Jump to content

Linux OS Suggestions


kongondo
 Share

Recommended Posts

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 ?

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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)

 

image.png.f56a85cab3511543d47f41ac57582abb.thumb.png.eb6e869a6770501972d08a40aa6465c3.png

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.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

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

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 by kongondo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

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

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)))

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...