Hello Everyone,

Using Lenovo G585, Firefox, DuckDuckGo,

I have registered to search for advice on changing to Linux.

I had W7 on my laptop and took "advantage" of the free offer to upgrade to W10.

Since the big update in early January, W10 has been crashing regularly.

I use Word, Excel, Picasa 3, quite a lot and exchange documents with friends all of the time. I use Picasa 3 for my photographs.

If I were to change to Linux, would there be a problem opening those type of documents from my friends, and would they have a problem opening whatever similar programmes I might have to use if they cannot be used in Linux.

I had a problem with m/s Office at one time and installed Open Office. I kept some of the documents and a few of them will not open with W10.

I am concerned about the "learning Curve" with using Linux, as being well past my sell-by date, and not very technically competent, I wonder if it might be too difficult for me.

Your input would be gratefully received, and I thank you in advance for any advice!

Regards,

Colin

Hi, Colinito.

This page gives some indications of how well (or otherwise) Linux will install on/work with the Lenovo G585:-

http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_g585

From the look of it, you may have problems with the wireless controller. This should be easily overcome by using a USB wireless 'dongle', of which there are many that will work with Linux OOTB.

Don't sell yourself short. There are many folks out there, like yourself, who didn't think they 'had what it takes'. You're as capable of accomplishing this as anyone else; just take things at your own pace.....there's no rush, no 'schedule' to keep to.

For a recommendation, I would try Linux Mint; it's very easy to use, and is very similar in operation & layout to Windows. Remember; Linux isn't any 'harder to use' than Windows.....it's just different.

Question:- Are you wanting to replace Windows completely.....or to run Linux alongside it?


Mike.

There is a Linux version of Picasa 3 (at v3.8 now I believe).
For Word and Excel you would use LO = LibreOffice (write and calc), a much improved descendant of OoO = OpenOffice.
All of your MS Office and OoO documents will open properly in LO. Certain advanced MS macro functions do not work in LO, but since they do not work in OoO either you would know if that were a problem.

I would say that there IS a learning curve, but it is no longer a very steep or painful one.

I hate to recommend Ubuntu, as it is somewhat slow, bloated, and uses nearly as many resources as Win10. One of the *buntu children such as lubuntu or kubuntu might be just about what you need. Linux Mint (or MintDE) are powerful and VERY good, as is Elementary Linux. I would consider rolling or LTS versions over anything that needs reloading often or that falls stale or away from support quickly. (IE, do not consider Fedora)

There are many distributions that give you faster performance, smaller footprint, or other advantages. The desktop oriented LTS ones that give you the most "Windows like" experience will be the ones with that shorter learning curve.

Almost all full distributions today can be installed in DUAL BOOT configuration, so that you only need shrink the disk partition to make room for them and you should be able to choose to boot into either Linux or Windows while you learn the ropes.

Welcome to the jungle!

.doc .docx .xls documents will open in Libre office, Open office, Abiword, others.
Formatting will not always be perfect between MS office and Open source software. If Microsoft would adhere to standards then there would be no problem.
Look at libreoffice, openoffice, abiword, wps writer, Scrivener, Calligra Words, latex, libwpd, libwpg, libwps, antiword, catdoc ....etc.

Image organizers, views, there are scores of them for open source.
dcraw feh geeqie gegl giflib gimp graphicsmagick gthumb gwenview imagemagick imlib2 krita libtiff libwmf libwpg mirage netpbm qt5-imageformats fbida fbv gpicview gtkimageview imv....etc

There are usually 20 different ways to do something with linux/open source.

Hi Colin,
While saving a file (opened in Libre Office/Open Office ), save the file in in Windows Format.i.e .dox,xml etc.You can open the file in Windows as well as in Linux
Kishor

Or just do what I do, use LibreOffice in both Windows and Linux so your files work everywhere.
LO can even export documents as PDF, load them back up and edit them and save out the changes. Try THAT with MS Write!

Hi Colinito, and welcome to LQ.

Just a quick note that no-one is beyond their sell-by date here.

As someone mentioned in another thread recently, you would be surprised at the age range (and range in technical competencies) of the folk here. I myself am no spring chicken.

Office (365) is available for Linux.

One other thought has occurred to me for an Office-compatible suite that runs under Linux.

Softmaker GmbH make a very good free 'MS-Office' replacement; it even looks very like it. And it has full compatibility with the modern .docx format. etc.

You can find Softmaker's 'FreeOffice' here:-

http://www.freeoffice.com/en/download

This is the 2016 release; the 2018 release, although out already, is still in 'beta' stage, and is consequently rather 'buggy'. The 2016 version is perfectly stable. You will need to register an e-mail address first, but that's only because they send you the activation key (or 'personal product key' as they call it) by e-mail. Then download the Linux version.

I'm running this in around 8 or 9 Puppies currently, and it does everything I could ask of it.


Mike.

Wps Office also claims MS compatibility.

Let us know how it goes!

Oh Wow!
So much help, it's overwhelming!
Please forgive me if I leave for about a week and return after 14th. I am going to drive a long journey and at the moment have just suddenly sold my property, so have a lot of legal and civil matters to take care of!
I will return on 14th or 15th.
Thank you all so much for your advice, I shall look at it when there is time and return.

Regards,

Colin

I happen to fall into quite some threads where the OP seems to be born well before the IBM-360. Maybe it is a trend going on. The number of computer users at age is increasing, which is nothing but a logical consequence. So I am wondering whether or not it would be nice to include the year of birth in the member's profile.

jlinkels (1958)

Hello jlinkels,
Thank you for your welcome.
Your remarks are duly noted.
I have no "hang-ups" with my age. I am 78, born in 1939. Which would make me some 25 years older than your quoted IBM 360 system and of Pre-2nd World War vintage!
I am neither proud nor ashamed of my age.
If it helps people in the forum to know my age - though I cannot see how this information could assist with an answer - then so be it!

Regards
Colin.

It is interesting to see what a wide age range members do belong to, but I for one would prefer that our year of birth is not included (it could be faked anyway), simply for the reason that suddenly age would become an issue, whereas at the moment no-one cares a jot.