Just don't go down the Ryzen 2200G or other ryzen's with Vega graphics route. The drivers are not there yet, and most (if not all) mainstream distributions will not install without hanging, if you have one of these processors and use the built in graphics.
Most non-bleeding edge hardware should work out of the box but the AMD GPU driver seems to be quite the work in progress, and a machine with an AMD GPU could give you grief. If you stick to Intel and Nvidia you will likely have no issues at all (note in all my years I've not ever actually built a box with an intel cpu, always AMD). I've first hand experience with ryzen 2200G on linux, and it has been a bumpy road, still not 100% satisfied yet and may not be till 2nd quarter next year.
Tony.
Most non-bleeding edge hardware should work out of the box but the AMD GPU driver seems to be quite the work in progress, and a machine with an AMD GPU could give you grief. If you stick to Intel and Nvidia you will likely have no issues at all (note in all my years I've not ever actually built a box with an intel cpu, always AMD). I've first hand experience with ryzen 2200G on linux, and it has been a bumpy road, still not 100% satisfied yet and may not be till 2nd quarter next year.
Tony.
Since last summer playing with Linux, more exactly Xubuntu 18.04 which is a flavor of Ubuntu 18.04 but using a different desktop (GUI) on top of it called Xfce which is a bit lighter and faster than Ubuntu's Gnome but less of the eye candy bling, version 18.04 has been quite ok but at times becoming totally unusable due to things like boot up login loop that never enter the desktop and have taken maaany hours to solve, very frustrating, so much I have been considering going back to Windows.
For the time being 18.04, which has been out for half a year, have since couple of months ago had a minor update to 18.04.1, next minor update 18.04.2 is slated for was it end of February or so, currently it feels pretty solid, except for when it has broken it's been of rather fatal nature taking away many hours of productivity.
The pros choosing Ubuntu and its main variants Xubuntu and Lubuntu is due to the abundance of information on the internet which I think is quite important for a beginner.
As a Linux beginner I have come to one conclusion, install dual Linux installations, one on each partition so one always have a working Linux to boot up with via dual boot if and when the other fails, if one have only one computer then this is very convenient if one have look up for troubleshooting info using a real desktop with mouse and keyboard instead of surfing on a smarthpone for help or run to some public computer at the library etc., this also allows one to mount the other Linux partition in case one have to access it to fiddle with some OS related stuff, or just access own files saved on that partition.
For the time being 18.04, which has been out for half a year, have since couple of months ago had a minor update to 18.04.1, next minor update 18.04.2 is slated for was it end of February or so, currently it feels pretty solid, except for when it has broken it's been of rather fatal nature taking away many hours of productivity.
The pros choosing Ubuntu and its main variants Xubuntu and Lubuntu is due to the abundance of information on the internet which I think is quite important for a beginner.
As a Linux beginner I have come to one conclusion, install dual Linux installations, one on each partition so one always have a working Linux to boot up with via dual boot if and when the other fails, if one have only one computer then this is very convenient if one have look up for troubleshooting info using a real desktop with mouse and keyboard instead of surfing on a smarthpone for help or run to some public computer at the library etc., this also allows one to mount the other Linux partition in case one have to access it to fiddle with some OS related stuff, or just access own files saved on that partition.
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Hi
I'm no computer geek by any means, but back in 2012 a friend built me a linux computer with a distribution called Ultimate Edition. About six months after I started using this, the guy who wrote UE lost interest in it and it was no longer supported. over a few years, the computer lost functionality. For example the network connection icon disappeared and I had to get a mechanical switch to go off-line Yes, some people go off-line!
Later sites like Mouser and Digikey changed their security and my linux was too old to look at it. Even the Thunderbird mail was losing some functionality.
My friend who built this had to learn about linux while he was doing it. Since then he's been after me to use a live disc, saying how easy it is. Recently when I saw him he showed me the live disc with linux mint on it and how easy it is to use. You can use it as a live disc, which means the operating system lives on the CD not the hard drive so everything runs a bit slow. You can choose to install it and then it will run fast.
An important point about the linux mint installation is that you must be connected to the internet so the installer can get stuff from the web.
I ended up trying it a few times as there seemed to be other things up with this spcific task, like there were two hard drives in the computer - my friend was a fan of raid redundancy - and the old linux was on one drive and the mint went on the other, then the computer kept defaulting to the old system. During the third attempt both drives were wiped. The fourth time was the charm and linux mint is working now!
There are weirdnesses with linux since it is open-source. Everyone names things in silly ways that are completely nonintuitive. You simply can't call the print manager the print manager since that's what your grandfather used to call it. At least it comes already fitted with Firefox and defaults to Duck-duck-go as a search engine.
Briefly I was using a google chrome desktop to access those sites my old linux could not see, but... GOOGLE IS EVIL ! they do not allow you to block updates and the desk top will change at their whim - as it did one day. They have their finger in your computer so what else are they doing in there? They tell you sites are insecure just because a single page is not behind an SSL - a page that does not need to be secure, but they say the whole site is insecure. How much business did they lose for people around the world? Just evil megalomanics !
(It used to be that SSLs were expensive so you only put the payment page behind it and left the product pages outside of it. The fashion now as pushed upon us by google and some others is that everything should be secure as https. Fortunately SSLs are now inexpensive and even free. Also beware the cloud. That is code for google's server and they see everything you put there and analyse it for their own purpose of marketing and control. When I got that chrome desktop the fine print said that I had free access to the cloud for two years, implying that after that time google would want $$. I never use the cloud.I'm not paranoid but I do have a sense of how to maintain my own security and the security of the data entrusted to me. However, google is doing all the things that a paranoid person imagines an evil megacorp to do, so you really do need to stop twiddling on your handhelds and re-assess the situation)
Linux is fantastic and stable. Most computerised test equipment uses linux. Bryston's digital audio players use linux.
The important thing about linux mint is that it is gauranteed to be the same for five years and will be supported. However, the five years is up in 2020 but they promise support to 2023. This allows businesses and people who don't want to HAVE TO change things to use something for at least five years at a stretch. The hardware can actually last a long time if you use a real computer - not a handheld toy - as I'm still using my 2012 desktop for linux mint. I have older computers than that running offline using XP.
I'm no computer geek by any means, but back in 2012 a friend built me a linux computer with a distribution called Ultimate Edition. About six months after I started using this, the guy who wrote UE lost interest in it and it was no longer supported. over a few years, the computer lost functionality. For example the network connection icon disappeared and I had to get a mechanical switch to go off-line Yes, some people go off-line!
Later sites like Mouser and Digikey changed their security and my linux was too old to look at it. Even the Thunderbird mail was losing some functionality.
My friend who built this had to learn about linux while he was doing it. Since then he's been after me to use a live disc, saying how easy it is. Recently when I saw him he showed me the live disc with linux mint on it and how easy it is to use. You can use it as a live disc, which means the operating system lives on the CD not the hard drive so everything runs a bit slow. You can choose to install it and then it will run fast.
An important point about the linux mint installation is that you must be connected to the internet so the installer can get stuff from the web.
I ended up trying it a few times as there seemed to be other things up with this spcific task, like there were two hard drives in the computer - my friend was a fan of raid redundancy - and the old linux was on one drive and the mint went on the other, then the computer kept defaulting to the old system. During the third attempt both drives were wiped. The fourth time was the charm and linux mint is working now!
There are weirdnesses with linux since it is open-source. Everyone names things in silly ways that are completely nonintuitive. You simply can't call the print manager the print manager since that's what your grandfather used to call it. At least it comes already fitted with Firefox and defaults to Duck-duck-go as a search engine.
Briefly I was using a google chrome desktop to access those sites my old linux could not see, but... GOOGLE IS EVIL ! they do not allow you to block updates and the desk top will change at their whim - as it did one day. They have their finger in your computer so what else are they doing in there? They tell you sites are insecure just because a single page is not behind an SSL - a page that does not need to be secure, but they say the whole site is insecure. How much business did they lose for people around the world? Just evil megalomanics !
(It used to be that SSLs were expensive so you only put the payment page behind it and left the product pages outside of it. The fashion now as pushed upon us by google and some others is that everything should be secure as https. Fortunately SSLs are now inexpensive and even free. Also beware the cloud. That is code for google's server and they see everything you put there and analyse it for their own purpose of marketing and control. When I got that chrome desktop the fine print said that I had free access to the cloud for two years, implying that after that time google would want $$. I never use the cloud.I'm not paranoid but I do have a sense of how to maintain my own security and the security of the data entrusted to me. However, google is doing all the things that a paranoid person imagines an evil megacorp to do, so you really do need to stop twiddling on your handhelds and re-assess the situation)
Linux is fantastic and stable. Most computerised test equipment uses linux. Bryston's digital audio players use linux.
The important thing about linux mint is that it is gauranteed to be the same for five years and will be supported. However, the five years is up in 2020 but they promise support to 2023. This allows businesses and people who don't want to HAVE TO change things to use something for at least five years at a stretch. The hardware can actually last a long time if you use a real computer - not a handheld toy - as I'm still using my 2012 desktop for linux mint. I have older computers than that running offline using XP.
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Many of the posts on this thread have vindicated what I was saying at the beginning
I hope I did not give the impression that I was trumpeting one os over the other.
One possible advantage of linux by the way is you can `hack` the kernel,it is then possible to
almost eliminate latency for muti-channel audio recording on an ordinary pc.
But I still can`t really reccomend linux for people who want everything to `just work out of the box` !!! sometimes it will,--- but moreoften not.
As regards to all the hidden spyware yes this is a diabolical development.I suppose it boils down
to peoples data having great commecial value these days, But I value my privicy and don`t like it one little bit.
Must admit I had a wee giggle reading nauta`s post about the naming conventions in linux it really is not that helpfull to get the message like-- "Your Kplonker is not talking to the Twaddeller"
Anyway anyone else agree with me this is a GREAT site ? Some real in depth knowlege here and people willing to share it.Long may it last.
I hope I did not give the impression that I was trumpeting one os over the other.
One possible advantage of linux by the way is you can `hack` the kernel,it is then possible to
almost eliminate latency for muti-channel audio recording on an ordinary pc.
But I still can`t really reccomend linux for people who want everything to `just work out of the box` !!! sometimes it will,--- but moreoften not.
As regards to all the hidden spyware yes this is a diabolical development.I suppose it boils down
to peoples data having great commecial value these days, But I value my privicy and don`t like it one little bit.
Must admit I had a wee giggle reading nauta`s post about the naming conventions in linux it really is not that helpfull to get the message like-- "Your Kplonker is not talking to the Twaddeller"
Anyway anyone else agree with me this is a GREAT site ? Some real in depth knowlege here and people willing to share it.Long may it last.
I don't find that to be the case at all. I rarely have to compile a program from source. For the everyday user, Linux just works. And what do you mean by "everything"?
I dual boot. There's not much I cant do on Linux, its only the obscure / specialised software that is mainly windows only. The reality is that most people can get by using linux only since most of what they do is via a web browser. You dont need MS office, libre office does the same thing for free.
I'm currently running opensuse tumbleweed. Literally runs through the same QA processes as the enterprise releases.
I'm currently running opensuse tumbleweed. Literally runs through the same QA processes as the enterprise releases.
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What I mean is this:- Microsoft (who had 95% of the pc market) craftily put the responsibility for hardware add-ons drivers down to the manufacturer of said equipment and for many years the mantra was 'If it works with windows that`s good enough' This applied to printers,scanners,vidieo cards,win-modems,wi-fi,sound cards, ect,ect.Leaving volounteers to write drivers for linux, this meant a lot of equipment is not covered or works without the full set of features.Fortunately the situation is improving as linux becomes more mainstream HP for example does support linux. Some however still don`t. This is where 99.9% of linux problems arise. As i say things ARE getting better for NEWER equipment. Also I did say sometimes everything will work !! it just largely depends if you have recent popular hardware. Check the linux forums if you do not believe me or even posts on this thead.
I really must state once again I have NO biased agenda one way or the other.
I really must state once again I have NO biased agenda one way or the other.
This is true, manufacturers don't care for an operating system that is <1% of the market. I guess that's why some of us dual boot.
Fragmentation of linux distributions doesn't help and then adding updates, release cycles, long term support and rolling releases into the mix and we wonder why people have issues.
Fragmentation of linux distributions doesn't help and then adding updates, release cycles, long term support and rolling releases into the mix and we wonder why people have issues.
Hi,
its 2019, not 2000. MS does not have 95%, it was 81,6% last year. And if i see the server market, its way over 92% linux. I know, big companies use Linux, because it has problems with hardware. Yes, of course. Today drivers tend to be avaialable BEFORE you can buy the actual devices. Sometimes you dont get the Gigabyte or Asus driver, but you get FUNCTIONING drivers from chip verndors. Neither Gigabyte, nor Asus or others create ICs, they buy them and put them on their boards with a nice label. The hardware still runs with vendor drivers. And often WAY better, because they are not blown like win drivers.
99,99% of Linux problems are only in the heads of ppl who never tried it and believe MS and companies that MS is manipulating...
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Re linuxgeek
I do know what year it is
to quote myself (who HAD 95% of the pc market) note the use of the word HAD ie In the past, ie not at this time, ie not anymore.
I was describing a situation that existed until quite recently which means there are untold numbers of components a few years old such as printers ect still working perfectly well, But no-one will ever write drivers for them.and often if drivers are written the apps are incomplete !! to use printers as an example again yes it may well print-----BUT not at the full range of resolutions, or NO head cleaning or NO ink levels.This situation is not limited to printers either.
I might add that FOUR of my pc`s run SUSE 32 and64 bit linux and one old timer puppy linux\win98se, the rest of my machines are XP, VISTA, and 2x machines running win 10 64bit.
I keep the older versions of windows so that some of my printers and scanners still work,cos guess what !! NO linux drivers.and never will be. Why keep an old win98 printer??? Simples I can refil it with dirt cheap fountain pen ink and thereby print untold loads at next to no cost.
One of my linux machines is set up as an APACHE web server for my own intranet as I do web site development/professional photography and graphics.
To be honest I now regret posting advice to the thread starter who seemed ? a computer novice, I simply wished to warn that scrapping the manufacturers pre-installed systems MAY lead to POSSIBLE problems.It was never my intention to open this can of worms or to critique other peoples choice of operating system
I do know what year it is
to quote myself (who HAD 95% of the pc market) note the use of the word HAD ie In the past, ie not at this time, ie not anymore.
I was describing a situation that existed until quite recently which means there are untold numbers of components a few years old such as printers ect still working perfectly well, But no-one will ever write drivers for them.and often if drivers are written the apps are incomplete !! to use printers as an example again yes it may well print-----BUT not at the full range of resolutions, or NO head cleaning or NO ink levels.This situation is not limited to printers either.
I might add that FOUR of my pc`s run SUSE 32 and64 bit linux and one old timer puppy linux\win98se, the rest of my machines are XP, VISTA, and 2x machines running win 10 64bit.
I keep the older versions of windows so that some of my printers and scanners still work,cos guess what !! NO linux drivers.and never will be. Why keep an old win98 printer??? Simples I can refil it with dirt cheap fountain pen ink and thereby print untold loads at next to no cost.
One of my linux machines is set up as an APACHE web server for my own intranet as I do web site development/professional photography and graphics.
To be honest I now regret posting advice to the thread starter who seemed ? a computer novice, I simply wished to warn that scrapping the manufacturers pre-installed systems MAY lead to POSSIBLE problems.It was never my intention to open this can of worms or to critique other peoples choice of operating system
Installing and using linux for us techies is not a problem however for the average consumer they normally can't be bothered to learn anything new.
With MS operating systems being pre-installed on most laptops they don't consider that there maybe other free operating systems and open source software.
I think the first hurdle for the average person is understanding how to partition a hard drive in preparation for a linux installation. MS Windows is fairly easy even for a complete novice.
With MS operating systems being pre-installed on most laptops they don't consider that there maybe other free operating systems and open source software.
I think the first hurdle for the average person is understanding how to partition a hard drive in preparation for a linux installation. MS Windows is fairly easy even for a complete novice.
I've tested many linux distributions - if it works in live mode (wi fi, video etc) from first boot - it will install without any problems. On older / weaker computers i installed mx linux ( runs fine even on atom cpu with 2GB ram - my netbook for spotify streeming to DAC) . Linux mint also good choice imho for any PC ( 2 or more cores and 2GB or more RAM) . On my HTPC and desktop PC i still use win 10 ( i like media portal software for HTPC and i need LT spice and other software for DIY audio hobby on my desktop PC) . I regularly testing a new linux distributions if i have spare time.
re osscar
Yes LT spice is awsome, as are programs like horn resp.In my day had to do everything with pen/paper and a calculator mind you i am still at beginner level with LT
Still remember reading Douglas Selfs audio amplifier writings in WW during the mid 1990s and thinking ----if only-----must have cost him a fortune back then.
Yes LT spice is awsome, as are programs like horn resp.In my day had to do everything with pen/paper and a calculator mind you i am still at beginner level with LT
Still remember reading Douglas Selfs audio amplifier writings in WW during the mid 1990s and thinking ----if only-----must have cost him a fortune back then.
I run LTspiceIV, MicroCap 6 and TinaTI 9 in Wine on Linux without any problems. Some quirkiness with Micro Cap in the file open dialog though. Curve Captor, Engauge Digitizer (and other assorted digitizers), Model Paint Tools, LibreOffice Calc and RStudio natively in Linux for creating tube models. And then there's KiCad for Linux. I could go on...
I used to run foobar2000 under Wine for awhile, but I went to using DeaDBeeF and Clementine music players with 12000+ music files. I was somewhat of a Windoze power-user, but when I smelled the direction M$ was moving in 2013-14 with Windoze 10, I researched Linux on the web, hopped on Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Linux Mint 16. Dual-booted Windoze and Linux at first, got my feet wet, felt at home with Linux rarely booting into Windoze 7. I now boot 8 different Linux distributions on 1 PC. I'm planing to lower that down to just three. I'll admit there was a learning curve, but (for me anyway) isn't that's what life is all about? I'm an old dude, 60+ and I did it.
I used to "fix" a number of friends and neighbors Windows PC's that have become "sluggish", "pop-up nightmares", re-directs, failed to boot, viruses, trojans, browser hi-jacks, tool bar infested, registry cleaners (ohhh boy!), speed up your PC with this "Fix Your PC" program and on and on... Most of them I have switched over to Linux and haven't had any complaints, just a lot of thank yous!
A person will have to decide what they want/need to accomplish with their PC, what software is out there for Linux and Windows to get their work done. But don't be afraid to try something new. Most users will not have to drop down to the command line. When I used Windoze, I had to go to the command line/shell many times to fix stuff. YMMV.
Remember the service manager in my old company going on about "windoze" and that was in 1990
seems not much has changed (in the last 30 years)DOS rules!!!! only kidding
On a serious note cogsncogs does have a point the crap that people download onto their machines
beggars belife I have had on many occasion the unfortunte duty to sort out friends machines infected with this rubbish
seems not much has changed (in the last 30 years)DOS rules!!!! only kidding
On a serious note cogsncogs does have a point the crap that people download onto their machines
beggars belife I have had on many occasion the unfortunte duty to sort out friends machines infected with this rubbish
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