you just bought for full price on release day. This was one of the many prime times for DRM.

2 Likes
49

I just use Turbotax online now. No need to download and install. Plus it’s free. :slight_smile:

Unless you need the version for businesses, then it’s not so simple.

1 Like
50

@MikeREM, A little late filing your taxes? :hushed:

51

I made the switch to Linux Mint Cinannom. 18.3 on the laptop and 19.2 on the desktop.
For the next few days, I’m going to try Linux Mint Xfce 19.2 on the laptop to see how this DE feels.

52

Lol, I didn’t mean “now” as in; when I made that post. I meant “now” as opposed to what I used to use in the past (which was purchasing and installing Turbotax from a retail store CD). :wink:

1 Like
53

A total jump to Linux, for me, will probably never happen, to many games on Windows that Linux will never run. This does not keep me from using Linux to boot my two desktop PC’s, I just do it a little different. I run Mint 19.2 on one PC and
Arch on the other PC. I install Linux to a 120GB SSD, amd keep all Windows
installs on separate HDD’s, and use Grub 2 for my bootloader. I always install
grub to the MBR of the drive that Linux is installed on, I never use the MBR of a
Windows drive, unless it is an older PC with only one drive.
Make sure os prober is installed in Linux and run the update grub command and grub will find your Windows installs. You will also have to set the MB bios to use the Linux drive as the boot drive.
This allows me to just unplug the Linux drive and reset the MB to boot Windows or
I can use F10 or F12 at boot and choose the drive I want to boot.
Running VM’s on Windows can be a smart move, but to truly run Linux it should be
installed to HDD or SSD.

54

I am not so sure about that.

If they continue like this, maybe in 10 years most games will be playable on Linux by default.

55

Maybe??? Most of my games are running on Xp and W7, that have been installed from CD,s I have bought over the years.

56

The older the game, the more likely it will run on Linux. There are a couple of old games that run perfectly on Linux. In fact, some games even run better on Linux, than on Windows.

57

Thanks Akito, just not willing to go down that road again.

58

Yes I agree about Gimp - Sure I can get used to it and do some things learned in Serif PhotoPlus and PagePlus which is very similar to Photoshop. But remain surprised that there are no shape drawing tools like an arrow or speech bubble. Knowing this I mostly use PhotoPlus-9 under wine where all tasks are simple once you understand layers and opacity. Image Extract is cool too for extracting part of an image an having the background transparent and cropped to minimum.

59
  1. An option for adding arrows and so on to a photo could be Scribus. While, the Scribus team seems to lack the resouces for further development of this remarkable software, it remains a key element of the FOSS “canon”.
  2. PhotoPlus-9 is old, though it may still be adequate for many users.However, the originators Serif are now selling the Affinity suite for about 50 euros per package, which might be considered a fair price. A pragmatic approach could be to ask the supplier to offer a package compatible with one or two of the favourite Linux distros, bearing in mind that, for the moment, Gimp has a learning curve, and Adobe refuse to play the game whatever their tarifs. There’s a Mac version of Affinity.
  3. In my opinion, this thread illustrates the need to be less dogmatic about the term “free” in FOSS. While QtiPlot offers maintenance contracts as a workaround (https://www.qtiplot.com/pricing.html), I think the present photo-design-publishing scene illustrates the need for a better financial model. Some European governments (France…) appear to be interested, but we need more concrete proposals and commitments for nurturing independent developments.
1 Like
60

What’s dogmatic about it? As in, irrational?

61

While, whenever possible, I avoid software from the usual expensive commercial sources, I’m concerned about a perceived tendency to think that the alternatives should necessarily be free to anyone who doesn’t want to contribute.
Presently, even in “rich” countries, there is a divide between individuals and enterprises who can afford expensive graphics-design-publishing software and those who have to improvise. This kind of software should be available to everyone, but the creators must be able to earn a living and recruit the best talent.

Furthermore, creation and healthy competition require a certain level of commerical acumen. There have been several initiatives within the European Union, but I haven’t seen the sort of determination needed to rival “silicon valley”. Desktop Linux should not be regarded only as a solution for public services that can’t afford to renew their equipment. Given current levels of dissatisfaction, notably with the Windows and Android OS, it should be obvious that competition based on different models would benefit everyone.