Windows XP is no longer being supported

[john9blue]

about a week ago i used a live USB with ubuntu to recover my files from a corrupted hard drive. linux definitely has its uses (copying large amount of files is way easier using a cp command instead of copy-and-paste). i just don't think it's as suitable for general computer use as windows is.

[Metsfanmax]

about a week ago i used a live USB with ubuntu to recover my files from a corrupted hard drive. linux definitely has its uses (copying large amount of files is way easier using a cp command instead of copy-and-paste). i just don't think it's as suitable for general computer use as windows is.

Examples?

[premio53]

about a week ago i used a live USB with ubuntu to recover my files from a corrupted hard drive. linux definitely has its uses (copying large amount of files is way easier using a cp command instead of copy-and-paste). i just don't think it's as suitable for general computer use as windows is.

When you say Linux isn't as suitable for general use as windows is, I don't really understand where you are coming from. I can boot to either Linux or Windows 7 on my laptop and 99% of the time all I ever use is Linux. I really can't think of anything that I'm limited to. On top of that, at any time I can go to the Software Manager and select from around 40,000 packages that will download and install automatically free.

There are a couple of Windows chess programs I use but with "wine" they run flawlessly in Linux. "Wine" is a free program that runs windows software in the Linux environment.

To top it off, I can install Linux to a flash drive and boot up in any system that has a USB port. In other words I can carry my operating system with me and use any host computer to access my computer. I would never go back to Windoze.

[john9blue]

i was under the impression that wine doesn't run all windows apps. does it?

and is a live usb OS slower than an OS on the hard disk? because like i was saying earlier, ubuntu runs slower than windows on some occasions.

[Metsfanmax]

i was under the impression that wine doesn't run all windows apps. does it?

Wine is not able to run every application designed for Windows. In fact, honestly, most people just use Wine for playing video games that are designed only for Windows or Windows/Mac. But you said that Linux is not as suitable for general computer use, and the reason I take exception to that is that there are plenty of suitable alternatives to Windows applications that make Wine compatibility irrelevant. For example, Open Office (now LibreOffice) is actually fairly good lately, and can do the normal things that Microsoft Office can.

I'd say there are notable exceptions to this principle; for example, one annoyance to me is that Netflix really dragged their feet on making their streaming software compatible with Linux systems (since they utilize the proprietary Microsoft Silverlight software). So I wouldn't say that any Linux system is a perfect substitute for a Windows system. However, the benefits that come with the enhanced power one has with, say, Ubuntu, will outweigh many of the incompatibility issues. And you can always dual-boot (I do this on my PCs since I didn't have to pay for my copy of Windows, or got them very cheaply because of student discounts).

and is a live usb OS slower than an OS on the hard disk? because like i was saying earlier, ubuntu runs slower than windows on some occasions.

Actually, Flash memory is inherently faster than hard disk memory, so, all other things being equal, I'd expect any OS to run faster off of a USB drive if you can fit the whole OS in memory. But it's not so important because most people who use Ubuntu regularly obviously install it to hard disk.

[premio53]

i was under the impression that wine doesn't run all windows apps. does it?

and is a live usb OS slower than an OS on the hard disk? because like i was saying earlier, ubuntu runs slower than windows on some occasions.

It is true that all Windows apps will not run in wine but I can't think of any program in Windows where there is not a comparable one for Linux. The live CD runs much slower than Linux installed on the hard drive. However, many Linux distros (Linux Mint for example) will automatically partition the hard drive in half and install Linux to run side by side with Windows. The boot manager will give you the option to run either Linux or Windows.

I have installed Linux on many old laptops and desktops with no problems at all. You can also choose which desktop you like. A lightweight desktop such as LXDE will run on an old system with 250 megabytes or less of RAM with no problems. Try that with just about any version of Windows!