| General > General Technical Chat |
| Goodbye Windows, Hello Linux [advice needed for a Linux workstation at home] |
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| Circlotron:
--- Quote from: RoGeorge on January 17, 2019, 03:24:47 pm ---It was a big and unpleasant surprise to learn that after more than 20 years, Linux still struggles with multiple displays or video tearing. I know nVidia is not the best choice for Linux, but still, playing a movie without video tearing should've happen without any tinkering by now, yet this was not the case for my setup. --- End quote --- The following fixed the screen tearing problem for me. Using Mint 18.3 Mate --------------------------------------------- NVIDIA Xserver settings app X Server Display Configuration Advanced button Save to X configuration file Show preview Under section "screen" change Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0" to Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceCompositionPipeline = On }" Then save. This will save to /etc/xorg/xorg.conf that previously didn't exist --------------------------------------------- |
| james_s:
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on January 18, 2019, 03:41:55 am ---It is much easier to teach a computer-illiterate person how to use a Linux workstation than a Mac or Windows power user. The latter hate having their hard-won knowledge being useless, and will be miserable using Linux; not only do they need to learn new stuff, they need to un-learn their hard-won old knowledge first. Twice the effort, really. The same applies to using expensive software packages: not being a paying customer does not work for people who need proper customer service to do their job. --- End quote --- That was exactly my situation when Win8 and later Win10 came out. A good deal of my existing Windows knowledge was no longer useful, I found myself having to learn a whole new way of doing things so I started making the transition over to Linux and I haven't really found it to be *that* much harder. I still use Win7 on my daily driver because it's still my favorite OS of all but I'm about at the point where I could use Linux for almost everything. |
| Nominal Animal:
--- Quote from: Halcyon on January 18, 2019, 04:08:22 am ---As someone in that Windows power-user camp, I actually disagree. I found that my knowledge of DOS command line and batch files translated very well into Linux. --- End quote --- In my experience, that group is different to the one I tried to describe. For most who are used to the command line (be that DOS or Unix), they find their knowledge useful in Linux. The batch language might be different, but the underlying logic is the same. I believe they also tend to treat the machine as a modular tool. The minority (in which I include the Mac OS 7.x.x to 9.x AppleScript power-users) has integrated the understanding of the GUI as the real part of the operating system, with the command line as a supplementary tool. They seem to see the machine in terms of the UI, and have difficulty understanding the modular architecture where the GUI is a completely optional part of the system. (A typical example is someone describing everything a script does in terms of what a human might do in the graphical user interface. AppleScript was really geared for that.) --- Quote from: Halcyon on January 18, 2019, 04:08:22 am ---Having taught Linux to users as well, I find those who know DOS/Windows command line will pick up Linux very quickly and are much more comfortable with it than those who just use Windows to play games. --- End quote --- Absolutely agreed. Another group that surprised me was those who had used both Windows and Mac machines for "real work" (I mean, to allow them to accomplish or save them effort in some task, as opposed to having fun). They were already aware of the differences, and instead of learning which buttons to click by rote, had learned the underlying logic of the operations. (As in, "umm, I think there must be a menu here somewhere that lets me change that... oh yeah, that looks like it", rather than getting frustrated because an option is in a different place or under a different name or icon in different systems.) For a similar reason, kids are rather fast at picking up Linux skills. The main reason being they have no prior expectations, and are fully willing to experiment. All you need is a parent that does not try to scare them with "breaking the computer", and someone who shows them useful stuff and explains the ideas if they ask. I've always found laziness a good motivator. When I teach or show a way to efficiently do a particular task, I show how my way saves time and effort. I also explain the conditions when that works, and when it is likely to not work. People rarely want to listen for longer, but if they want, over a coffee or so, I tell them (usually in story form) why it works, and why I chose that solution for now. |
| nctnico:
--- Quote from: NiHaoMike on January 18, 2019, 04:07:13 am --- --- Quote from: Nominal Animal on January 18, 2019, 03:41:55 am ---OP: Do it only if you are willing and able to learn a new tool. If you just need a tool that works like Windows but isn't Windows, don't bother: the switch will just aggravate you. --- End quote --- I think the problem is that the latest version of Windows is not very good, so the only alternatives are to use an older version of Windows that will become unsupported at some point or use some other OS altogether. --- End quote --- I agree. Windows XP (in a VM) is still my go-to Windows. I can't even use Windows 10 because the font anti-aliasing (causing me an instant headache) can't be disabled. |
| Kalvin:
At home I have used Linux Mint (64-bit LTS-version with MATE desktop) as the main OS for quite many years now, and have used Virtualbox to host Windows 8.1 and Windows XP environments for those applications that are not supported by Linux. I have also another Virtualbox for a stable Linux embedded development environment with specific compiler settings etc. At work I am using Windows 10 as the main OS due to company policy, but use Linux Mint inside Virtualbox as my main working environment. The Windows 10 is used only to host Virtualbox and provide connection to the network servers etc. I am also using Microsoft office tools in Windows 10 out of necessity if needed. Both combinations work pretty well with 16 GB of RAM and 8 CPUs. The USB peripherals (like embedded flash-tools etc.) map automagically into Virtualbox very nicely after creating some rules for the Virtualbox. The system with Windows 10 as the main OS has an annoying habit of rebooting from time to time after Windows update process, and thus requires some baby sitting. Other than that the Windows 10 doesn't bother me that much at all. For the best virtual OS performance one may want to allocate at least two CPU cores for each OS running inside Virtualbox. I am not using any applications requiring optimized video performance, so I do not have any suggestions or comments on the video performance. |
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