Linux Operating Systems ?.

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Hi Trevor (In Oz not in China)

While I hear what you say I already have MS Office Pro on my own machine but have recently had to borrow a laptop with Open Office on it and frankly there is no comparison, particularly in the graphics. Trying to read any graphics into Open Office that have been prepared in MS Excel is an absolute nightmare and the in-built Open Office graphics are so crude as to be virtually useless. I just had to give up in the end.

I'm afraid the old adage of 'You get what you pay for' has never been more true.

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Trevor
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[user=946]Chinahand[/user] wrote:
. Trying to read any graphics into Open Office that have been prepared in MS Excel is an absolute nightmare and the in-built Open Office graphics are so crude as to be virtually useless.
 

Yes I found that trying to copy a spreadsheet that I have formatted in Excel 2010 into Open/Libre Office does not compute.

In the main, page formatting such as size, etc is not retained but defaults to A4 when the original is smaller lkie an A5.

 

OO maybe perfect for formulaes etc but falls down in formatting pages, etc. IMO

Ron
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I'm glad it's not just me Ron.

I use the 'Draw' uitility within MS Office quite a lot in connection with my railway modelling including the designing of my main control panel and other small switch panels. OO just turns them into gobbledygook. I also have several financial spreadsheets which generate quite complex graphs. OO just won't look at them.

Until Linux works with MS Office I'm afraid it's a non-starter as far as I'm concerned. Pity really as the OS itself sounds quite good.

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Trevor
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Creating a new spreadshet in OO appears to be OK but importing an Excel created version, it looses a lot and takes too much time to correct & having at least 30 spreadsheets of various sizes & formats is not what I consider a good use of modelling time.
I had no problems in the past converting Lotus 1-2-3 or Quatro Pro to Excel V3 as I was paid to do the conversion.

Ron
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Thanks Dave. I've bookmarked that link. Now Linux starts to look viable.

Next question for all you Linux experts. Why/how are you so sure it's virus proof ?

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Trevor
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Hi Trevor, Linux has a vastly superior security architecture to Windows, while it's not true to say that Linux cannot be infected with  viruses, it is true to say that Linux is far less likely to be infected,  and if it is, then the damage will be much less significant.

Hackers spend their time making the owners of Windows  machines lives a misery as that is the mainstream OS. Also Linux users tend to be  smarter about the security of their machines, every Linux distribution comes with a Firewall that you can set up to your own security requirements.

Its now over four years since I started using Linux, in that time I have been involved in or read hundreds of hours of information regarding the system, I have never heard of anyone that has been infected by a virus, the guys who develop Linux OSs are well and truly on top of things and updates including security updates are available regularly.

Some of the mainstream Antivirus companies are making their software for Linux including AVG and Avast, I myself would never use Antivirus with Linux as some of the Antivirus software itself contains malware.
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Thanks Dave. That's very helpful and I think I will definitely give Linux a go when I get back to UK.

One more question, well 2 actually.

Is it possible to load Linux onto a blank hard drive or do you have to install Windows first and then download Linux ?

Once Linux is installed can Windows be uninstalled ?

Sorry to be a pain but I do like to 'look before I leap'.:lol:

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Trevor
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To add to Martins comments, unless you want to dual boot a computer Linux will format and partition the HDD automatically, while installing Linux it gives you the choice of what and where you want the OS to go, eg, send Windows to the happy hunting grounds or share it with Linux :lol:

Yes if you do a dual boot Windows can be removed, there is plenty of information on the net regarding the method, if it were me that did a dual boot I would just reload Linux to avoid any unnecessary complications, it only takes a few minutes ;-)
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Thank you Martin and Dave. You've been most helpful and, once I get back to UK and get my PC set up I will certainly try Linux.

My PC has 4 internal hard drives, one of which contains only Windows system files, so I can install Linux without affecting any of my data files.


Just to be sure, am I correct in thinking I should download and install Linux Mint instead of Ubuntu and then load Wine on top of it ?

Last edit: by Chinahand


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Trevor
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Hi Trevor, most Linux Operating Systems derive from Ubuntu but not all, I have tried the latest Ubuntu offering which is 12.04 but without going into a lot of detail it is not quite as user friendly as Mint 13 Cinnemon.

I sometimes get the feeling that some developers try and reinvent the wheel, even though Ubuntu would be my second choice it is one of them, Ubuntu recently introduced what is called a Unix desktop and many users made the switch to Mint because it has gone the other way with Cinnemon, simple, straight forward computing, Mint also has several other versions including MATE which is similar to Unix, not my cup of tea.

My preference would be Mint 13 Maya "Cinnemon", Wine can be loaded onto most if not all Linux operating systems of which there are at least 100 variations from all corners of the world.
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Thanks again Dave,

Which would you recommend, installing Linux on top of Windows or formatting the hard disc and then installing Linux only ?

From what I have read it seems that Mint and Wine do need to use some Windows dll files in order to work properly with some Microsoft programmes so it would seem that the first option would be best.

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Trevor
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:lol::lol::lol: Now you have really put me on the spot Trevor, you are conversing with a total Windows hater :lol::lol::lol:

Seriously though I would do a dual boot if I were you, get to know Linux plus Wine and if it does what you want you can always do a full install, the latest version of Wine is very good and they like Linux upgrade quite often.

Looking at it from another point of view you are much safer using Linux on the www with no need for all the Anti's, you could use Windows to do whatever else and also play with Linux at the same time.


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Thanks again Dave. I will follow your advice and see how it goes.

I'm certainly no fan of MS Windows but there has been little alternative until Linux came along and even than it has taken a while to evolve into its present form. There still seems to be a problem, however, particularly with other MS Software that needs some Windows files to work properly.

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Trevor
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Trevor most Linux users like myself get quite stubborn when it comes to using Windows programs in Linux, there is always an alternative program that will do the same thing and for free.

As mentioned previously the only two Windows programs I use through Wine are Faststone Image Viewer and their Resizer, there is a multitude of Linux programs that will do the same thing but they and ULead Photo Explorer were three of my favorite Windows programs when I used XP.

Would like to hear how things go when you return to the UK.
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Hi Martin,

Apart from some quite complex Excel  financial spreadsheets I run which have graphics embedded into them I use the 'Draw' facility within MS Excel to draw such things as this Control Panel Layout and varous switch panels among other things.

Open Office just turns this into an unintelligable mess and completely loses all the formatting in my spreadsheets,


 

Last edit: by Chinahand


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Trevor
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I think it is the conversion from Excel into OO that is the problem.  Quite posibly OO will do what Excel has done but the time needed to completely rebuild such graphic spreadsheets can be off-putting.

Ron
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My eyes glazed over when you started talking Swahili but then I realised Swahili is a B-a-ntu language and not a B-u-ntu language ………..:lol::lol::lol::lol:

Shhhhhhhhhh !!    You're triggering one of my confusion attacks again ……………..:???::???::???:

'Petermac
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Hi Martin,

I started out using Multiplan many years ago so the move to Excel was a natural progression. It probably stems from many years of using the graphics in MS Office when other suitable graphcs programmes were just not available.  I tried 'Paint' for a while but still preferred the choice of effects available in MS Office. Here's another example of the sort of thing I do with MS Office




I have a standard blank graph paper sheet which allows me to scale thing to suit my requirements and after years of use I find it very easy to produce quite complex effects such as the ones shown in the Turntable Control section of my control panel. A background 'wood grain' with a 'brass' effect middle ground and then the fine details in the foreground.

At my age I prefer to stick with what I know. Moving over to Linux will, I'm sure, be a very steep learning curve and whether I persevere with it remains to be seen.

Last edit: by Chinahand


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Trevor
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