Welcome to the society, Art. You have many friends here to make, and plenty of help whenever you need it. The mailing list is very active, in addition to great people at the monthly meetings, which you're welcome at. I'm personally located in Seattle, Washington, and keep in touch with the group.
Ubuntu versions are in the nomenclature <year>.<month>. I recommend you use the LTS (Long-Term Support) release unless you're feeling particularly adventurous, and are willing to deal with bleeding-edge software, with bleeding-edge bugs. They are completely unrelated to the Linux kernel version, which is what some distributions use for version numbers. The first letter of the Ubuntu version you're looking at denotes what desktop environment it uses, except Ubuntu MATE which uses the MATE desktop environment. Ubuntu uses GNOME, Kubuntu uses KDE and Xubuntu uses Xfce. All the software is identical between Ubuntu releases, except the default desktop environment. Which you use is up to personal preference and what you like in each one. I prefer Xfce, and strongly resembles a Windows XP or 2000 desktop environment. KDE is slightly different. It uses a default suite of programs that are specifically designed for KDE, and usually, have a K in the beginning or end of their name. No desktop environment is better than another. They are equally powerful. Antivirus software is unnecessary in Linux and is very uncommon, unless you're sharing files between it and Windows, and then Avast! and clamav are the two main antivirus packages. The Linux userspace and user permissions model makes antivirus unneeded, and a waste of processor cycles. Joomla is a popular content management system that runs on Linux, as well as Windows. Other popular packages include MediaWiki, Drupal and WordPress, all of which work on Linux no problem. For desktop virtualization on Linux, a popular choice is Oracle VirtualBox, which is free and open source. Virtualization has come a long way, and there is no longer a performance penalty running virtualized environments. A removable hard disk might not be necessary. Dual-boot might be sufficient for your needs. Feel free to email the list if you have any further questions. I'm also at your disposal if you want to reach me directly. I am almost always available. Best wishes and greetings from Washington state... -Alex Smith, Server+, Network+ <https://mailtrack.io/> Sent with Mailtrack <https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mailtrack-for-gmail-inbox/ndnaehgpjlnokgebbaldlmgkapkpjkkb?utm_source=gmail&utm_medium=signature&utm_campaign=signaturevirality> " 'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.' Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie as wisdom and warning... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we’re all damaged." - Jean-Luc Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie, Star Trek: TNG episode "The Drumhead" - Alex Smith - Kent, Washington (metropolitan Seattle area) On Sun, Nov 26, 2017 at 3:55 PM, crossvillegoogler <[email protected]> wrote: > First of all thank all of you who responded to my first email for your > help. It is greatly appreciated. > > I have a background in tech support for hardware and Windoze, but am not > real familiar with Linux ecept by reputation. I was the vendor relations > officer and editor of the East Tennessee Computer Society Newspaper when I > lived in Knoxville. I have seen Linux (We had a Linux SIG), know who Linus > is, but the last time I fooled with Linux Red Hat was the leading platform > (it was a few years ago). > > I am building a new system for myself with no OS in it yet, it will be a > state of the art system so I am sure it would run whatever distro I choose. > Like everyone else I've spoke to, I also hate Windows 10, Microsoft uses > the end user for quality control. The deal breaker for me though was that > all versions of Windows after XP which was built on the NT kernel cannot be > uninstalled and you can't get to true DOS. You litterally have to buy a new > hard drive to get rid of it completely or upgrade to a higher version of > Windows. So I decided it's time to break with Windows, build a linux box, > and probably either put in separate petitions for Linux and Windows and > dual boot or use a virtual drive for Windows since professionally I need > Windows software. Sometimes the answer to a question leads to more > questions. ;-) Let me ask a few more questions if I may: > > 1. My experience has been that software on virtual drives runs slow. Have > any of you tried it, there may have been strides in the software since I > tried it, If the programs are going to run slow on a virtual drive I may be > better off with a dual boot on separate partitions. > > 2. Am I correct in assuming Mint is a more simple to use distro, but > Ubuntu is more robust? > > 3. What do you think of Ubuntu distros with software added like Kubuntu. > It has KDE's desktop and user environment KDE Plasma 5.9. It uses the 4.10 > based Linux kernel, although I think the latest version of Ubuntu is 17.10. > I am not sure if I am correct about the Linux versions or if there are any > major changes between versions, so any imput would be appreciated. > > 4. I bought a Linux Pro Magazine and it included Kubuntu (32 bit) and > Manjaro Gnome (64 bit) on CDs. Has anyone used Manjaro Gnome? I don't think > that is a Ubuntu distro, but I don't know. It comes with the Linux kernel > and a collection of the best Gnome and Linux applications, including > Firefox, Evolution, LibreOffice, Fresh, and the Lolypop and Totem > multimedia players. > > 5. Also I was wondering what you all use for an anti-virus program with > Linux? Do you use Joomla for web authoring software? > > Eventually I want to run a Linux server, so I was kind of favoring Ubuntu > anyway because that is what most Sys Admins use in place of MS Enterprise > server software. I want to learn as much as I can before I set up the > server. So I am starting with a personal pc with a clean install of the > user version first. > > Any further help you can be would be greatly appreciated. I am putting hot > swappable HDD drives on the new system I am building so that could be an > alternative to dual boot startups or virtual drives too, but the HDD on the > mother board of the new system is solid state for speed and sound > suppression. That is why I don't want to install software that can't be > uninstalled. > > Thank you all for your help. > > Art Shady > > > > On Saturday, November 18, 2017 at 9:53:32 AM UTC-6, crossvillegoogler > wrote: > >> I was wondering what distro of Linux you would recommend for someone who >> is computer savvy, but pretty new to Linux. >> >> What is the best way to run products like Photoshop on Linux. I know >> there's Gimp and Open Office, but I teach MS Office and Photoshop so I need >> access to them. >> >> Please respond to [email protected] or on this forum ( >> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/nlug-talk) >> >> Thank you in advance for your help. >> >> Art Shady >> > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "NLUG" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to nlug-talk+unsubscribe@ > googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/ > group/nlug-talk?hl=en > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "NLUG" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NLUG" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NLUG" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
