Linux and Proton.

I currently have Mint on an old laptop which is Debian derived and did have PCLinuxOS Originally a Mandrake fork RPM Distro which I prefer on a PC which has now given up the ghost. I prefer the KDE Plasma Desktop.

You can use any of the desktops on any distribution, you don't have to use what it comes with, I'm using Cinnamon on Mint.

I gave up with Macs when they went Intel.
 
I got to Xubuntu when I was looking for a lighter desktop to put on some older machines. (I build them outta old parts and give them to people that couldn't afford them otherwise.) Even the newest Xubuntu release (18.04) runs on just about anything. I have a very old ASUS EEEPC that runs fine on it.....a little slow, but it was way slower on Win XP that it came with. It is an 800mhz with 1 gig RAM. And it runs with no lockups. No Windows OS since XP would even attempt to run on those specs.
 
That was always the most useful thing about Linux, - it could be used to give new life to old 'obsolete' computers. I used to pick up old laptops very cheaply and change the OS to Debian which would give me a useful machine for when I was doing quite a lot of assignment work and essays back when I was doing tertiary study.
 
I've used a few OSes in my time, leaving aside the PDP11 and Vaxes, on Intel-based hardware I've had everything from Dos to Windows 10 with the exception of Vista and 8, I've used Macs, and I use Linux. Windows is always seen as the evil empire, but more than 90% of what I do is done on Windows because it has the software I need. I can see why companies would be loth to commit resources to porting applications to Linux, it is too fragmented in the way it is created and supported. Microsoft and Apple are reliable institutions.

This comes from quite a while ago, I've snipped the pre-GUI ones, but if OSes were like airlines :

Mac Airways: The cashiers, flight attendants, and pilots all look the same, talk the same, and act the same. When you ask them questions about the flight, they reply that you don't want to know, don't need to know, and would you please return to your seat and watch the movie.

Windows Airlines:
The terminal is neat and clean, the attendants courteous, the pilots capable. The fleet of Lear jets the carrier operates is immense. Your jet takes off without a hitch, pushes above the clouds and, at 20,000 feet, explodes without warning.

Linux Express:
Passengers bring a piece of the airplane and a box of tools with them to the airport. They gather on the tarmac, arguing about what kind of plane they want to build. The passengers split into groups and build several different aircraft but give them all the same name. Only some passengers reach their destinations, but all of them believe they arrived.
 
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By "Not quite there yet", I mean this: TurfFX is disabled in the Mac version of TRS19. Well, many of the routes I'm building rely heavily on TurfFX grass. Without TurfFX, they'd be empty boards painted one color and, as far as I'm concerned, ruined.

Matt


That's one of the main reasons why i'm sticking with TANE , its a waste of time to make anything in 2019 if you are on a MAC. The issue will probably never be fixed, but although I have tried using windows to run Trainz, i just cannot be bothered with all the hassle i have with it that I don't have on the Mac. its not that its insurmountable to fix, i just cant be bothered to waste the time to do so.
Whoever in Apple made the decision to not support Nvidia cards should be shot at dawn and undergo the digital equivalent to cashiering beforehand. :)
 
I've used a few OSes in my time, ...

Very funny. I liked that.

FWIW, I think I might try OpenSuse because it apparently is supportive of weird people like me who like to write code. When I did my 30 sec Google survey of available Linix distros and popularity, I was amazed at the number of distros.

"cinnamon on mint"? Sounds like a recipe.
 
Very funny. I liked that.

FWIW, I think I might try OpenSuse because it apparently is supportive of weird people like me who like to write code. When I did my 30 sec Google survey of available Linix distros and popularity, I was amazed at the number of distros.

"cinnamon on mint"? Sounds like a recipe.

SuSe was the first version of Linux I used extensively when I had a Linux box. I found that version to be very close to Solaris which I was using a lot of at work during the same time. I think it's a lot more utilitarian and down to business without the fluff found in Ubuntu which tries so hard to be like Windows.

You can get OpenSuSe, or used to be able to get it, from the Microsoft Store as an add-on that will run directly in Windows 10. It'll run as a separate shell in a console window and will run non-graphical Linux tools, programs and utilities right alongside Windows. In a sense, it's fully virtualized within the Windows operating system.
 
I started with Slackware, the original one Linus Torvalds created in 1991....... all subsequent distros were much easier!
 
I've been using LINUX for years. My IT expertise goes back over 50 years to 1961, when I joined the navy and went to programming school as well as into Naval Intelligence (There's an oxymoron for you). At first, LINUX was real for geeks, and I loved it. Now, LINUX (I use Ubuntu 18.02LTS) has quite a lot of software that, if you were to buy it from Microsoft, you'd pay around $1000US for it. Open office takes care of my writing needs and I used it to write and publish two novels. As for programming, I was devastated when Windows 10 refused to install VB6. However, there is an alternative in LINUX/Ubuntu called Gambas. It's a free implementation of a visual Basic suite and quite powerful and getting better each day. Like Kotangagirl, I love to get hand-me-down computers (usually laptops, but not all) from people who think they're out of date/slow/buggy/whatever and don't want to deal with them. I currently have four laptops running Ubuntu and I usually take one with me when I'm on a trip or whenever I want to write on the road. As several have said, going out in public with LINUX seems to keep most of the viruses and crud out of your system.

As for the sales figures, you have to take into consideration that you can hardly BUY a computer that doesn't have Windows on it in some form (mostly Win10 nowadays). This tends to skew sales figures badly since you mostly don't have choice in the matter. Even if you plan on installing LINUX from day 1, you still have Win10 to contend with and add to the sales figures. True, you could put one together yourself (I've done it a number of times, including building it from the component-level (AKA Heathkit H-8 and H-89), but fine-tuning is a must and you don't always get it right.

Funny you should mention Slackware, Malc. My last name is Slack.

Shameless plug: Look for my author's name of B. Douglas Slack on Amazon for my novels.

Bill
 
...
You can get OpenSuSe, or used to be able to get it, from the Microsoft Store as an add-on that will run directly in Windows 10. It'll run as a separate shell in a console window and will run non-graphical Linux tools, programs and utilities right alongside Windows. In a sense, it's fully virtualized within the Windows operating system.

I'll want to run Blender, Lazarus Pascal and one or more image editors. Right now I'm trying to figure out where to put it and how to install it. I could run it in VM Workstation but I have a 256GB SSD that has one or more Trainz installations that I could move onto a 1TB Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus. Maybe I could re-configure as a dual boot which is something I haven't done for a long time.

I thought I had a spare 2GB HDD then I remembered its in my old PC in a bedroom surrounded by cardboard boxes full of stuff my daughter bought back from the UK.

Maybe I'll have a look at Gambas which Hiballer just mentioned. Basic was a dirty word when I was at uni in the mid 80's as a mature age student. I was also in the (Oz) Navy at that time and wrote code for Navy systems. Small world!
 
I'll want to run Blender, Lazarus Pascal and one or more image editors. Right now I'm trying to figure out where to put it and how to install it. I could run it in VM Workstation but I have a 256GB SSD that has one or more Trainz installations that I could move onto a 1TB Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus. Maybe I could re-configure as a dual boot which is something I haven't done for a long time.

I thought I had a spare 2GB HDD then I remembered its in my old PC in a bedroom surrounded by cardboard boxes full of stuff my daughter bought back from the UK.

Maybe I'll have a look at Gambas which Hiballer just mentioned. Basic was a dirty word when I was at uni in the mid 80's as a mature age student. I was also in the (Oz) Navy at that time and wrote code for Navy systems. Small world!

Yeah. A VM or Linux shell won't work for graphics stuff at least not yet anyway. Parallels, or whoever that is now, did have a workstation VM, but that got pushed to the Apple hardware and OSx and never made it to the x86 x64 side. This version had all the support needed for graphics and 3d processing that's not found in regular VM implementations. And yes, that SSD is a bit tiny for what you'll want to do as well.

I learned BASIC and Pascal back in the 1980's as a uni student, and a bit later Z80 and 8080 Assembler, then some C and C++. I did quite well in the classes, but my patience for it is nil, thus, I went into hardware and became a technician instead. I did take some classes in Java much, much later, and even wrote a small program in that. (HA! Java class --- pun!). Outside of that it's been IT support and hardware for me.
 
VB6? this may help, How To Install Visual Basic 6 (VB6) in Windows 10 - https://www.raymond.cc/blog/install...7-without-microsoft-virtual-machine-for-java/

Alternatively running XP in a VM should work, might even work in Linux using Wine if you go for a WinXP configuration.

@pcass1986. As for trying out distro's, most will install on a thumb drive for testing purposes. Back when I was doing that it involved burning CD's, of which I seem to have acquired an awful lot.
 
Well, I'll be darned, Malc. That link was pure gold. I'd been trying for six months to get VB6 to install in a native Windows 10 environment. i didn't want to go with a vitrual XP environment at all. Armed with the contents of that blog entry I can get it done. I never liked VB.NET at all for some reason. Maybe it was just that I'd been using VB ever since VB2.0 for Windows 3.11 (still have the install disks for VB2/3/4). I have a lot of personal programs I can now update/upgrade and use once more.

Unfortunately, WINE isn't as sophisticated as of yet to allow VB6 to be installed. Even if you could, I'd wonder if it could create an executable from the limited amount of "system" WINE provides.

Bill
 
I saw an infomercial about a USB stick that brings a totally dead PC back to life (it must be amazing), and installs a Linix OS, over riding your PC OS. Sounds kinda fishy if you ask me for $39.95, And I am not sure how Trainz runs on Linix ?
 
I'd stay a long way away from that USB stick. First off, LINUX is free -- no charge. You can install it yourself easily using an ISO burned to a DVD. And, Trainz won't run on LINUX. If I had to guess, their version of "LINUX" does a lot of phoning home with all sorts of tidbits from your personal settings and browsing habits, just to name a few.

Bill
 
And I am not sure how Trainz runs on Linix ?

You would have to use WINE (both the Linux Windows Emulation software and the liquid) and even then the reports (in these forums) are not good for anything but the earliest versions of Trainz - forget TANE and TRS19!
 
I saw an infomercial about a USB stick that brings a totally dead PC back to life (it must be amazing), and installs a Linix OS, over riding your PC OS. Sounds kinda fishy if you ask me for $39.95, And I am not sure how Trainz runs on Linix ?


Complete rubbish, it's a money making scam Scam to sell idiots Linux on a USB stick which you can do yourself for nothing.
 
I've used Linux boot discs to get into a non functional computer more than a few times to fix problems and it cost me nothing except the cost of a blank CD to make the boot disc. That 'magic' USB stick is a rip off.
 
Took me all day yesterday to get a Linux distro onto my PC within VMWare's Workstation Player (free for non commercial use). I ended up using Debian 10.2.0. Blender 2.79b works fine in Debian but so far I can't get Blender 2.81a to install. Workstation Player allows multiple Linux installations but you can only run one at a time.

I believe you can charge for distros of Linux to cover the costs of manufacture, media distribution, etc but the software is free or maybe GPL. However, you might be able to charge for some extra services. It seems a bit like the addons you can buy for Blender. The software is GPL but you pay for support which includes bug fixing, notification of new releases etc. I think that works well since it encourages developers to make a little money for their efforts.
 
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