On Sun, Aug 9, 2015 at 11:35 PM, T.J. Duchene <t.j.duchene@???> wrote:

>
>
> On 08/09/2015 08:14 PM, Isaac Dunham wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>> I'm looking for a Linux distro that I could recommend to friends who are
>> rather frustrated with Windows 10.
>> The friends in question ask me about how to fix problems with their
>> computers from time to time.
>>
> With the greatest respect, Isaac, by my experience, I think you are
> wasting your time.
>
> Every single time I have offered to replace Windows with Linux about 95%
> of them return to Windows within one month. It is what they want. They
> want what they already know. They want to use their existing software, and
> everything commercial to "just work". This not to say that Linux has a
> problem, it is simply acknowledging reality. They don't want change. The
> only ones who can handle the change are the fully committed: "power users"
> and IT professionals. In over 20 years in this business, I can tell you one
> thing for certain: the IT marketplace is deliberately designed to prevent
> "replacement."
>

Back in 2012 when I was even more of a Linux newbie than I am now, running
Windows XP inside VirtualBox made it tremendously easier for me to
transition to primarily using Linux.

https://www.virtualbox.org/

To this day, I actually still use a Windows XP VirtualBox quite frequently,
because I still haven't found or built replacements for some Windows
software I still use.

All the Windows XP software I frequently use runs pretty well in
VirtualBox, though a bit slower than real Windows.

I seldom go back to non-virtual Windows XP except to play games on rare
occasions, or to listen to music with the fancy reverb my sound card can do
in Windows.

Anything with fancy 3D graphics tends to work poorly for me in VirtualBox.
I didn't try too many things like that, but I had little luck with the
astronomy software Celestia, and the games Second Life and Dungeon Siege.
Even The Sims didn't work well at all. (I think the audio played but the
graphics didn't display right.)


However, I was surprised and thrilled in 2012 to find out that I could
watch Netflix quite smoothly using VirtualBox, even on a somewhat
underpowered computer, 2.1 GHz dual core with only 1 GB of RAM, in Lucid
Puppy Linux 5.2.

But, I no longer use VirtualBox for Netflix because it's much nicer to
watch Netflix (or even YouTube) on a TV using a Roku.


In my experience, VirtualBox runs Windows stuff much better than Wine
does. https://www.winehq.org/ I'm also reluctant to use Wine because I
worry that maybe it might make my Linux system vulnerable to Windows
viruses.

I love how VirtualBox keeps my Windows stuff (or anything else I don't
fully trust, such as Java) isolated from my Linux system.

I use VirtualBox's shared folders feature and symlinks to selectively give
my VirtualBoxes access to things outside of VirtualBox. And oftentimes I
don't even give my VirtualBoxes internet access.


I hope I would have still managed to transition to primarily Linux if I
hadn't had VirtualBox - but, it would've been a lot more difficult,
uncomfortable, and inconvenient.

I probably would have ended up frequently running two different computers
at the same time (one with Windows XP, one with Linux) if I hadn't had
VirtualBox.

So, I highly recommend VirtualBox for helping Windows users transition to
Linux!

Best wishes,
Apollia



> The essentials would be:
>> -has a *good* Windows migration assistant, which must be able to handle
>> Windows 10; I know that Ubuntu used to have this.
>>
>> You should never trust a tool to migrate data. Always do it yourself
> from a backup, lest ye suffer a terrible fate.
>
>> -glibc-based, so that Flash and Avast Workstation will work
>>
>> Flash is dead. There is absolutely no reason to use it at all on Linux,
> and even if you do, all the functioning Linux versions are crippled by
> design.
>

> The NPAPI (netscape/firefox) version is the last one available on Linux
> with DRM video support, at version 11.2. It is severely crippled by the
> requirement to use hal, which is no longer supported by the vast majority
> of Linux distributions. Adobe refuses to update it to remove the hal
> requirement, now that Google makes the Linux version of Flash. Google has
> deliberately crippled the existing version used in Chrome so that it is
> incapable of DRM, except on Android.
>
> This means you will get no commercial streaming video using Flash on Linux
> without Google's blessing. The only way around that is some "severe
> hackery" that only programmers are capable of. As another point of
> mention, you cannot get DVDs or Blu-ray to play back without using software
> which may violate your local laws. So if any of your friends are expecting
> DRM streaming video or disc playback, you might as well stop now.
>
> Netflix works just fine, but only if you use Chrome or some Chrome
> libraries with a patched version of Chromium. No other browser on Linux
> has EME (Encrypted Media Extensions) support needed at this time.
>
>
> > (at least one of the friends in question uses avast on Windows)
>
> I wouldn't bother.
>
> In my experience, even on Windows, an anti-virus is a waste of time and
> battery life. Even if it manages to detect something, 50% of the time it
> will either fail to remove the virus or damage the operating system or
> applications. Better to just dispense with it entirely, and extend your
> performance and battery life. Restore from a clean backup - which removes
> the virus 100% of the time. The restore also takes only 30 minutes to an
> hour, where scanning and possibly destroying the OS can take hours.
>
> The only people who should be using an AV or AM as a diagnostic tool are
> technicians trained in its use, who are able to distinguish between a real
> problem and a false positive. Even Symantec (the company that basically
> invented the modern anti-virus) has a similar assessment, when they
> declared the "anti-virus" approach "dead."
>
>
> > I suspect properly configured Xfce or Mate may be better at this point.
>
> I'd go with XFCE or KDE at this point, with a preference on XFCE. Mate
> tends to be subtly buggy.
>
>
> >. -binary based Highly preferred: -not rolling release,
> I'd not go with source based either. They will get upset waiting an hour
> for something to compile.
>
>
> > -non-systemd based, so that I can help debug issues; OpenRC or sysv-rc
> preferred -dpkg/apt based, since that's the package manager I'm most
> familiar with.
>
> Frankly, for the moment, if I were you, I would consider Ubuntu 14.04.2
> LTS. It's probably your best option because it has the widest support
> right now, period for FOSS or commercial software. Even Valve uses it as
> their default choice for Steam gaming.
>
>
> Take care!
> T.J.
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