If you're even thinking

[iamwhatiseem]

Windows is still the way for gaming. Linux just has too many issues.

I actually have other problems with Linux Mint, too. There are sometimes browser issues as well as video playback problems. I haven't tried Mint 19, though.

Of course, being free helps offset that.

"Linux has too many issues to be a gaming computer"..... just sayin...The Steam Machine is Linux.
It isn't Linux per say that has the problem, it is that there just isn't any real reason for developers on both sides (game makers and linux) to develop a proper foundation for it. Yet.
Linux would make an ideal game machine, due to it's much less demand of memory, and he ability to process 1's and 0's faster with less resources than Windows.
Not to mention Linux's proven CGI capabilities over Microsoft... (all Pixar movies are produced with Linux)
Linus has the muscle and the speed to be better than MS at gaming. But besides Steam, no one has yet gave it a proper go.

How to Play Windows-only Games on Linux with Steam Play - It's FOSS

I have done that actually. My son has Steam. So I installed it on my Mint laptop and have played several games. Not all of them work, especially the heavy-graphic games. But quite a few do work and work well.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Windows is still the way for gaming. Linux just has too many issues.

I actually have other problems with Linux Mint, too. There are sometimes browser issues as well as video playback problems. I haven't tried Mint 19, though.

Of course, being free helps offset that.

"Linux has too many issues to be a gaming computer"..... just sayin...The Steam Machine is Linux.
It isn't Linux per say that has the problem, it is that there just isn't any real reason for developers on both sides (game makers and linux) to develop a proper foundation for it. Yet.
Linux would make an ideal game machine, due to it's much less demand of memory, and he ability to process 1's and 0's faster with less resources than Windows.
Not to mention Linux's proven CGI capabilities over Microsoft... (all Pixar movies are produced with Linux)
Linus has the muscle and the speed to be better than MS at gaming. But besides Steam, no one has yet gave it a proper go.

I don't blame Linux for the problems with games, but it is the current reality. I've had plenty of issues trying to play games on Linux, eventually I just gave up and stuck with Windows for games. There simply aren't enough Linux users for game companies/distributors to see it as financially viable to make Linux versions.

There was a company that gave a good try to build Linux Games...trying to remember the name of the company... I had several of their games and they were great. (Keep in mind this was prolly 10 years ago). Railroad Tycoon was one of them. Civilization was another. The company of course went out of business.

 

[Montrovant]

Windows is still the way for gaming. Linux just has too many issues.

I actually have other problems with Linux Mint, too. There are sometimes browser issues as well as video playback problems. I haven't tried Mint 19, though.

Of course, being free helps offset that.

"Linux has too many issues to be a gaming computer"..... just sayin...The Steam Machine is Linux.
It isn't Linux per say that has the problem, it is that there just isn't any real reason for developers on both sides (game makers and linux) to develop a proper foundation for it. Yet.
Linux would make an ideal game machine, due to it's much less demand of memory, and he ability to process 1's and 0's faster with less resources than Windows.
Not to mention Linux's proven CGI capabilities over Microsoft... (all Pixar movies are produced with Linux)
Linus has the muscle and the speed to be better than MS at gaming. But besides Steam, no one has yet gave it a proper go.

I don't blame Linux for the problems with games, but it is the current reality. I've had plenty of issues trying to play games on Linux, eventually I just gave up and stuck with Windows for games. There simply aren't enough Linux users for game companies/distributors to see it as financially viable to make Linux versions.

There was a company that gave a good try to build Linux Games...trying to remember the name of the company... I had several of their games and they were great. (Keep in mind this was prolly 10 years ago). Railroad Tycoon was one of them. Civilization was another. The company of course went out of business.

The Civilization games are still being made. Probably with a different company. I have one of them on Steam (I think it's III) but haven't tried it yet. I've got so many games sitting around in Steam (and GOG, and Origin, and Ubisoft, and Twitch) I have yet to play, I don't know why I bother ever buying any.

 

[Ringel05]

Where's Blie? We need a dissenting voice, someone to tell everyone how bad Linux is.........

 

[Montrovant]

Where's Blie? We need a dissenting voice, someone to tell everyone how bad Linux is.........

I think the Linux distros I've tried are bad for the average casual computer user, if that helps.

 

[Ringel05]

Where's Blie? We need a dissenting voice, someone to tell everyone how bad Linux is.........

I think the Linux distros I've tried are bad for the average casual computer user, if that helps.

Generally it's not the distro's fault but the fault of the hardware manufacturer. It's not the OS programmer's responsibility to write drivers for every piece of hardware in existence, it's the vendor's responsibility. Heck even Microsoft doesn't write drivers for everything. Other than a couple of printers that weren't HP I've never had an issue with Mint or Ubuntu.
One other issue is many of the "store" brands (Cheap Walmart computers, etc) have hardware that is specific for Windows and nothing one does can get Linux or any other OS to work properly on it.
Generally the most compatible brands are Lenovo, Dell, Acer and many HPs. Brand new (with Win 10 installed) could pose a problem due to the newer hardware and specific drivers that Linux programmers haven't caught up with yet but again that's more often brand specific.

 

[Montrovant]

Where's Blie? We need a dissenting voice, someone to tell everyone how bad Linux is.........

I think the Linux distros I've tried are bad for the average casual computer user, if that helps.

Generally it's not the distro's fault but the fault of the hardware manufacturer. It's not the OS programmer's responsibility to write drivers for every piece of hardware in existence, it's the vendor's responsibility. Heck even Microsoft doesn't write drivers for everything. Other than a couple of printers that weren't HP I've never had an issue with Mint or Ubuntu.
One other issue is many of the "store" brands (Cheap Walmart computers, etc) have hardware that is specific for Windows and nothing one does can get Linux or any other OS to work properly on it.
Generally the most compatible brands are Lenovo, Dell, Acer and many HPs. Brand new (with Win 10 installed) could pose a problem due to the newer hardware and specific drivers that Linux programmers haven't caught up with yet but again that's more often brand specific.

Yeah, I'm not saying Linux is bad, but there are compatibility issues that I don't think the average user would be willing/able to find fixes for. I've spent many hours trying to find answers to various issues with Linux, mostly involving compatibility, but I doubt most people would be willing to do the same. It doesn't help that there are so many Linux distros, making potential help more diluted. Also, too often Linux users seem to expect a decent amount of knowledge when giving answers to questions, which won't help a former Windows or Mac user with little computer savvy. Well, there are also too many Linux users that seem to have a stick up their asses about how much better they are for not using Windows or Mac.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Where's Blie? We need a dissenting voice, someone to tell everyone how bad Linux is.........

I think the Linux distros I've tried are bad for the average casual computer user, if that helps.

Generally it's not the distro's fault but the fault of the hardware manufacturer. It's not the OS programmer's responsibility to write drivers for every piece of hardware in existence, it's the vendor's responsibility. Heck even Microsoft doesn't write drivers for everything. Other than a couple of printers that weren't HP I've never had an issue with Mint or Ubuntu.
One other issue is many of the "store" brands (Cheap Walmart computers, etc) have hardware that is specific for Windows and nothing one does can get Linux or any other OS to work properly on it.
Generally the most compatible brands are Lenovo, Dell, Acer and many HPs. Brand new (with Win 10 installed) could pose a problem due to the newer hardware and specific drivers that Linux programmers haven't caught up with yet but again that's more often brand specific.

Yeah, I'm not saying Linux is bad, but there are compatibility issues that I don't think the average user would be willing/able to find fixes for. I've spent many hours trying to find answers to various issues with Linux, mostly involving compatibility, but I doubt most people would be willing to do the same. It doesn't help that there are so many Linux distros, making potential help more diluted. Also, too often Linux users seem to expect a decent amount of knowledge when giving answers to questions, which won't help a former Windows or Mac user with little computer savvy. Well, there are also too many Linux users that seem to have a stick up their asses about how much better they are for not using Windows or Mac.

It all depends on the user.
To the average user... email, internet browsing and social media - Linux will never give them a problem.
My 82 year old Mother has been using Mint for over 10 years on two different PC's. No issues.
But if you have lots of peripherals - you are going to have to do some digging.
And BTW - most of the hardware you are talking about - itself runs on *nix.

 

[Montrovant]

Where's Blie? We need a dissenting voice, someone to tell everyone how bad Linux is.........

I think the Linux distros I've tried are bad for the average casual computer user, if that helps.

Generally it's not the distro's fault but the fault of the hardware manufacturer. It's not the OS programmer's responsibility to write drivers for every piece of hardware in existence, it's the vendor's responsibility. Heck even Microsoft doesn't write drivers for everything. Other than a couple of printers that weren't HP I've never had an issue with Mint or Ubuntu.
One other issue is many of the "store" brands (Cheap Walmart computers, etc) have hardware that is specific for Windows and nothing one does can get Linux or any other OS to work properly on it.
Generally the most compatible brands are Lenovo, Dell, Acer and many HPs. Brand new (with Win 10 installed) could pose a problem due to the newer hardware and specific drivers that Linux programmers haven't caught up with yet but again that's more often brand specific.

Yeah, I'm not saying Linux is bad, but there are compatibility issues that I don't think the average user would be willing/able to find fixes for. I've spent many hours trying to find answers to various issues with Linux, mostly involving compatibility, but I doubt most people would be willing to do the same. It doesn't help that there are so many Linux distros, making potential help more diluted. Also, too often Linux users seem to expect a decent amount of knowledge when giving answers to questions, which won't help a former Windows or Mac user with little computer savvy. Well, there are also too many Linux users that seem to have a stick up their asses about how much better they are for not using Windows or Mac.

It all depends on the user.
To the average user... email, internet browsing and social media - Linux will never give them a problem.
My 82 year old Mother has been using Mint for over 10 years on two different PC's. No issues.
But if you have lots of peripherals - you are going to have to do some digging.
And BTW - most of the hardware you are talking about - itself runs on *nix.

I wasn't talking about hardware.

There are often software compatibility issues with Linux. Games is the example I'm most familiar with, but it's certainly not the only one.

It does depend on what the user wants to do on the computer.

 

[there4eyeM]

In a small, low powered with W7, would you recommend installing "mint" to replace the os, or always boot from a key?

 

[iamwhatiseem]

In a small, low powered with W7, would you recommend installing "mint" to replace the os, or always boot from a key?

Personally, I would boot from the USB and try it out and see if you like it.
After that I would install it to dual boot, where you choose which OS you want to boot up. That is easy to do with Win 7 and there are numerous follow along youtube tutorials step by step.
That way you still have all of your Windows stuff anytime you want it

 

[Montrovant]

In a small, low powered with W7, would you recommend installing "mint" to replace the os, or always boot from a key?

Personally, I would boot from the USB and try it out and see if you like it.
After that I would install it to dual boot, where you choose which OS you want to boot up. That is easy to do with Win 7 and there are numerous follow along youtube tutorials step by step.
That way you still have all of your Windows stuff anytime you want it

Just remember to keep your hard drive space in mind when you create a dual boot! It's very annoying when you find one or the other boot partitions is too small.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

In a small, low powered with W7, would you recommend installing "mint" to replace the os, or always boot from a key?

Personally, I would boot from the USB and try it out and see if you like it.
After that I would install it to dual boot, where you choose which OS you want to boot up. That is easy to do with Win 7 and there are numerous follow along youtube tutorials step by step.
That way you still have all of your Windows stuff anytime you want it

Just remember to keep your hard drive space in mind when you create a dual boot! It's very annoying when you find one or the other boot partitions is too small.

Nah... that's just for people who have 170 hours of 1080p porn on their machines.

 

[Montrovant]

In a small, low powered with W7, would you recommend installing "mint" to replace the os, or always boot from a key?

Personally, I would boot from the USB and try it out and see if you like it.
After that I would install it to dual boot, where you choose which OS you want to boot up. That is easy to do with Win 7 and there are numerous follow along youtube tutorials step by step.
That way you still have all of your Windows stuff anytime you want it

Just remember to keep your hard drive space in mind when you create a dual boot! It's very annoying when you find one or the other boot partitions is too small.

Nah... that's just for people who have 170 hours of 1080p porn on their machines.

 

[Archit Roy]

We all know that Linux/Linux Mint is very great for codding and simple work, I also recommend this platform for these purposes but never forget that Linux is not for gaming, we cannot do that type of gaming which we can do in windows.

 

[Marion Morrison]

In a small, low powered with W7, would you recommend installing "mint" to replace the os, or always boot from a key?

Personally, I would boot from the USB and try it out and see if you like it.
After that I would install it to dual boot, where you choose which OS you want to boot up. That is easy to do with Win 7 and there are numerous follow along youtube tutorials step by step.
That way you still have all of your Windows stuff anytime you want it

I don't dual boot anymore. Install OS to entire USB or SSD and use platter drives for storage.

For a small, low-powered machine, I'd recommend Lubuntu.

 

[Natural Citizen]

I'm thinking about GNU on my old Getac. The problem is that I just don't trust the intel processor in it, I never was able to get a patch for it. Unsupported, apparently, that's the main reason I stopped using windows,and android, too many computer manufacturers don't support their hardware after a few years, it's ridiculous.

That intel processor pretty much left a back door on the users, millions of them, pretty much every computer using the processors.

I've been using apple products ever since, a least they resolve those problems. Thogh, I donlt particularly care for Mac. I mean, even a screnshot, you have to push three diferent keys, how stupid is that. Andpicture viewing is romper roomish as heck, you cant even flip through your photos without pushing a series of keys, it's amateur.

 

[Marion Morrison]

I'm thinking about GNU on my old Getac. The problem is that I just don't trust the intel processor in it, I never was able to get a patch for it. Unsuported, apparently, that's the main reason I stopped using windows, too many computer manufacturers don't support their hardware after a few years, it's ridiculous.

That intel processor pretty much left a back door on the users, millions of them, pretty much every computer using the processors.

Bah, the patch robs you of CPU power. Forget the patch. I ran those things for years with no problems like that.

PS: What's a "Getac"?

 

[Natural Citizen]

Bah, the patch robs you of CPU power. Forget the patch. I ran those things for years with no problems like that.

That you know of. How would you even know if the flaw in the procesor that left the backdoor open to bypas your security was even being maniplated? It's a big risk.

 

[Marion Morrison]

Where's Blie? We need a dissenting voice, someone to tell everyone how bad Linux is.........

I think the Linux distros I've tried are bad for the average casual computer user, if that helps.

Generally it's not the distro's fault but the fault of the hardware manufacturer. It's not the OS programmer's responsibility to write drivers for every piece of hardware in existence, it's the vendor's responsibility. Heck even Microsoft doesn't write drivers for everything. Other than a couple of printers that weren't HP I've never had an issue with Mint or Ubuntu.
One other issue is many of the "store" brands (Cheap Walmart computers, etc) have hardware that is specific for Windows and nothing one does can get Linux or any other OS to work properly on it.
Generally the most compatible brands are Lenovo, Dell, Acer and many HPs. Brand new (with Win 10 installed) could pose a problem due to the newer hardware and specific drivers that Linux programmers haven't caught up with yet but again that's more often brand specific.

Yeah, I'm not saying Linux is bad, but there are compatibility issues that I don't think the average user would be willing/able to find fixes for. I've spent many hours trying to find answers to various issues with Linux, mostly involving compatibility, but I doubt most people would be willing to do the same. It doesn't help that there are so many Linux distros, making potential help more diluted. Also, too often Linux users seem to expect a decent amount of knowledge when giving answers to questions, which won't help a former Windows or Mac user with little computer savvy. Well, there are also too many Linux users that seem to have a stick up their asses about how much better they are for not using Windows or Mac.

I got real lucky and had an A1 tutor for Linux.

Ended up not using the same distro or desktop he does, I love this install, everything worked right out of the box.

Yeah, the newer one is NOT like that.

Damn shame..I can't even repeat it with a fresh install because all the updates that I got are gone now. I can clone it, though.

Wish I hadn't said that. Now I want to strip a cloned one down of all the accumulated junk and clone it.