XP support ending--move to Linux?

Life Technology
41

Well, sooner or later I’ll get a new computer. If I’m used to Linux by that time, I’ll probably buy one without Windows installed–I’m assuming that’s even possible :slight_smile: when that was something I hadn’t even considered until now.[/quote]

I’ve been buying Microsoft OS computers since Dos 2.1 and upgrading them unto linux when Microsoft breaks, which it always does eventually.

The first linux based system I actually purchased was the ASUS netbook, then my HTC phone. Computers and phones have been using Linux OS for many years now.

Microsoft is a brand with one operating system. Linux is an operating system with many brands.

42

[quote=“Hamletintaiwan”]
For beginners, it’s better to use the 32 bit version.
First of all the PAE extension kernel will make sure that all the ram is recognized and available for use.
The dual core will still do it’s job at full speed.
There is only some disadvantage when using, for example video editing software and reading files larger than 3G into the ram at once, which, the 32 bit version can’t do, even with PAE kernel.
There are some disadvantages with 64 bit Linux.
Not all software is fully supported yet.
For example Activinspire, an interactive white-board can run under 64 bit with the ia32-libs installed, however some functions like the audio playback don’t work.
Another is MyScriptStylus which I use for Chinese handwriting recognition . It works perfectly on a 32 bit install but not at all on a 64 bit install.
There are many others that need fixing. The two mentioned above are the one that let me keep using the 32 bit. The speed difference is not noticeable at all. .[/quote]
Nowadays debian and derivatives have proper multi-arch support. No more ia32-libs. There’s no reason why anything wouldn’t run on x64bit.

43

64bit CPU:
$ grep flags /proc/cpuinfo
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp[color=#800000] lm[/color]

64bit Kernel:
$ uname -m
x86_64

$ uname -ar
Linux pangsoya 3.5.0-47-generic #71-Ubuntu SMP Wed Feb 19 00:00:07 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ lsb_release -a
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.10
Release: 12.10
Codename: quantal

$ sudo dpkg -i myscriptstylus_3.0.11.36-0_i386.deb
[sudo] password for XXX
(Reading database … 459566 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace myscriptstylus 3.0.11.36-0 (using myscriptstylus_3.0.11.36-0_i386.deb) …
Unpacking replacement myscriptstylus …
Setting up myscriptstylus (3.0.11.36-0) …
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme …
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon …
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf.index…
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils …
Processing triggers for gnome-menus …

Opens up just fine:

44

[quote=“hansioux”][quote=“Hamletintaiwan”]
Application
download.visionobjects.eu/downlo … 0_i386.deb
Language support
[/quote]

64bit CPU:
$ grep flags /proc/cpuinfo
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp[color=#800000] lm[/color]

64bit Kernel:
$ uname -m
x86_64

$ uname -ar
Linux pangsoya 3.5.0-47-generic #71-Ubuntu SMP Wed Feb 19 00:00:07 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ lsb_release -a
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.10
Release: 12.10
Codename: quantal

$ sudo dpkg -i myscriptstylus_3.0.11.36-0_i386.deb
[sudo] password for XXX
(Reading database … 459566 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace myscriptstylus 3.0.11.36-0 (using myscriptstylus_3.0.11.36-0_i386.deb) …
Unpacking replacement myscriptstylus …
Setting up myscriptstylus (3.0.11.36-0) …
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme …
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon …
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf.index…
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils …
Processing triggers for gnome-menus …

Opens up just fine:
[/quote]

Looks good!
Are the inputs working?
Because, I tried to replicate this in virtualbox Ubuntu12.10 unity desktop, but it doesn’t work.

[quote]Problem loading language resource files.
Reinstall MyScriptStylus or language pack may solve this problem[/quote]

But it doesn’t.
I also deleted the resource directory in opt/VisionObjects/myscriptstylus
Still, no use.
If yours is working, you could create a portable app from that.

http://www.pgbovine.net/cde.html
Download the 64 bit cde.
Copy it to your home folder and rename it to cde.
Right click it and make it executable.
In the terminal run /home/ yourusername /cde MyScriptStylus
Or run /home/ yourusername /cde /usr/bin/MyScriptStylus
Play a little around with it and then close the Stylus.
You’ll find a directory in your home folder named cde-package. Zip that directory.
/home/ yourusername /cde-package/cde-exec MyScriptStylus
will run the application on any other 64 bit linux.

45

I didn’t have time to install the language pack because I was going to a meeting.

Let’s see…

installing the language pack gets a complaint about

myscriptstylus-language depends on myscriptstylus (>= 3.0.0.29).

However, the myscriptstylus we’ve install is 3.0.11.36, so not sure why it’s complaining.

So I did

$ sudo dpkg --force-depends -i myscriptstylus-language_0.3.0.0-0_all.deb

and

$ sudo dpkg --force-depends -i myscriptstylus-language-zh-tw_0.3.0.0-0_all.deb

but problem persists, so I did

$ ldd /usr/bin/MyScriptStylus

things look fine, next

$ strace MyScriptStylus

All the system libraries that it needs are found under /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/

Also that there’s a config file, hidden under the ~/.config folder
open("/home/XXX/.config/Vision Objects/MyScript Stylus.conf", O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE|O_CLOEXEC, 0666) = 23

The language packs contains files that would be installed to

/opt/VisionObjects/myscriptstylus/resources/

It looks like some type of database file, it is likely decompressed and merged during install resulting in the much larger files after installation.

strace saw the opening of these files:
open("/opt/VisionObjects/myscriptstylus/resources/0c3f5.rcc", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE|O_CLOEXEC) = 19

but it reported the language files error anyway.

What the program really can’t find are

A training file is supposed to be located in, but I don’t see the directories
/home/XXX/.myscriptstylus//Training/04040002

and
open("/etc/myscriptstylus//CommonDictionary.txt", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/etc/xdg/Vision Objects/MyScript Stylus.conf", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/etc/xdg/Vision Objects.conf", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat64("/etc/myscriptstylus/ui_lang.txt", 0xffbf3c50) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat64("/etc/myscriptstylus//links.txt", 0xffbf3d10) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)

I can’t seem to find those files anywhere. Not in the deb packages, so perhaps there’s another deb file to be installed? I don’t know whether that’s what breaks the program or maybe the database’s version of the files under /opt/VisionObjects/myscriptstylus/resources/ doesn’t match the installed program. Either way, the program itself looks fine. The language packages didn’t install any executable binaries. Therefore the issue doesn’t seem like 64bit or 32bit architecture related.

46

你好嗎？
Sorry to say that, but this works beautifully on Ubuntu 32 bit.
Right now, I am using it for writing this post.
Maybe the moderator should split this up.

32 or 64 bit version of Ubuntu? something like that…

Like I said, if you want to do video editing a lot, use the 64 bit…
Lightworks, the only professional video editor, doesn’t even have a 32 bit version.

Otherwise, stay with 32 bit for now, especially, if you are a beginner.

Anyhow thanks for the input. With that backtracking you did, I might be able to get it to work.

47

I’ve had 64 bits for more than a year, and didn’t have any problems. I had iBus as a default input system, and I can write chinese very easily. The only problem is the iBus/WinE compatibility (doesn’t allow complex characters like accents to be displayed if you’re using a WinE program, but the native software works perfectly fine).

48

After many years of using Ubuntu, I’ve found myself moving to Mint (MATE), simply because I can’t stand the Unity desktop environment that Ubuntu changed over to.

Seriously I’d be much more inclined to recommend Linux Mint (especially MATE, although Cinnamon is also nice) to people switching over from Windows for the first time.

Download is right here: linuxmint.com/download.php

49

[quote=“irishstu”]After many years of using Ubuntu, I’ve found myself moving to Mint (MATE), simply because I can’t stand the Unity desktop environment that Ubuntu changed over to.

Seriously I’d be much more inclined to recommend Linux Mint (especially MATE, although Cinnamon is also nice) to people switching over from Windows for the first time.

Download is right here: linuxmint.com/download.php[/quote]

I was thinking about introducing Mint and PinguyOS. But are offshoots of Ubuntu, but Mint has gone further in differentiating itself.

By the way, since you use Mint full time, do you prefer Mate or Cinnamon as the Desktop Environment? I tried both, for some reason both were a bit laggy, and Mate more than Cinnamon. Not sure why, perhaps things have improved. Theoretically Mate doesn’t need graphics acceleration, so it should run faster on older computers.

Pinguy OS:
pinguyos.com/

14.04 version will comeout when the 14.04 Ubuntu comes out. Pinguy really makes a well rounded distro and regular users should find most of the good applications preinstalled.

50

Regarding environments, I like Unity, but if I have to choose another one, I pick Xubuntu (XFCE) with the Cairo-dock bar. It’s customizable and lightweight, and it ran quite well in a Pentium 4 with no dedicated graphics card. It even worked well in a netbook.

51

phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a … tops&num=1

phoronix benchmarks’s verdict is that LXDE is more lightweight than XFCE (as of July 2013), that’s why I usually recommends Lubuntu for those who seeks lightweight. XFCE has gotten even more bloated as it tries to fill the void left by Gnome 2. Cairo-dock would work in any DE (used to use it too).

I’ve seen one of the creators of LXDE’s speech on serveral occasions. He always does his lecture with a laptop running LXDE, and it looks pretty smooth and fast.

52

I like them both almost equally, but I ended up sticking with MATE because the 11n Wi-Fi dongle that I was using on my netbook at the time worked better on MATE. After that, I installed MATE on my home PC and never even tried Cinnamon there. I’m sure I would’ve been fine with it though.

I haven’t noticed any graphics issues, but then again, I’m not really pushing my computer much in that respect. What I will say though is that everything worked out of the box, which is what I think is THE most important factor to consider when inviting people to move over to Linux.

53

Yeah, I went back to using 10.04 because I hate Unity. Right now I have Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx on my laptop and Puppy Linux on a netbook. I’ll probably install Mint on my laptop later this year.

54

Is it true that I can install any of these on a new dedicated partition, while keeping Windows installed, and could choose which one to run when booting? For those of us looking for the soft, limit-maintaining path to this big lifestyle change.

55

Yes. When you install a linux system it will ask you if you want to partition your hard drive and keep Windows on one partition. You can also simply boot linux from a USB stick in order to try it out - there’s no need to install it in order to test drive it, so to speak.

56

There are several ways to do this.
If you have a desktop pc and the motherboard supports choosing the boot options per hot-key, the safest way would be to insert another hard-drive.
Then disconnect the one with windows on it. When the linux install has finished, turn off the pc and reconnect the hard disk with windows on it.
You can now choose from which hard-drive to boot via the hotkey, F10 F11 F12 or in some cases the Esc key.

If your windows hard disk isn’t completely filled up. You can install linux side by side.
First, defrag your windows several times till all files show in blue at the beginning of the drive.
Insert the install DVD which has gparted on it. During installation, either choose from the option "install linux side by side.
Or choose do something else which will bring you to the gparted partitioning interface.
Resize your windows partition and play it safe. If your windows install was already very big, take only a little space for linux.

Create your desired partition/s for linux and start the installation.
Mount at boot ca 1.5-3Gigabite
Root which is / at least 8 Gigabyte
You could create an extra home partition, this way leave the root a little smaller.
leave some for swap 4 gigabyte Just right-click and mark as swap.

Backup your windows install
either with http://redobackup.org/
Or clonezilla for more advanced users http://clonezilla.org/

57

Tempo, in my long post about how to install Linux, I’ve mentioned dual boot, that’s what you are looking for.

58

phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a … tops&num=1

phoronix benchmarks’s verdict is that LXDE is more lightweight than XFCE (as of July 2013), that’s why I usually recommends Lubuntu for those who seeks lightweight. XFCE has gotten even more bloated as it tries to fill the void left by Gnome 2. Cairo-dock would work in any DE (used to use it too).

I’ve seen one of the creators of LXDE’s speech on serveral occasions. He always does his lecture with a laptop running LXDE, and it looks pretty smooth and fast.[/quote]

I know that LXDE is the lightest, but XFCE is just a little heavier and still much lighter than the other DE’s. And still it’s highly configurable.

Cairo works well with GTK, KDE and XFCE, it has some compatibility issues with unity, and I think there’s no version for LXDE.

59

[quote=“Blaquesmith”]

I know that LXDE is the lightest, but XFCE is just a little heavier and still much lighter than the other DE’s. And still it’s highly configurable.

Cairo works well with GTK, KDE and XFCE, it has some compatibility issues with unity, and I think there’s no version for LXDE.[/quote]

Haven’t tried LXDE with Cairo in a while, but it looks fine in many videos

if Compiz isn’t desirable, then there’s xcompmgr

ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1856701

both will allow Cairo.

60

What if you don’t change operating systems and continue using Windows XP?

What’s the worst that can happen?

I’m still using XP, but, I don’t use the desktop for finance or anything of a personal nature.

All I do is visit sharing web sites and use it for Bit Torrent and E-Mule downloads.

I have a laptop running Windows 8.1 (hate Windows 8+. Especially the metro thing which they no longer call metro. maybe if it were a touchscreen it would be great but since it’s not, mouse navigation is a horror) which I use to visit my HMO (health maintenance organization), do my finances, visit work web site for job bidding and checking paycheck stub, etc.

Nothing on the XP desktop even points to me. The desktop was bought second hand and still has the previous owners name listed as the administrator.

So what is the worst case scenario?

And don’t tell me to get Linux. I already have dual boot Ubuntu alongside the XP. And I’ve got Bodhi, Elementary Luna, Linux Mint on USB flash drives. Been testing a lot of Linux distros because of this end of XP support. Also been looking into small footprint distros for a netbook I’ve got as well.

Kobo.