Windows 10 Alternatives for the Linux Beginner

[trents]

I would be lying if I said that I didnt draw inspiration from some of the other threads about Win10 and its many quirks. You know what I think of Win10 I just hate to see folks pass on Linux because of the alien nature of it. The fact is that gaming is the only area where Linux doesnt stand toe-to-toe with Windows (and as I already said, I know that can be a dealbreaker). Anyone who will give just about any distro a chance and a little elbow grease (but really didnt it take a little thinking to get Windows running the way you wanted as well ? ) will find it to be well worth the effort. If anything I could spin conspiracy theories about why gameing is centered on the Windows Club, but that is outside of the point here.

That is simply not true. There are a lot of Windows apps that do not have a good Linux equivalent and especially when it comes to having user friendly interfaces. GIMP, for instance compared to Adobe or Correl. And we haven't even talked about niche apps such as found in the scientific and medical worlds.

But it is true that the open source community is too unfocused. Every group is doing their own thing and the development of apps has suffered from this.

 

[knoober]

There are a lot of Windows apps that do not have a good Linux equivalent and especially when it comes to having user friendly interfaces.

That is a fair statement, but I would counter that Windows apps arent always as intuitive as they would like people to think. I am equally un-eduacated for both sides of the line and wouldnt mind hearing some of the apps you are talking about though. In my personal experience I have been able to find good GUI components to tools that are traditionally commandline utilities. Ive outgrown some of the GUI that I use (firewalls and samba) but others are still making complicated utilities within reach without spending all day reading. I would go so far as to say that many GUI front ends are just training wheels or crutches. Many times the command line offers more powerful options and greater flexibility. I would also like to repeat that Windows isnt all that intuitive or simple either If you have the patience to read about the microsoft managment console, or gpedit, or the registry, then you can have a quality experience on the Linux side as well.

GIMP, for instance compared to Adobe or Correl. And we haven't even talked about niche apps such as found in the scientific and medical worlds.

I can neither confirm nor deny this statement but will take your word for it. Ive used GIMP but only for simple things and to me it looks and works fairly equally to photoshop, but I imagine someone who needs it for their job might want to buy the software, or atleast look into an OS that is targeted to such things, as there are distros that cater to certain crowds/users. Ubuntu Studio to name one, is loaded with software for music and video production. I really couldnt say if these are robust enough for professional use.

 

[Jarhead7236]

extremely late to this discussion (I've been out) but my rig is going to primarily be a photo editing rig...I've heard GIMP is fair enough from others but I am interested in Ubuntu Studio...since I haven't used Ubuntu since 04-05'ish (probably later than that...idk...and it was very limited experience as I was new to it...), I really don't have a good idea about which would be the best in my case.

 

[knoober]

extremely late to this discussion (I've been out) but my rig is going to primarily be a photo editing rig...I've heard GIMP is fair enough from others but I am interested in Ubuntu Studio...since I haven't used Ubuntu since 04-05'ish (probably later than that...idk...and it was very limited experience as I was new to it...), I really don't have a good idea about which would be the best in my case.

Not to late at all ive actually had this thread on my mind lately, but aside from setting up a few larger VMs to test games on i really cant think of what else to do. But i can answer ykur question a little...

GIMP reminds me of an older version of photoshop with atleast all the basic abilities and features. Im not photoshop literate beyond basic stuff though.

Ubuntu Studio is a distro Ive used a bit for audio editing and has a full compliment of tools for both audio and graphics. Check out ubuntustudio.org to see all of them. The default desktop environment is XFCE (i think), so lightweight and fast to respond. Full access to the Ubuntu Repos, but I am not certain what the package manager is (probably XFCE default).

Others that i have looked at recently that might strike your fancy are Fedora Design Suite and Apodio. I didnt spend long with either one but Apodio was set up out of the box to be reminiscent of a Mac (just in looks, it is still Linux/Ubuntu under the hood) and had a larger set of software pre-installed (both audio and video).

Beyond that GIMP is installable on every distro i can think of so you are free to pick from just about any one that you like. From my understanding, not much (if anything) is different under the hood of the custom audio/video distros except perhaps some fine tuning that I probably wouldnt understand.

Hopefully some others will chime in also, but be sure to post back if you have any other questions and ill give it the good old "college try"

 

[Jarhead7236]

Not to late at all ive actually had this thread on my mind lately, but aside from setting up a few larger VMs to test games on i really cant think of what else to do. But i can answer ykur question a little...

GIMP reminds me of an older version of photoshop with atleast all the basic abilities and features. Im not photoshop literate beyond basic stuff though.

Ubuntu Studio is a distro Ive used a bit for audio editing and has a full compliment of tools for both audio and graphics. Check out ubuntustudio.org to see all of them. The default desktop environment is XFCE (i think), so lightweight and fast to respond. Full access to the Ubuntu Repos, but I am not certain what the package manager is (probably XFCE default).

Others that i have looked at recently that might strike your fancy are Fedora Design Suite and Apodio. I didnt spend long with either one but Apodio was set up out of the box to be reminiscent of a Mac (just in looks, it is still Linux/Ubuntu under the hood) and had a larger set of software pre-installed (both audio and video).

Beyond that GIMP is installable on every distro i can think of so you are free to pick from just about any one that you like. From my understanding, not much (if anything) is different under the hood of the custom audio/video distros except perhaps some fine tuning that I probably wouldnt understand.

Hopefully some others will chime in also, but be sure to post back if you have any other questions and ill give it the good old "college try"

thanks...i will look at fedora and apodio...since i'm not sure which windows OS i'm gonna run, i'm gonna make a dual boot and see how that goes.

 

[Alaric]

If you're working with video Windows 7 has, in my experience, much petter picture quality than Windows 10. It wasn't even close. Windows 10 likes to compress pictures and video and it takes some hunting through settings to get it to leave pictures alone. I never did get video to look decent. Windows 10 is why I'm following this thread, in fact.

 

[Jarhead7236]

i haven't been able to get a single working version to install...with ubunto studio, I get the grub error. with fedora design, I can't even remember...I figured mint would be easy but no...when I first tried Ubuntu way back, it was one and done. :/

 

[Alaric]

Are you trying to build a dual boot? Windows doesn't play nice with Linux, and W10 is the worst in that respect. Try unplugging your Windows drive and installing from a USB drive. Just a thought.

 

[Jarhead7236]

Are you trying to build a dual boot? Windows doesn't play nice with Linux, and W10 is the worst in that respect. Try unplugging your Windows drive and installing from a USB drive. Just a thought.

no dual boot (yet)...just a clean install from usb. i get every error/msg that can comes up in google...i'll kepp plugging away a little longer

- - - Updated - - -

i got the driver error thing when trying to install win7...i'm beginning to feel like the universe is gonna make me buy a dvd drive :/

 

[Alaric]

But...but...DVD drives are obsolete! Just read the tech sites that know everything! LOL. Sorry, I just love picking on omniscient tech gurus. Is your USB drive formatted in FAT32 or NTFS? Linux is FAT only, could that be the issue? I really don't know much about Linux, so I'm guessing here.

 

[knoober]

Check the md5 of your iso. For me this is standard operating procedure with Linux and has fixed the issue in about 98% of problems. The other 2% was fixed by diskpart. First things first though.... Can you boot to the live environment but not install? Or can you not even boot to the OS?

Edit: also what are you using to make your USB installer? There are a few to choose from, but rufus has been pretty bullet proof for about a dozen installs of different flavors of linux

 

[Jarhead7236]

Got Ubuntu 16.04 installed after using nomodeset. Last night's research mentioned it but this morning, I found how to get to it. Phew. Thanks for the help.

 

[knoober]

That same fix will likely work on any similar issues for any OS ending in *buntu. Likely any Debian derivative as well

 

[Jarhead7236]

been playing around in ubuntu studio the last couple of days...gimp and raw therapee seem to be good for my editing purposes. still have LR and Capture 1 Pro on the win7pro side but i'll be spending more time in linux for a while....

 

[||Console||]

I have been playing with Linux more my self , first I installed Ubuntu 16.04 it was a nice desktop experience untill I tried csgo .... It didn't look horrible but the frames were 50-100fps lower than my win10 install the sound seamed like there was a minor delay and mouse movement didn't feal quite right ( this was not in a VM a full install on a older OCZ 60gig ssd)

Now this week I have been playing with Kali distro (formally back track) to play around with air crack and others . Plan on installing a win98 sp2 VM (when I find my cd).

But for gaming I still don't feal that Linux is ready for the masses.

 

[knoober]

first I installed Ubuntu 16.04

I just find Ubuntu to be so damned ugly. Im not trying to say anything about performance or usability. I just find it to be visually revolting. I have no explanation or reason for the instant hate I felt, but it is there and palpable. Every once in a while I wonder if a particular cousin of Ubuntu changed something that I need to make X package work, so I will use it as a baseline. I still hate it though /rant

untill I tried csgo .... rack and others.

If you have the will to try, try one of the distros with PlayOnLinux/Wine preinstalled. The developers may have tweaked something under the hood that makes a difference (they also may not have). I would be curious to hear your results.

 

[||Console||]

I just find Ubuntu to be so damned ugly. Im not trying to say anything about performance or usability. I just find it to be visually revolting. I have no explanation or reason for the instant hate I felt, but it is there and palpable. Every once in a while I wonder if a particular cousin of Ubuntu changed something that I need to make X package work, so I will use it as a baseline. I still hate it though /rant



If you have the will to try, try one of the distros with PlayOnLinux/Wine preinstalled. The developers may have tweaked something under the hood that makes a difference (they also may not have). I would be curious to hear your results.

Kbuntu has a much more "windows" feel to me . All I was really doing is trying to practice using linux as I plan on updateing my nas server to a full linux distro vs free nas that im using now . But I have been having problems getting Plex server to see the mount .

I think when I installed ubuntu it asked me if I wanted to install play on and wine but I will give a different distro a shot this weekend , really the only way I will get more conformable is to just keep messing with it .
I really would like a small cheep netbook to put linux on with no windows as a second boot .

 

[Jarhead7236]

I just find Ubuntu to be so damned ugly. Im not trying to say anything about performance or usability...

another dumb question...can i install another desktop over studio, or am i limited to ubuntu? i'd like to check out some others but like the photo/graphics package in studio.

 

[||Console||]

You should be able to use any desktop that you want

 

[wagex]

But it is true that the open source community is too unfocused. Every group is doing their own thing and the development of apps has suffered from this.

truest statement.
there are a number of projects i been getting information from, there are hundreds and hundreds of git sites with forks of fork of forks of basically the same projects but one person adds this, take that away, next person adds the thing back takes something else away, if all these guys just worked together and made one customizable config for the project that did everything they wanna do or didnt wanna and with the collective minds working together yeah it really wouldnt be that hard and it would make it way easier for someone who isnt quite as good as them (like me) to get the features i want. im learning and able to cobble together my stuff how i want it and im making it work but idk... /endrant lol