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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Making the move to Linux Mint
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| tgerbic Regular Member  Joined: 25/07/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 98 |
Snap works on Fedora (I believe any OS of the RPM family) but it is not part of the release. I tried it once and it works but removed it and since have always steered clear of it. Not sure how compatible it still is, or the apps are but I see the similarity with the MS food chain. Most all apps can be gotten from the Fedora repos. Those rare ones than cannot, may be in RPM form or Flatpak. I have a couple from FlatPak and have tried the same app from the repo vs. FlatPak. They may be slightly different when run. It is rare but I have some apps that have to be compiled for my OS. Just like old times... At my last company, I had a couple of commercial apps that were developed using systems running VirtualBox. All work was done in that environment. The last step before shipping was to run/test the VM using VMware. The apps were then sold packaged with VMware or as VMware apps. Development is much easier in the VirtualBox environment but many Fortune 1000 companies are locked into VMware. Having used both, I prefer VirtualBox. |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5160 |
I settled on Zorin 18. In hindsight, I maybe should have stuck with Fedora. But Zorin is doing what I need now and so long as I can get back to work then its doing its job as a OS. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| JohnS Guru  Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4164 |
Thanks, I've been wondering about trying it on an old laptop. John |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5160 |
OK, now moving to Fedora KDE. I tried the KDE desktop in Zorin, really liked it. Very configurable. But some weirdness, like missing functions ( no Printers, took 2 minutes to shut down, etc ) option. I figured it was not a native desktop for Zorin, which is on top of Ubuntu, to many layers. That's my uneducated guess. So back on Fedora, KDE specked this time. To many choices in the Linux world, I dont like choice when all the products are so similar. It creates anxiety, the feeling I didn't go for the best option. In Microsoft you had no choice, it was just Windows. I like that. One thing I've noticed is how bad chatGPT is at helping you set up in Linux. The answers rarely work, are always vastly different for the same question, and often the real solution is much simpler. This is very different from my day to day experience with chatGPT, where I'm asking php / mysql / HTML and java questions. The answers I get are nearly always helpful, the solution is there. I suspect this is because of how chatGPT is trained, on forum content. The linux forums are all over the place, can assume you know more than you do, and answers are often out of date and no longer work. Software development forums are different, the correct answer is there, and it still relevant 10 years later, code doesnt change. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8355 |
Welcome to the joys of Linux... :( Choice is a two-edged sword: Plus: You can use it to produce the ideal system for your particular needs (everyone has their own definition of this so there are several "major" distros and thousands of variations and apps to choose your ingredients from). You can sculpt everything. Minus: The very fact that choice exists is what is preventing its uptake by the masses. There's no point in writing software that depends on a library that can only exist in two distros, for example. This is crippling the whole Linux ecosystem. There's still not even a standard installer or packaging system for apps after all these years. My own approach is to pick a distro, try it for a short time and see if I can get it to do what I want using only the stuff available in the repro as far as possible. If I can't then that one gets dumped - I will *never* compile anything for my system, there's no point as support for it on *my* system will always be absolutely zero. I almost always seem to gravitate back to Mint now - probably because I've used it quite a bit in the past and have simply got used to it. The Mint forum seems to be one of the better ones too. A clue to the relevance of a distro is how many people are involved in the team that are supporting it. The smaller the number the less time they probably have to respond to inquiries - these people have lives outside of Linux too. :). Small distros aren't necessarily any worse than any others - and can even be better - but you won't necessarily get the support that you might need if you are a beginner in Linux. If AI can't get the name of the current Pope right with the resources of the internet available what chance does it stand against all the variations in Linux over the years? :) Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5160 |
Since my last post I tried Debian KDE, then Kubuntu ( Ububtu with KDE, I do like the KDE interface ). Now back on Fedora KDE. Each distro had silly issues. The desktops are fine, the basic applications are fine, but as a developer with a hand full of tools I need, life wasn't so easy. So, Dreamweaver is installed with Wine. OK, but slower compared to Windows, some graphics glitches in the interface. Notepad++ installed and runs ok, in wine, and more capable that the built in Linux text editors. Paint Shop Pro installed ok, runs ok. Wine. Bitwarden, no issues, Flatpak Thunderbird, had to get native edition ( Not flatpak or snap ), then installed accounts, copied over folders from Windows TB, all working ok. Steam, again, dont install the Flatpak or Snap editions. Once going, my games are installing OK and run fine, but there are some mouse capture issues. More config needed. Sticky Notes, no, not working like Sticky Notes in Windows. Will look for alternatives. Signal. That was a challenge. Latest versions dont install easily on latest distros. This is actually something I found a lot, a new updated distro is released, but the aps haven't caught up and wont install. Its like there is not much backwards capability in Linux. Anyway, Signal installed, wont run, errors with the GPU(?). The solution is to start it with a --disable-gpu setting. Flatpak. Working, but I need to make a shortcut as I currently need to start it with terminal. MySQL Workbench. No solution yet. I use MySQL Workbench in windows to administer my network servers MySQL database when developing my JAQ software. There are alternatives, like the web based PHPMyAdmin, etc, but these have issues with the large SQL files I need to import for testing. Some of these files can be over 200M uncompressed. In Linux the go to recommendation was DBeaver, java based. Crashes, low memory errors, and wont exit cleanly when trying to open big files. There are commercial programs that will work, but not cheap ( MySQL Workbench is free ). Tried installing MySQL Workbench in linux, there is a linux version, but it wont install on the latest Linux distros. Under Wine, couldn't get it to run. Currently need to boot into Windows to do MySQL stuff. Yet to install the printer, this was a nightmare under Zorin, the model isnt listed in the printers list, and the linux driver from the Brother site is pretty complicated to install. There have been times when I've asked myself, why am I doing this? Is this going backwards. How bad can Windows 11 really be. But I'll stick with Fedora and see if I can get over the hill. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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KeepIS Guru Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1986 |
I'm sure that question is asked by everyone changing from an OS they've been using for years (like forever) and I remind myself of that every time I feel like just going back and stripping out all telemetry and sh*t from A windows install including killing all Updates permanently (actually easy to do) the NO-updates is the only one I haven't done. However, I've decided to be fair and give Linux a real crack, I'm down to only a few applications that I miss at this stage, just taking my time to get the last sorted.  NANO Inverter: Full download - Only Hex Ver 8.1Ks |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2471 |
i've found that the Brother printer installer for linux to be incredibly easy to use. 1. download the "Driver Install Tool" from Brother's website: https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?c=nz&lang=en&prod=hl5380dn_all&os=128 the above is where you land for HL5380DN/Linux/Debian, but all the brother printers use the same tool. to make it easier, attached is the downloaded tool: linux-brprinter-installer-2.2.6-0.zip (i've placed the .gz archive in a .zip archive to keep the forum software happy) 2. unpack the archive to produce the file 'linux-brprinter-installer-2.2.6-0' which is a shell script. you need to be sure the path to this file DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY SPACE CHARACTERS. if there are any space characters in the path, the script will fail. 3. mark the file as executable. 4. run the shell script FROM A TERMINAL using sudo. follow the prompts. i recommend configuring your printer(s) at static IP addresses, this saves a whole load of pain later on. it is that simple! cheers, rob :-) |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5160 |
Yeah thats how I ended up doing it. If only those instructions were available when I started looking into it, instead of telling me all the ways that dont work. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2471 |
i feel that the ratio of 'good' information to 'bad' information available through the internet has been decreasing over the years, with the rate of decline accelerated rapidly since AI has become mainstream in recent times. part of the problem is that an AI has no understanding of either the information fed into it nor of the responses it is spitting out; in essence, an AI never wonders "am i about to say something stupid?". a moderately intelligent human, when asked about something they know nothing about, will (should!) respond with "i don't know". whereas an AI always produces an answer, no matter what - the AI lacks any ability to filter itself and is (effectively) always 100% confident that it is correct. not that an AI has any ability to be 'confident' - just as it has no ability to 'understand' anything. cheers, rob :-) |
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| tgerbic Regular Member Joined: 25/07/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 98 |
I looked up the MYSQL Workbench app for Fedora and immediately came across this page: https://computingforgeeks.com/install-and-use-mysql-workbench-on-fedora/ Did you try to install from the dev/mysql.com repository? Did it not install on F43 or are you using F42. I could try installing on my system but have no way to test. I don't normally use printer drivers so never install them. So far all my laser, Epson all-in-one, Canon and HP tabloid size printers work with CUPS. I may look at Signal tomorrow to see if I have problems installing it. I have Signal on my laptop and iPhone but have not yet installed it on F42. I don't use AI for anything so have not run into a problem with an AI chatbot lying to me or giving bad advice. |
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| tgerbic Regular Member Joined: 25/07/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 98 |
Looking back on some of the other comments on this topic thread I would like to make a few more observations. I have been using VirtualBox for at about a decade and it is great. I have used other VM applications but have settled on VBox on my systems. I used to use AMD or ATI video cards but switched to nvidia about 20 years ago and use them exclusively with Windows and Linux. Would not switch back to any other vendor. The only problem I have run into so far is that one of my machines still has an old card from 15 years ago and nvidia does not make a newer driver for it. It is a backup system so the video performance does not really matter much. I still have a 12 year old card that works with current drivers including the Cuda drivers. I don't expect everything to last forever. Just being realistic. I have used many other linux versions in the past including RH/centos, slackware, debian based and ubuntu based OS's. I have been using Fedora since about the fifth release and though I occasionally experiment with Kali and Ubuntu, I have settled on Fedora. It gets all the new development, very stable and fast, easy to maintain/upgrade/update and has a large support base. Kind of the same with the Plasma desktop. I like using the computer to do things instead of the computer using me to do troubleshooting and maintenance for it. There are a lot of OSs to choose from, as well as desktops. I have not found a better combination but others might for their uses or comfort zone. |
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| tgerbic Regular Member Joined: 25/07/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 98 |
Well it took a minute to fully install Signal on my Fedora system. I used the opensuse repository and DNF installed it. Effortless. Thought I would try to install MySQL Workbench but I am not able to confirm you can use it. I installed it but cannot launch as I have nothing to connect to. Tried the install for msql-community-server but it will not install since it is looking for a mariadb-server and I don't have one of the right revision. I guess I need some type of compatible SQL server running and that is more than I want to do just to do a quick test. I can add a brother printer through CUPS with RAW/direct printing. Fortunately (or unfortunately for this test) my TurboPrint driver already fully supports Brother printers so if I tell CUPS to use a driver, it is already there. If I installed a different printer driver it will just show up in the pulldown for selection. Are you saying that the linux version of Sticky Notes is not like the Windows version? I have not used the Windows version in years so don't remember how it acts. I understand Knotes is good but I think it requires Kmail. Have you tried Gnote or Xpad? Gnote seems to have a window that navigates through the notes. Xpad has the traditional sticky pads you stick on the desktop. I will probably keep Xpad since it is like I remember from the old days. BTW, you are running Webmin, right? If not it is a really useful tool to configure and monitor the Linux system. Just thought I would pass this along. Edited 2025-11-11 11:24 by tgerbic |
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Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9770 |
Yes, before I made the switch to Linux permanently on my main machine, I did quite a lot of flip-flopping between Linux and Windoze. Usually, as soon as I came up against a problem in Linux, I'd fall back to Windoze, rather then work out how to fix the problem I was having in Linux. This was all due to my not being comfortable or confident with using Linux, whereas with Windoze, I had decades of use there, so was in my comfort zone with Windoze.  But the more I played around with Linux, the more I got to like it - and the way it does things vs the way that Windoze does things. But the W11 debacle finally pushed me over the edge, and once I had a solution for my Windoze-only CAD software, then I was perfectly happy to move more permanently to Linux. So, the moral of the story is: Don't give up, cos it does get easier with time. I would advise AGAINST running W11+Linux in a dual-boot arrangement. There have been quite a lot of posts and videos online, about how W11 along with Secure-boot and TPM, decide that a Linux partition is somehow a threat, and it deletes the Linux partition. You don't get asked about this, W11 + TPM etc, just do it automatically. You get no say in it. That is another thing about W11 etc, that has pissed off a vast majority of people who want to dual-boot. With W11, it's W11 and ONLY W11 - be warned!!! Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| tgerbic Regular Member Joined: 25/07/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 98 |
I would agree. I used both windows and linux full time but always thought I would keep working toward linux as I found replacement apps. Then along came Windows 8 and that really pushed me to get rid of windows. I think it started with the new windows 8 TV commercials about how windows would now be the way people (I?) wanted it. Clearly not my people, but microsoft's people. Still had to migrate from 7 to 10 for work, IT at work would not touch 8. Same for my home systems. I bought a high end pair of Lenovo laptops before I retired which had W10 but the plan is to just remain on W10 till they die. I have remote desktop, noMachine, so I have access to all my linux machines if I need something specific and am too lazy to get up and walk across the house to my desktop. Except for using my Xeltek programmer (app written specifically not to run on Linux), I can do everything I need to from my Fedora/Plasma desktop. In a few years I expect Windows to just be the punch line to a joke. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9770 |
Ironically, I am using Win8.1pro on a laptop, beside my main Linux Mint machine, to run my CAD software.  The ONLY thing on this machine, is Win8 and my CAD software. This machine only has 4GB of RAM, but uses LESS then 1GB of it most of the time, even WITH my CAD software running. It DOES NOT have access to the net. Win8 is OK, if you disable that phucking awful "Metro" GUI, and put back a standard START menu. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9770 |
I share files from the Win8 machine to the Linux machine, using a 2-port USB sharing switch thing. USB sharing thing-y.... I also have a 2nd one of these to share the printer between Linux and Win8 for printing duties. Simply press the button, to switch between the Windoze machine and the Linux machine. No VM, no hassle, it just works. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4164 |
Ooh, thanks for the warning. John |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4164 |
I'm getting a 404 :( John |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2471 |
that would be because the AI technology attached to Win11 sees Linux as representing an existential threat to itself. see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9HwA5IR-sg cheers, rob ;-) |
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