kongondo Posted November 5, 2018 Share Posted November 5, 2018 Hi all, I'm looking for a quick suggestion on Linux OS. My genuine Windows 7 OS has suddenly decided to be 'not genuine'!!! I've wasted time Googling and tried all sorts of things but it has refused to even attempt to reactivate. I now have the black screen and the 'key's icon popping up every time telling me to 'click here' to activate windows. The 'click here' takes me to a 404 page on MS site!!! I tried a couple more things and now it is telling me my product key is blocked! Joy! So, I call MS and after going through a few hoops, the contact centre is just taking me round in circles! I haven't even spoken to a human yet! I'm pretty certain a recent Windows Update caused this but I can't be bothered to find out which one. So, I think it is time to say bye to my beloved Windows ?. I think most of the tools I use have Linux versions or alternatives. I'm not sure about my PowerDirector though. I've been down this road before and I always come back to Windows. I'm just looking for a distro that looks like Windows 7, to be honest. If it can run Visual Studio Code without issues (that's the priority) I'll take it. Any suggestions? I'm tired of Googling and would really like to get back to 'normal' ASAP. Thanks. PS: I'm not interested in a mac ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongondo Posted November 5, 2018 Author Share Posted November 5, 2018 Found this: https://itsfoss.com/windows-like-linux-distributions/ Chalet OS looks nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongondo Posted November 5, 2018 Author Share Posted November 5, 2018 Or Elementary OS https://elementary.io/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fbg13 Posted November 5, 2018 Share Posted November 5, 2018 I recommend you Solus with the plasma (kde) desktop, it's still in beta (the plasma version), but I had no issues with it. You can download it here., or check the other desktops available. Here is a screenshot of the taskbar and start menu (start menu is a custom one, plasma comes with 3 by default) With some distros you have to add extra repositories for codecs and drivers, which is not always straight forward, Solus provides them in their main repos. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongondo Posted November 5, 2018 Author Share Posted November 5, 2018 Thanks for the suggestion @fbg13, I'm currently torn between Solus, Manjaro and Elementary OS ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beluga Posted November 5, 2018 Share Posted November 5, 2018 I use Arch Linux myself and have installed Manjaro for various family members & friends. KDE for desktop environment. Even though Arch/Manjaro is the bleeding edge, breakage is rare. Most problems are related to printers and that is just a fact of life no matter which operating system we use. I use Arch for a couple of servers as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongondo Posted November 5, 2018 Author Share Posted November 5, 2018 Thanks @Beluga 2 minutes ago, Beluga said: Most problems are related to printers Been there! We'll I hope one of them works with my Canon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan Gretsky Posted November 5, 2018 Share Posted November 5, 2018 I have been using Mint for 2 years already on my home desktop and would certainly recommend it to anyone switching from Windows. It has a lot of proprietary drivers included and is based on Ubuntu, which makes looking for answers easy. P.S. I use Cinnamon edition. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongondo Posted November 5, 2018 Author Share Posted November 5, 2018 4 minutes ago, Ivan Gretsky said: I have been using Mint for 2 years already on my home desktop and would certainly recommend it Thanks. I'll have a look. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beluga Posted November 5, 2018 Share Posted November 5, 2018 12 minutes ago, kongondo said: Thanks @Beluga Been there! We'll I hope one of them works with my Canon! Can you reveal the model? I have wrestled with a couple of Canons. One was easy as just installing gutenprint package did the trick. Another printer-related annoyance in Manjaro is that the user is not in "sys" group by default and thus is prevented access to fiddling with the printer in the CUPS admin. This does the trick: usermod -a -G sys yourusername 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongondo Posted November 5, 2018 Author Share Posted November 5, 2018 Just now, Beluga said: Can you reveal the model? I I had a Brother printer which served me well for a while then just went kaput! So, I got a cheap Canon as I don't print much (I mainly use the scanner). It's a Canon PIXMA MG3650 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongondo Posted November 5, 2018 Author Share Posted November 5, 2018 (edited) 11 minutes ago, Ivan Gretsky said: P.S. I use Cinnamon edition. Thanks. I was about to ask about that. I've seen Cinnamon, Xfce and Mate and I can't tell them apart ?. Edited November 5, 2018 by kongondo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beluga Posted November 5, 2018 Share Posted November 5, 2018 3 minutes ago, kongondo said: It's a Canon PIXMA MG3650 Great, then installing gutenprint package should be enough! http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/p_Supported_Printers.php 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongondo Posted November 5, 2018 Author Share Posted November 5, 2018 It's gonna feel odd not running LAMP using Laragon or XAMPP ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongondo Posted November 5, 2018 Author Share Posted November 5, 2018 Thanks all! I went with Solus. I'm now trying to install my printer but failing. Not sure where to start! I've downloaded some 'printer scanner' packages from Canon and that's it. I don't know what to do with them, hehe. Plus, some are debian based and others are RPM. I can't find info on what is suitable for Solus :-). @fbg13 (or anyone else), any tips on what next/must dos after installing Linux? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fbg13 Posted November 5, 2018 Share Posted November 5, 2018 @kongondo Open the software center, search for and install cups. Then you should be able to open the cups admin in the browser at http://localhost:631/admin (you will need to login with your solus user) and there you can manage the printers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongondo Posted November 5, 2018 Author Share Posted November 5, 2018 (edited) 56 minutes ago, fbg13 said: @kongondo Open the software center, search for and install cups. Then you should be able to open the cups admin in the browser at http://localhost:631/admin (you will need to login with your solus user) and there you can manage the printers. Genius! It worked! Thanks! Cups was already installed. Do you know if I can setup wireless access to the printer using Cups? I haven't seen anything to that effect. It's not a big deal though. I just need to get the scanner working and I'm set! Edited November 5, 2018 by kongondo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cstevensjr Posted November 5, 2018 Share Posted November 5, 2018 16 minutes ago, kongondo said: .I just need to get the scanner working and I'm set! Please look through this thread for a possible scanning solution https://dev.getsol.us/T49 Also valuable information Re: scanning on Solus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongondo Posted November 5, 2018 Author Share Posted November 5, 2018 Thanks 1 minute ago, cstevensjr said: Please look through this thread for a possible scanning solution Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fbg13 Posted November 5, 2018 Share Posted November 5, 2018 39 minutes ago, kongondo said: Do you know if I can setup wireless access to the printer using Cups? I don't have a wireless printer nor a scanner so can't help with that. Maybe this will help with the wireless printing https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/setup-wireless-usb-printer-linux/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongondo Posted November 6, 2018 Author Share Posted November 6, 2018 Hi all, Me again! I've installed most of the things I need. I'm still very impressed that unlike previous instances, everything (well, most everything), just worked. I didn't need to search for drivers by myself. My machine was always fast on Win7 but it is blazing fast now! I've hit a snag and would like some advice. Rather than install a server myself (Apache, MySQL and PHP), I decided to try Docker. I found a LAMP image and it installed fine. I then tried to locate the path to PHP and couldn't find it! It turns out 'one can't find it in Docker?'. I can see it in PHP info, but there's not PHP in that folder! Anyway, I need this for Visual Studio Code; for linting, debugging etc. As it is, I haven't been able to code for 2.5 days now! I almost threatened the computer that I would install XAMPP on it instead (!) just to get going, but then thought better of it ?. Before I go down the 'normal server' route where I install these server components individually (I can do it but just wanted to avoid spending more time on this), any advice? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fbg13 Posted November 7, 2018 Share Posted November 7, 2018 3 hours ago, kongondo said: I decided to try Docker Check out devilbox. 3 hours ago, kongondo said: I then tried to locate the path to PHP and couldn't find it! It turns out 'one can't find it in Docker?' I just installed php on my system and use that one. Here is how to use the php inside the docker container. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beluga Posted November 7, 2018 Share Posted November 7, 2018 Another possibility: https://wodby.com/docs/stacks/php/local/ I use one of their containers for my more exotic Docker setup. I like to keep my PW files (and MariaDB database) on my host so everything is clearer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongondo Posted November 7, 2018 Author Share Posted November 7, 2018 Thanks @fbg13 and @Beluga, I've also had a look at Portainer, DockStation and Kitematic. I've installed DockStation and it seems to work fine, but it is a bit slow in reading from Docker Hub (it doesn't seem to cache results) and it looks like a mac app :-). I'll probably end up just running server components directly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan Gretsky Posted November 7, 2018 Share Posted November 7, 2018 I prefer laradock for its popularity and support. And run and monitor everything from command line (you should too since you're on Linux anyway). For VS Code language server I use locally installed php from standard repository like @fbg13 suggested. P.S. Docker based solutions make it really easy to switch php/mysql/anything really versions in seconds and let you easilly try things you never expected you would other ways, so do give it one more try))) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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