Things you need Windows for?

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#21

No doubt, because of Discord. I guarantee it; their official Linux client hasn’t even come out yet, but their Discord Canary beta works well enough.

I like Discord’s real-time chat stuff. I should maybe set up a server* for people to try it out if they haven’t already. The only thing that sucks, is the lack of encrypt / decrypt for all comms like Tox but hey, if you’re doing nothing bad, you’ve got nothing to hide right?

*: Not really servers, since Discord uses centralized servers but Discord calls each community a server anyway.

#22

What I need the most is probably OneNote or any other any other good note taking app.
Currently I am trying to get used to Zim, which is great, also the CherryTree is an excelent app and both of them are cross-platform, which mean they are available also on winows. but non-of them match with onenote or evernote. especially when it comes to android apps, which I do really need in order to synchronize my work to tabler, where I read my notes or edit on the spot.

I am aware of Wiznote, which is cross-platform in any sense and very functional, but their servers are in Chine and synchronization is not good. Also, linux app lacks spell check and most of the documentations are Chinese.

Nixnote is also interesting, especially as it can sync with Evernote, but it is still in beta and last time I have checked it there were quite a lot bugs, plus I guess now Evernote has limit on the number of apps per user in free subscription which is a deal breaker for me :confused:

So, basically this is it, if you know some better alternatives I am open to your suggestions :slight_smile:

Cheers

#23

@Sevada

I couldn’t find any decent alternatives myself, so I scrapped myself one.

My motivations are different than yours. I’m not so much worried about note synchronization and sharing between different devices. Instead I wanted a note-taking application that could be used by different applications, not just the note-taker application, which involved the need for it to use an open file format. Of those that do use formats like Markdown, none was worth keeping. Zim, in particular was a big disappointed due to the incorrect way with which it renders some markdown elements and the fact it is not extensible enough to support markdown additions like syntax highlighting (most of my notes are programming notes).

One day, talking about my frustrations on the Ubuntu-MATE IRC channel, I joked that as far as note applications are concerned in Linux, we are better off using one a static webpage engine, since web servers are clearly the only thing on Linux that respects markup languages specifications. @ouroumov replied that he had done precisely that once with Pelican and that he was happy with the results.

That inspired me to follow his hint. Pelican is a static website generator. It is very extensible and supports Markdown, reStructuredText and AsciiDoc. I personally prefer reStructuredText, since Markdown is too limited in options. It comes with its own tiny webserver, which means you don’t need to use a webserver like Apache or Nginx. It is in fact very easy to work with and it’s particularly useful to you, because you can use it locally on your machine or move your note taking online just as you would place a website online, so all your devises can access it.

Pelican has been used mainly by bloggers who wish a more secure static blog. So the website templates that Pelican lists are all based on blogs. I ended up having to create my own template for a note-taking “website”. I’ve been preparing a tutorial for these forums where I explain all the steps necessary to install and setup Pelican as a note-taking application and will also link to my template. If you hold on for a little longer, you should be able to decide if this is the best solution for you. I can tell you, I stopped worrying about note taking applications.

1 Like
#24

@marfig

Hi, thanks for the suggestion, I am looking forward to your tutorial.
Just for your info, if you dont know, in zim you can install a plugin that adds markdown to the code (by adding code boxes). Cherry tree has that option build in.
But what I lack the most is the cross platform sync.

1 Like
#25

I’ve kept my dual-boot Windows for now, but I just managed to solve all my ‘problems’ and thinking of moving to one OS only. My wife is actually quite interested in the Linux-area and I’m trying to convince her to leave Apple and use something similar to OS X instead.

This is what I needed from windows:
Smart card software - works in Ubuntu MATE and Firefox
MS Office - I had 2016 edition in Windows, but I managed to install Office 2010 and it’s working just fine… using more and more libreoffice, but I need to open .doc or .docx files occasionally and edit them and share back to colleagues.
Dropbox - working
OneDrive - I used it in Windows… I wish dropbox had more free space, but currently I’ve only backed up the most important documents there and I always have my external hard drive.
Printing - my printer (Canon MG3550) didn’t work with older distros, but it works just fine with new Ubuntu MATE 16.04 and I only need to fix scanning feature now

All I have to do now is stop messing around with terminal by “tweaking” and trying out new things, which I may not be capable of doing. But I guess that’s the beauty of Linux overall that you actually CAN do something with it.

#26

I sync between devices. My phone and tablet are Samsung androids. Laptop and Desktop running Ubuntu Mate. I use Chromium as my default browser. I I use Google Keep on my androids and sync it to my computers through the app in Chromium. Excel mobile is about the only thing MS I use on my phone and that is for work purposes. I have it installed on my laptop and tablet as well for when I get tired of trying to edit .xlxs sheets on my Note 5. I use to use Evernote but I got tired of the ads, and there is nothing I was using it for I can’t do with Keep. Keep actually does a better job in my opinion.

#27

I really don’t need to use Windows (except at work, where I have not choice). I have been Windows free since 2010. Besides running Ubuntu since 2011, I do have a MacBook Pro that I use for photo editing, etc. Interestingly, the photo applications that I have on my Mac, I also have on my Ubuntu Mate laptops. I made a conscious to leave Windows World and first, go to OS X, then adding Ubuntu to my computer arsenal. Also, as Linux has matured, and more open source applications have and are being developed for Linux, I have been able to direct several friends to the world of Linux.

4 Likes
#28

I will admit that I enjoyed using Windows 7. It also saved me from dealing with Pulseaudio when it was less than mature.

Now that Windows 10 is here, Windows is no longer an option for me. Yes, Linux has improved in recent years, to the point where Linux is not only the best option for geeks, but probably for anyone seeking a sane computing environment.

Maybe MacOS is good if you are willing to submit to the workflow imposed by Apple. Lack of customization options will always keep me away from Apple devices. So for me it’s not only Linux by choice, but also because of lack of alternatives.

2 Likes
#29

I need Windows evaluation versions occasionally so I can install firmware updates for hardware in the computer. Thankfully many EFI computers can now update the BIOS from a USB stick, now DOS or Windows required.

1 Like
HP s5-1414 video issues
#30

Finale 2005, for composing.
I hope a day it will work well with wine and similar, becase it is the only pain and even for the program I use the most. I hate windows, but unfortunately under an emulator or wine it’s super slow and hot keys are messed up

#31

Reported working with wine 1.2 versions. -> https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=18513
can you try a new wine version or staging version and reported in winehq.

#32

Things I need MS windows for? In terms of Ms Windows 8 onward - absolutely nothing. In terms of Windows 7 - a very occasional use of MS Access and also to print stuff off because my printer simply refuses to play nice with Linux and the damned thing wont die!. The last time it worked properly with Linux was on Ubuntu 12.04. It is a Cannon LBP 2900i laser printer and is built like a tank.

Hang on…

I’ve just had an idea!

I will report back in a little while…:slight_smile:

#33

steve, the suspense is killing me…

#34

i still use windows to do double-sided printing.

i have a samsung laser printer - the linux driver is very basic and just prints single sided. i suppose i could print the even pages, flip the sheets over then print odd pages on the back, but it’s fiddly-faddly. the windows driver on the other hand is much more fancy, allowing me to save custom print configs.

so i keep a version of 10 on a VM, but don’t allow it any network, otherwise it just eats my very limited bandwidth like crazy for hours if i let it.

i could use 7 instead (my preferred MS OS), but i need to keep up to date with windows, as i have quite a few clients and friends who rely on me for tech support .

used to use windows for gaming too, but recently all the games i’ve been interested in have linux versions.

edit
oh, i also do a bit of web development stuff, so need to check my sites under windows.

#35

Well…It hasn’t quite worked out…yet. :slight_smile:

Basically, the story is that my Canon LBP 2900i Lasar printer stopped working with Ubuntu post 12.04. Even then, in 12.04 it was major pain to install. But I figured it out and pushed out a tutorial on how to do it at the time. However, in 2014, something changed in the OS and my method no longer worked.

Thus, I just had the idea of maybe installing Ubuntu 12.04 in a VM. Then, setting up a folder in that VM and monitoring it with cron and, if any files appeared in it, they would be converted to pdf and printed to the Canon, which would be connected to the VM. This VM would be set up to load at the login of the host machine and then would be pushed out of sight on the second workspace. It would also use a bridged adapter so that it could be in direct communication with the host machine

Then, on the host machine, which is my UM 16.04 machine, I could set up a script which would allow me to right-click any file that would send the file to the designated cron watched folder in the VM. This would trigger cron, in the VM, to convert the file to pdf and print.

Thus, I would be able to “directly” print from my host machine

…not there yet…

#36

Hallo stevecook

Boundless energy you must have. :construction_worker::construction_worker:

Have you considered puting you actual printer up for sale and buying a linux-friendly one (e.g. HP)? :gift:
How many years have you been fighting with it now?

#37

Hi Alpine John. Not enough energy it would seem. It didn’t work for a variety of technical details too boring to go into. So, for the moment, I will be falling back on my usual method of simply firing up my winxp vm manually and printing manually from there.

I have had this problem from 14.04. But it started to become difficult from 12.04. So, around 5-7 years. Trouble is the damned printer is built like a tank and refuses to die!

#38

There’s a selling point; The printer that refuses to die.

If you have any ideological or philosophical issues with HP, that’s just like not using Linux Mint because of Clem’s opinions about politics. It’s plain dumb to base the use of something on such things.

Hell, if I stopped using Microsoft Windows because of my hatred for Microsoft’s recent BS I would miss out on certain gaming experiences with friends because of DirectX and Adobe AIR still being just for Windows, which would have me become even more of a hermit who isolates himself from people, lol

#39

Ha…Done it!..:slight_smile:

Installed an old copy of MS Windows XP in a VM. It had to be 32 bit because of the additional software I used. I set the network adapter to “bridged” so the VM could fully share its folders with MY UM host.

Installed my Canon LBP 2900i printer in the VM and set up a permanent USB connection to the printer for the VM.

Installed “Folder Mill” on the VM. This is an MS Windows freeware program that watches a designated folder and automatically prints any files it finds in there. It works best if all the files are in PDF format. This program also required that I installed service pack 3 and .NET framework. This is why I had to use the 32 bit version of XP cos there is no service pack 3 for the 64 bit version of XP. The reason I used XP rather than a later version of Windows is because it has only this one job to do. Therefore, I wanted the least resource-hungry version of windows that was able to operate my printer.

Designated a folder to watch for folder mill in the VM. At this point, I intended to simply share that folder on the network. But, after some messing about, I found that folder mill screws with the network folder sharing capacity of a designated folder it is watching. So, to hack round this, I set up another folder and shared that. Then wrote a simple MS Windows batch script to look in the shared folder every five seconds and, if there was a file in there, copy it to the designated folder mill folder. This worked.

On the UM host I did the following.

I did a startup script start to boot the VM at UM login and then shunt it off to workspace two out of the way.

Then I installed the Generic CUPS-PDF Printer driver for Ubuntu and set this as the default printer. When files are “printed” to this printer, they are, in fact, converted to pdf and written as a file in your home folder. This folder is, rather helpfully, called “PDF”.

I then set up a bash script to look in the “PDF” folder every five seconds and copy whatever is in there to the samba folder that is being shared on the network by my VM (see earlier) and then to immediately delete all files in the PDF folder.

The upshot of all of the above is that I can open any file in any application in UM and press “print” in the usual manner and my printer will print the file. What is actually happening under the hood, however, is the following:

A temporary pdf version of the files is saved to the “PDF” folder in my home folder

The file is then passed to the VM shared folder and the copy is deleted from the PDF folder.

The file is then passed to the folder mill folder and the copy is deleted from the shared folder

The file is then printed

The file is then deleted from the folder mill folder

The time delay from pressing “print” to the file actually being printed is between 5 and 10 seconds. Which is more than acceptable to me.

To finish it all off, I have made modified versions of the logout and shutdown buttons. Now, before they open the shutdown and/or logout dialog boxes, the VM is closed and its current state is saved, then the dialog box comes up. It adds about 5 seconds delay to the dialog boxes appearing. Which, again is quite acceptable to me.

Finally, this solution has added only a tiny amount to my processor load such that it is barely noticeable. In terms of RAM usage, it has added about 300 MB which, given I am running 8GB of RAM is, again negligible.

It seems to me, this is a possible solution to many machines sharing a network printer where there are problems with one or more of the machines being able to install the printer driver.

3 Likes
#40

Hallo

Like I said… boundless energy! That’s a very creative solution and an inspiration to others as well I should think. :clap:

Just checking… you’ve tried out these drivers I presume:

1 Like