I want to switch to Linux,but

[Comptech]

So, I am not a fan of Widows 10, still love7 but all good things come to a end. I have been working with windows for 20 plus years but want to try some Linux. Problem is my DOS commands left me along time ago. What is the best Distro for a Win7 user to try. Or better yet to learn. The computer it will go on only needs to connect to wireless network, browse the internet and run a SDRPlay.

 

[Magic Static]

I like Ubuntu

 

[KE4EST]

Yeah Ubuntu is good for a beginner to Linux.
Gives you a GUI kind of like windows.
You can still go in and throw commands at it also as you get your feet wet.
I know some die-hards don't like it because it is a resource hog.
You can always try another distro later on.
Ubuntu will be fine though for what you want to do.

 

[Comptech]

Thanks guys. Wish me luck!

 

[lparsons21]

I don't know enough about SDRPlay, but here's a link to using it on a Chromebook:
http://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-radio-receiver-chrome/

I have a Pixel Chromebook and run Linux on it as well as ChromeOS. I find it a nice mix. Chrome and Chrome apps for most internet related things, Linux for those things not good or available for ChromeOS.


Sent from my App Runtime for Chrome using Tapatalk

 

[fred555]

I know some die-hards don't like it because it is a resource hog.
You can always try another distro later on.
Ubuntu will be fine though for what you want to do.

I use Lubuntu AKA Lightweight Ubuntu. It has a minimal set of resources turned on,
and the gui is less of a hog.
Throw that on a $58 120Gig Crucial BX100 SSD drive from Amazon and you will never go back to Windblows again. Talk about fast boots.

 

[. Raine]

Ubuntu is a good choice and you can install it right alongside your windows too, if you have enough free space on your drive, so it'll dual boot, either windows or Linux. Just download the ISO and burn it to a CD and boot off of it and it'll walk you through the setup. There's a lot of easy to find info on Ubuntu online and a lot of resources for it too.

There's a 32 bit and a 64 bit version, make sure you get the right one for your computer cause it's usually a pretty long download, don't want to have to do it twice!

 

[Comptech]

I did a full install of ubunto 64 and found it ran slow as molasses on my AMD 7860 APU with a x88 chip set and 16 gigs of 2133 memory. Also once I figured out my wireless drivers to install it connected but would drop out continuously. Back to Win 7 for now, but will live boot for awhile to figure out what I am doing wrong. Notice I said I!

 

[fred555]

http://lubuntu.net/

 

[. Raine]

I'd suspect the video as the culprit, but I couldn't really find anything on AMD or Ubuntu's site about that chipset to confirm that, just a suspicion. The specs are definitely above the minimum requirements for Ubuntu, it calls for 2 ghz proc and 2 gb ram. Not at all familiar with that chipset, myself.

 

[mike123abc]

Microsoft has announced plans for the full Linux Ubuntu runtime to be available on Windows soon.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-and-canonical-partner-to-bring-ubuntu-to-windows-10/

Essentially MS is going to be emulating the Linux kernel in windows 10. So, you can run essentially any Ubuntu program on windows.

 

[. Raine]

Microsoft has announced plans for the full Linux Ubuntu runtime to be available on Windows soon.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-and-canonical-partner-to-bring-ubuntu-to-windows-10/

Essentially MS is going to be emulating the Linux kernel in windows 10. So, you can run essentially any Ubuntu program on windows.

A better option would be if MS just threw away Windows and used Linux.

 

[navychop]

I found Mint to be an easy transition.

 

[harshness]

I heartily recommend Mint. It is a derivative of Ubuntu with some of the pointy bits filed off. There are "LiveCD" versions (ones that run off an optical disc or USB thumb drive) of many Linux distributions if you're concerned about having to install and reinstall distros to evaluate them.

As for Windows and the command line, Microsoft recently announced that they are going to offer the Ubuntu bash shell and many associated utilities (ported by the folks who bring us Ubuntu) to Windows as a "native" environment to attract developers. PowerShell has not been blessed with a firestorm of popularity since its release eight years ago and the Ubuntu capability will bring years of thoughtful development to a platform that hasn't seen much consistency in a long time.

 

[Comptech]

This old brain don't work like it used to, so a live cd is my best bet, just have to take time and relearn and all will be good. I will burn a mint ISO this weekend and try it.

 

[KE4EST]

This old brain don't work like it used to, so a live cd is my best bet, just have to take time and relearn and all will be good. I will burn a mint ISO this weekend and try it.

How are things going with Linux?

Another Thought...
Download Debian-Jessie and then install Cinnamon on top of it.
You will get the option to choose Cinnamon during the install.
This is also a pretty lightweight way to get into Linux.

 

[harshness]

While Jessie has come a long way towards being usable by those who keen on finding things with apt, the downstream distros are a lot more refined about things like finding and adding printers and having standard Internet stuff installed. Display adapters and multimedia still have a ways to go in Debian before they are comfortable enough for the masses.

 

[Jim S.]

Download Debian-Jessie and then install Cinnamon on top of it.
You will get the option to choose Cinnamon during the install.
This is also a pretty lightweight way to get into Linux.

Although Cinnamon is a lot lighter than some window managers these days, it still (the last time I tried it) could be picky about its graphics hardware. I like the Mate (a fork of Gnome 2, since Gnome 3 departed from the traditional look) window manager. It doesn't need hardware acceleration for basic functions.

 

[harshness]

I find Cinnamon to be a lot less persnickety than Gnome. Linux can be a little goofy with some middle-aged nVidia hardware (specifically the hardware that you have to install non-free drivers for) but if the live CD works, you should be good to go.

 

[Jim S.]

But if you don't install the non-free drivers, it should still function as a standard graphics adapter, you just don't get any hardware acceleration, right? My point was that Cinnamon, even though it looks nice and simple, still insists (or did when I tried running it under Virtualbox a few versions ago when the graphics acceleration emulation was buggy) on using hardware acceleration for some reason. Maté doesn't.