spinningmagnets
100 TW
I was provided with several Ubuntu options, I closed my eyes and selected the 14.04.3 64-bit...YMMV
MS Windows-7 screwed me, Linux/Ubuntu discussion
- Thread starter spinningmagnets
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markz
100 TW
spinningmagnets said:
That is Ubuntu 14.04.3 XUbuntu, on the XFCE platform I believe.
I could very well be wrong on that, perhaps more flavors come in that numerical subject 14.04.3.
Thats the one I picked for my 15 year old laptop. I think you will be very happy with the conversion.
Lots of word, spreadsheet, and database applications.
Flavors of Ubuntu
This is a good guide as well.
Some flavors are very resource intensive, other flavors are bare bones and very minimalistic, so ideally one picks the Ubuntu to their needs and what type of computer they are installing it onto. It can be confusing but its good you jumped into it and actually did it.
Once you get familiar with how to install the O/S itself, and how to install other programs, its actually quite easy. The major hurdle would be, atleast for me, was the typing the program language in the command line, but there are so many tutorials online its pretty easy to get into the groove. Look through the library and download what you want.
spinningmagnets
100 TW
Now trying to figure out how to load "Flash" player. There are three options presented, don't know which is best...
The wife likes a computer game that uses Adobe Flash, and if I can get that to work, she may switch her laptop over to Ubuntu also
The wife likes a computer game that uses Adobe Flash, and if I can get that to work, she may switch her laptop over to Ubuntu also
markz
100 TW
I am sure you found this website.
Looks like its pretty easy to obtain Flash on Linux/Ubuntu systems.
Looks like its pretty easy to obtain Flash on Linux/Ubuntu systems.
spinningmagnets
100 TW
My transition to Ubuntu is going well. Since "Paint" from MS is not already embedded, I am trying out "Gimp" to screencap pics, crop, and scale them to size. It s a free "photoshop basic" program, that is generic and open-source.
stan.distortion
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spinningmagnets said:
Gimp can be a fairly steep learning curve, powerful but I could never got comfortable with it. Have you tried gthumb? Fairly basic compared to gimp but might have all you need and I found it easy to use right away.
spinningmagnets
100 TW
Thanks for the tips, I will check out both!
dustNbone
10 kW
You can easily install the KDE desktop on your current Ubuntu, no need to change distros just to try out another desktop environment.
sudo apt install kde-plasma-desktop
Then you should be able to select which desktop you want to use at login.
For a lightweight photo editor/organizer, I've been using Shotwell for a few years now. It's more viewer/organizer/manager than editor, but it handles basic editing (scaling/resizing, cropping, etc) which is all I generally need.
sudo apt install shotwell
sudo apt install kde-plasma-desktop
Then you should be able to select which desktop you want to use at login.
For a lightweight photo editor/organizer, I've been using Shotwell for a few years now. It's more viewer/organizer/manager than editor, but it handles basic editing (scaling/resizing, cropping, etc) which is all I generally need.
sudo apt install shotwell
stan.distortion
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I'd used shotwell in the past and seem to remember getting on well with it too, iirc I came across gthumb while looking for it and unable to remember the name. That's the great thing with linux distros, usually dozens of apps that do the more or less same thing and really easy to install and find which suits you best. Can be a bit of a hindrance sometimes too though, only giving them a brief try before going onto the next and it's easy to miss some great software. I'd done that with OpenSCAD, didn't look into it for ages because nothing seemed to make sense, finally got around to giving it a proper try only a few years ago and would be totally lost without it now.
Distros do get kinda cruddy when doing that though, trying out anything and everything Imo it's worth expecting to do a clean re-install once you've found the main apps that suit you best. Maybe it's a little too much into the command line mystic voodoo but putting the /home directory on a separate partition during installation makes that kind of thing a breeze, it can then be reused and nothing in there is lost if you choose to do a fresh installation.
And KDE rocks! Used it for years and it really looks and works great. Bit of a resource hog though, even with everything turned down. Not a problem on a decent PC but it can be a bit of a struggle for older or lower spec hardware. XFCE is at the other end of the scale, nothing overly special to look at but very light on resources, even an aged pentium II box would run well with it.
Distros do get kinda cruddy when doing that though, trying out anything and everything Imo it's worth expecting to do a clean re-install once you've found the main apps that suit you best. Maybe it's a little too much into the command line mystic voodoo but putting the /home directory on a separate partition during installation makes that kind of thing a breeze, it can then be reused and nothing in there is lost if you choose to do a fresh installation.
And KDE rocks! Used it for years and it really looks and works great. Bit of a resource hog though, even with everything turned down. Not a problem on a decent PC but it can be a bit of a struggle for older or lower spec hardware. XFCE is at the other end of the scale, nothing overly special to look at but very light on resources, even an aged pentium II box would run well with it.
markz
100 TW
Is there a program that I can install that will automatically change photo size when its loaded into the program?
I use IRFanview, recommended from a post here on ES. But I always change my photos to 500, then the program changes the other size automatically. But I'd like to add photo and the program change it to 500 by whatever the common ratio is.
I use IRFanview, recommended from a post here on ES. But I always change my photos to 500, then the program changes the other size automatically. But I'd like to add photo and the program change it to 500 by whatever the common ratio is.
dustNbone said:
dustNbone
10 kW
If it were me, I'd install ImageMagick, which is a command line image manipulation package.
Then I would do
convert image.jpg -resize 500x500\> image.jpg
assuming you just want to overwrite the original with the resized version.
convert image.jpg -resize 500x500\> .\resized\image.jpg
will put the resized image in a folder named resized, preserving the original in the parent folder.
https://guides.wp-bullet.com/batch-resize-images-using-linux-command-line-and-imagemagick/
There's a good guide to batch resizing, with some instructions on making a simple shell script to automate it nicely.
Sorry I have no info on a GUI method for this, because it's just the kind of thing shell scripts were made for. Once you have it set up it will be far quicker and less error prone than anything graphical.
Then I would do
convert image.jpg -resize 500x500\> image.jpg
assuming you just want to overwrite the original with the resized version.
convert image.jpg -resize 500x500\> .\resized\image.jpg
will put the resized image in a folder named resized, preserving the original in the parent folder.
https://guides.wp-bullet.com/batch-resize-images-using-linux-command-line-and-imagemagick/
There's a good guide to batch resizing, with some instructions on making a simple shell script to automate it nicely.
Sorry I have no info on a GUI method for this, because it's just the kind of thing shell scripts were made for. Once you have it set up it will be far quicker and less error prone than anything graphical.
Irfanview can be used from the command line too. Or a Windows shortcut containing a resize command can be made.
http://www.etcwiki.org/wiki/IrfanView_Command_Line_Options
http://www.etcwiki.org/wiki/IrfanView_Command_Line_Options
spinningmagnets
100 TW
I think I will keep Gimp for all of its wide range of features (its a "photoshop lite"). However, for...
"screenshot, crop, scale"...Pinta seems to be much simpler. It's similar to MS Paint. It's also free like Gimp, and both are in the Linux free software library.
"screenshot, crop, scale"...Pinta seems to be much simpler. It's similar to MS Paint. It's also free like Gimp, and both are in the Linux free software library.
Good to see you still use Linux.spinningmagnets said:
If you're still on Ubuntu 14.04, it reached end of life a couple of months ago so you won't get any more security updates. Might be you can't install any more programs either unless you edit the software repository list. The latest long term support version is 18.04. Ubuntu's desktop environment & user interface has changed to a different one entirely so you might consider switching to KDE instead.
Burned Kubuntu 18.04 and KDE neon discs & mailed them out to you today.
spinningmagnets
100 TW
Thanks Mark5!
markz
100 TW
No no, its Bill Gates that raped us all. Not only did he rape us, he even threw sand in there to make it sting even more.
The latest go 'round, I had to buy 2 copies of Office for one laptop. Pisses me off!
I use OpenOffice, but for a family member, they needed/wanted MS Office and Outlook for business.
I had them try out other email clients, cant change old ways.
spinningmagnets
100 TW
I think Gates has been out of the MS game for a while. Last I checked it was Steve Ballmer at the helm, thanks Steve!
Discs arrived, thanks again Mark5!
Discs arrived, thanks again Mark5!
I've been running KDE Neon on my work laptop with two windows 7 VMs inside, and i gotta say this OS is absolutely my favorite.. 400mb footprint, well featured, and easy on the eyes.. Ubuntu used 3 times the ram at bootup!!
markz
100 TW
Right, but the hatred for Billy is REAL!
I will still blame Billy in 50yrs
I will still blame Billy in 50yrs
spinningmagnets said:
Dauntless
100 TW
spinningmagnets said:
He's been out for 4 1/2 years. He was striking out buying an NBA team so the league set up a scam to drug an owner and record him making a fool of himself so they could use it as an excuse to sell to Ballmer. Worked out for them, they got their billionaire.
