Warning about HP Laptops - incompatibility with Win 10 Creators Update

[Falconius]

Sorry, I was meaning transferring between Mac & Windows. I'm not sure if Adobe has ever officially supported Linux, though I believe some (probably older) versions of PS run just fine via WINE.

I think if Adobe did support Linux, there would be a not inconsiderable number of people who would swap platforms overnight. I noticed even in the Affinity forums, there were a number of people badgering the admins to offer up a Linux version (they said no, they didn't have the resources).

The problem is OS distribution, and so it's a double edged sword. Linux has about like one or two percent of the market if I recall, mac has what? 5% to 10% maybe? The rest is Windows (of which I think 7 is the biggest by far, I think I recall it being like 54% of the overall market share, Windows 10 is down at Mac levels like 9-10%). In other words it's not necessarily worthwhile to make Linux versions, or keep them up to date, but because of the lack of programs like these people don't move to Linux.

[Mouse]

I don't think I have any adobe software (apart from Reader)

Ok - 16.04 it is - for my private little trial run anyway.

I have 20 GB per month, of which I usually use anything between 16 and 19 for other things, like downloading audiobooks and so on. I can afford to download Linux versions maybe once or twice a month, maybe even 3 times - providing Microsoft don't go and throw another 5 GB update at me at the same time (that's why they've cost me so much, btw - the sheer size of the 'updates', which often fail to download properly and then start all over again the next time I start my machine).

Like John, I want to be free of being force fed updates against my will. I want to be in control of my machine, rather than at the mercy of its operating system, so Linux looks like the only real option, even if I do go and get a much bigger machine one day. By that time I probably won't want to surrender my new freedom.

I'm not entirely sure I know how to make the boot stick. Straf suggested it earlier. I'll go back up the thread and have a look. Something about ISO (presumably not isometric perspective).


I'll wait before I start downloading, in case I have to use a particular version to be able to do this boot stick. I don't want to spend the evening downloading the wrong version in haste.

And, thanks ChickPea - it IS terrifying if all your life you've only ever used Windows from the moment you swapped an Atari for your very first home PC


@Straf - how do I do this boot stick thing?


EDIT: ninjad twice again!

@Falconius - as long as I can use the relatively tiny selection of graphics apps I currently use in Windows, but in Linux instead, I'm so sick of the way things are with Win 10 and my machine that I'm prepared to put up with the lack of apps. Windows is all so big and glitzy, but do I really even look at most of it?

I use about 10 apps, and that's it.

Oh - btw. Can you use Scrivener with Linux?

[johnvanvliet]

Scrivener 3 for apple or Scrivener 1.97 for windows

for windows you WILL!!! need the windows registry part ( the HKEY things and such) using regedit.exe
- so you do not have to buy it again
and copy it into the wine text file version of the ms registry in the correct location

i did this with games a long time ago
the $ 20 to $30 games

however there are equivalent or better programs
i have NOT used these so...
have a look here
http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20...Novelists.html
and
https://itsfoss.com/open-source-tools-writers/

[Mouse]

Cool! Looks like it could be fun just trying each of them out.

Thanks John

[johnvanvliet]

while we are so far off topic
i tend to not like the derivative versions of the main distros
Redhat - great for the office and servers
( Cent and ScientificLinux are the free versions )
Fedora ?? this moves SO fast i do not recommend it to any person that dose NOT like to tinker with c c++ , and python 2 and 3 code
Debian -- great os

for the debian tree Mint and ubuntu
Mint is the preferred

OpenSUSE
SUSE dose it's own thing ,this is what i use along with Cent7 and ScientificLinux 6.8

OpenSUSE is also VERY good for the new user and i do recommend this OS
it is VERY GUI centric a window gui tool for most things

now back on topic

what is your idea for the water ?
leave as is or a light blue saturation

[Mouse]

That's some interesting information - thank you John.

I'm not so sure there's any water in this thread?

[johnvanvliet]

oops i was thinking of your thread here
https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=36803

[Redrobes]

My advice hasnt changed. I use Mint as its like Ubuntu but has a nicer desktop. I think Ubuntu got the message and has backtracked to some extent. Anyway thats by the by. I think Latest Mint with Cinnamon desktop is the easiest to get to grips with as a windows user. The download for it is:

https://linuxmint.com/download.php - pick the Cinnamon 64bit one. That takes you to the mirros list. The Uni of Kent one is usually pretty good. So the final link is this one:

http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/w...amon-64bit.iso

Thats a link to the download of the 18.3 Cinnamon 64 bit ISO file which is the latest at this time of writing.

You need to write that to a DVD rom and boot from it or write it to a USB memory stick and boot from that.

This link:

https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/744

is the tutorial on how to do that. Scroll down a bit to "Using Microsoft Windows". I use Win32DiskImager but they have some other suggestions on how to write an ISO file to a memory stick. But here is the link to Win32DiskImager anyway:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

Once you have written the ISO file to your pen drive (which will completely erase everything else on it...) then it is like a bootable CD rom type deal. So you plug it into the machine and reboot it. If it reboots directly into windows bypassing any option to boot from the USB drive then you need to hit the BIOS and make sure that booting from USB stick is selected as an option and the option is higher prority than hard drive.

If you wrote the ISO to a writable DVD ROM disk then put the disk into the tray and reboot. Again, if the option never came up to boot from the DVD then hit the BIOS up a bit to make sure the DVD drive is selected as a boot option. Normally this is the case but normally booting from a USB pen stick is not the case.

If you get to the point of booting up your machine from the linux OS then you will have the option to try it out as a live session where nothing you do will be saved to the hard drive. The other option is to install it as the whole OS. If you do that then of course you can overwrite the windows completely. So obviously, try it in the live mode and see how you get on for a bit. You will probably find that Gimp is installed by default maybe Krita not so but once you have installed the OS for good then getting it is free and a cinch. And it will be the latest one since both Gimp, Krita, Blender etc all have Linux as the primary development OS.

BTW: Make sure you have essential files backed up to your external USB Hard drive before you start messing about with the machine or BIOS etc.

EDIT: Here is a nice quick 6min YouTube Vid of that process from irish guy who installs Mint 17.3 and uses an app called Rufus to write the ISO file to the memory stick but its the same thing as above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0gLlSIqKwU

[Mouse]

I'm having trouble with the Win 10 System shutting down my broadband when I click 'Post Quick Reply' (I told you it was nuts ), so this won't be anything near as great as the first time I wrote it. The comment didn't have time to autosave here on the Guild server...

Thanks Red

Haven't got a stick/disc with nothing on it, so it may be a couple of days. Really grateful for the explanation. Just have two questions:



Do I have to download the file directly onto the stick/DVD, or can I download it onto my Windows Downloads folder and move it across when I get the stick/DVD? (That may be a couple of weeks)

If I get a stick how big does it need to be?

[Straf]

Redrobes has just about covered it all there. I can't vouch for Mint because I haven't used it but it's something I'm considering for the future.

Mouse I forgot to mention something about desktop environments. With Windows the user interface, the 'windows' bit is fixed. Apart from changing the appearance and applying themes everything is pretty much rigidly integrated into the OS. With basic Linux it's a command line OS and everything is tweakable. If you were so minded you could change things in the source code of the kernel, recompile it and use that instead. You can do that with anything that is open source. It might be convenient to think of it as layers. The kernel is the core, the base layer. The next layer is the other parts of the operating system, the environment, the various files and programs that do stuff behind the scenes. They ask the kernel permission to use memory, to access the interface, to add some things together, and the kernel orders the hardware to ruddy well get on with it. "Chop chop old chap" and all that.

The desktop environment is another layer designed to make the user experience more visual. It tells the operating system what things to change in files or in memory based on how the mouse has moved or what keys have been pressed. This is what things like Cinnamon are about - it's the desktop environment. There are a number of them available and you might encounter things such as Gnome, KDE and the default Ubuntu one called Unity. I've heard that Unity is going to be dropped by Canonical (the company who 'own' Ubuntu) and default back to Gnome. If you decide to choose Ubuntu over mint I'd probably recommend KDE but don't worry because you can choose to download Kubuntu which already has KDE integrated.

Just for the sake of completion the desktop environment actually runs through something called X. That sets out the various protocols for how the desktop environment will behave so that it 'works'. How it looks and feels to the user is down to the individual environment. So X is another layer, just beneath the desktop. X also deals with the graphics drivers for the graphics card. Sometimes X may crash for some reason. It is possible to go to command line and shut it down and restart it without rebooting the PC. One of my favourite terminal commands is XKill - if something crashes and its window refuses to bugger off I open a terminal, type Xkill and the cursor turns into a X, then I click on the window of the offending program and poof! It's gone. Flashing green lights, thunder and a maniacal laugh are optional

Anyway, there are quite a lot of tutorials around on preparing a USB drive for boot. I forgot to add what Redrobes mentioned though - setting a drive up to boot from will overwrite anything on there so make sure you have it backed up. Oh, and if you are running in 'live mode' (i.e. from USB) then you can opt to set up storage on the hard drive for your sessions or even on the USB drive. So when you shut down it isn't lost.