Mint KDE who needs windows? I do....

[Jedinovice]

Yeah, I like Mint KDE too.

What's the issue with Office? Libreoffice runs a charm and is Office compatible.

It's weaker than Office in some areas - Spreadsheet is slower (but latest versions are speeding up dramatically) and there's no getting away from the fact that Presentation manager is not as strong as Powerpoint.
But the wordprocessor walks all over Word now and Libreoffice is free, updates come every six months and so you can install the latest rendering to get the latest features.
And no stupid ribbons that eat up half yous screen space! Important with the low spec laptops I have to use.

There are other office suits that can be used as well in Linux, free!

Anything else on your list?

[fraxinus_63]

What's the issue with Office? Libreoffice runs a charm and is Office compatible.

It's weaker than Office in some areas - Spreadsheet is slower (but latest versions are speeding up dramatically) and there's no getting away from the fact that Presentation manager is not as strong as Powerpoint.
But the wordprocessor walks all over Word now and Libreoffice is free, updates come every six months and so you can install the latest rendering to get the latest features.
And no stupid ribbons that eat up half yous screen space! Important with the low spec laptops I have to use.

LibreOffice gets better and better as the months and years go by. I have recently enabled the PPA to add LibreOffice 5.1 to my install of Mint Maya and I am very impressed - not only with very many small refinements but also with the speed boost!

[phd21]

HI "Instigator",

I really love Linux Mint KDE too, and I think the other editions of Linux Mint are wonderful as well.

Running an operating system on a USB flash drive stick works fairly well with Linux Mint, but it would work much faster and better using a regular hard drive, or so much better using a SSD drive, especially for any really intense computing, like games (gaming), or video and audio editing, etc...

Perhaps these links below will help with your games...

[How-To]Running WoT under Ubuntu and any Linux (Perfect Way)
Started by Magyar_Ember_Vagyok, Mar 05 2013
http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php? ... rfect-way/

How to run world of tanks on Ubuntu 14.04, Started by Cybertek_Panda, Nov 14 2015 - 04:29
http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php ... untu-1404/

World Of Tanks WOT
http://worldoftanks.eu/en/content/soft/ ... rams/1311/

World Of Tanks
https://www.playonlinux.com/en/app-1592 ... Tanks.html

*** Install League of Legends on Linux Mint / Ubuntu with Wine, September 29, 2015
https://www.pcsteps.com/5213-install-le ... nt-ubuntu/

In-Depth HOW TO: Install League of Legends in Wine on 64bit Linux (100% Functional)
http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/bo ... ?t=2957372

[Jedinovice]

For your Windows apps you may want to try 'PlayonLinux.'

It helps manage Wine environments. You cab install different versions of wine for different apps. So if you can identify an app that needs a particular rendering of WINE youcan match the two. However, it can eat up disk space a bit to make sure you have room on your system drive.

[Portreve]

what i do with windows..

movies check
chrome/tor check
torrents check
steam check
league of legends check
world of tanks check
ms paint check
notepad check

only thing left to do is sort office and get proper working gaming mouse and keyboard as previous ones crashed system.

Perhaps it's just me, but I don't understand the point of this thread on a GNU+Linux distribution's message board. I mean, if you're driving a benefit from running Windows, then fair enough, but why go around bragging about it here?

[Jedinovice]

what i do with windows..

movies check
chrome/tor check
torrents check
steam check
league of legends check
world of tanks check
ms paint check
notepad check

only thing left to do is sort office and get proper working gaming mouse and keyboard as previous ones crashed system.

Perhaps it's just me, but I don't understand the point of this thread on a GNU+Linux distribution's message board. I mean, if you're driving a benefit from running Windows, then fair enough, but why go around bragging about it here?

I think you have misunderstood. This is, at least I read it this way, as a list of things Instigator does in Windows and is looking to replicate in Linux so that he can move over completely.
He seems to have cracked everything except, of course, certain games in Wine.

BTW, Instigator, user of Atom laptop that I am, gaming is really out of my league, but are there any options in Steam?

[Jedinovice]

With a atom I doubt it, my netbook has a c70 similar power and I can't see that doing much. Hell it strugles with 1080p YouTube video's using flash no chance with html5.

Gaming for me is difficult on a laptop even if it had the abilty.


And yes I was looking to convert completely unfortunately I can't fully but 90% Linux now.

Don't worry! I understand. I ran a c50 last year but the screen started disintergrating (and I got typhoid at the time!) My wife was gracious and bought me this dual core 'Celeron' (it's really an atom) which runs fairly well. But I was video editing on a C50!

Am testing Mint 18 Cinnamon for hardware issues on my single core Atom n455 netbook that I hope I may be able to resurrect.

I don't do online gaming either!

Please tell me you have turned desktop effects OFF in KDE though! They eat up your CPU on minimal hardware.

[Jedinovice]

My netbook runs cinnamon at the moment desktop runs full kde with effects and yes i agree 3.8ghz i5....getting maxed out... Poor 1ghz c70 on a netbook wouldn't stand a chance.

You'll be surprised. Don't know the state of Plasma 5 yet but Plasma 4 has been seriously optimised. Turn of desktop effects and KDE can run on almost anything. I don;t use any other DE> But that's mainly because the KDE workflow suits me - especially the keyboard shortcuts!

Depending on factors such as clock speed, available RAM on the machine, KDE could run OK on your c70 - as long as desktop effects are turned off! Shutting Ballo can help too.

Of course, if you are happy with Cinnamon than no worries. Just pointing out options.
I can't do desktop computing. My machines are always on the move!
But my wife TOOK my Atom n455 with 1GB of RAM from me to run KDE on it because you loved it so much!
Somehow she's managed to wangle it that she gets the 4GB 4 core n2920 machine and I get the lowly 2 ore, 2GB n2840... while I am the power user who dies video rendering. How did that happen?

[Jedinovice]

Women have their ways to get what they want lol

Yea KDE would work on netbook? It's got 4gb ram and i installed a ssd but I'll probably boot from a fast USB. All my installs are on usb at the moment next install ill prob put kde on ssd as I havnt used windows apart from to bench test usbs since I started with Linux. Am going to try cub linux on it aswell as it's only a netbook.

Do you know of any disk benchmarking Linux software? I found one but it wouldnt bench the install usb where as Crystaldiskmark would.

Sure. As long as desktop effects are turned off! Mint 17.0 ran fine on the old single core n455 with 1GB of RAM!
But I recommend dual boot or just run Mint on the netbook and leave Windows on the desktop.

Dunno about disk benchmarking, mind.

[Moem]

I might aswell take it off netbook as it can't run games anyways and even if it could 11inch screen.
Are there any benefits of keeping a windows install on it?

None in my case. My netbook (Lenovo Ideapad S10) runs Mint and nothing else. It's a sweet little travel machine.

[Jedinovice]

I might aswell take it off netbook as it can't run games anyways and even if it could 11inch screen.
Are there any benefits of keeping a windows install on it?

None in my case. My netbook (Lenovo Ideapad S10) runs Mint and nothing else. It's a sweet little travel machine.

Quite. If Windows is just for games and the netbook is not gamesworthy then I say install to HD/SSD!

That way you can REALLY play around!

[phd21]

Hi "Instigator", and others,

what i do with windows..
movies check
chrome/tor check
torrents check
steam check
league of legends check
world of tanks check
ms paint check
notepad check

Maybe I misunderstood the original post as well, I thought this was a check list of things done in MS Windows which they can now do in Linux Mint, thus the "check". FYI, as far as I know (AFAIK), these can all easily be done in Linux Mint; gaming requires the hardware to run them, obviously.

movies check - Numerous Linux programs can easily do this: SMplayer (MPV), VLC, Totem, Kodi(xbmc), etc...
chrome/tor check - You can install Google's Chrome browser on 64-bit, the new excellent "Opera" browser is Chrome Based and can run Chromes extensions & works well on 32 or 64 bit computers, and Tor Browser Bundle works well on all editions.
New Opera browser - download easy install Linux ".deb" file.
(* Recommend removing older Opera 12 first completely, if it is already installed in your system)
https://www.opera.com/download

Tor Browser Bundle Ubuntu PPA
http://www.webupd8.org/2013/12/tor-brow ... u-ppa.html

MintGuide.org links related to this...
https://mintguide.org/internet/33-insta ... a-ppa.html

To install this using the PPA method, open a console terminal, type in, or copy & paste, each line below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/tor-browser
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tor-browser

torrents check - many great Linux torrent clients ("Ktorrent" in KDE is excellent), Deluge, etc...

steam check - "Steam" game system works well on Linux, and gets better weekly...

league of legends check - I never tried, but provided links in previous reply
world of tanks check - - I never tried, but provided links in previous reply

ms paint check - "Kolourpant"***, or "MyPaint" (for graphics tablet), Pinta, and many others
notepad check - NotepadQQ, "CherryTree" (my favorite notes app), and many others notepad and text editors are available, including "Atom".

Apparently, Notepad ++ was rewritten for Linux, and it is called "notepadqq".

How to Install Notepadqq (Notepad++ Text Editor)
http://sourcedigit.com/13031-install-no ... x-mint-17/

From a console terminal prompt, type in each line below one by one, or copy and paste each line below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:notepadqq-team/notepadqq
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install notepadqq

Hope this helps ...

[phd21]

Hi "Instigator",

Yes, they are compatible with Windows files, just like LibreOffice can work with MS office files.

To install the "Tor Browser Bundle", or "notepadqq", use the specific instructions I gave before to install these using the PPA method from the console terminal prompt, it is quick and easy, and you can copy and paste each line one by one from my previous reply. The other programs are available in your Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM). "Ktorrent" is installed by default, but you should add a firewall rule for it, and there is one already available in the firewall. The Opera Browser can be installed using the link I gave you. You can install Chrome from their website. I think it is a very good idea to have more than one browser installed. I have Firefox, Opera, & Tor Browser Bundle installed, and I used to have Chrome installed, until they stopped supporting the older 32-bit computers.

If you use a VPN provider, which I highly recommend, like the low-cost, but excellent "Private Internet Access (PIA)", then you really do not need the Tor Browser Bundle except for some rare circumstance.

Hope this helps ...

[Hoser Rob]

... What's the issue with Office? Libreoffice runs a charm and is Office compatible. ...

Well it isn't 100% compatible and that's enough to justify Windows if you really need Office.

Also, while I don't have any Windows partitions anymore, I'm not a gamer. But if I was I'd still have some Windows. The percentage of games on Steam that run in Linux is very small, and like as not the Linux version doesn't run as well as the Windows one. Either the code wasn't really optimized for Linux, or the system drivers weren't, or both. Steam is a half assed kludge.

I have no windows because I had one partition and it had been so long since I had used it I just did a clean single boot Linux reinstall. But I don't think everyone should ditch Windows either.

[phd21]

Hi "Instigator",

You are welcome, again...

In Windows VLC stands out as the best in my opinion is this the same in Linux?
Never had any reason to use anything other than VLC are there any major features in other Media player's what VLC doesn't have?

I have found that depending on what type of video file you are playing, that certain multi-media players work better than others. A lot depends upon your computer hardware as well. The incredible "VLC" can play most multi-media content from a huge variety of sources, and do many other things with it (streaming, converting, etc...) . But, I find that "SMplayer" does better with some things.

Opera - at the moment I have Vivaldi installed and it's nice Havnt tried Opera. Isn't this based on opera? Wesite states it's made from same people?

I do not know the answer to that. If you are referring to the "Tor Browser Bundle", that is Firefox based. The reasons I stated that it is a good idea to have more than one browser installed is:

- Every now and then an update will come along and mess up a particular browser for a day or more, and then you can use the other browser until they fix it,
- And, if you have more than one person using your computer, then you can each have your own browser with your own settings without having to logout of Linux Mint and in as another user. You can also use user "profiles" with some browsers, like Firefox.
- You can have different settings, bookmarks, etc... in one browser and another completely different set for another browser. Maybe you use one for banking, or some other specific reasons...
- There are some features that are available in some browsers and not in others. "SeaMonkey" has great website building options.

Hope this helps ...

[Portreve]

In Windows VLC stands out as the best in my opinion is this the same in Linux?
Never had any reason to use anything other than VLC are there any major features in other Media player's what VLC doesn't have?

VLC has been my go-to (video) media player since it first appeared on the scene in the early 2000s. I've used it in five versions of Windows, eight versions of Mac OS X, and on untold versions of four or five GNU+Linux distros. For me, it's done a better job than anything else.

That said, it's really not my favorite music player. It does a fine job physically playing the files, but it's too limited and too much of a PITA as a music player. I prefer Banshee and Rhythmbox to it.

[Jedinovice]

... What's the issue with Office? Libreoffice runs a charm and is Office compatible. ...

Well it isn't 100% compatible and that's enough to justify Windows if you really need Office.

True as far as it goes but here's more to it than that. It depends on how complex the document is and I understand that the latest rendering of Libreoffice has improved compatibility drmatically. The toruble is that as son a Libreoffice catches up Microsoft change their file format. But there is also the WPS suite as well.

I generally find I can do everything in Libreoffice. Indeed, we encountered a bug in Office 2010. I would not read end of line markers correctly in Office 2007 files! We had to open the document in Libreoffice in Linux to format the document correctly!

Obviously it depends on what you are doing. If you are using Macros then you are done for. You are locked into Office. If you are using multimedia files in Powerpoint you're stuck. If you are using heavy duty spreadsheet - and I mean really heavy - then you stuck... for now. But Libreoffice is moving fast now having refactored the code. They are now building on features.

But most users don't fall into those catagories above. I actually find Libreoffice faster and easier than Office - hough I never, ever liked the Ribbon. Given what Instigator says are his needs I don't think he has a problem. And we're talking about his C70 netbook here, not his desktop.

In regards to games… I want to be fair to Linux. Steam is major leap forward and there are a LOT of games now and it's increasing by the day. I will grant that the ports are often bad. That's true. So, yes, if one a serious game player on a PC it's Windows or bust. But… at the same time Vulkan is appearing and promises to be a game changer.

But still, we're talking about a C70 laptop here!

[Jedinovice]

Oh the netbook in essence is just a toy.
Useful for basic windows/Linux tasks and websites.

I am looking to resurrect my old n455 netbook.
You'll be stunned by what I have planned for it.

[Jedinovice]

Wow you're on the ball this morning caught me editing lol

What's the plan?

Wait and see. It depends on whether it can be repaired. It needs... specialost treatment.

ark.intel.com/m/products/49491/Intel-Atom-Processor-N455-512K-Cache-1_66-GHz#@product

That's worse than the c70 and the c70 is awful...

Clocks in slower than a 1.2GHz PIII. I know.
And yet... it will not be used as a toy.

[Jedinovice]

What's the issue with it?

When I notice hardware issues as I seem to get a new one every week.....I test in windows and Linux to test if its a operating system problem like if 1 works and other doesn't.

It's hardware. The poor machine has been worked to death. Saved my neck on many an occasion though.
I am seeing if the machine can be made roadworthy again. It's tricky because if I spend any money at all I spend more than the machine is worth. But, also.. I like the idea of taking a single core, minimal machine, and making it do the ;impossible.
I think I have found a way to square the circle at the right cost but I shall say no more for now.