Hello Im a Mac. Well actually im a Windows pc :(

[bandan]

Hello all, a little about myself. Ive been using computer since about 1998. My addiction started with windows 1.11 (used DOS before that) . I dabbled in Linux and I know how to use a shell, but time after time I would go back to reinstalling windows as my OS. In the beginning it was because of the software windows was able to use. One of my favorites was Winrar. After years and years of pirating (hush hush) software, I found 7zip. Wow, winzip sucked, winrar was better, but I stole it, and here is 7zip free to all and works just the same. This was my turning point. I started to replace as much of the software that I normally used with freeware equivalents. After A while I realized I had only about a handful of programs I used on a day to day basis. So switching over to "freeware" or GNU as you guys like to call and it was easy.

So, now Im going to be upfront. The old versions of KDE and such were a pain in the ass to install and the video drivers were always a pain. Graphically I like windows. BUT WOW Ive been looking at MINT KDE screenshots and they are gorgeous!

BUT WAIT! I have XLS files from my job that only Office will open and when Openoffice tries it, it fails! OH NO! WRONG! Ive been looking at the you tube videos of people running VMware and WINE and running windows apps just fine. I will install JUST excel and be good.

sorry for the long HELLO! but im here to nerd out!!!

this the right distro to download linuxmint-9-kde-dvd-amd64.iso

I have a new PC in the mail I hope it will be able to handle running Linux GUI?????


Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

Patriot Viper II Sector 7 Edition 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

ASUS CuCore Series EAH5770 CuCore/2DI/1GD5 Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX

Sony Optiarc DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model AD-7241S-0B LightScribe

CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-750HX 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER

(2x RAID0 OS) OCZ Core Series V2 OCZSSD2-2C30G 2.5" 30GB SATA II & Mini USB 2.0 Port Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN2 CM690 II Advanced Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer

(2x RAID0 STORAGE) Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"

ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler

[tdockery97]

Hello Bandan, and welcome to the Mint community! I have never heard of a PC that will not run linux. The only caveat is that you could have to use proprietary hardware drivers if there are no native drivers in the kernel. But there is nothing wrong with that; I have to use a proprietary driver for my ATI graphics if I want 3D effects. Have fun with Mint.

Tom

[dawgdoc]

Welcome bandan,

WOW what a system.

Try the liveCD on your new computer to check out the Video card, I think you can even run the proprietary video drivers while booted to the live CD, this will let you know if they are viable for you.

Do some checking on installing to RAID, it looks like you have two SSDs in RAID0 for the OS and two 1TB SATA drives for storage. In the past there were problems installing Mint to a RAID, but I seem to recall recent posts that installs to raid had worked.

I have found Open Office to work well with .xls files for me, even with macros to a limited extent. There is an OpenOffice variant, Go-oo, which works better with Excel macros.

Compared with up-stream OO.o, it has better Microsoft binary file support (with eg. fields support), and it will import WordPerfect graphics beautifully. If you are reliant on Excel VBA macros - then Go-oo offers the best macro fidelity too. If you expect your spreadsheets to calculate compatibly, or you get embedded Visio diagrams in your documents, you'll want Go-oo.

The bottom of their download page references both Debian and Ubuntu. I have not used Go-oo myself.

Again, welcome

[bandan]

dawgdoc: good to hear there is a open office alternative. I use xls forms that ADD worked time for my job and in open office they dont seem to add anything its just blank. I dont know much about Excell but I will try your recommendation thanks!

[Oscar799]

Hello bandan,
Welcome to Mint Forum
Just in case you haven't found it yet...
There is a lot of useful information for new and not-so-new users here -> viewtopic.php?f=60&p=302358#p302358
We have a Community site http://community.linuxmint.com/
For real-time help there are IRC channels,open MintMenu>Internet>XChat and you will be automatically connected to #linuxmint-help and #linuxmint-chat
Have fun with Mint