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....
You guys who use Mint with Cinnamon (from now on I will only say
”Mint”, but I mean Mint with the Cinnamon desktop every time), I would
like to know a little more about a few details, if you don't mind:
I currently use Ubuntu 14.04 and I have used Ubuntu since 7.04. I was
very impressed by the first version I installed, then even more
impressed for every new version up to 10.10. After that it seems like
the Ubuntu team spied on my. ”Now, let's see what features Johnny
Rosenberg like to use… aha… aha… I see… yes, that one too, ok, let's
remove them!”
So basically everything that I like with Ubuntu is gone now or doesn't
work. Let's asume that I want to give Mint with Cinnamon a go, what
about the following?
In old Ubuntu version, let's say a wrote a Bash script that I intended
to use with FLAC files. That's not too crazy, because I actually wrote
quite a few such scripts…
Now, I want to run these scripts with on FLAC files without too much
effort. I just want to right click a FLAC file, then ”Open with” and
finally just select my script.
To make this happen, in old Ubuntu I could just right click a FLAC
file → Properties → Open with, and from there just enter a command
line manually to reach my script.
This is of course impossible in Ubuntu 14.04. There are methods, but
none of them works. I have edited text files, been fiddling around
with Ubuntu Tweak and other tools, but no success. Nautilus Actions
doesn't seem to work properly anymore and so on. It's possible to use
the Script folder (~/.local/share/nautilus/scripts) but then my script
will be available for ALL kinds of files. Not good.
What about Mint in this case?
I use icons on my desktop. Maybe I shouldn't, but I find it
convenient. I try to have just a few of them, though. Anyway, I want
my icons on certain places and in certain sizes. I size up important
icons, for instance. This works in Ubuntu, but when I logout and then
login again, or restart the computer, all of my desktop icons are the
same size again and placed from up to down, left to right in
alphabetic order…
Does this work properly in Mint?
My Android phone always appear on different places. If I write a
script that will move files to and from my phone, I need to write
special routines to determine where the phone is located. At the
moment it's at ”/run/user/1000/gvfs/mtp:host=%5Busb%3A001%2C006%5D/”,
for instance. I find that annoying and it reminds me about Windows’
silly drive letters, which I also find annoying and… well, silly…
What about Mint in this case? Connecting Android devices that is, I
already know that Mint doesn't use drive letters… :P
Kind regards
Johnny Rosenberg
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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