Posted on 05/07/2016 4:41:19 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
Thanks for the instruct, friend. I’m going to do what you suggest.
If I have a question as to whether it’s safe to turn off something, would you mind if I ran it by you via freepmail?
Much appreciated!
yep it’s fine
do me a favor and do a web search on the service in question before posing it to me, it’ll save both of us time
“Is it a difficult task to change from Win 7 to Linux ?”
Close to 20 years ago, I started running Linux as a hobbyist. It was rather difficult and time consuming to learn, so as I replaced my computers, I abandoned Linux and went back to Windows.
When all this controversy with MS forcing upgrades to windows 10, I decided to give Linux another try.
If you have a spare USB flashdrive an easy way to find out if Linux is right for you is to go to https://sourceforge.net/projects/unetbootin/ and download unetbootin. Once you have it, execute it and it opens a dialog to allow you to choose the distribution you want to try. Choose the USB stick as the destination to install the files for the distro you want to try.
I chose Linux Mint 17.2_Live_x64 and was very pleased with it. Unlike the old days, the installation was automatic and found all my hardware without issue.
Once the download is complete and you’re ready to reboot, just do so, and when your computer starts, press the esc key, F8, DEL key, or whatever your particular system requires to allow you to select which OS to start.
Like I said, the installation process is almost completely automatic but most questions are multiple choice. Just choose the ones that apply to you as to timezone, authorization info if you have a wireless connection, etc.
The best part is, doing it this way you never touch your existing Windows system. The Linux OS runs entirely from the files on the USB stick. Any changes you make to the system like screensaver, applications you install, etc last only until you reboot the computer. Once you turn it off, it reboots as if it’s the first time and you start again.
The default installation comes with firefox browser, but if you prefer chrome, you can download and install the appropriate package from google.
In my case, almost everything I do is done in the chrome browser so I can’t really address issues like photoshop and other apps.
If your computer activity is mostly web browsing, Linux is a very good alternative to Windows. Hope this helps.
“do me a favor and do a web search on the service in question before posing it to me, it’ll save both of us time”
Roger that. I wouldn’t think of asking for help on something I can sort out by myself. I very much appreciate the help you’ve already given me.
They did this to me...they prevented me from being able to scan from and print frommy own printer until I did a reboot which they knwe and I knw was going to loand and install Win 10 over my Win 8.1. When it did I got on the chat line and they instructed howto remove with a reboot and other instructions, BUT when it did it totally remove ALL of my already paid for OFFICE 2010 Apps and now I had all the files (mostly Word and Excel) that were worthless. After hours and hours all I could get back was a month fress OFFICE 2016 then $149 or $19.95 per month..a bunch of f’ing thieves...bill and linda of f yourselves...sumbags!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hid behind your gates and do tell us how really great you are giving away our billions and avoid paying txes!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've got two laptops, so I'm downloading Win 10 on one and will try Linux on the other to do a side by side comparison.
Thanks for the help, Brian
It does, except for the part about "difficult and time consuming to learn." ;)
Can I do what you suggest on any old (or new) laptop with Windows in it?
I really don't do much online. Email, a few simple websites, youtube, and a lot of shopping.
:-)
Difficult to learn was 20 years ago. I was amazed when I tried Linux again how simple and intuitive it was to set up. Other than the desktop looking a bit different than it does in Windows, there really aren’t any noticeable differences between the 2 OS’s.
Web browsing is just about all I do and either chrome browser or firefox on Linux will do anything as well as Windows. The advantage with chrome is that flash is built in to the browser which is different than it is in firefox.
I’m a heavy user of youtube and any web site like CNN or any other places we typically go with video works just the same as with Windows.
All of the adblock and noscript utilities are available for Linux too.
If you use a standalone email client (which I don’t), thunderbird is available for Linux. I use yahoo mail from my browser.
Best of all, Linux is historically better on older machines than on new ones, and it’s generally less memory intensive. If your machine runs Windows well, it will run Linux just as good if not better. If it runs like a dog in Windows, it will probably be nominally better in Linux.
Don’t believe all the wonderful claims about Linux, especially about Windows apps running under Wine.
Thank you so much! I have 10 thumbs at this sort of thing but would like to understand better. Just not on my #1 computer. If I can experiment on one of the others, I won’t get into any trouble :D
Damn, I use Asus boards in my builds so....bookmark.
Thanks for posting.
Easy for you to say, you know wth stuff is!
I keep a close eye on the Task Manager but still have no idea what 95% of those programs are.
A while back I noticed the laptop was getting sluggish and Adobe Flash was lingering in the TM even after closing the page it was called up for.
That got me in the habit of watching the TM. I generally see 20 or so background processes and 25 or so Windows processes, including a whole heap of "Service Host" processes. I googled some of these things looking to learn what I could do without, but it's difficult for someone whose specialty is Byzantine history.
Still, I did find that making Adobe Flash a permission-needed program, cured a lot of misery. Just say no!
My task manager, when I’m not running any programs, shows six running processes, two of which are the task manager itself and its UI.
The rest are system processes that must always be running: crsss.exe, winlogon.exe, dwm.exe, and explorer.exe.
Most people don’t have my skills so they’ll need an anti-virus running (I eschew them personally but I have other methods of staying virus-free), so that would be seven, maybe eight if there are two processes for the AV.
Anything more than that is something that probably shouldn’t be running unless you are using it.
I have occasional problem with my browser freezing. Turns out it is the Shockwave plugin crashing. Win7 64 Ultimate here.
bttt
for later
When my old computer with XP finally failed last August, I got a new Dell with Win 7 on it. Guess what - no serial port for my trusty 1996 HP LaserJet 6P printer. I was told to buy a new one and forget about it. I refused and researched the problem. I bought a cable from Amazon with detailed instructions on how to configure and BINGO - my trusty printer is now back in operation.
I take care of printers at work and the 6p is the Honda Civic of printers. I still have a couple running.
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