I finally decided to drop Windows from all of my home computers (currently three systems) and move them all over to Linux. I had already moved two of them, one that I use for a home theater, and one I use for general work. The third was being used for general work and for controlling my old home automation system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
In the past the issues keeping me on Windows was software. Some of it was games, but I am not playing those games anymore. I was using Adobe products which were provided by the company I was working for, but I am now retired and don’t have access to those products, and although I like them, they are too expensive. I have found replacements for all of them in Linux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hardest piece of software to replace was the home automation software I had been using to control my X10 system. But I found some and after some work have gotten it to work on Linux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here is a list of the software I use to use on Windows and what I am now running on Linux. The Linux distro I am using is Zorin. It is more Windows like than some other distros and is very easy to install and use. I have used and tried many other distros and any of them would do, but I find Zorin the one I like.<\/p>\n\n\n
| Purpose<\/th> | Windows<\/th> | Linux<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n |
|---|---|---|
| EMail<\/td> | Outlook<\/td> | Thunderbird<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Web Browsing<\/td> | Firefox, IE, Chrome<\/td> | Firefox, Chrome<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Photo Editing<\/td> | Irfanview, Photoshop, Olympus Raw Editor<\/td> | Irfanview (wine), Gimp, RawTherapee, <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Word processing<\/td> | Microsoft Word<\/td> | Libreoffice Write<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Spreadsheets<\/td> | Microsoft Excel<\/td> | Libreoffice Calc<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Presentations<\/td> | Microsoft Powerpoint<\/td> | Libreoffice Impress<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Taxes<\/td> | Turbo Tax<\/td> | Turbotax on the Web<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Home automation<\/td> | Alex10, Ha-Bridge<\/td> | Mochad, Ha-Bridge<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Video Editing<\/td> | <\/td> | Pitivi<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n What drove me to make the change was the ridiculous amount of time it was taking Windows to boot up, and to do updates. Also I got really tired of the antivirus software ads popping up all the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I really like how easy it is to install and uninstall most software on Linux. While I like the software managers (similar to the “store” in Windows), I will often just go to a terminal window and install software from the command line. It is really easy. Occasionally (actually very rarely) I have installed software by “building it”. This is what I had to do for some of the home automation software, but it was straight forward, following instructions from the web.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So far I have had no regrets.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I finally decided to drop Windows from all of my home computers (currently three systems) and move them all over to Linux. I had already moved two of them, one that I use for a home theater, and one I use for general work. The third was being used for general work and for controlling … <\/p>\n |