An average day with Linux Mint...

[chrisuk]

...Debian Edition 2, as it happens.

I thought it might be interesting to see what we all use Linux for - I know for some of us, it's our only OS. I'm guessing some might think it's all Web browsing and programming... but it's obviously not. What follows is an average day for me on the Computer, and what software I use to accomplish it - this isn't all I do on the Computer by any means, but it is what I do each day:

• Check and reply to email - (Thunderbird)
• Browse sites and forums - (Firefox)
• Download TV episodes for my Wife and/or family (not telling you )
• Convert TV episodes to a format recognised by our Standalone Bluray/DVD Players (Avidemux or just mkvtools to do a codec copy... mkv to mp4)
• (I'm an amateur Wildlife Photographer and take many pictures each day) - Copy pictures from SDHC Cards and delete those that are no good - crop the ones that are worth the effort (Photofiltre... using Wine)
• Backup the new pics to external drives (Grsync)
• Back up complete OS to external drives (Timeshift)*
• Apply any Updates (safe to do now that I've backed up everything)
• Restore OS that was screwed by the updates (Timeshift) It doesn't happen often, but it only takes a few minutes when it does
• Edit pictures that I consider are worth uploading to various sites/forums (Photoshop CS2... using Playonlinux/Wine)
• Last check in forums

*The backup of my system could be scheduled, but I'm old (60+) and like to force myself to remember things each day (long story). I've also not got a robot to swap the many external hard drives I use.

Incidentally, years ago my photography was less important, and I spent many hours programming (started with 6502 assembler on the Commodore 64), but now I only code when I need to automate something repetitive (For example: these two lines of code convert an .mkv to .mp4 and change the file extension

Code: Select all

toconvert=$CAJA_SCRIPT_SELECTED_URIS
mate-terminal -x avconv -i $toconvert -codec copy $(basename $toconvert .mkv).mp4

so why type it when I can put it in a Caja script etc )

[Lysander666]

Well, seeing as you have posted this in the Chat About Linux rather than Chat About Linux Mint forum, I will discuss my day-to-day use of Linux in general. I run Debian Jessie, but use it for the same things I used to use Mint for. I have quite a limited use for my computer now I come to think of it. They are primarily and daily:

- Checking and replying to emails [Gmail]
- Browsing sites and posting on forums [Opera]
- listening to music [Spotify, Google Music and Audacious]
- writing reviews/editing papers [Libre office Writer]
- reading acadmic papers [Foxit reader]

These are most of the common uses day to day. Less common but still often are:

- watching shows [done currently through Chromium since it comes with Flash installed which is otherwise broken and not fixed by the Debian devs]
- gaming [Steam, disliked by many Debian users since it's DRM/proprietary but I don't care]
- simple image editing for photography [Pinta, glitchy in every single Linux distro I've tried]

Most - if not all - of my computer use revolves around music: listening to it, reading about it or writing about it. I wouldn't say that Linux gave me an advantage in accomplishing related tasks in this area over Windows but my recent mistrust of Microsoft and their OSs after 7, dislike of Apple, and my long-term interest in learning about computing led me to using Linux.

[Portreve]

I use GNU+Linux as part of my evil plot to take over the world.

[CaptainKirksChair]

I use GNU+Linux as part of my evil plot to take over the world.

You forgot the obligatory BWAhahahahaha! as you rub your hands together.

[killer de bug]

I do everything I need with my Linux system. Browsing, email, watching videos, reading work papers, coding in R or in Python... The sky is the limit.

[JerryF]

I use GNU+Linux as part of my evil plot to take over the world.

You forgot the obligatory BWAhahahahaha! as you rub your hands together.

+1

[Bolle1961]

Photo / video editing and upload to online photo album / youtube / vimeo
Reading / sending mails
Writing blogposts
Twitter
Browsing (forums, news, whatever)

[Portreve]

I use GNU+Linux as part of my evil plot to take over the world.

You forgot the obligatory BWAhahahahaha! as you rub your hands together.

No, that's Muahahahahahahahahaha. This is important. Get it right.

[Portreve]

An average day with Linux Mint...

Ok, so, a somewhat more serious answer, then.

Muahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Most of what I wind up using my computer for these days is web-related because:
1. I'm on this message board, Google+, Twitter, or Facebook;
2. I just can no longer find a valid reason for using a dedicated email client app;
3. World domination.

I do some amount of page layout work. As my workflow is entirely libre-licensed software and libre formats, it goes something like this:
1. Acquire imagery to be used;
2. Use GIMP to clean up image as needed;
3. Scribus to do all layout-related work;
4. Export finished layout as an SVG;
5. Import the SVG into GIMP to have it render at use-appropriate resolution, crop as necessary;
6. Export as a PNG;
7. World domination.

I also have this nagging thing called a "job" (perhaps some of you folks have a similar monkey occupying space on your back?)
1. 99% of the time, I use LibreOffice Calc to handle the documents we deal in (MS Excel .xls and .xlsx)
2. 1% of the time, I use LibreOffice Writer for MS Word .doc and .docx files.
3. 150% of the time, you guessed it... world domination.

Beyond that, I use VLC for watching videos and DVDs (remember those?), and either Rhythmbox or Banshee for playing music. I also love Sound Converter and EasyTAG, and every third blue moon or so, when I'm not busy with world domination, I might create a video, which I will then do the most basic of editing work using OpenShot.

I guess I sometimes will play some games, but most of the time I'm too busy being away from my desk doing that three-letter-word (or, of course, my other favorite thing) and so I use my computer for absolutely nothing whatsoever.

[killer de bug]

2. I just can no longer find a valid reason for using a dedicated email client app;

Combine several mailboxes in one place.
Use GPG to encrypt the mails before they go into the wild...

[CaptainKirksChair]

No, that's Muahahahahahahahahaha. This is important. Get it right.

Sorry. I didn't get to the last World Domination meeting so I wasn't informed of the change. (My kid needed a ride to work.) And I no longer get the memos. I'm pretty sure my dues are paid up.

[RacerBG]

Here is my day to day list of "personal tasks" in this order:

- Install updates to the OS or trying the latest kernels
- Browsing the internet and this forum, and watching YouTube videos - Firefox
- Playing some GNOME games
- Playing retro games - DOSBox
- Edit pictures - GIMP, Pinta
- Listen to music or watch movies - VLC

[Fred Barclay]

Who says a day in my life is "average"?

So, my Linux use, in order...
1. Update firejail from the latest GitHub source
2. Check for updates
3. Log onto forums and GitHub
4. Check emails
5. If there are bug reports on GitHub I can handle, or a pull request to merge, I handle that
6. If I have time, I'll do a little coding
7. As time allows, browse online for a few minutes
8. A few other things are interspersed randomly, like listening to music with Spotify

...and then it's off to studying/working.

[ColdBoot]

These days, I'm still using my home Linux box for personal pleasure only.

The daily routine consists prevalently of:

- browsing and watching tons of videos on YT and elsewhere
- video editing
- OCR-ing some badly scanned PDFs
- trying to revive some very old and very damaged photographs

[Moem]

I knew this topic felt familiar...
I'll just repeat my answer with a few small edits, because it's mostly still true.

On a daily basis, I use my Mint laptop...

• To browse, read the news, read webcomics, participate in forums, write blog posts
• To fetch, read, write and send email
• To chat, using several protocols like IRC, ICQ and Telegram (all through Pidgin)

And often one or more of the following:

• To create and edit images
• To transfer files with FTP (FileZilla)
• To transfer files to and from the cloud (Dragondisk)
• To play games
• To create and edit documents, including PDFs, and to send them to my printer

And this is the only computer I use.

[chrisuk]

I knew this topic felt familiar...
[...]

Great, just what I needed - confirmation my short term memory is getting worse (Only half-joking, I have no memory whatsoever of starting that thread... everything turns to crap after you reach 60 years of age )

[samriggs]

I do everyhting on it, linux the only OS I use.

email, games, browsing, some IDE's for programming, gimp, krita, mypaint, inkscape, for my main art stuff, scibus for desktop publishing stuff
libre office for other stuff, android studio if I get back into that again, kazam, openshot, audacity, music/videos (vlc) I like it nice and small,
forums, github, etc etc etc

Since it's the only thing I use I do it all on it.
If it can't be done on linux I don't bother with it.

everything turns to crap after you reach 60 years of age

crap I only got a few to go before it all goes to crap, I thought it was bad enough where I'm at now

[BG405]

I have no memory whatsoever of starting that thread... everything turns to crap after you reach

erm 46? it was this thread that reminded me there was a previous one, which I now remember replying in!

Linux Mint is my daily driver. I have an older machine with Puppy and DSL on, plus an old tower with LM17.3 Xfce but I only fire those up once in a blue moon, for testing things; those are also the only two working machines which still have Windows on (dual-boot) which I've mostly kept out of curiosity / for archival purposes or for possible creation of custom USB Linux installers using Rufus, the only program I can think of that I might still need Windows for.