While I try to work out what has upset Bill(Gates) so much with my W10 box in the other thread, I have a live-USB version of MX Linux 23.6(KDE) running on another NUC beside my W10 one.

MX Linux is impressive.
I'm liking what I am seeing so far.
VERY useful and helpful FAQ and Users Manual on the desktop right from the off, and they have written it in VERY user-frinedly way, so it is really easy to follow, especially if you were migrating from Windoze.

The manual that I have read so far, is really excellent at explaining what Linux is, and MX Linux specifically, but also uses terms that many Windoze users understand, and tells you exactly what the basic differences are without getting to technical or EXPECTING you to know it, cos it is a Linux distro.

I'm actually ENJOYING reading this manual, which is not something I say about Linux manuals in general.

Also found this video  by PewDiePie, who is playing around with Arch Linux, but I thought that video was quite a good upbeat video from someone new to Linux and comparing it to Windoze.  I know of PewDiePie, but I don't follow him, but I thought this video was entertaining.  

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Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!

That manual - provided on the desktop - is one of the things that really impressed me too! It's excellent. The tools provided with MX Linux are some of the best around and a big improvement on what you get with many distros.

I've seen a comment that installation should have been friendlier as it defaults to making a full install, not a partial one. I'm not convinced by that. I think that if you are at the stage where you would even want a partial install then you shouldn't have any problems. If you aren't at that stage then you probably need a full install anyway as there are too many pitfalls otherwise.

I'll be doing a full install on a different box, thus preserving the W10 box - such as it is - for now.

I hope to get this done over the weekend, cos live-USB's are excellent to allow you to see how the OS looks and feels, but they are sluggish, so looking forward to seeing what MX is like running from an SSD.  

Bill might just want you to upgrade to Win 11.

The Win 11 bar has been set too high for this fully working hardware. It's Microsoft that are preventing me from upgrading, they are leaving me no choice unless they supply me with new hardware.

I think this box will simply be disconnected from the internet, with access over my internal network only. My MX Linux box and my Win 11 box will have internet access so that's enough. MX Linux for day to day computing, Win 11 when I need more oomph than the fanless boxes can manage. I'll just have to put up with the fan noise when using that.

Not sure if I found out about this site here or not.
https://legacyupdate.net/
Allows you to keep your old windoze alive

OK, have installed MX Linux to a spare Intel NUC, and the setup went very painlessly, and smoothly.  I have already installed Opera, and am now browsing the net on that screen, while this screen with the W10 box I am working on till the net falls over again.

The MX Package Manager is a thing of beauty - I find it even easier and sleeker then the Mint one, but that is personal preference, sure.  ANYTHING from the "Start" menu in MX, you can right-click, and add it to the desktop.  This is something I really love, and was one of my pet hates about Linux of old, that adding desktop icons was a real PITA requiring you to run terminal commands etc.  MX, along with most popular Linux distros these days I expect, now make that very painless.

I like what I see enough, to almost build a new setup based on MX.
I might look into setting up a VM again on the new build, with a minimum Windoze install, just for the purposes of my Win-only CAD software, that I CANNOT live without, and there are no Linux versions.

The tinkering continues....

CAD seems to be rather let down on Linux. :(
I've managed to get Sprint Layout running on MX with a bit of messing about. I *think* it's all working now. IIRC I had NanoCAD or something like that working on a Linux box under Wine, but it had stability problems. This is why I'll probably keep a Win 10 box around.

It's Sprint Layout I want!!!

I was able to run it under WINE in Mint a few years ago, but it was unstable.
Unstable CAD is not really something I can live with, even WITH automatic backup every five mins...

Are you using WINE?

I'll have to go back over what I did, but IIRC yes. Wine has improved a lot. I had to sort out what the directories were doing and create an empty config file so that it had something to save it's config info to. Apart from that it was only a case of copying my Macros over, I think.

Kicad for linux works fine. No need for wine.

If you want minimum trouble with Wine, to run sprint, you could try "playonlinux". It is a shell around wine that is for many windows programs "single click install".
I use it for Simetrix, a windows electronics circuit simulator.

Volhout
Edited 2025-05-01 21:20 by Volhout

KiCAD is fine for PCBs (if you can manage the learning curve). My own problem is in having a simple 2D CAD package that "simply works" - preferably with something resembling the AutoCAD LT interface. LibreCAD is probably the closest.

I'm aware of KiCAD, but I know Sprint Layout inside and out, and I don't plan to - or want to - change to another PCB CAD at this point in time.