best linux to replace 10

jenny smith

What is the best linux to have instead of windows 10. I do not like 10. I tried it and it seems i have to log into my email i.e log into MS, before i can use it?
Edit i see local log in is possible
https://askleo.com/how-do-i-switch-back-to-a-local-account-sign-in-for-windows-10/

Still interested in linux to replace 10 . Or has anyone used Zorin?

Fysh

You should give a lot of thought to what you need to be able to do with your computer (including what sort of software you need to be able to run) before you change your OS. There are a lot of fantastic open-source alternatives to existing Windows-based commercial software, but they don't all offer 100% compatibility (e.g. LibreOffice and OpenOffice are both generally good alternatives to Microsoft Office, but they would not be drop-in replacements if you need to use advanced functionality in Access or Excel).

You should also do a bit of research into whether your hardware is supported fully - most likely it is, but issues can sometimes arise around devices like touchpads or wireless adapters.

As for Zorin - I've not used it, but I have seen some similar distributions which offer "colocated-installs" of Linux. If it suits your requirements it may be a viable solution, but I'm always concerned about any OS vendor claiming their OS offers things like "no risk of getting viruses". If you do decide to go down that route, I'd suggest trying out the side-by-side option rather than wiping your Windows install immediately - Zorin uses Wine for its Windows application compatibility, which is good but should not be assumed to be 100% reliable.

jenny smith

Fysh wrote: »

You should give a lot of thought to what you need to be able to do with your computer (including what sort of software you need to be able to run) before you change your OS. There are a lot of fantastic open-source alternatives to existing Windows-based commercial software, but they don't all offer 100% compatibility (e.g. LibreOffice and OpenOffice are both generally good alternatives to Microsoft Office, but they would not be drop-in replacements if you need to use advanced functionality in Access or Excel).

You should also do a bit of research into whether your hardware is supported fully - most likely it is, but issues can sometimes arise around devices like touchpads or wireless adapters.

As for Zorin - I've not used it, but I have seen some similar distributions which offer "colocated-installs" of Linux. If it suits your requirements it may be a viable solution, but I'm always concerned about any OS vendor claiming their OS offers things like "no risk of getting viruses". If you do decide to go down that route, I'd suggest trying out the side-by-side option rather than wiping your Windows install immediately - Zorin uses Wine for its Windows application compatibility, which is good but should not be assumed to be 100% reliable.

Thanks for that advice. Much appreciated

me_irl

Is it possible to rollback your machine to 7 or 8/8.1?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/instantanswers/1235b5b0-bf94-4b77-9cbd-1c1a8337070c/going-back-to-windows-7-or-windows-8.1

But yeah, a dual boot might be preferable to get used to using Linux.

I've been distro hopping ubuntu (debian) based OS's. (Mint, Lubuntu, Crunchbang and now using Peppermint 7) I'm still an amateur, but you pick up a lot... and each distro usually has a great Package Manager that you can install applications from.

+1 for LibreOffice as an alternative to MS Office.

jenny smith

me_irl wrote: »

Is it possible to rollback your machine to 7 or 8/8.1?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/instantanswers/1235b5b0-bf94-4b77-9cbd-1c1a8337070c/going-back-to-windows-7-or-windows-8.1

But yeah, a dual boot might be preferable to get used to using Linux.

I've been distro hopping ubuntu (debian) based OS's. (Mint, Lubuntu, Crunchbang and now using Peppermint 7) I'm still an amateur, but you pick up a lot... and each distro usually has a great Package Manager that you can install applications from.

+1 for LibreOffice as an alternative to MS Office.

it is a different pc i have win 10 on. i have win 7 on another one.

me_irl

jenny smith wrote: »

it is a different pc i have win 10 on. i have win 7 on another one.

Ah, ok.

I'd try a few distros first to see which you'd prefer.

It's a case of downloading the ISO, then using Unetbootin to "burn" it to a usb and booting from that.

So, when the machine is powering up, tap F12 (depending on your machine) to go in to the boot options menu.

jenny smith

me_irl wrote: »

Ah, ok.

I'd try a few distros first to see which you'd prefer.

It's a case of downloading the ISO, then using Unetbootin to "burn" it to a usb and booting from that.

So, when the machine is powering up, tap F12 (depending on your machine) to go in to the boot options menu.

Thanks
Will photoshop work in linux?

me_irl

jenny smith wrote: »

Thanks
Will photoshop work in linux?

It's not supported, but you could try using WINE to run it.

More here: https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=17

You could try an alternative (namely GiMP... yes that's its name!). Depending on your requirements / comfort with PS.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-photoshop-alternatives-can-run-linux/

Fysh

GIMP is a surprisingly versatile raster image editor, I think the main issue people have (or at least used to have) with it in comparison to Photoshop is the difference in UI structure and layout. This has improved in recent years, but I recall there being a project called something like GIMPShop whose whole focus was rebuilding the UI to be more familiar to Photoshop users.

If you're looking for a (less powerful) vector alternative to Illustrator, Inkscape's pretty decent.

grogi

jenny smith wrote: »

What is the best linux to have instead of windows 10. I do not like 10. I tried it and it seems i have to log into my email i.e log into MS, before i can use it?
Edit i see local log in is possible
https://askleo.com/how-do-i-switch-back-to-a-local-account-sign-in-for-windows-10/

Still interested in linux to replace 10 . Or has anyone used Zorin?

Don't reinvent the wheel and just install Ubuntu.

grogi

jenny smith wrote: »

Thanks
Will photoshop work in linux?

Is you have bought Photoshop, don't play with Linux on your own.
Any day of not-working will cost you a lot...

Ursus Horribilis

Jenny, I am a Windows 10 and a Zorin user. I like Windows 10 and I've not encountered that msn problem you've got. Can you not roll it back to Windows 7 if you dislike it so much? Or just create a new user account and don't tick whatever it is you ticked that made it want to tie you into msn. Or just set up an outlook.com email address and be done with it?

The laptop I use as a second computer has Zorin on it. I put Zorin onto it because it's built to be like Windows. The laptop is old and not too powerful - in other words, I had nothing to lose by trying out some distros. I also tried Linux Mint and Ubuntu but went back to Zorin in the end. I'm glad I switched because the laptop runs better on Linux than it ever did with Windows. But - and this is a big but - I would be very slow to recommend it to you as your main machine. For basic tasks (e.g. internet, email, listening to music or watching video) it's much of a muchness when you compare it to a Windows machine. But once you get into more complex things such as trying to get a program such as Photoshop to work...well that's in the lap of the gods. I have a handful of Windows programs running using Wine but they're not particularly complex .I also had a lot of trouble trying to get the wi-fi working on the laptop - there seems to be incompatibility issues. In the end, after spending a few hours trawling websites and trying all sorts of different commands in Terminal, I gave up and bought a Plugable wireless dongle off Amazon.

If you're a newbie like I am, Linux is not an operating system you'll want to get in under the bonnet of. I'm old enough to have used DOS commands so it's not as if the Terminal is alien to me. But if you end up wanting to do anything at all that's off the beaten track, you will find yourself running Terminal and typing/pasting commands that start off with sudo a lot. The people on Linux websites talk geek and that's not my language. Not to the extent they speak it anyway.

Also, getting peripherals to work with Linux can be tricky. You'll not have any trouble plugging in bog standard USB memory sticks or portable hard disks. But if you want to try and get a printer or a scanner to work with it...well it might work. Then again maybe it won't. Even back to the wireless issue I mentioned earlier - I tried using a wireless dongle I had in a drawer here. It didn't work. It also wasn't too clear from looking online whether other wireless dongles would be compatible. I specifically went for a Plugable one because some research told me their products work with Linux.

By all means try it out - you can run it off a DVD without installing anything - but be very careful you're not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Especially if you're asking questions about Photoshop. Gimp is an acquired taste and even though it's powerful in many ways, it's not Photoshop. You might also run into similar problems with other software. Wine runs Windows software but it's a mixed bag. Some programs run very successfully but others don't work properly. When it comes to Linux's own software, some of it will be familiar to you if you use open source software. Other software needs to be paid for - I've not bought anything to date so I can't comment on how good or bad it is.

Best 5

Fysh wrote: »

GIMP is a surprisingly versatile raster image editor, I think the main issue people have (or at least used to have) with it in comparison to Photoshop is the difference in UI structure and layout. This has improved in recent years, but I recall there being a project called something like GIMPShop whose whole focus was rebuilding the UI to be more familiar to Photoshop users.

If you're looking for a (less powerful) vector alternative to Illustrator, Inkscape's pretty decent.

There are plenty of themes nowadays for GIMP that will make it look exactly like Photoshop. GIMP is great for hobbyists that want to touch up photos but PS is king when it comes to productivity.

jenny smith

Ursus Horribilis wrote: »

Jenny, I am a Windows 10 and a Zorin user. I like Windows 10 and I've not encountered that msn problem you've got. Can you not roll it back to Windows 7 if you dislike it so much? Or just create a new user account and don't tick whatever it is you ticked that made it want to tie you into msn. Or just set up an outlook.com email address and be done with it?

The laptop I use as a second computer has Zorin on it. I put Zorin onto it because it's built to be like Windows. The laptop is old and not too powerful - in other words, I had nothing to lose by trying out some distros. I also tried Linux Mint and Ubuntu but went back to Zorin in the end. I'm glad I switched because the laptop runs better on Linux than it ever did with Windows. But - and this is a big but - I would be very slow to recommend it to you as your main machine. For basic tasks (e.g. internet, email, listening to music or watching video) it's much of a muchness when you compare it to a Windows machine. But once you get into more complex things such as trying to get a program such as Photoshop to work...well that's in the lap of the gods. I have a handful of Windows programs running using Wine but they're not particularly complex .I also had a lot of trouble trying to get the wi-fi working on the laptop - there seems to be incompatibility issues. In the end, after spending a few hours trawling websites and trying all sorts of different commands in Terminal, I gave up and bought a Plugable wireless dongle off Amazon.

If you're a newbie like I am, Linux is not an operating system you'll want to get in under the bonnet of. I'm old enough to have used DOS commands so it's not as if the Terminal is alien to me. But if you end up wanting to do anything at all that's off the beaten track, you will find yourself running Terminal and typing/pasting commands that start off with sudo a lot. The people on Linux websites talk geek and that's not my language. Not to the extent they speak it anyway.

Also, getting peripherals to work with Linux can be tricky. You'll not have any trouble plugging in bog standard USB memory sticks or portable hard disks. But if you want to try and get a printer or a scanner to work with it...well it might work. Then again maybe it won't. Even back to the wireless issue I mentioned earlier - I tried using a wireless dongle I had in a drawer here. It didn't work. It also wasn't too clear from looking online whether other wireless dongles would be compatible. I specifically went for a Plugable one because some research told me their products work with Linux.

By all means try it out - you can run it off a DVD without installing anything - but be very careful you're not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Especially if you're asking questions about Photoshop. Gimp is an acquired taste and even though it's powerful in many ways, it's not Photoshop. You might also run into similar problems with other software. Wine runs Windows software but it's a mixed bag. Some programs run very successfully but others don't work properly. When it comes to Linux's own software, some of it will be familiar to you if you use open source software. Other software needs to be paid for - I've not bought anything to date so I can't comment on how good or bad it is.

I have win 7 on a different machine .I discovered you can have a local log in with win 10 as well https://askleo.com/how-do-i-switch-back-to-a-local-account-sign-in-for-windows-10/

And i turned off as much of the telemetry as possible. So it may do

ZENER

You could create a virtual machine in Hyper-V, which is part of Windows 10 Pro, and try a few different flavours of Linux before settling on one. Alternatively, VirtualBox is free and useful.

My personal favourite is Mint but Ubuntu is quite nice if a little resource hungry though I'm not too fond of the new Unity desktop. MS don't show Mint as a compatible guest OS but it does work.

I've managed to get older versions of Photoshop CS to run in Wine on Linux Mint, stability is touch and go but it does run.

Ken