(no subject)

[cimorene]

Computer rambling. I am confronting the imminent possibility of switching to Linux, but I suppose that as long as there is a program that allows for iTunes and Photoshop to run on it, and a good working chat client that works with all the major servers, it shouldn't be a big problem. Then the biggest loss will be CuteHTML, but maybe I can get that Windows simulator program, because the ability to find and replace strings that include carriage returns is pretty much invaluable.

I'd still rather have a mac, but everyone in the family is so unknowledgeable and unsympathetic about that, and meanwhile I think I've worn out my ability to constrain wax's desire to buy a Linux laptop that we don't have any particular use for. My feeilng is that as long as neither of us has the faintest shadow of an actual NEED for a laptop, it should be an iBook because I strongly want one, but they are more expensive and there's only so long I can tell wax that random expenditures of several hundred bucks on things we would barely use are silly before she stops believing me.

Comments

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

The artist is Hotei Tomoyasu.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[bluesbell.livejournal.com]

Hi Cim! I've used Windows, Linux and Mac and in my experience Mac is by far the best option. I've had a MacBook for a couple of months now and have found it very reliable. Personally I like Macs because of their user-friendliness; unlike with Linux, I don't necessarily need to know what's under the hood, as it were. Anyway, the beauty of a MacBook is that you can still install both Linux and Windows if you want to. (As for iBooks, you can only get a used one nowadays since they're discontinued.)

There's an increasing amount of Mac-compatible Windows software (Office for Mac, to start with)- no Photoshop, though, to my knowledge. So far I haven't run into any serious trouble with lack of suitable software, even though I was warned that Mac users have less to choose from.

(Oh noes, I'm not sounding like a cult member, am I?. Joooin the Mac users, it's a happy family...)

[calicoa.livejournal.com]

*pops her head in*

There is photoshop on Macs also!

*runs away again*

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Oh, I want a Mac, but wax is against it.

insomniac drive-by linux evangelism

[vass]

Hi. I'm flipping through your current entries looking for fic and/or summaries, and found this.

Linux has Amarok, which is sufficiently similar to iTunes that you can run a script that transfers your metadata across so it keeps your songs' ratings and playcounts and everything, and is very, very customisable. There's also Songbird, which I haven't used, but which is even closer to iTunes in appearance. In both cases, you can sync to an iPod or other mp3 player, burn CDs, create playlists, and buy things from music stores (albeit not the iTunes Music Store. But they have software to (yes, illegally, but it's morally right) convert songs you've already bought from the iTMS so you can still listen to them.)

Linux has the Gimp, which has all the features Photoshop has, but they're called different things, and I'm finding the learning curve a little steep.

Linux has Gaim, which is a good, working chat client that works with all the major servers. It's the same program that in Mac OS X is called Adium (the ducky.)

I'm not familiar with CuteHTML, but I'm absolutely certain there are Linux HTML editors that have advanced search and replace, and carriage return conversion. If nothing else (there *will* be something else, I'm sure of it) the text editor Kate and the office suite OpenOffice.org both have those.

Also, depending on what you want to do with it, you can get away with an older, lower-grade laptop than you'd need for Mac OS X, which is beautiful but very resource-hungry.

Other important applications that you would not have to do without on Linux: Azureus, VLC, MPlayer, Opera, Thunderbird, Solitaire/Freecell/Poker/other card games, Minesweeper, Jezzball, Sudoku.

I don't know how good the localisation for Swedish is, but I'd guess pretty good for the main apps and maybe not so good for the rest.

Re: insomniac drive-by linux evangelism

[cimness.livejournal.com]

wax_jism has been using Linux for about six months, so I'm definitely familiar with all the workable alternative programs that she has. I've already experimented with the Gimp enough to know I'd rather not try to switch, but the program that lets you run Photoshop was pretty much what I needed to resign myself to the idea, I think. But she says she couldn't figure out how to make OpenOffice do the complex search-and-replace she wanted with carriage returns, and it also doesn't have a search and replace through all open documents like CuteHTML.