Videochat March 2019

[BTGBullseye]

Yeah, I also am saddened by Google Docs being online-only, though I do understand why it has to be that way.

 

I would've suggested Fedora as well, but I never could find after my first install almost 5 years ago the installer from RPMFusion that allowed for native Debian package installation. (RPM and DEB packages native, the best of everything)

 

The regular versions of Mint are based off of Ubuntu, but LMDE is based off Debian itself, and has a significant performance boost because of it. Part of why I recommended it for that old of a system.

Edited April 9, 2019 by BTGBullseye (see edit history)

[BeechCraft118]

Thanks a bunch for the suggestions.  I am probably going to go for LMDE for that performance boost.  It looks like it'll come out-of-the-box pretty much how I need it aside from needing to do a few driver tweaks.  I visited the website and watched a few videos on Linux Mint earlier today, and it looks rather elegant.  

 

I will probably play with an installation over the weekend if I don't get some free-time later this week.  I plan to use it dual boot for now until Microsoft actually kills 7. 

Edited April 10, 2019 by BeechCraft118 (see edit history)

[BTGBullseye]

Always happy to help.

[BeechCraft118]

I tried LMDE, but realized I didn't like it not being built upon Ubuntu as I am most familiar with that family of distros.  I chose Linux Mint MATE since it focuses more on performance than Cinnamon.  I get very good performance out of it, but have to use open source drivers as the proprietary ATI drivers can't seem to be installed.  I am not sure why.  It could just be the hardware is just old.  It has a Radeon Xpress X1200 series onboard graphics card, and it seems to have a lot of problem with modern operating systems.  I know this system is on borrowed time.  Makes me wonder if I should reinstall Linux with the Xfce version just to get maximum performance.  I will play with MATE for awhile and see how I like it before making that decision.  I've learned, over the years, Linux takes time to customize and tailor to your desires, so I will just mess around for awhile and see if I run into any big issues.

 

The one big problem I have with Linux is its font rendering.  I miss not having Cleartype quality rendering.  It is not a big deal on Linux's native fonts, but I have to use the TrueType and ClearType fonts for a lot of the projects I work on, so the standard font rendering in Linux can make it look strange unless zoomed in.  There was this replacement font rendering software called Infinality I used to use; however, it appears to be very outdated now, and the PPA is probably vulnerable.  

 

Overall, I could see Linux Mint being a replacement once Windows 7 reaches EOL/EOS.  It's quite nice, and I can probably just tweak these small issues I'm having.  I may do a live-boot of the Xfce version just to see how it runs differently.  It may be worth a switch from MATE just for that extra reduction in RAM footprint. 

[BTGBullseye]

Glad you're enjoying it.