Microsoft ending Win7 support soon, should I get Ubuntu?

[Halcyon]

Yeah they still are. Big software like Photoshop, Inventor, Adobe Premiere, Davinci Resolve runs well on windows also but the whole ecosystem of apps is mac-centered.

macos is much more refined for this applications. Even something simple as previewing files can be rather frustating on windows.

They're really not. The creative industries have moved on and the days of it being predominantly Apple are long gone. Apple used to do some interesting things like colour space but that advantage has evaporated ages ago.

Having come from a video production background myself, I can say that Windows dominates the video production market, at least in professional circles and this was 10+ years ago. When I worked at Channel 10 in Australia, it was mostly AVID running on HP Workstations connected to large network storage. Yes this stuff runs on Apple as well, but the days of Apple being the hardware platform for creative industries is long gone, it's not the 1990's anymore.

[andersm]

Pressing space in Finder is the feature I miss most by far when working under other OSes.

There are a couple of apps that emulate it on windows

Probably, though the big advantage of having it being a built-in OS feature is that apps can include plugins for their own formats. Where Apple flubbed it is by not having a mechanism for choosing between competing plugins for a specific file format, so you may end up with a less capable one hijacking some file types.

alt-v,h in WInXP search. Win10 Search will automatic show thumbnail if its picture file, no need a single press, if automation is that important.

Finder does thumbnails just fine, that's not what Quick Look is about.

[Electro Detective]

Re: Microsoft ending Win7 support soon, should I get Ubuntu?

YES, but do yourself a favor in the meantime and stay with Win7 for as long as possible

or at least till many users here report it as  'no longer working, easy ransomware receptacle, no startup boot screen, Bios reports no OS found, aka SOL user..'

at an epic future post:  "I'm over Win10    should I try Linux,
or re mortgage the house for a new MAC, 
or just do fresh re-install of Win7, chuck on all the apps, take my chances and just get on with it.."

[james_s]

I've been listening to people shrieking that the sky is falling and ignoring them, updating at my own leisure and running numerous systems with old OS's for more than 20 years and I've yet to ever have one infected by anything other than bundled crapware. I've also spent more time than I care to count cleaning up fully up to date systems for other people that were choking on malware and viruses. Worrying about OS updates to that degree is like reinforcing the front door of your house then leaving it unlocked. By far the most vulnerable attack vector is between the keyboard and chair and I haven't found a way to auto-update that.

Life is a series of calculated risks, many people irrationally obscess over the rarest of those to actually occur.

[Mr. Scram]

I've been listening to people shrieking that the sky is falling and ignoring them, updating at my own leisure and running numerous systems with old OS's for more than 20 years and I've yet to ever have one infected by anything other than bundled crapware. I've also spent more time than I care to count cleaning up fully up to date systems for other people that were choking on malware and viruses. Worrying about OS updates to that degree is like reinforcing the front door of your house then leaving it unlocked. By far the most vulnerable attack vector is between the keyboard and chair and I haven't found a way to auto-update that.

Life is a series of calculated risks, many people irrationally obscess over the rarest of those to actually occur.

As we're cycling the discussion at this point I'd suggest you read it from the post below on. Also note that user error and vulnerabilities are compounding factors.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-computing/microsoft-ending-win7-support-soon-should-i-get-ubuntu/msg2666991/#msg2666991

[Mechatrommer]

Also note that user error and vulnerabilities are compounding factors.

no, user error is a vulnerability. as i said, i have more less secured Win10 users around me, than me and any XP that i can setup (for a moment). if you have impenetrable vault guarded by a fool, it will become penetrable. OS vulnerability is irrelevant.

[capt bullshot]

Yes. Anything but Microsoft and Apple would be fine.

[Mr. Scram]

no, user error is a vulnerability. as i said, i have more less secured Win10 users around me, than me and any XP that i can setup (for a moment). if you have impenetrable vault guarded by a fool, it will become penetrable. OS vulnerability is irrelevant.

That's not the commonly accepted terminology so let's not confuse matters. A vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware or arguably a process. User error is a huge risk but this can be compounded by actual vulnerabilities as the margin for error evaporates. The inverse is also true. The safest user in the world can't defend against a serious vulnerability.

[SiliconWizard]

Linux maybe, why Ubuntu though?

(And... let's start a new flame war )

[AngusBeef]

Linux maybe, why Ubuntu though?

(And... let's start a new flame war )

Run MacOS inside a Windows XP VM inside a Windows 10 VM inside a Linux VM. Superdupermultilayer security policy and you get to keep the close icons on the wrong side of the window. Now we can all win and let this thread die

[FreddieChopin]

PROTIP: Don't screw with partitioning, GRUB or other boot manager crap. It'll alway be a mess.

Buy another hard drive (preferably SSD).
Disconnect SATA cable from your Windows hard drive.
Connect this new HD and install Linux on it.
Reconnect your Windows drive.

If you need to boot into Linux just press F12 during boot and select it.

[malagas_on_fire]

PROTIP: Don't screw with partitioning, GRUB or other boot manager crap. It'll alway be a mess.

Buy another hard drive (preferably SSD).
Disconnect SATA cable from your Windows hard drive.
Connect this new HD and install Linux on it.
Reconnect your Windows drive.

If you need to boot into Linux just press F12 during boot and select it.

One Disk per SO is preferable situation since no grub or uefi will "eat" each other. Had trouble in the past using dual boot where windows by will would overrite the grub or grub would no boot to windows properly after some windows updates.
Go to bios and select which Dist should boot first.

If you dual boot is last resort $$$ be sure to install first windows, resize partition using windows disk manager and then install live using the empty data.  Be sure to have the live handy to repair grub in case of any of bad boot. Also edit /etc/default/grub and change the default Boot entry to either Linux or Windows . To check where they are , type :

Code: [Select]

awk -F\' '/menuentry / {print $2}' /boot/grub/grub.cfg

They are indexed from 0 to last one Just count them.

[james_s]

Linux maybe, why Ubuntu though?

(And... let's start a new flame war )

Ubuntu is certainly not the end-all, be-all Linux distro but it is one of the most polished and best supported ones around so it's what I typically recommend people start with. Mint is also quite polished and targeted directly as people coming from Windows.

By the time you get to where one of the countless other distros might be a better fit for your needs you'll probably know enough to decide that for yourself. This is of course assuming that you're looking for a stable, polished OS to use to run the software you want to use. If the goal is something else then look for something targeting your specific use case.

[techman-001]

Linux maybe, why Ubuntu though?

(And... let's start a new flame war )

Ubuntu is certainly not the end-all, be-all Linux distro but it is one of the most polished and best supported ones around so it's what I typically recommend people start with. Mint is also quite polished and targeted directly as people coming from Windows.

By the time you get to where one of the countless other distros be a better fit for your needs you'll probably know enough to decide that for yourself. This is of course assuming that you're looking for a stable, polished OS to use to run the software you want to use. If the goal is something else then look for something targeting your specific use case.

Actually Mint is now third from the top at https://www.distrowatch.com/ with Ubuntu at number 5.

The most popular distro is  MX Linux           https://www.distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mx

MX is a cooperative venture between the antiX and former MEPIS Linux communities and Debian based.

I have Mx installed on a Thinkpad Laptop and it has been flawless.

Laptops are difficult for any non Windows OS, but MX has everything working from the tiny white LED in the screen that illuminates the keyboard at night to buttons controlling the sound and screen intensity/contrast. Fan, sound, suspend and wake up on lid closure all work.

MX also only installs a Systemd framework for Linux apps that need it without using Systemd itself.

I use *bsd on this Workstation, but Linux is much more polished for Laptops and MX is currently the best of them in my opinion.

[james_s]

I'll add MX to my list of distros to check out. I've been pretty happy with Ubuntu but I'm not married to it.

[AngusBeef]

I'll add MX to my list of distros to check out. I've been pretty happy with Ubuntu but I'm not married to it.

I tried a variety after I was about to get a Dell laptop I was given working... Ultimately settled on Manjaro Linux. I think long term I will prefer Arch Linux when I have the time but the install for Arch took me 3 evenings following a wiki... and I fucked it up. Meanwhile in 5 minutes I got Manjaro running. Manjaro benefits from much of Arch Linux but takes a little bit of the turbo-nerd-Unix-god edge off.

Mint is a branch of Ubuntu is a branch of Debian. Most of Mint's repository seems to be Ubuntu which is always lagging behind. The repositories for Arch/Manjaro (they're the same) are much more current.

Edit: the learning curve for Arch (not Manjaro) isn't just steep, it's literally an overhanging cliff with rocks falling down on your head.

[james_s]

Arch is precisely the opposite of what the typical PC user wants. It's great as as a hardcore learning experience for the masochist but suggesting it to a noob is an almost guaranteed way to put them off Linux forever.

[AngusBeef]

Arch is precisely the opposite of what the typical PC user wants. It's great as as a hardcore learning experience for the masochist but suggesting it to a noob is an almost guaranteed way to put them off Linux forever.

Spot on. But that's where Manjaro is the best of both worlds - it gives you all the awesome of Arch without the masochism

[wilfred]

Trying to figure out what my options are other than buying a Win10 license.

In most cases windows 10 upgrade is still free. You install Windows 10 using ISO, skip entering key at install. Then after it installs and booted, you go to the settings activation window and enter in the windows 7 key. Windows activation then issues you a new win 10 key

If (just for discussion) you found a Win7 desktop on the roadside and found it to be 2.5 times better than your current machine is this one of the free Win10 upgrade options. I'm inclined to convert to an SSD and keep the HD as a WIN7 fallback if I need it for old hardware.  The WIn7 would be definitely offline only.

[AngusBeef]

Trying to figure out what my options are other than buying a Win10 license.

In most cases windows 10 upgrade is still free. You install Windows 10 using ISO, skip entering key at install. Then after it installs and booted, you go to the settings activation window and enter in the windows 7 key. Windows activation then issues you a new win 10 key

If (just for discussion) you found a Win7 desktop on the roadside and found it to be 2.5 times better than your current machine is this one of the free Win10 upgrade options. I'm inclined to convert to an SSD and keep the HD as a WIN7 fallback if I need it for old hardware.  The WIn7 would be definitely offline only.

Assuming it's got a valid Win 7 key then yes. Just read up before you use an SSD as your lone hard drive - it's 100% doable but you may run into an issue booting up if Windows formats the drive incorrectly

[james_s]

I've been running Win7 on SSDs for years on heavily used machines, never had any trouble with that.

[Jeroen3]

Windows 7 can be troublesome on nvme ssd's.

[SiliconWizard]

Windows 7 can be troublesome on nvme ssd's.

Never had a problem with this, but AFAIR, you need to install support drivers that are not part of the base OS, which may the tricky part.
I have a Samsung 960 PRO NVMe, not exactly your entry-level SSD either, but I don't think that matters much. The main point are the drivers. If you're installing WIn 7 from scratch, you need to provide them during installation (there's a specific step for that). If you're just upgrading to an NVMe an existing system, as I did, you need to (in order): 1/ install NVMe support drivers while your machine is still on your old HDD/SSD, 2/ physically install the NVMe drive, 3/ clone your partition(s) to the NVMe, and 4/ optionally remove the old drive/reformat it/do whatever you wish with it.

Failing to install the support drivers BEFORE cloning will render the cloned OS unbootable. You may of course be able to "repair" the cloned system with an install CD, but frankly the above is much simpler.