Viewing 31 posts - 1 through 31 (of 31 total)
  • Linux advice
  • neilwheel
    Free Member

    Hello all, I’ve been using a Mac that was going spare but the owner now needs it back. I don’t have much money right now so i’ve bought a re-furbished Lenovo G500 laptop. I’ve perviously used Ubuntu but it was a few years ago now.

    I would like to bin the Windows 8 and install Ubuntu, Elementary or something similar. I will use it for gmail, internet, sketchup and basic boat hull modelling.

    Should I just go with Elementary for this kind of use?
    Is there anything similar to sketchup, in ease of use, for designing systems with moving parts?

    Any advice appreciated.

    dmorts
    Full Member

    Sounds like you’re binning Windows just for the sake of, well, binning Windows.

    I’d stick with Windows as it runs Sketchup and Sketchup is great. There’s no point deliberately making life hard for yourself

    I use both Windows and Linux daily btw

    soma_rich
    Free Member

    I would second dmorts, unless that laptop comes with a tiny SSD HDD. In that case I would probably just have Ubuntu as everything you want will run fine in it.

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    Waderider
    Free Member

    Dual boot. Google it, easy, Windows7 and Ubuntu.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    I’d choose Lubuntu over Ubuntu every day of the week. Unity is terrible IMHO.

    Dual boot. Google it, easy, Windows7 and Ubuntu.

    If you’re going to do this, install Windows first. *buntu recognises a Windows partition and deals with it gracefully, Windows does not return the favour.

    cookeaa
    Full Member

    Try before you… Install?

    Rather than dual booting I have been trying a couple of live disc versions of linux mint, booting from an SD card, on my missus’ creaking HP laptop.

    Much Swifter browsing, all the basic tools I need and I’ve installed libraCAD so I had a basic 2D drawing tool, not really looked at what’s available for 3D modelling yet though…
    Overall it’s not bad and I have found mint 18 mate very easy to install and tweak, cinnamon was a bit much for it and crashed a few times…

    So I have just bought myself a scrapper netbook from fleabay as I wanted something smaller/minimal/more portable l, I will be bunging a cheap SSD in that and trying a full install next…

    seosamh77
    Free Member

    Wouldn’t bother. Linux is rubbish.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Upgrade to windows 10 if you can for free first so that is there when you go back 😉

    integerspin
    Free Member

    I tried freecad, I was quite impressed but had some problem
    with mating parts, so I gave up. I am told onshape is good.
    I installed virtualbox and windows, Solidworks works fine in
    VirtualBox.

    cp
    Full Member

    Upgrade to windows 10 if you can for free

    That option ended some time ago 🙁

    Assuming you don’t like win 8 for the interface then either use a tool to return to windows 7 esque start menus, or finding a cheap windows 7 licence on eBay and installing that would be my choice. Much better software availability than Linux. I’ve sheets find Linux nearly there, but a bit painful.

    Sandwich
    Full Member

    Another vote for Mint here, try it on a USB stick first before installing. My experience was that the GUI was not very helpful when installing to a specific partition but there are lots of plain English guides online. The Mint forum assumes some command line experience that you may not have or be aware of.

    deadkenny
    Free Member

    Still find Linux is a bit rubbish on the desktop and I’ve been checking it out for years. Everything looks like a cheap alternative, and then anything advanced requires getting down and dirty with a shell prompt and config files, shell scripts and a lot of time spent on Linux forums getting frustrated with the superior attitude of sandal wearing Linux geeks, who I find are really not very helpful at all (usual attitude is you have to work it out for yourself. That and the answer is always in man pages. Even if they are hideously ugly, time consuming and painful to read).

    cp – Member 
    That option ended some time ago

    If you are okay with ticking a box saying you use assistive technologies, then apparently it’s still free 😉 . Microsoft aren’t checking.

    http://www.howtogeek.com/265409/you-can-still-get-windows-10-for-free-from-microsofts-accessibility-site/

    Whatever you go for, I would however get off Windows 8, especially if it’s 8.0. Update to 8.1 at least, but 10 is way better. If it’s a 64bit machine you even get the option of Ubuntu bash within Windows (as of the Anniversary Update) 😀

    cp
    Full Member

    anything advanced requires getting down and dirty with a shell prompt and config files, shell scripts and a lot of time spent on Linux forums getting frustrated with the superior attitude of sandal wearing Linux geeks, who I find are really not very helpful at all (usual attitude is you have to work it out for yourself.

    It does ammuse me a little that many folks bash windows because they didn’t change a simple setting or something, but are prepared to isntall linux at rise of getting dirty and waste many hours with linux.

    neilwheel
    Free Member

    Thanks all, I’m a first class luddite, and will probably use this computer for less than most of you use your phones. I definitely do not know how deal with scripts etc.

    The machine is actually on Windows 8.1, it has 1Tb HD, 6 Gb Ram and 2020M 2.4Gb Intel.

    Maybe I just need to relearn how to use a PC.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    It does ammuse me a little that many folks bash windows because they didn’t change a simple setting or something, but are prepared to isntall linux at rise of getting dirty and waste many hours with linux.

    The biggest challenge I’ve had with Linux is whenever you’re faced with something you don’t know (which when you’re starting out is All The Time), when you look it up there’s always like 47 suggested ways to do something. One or two will be the correct way, the bulk will be people debating the correct way and which is superior, and a couple will hose your system in a fashion that you then have to Google the new problem and here we go again.

    I can see why it’s popular on here. It’s the niche OS for people who like arguing about things.

    gofasterstripes
    Free Member

    https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/10/13/1716200/ubuntu-1610-released-ready-to-download

    My 2c – Mint isn’t quite as compatible as it’s quite a hack. Perhaps you might have compatibility issues with CAD software?

    I’d give Ubuntu a spin first.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    And Unity is fine.

    timba
    Free Member

    Linux Mint (LM) is okay and dare I say similar in appearance/use to Windows. If you want an easy life then the software that you add is what LM offers through its Synaptic Package Manager.
    LM is based on Debian and Ubuntu, although I haven’t used either
    You can add software to LM from elsewhere (e.g. downloaded from t’net) but that can be a faff

    Some things that you take for granted in Windows need to be added to LM, e.g. the files needed to access a Windows Phone, but these are available through Synaptic

    Updates are handled through its update manager, which is simple to interpret and use

    retro83
    Free Member

    😆

    If you are going to use Linux as a desktop OS, Mint would be my recommendation. Ubuntu with most of the crap fixed. It’s not a hack either BTW, well any more than Ubuntu is a hack of Debian anyway 😉

    gofasterstripes
    Free Member

    Mint is a very mixed bag of components and is maintained/developed by a small team. I love it to bits and it’s very good for “desktop” use, but if I were to want the widest compatibility I would try with Ubuntu first as it’s a little more likely to work with a wider range of software.

    Just to expand on my comment. YMMV.

    smokey_jo
    Full Member

    There’s also cub Linux, based on Ubuntu, designed to look like Chromium, it’s still based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and has been very stable and fast for me. Just remember to turn off hardware acceleration in chromium

    bob_summers
    Full Member

    To the OP, there are vaious CAD programs native to Linux; whether they are good or not is a bit of a gamble and I haven’t tried any to comment on. But as an example, I use a free accounting package (GNUcash) to run my PAYE etc, and it’s way better than anything proprietary I’ve seen. I prefer the Libre office suite over the MS one. A lot of other things are a real mixed bag.

    If you’re an occasional user, Sketchup is installable in WINE, but it’d be worth dual booting if you’re going to use it a lot.

    Mint is very good these days, but if you install from USB you can try all of the major distros very easily and see what works best for you. If you mount /home on a separate partition when installing (ie where all your documents and photos live), when you want to install a new distro, just format the / partition, so your /home partition is untouched

    chvck
    Free Member

    If you mount /home on a separate partition when installing (ie where all your documents and photos live), when you want to install a new distro, just format the / partition, so your /home partition is untouched

    This! I am a big fan of doing this. I also don’t like unity so I used mint for a good while. I’m now on fedora but I spend a lot of time in terminal, I think it’s a bit less user friendly than most Ubuntu based distros.

    jimwah
    Free Member

    If you just want it to work, pick up Win 7 for £20 off eBay (and an SSD too if you feel the need). I love the concept of Linux, I use Ubuntu Server at work, but for home use I invariably end up getting frustrated with it.

    I actually find Win8.1 bearable, if I invest the initial time in setting up the tiles and use the windows key to jump between screens (but do I use Metro in Server 2012 at work too!)

    bob_summers
    Full Member

    to make things even easier, you can also run:

    apt list –installed

    in a terminal to see all packages you have installed, so you can easily reinstall them on the new distro

    but for home use I invariably end up getting frustrated with it.

    Horses for courses. I dual boot on my MBP and rarely boot into OSX as it’s (for me) frustrating. It’s what you’re used to at the end of the day – I have used Linux almost exclusively, probably since the 90s 😳

    chvck
    Free Member

    If you use windows 10 or anything Linux/osx then learn about virtual desktops. They make window management so much better. I’m not sure how they work in 10 but they are there.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    And Unity is fine.

    Yeah, but according to you, so’s your Passat.

    (-:

    Waderider
    Free Member

    Unity is evolving in the right direction, works nicely now on dual monitors and that does me.

    seosamh77
    Free Member

    linux is painful, just don’t! 😆

    bob_summers
    Full Member

    So you keep saying. How’s it painful? I’m going to stroke my Richard Stallmanesque beard and fondly remember the days of writing my own printer drivers etc etc, but is it really that bad nowadays? The last few machines I’ve installed it on have mostly or totally just worked. Worst I’ve had to fix was remap the screen brightness keys.

    edit: it got to the point a few years back when Ubuntu was so good I installed it on my old man’s PC. I get way fewer “service calls” now than when he had Windows. If you don’t have any particular religious conviction to one OS (I admittedly do), it might be the best of the bunch.

    gofasterstripes
    Free Member

    Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

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