[SOLVED] Linux Noob

[chuffedas]

I have got myself a bit confused.
I have read loads of stuff and watched a few youtubes. (Have no idea what most of them were saying).

I decided that it is impossible to decide which distro with zero knowledge.
Anyway, I have set aside a drive just for Linux.
I shall pick a distro and go for, say, Cinnamon Mint for example.
Learn that way.

I am sure that I read that there is one main place to go to download things, but now I go to look for it, I seem to find a few different places to download.


Also, can I ask a few noob questions?

1. Where to go to download Cinnamon Mint? (I can't remember if I chose that one for a reason)
2. I have read the TH setting up mint page, thank you. So it is like a fresh install, right? Just like I would windows. So, if I decide on another distro, I would do another fresh install and lose everything on that HDD right? As in I would do a fresh install of a different OS?
3. I currently save my docs on a separate Drive. Can I save my Linux docs to the same drive?

I assume that I partition it and format it with Linux, is that right?

I have only used windows before but am pretty keen to get onto Linux.
The idea being that I have it on a separate drive so that I can play with it for now.

Is there any reason to pick/not pick a certain distro for the standard stuff that I do?
From what I understand, where there is a will there is a way with any of the distros.
I am happy to learn how to do stuff. Thoroughly looking forward to it actually.

I currently use excel and word (I understand that Libreoffice is 'sort of' MS Word/excel compatible, I wouldn't care, but i often transfer docs to people and they will only have Office)

I currently use Lightroom, but as I understand it there is a similar type software available.

I am not a gamer, but i have played an online idle game for years. It is flash based but going to unity. Am I right in thinking I can open a window or something in Linux to play this? Or does it just play in the browser?

Don't worry about telling me the ins and outs right now, I shall follow the directions and have a play. I have just got a bit confuzzled about what I have and haven't read and where I read it.
I just know I read that you can and can't do various things in some distros.

Cheers for this.

 

[AllanGH]

Yes.

1.) https://linuxmint.com/download.php
2.) Yes. Yes. Yes.
3.) Yes.

Yes.

That depends on what you want to do, but go with your choice for now, and you'll learn more about the other distros as time passes and you do your research.

LibreOffice isn't "sort of compatible". It is fully compatible, as you can save documents in dot-whatever-x format.

I have no idea what Lightroom is. You can find this information via Google or DuckDuckGo searches.

Browser-based games are no problem. Some games can be played through WINE. Some games--amazingly--have either Linux binary blobs available, or source code that you can compile on your own.

Have fun with it, and explore to your heart's content.

Having never used windows, I am thoroughly mystified as to why people actually pay as much as they do for it.

 

[chuffedas]

Woo hoo.
Perfect, thank you very much.

Well, I still have windows 7 (which came on a used pc) I use office 2007, so I haven't paid a lot.
But, basically, I didn't even know Linux was a thing until recently otherwise I would have been on to it earlier.

Right I am off to play.
I am freeeeeeeee

Edit: Oh, and Lightroom is RAW photo software.

 

[AllanGH]

Well, if you count the original Freax kernel in the mix, Linux has been a "thing" since 1991; but, GNU Linux, per se, popped-up in 1992. The oldest Distro, Slackware, made an appearance in 1993; and, Debian, the second-oldest Distro, followed hot on the heels of Slackware that same year. By the time Red Hat issued its "Mother's Day Release", in 1995, Linux was what some of considered to be mainstream.

So, yeah, there is a lot of history there.....Oh, the good-old days!

 

[USAFRet]

Having never used windows, I am thoroughly mystified as to why people actually pay as much as they do for it.

The vast majority of people don't "pay" for Windows. It comes included in whatever system they buy, even down to a $175 refurb laptop.

 

[USAFRet]

Lightroom alternative - darktable I've used it, it is very good.

LibreOffice is 'mostly' compatible with MSOffice. Extensive macros and code will have issues. And of course there is no MS Access variant in Libre. But if you just use basic Office tools, no problem.

 

[chuffedas]

Ummm, I seem to have messed up somehow already. I booted from diskto mint, went to see if it would go online. It wouldn't, went to install. Woeked out I didnt know what I was doing, booted back to windows. Now I cant connect to my internet. States no connections are available. What have I managed to change, please? I didn't think I had.

 

[chuffedas]

Well, I have tried a few things. Tested the cables on another pc, rebooted router amd pc, done a system restore back five days. It is like my port is broken or something. I didnt even move my pc. I only opened and closed the cd rom.

 

[AllanGH]

The vast majority of people don't "pay" for Windows. It comes included in whatever system they buy...

OK...perhaps a nit-picky point but, if you buy an OEM system, with a windows pre-load, you are paying for windows--the cost is folded into the total system price.

This has been true since the early '90s when microsoft was enforcing per-processor pricing and cliff pricing on all OEMs and integrators who were granted license to distribute windows at the retail level.

You may not see the price break-out, but you do pay the price.

..even down to a $175 refurb laptop.

A refurb laptop--the hardware itself--already had an OEM license linked to the hardware at the time of original sale; and it is at that time the licensing cost was paid.

A secondary sale carries the original licensing rights as linked to that hardware; so, no....additional licensing cannot be charged for that specific machine, unless the OEM version is dumped and a retail version is installed--the licensing for which would, in all probability, double the cost of that $175.00 refurb machine.

 

[AllanGH]

I can go with 'mostly', given the following clarifications:

...there is no MS Access variant in Libre.

LibreOffice Base has integrated drivers that support multi-user database engines (i.e.: Access, MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, as well as many other JDBC and ODBC compliant databases).
Outside of that, DB Browser for SQLite, nuBuilder Forte, and Kexi are also available.

As stated, Visual Basic for Applications is not fully supported in LibreOffice, as LibreOffice Basic code calls to the LibreOffice API, which has has objects and methods that differ from MSO; so, yes, most macros would have to be re-written--if you used them in MSO--and LibreOffice does provide the LibreOffice Basic IDE editor to facilitate that task.

(Some Excel VB scripts are, however, supported.)

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, you do pay for it as part of the overall purchase.
But its not an actual line item that people notice. They are not paying the $98 retail price as an addon.
And for the vast majority of systems, not something you can uncheck at purchase and get the system cheaper.

And even on a non-refurb cheap system, Windows is 'just there'.
The $175 Transformer I recently bought was only ~$300 new.

Most people neither know nor care what the OS is. Or even what an OS is.

I did an experiment a couple of years ago.
My daughter and friend was staying with us for the summer. I gave them an older laptop to use. Ubuntu installed on it.
After several weeks, I asked her about the OS on the laptop. She didn't really realize the difference. There was a word processor (OpenOffice), 'the internet' was there (FireFox)...everything was just a click away.

For that short period of time, she was in the bubble where it didn't matter.
If she had wanted to play a game, problem.
If there was some complex Excel file from work, problem.

The advantage Windows has over Linux is overall compatibility.
The same thing they have at the office, and the same thing the kids use at school, and the games compatibility. All in one system.
And overall familiarity.


I use both. Host Win systems, and multiple Linux VM's.
A lot of things can be done through the browser, which is mostly OS agnostic. But a lot of things can't.

 

[AllanGH]

The advantage Windows has over Linux is overall compatibility.

OK...I willpick at that one a bit....LOL...the market advantage that microsoft has developed, over time, is sequestering user's data in proprietary formats, which are neither standard, nor Open. I argue that this is not an "advantage", per se, over Linux, which stores user data in open formats.

And for the vast majority of systems, not something you can uncheck at purchase and get the system cheaper.

I actually have; but retailers are resistant to it.

OK....this subject tickles my idealogue button just a little too much, so I'll back away from it, now. LOL

 

[USAFRet]

OK....this subject tickles my idealogue button just a little too much, so I'll back away from it, now. LOL

Agreed.