Finally Dumping Micros**t and need wise advice

[Newgene McMensa]

Why am I posting this on a home repair site? Because I have followed the group for years and you guys have never failed to give good advice.... well, mostly.... well, sometimes.... LOL.

I've had it up to here (picture a chubby feller holding his hand up to his head) with Micros**t endless patching, "up" grades, etc., etc. I got a tablet recently with Silk browser - completely unknown to me - and I have started using it and have had zero trouble in over a year now. Granted, it's not a "computer" and limited. But, for crying out loud, Micros**t has been trying to get it right for 30 years. A "simple" OS with simple basic programs.... don't need 3-d virtual realititty, etc. etc etc.

Anyway.... I have heard nothing negative about Linux for many years. So now I'm finally at the point of trying it out.

Here's the question....

I'm looking for the super easy way for a feller with basic computer skills to (a) acquire the software, (b) install it and (c) install the basic applications. I would like to stay with MS Word & Excel, just because they do fine for me and I don't need to learn anything else new dammit. LOL.

Anyway.... fire away. All comments and funny stories appreciated!

If you prefer to email me, use this.... [e-mail]

Many thanks!

Newgene, formerly known as Snuffy

[Nil]

On 05 Feb 2018, "Newgene McMensa" wrote in alt.home.repair:

While Linux can run some Windows programs, it doesn't necessarily run them well. I suspect MS Word and Excel are among those that don't work well or at all, especially recent versions. Not to mention that you have to buy a license for MS Office. There is a free open source native Linux (and Windows) alternative called LibreOffice that handles Word and Excel formats reasonably well.

If all you want to do is write a word processing document, do email and web browsing, and play solitaire you will probably be OK. Unless you have a touch of computer geek about you will need help for much beyond that.

Good luck.

[Dan Espen]

So I wondered, why 2 names?

Then I find that you are Bob Wilston also known as Gov or Ardus, so 4 names at least besides your given name.

Not really interested in Linux are you?

[Shot&Beer]

I'm gonna be honest and to the point. I am no fan of Microsoft and I wont use any version of Windows newer that XP, because I hate bloatware. However, I would not recommend Linux to my worst enemy. I tried at least

15 different versions (distros) of Linux. It was probably the most frustrating thing I have ever done, and nothing really worked properly. Some would not even install. And you wont be using Ms Word or other MS software under Linux. You are stuck with linux softaware which is limited and not compatible with the rest of the world.

You could not pay me enough to ever touch Linux again.

If you're using Windows 10, I symphatise with you. Unless you need the latest features and want to fight with bloat, just install an older version of Windows, or buy a Macintosh computer.

[CRNG]

On Mon, 5 Feb 2018 16:19:27 -0800, "Newgene McMensa" wrote in

Can't be done with Linux.

[makolber]

get an android or other tablet or small PC for surfing and email only. You will like the portability.

Take your main PC off line.

Use whatever OS you like on your main PC but keep that main PC offline. No more updates.

Use this PC for all your pics music etc.

Hackers are so sophisticated now, I would not trust all my data to anything other than an actual air gap...ie the PC is not connected to the internet.

and of course have good OFFSITE backups.

mark

[rbowman]

Thanks the Gods.

[gfretwell]

It is really just as easy to avoid keeping anything you are worried about off of your "browsing" PC and keep it well backed up. Do things like your taxes on your air gapped machine. Most "hacks" are usually things you clicked on and opened that you should not have.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

Windows solitaire will work on Linux (I tries it with the XP versionm and don't know about the advertising-laden junk on later windows). However, I found that I preferred the version than came with Linux (Ubuntu).

For most things, you can find help by searching the web.

[Ralph Mowery]

Sort of hard to do taxes on an air gapped machine as the tax program needs many updates. I use a computer to pay many bills, so hard to keep that off the internet. I do use some external hard dirves for storage of pix and other things I do not want to use. Thinking of switching to a usb drive as the price keep comming down. Often burn them to a DVD. Hard for a hack to mess that up.

[gfretwell]

You can't update the program on your connected machine and then move it to the air gapped one? I am surprised the tax folks don't give you the updates as a flat file you can install anywhere. I haven't used a program for a while. I just use the PC to fill in the PDFs I download from IRS. I put them on a thumb drive, open that on a laptop that never sees the net and fill them out. Print them and mail them. I don't do any banking or bills online. I let my bank and credit card company deal with that. I have recourse if they get hacked. Things like pictures videos and music are really the disk drive hogs but I have them on a few different machines and a lot of the stuff is also on my web site, some you can navigate to, some you need the URL and some is behind a password. I also have several offline backup drives that I alternate using with images of my C: (pretty much only installed software) and copies of my data drives.

[Ralph Mowery]

Once th ecomputer is plugged into the internet for the tax files update, it is no longer air gapped.

There should be a law the tax code should be written by the end of December for then ext year. That would give the tax programs and the ones doing the taxes about a year to learn the rules .

I have not checked it out, but heard that the forms for the tax have not even been made final by the feds.

Having been a computer user from the days of magnetic cassett tapes and the old 5 inch disk drives, I really like to make backups of things. That is one reason I have 2 computers I got off ebay for about $ 150 each for win 10 and a couple that still have XP on it. Not being a gamer or doing anything that needs lots of computing powr, just about any computer that is good enough for the operating system is fine for me.

[trader_4]

On Tuesday, February 6, 2018 at 4:37:31 AM UTC-5, [e-mail] wrote :

I'm running windows 10 and don't need any sympathy. It works great, it's t he fastest, most stable version yet. And I don't know what alleged bloatwAr e you're taking about. If you want to run Word and Excel, it's ideal,I don' t see the problem, but to each his own.

[trader_4]

It's been decades, if ever that you could do that with most programs.

I guess you haven't installed many programs. They run an install process that installs it, checks for updates as part of that. When it's done I can't begin to imagine how you'd then move that to another system. That pretty much went away with MSDOS.

[Dove Tail]

Actually, there are thousands of free, portable apps which do not require a typical "installation".

Whether there is a capable tax filing app, I don't know.

[trader_4]

Sure sounds like it works similar to other apps:

"The PortableApps.com Platform installs and automatically updates your apps and let's you view by category, title, new, or recent updates"

PortableApps.com Updater - Your Apps Are Up To Date

With PortableApps.com, you don't need to worry about making sure your softw are is up to date. When a new security fix for your browser is released or a new feature in your favorite game is available, the PortableApps.com Upda ter will automatically let you know. Just click a button and the updates ar e downloaded and installed without messing up your settings and saved files . And if you're in a hurry or using a computer on a slow connection, you ca n wait until later with just a click.

It doesn't say anything about installing it on PC A, updating it there, then moving the files over to PC B.

[Sam E]

[snip]

And when you can there's still an executable binary blob and you don't know what malware is coming along.

[snip]

[gfretwell]

Can't you just get the updates as flat files, sneaker net them over and install them yourself on the air gapped computer? Even Microsoft does that.

[Ralph Mowery]

Someone might be able to, but I doubt it is easy to just load files from Turbotax. They probably have to be installed and write over some that are already on the computer from the origional install.

[Dove Tail]

We make extensive use of portable apps. Install them to a flash drive and easily use them on multiple machines without needing to integrate them with the OS on each machine.