Leave Windows 11 ? maybe SDesk a lightweight, open-source alternative to Windows and MacOS.

I am a Linux fan. I use Linux Mint which has been around for a while and comes in a few flavors. I run dual-boot on a desktop and a laptop, and a few other laptops. Linux is resource thrifty. You can run it on an old Chromebook, which, BTW, was a Linux variant. Try a dual-boot, it is very easy, almost auto-pilot, and see what you think. The price is right. I run Brave, W10, W11 and Linux. Have fun.

Your board software may be Linux and would be really happy in a home of its own. ;o)
 
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That's on Arch which is insanity if you aren't a hardcore old school UNIX nut. Even with the layers they've added that's asking for heartburn. I've been using versions of Unix since 1984 and I don't get into that masochism anymore if I'm not trying to run a PDP-11 or VAX. Nope nope nope.

Linux Mint with XFCE (faster, not the resource pig that Cinnamon is nor is it as ugly). I use ART 1.22 for my photos and have alternatives for everything else.

It. Just. Works.
 
It's not clear to me what SDesk has to offer besides good looks? Whereas Windows 11 is well-supported, and often available at little or no additional cost unless you're building a brand-new PC or server.

I recently installed Ubuntu on my 2-in-1 type notebook, and was impressed: It supports UEFI Secure Boot, and the wifi, touch screen and tablet-type features work! GRUB bootloader menu doesn't play nice on the 15", 4K display though, as the font size is minuscule. But to be fair, Windows software can also be a mixed bag with such a display.

But I run into problems when I make changes to typical *nix installs which aren't officially supported. Let's say for instance that I want to watch Netflix on my computer, and there's no official Ubuntu package for it. So if need be, I add unofficial software repositories, or failing that, compile the additional support libraries from source code. Great, so everything's set, right? Well, yes, until something breaks on a future update. At which time I won't remember what configuration changes and additional software I added. And when I get sufficiently fed-up, I wipe the whole thing and start over, vowing to never again make so many fiddly customizations!

NixOS is the distro that I've been meaning to try, as it seems to address those very sorts of concerns, even allowing me to roll back the OS in the event that I goof. But with those unique capabilities comes a learning curve unlike any other *nix that I'm aware of.
 
JeffS7444 said:
It's not clear to me what SDesk has to offer besides good looks? Whereas Windows 11 is well-supported, and often available at little or no additional cost unless you're building a brand-new PC or server.

I recently installed Ubuntu on my 2-in-1 type notebook, and was impressed: It supports UEFI Secure Boot, and the wifi, touch screen and tablet-type features work! GRUB bootloader menu doesn't scale at all well on the 15", 4K display though, as the font size is minuscule. But to be fair, Windows software can also be a mixed bag with such a display.

But I run into problems when I make changes to typical *nix installs which aren't officially supported. Let's say for instance that I want to watch Netflix on my computer, and there's no official Ubuntu package for it. So if need be, I add unofficial software repositories, or failing that, compile the additional support libraries from source code. Great, so everything's set, right? Well, yes, until something breaks on a future update. At which time I won't remember what configuration changes and additional software I added. And when I get sufficiently fed-up, I wipe the whole thing and start over, vowing to never again make so many fiddly customizations!

NixOS is the distro that I've been meaning to try, as it seems to address those very sorts of concerns, even allowing me to roll back the OS in the event that I goof. But with those unique capabilities comes a learning curve unlike any other *nix that I'm aware of.
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I run Netflix in Mint Cinnamon no problemo. Peacock does not work, I can watch on the W10 side and only got it to watch the 49ers and cancelled so no problemo again. Linux today, especially Mint, is super easy and resource thrifty which means you can run more and do it faster and better. And, hey, it costs nothing. ;o)
 
JeffS7444 said:
It's not clear to me what SDesk has to offer besides good looks? Whereas Windows 11 is well-supported, and often available at little or no additional cost unless you're building a brand-new PC or server.

I recently installed Ubuntu on my 2-in-1 type notebook, and was impressed: It supports UEFI Secure Boot, and the wifi, touch screen and tablet-type features work! GRUB bootloader menu doesn't scale at all well on the 15", 4K display though, as the font size is minuscule. But to be fair, Windows software can also be a mixed bag with such a display.

But I run into problems when I make changes to typical *nix installs which aren't officially supported. Let's say for instance that I want to watch Netflix on my computer, and there's no official Ubuntu package for it. So if need be, I add unofficial software repositories, or failing that, compile the additional support libraries from source code. Great, so everything's set, right? Well, yes, until something breaks on a future update. At which time I won't remember what configuration changes and additional software I added. And when I get sufficiently fed-up, I wipe the whole thing and start over, vowing to never again make so many fiddly customizations!

NixOS is the distro that I've been meaning to try, as it seems to address those very sorts of concerns, even allowing me to roll back the OS in the event that I goof. But with those unique capabilities comes a learning curve unlike any other *nix that I'm aware of.
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The last install of W10 I used had many many custom registry hacks to make it usable and semi-secure since guh knows it doesn't come that way from Redmond. So much like your broken update, major updates from M$ were a nightmare for me.

Mint has that roll back capacity, though I don't use it.

Netflix, if I wanted it, I would run through Firefox, as I believe they have a web interface.

Mint is currently best.

I keep hoping that FreeBSD will get off their duffs.
 
Netflix was just an example. I have others, such as adding, if need be, support for my color calibration device, or ensuring that I can scan transparencies with my scanner.

I've deliberately avoided Windows registry hacks.
 
wlewisiii said:
The last install of W10 I used had many many custom registry hacks to make it usable and semi-secure since guh knows it doesn't come that way from Redmond. So much like your broken update, major updates from M$ were a nightmare for me.

Mint has that roll back capacity, though I don't use it.

Netflix, if I wanted it, I would run through Firefox, as I believe they have a web interface.

Mint is currently best.

I keep hoping that FreeBSD will get off their duffs.
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There is another Unix/Linux like OS out there that was a spinoff from NeXT or something like it IIRC. It had an odd name and is under development still by some of its fans who can code. I used to follow its progress but now cannot remember the name. It may come back to me. It was interesting. I still have an OS/2 box down in the basement. I lived at the north end of Silicon Valley and knew some of the propeller heads working on this stuff, a few, not a lot. The 90's were a time of software fermentation.
 
Loved NeXTStep. Still use it in emulator form via the Previous emulator. https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php

GnuStep? They were more of a library/interface for on top of a generic *nix base though.
Or perhaps you're remembering BeOS, a competitor of NeXT?

OS/2 was ok once it hit Warp, but I was always happiest on any of the Unixen.
 
wlewisiii said:
Loved NeXTStep. Still use it in emulator form via the Previous emulator. https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php

GnuStep? They were more of a library/interface for on top of a generic *nix base though.
Or perhaps you're remembering BeOS, a competitor of NeXT?

OS/2 was ok once it hit Warp, but I was always happiest on any of the Unixen.
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Here it is, the wheels ground and spit it out: Haiku Project It looks gorgeous and promises to be gorgeous. It just does not seem to run. Yeah. I understand it will work some. It has me fascinated. I would love to see it up and running. But it competes with Linux.

OS/2, yeah. I was in the Palo Alto OS/2 Users Group and there were a lot of propeller heads there. That did not include me. We had guys come up from IBM's Santa Something installation south of San Jose to give presentations. Santa Teresa?? That place was more secure than Fort Knox. The meetings were in the SLAC Lecture Hall, the same hall where Feynman lectured; hallowed ground. WARP did make OS/2 nice but I was with it from early on and liked it a lot. It was way better than MS.

But back to Linux, yes, it would be a good idea for the board. IIRC it is more stable than MS and is the back end to most nets, it runs the servers because it works. There seem to be some folks here who have gotten their hands dirty with Linux which could help a lot in selection and installation.
 
Ah, Haiku, yeah, heard of them. Glanced at it but being Be based rather than *nix based I never got too excited about it. The only non *nix I ever really gave my heart to was the Amiga and well, if you ever dealt with Commodore you'll know how that turned out :sick:
 
wlewisiii said:
Ah, Haiku, yeah, heard of them. Glanced at it but being Be based rather than *nix based I never got too excited about it. The only non *nix I ever really gave my heart to was the Amiga and well, if you ever dealt with Commodore you'll know how that turned out :sick:
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Amiga was huge and then, poof, gone.
 
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Linux is popular on Servers and machines with Many CPU Cores due to the Microsoft pricing strategy of licensing Windows based on number of cores on a computer. OS Licenses used to be based on the actual system, not the number of CPU cores in the system. Linux- free.

Look no further for a light-weight OS...

The FreeDOS Project

freedos.org freedos.org
 
Sonnar Brian said:
Linux is popular on Servers and machines with Many CPU Cores due to the Microsoft pricing strategy of licensing Windows based on number of cores on a computer. OS Licenses used to be based on the actual system, not the number of CPU cores in the system. Linux- free.

Look no further for a light-weight OS...

The FreeDOS Project

freedos.org freedos.org
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I think that Linux has some other attributes other than free.

FreeDOS, yes. I remember when Windows 1 came out. And there was GeoWorks (GEOS (16-bit operating system) - Wikipedia) to run on DOS as a GUI interface system. GeoWorks was quite nice. And then MS Windows ate everything.
 
DOS 7.1 screams on my 2.7GHz I5 with the 512GByte SATA drive, and uses a full 4GBytes of memory. I can rewrite the interrupt vector table and disable interrupts for days at a time when doing tests... What else would anyone want?

I installed a few flavors of Linux on some of the older computers here. It is a decent alternative for people.
 
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