Re: [libreoffice-users] Linux alternative help&support

2015-07-18 19:09 GMT+02:00 Tom Davies <tomcecf@gmail.com>:

> Hi :)
> I think this mailing list is often quite helpful about wider issues than it
> is meant for.
>
> This mailing list has been quite supportive of people with questions about
> various versions of Linux.  I really like it when someone who has been a
> huge help to others about technical issues in LibreOffice is then supported
> by others in return.
>
>
> My history with Linux ...
> It took me a few goes before i found which version of Linux suited me
> most.  I'm very much a point&click user so i went with "Gateway" (or
> user-friendly) distros to start with.  Mostly they are all good and so just
> settling with anything is good but sometimes trying a different flavour
> makes things feel more comfortable.
>
> Mageia (formerly Mandriva in the same way that LibreOffice was formerly
> OpenOffice) felt magical to me, fresh from Windows, but i didn't like the
> blues in the default theme at the time.  Wolvix was a really friendly and
> tiny team.  I could imagine meeting them at certain types of gigs and
> enjoying beers and moshing.  But Slackware is not hugely easy for
> point&click users so i tried a few others and settled on Ubuntu as being my
> main distro while still doing a bit more distro-hopping.
>
> Something i really liked was that during that stumbling around
> distro-hopping stage nothing i learned was wasted.  Even just using Wolvix
> and it's excellent installer helped me learn how to use Mageia and others
> better.  The biggest step was from Windows but moving around between
> different distros felt like everything stayed the same except the wallpaper
> and other fairly trivial bits&bobs.
>
>
> Over the last 7-8 years i have accidentally learned a few command-line
> things so i would have to remember to use different names for a few things
> but the basic grammar of the commands remains the same and most of the
> commands are identical in all versions of linux.
>
> I have also accidentally learned how to ssh into remote machines (at least
> ones i've been given passwords for!) to do a bit of systems administration
> on multiple machines at once and i can rsync or scp to rapidly upload stuff
> to the company's web-hosters or between desktops or between servers - all
> with the same commands regardless of which version/flavour of linux they
> use.
>
> I've also learned how to create virtual machines to use Windows inside
> Linux gaining the advantage of Linux solid foundations and minimal use of
> resources to abstract-away some of the typical problems of installing
> Windows.
>
> Plus i would have never learned about powerful tools to clone drives and
> many other things that i would probably never have learned, or that having
> learned once would have to keep relearning new tools in order to keep doing
> the same thing.
>
>
>
> Wine and "Play on Linux" and Crossover and others are all great ways of
> running Windows programs within Linux without needing an extra layer(s) for
> emulators or virtual machines.
>
> Some versions/flavours of Linux can be installed within Windows, such as
> Ubuntu's "Wubi" and Puppy-Linux but that seems to be an odd way of doing
> it.
>
> Using Windows as the base and then having another OS within that either as
> the Wubi or the Puppy-Linux way or inside a virtual machine seems a bit
> weird to me.  Windows is not really a good stable foundation plus it tends
> to be quite heavy in it's use of resources and doesn't have a reputation of
> "playing well with others".  Linux is much stronger on bare-metal so you'd
> be missing some of the key advantages of Linux and really kinda combining
> the worst aspects of both types of OSes.  However, many people have a lot
> of success with it and it might be a good way-in.
>
>
> So, anyway, i hope that people do ask more questions about how to use Linux
> on this mailing list and that we are able to help signpost people to the
> best places to ask questions or even just quickly help directly solve the
> problem.
>
> Regards from
> Tom :)
>
>
>
>
> On 18 July 2015 at 16:00, Gary Dale <garydale@torfree.net> wrote:
>
> > On 18/07/15 04:31 AM, yahoo-pier_andreit wrote:
> >
> > > On 07/18/2015 09:32 AM, Thomas wrote:
> > >
> > > > On 2015/07/18 6:50, Jack Wallen wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Thank you for sharing that, Charles (I'm the author). Glad to know it
> > > > > resonated.
> > > > >
> > > > > Jack
> > > > Thank YOU, Mr. Wallen, for your article.
> > > > Although I know, this does not belong here, just a word.
> > > > I have been trying (STRUGGLING) to move away from MS and get friendly
> > > > with Linux for 7-8 years now!
> > > > So far with little success. Yet, I still keep trying.
> > > many thanks jack, :-)
> > > I'm not an expert, I start to use linux, basically opensuse, in 2000,
> and
> > > I agree with thomas, my son, my sister, my nephews uses linux, but, if I
> > > didn't install it and configure it and solved the problems that rised up
> > > and sometimes continues to pop up, they never started to use linux. too
> > > complicate... :-)
> >
> > The same issue afflicts Windows. It's just that Windows usually comes
> > pre-installed. Having performed a lot of installs of both types, I've
> found
> > the Linux installs to be simpler and a lot faster. Windows may get to the
> > login screen a bit faster but then you've got interminable updates to
> > install with reboots needed between most of them.
> >
> > As for needing assistance, I find a lot more problems cropping up with
> > Windows than with Linux. And yes, most end-users aren't equipped to deal
> > with them but that isn't dependent on the operating system. However
> fixing
> > Windows problems is more difficult and sometimes even fruitless (e.g.
> > Windows Updates that mysteriously fail).
> >
> > I've used Linux pretty much exclusively (except for an income tax program
> > that I haven't got to work in wine) for 18 years. I find Windows to be
> > awkward and limiting. And after looking at Windows 8, it seems to be
> > getting worse, not better.

​Tom, you might want to take a look at Linux Mint (current version 17.2) ;
if you're using a desktop as your main box, I think you will find the GUI -
I personally prefer Cinnamon - far superior to Ubuntu's Unity (Cinnamon
can, of course, be installed on Ubuntu to replace Unity) and the OS is a
dream to use. On my triple-boot machine, it boots (from GRUB), for example,
much more quickly than Windows 8.1 Pro, which I keep around solely in order
to be able to help retirees with their Windows problems. It doesn't
require, as does Windows, that the machine be rebooted just about every
time a minor update is installed, and things like the BSOD simply don't
appear....

So I agree with Jack Wallen - Linux *is* the answer to the question of
alternatives to Windows. I'd disagree with him just a bit when it comes to
«good» and «bad» Windows OSs - the problem with Vista (Windows 6.0) wasn't
the OS itself, which was, in fact, a great improvement over XP (Windows
5.1) - try defragging the same files on the two systems and you'll see what
I mean - but rather that it was released before the manufacturers of
peripherals like, e g, printers, had gotten around to creating drivers that
worked with it, which was a real bummer for consumers. Two years later,
when Windows 7 (i e, Windows 6.1), which amounted to a Vista SP with a
better GUI, was released, those drivers were in place, and everybody, i e,
Windows users, breathed a sigh of relief, Then came Windows 8 (Windows
6.2), a relatively minor upgrade from Windows 7, where the MS leadership
made the disastrous mistake of forcing the Metro GUI on all users. However,
all that had to be done to make the new OS work in a way familiar to
Windows users was to install the lovely little shell program from *Classic
Shell* <http://classicshell.net> , which gave users a GUI almost
indistinguishable from that of Windows 7. I don't know how many retirees we
have saved from throwing their computers out the window by this simple
expedient. In Windows 8.1 (Windows 6.3), Microsoft started a slow retreat
back to the familiar start button, but even here the installation of
Classic Shell was needed to bring relief to users who communicated with
their computers mainly via a mouse/touchpad and a keyboard, rather than
sweeping their fingers over a touch screen. I suspect the same thing will
be true of Windows 10....

The nice thing about LibreOffice, is that it works like a charm with just
about any OS. Kudos to the developers, and to the people at the Foundation
who make their work possible !...

Henri

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