North East England Newbie

Northerngirl333

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Hi there,
I am a total newbie to Linux and need pointing in the right direction Have an old laptop that I want to get back up and running with Linux while on my learning curve. A little about me. Been using computer since the early days of ZX81, Acorn Electron, through to Commodore 64, Amiga then onto windows 3.11 and progressing through to Windows 10. Had enough of all the rubbish that is now on my system and not knowing what files are safe, needed or need binning. I have probably forgot most of what I once knew so need to learn from the very beginning so need a heads up on :- 1 where to start, 2 can you browse the net still with Linux, check out Facebook, Booking.com, onlin e banking etc. 3 will programs I have purchased still run on Linux. ie Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Wilcom Hatch2 (embroidery design software). Any and all help greatly appreciated.
Jan
 


1) What is the make and model of your laptop? How much RAM have you got?
2) Start with a LiveCD/LiveUSB stick. https://livecdlist.com/ Don't wipe Windows until you are ABSOLUTELY sure you don't want it - that way you can return to Windows if you want to.
3) You can certainly browse the net, check out Facebook, Booking,com. E-banking might depend on the system your bank uses. Photoshop - yes https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-adobe-photoshop-linux/ Microsoft Office- yes https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-use-microsoft-office-linux/ Hatch2 - ??? It depends on what it does. There are Embroidermodder and Thred on Linux.

NOTE that Linux has many native apps which are alternatives to Windows apps.

(I'm originally from Blaydon!)
 
2) you can still have firefox and chromium on linux you will hardly notice the difference

3) the approach is to use LibreOffice for documents and save them with .doc , you can install adobe reader to read pdf files - other alternatives include pdfeditor, pdfstudio etc

If you purchased an windows . exe it won't install directly like on windows . One main plus for lInux is there are masses of free programs for Linux eg http://slackbuilds.org/ for Slackware linux eg http://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/office/pdfstudio/
 
Thanks captain-sensible. I have steam but its the embroidery program that bothers me the most. The other 2 are on subscription but Hatch2 was a very expensive bit of software $$$$ that I need for work so I am crossing fingers that it can be ported over someway. Never heard of Wine but will look into it.
Just in process of creating a bootable usb with Ubuntu on, crossing everything and hoping I have followed all instructions correctly and that works....lol. Its about 40 years since a young me dabbled with early computers then life took over all free exploring time so hopefully the grey matter isn't passed it :)

Many thanks
Jan
 
1) What is the make and model of your laptop? How much RAM have you got?
2) Start with a LiveCD/LiveUSB stick. https://livecdlist.com/ Don't wipe Windows until you are ABSOLUTELY sure you don't want it - that way you can return to Windows if you want to.
3) You can certainly browse the net, check out Facebook, Booking,com. E-banking might depend on the system your bank uses. Photoshop - yes https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-adobe-photoshop-linux/ Microsoft Office- yes https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-use-microsoft-office-linux/ Hatch2 - ??? It depends on what it does. There are Embroidermodder and Thred on Linux.

NOTE that Linux has many native apps which are alternatives to Windows apps.

(I'm originally from Blaydon!)
Laptop is an old Toshiba, 6gb with windows 10 at present and running like a snail....lol. I have a new HP so if it screws up its no biggy. Fantastic news for the Photoshop as I create images to convert to embroidery files through it and restore old photos. Have used Thred but it doesnt do the things I need it to which is why I spent the big bucks on Hatch 2, Haven't tried Embroidermodder so will check that out. Thank you so much for getting back to me people, its a great help to have input direct from others
Jan
 
the easiest way to get a linux on a usb i've found is either get a knoppix Cd ,but up PC from that and from that menu there is option to put live knoppix onto USB.One other way is using
unetbootin https://unetbootin.github.io/ basically you can use either windows version or linux version & use ot to boot an iso onto usb; unetbootin also puts on the extras to make it bootable.
 
mm not used that , i doubt though that i will use anything Debian of course thats not true since i use knoppix which is i believe debian based
 
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