You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Well it looks like Windows7 is coming to an end for me and everyone else 2020 :-(.
I don't want Windows 10, as my PC 12 years old and I'm sure Windows 10 will baulk at that.
All I really need is internet access for banking etc. Decent photo editor (I guess GIMP) and some way to run Xara Designer Pro X12 and a couple of other Windows legacy programs (Fontographer, Photoshop CS5 and above all Worms+.
As I'm going to pushed off the Windows boat (by choice it seems).
I've been looking at Ubuntu or Linux Mint, any of you guys using these or out of those two what would you go for ?
Any thoughts or preferences.
Well first up I'd try win 10 if you can do it via the upgrade process
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/windows-10-specifications
Min spec is fairly low, it's a really good and solid OS that plays nicely with lots of stuff.
I think you can install and run before you license it if it doesn't work on upgrade to quickly test it
I would suggest Ubuntu or mint lol!
They are pretty easy to get to grips with.
I prefer the look of Ubuntu but I don't really have a preference.
No reason you can't try both.
Well first up I’d try win 10 if you can do it via the upgrade process
This. You might be very surprised at how well it will run compared to Win 7.
Before I bought a Chromebook I was happily using Linux Mint. It just worked.
This. You might be very surprised at how well it will run compared to Win 7.
That's a fair point actually, windows 10 is not that bad on old hardware, if you can run 7 comfortably 10 won't be too much more demanding, if at all.
Ubuntu - decent release cycle (updates are regular, you know how long a major release - lts- is good for). Has a user friendly package manager etc - it’s easy to install programmes/apps. Plenty of advice and support available. Currently run a small office including cloud services all on Ubuntu /server.
I use Arch Linux, I wouldn't recommend that unless you know how to use it and it will be you maintaining the system. Manjaro is an Arch spin off that's pretty friendly aimed at beginners. As it's based on Arch it's a rolling release so you just update, there's never a whole new version that you need to replace your existing install with.
My sister recently bought a system from her workplace cheap, running Ubuntu which she finds easy to use for general web browsing etc. Had to come to me though when she forgot her password.
I'm still on W7 on my old laptop, what are you on about?. Mine's Still running fine, it's just gradually getting slower.
I’m still on W7 on my old laptop, what are you on about?
It won't just stop working, but no official MS support from next year - i.e. no more updates, fixes or security updates (unless you are a large business and pay for them).
I’m still on W7 on my old laptop, what are you on about?
Support ends soon so no more updates and security patches, time to move on.
All good things must come to an end, even Windows 7. After January 14, 2020, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates or support for PCs running Windows 7. But you can keep the good times rolling by moving to Windows 10.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsforbusiness/end-of-windows-7-support
I have a similarly aged pc running Windows 10 with no issues. I did upgrade the hard drive but even that is 6-7 years old. I’d say give Win 10 a go.
A new Debian release should be out in a few weeks. Yay! 🙂
Another vote for trying 10.
I upgraded for free and it runs better than it ever did with 7.
Only thing is the fingerprint scanner broke as no one made any win 10 drivers.
Also about to kick windows 7 into touch as it wont upgrade. Seems to think its a dodgy copy but as I type I am looking at the original box and there serial number so sod them.
About to purchase a Chromebox and 4k monitor in the hope it will be a larger version of my Android phone. Also tried Mint from a memory stick on a win 7 machine and seem to get on ok with it.
I made a full transition to Manjaro from Windows 8.1 over Christmas within a week. I know it sounds long but you know how you customise your OS to how you like it, well after many years of using Windows I was able to customise Manjaro more by using the KDE desktop environment. There's a range of available environments and KDE is probably the most resource intensive of the lot but it's highly customisable. Xfce might be the one to go for if you have a older machine. These different desktop environments exist for Debian OSs too like Ubuntu uses Gnome and there's Xubuntu (Xfce on Ubuntu) for example.
I can still dual boot into Windows but I do it very rarely now. My main issue was syncing up Firefox (web browser) and Thunderbird (email) across Windows and Manjaro. I have two SSDs in my laptop and only use portable apps (located on the second SSD) in Windows. So installing Firefox and Thunderbird in Manjaro I can share the profile of these two apps between the two OSs. This had helped the transition as any changes I make in one OS immediately happened in the other without being logged in.
Manjaro is one of the easier Arch based distros to install and set up. There is a widely used spanish one which I can't remember the name of off my head. I tried it but had some issues with it so settled on Manjaro.
Ubuntu's good too with a nice app repository, similar to Google Play but with free apps.
Wine almost seamlessly allows you to use Windows apps in Linux but, and it's the only reason I log into Windows now, I can't use Adobe Acrobat. So, there will be the odd application, probably Adobe apps, that you can't run.
Try a live distro first. Image your drive prior to any install. Try and dual boot if you can.
https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=manjaro
I don’t want Windows 10, as my PC 12 years old and I’m sure Windows 10 will baulk at that.
After Vista, Windows has become progressively lighter not heavier like it used to. I have a netbook (remember them?) with an Atom Z520 in it; it's so slow that the JavaScript on a page like Facebook makes it almost unusable. However Windows 10 itself is snappy and responsive. As above - give it a go.
Also about to kick windows 7 into touch as it wont upgrade. Seems to think its a dodgy copy but as I type I am looking at the original box and there serial number so sod them.
You can call them, they are good at sorting stuff like this out.
IME, if it can run Win7, it can run Win10. Obvious concern is hardware drivers, but the compatibility checker should warn you if there are any problems.
I've run Linux Mint for a while now. I tried a few different Linux varieties a couple of months ago including Ubuntu and Manjaro which I'd rate numbers 2 and 3 respectively, but came back to Linux Mint at number 1
Mint seems to be a bit more sorted; IMHO Cinnamon edition is better "out of the box" if your PC will stand it, or XFCE at the lower spec end
Download a few onto DVDs/USB sticks and boot from them to test without altering the Windows installation