Mwa-ha-ha-ha! We have her, now!
Ah, the command line. The command line is like DOS in Microsoft machines- it's one step closer to the metal than the Windows GUI. Like DOS, it uses a command vocabulary and grammar, and it is very different from DOS. You just have to learn it.
And, yes, unfortunately you do have to learn it, at least in a very basic form. This is because NO MATTER WHAT THE LINUX GEEKS TRY TO TELL YOU, if you do anything more than running your favorite app or word processing or getting on the internets, then at some point you're going to want to do something that cannot be done through the GUI. Especially if you find some obscure beta version of some software somewhere, like WorldEngine or something. So, you should at least learn the file structure and very basic commands like ls, cp, grep, and cd. The Linux for Dummies book actually isn't a bad place to start, but a basic one specific to your particular distro might be better if you are not a total computer neophyte (for instance, if you knew what DOS was when I mentioned it above). There are already at least two Mint 18 books out.
FWIW, I always thought that GIMP worked absolutely marvelously in Linux.
Oh, and usually, when you actually do the full install, Mint will specifically ask you what keyboard you have.
Damn. I'm getting motivated to break out my old Mint laptop, just to mess around a bit. Linux was always SO MUCH more fun to just putter about with than Windows ever was...
Last edited by acrosome; 12-11-2017 at 05:55 PM.
Oh and the reason you don't need your driver files is because everything just works. Drivers tend to be loaded into the kernel space as modules at runtime depending on the hardware detected. You can take a hard disk from one machine and plug it into another and it'll work - except for X which will crash because the graphics drivers are configured there not in the kernel space.
Thank you Selden
Thank you Straf
Acrsome - GIMP is like a totally different animal on this thing.
I think I'm going to have to go and have a lie down after all this excitement, so I can get up nice and fresh in the morning and read the manual to see what's what and have a proper play
Last edited by Mouse; 12-11-2017 at 06:00 PM.
Free parchments | Free seamless textures | Battle tiles / floor patterns | Room 1024 - textures for CC3 | GUILD CITY INDEX
No one is ever a failure until they give up trying
I'm totally chuffed that it's worked so well!
Haha! It's like a new toy on Christmas morning.
Mouse before you go ahead and install this over Windows may I suggest that you make sure you have your product key for Windows printed or written somewhere? It may be on the bottom of the computer or it might be on a manual or something. If not it can be obtained from the registry with a software tool. The other option is it's in the UEFI flash ROM and again I believe there are tools to retrieve it. It's just in case you wish to go back to Windows some day you'll need it!
Woohoo!! Well done, Mouse.
Mouse has officially joined the dark side!
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"
I was going to say much the same as straf. Dont install it just yet. Get back on the lame donkey and go in and write down all your user ids, logins, everything and back everything up and snaffle it all away as much as you can. Your going to need all that to set up your new email, bookmarks and so on.
Another thing id say is to get a new blank notebook and start to write down a lot of little things because there are a load of same things but done slightly differently. For a while you can live on the GUI but you will HAVE to get used to getting the terminal out and doing a couple of things on the command line. Arcsome is right in that theres things which are 100 clicks on a gui but one line in the terminal. The only thing is that the terminal command is like a bit of voodoo for a while until you get used to it.
Linux is based on Unix which is very old and a lot of stuff has beginnings going back to the stone age of computing - pre MSDOS. Like 1960's things. Some stuff doesnt make a lot of sense but thats how it is because everyone knows thats just how it is. But if you have never come from that background then its handy to have a notepad to write some of it down. I use a local wiki so I can copy and paste some rarely used stuff but you need to install it first and get apache or nginx running if you want that.
Your live version is slower than the installed version. Its not that linux is inherantly faster than windows but MS have bloated their OS the point of near death obesity. Gimp, Blender, Krita and many other bits of software are natively developed on linux and ported to Windows. They work better on their native OS - usually that means more stable.
You will still need 8Gb at some point tho because of the kind of work were all doing here but you should get a new lease of life for a while.
EDIT: Oh yeah and just one more thing. I personally would not try to install any custom speedy video drivers from nVidia or whatever you may have on the system. If the graphics work pretty well and not really a problem then dont try to max it unless you know what your doing. Only the video driver installation is dodgy on a new install of linux IMO. If you know what your doing its ok but you can end up with a black screen pretty easily.
Last edited by Redrobes; 12-11-2017 at 06:54 PM.
Actually depending on the license you can tie your key to your Microsoft account and install it and use it on any one machine you migrate to (it's in Settings>Updates&Security>Activation). Mouse might want to do this to avoid having to pay a fortune for Win 10 in the future (because paying an outrageous price for Windows is always extremely galling). If it's an OEM (ie preloaded windows) license it May not work but it's still worth a shot.Originally Posted by Straf
who here REMEMBERS windows 1 and 2 on floppies ????
or DOS
or louts 123
terminal
the terminal is really easy and has been around since the 60's
or longer on the definition on a terminal interface
i am on LQ most days
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