New Microsoft VP consigns the PC to irrelevance

[Anshad Edavana]

No wonder MS is itself becoming irrelevant. MS is making Linux look a lot better.

Honestly speaking, i absolutely hate Ubuntu "Unity" and new "KDE" interface of Fedora. They are not any better than "Windows 8" tile interface. Fortunately, Mint with Mate desktop is still available.

 

[jimbo45]

No wonder MS is itself becoming irrelevant. MS is making Linux look a lot better.

Honestly speaking, i absolutely hate Ubuntu "Unity" and new "KDE" interface of Fedora. They are not any better than "Windows 8" tile interface. Fortunately, Mint with Mate desktop is still available.

Hi there

Linux and its desktop GUI's comes in as many flavours as there are of those delicious curries etc you find on the sub continent -

What's good for one is hideous for somebody else -- that's both its weakness and its strength at the same time -- but I prefer being able to choose the GUI rather than have a single "bog standard" version like windows. This choice however isn't perhaps suitable for corporate enterprises who really need some sort of standardisation / common interface but nothing wrong for Individuals.

These days with plug'n'play and excellent hardware support there isn't a whole lot that Windows can do exclusively although for Linux you have to search a bit to find a decent alternative - and some Windows programs do run on "WINE" without having windows installed. Security is also better to even on the most basic Linux systems.

Still back to the point -- for the first time for ages laptop sales have started to improve again - of course they'll never go back to what they used to be - we all get different digital delivery systems instead of on a single device these days - but some who hoped that a tablet could completely make their PC redundant have been a bit disappointed.

(Things like the SURFACE which when it has a keyboard / mouse attached is really a PC !! nothing wrong IMO with "convertibles" which is perhaps where the market should have gone to in the first place).

Also please tablet and PC makers introduce SCREEN MIRRORING on your next versions -- IMO much more useful than touch and very good for wirelessly connecting to smart TV's etc in conference rooms / remote TV's at home - beats blue tooth also hands down. Mobile phones do this already so the hardware cost should be trivial.

Screen Mirroring is really great for conferences / presentations -- saves messing up with cables / VGA / HDMI cables etc etc.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[McRuff]

HI there

Office 20010 runs on WINE I've got it running 99% OK on OPENSUSE 13.1 -- and will try Linux Mate -- I'm holding off Linux Mate because a new release is just in the offing (end of may) - and once I use an OS as a desktop I don't want to have to make "unpredictable" changes.

Jimbo I take it you are talking about Mint 17? Have you considered the Debian Version

Download - Linux Mint

Being semi rolling you do not need to keep downloading a new DVD every time they update it. And it comes in a Mate version, though it only takes a few minutes to download the other desktops if you want to play with them.

 

[bawldiggle]

Mint-Mate has been suggested on various discussuion threads through this forum.
At the moment Mint-Mate is at the top of my list (to condsider) but now there is a Debian variation in the mix

I want a UI that looks like XP Classic. Win7 with ClassicShell is close-enough good enough for me.

I don't want to go through the pain of downloading various "versions" of Linux, Mint, Debian, Ubuntu, etc ... and installing, to only find they are butt ugly (for me).
Each week/month I receive Linux "news" emails ... and I am gobsmacked at the number of Linux OS' ... 100s.

Once I have rebuilt "the-great-wall-of-China" ... the to-do list is monumental ... I want to experiment with whs' Mint-Mate on a stick, and Jimbo's suggestions in various threads/discussions through this forum.

I have been saving-to-txt-files links, comments and observations ... for many months.
Hopefully will make the Mint-Mate experiment easier when the time comes.

Thank you to all contributors, this thread.discussion has been fascinating since day #1
... a lot of material for my "to-do-list"

 

[essenbe]

Why not set them up in a VM with VMware. It takes about 10 minutes to install it and 10 seconds to delete it if you don't like it. There are a couple of tutorials here on how to do it.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

I might get SHOT for suggesting this on a W7 forum - but with a little bit of shenanigans - so long as you use Custom Toolbars on W8.1 (note W8.1 - forget W8) and can live without the classic start button you can create a Cascading menu system that looks very much like the old XP style - your only concession is that you have to click the toolbar (in this case My Progs) instead of a start Orb.

(The same methodology will actually work in W7) -- my example also shows how to add the Metro apps also to the menu system from the desktop -- W7 doesn't have those though.

The advantage to custom toolbars is that YOU can choose what to have on your menu and how to arrange it.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Hi there

I might get SHOT for suggesting this on a W7 forum - but with a little bit of shenanigans - so long as you use Custom Toolbars on W8.1 (note W8.1 - forget W8) and can live without the classic start button you can create a Cascading menu system that looks very much like the old XP style - your only concession is that you have to click the toolbar (in this case My Progs) instead of a start Orb.

(The same methodology will actually work in W7) -- my example also shows how to add the Metro apps also to the menu system from the desktop -- W7 doesn't have those though.

The advantage to custom toolbars is that YOU can choose what to have on your menu and how to arrange it.

Cheers
jimbo

Actually, several people here use and promote the use of custom toolbars on Win 7. I personally do not like them but I'm in the minority.

 

[Boozad]

Start8 from Stardock has actually made my W8.1 VM partially likeable. And I really do feel dirty saying that.

 

[bawldiggle]

@ essenbe

I don't want to go through the pain of downloading various "versions" of Linux, Mint, Debian, Ubuntu, etc ... and installing, to only find they are butt ugly (for me).

Why not set them up in a VM with VMware. It takes about 10 minutes to install it and 10 seconds to delete it if you don't like it. There are a couple of tutorials here on how to do it.

Where?

I found Found VMware Player - Install and Setup Zorin and VMware Player - Expand Virtual Machine Hard Disk in "V" tutorials ...

Am I close ... ?

 

[Britton30]

Here's another one.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...dvd-usb-use-emergency-backup.html#post2121339

 

[essenbe]

@ essenbe

I don't want to go through the pain of downloading various "versions" of Linux, Mint, Debian, Ubuntu, etc ... and installing, to only find they are butt ugly (for me).

Why not set them up in a VM with VMware. It takes about 10 minutes to install it and 10 seconds to delete it if you don't like it. There are a couple of tutorials here on how to do it.

Where?

I found Found VMware Player - Install and Setup Zorin and VMware Player - Expand Virtual Machine Hard Disk in "V" tutorials ...

Am I close ... ?

Yes. Follow the tutorial for Zorin (which isn't bad) and you can install any distro. The only problem I have is installing the VMware tools for each distro. You probably won't have that problem, but it's worth the effort. Makes everything easy

 

[jimbo45]

Here's another one.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...dvd-usb-use-emergency-backup.html#post2121339

Hi there

works fine for Emergency Backup --but you really need to backup regularly -- I tend to take ONE full backup a week and then nightly run "incremental" backups. So say I want Wednesdays' image -- I restore the full backup from Sunday (I start my cycle on Sundays) and then the incrementals for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. - Then I have my image as of Wednesday evening -- simple.

Even Free backup systems are adding incremental backup features.

If you are happy with any Linux distro it's relatively easy to CLONE any sort of Disk partition (even GPT) by simply using the command line

SUDO dd if=/dev/partition of=/target device bs=16384k conv=noerror,notrunc

Note for largish disks it could take a while but it makes a 100% replica. your input could be say a whole disk (/dev/sda or something similar) or just a partition /dev/sda1)

It's a basic command so if you haven't got any specific backup products this will work FREE !!!

(To check what's actually mounted or known to the Linux OS - including external drives simply type SUDO fdisk -l -- fairly similar to the DOS cmd).

cheers
jimbo

 

[Britton30]

Yeah I knew I shouldn't have posted the Peppermint link due to its title. IT was to show GrayGhost another bootable Linux distro.

 

[bawldiggle]

Maybe this post should be in VMware Player - Install and Setup Zorin tutorial ?

Follow the tutorial for Zorin (which isn't bad) and you can install any distro.

I have opted for VMware Player for personal use.

As per Free for Personal Use section on VMwarePlayer Plus web page.
Download link caption: "download" ... is not very obvious.
​

On the download page Download VMware Player the "Details" imply license key. I assume the home-user version will do everything I need, without a license key, for testing OS's/programs?

If the virtual OS is a Linux OS (distro) ... I assume Wine will be required to test Windows programs/apps ?

The only problem I have is installing the VMware tools for each distro. You probably won't have that problem, but it's worth the effort. Makes everything easy

Would VMware Player need to be replaced (uninstall/reinstall) for each program/OS I test ?

I don't understand the difference between SandBoxie and VMware-Player.
. . . SandBoxie to test Windows programs and VMware-Player to evaluate Linux OSs ?

 

[lehnerus2000]

For those that are interested; Linux Mint 17 (LTS) is now out.

Releases - Linux Mint
​

I don't understand the difference between SandBoxie and VMware-Player.
. . . SandBoxie to test Windows programs and VMware-Player to evaluate Linux OSs ?

Effectively you create as many "PCs" as you want (Windows VMs & Linux Distro VMs) and they exist as directories on your chosen HDD.
You can run as many VMs (Guest OSes) simultaneously as your machine can cope with and they run on your Windows OS (Host OS).

I've never used Sandboxie, but I think it creates some sort of protected envirionment in Windows ("Sandbox") and programs are run from it.

A few hours ago, I created a Linux Mint 17 VM to test the new release (before installing it on my real machine).

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

remember this is an RC - won't be long now before full version comes out.

Been trying this on a VM -- some people report that NVIDIA graphics give problems (as always nothing new there) but works fine with INTEL. Others say sound isn't always working but can't test that until I run it on a physical machine --works fine as a VM.

Note also until the FINAL you won't get any LIVE CD's just yet.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[essenbe]

Jimbo, the release notes say the problems are with Nvidia Optimus systems. But, I'll tell you if it has problems with regular Nvidia cards shortly.


@lehnerus2000, so far what are your impressions of it? I'm downloading it right now. I'll put it in a VM as soon as it finishes. I think I have too many VMs right now to keep up with. Something has to go.

 

[Layback Bear]

I just downloaded it from GrayGoast post.
I have opted for VMware Player for personal use.

It downloaded quick no muss no fuss. Haven't tried it yet.

 

[andrew129260]

I just downloaded it from GrayGoast post.
I have opted for VMware Player for personal use.

It downloaded quick no muss no fuss. Haven't tried it yet.

You will love it. Virtual machines are a lot of fun. Personally I think anyone who is interested in learning more about pcs and operating systems in general should have it installed and use it. It is also very useful to have to test software and the like.

 

[bawldiggle]

My Toshiba has NVIDIA GeForce 315M (graphics card)
Might this be a problem with MintMate ?
From Jimbo's comments (I assume) MintMate is RC not final release ?

@essenbe +1 ... any results yet ?

SPECS:
Toshiba Satellite C665
Motherboard: TOSHIBA Portable PC
Display Adapters: NVIDIA GeForce 315M
OS:= Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit), sp1 (Build 7601) OEM
UI:=Classic Shell Start + Classic Explorer
Windows Indexing = disabled