Thread: Goodbye Windows 10

Originally Posted by PhilipA

I just did a PowerPoint where someone brought over some Mac generated Jpegs. What a drama. Got it done in the end as the answer was that she had to change the folder that the jpegs were in before sending them or Iphotos added all this crap.
Regards Philip A

Yesterday I sent an email (from Outlook/Win10) with a photo to a bloke who runs a Mac Pro. He couldn't open the image. Gahhh!

Originally Posted by p38arover

Yesterday I sent an email (from Outlook/Win10) with a photo to a bloke who runs a Mac Pro. He couldn't open the image. Gahhh!

OTOH I have seen someone save a Word file on one version of Windows who could then not open it on another computer with an older version of Windows.

However it opened with no problems on that same computer when it was booted with Linux and running Open Office.

So sticking with Windows is no guarantee that you won't have problems.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

I ditched Windows for the penguin about eight years ago. I have used Mint for the last three or four years, but have looked at others and have varied what desktop I use. The machine I am typing this on uses Mint, with three different desktops available. While a long term KDE user over a variety of distributions, I am currently using Xfce, as the latest KDE is a mess. But try a few and decide what you like.

I quite enjoy the Penguin running on an emulator, but no way would I go there for my main system. Horses for courses I guess.

Originally Posted by p38arover

My wife uses a Mac but it's worse than Linux.

Only for you, Ron. A Mac is a breath of fresh air after dealing with Windoze. MS still think they are the biggest kid on the block, but believe me they ain't. They are old and slow to react. Bloated in fact, just like IBM before them. Heck, don't they still charge $$$ for new OSs they "introduce"? Apple have been giving away their polished, incredibly competent and powerful OS for years. MS can't release a finished version of Windoze at all, and yet they make you pay. Windoze 8, anyone? Vista? Most folk are still using 7. 10 is a disaster, trying to be too smart for it's own good. Who needs touch screen tech for a desktop? Who needs bloated desktop software for a tablet or phone, when Android, or my fave ios, do the job so brilliantly?

Personally, I reckon open source is probably the way forward, but the problems are legion. Which Linux version is best? Who knows? I have Unbutu here on my emulator, and I hate it. I might try Mint, as recommended by JDNSW. But I will still run it on a high end Mac.

Apple has the advantage from the user's point of view that the ecosystem, both hardware and software, is controlled by Apple, meaning that everything tends to work smoothly together. It also has the disadvantage that the ecosystem is controlled by Apple, meaning that Apple can charge what they want to for both hardware and software, and change both in ways that may or may not suit the user whenever they decide to.

One result of this is that Apple products are very difficult to justify for anyone with competing demands on a limited income, but also means that innovation and fixes will tend to lag compared to open source.

Of course, it can be argued that Windows has the worst of both worlds - Microsoft controls the software, but not completely, as most applications are third party, but has influence but no control over the hardware.

I've been using Mac since the 1990's and try to avoid Windows.

It's hard to explain but Mac does everything with less clicks and mucking around. I can still use Terminal for command prompt but hardly use it.

I currently have a 2010 MacBook laptop and the only issue I'm finding is the battery isn't holding charge after 8 years of use. I replaced the battery with one of those $40 eBay batteries last week but it isn't much better.

I've increased the RAM from Apple's max of 4GB to 8GB. I'd like to try out two 8gb cards but it hasn't been a priority.

I've also put in one of those Seagate 2TB FireCuda hard drives and run a partition for Windows 7 so I can run SolidWorks. It copes quite well considering I haven't got a supported graphics card but I hardly do any rendering with it.

I have decided not to upgrade to High Sierra because it cuts out 32 bit applications and also moves from HFS+ to APFS (Apple File System)

I'm also reluctant to buy a new Mac because I can't upgrade the soldered in RAM and SSD. However, I can't upgrade the 2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 duo processor on my Mac so I'll reach a limit eventually!

What I'd like to do is run a 'hackintosh' but it seems very complicated...

Although I find iPhones frustratingly limiting in terms or file storage and reliance on iTunes, I do prefer the ease of use and premium feel. I have been using an iPhone 4 until this year when I upgraded to a second hand iPhone 7 plus. I think it is best to buy Apple products second hand as when the new one comes out everyone has to keep up so they get rid of perfectly good devices.

Originally Posted by LRT

What I'd like to do is run a 'hackintosh' but it seems very complicated...

i've done that before.
very complicated. i never got everything running perfect

Try Xenialpup.

Loads to RAM, no hard drive required. Total package about 330meg. Comes with browser, office suite, file manager, firewall. You can make free upgrades to Libreoffice and Thunar and Xfe via pup store. No constant windows system upgrade nonsense. Save any word processing, spreadsheets, vids, etc to an external drive, and back up to another (obviously ) otherwise one day

The difficult part I find these days in using Linux is finding where computer manufacturers hide the configuration changes in the BIOS so that you can boot something other than windows. Microsoft puts the argument that booting anything other than another windows version is a danger to your current windows set up, so the BIOS configuration from the outset is biased to that point of view. Go to the boot menu. If you see some sort of speed boot then disable it and a hidden menu should pop up. Look for legacy UEFI options you can play with. You may have to search the net for clues for your system on how others have done it.

Buy some new USB sticks ie Toshiba from Woollies, already formated ready to go.

Download Xenialpup iso file from repositories mentioned here Download latest Puppy Linux release.

Download unetbootin for windows here UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads

Open unetbootin. Don't bother telling it the linux version. Point it to your iso file, to USB, to which drive. Let it do its thing and you should end up with an operating system on a stick.

Assuming you have configured your BIOS, fire up machine with USB plugged in, hit the ESC, then F9, select your usb, Xpup should boot.

Like windows, you will need to configure wireless (it hunts for signal and asks for your password), keyboard preferences, time zones, firewall. It will often recommend defaults.

On your first close down you will be asked to assign your personal storage space (on a modern USB choose the max). Anything you change from what is in the standard program package gets stored here, ie if you want to download a different browser, or file manager. If you want to downloading Libreoffice office you will see that it is a very large package and gets its own storage space or sfs suffix.

When you open Xenialpup the second time, go to system/puppy event manager/save session. Set the save interval from default 30 minutes to zero minutes, and tick the 'Ask at shutdown whether to save session or not'. If there are settings you want to save ie in your browser, then make these settings when you boot up, then exit and save. Don't make the settings you want, then muck about with other junk you really don't want to save when the time comes.

Note, Xenialpup is a single person OS, and you are administrator or root. You can set a password if you wish but the designers say it is not necessary.

I rarely use windows now. If you're a gamer then by all means, but I'm not.

We inherited two Mac laptops from the father in law who now has dementia. His academic work and adventures are all locked up in Clarisworks. Thank goodness that Libreoffice keeps legacy file types so we can open Clarisworks docs. He was not really adventurous in terms of managing his computers, but relied on the Apple Shop for help with system issues. The reason he had two Macs? The original one kept dropping internet connections - told it's broken and buy a new one - when we got the computers my son noticed the issue in the older machine and traced it down to a network protocol change and now works perfectly. We have a few spare mini drives, one with windows, and another with Lubuntu. Pull the Mac disk and choose another OS...