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Any reason to "up"grade? Not seeing any.


NoelC

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Personally, this situation did me some good - I started to learn Linux based OSes, and now have enough proficiency in them to make one of them my main OS. There was a learning curve, but it was well worth it. I can customize it and tailor it exactly the way I want - I have already implemented "Aeroglass" in a KDE workspace. It looks better than BM's aeroglass does on Windows. That's the beauty of modern Linux based distros - you can change just about anything. I have Win 8.1 on another partition, only because there is this one game I play occasionally, that hasn't been ported to Linux. (It is playable using WINE.) Otherwise, now I can do on Linux everything I can do on Windows and then some more, and then some more.

 

That sounds very appealing. I've been experimenting off and on (mostly off lately) with Netrunner, which uses the KDE desktop. Is there a tutorial somewhere to customize that desktop to look like Aero Glass, or is the process fairly self-evident in the customization settings?

 

--JorgeA

 

 

On KDE, you can select the desktop theme "diamond" (control panel...desktop settings, or something similar depending on your OS). You get it by clicking "get more themes", and typing "diamond" in the search box. Then go to the setting "Window decoration", and do the same - click get more decorations, and type in "diamond". This gives you a beautiful theme, with transparency and blur, both of which are adjustable to boot! In "desktop effects", there are settings provided by KDE itself that you can use to change transparency and blur. Adjust both to your liking. In short, it is as good as BM's aeroglass, but you can actually change these settings from your OS' control panel itself.

 

(Note that you need OpenGL for blur. That shouldn't be an issue for anything but very old machines. On some OSes, openGL may not be the default renderer, but you can make it so.)

 

Like "diamond", there are many other beautiful themes that give transparency. Just type "glass" or "trans" to search by keyword for translucency or transparency. With the available themes, there are plenty of options for you to play with. If you don't like any of them, you could create your own! Or at least, there are many, many "fine tune" settings that you can manually adjust. The power in the hands of the user is staggering, especially for people like me who are used to Windows.

 

And in the rare event that you still don't like what it looks like, you can ditch KDE altogeether and go for any of the other fine workspaces out there - Gnome, Unity etc.

Edited by sudalz
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W10 might suck, but at least you can multi-do with it.

 

LOL Really? My feeling is if U (like I am) using task view and check settings/update and there is e.g. some defender stuff and U then go to a another view and check msfn forum for a while and then go back to settings - nothing has happen on the download apartment. So multitask - my as!

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BTW, isn't multiple/virtual desktops also a feature that existed in Windows some time back? Isn't it yet another "new feature" that was already present, and removed, like the start menu?

 

Not in the explorer shell, but replacement existed, JFYI:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/174201-windows-10-first-impressions/page-3#entry1088850

 

As a side note, you really should not  use "nice" and "Unity" in a same sentence :no:, and even using "Gnome"  is debatable ;).

 

jaclaz

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By the way, no one's mentioned the "Multiple Desktop" feature so far.

 

Anyone using the Multiple Desktop feature?  Can you describe using it briefly, as a play by play, and how it's useful to you?

 

-Noel

ok, I use multiple desktops. My first experiance was in Linux, for many, many years ago, created web pages/sites to people. Using different program, all at full screen size (17") and then just switch program/desktop was very handy.

In mac lateron there was Spaces (which I miss these days) and in win 7 I use Dexpot.

But I must say this Task view is a por solution. At least it should have an option to remember which program assigne to whitch window, next day/start.

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As a side note, what could go wrong with automatic updates?

Of course nothing, as the updates are carefully managed and pushed/made available to Windows Update by the good MS guys, there is no way that could become an issue.

Or maybe not :unsure:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-accidentally-issued-a-test-windows-update-patch/

 

And - to be fair - it is impossible that someone apart the good Google guys can legitimately buy and possess the google.com domain, even if for a minute only, right?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/guy-bought-google-com-google-230510405.html

 

Given that a mistake can be made by anyone, and apart from (possible but most probably unfounded) suspects of "evil" intentions, would you really trust these guys with all your personal data?

 

jaclaz

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Meanwhile at Jacksonville, FL :whistle:

 

http://microsoftclassactionlawsuit.com/

I never trust a website, especially if it is asking for any sort of personal information, that uses bad grammar.

 

Reports have confirmed that Microsoft if unknowingly pushing Windows 10 to all PC’s, laptops, and tables running the Windows 7 or 8.1 operating system.

:no:

 

Certainly, "if" should be changed to "is" and then it would be correct. :)

 

However I don't think we're seeing Windows 10 being downloaded to "all" as they say. If so, we would likely had seen a larger (perhaps short-lived) jump in those browser/OS pie-chart websites for Win10.

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BTW, isn't multiple/virtual desktops also a feature that existed in Windows some time back? Isn't it yet another "new feature" that was already present, and removed, like the start menu?

 

Not in the explorer shell, but replacement existed, JFYI:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/174201-windows-10-first-impressions/page-3#entry1088850

 

As a side note, you really should not  use "nice" and "Unity" in a same sentence :no:, and even using "Gnome"  is debatable ;).

 

jaclaz

 

 

I wouldn't know, I haven't used either. I've only used KDE, and I love it so far. My point is that there are lots of choices, everything from appearance settings to the desktop environment itself can be changed. Heck, even the kernel can be changed.

 

It's difficult to enjoy Windows or OSX after using Linux for a while, at least from the perspective of appearance and customizations. Also regarding the issue of choice - what should be installed on my system, whether I should update something, and so on. It's definitely a better computing experience, given that MS has continuously taken away user's choice over the past few years.

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Can you run Visual Studio Community Edition under WINE?

 

-Noel

 

I haven't tried it myself, but from the opinion of the community, it is doable, but a bit of a hassle. However, as with most proprietary program suites, there are exact equivalents available for free and as open source on linux. Many popular Linux distros come bundled with Mono - a cross platform implementation of the .net framework. There are other alternatives as well, especially if your intention is to write .net applications.

 

I don't have much knowledge of that particular program, but as reported on the net, people have had varying success with using it through WINE.

 

By the way, VS 2015 can apparently be downloaded for Linux, so you won't need WINE at all. At least, that's what I understand:

 

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/AnnouncingNET2015NETAsOpenSourceNETOnMacAndLinuxAndVisualStudioCommunity.aspx

 

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/somasegar/archive/2014/11/12/opening-up-visual-studio-and-net-to-every-developer-any-application-net-server-core-open-source-and-cross-platform-visual-studio-community-2013-and-preview-of-visual-studio-2015-and-net-2015.aspx

 

From Nadella:

 

 

We will be working closely with the Mono community as we complete our Linux port.  The Mono community have done a great job advancing .NET and Linux over the last decade.  Releasing the .NET Core source under an open source license is going to enable us to collaborate together much more closely going forward.  There are many Linux enhancements Mono has built that we would like to use, and likewise there are improvements Mono will be able to benefit from by being able to use the .NET source code.  Today’s set of announcements are a big win for everyone.

 

On the MS page for VS, there is a link to download the source code. They have a github page too. So I'm guessing that it can be compiled on Linux.

 

Linux is the future of serious computing, even the MS CEO knows that!

 

image_4.png

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In my opinion, and it is simply an opinion, multiple desktops is a solution searching for a problem. I played with it on Linux, to see what it's like, and whether it is beneficial. It helps to remove clutter on one desktop, but then populating two desktops, and being able to use only one at a time, doesn't really feel like a solution to me. I suppose it is useful for people who use their computers for completely different purposes at different times - like say, only for their work applications and work related desktop files during their working hours, entertainment related applications and desktop files during their leisure time, game related files during gaming time and so on. I do not really have these strict compartmentalizations, so I don't see the appeal of multiple desktops. But many people seem to love it, so...

 

I agree with every single word in there. Like you, I freely alternate "work" and "fun" on my computer: maintaining separate, distinct desktops for each purpose would become just another chore and something getting in the way of moving from one type of activity to the other.

 

--JorgeA

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On KDE, you can select the desktop theme "diamond" (control panel...desktop settings, or something similar depending on your OS). You get it by clicking "get more themes", and typing "diamond" in the search box. Then go to the setting "Window decoration", and do the same - click get more decorations, and type in "diamond". This gives you a beautiful theme, with transparency and blur, both of which are adjustable to boot! In "desktop effects", there are settings provided by KDE itself that you can use to change transparency and blur. Adjust both to your liking. In short, it is as good as BM's aeroglass, but you can actually change these settings from your OS' control panel itself.

 

(Note that you need OpenGL for blur. That shouldn't be an issue for anything but very old machines. On some OSes, openGL may not be the default renderer, but you can make it so.)

 

Like "diamond", there are many other beautiful themes that give transparency. Just type "glass" or "trans" to search by keyword for translucency or transparency. With the available themes, there are plenty of options for you to play with. If you don't like any of them, you could create your own! Or at least, there are many, many "fine tune" settings that you can manually adjust. The power in the hands of the user is staggering, especially for people like me who are used to Windows.

 

And in the rare event that you still don't like what it looks like, you can ditch KDE altogeether and go for any of the other fine workspaces out there - Gnome, Unity etc.

 

 

Thanks very much! :thumbup  It sounds like the KDE customization options have grown a lot recently. I'll take Netrunner 16 for a spin (I was on 12).

 

--JorgeA

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By the way, VS 2015 can apparently be downloaded for Linux, so you won't need WINE at all.

 

Better'n'better.  I'm going to have to get a good Linux setup running in a VM and start setting it up to optimize my work, to see what I can and can't do.  There are a few tools I use heavily under Windows and I need to be sure there's an equivalent in Linux...  Most everything else I can run in a virtual machine.

 

Off the top of my head, those that I will need to find a just-as-good equivalent to...

 

  • Tortoise SVN
  • Scooter Software's Beyond Compare
  • Visual Studio
  • grepWin (system searches)
  • I use several text editors now, and one really great one would be nice.
  • Some kind of Outlook emulator.
  • A PDF viewer, Word file editor

 

Looking forward to a reasonable scripting language.  Hm, this is kind of dredging up that old excitement I used to feel about new operating systems...

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Huh, I never knew that virtual desktops were available in Longhorn. I doubt that I'd ever find a use for 'em, but for those who would use them it's kind of neat to know that that abandoned project already had them.

 

--JorgeA

Edited by JorgeA
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Interesting that something deemed not good enough for Vista is now a banner feature, eh?

 

I've yet to think of a practical use for multiple desktops on my workstation, though I'm quite familiar with the idea of separate desktops - I use virtual machines and RDP all the time.  But the point with those is not to have a desktop hidden somewhere, it's to bring them on the same screen with other things, and do stuff like copy from one, paste to the other...

 

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
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