Time for a new computer....

[paul1149]

There have been issues with my drivers, and therefore my computer would not launch.....so i somehow got it to return to factory settings (i don't remember how) but now it starts and i can get online, etc.

Drivers are within the OS, in this case windows. So it's most likely not an intrinsic hardware problem, and that's born out by it's working now.

 

[brinny]

Drivers are within the OS, in this case windows. So it's most likely not an intrinsic hardware problem, and that's born out by it's working now.

Thanks!!! That is good to know.

 

[Monna]

Hi Brinny,
no one has thought to ask you what you use your computer for ... and what you expect to use the new one for. Just surfing the internet, or just writing ordinary documents, is very different from playing 3D multi-user computer games, or having to do serious geo-statistical analysis. The sophistication of the software for these is different. And then the software may (or may not) need certain hardware specifications. Linux can handle the most of whatever, but different distros have different strengths.

There is also a different mentality with Linux. You can ignore the fundamentalists who have their own special language/terminology, but you can also get a lot of practical advice from "community" help sites on the web. The software itself is "free" but some distros charge for their distros because they package them with support - and you're really paying only for the support. What I can say is that there are zillions of programs written for Linux. And if you weren't aware of it before, Android as used on mobile/cell phones is Google's dialect of Linux. So Linux is really everywhere - including big servers that support Windows and Apple users.

Now-a-days serious hardware providers (speakers, video machines, printers, etc.) provide Linux drivers, and these are often already on the most recent distros, or easily available, so you shouldn't have to worry there.

I have used Ubuntu for years and years, and older distros before it came along. Linux Lite is also good. That doesn't make me a Linux expert, but it does mean I know it does what I want (and I have gone even into geographical information systems and satellite imagery analysis) without insurmountable problems. Just don't expect it to be exactly like Windows (or Apple). If and when I've needed help I've always been able to get it. For a long time I had a dual boot machine (Windows and Linux as back-up). I travelled a lot and met strange and wonderful viruses affecting Windows. In such situations I just booted up on Linux and was able to access my (Windows) files - presentations, word-processing, or spread-sheets - no problem.

Good luck!

 

[HereIStand]

Thank you! i'm looking for a desk top...i notice they have those. I appreciate your response and the link. For your lap top, did you add speakers?

I did not add external speakers. The sound is good with headphones.
Also, I use the LibreOffice with Linux, which works somewhat the same way Microsoft Office does.
PDFs can be viewed Linux as well. The only thing that was a little geeky to set up was the video player capability to play a DVD. But that now works as well.

For me, Linux is much more stable than Windows. No blue screens of death. I still have a newish Windows laptop, but I don't use that often.

If money is no option, then maybe go with a Mac. It's basically Linux underneath with a fancy (and expensive) user interface.

 

[chevyontheriver]

This is an excellent question. The two weaknesses Linux has for some is MS Office and Adobe applications. Some have gotten MS Office to work in Linux using WINE, but I've never tried so I can't comment. I use the free LibreOffice and it does 98% of what I need an office suite to do, and is largely compatible with MS Office file formats. I don't think much success has been had with Adobe products, though.

LibreOffice does everything I need for compatibility with MS Office users. They never know I wasn't using MS Office except when I tell them. LibreOffice is a GREAT product. And free.

Instead of using Photoshop I use GIMP. It does everything I want for simple image manipulation. I don't know how they compare on more complicated things. I have to regularly manipulate brightness and contrast and size. GIMP does that just fine. Once in a while I have to annotate a picture. GIMP does that with ease. YMMV but for me it's no contest. I could spend a lot of money keeping Photoshop up to date or have the latest version of GIMP for free.

WINE is a great product for those who absolutely are required by an employer to use Microsoft and/or Adobe branded products. But most of us don't have that requirement and have found the GNU products work just fine.

 

[brinny]

Hi Brinny,
no one has thought to ask you what you use your computer for ... and what you expect to use the new one for. Just surfing the internet, or just writing ordinary documents, is very different from playing 3D multi-user computer games, or having to do serious geo-statistical analysis. The sophistication of the software for these is different. And then the software may (or may not) need certain hardware specifications. Linux can handle the most of whatever, but different distros have different strengths.

There is also a different mentality with Linux. You can ignore the fundamentalists who have their own special language/terminology, but you can also get a lot of practical advice from "community" help sites on the web. The software itself is "free" but some distros charge for their distros because they package them with support - and you're really paying only for the support. What I can say is that there are zillions of programs written for Linux. And if you weren't aware of it before, Android as used on mobile/cell phones is Google's dialect of Linux. So Linux is really everywhere - including big servers that support Windows and Apple users.

Now-a-days serious hardware providers (speakers, video machines, printers, etc.) provide Linux drivers, and these are often already on the most recent distros, or easily available, so you shouldn't have to worry there.

I have used Ubuntu for years and years, and older distros before it came along. Linux Lite is also good. That doesn't make me a Linux expert, but it does mean I know it does what I want (and I have gone even into geographical information systems and satellite imagery analysis) without insurmountable problems. Just don't expect it to be exactly like Windows (or Apple). If and when I've needed help I've always been able to get it. For a long time I had a dual boot machine (Windows and Linux as back-up). I travelled a lot and met strange and wonderful viruses affecting Windows. In such situations I just booted up on Linux and was able to access my (Windows) files - presentations, word-processing, or spread-sheets - no problem.

Good luck!

Thanks for your response. I mostly use the computer for online, emails, some Word processing, and some games, but not multi-user games, or anything really sophisticated.

 

[brinny]

I did not add external speakers. The sound is good with headphones.
Also, I use the LibreOffice with Linux, which works somewhat the same way Microsoft Office does.
PDFs can be viewed Linux as well. The only thing that was a little geeky to set up was the video player capability to play a DVD. But that now works as well.

For me, Linux is much more stable than Windows. No blue screens of death. I still have a newish Windows laptop, but I don't use that often.

If money is no option, then maybe go with a Mac. It's basically Linux underneath with a fancy (and expensive) user interface.

....hmmmm, there's a problem playing DVD's?

Thanks for the link and the info.

 

[chevyontheriver]

i've had my current computer since 2008, poor thing...i've ran her ragged, and she has put up with a LOT. I'm shocked she's still up n' running. She is graciously letting me know that her time is surely ebbing to an end.

Now if there are hardware failures, a noisy cooling fan, a nasty disk error that persists, it just shuts down after overheating, or something else related to hardware, maybe it is ready to retire with dignity. But it might just need a new operating system. I really would try booting into a Linux CD or USB thumb-drive to see if it works better that way. You can do that for free without actually changing anything on your existing computer until you actually decide to make the change. My guess is that it will probably run OK even on 2008 hardware and you will like it. You can soup up the old computer by maxing out RAM and by replacing your old HD with a SSD. Actually keep the old HD for backup. You might think that you have a whole new computer and for cheap.

 

[brinny]

Now if there are hardware failures, a noisy cooling fan, a nasty disk error that persists, it just shuts down after overheating, or something else related to hardware, maybe it is ready to retire with dignity. But it might just need a new operating system. I really would try booting into a Linux CD or USB thumb-drive to see if it works better that way. You can do that for free without actually changing anything on your existing computer until you actually decide to make the change. My guess is that it will probably run OK even on 2008 hardware and you will like it. You can soup up the old computer by maxing out RAM and by replacing your old HD with a SSD. Actually keep the old HD for backup. You might think that you have a whole new computer and for cheap.

LOL! I appreciate how you've broken it down for me, but i don't have a clue on how i would do any of it or how to start....it sounds wunnerful....i'm just kinda' stymied on where to begin.

 

[chevyontheriver]

....hmmmm, there's a problem playing DVD's?

Thanks for the link and the info.

Depending on the Linux distribution, it might not be able to play an .mp3 without first being tweaked. This is actually a licensing issue, not a technical issue. Some Linux distributions are very purist about their licensing, which is a good thing. But it means you need to do some tweaking if you want to be less pure about it yourself. For Fedora, as an example, there are guides to help you through the post installation process, and it's all very easy to do. You can have music and video to your heart's content up and running in minutes.

 

[brinny]

Depending on the Linux distribution, it might not be able to play an .mp3 without first being tweaked. This is actually a licensing issue, not a technical issue. Some Linux distributions are very purist about their licensing, which is a good thing. But it means you need to do some tweaking if you want to be less pure about it yourself. For Fedora, as an example, there are guides to help you through the post installation process, and it's all very easy to do. You can have music and video to your heart's content up and running in minutes.

Thank you.

 

[Sketcher]

If you want to run Linux and if you want to get it now, you can get away with some slightly older hardware. Personally, I think the AMD Ryzen processors look pretty good, but the Linux kernel literally just got support for their multithreading capabilities in version 4.10. The most recent kernel in a long-term release as of yesterday was 4.9.60 (this can be checked at The Linux Kernel Archives). Since easy-to-use Linux distributions tend to use long term release kernels, that means I'm waiting a bit longer to spring on a new system myself. You can get a new system now, but it doesn't have to be the latest and greatest.

 

[HereIStand]

....hmmmm, there's a problem playing DVD's?

Thanks for the link and the info.

I suspect that it would be less of a problem with a desktop. It may work out-of-the-box with DVD playing. If not, the zareason company can probably help. Or there are instructions online, or I can help. Do you use your computer to watch DVDs now?

 

[paul1149]

LibreOffice, GIMP, WINE

I agree. LO is great for me, now that my macros are written. That wasn't easy due to the basic editor, but for me it's the key to productivity.

I'm not big on the graphics editors, but I now use Krita instead of Gimp, though they're not exactly in the same space.

I use WINE, but the only program it's for is theWord, my Bible program, which he won't port to Linux.

I don't have one paid software on my machine, and it works great. I would not want to go back to Windows. Linux is absent all the MS corruption of things, and gives a simpler user experience, and more stable to boot. It's come a long way and lacks nothing in aesthetics or functionality.

 

[brinny]

If you want to run Linux and if you want to get it now, you can get away with some slightly older hardware. Personally, I think the AMD Ryzen processors look pretty good, but the Linux kernel literally just got support for their multithreading capabilities in version 4.10. The most recent kernel in a long-term release as of yesterday was 4.9.60 (this can be checked at The Linux Kernel Archives). Since easy-to-use Linux distributions tend to use long term release kernels, that means I'm waiting a bit longer to spring on a new system myself. You can get a new system now, but it doesn't have to be the latest and greatest.

Thank you for the info and the links.

 

[brinny]

I suspect that it would be less of a problem with a desktop. It may work out-of-the-box with DVD playing. If not, the zareason company can probably help. Or there are instructions online, or I can help. Do you use your computer to watch DVDs now?

Yes, i use my computer to play CD's and DVD's.

 

[paul1149]

Yes, i use my computer to play CD's and DVD's.

Piece of cake:

 

[brinny]

Piece of cake:
View attachment 211896

Thanks. Does that already load up on the computer when i install Linux?

 

[paul1149]

Thanks. Does that already load up on the computer when i install Linux?

In LL, that's part of a centralized settings manager, something like windows' control panel. They bring a lot of the good things of ubuntu over, and I think this is one. Depending on which linux distro you choose, you have most or all the programs you need already. LL comes with LibreOffice, Gimp, VLC for playing audio/videos, firefox, and a lot more, plus there's an easy installer for another 50 popular programs, and ready access to thousands more.

 

[Sketcher]

Thank you for the info and the links.

You're welcome. Another thing to keep in mind is that you should check to see if Linux will do everything you want to do on the system you get. The newest hardware hasn't been fully tested with Linux yet. Case in point, my current system was brand new once, and I knew I was going to be dual-booting it. I put in a live CD to test it first, it was working to the extent that a live CD will work - Internet, decent graphics resolution, sound. I installed Linux properly, but there was no sound in Linux. Windows had it working fine. As it turned out, the motherboard I used came in two versions, the newer of which corrected an issue that was getting in the way of the sound drivers doing their job. I had the older one.

With older hardware, it's more likely to have been tested and patches or workarounds for such issues are more likely to be available. Definitely do your research before installing Linux yourself, many in the Linux community are helpful but they at least assume that you know how to read the available documentation and Google search for errors before asking a question. They also like specific, relevant information.

If you can purchase a never-been-owned computer with Linux preinstalled on it that is actually supported by who you purchased it from, that is probably your best bet.