Linux help

[Beekeeper]

OK I admit it i'm a dummy!
I am trying to learn linux and after always using windows it isn't easy for an old man like me.
I am told if you download a program called wine you can use several windows programs. So I downloaded it.
computer says it is installed. Still will not work.
Same with 7 zip which is winzip for linux .
Need someone to take me by the hand and lead me to the richous ways of linux.

beekeeper

[blueeyephil]

What flavor of linux? And what window programs are you wanting to run?

I may not be much help but i do run linux. I've only set up one program to run under wine and that's been several years ago.

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[Oreo]

If you're new to Linux I think wine may be beyond your grasp for now. I've been using linux casually for years now and in my experience getting wine to run right is difficult when possible at all. The simple fact is that linux is always getting better but will never be as user friendly as paid for software.

[darkroommike]

If you are a noob to Linux I have five pieces of advice:


Get the most recent version of Ubuntu, it's very user friendly, it's actually easier to install on my older PC than Windows!
Get the book, Linux for Dummies, most recent edition, there's even a 5-in-1 version with a disc so that you can test fly several Linux distributions (distros).
If you want to run Windows applications and have a legit copy of Windows it's easier to run your system as "dual boot" and install both Linux and Windows.
Most Windows applications have Linux equivalents, I have used, and am using right now the Windows versions of Open Office (like Microsoft Office but FREE) and Firefox which both run exactly the same on both platforms. And they are free.
If your one purpose on a computer is to run Windows applications you are better off running Windows 7.


And WINE sucks, it has to be built so it runs in Linux, to run Windows programs but cannot use Windows' actual code (that would be stealing), so it's slow, quirky and does not, call not and never will be able to run ALL Windows applications. Maybe Windows will do like Aplle did and adopt Linux as it's OS someday (the Mac now uses UNIX, which is a kissin' cousin to Linux).

[Beekeeper]

I am trying to divorce myself from Windows.
Will take a long time I know!
I would like to be able to run my gunsafe program and several others on linux but no deal and I have not found a compatable program so that is why I am trying to get wine to load.
I have the latest ubuntu program and am slowly getting the hang of it but having 3 external hard drives of data and info that I can no longer use is to say the least frustrating.
The winzip program will not load either and that hurts too as I have a lot of zipped programs.


beekeeper

[Oreo]

I have found that to completely divorce from windows you better plan on writing your own source code for some things. Things like drivers for peripheral hardware especially.

I got about 85% divorced from WinXP and then went back to Win7 begrudgingly. Still run a dual-boot system. Mostly for GIMP which is a great free alternative to Photoshop.

Go to the forums at linuxquestions.org. Ive found it to be the best place for answers to linux questions.

[Longwood]

Gwenview is a photo viewer that may help you.
Is the new microsoft gadget using Linux?

[popper]

Google Co-pendrivelinux. You can run Ubuntu variation from a thumb drive, get used to it and then install it. It will access your Win files fine. Use winrar for win zipped files. Open office works fine. Dump WINE it is old and unsupported. Just don't turn off your computer until Linux shuts down completely. KDE is easier to use than GIMP - it's the GUI that we are used to with Win. Most all of the code is good, well tested - but there are SOOO many options of packages.

[Longwood]

I used it for quite a while on my laptop until I had a lightning misshap and had to go back to using my desk top which has Windows XP.
I was doing pretty good and someday will put it on a new laptop.
It has a lot of advantages. You know about Packet's, right?
that is where everything is, and you have to pick through them and download the ones you want.
My Guru friend says that sooner or later, the whole world will use it and not Microsoft.

[Moonie]

I've done Linux for a living since 1995, I've used WINE to run lots of different things including Half Life. It works fairly well but it is not for people new to Linux. I would suggest starting off either dual booting or running it inside of a virtualization product like virtualbox or vmware. Or like me, run Windows inside a virtualization product in Linux for those apps you just can't do without.

[popper]

vmware forgot the name of that one, works good and crash recovery is very good. Don't let Linux scare you, most windows stuff (except the graphics) are copies of unix/linux

[Digger]

Another vote for the dual boot system .... Linux Mint user here ,... XP there ...