WINDOWS 10 - Not Really Ready for Prim-Time

Like ALL previous releases of Windows the initial release of Windows 10 should be installed with a very big grain-of-salt.

I have been a desktop user of Windows since Windows ME.  Upgraded to WinXP and now use Win7 64bit.

The initial release of distributions of Windows have always been very faulty.  The upshot for those who are thinking of 'upgrading' to Windows 10 is 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

If your present version of Windows works fine, DO NOT upgrade to Windows 10 for at least a year AFTER release.

ALSO SEE:
"Windows 10 Vs Windows 8 Vs Windows 7:  What's The Difference?" by Gordon Kelly, Forbes 8/02/2015


NOTE:  I personally have no intention to 'upgrade' to Windows 10.

SECURITY - Vulnerablities 2014

COMMENT:  What is most important to security is which OS is the most targeted.  Microsoft is still the most popular and therefore the most targeted.

"Apple, Linux, not Windows, most vulnerable operating systems in 2014" by Ms. Smith, Network Wold 2/22/2015

OS X, iOS, and Linux were the top three most vulnerable operating systems in 2014, but Internet Explorer was the most vulnerable app.

A whopping average of 19 security vulnerabilities were reported every day in 2014.  The number of vulnerabilities discovered each year in operating systems, applications, and hardware has skyrocketed in a nasty trend, according to analysis by GFI Software.

Operating systems with most security vulnerabilities in 2014

The top spot for vulnerabilities in operating systems no longer goes to Microsoft Windows; in fact, Windows isn't even listed in the top three.  Instead, the most vulnerable OS was Apple Mac OS X, followed by Apple iOS and Linux kernel.  As you can see in the list below, Mac OS X had 147 vulnerabilities, with 64 being rated as high-severity bugs.  There were 127 in iOS, 32 of those rated as high.  Linux kernel had a rough year, with 119 security vulnerabilities and 24 being rated as high-severity.  The flip-side is that none of the security holes in Windows versions were rated as low severity.

"2014 was a tough year for Linux users from a security point of view, coupled with the fact that some of the most important security issues of the year were reported for applications that usually run on Linux systems," explained GFI Software manager Cristian Florian.  "Heartbleed, for example, is a critical security vulnerability detected in OpenSSL while Shellshock is a vulnerability that affects GNU Bash."

Most security vulnerabilities in apps during 2014

However, Microsoft can't crow too much about being "more secure," since Internet Exploder Explorer blew away the "competition" by having nearly twice as many security flaws than the second most vulnerable app, which was Google Chrome.  IE had 242 security flaws, with a whopping 220 of those being high-severity vulnerabilities.  Chrome had 124 total bugs with 86 of those rated as high.  With a 117 total, Firefox wasn't too far behind Chrome for security holes reported, but only 57 were high severity.

It's interesting to note that a separate report on security flaws by Secunia found that Google Chrome had the most vulnerabilities in January 2015; Chrome had 71, compared to the second place tie of 19 security glitches each in Oracle Java JRE and Oracle Java JDK.  Internet Explorer didn't even make the top 20 list for vulnerabilities discovered in the first month of this year.

Unsurprisingly, GFI said the worst offender in 2014 for having security flaws was third-party applications.  Apps made up a whopping 83% of reported bugs, followed by 13% in operating systems and then 4% in hardware.

Florian reported:

The applications listed here are pretty much the same as in 2013.  Not surprisingly at all, web browsers continue to have the most security vulnerabilities because they are a popular gateway to access a server and to spread malware on the clients.  Adobe free products and Java are the main challengers but web browsers have continuously topped the table for the last six years.  Mozilla Firefox had the most vulnerabilities reported in 2009 and 2012; Google Chrome in 2010 and 2011; Internet Explorer was at the top for the last two years.

Total security vulnerabilities reported in 2014

To review, last year an average of 19 new security vulnerabilities were reported every day to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD).

In total, there were 7,038 vulnerabilities in 2014.  That figure blows away the new flaws found in any other year.  For comparison, in 2013 there were 13 new security vulnerabilities per day for a total of 4,794; at that time, the number was the highest number of vulnerabilities in the last five years.

If you'd like to end with "good" news, then GFI found some in the fact that the percentage of vulnerabilities rated as "high severity" dropped to 24% in 2014.  Although that is lower than in 2013, there were still more total vulnerabilities discovered in 2014. Sixty-eight percent of vulnerabilities in 2014 were rated as "medium" for severity, with only 8% rated as "low."

WINDOWS 7 - Classic Shell

Just found something that is outstanding for my Windows 7 Pro 64bit rig.

Classic Shell for Windows 7 & 8

Here are screenshots of just two examples:

This shows the style I'm using for the [Start] menu.

This is the file Explorer classic style.

There are more styles for other Windows UIs.

Why do I like this utility?  See my [Start] menu:

WINDOWS - WinXP vs Win7

As I said in my previous post, I was forced to go to Windows 7.

I have found that Microdunce has 'broken' features in Win7:

[Send to]:  This is the first broken feature I ran into.  In WinXP you can put any shortcut in your [SendTo] folder and it will work when using the Context Menu [Send to] option.  NOT in Win7, you cannot use normal shortcuts in your [SendTo] folder.

POINTERS:  In WinXP you can set custom pointers sourced from anywhere, any CUR file.  In Win7 ALL pointers must be in C:\Windows\Cursors.  This means you have to copy cursors/pointers from your other sources to that folder for any Pointer Customization to hold on next boot, ALSO you should save a the DEFAULT cursor theme.

SOUNDS:  In Win7 there is no "Start Windows" sound listed.  "Exit Windows" is listed.  Luckily I found a utility to change the "Start Windows" sound.  Now tell me, what is the logic of NOT having "Start Windows" listed?


I consider features 'broken' if any change makes it HARDER to use Windows.

I will add more 'broken features' here as I find them.

LINUX - Rules on Supercomputers

"Where Linux rules:  Supercomputers" by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, ZDNet 11/25/2013

Summary:  Linux is everywhere, except on traditional PCs.  But when it comes to total platform domination, you can't beat Linux on supercomputers.

The latest Top 500 Supercomputer list is out.  At the very tip-top, you'll find Tianhe-2.  This supercomputer, developed by China’s National University of Defense Technology, is once more the world’s fastest supercomputer with a performance of 33.86 petaflop/s (quadrillions of calculations per second) on the Linpack benchmark.  Also on top, as it has been for more than a decade now, you'll find Linux.

When it comes to supercomputers, Linux is the operating system of choice and it has been since 2004.  The latest round-up of the world's fastest computers underlines just how dominant Linux is in supercomputers.

In the November 2013 listing, 482 of the world's top supercomputers run Linux.  The free, open-source operating system is followed by Unix, with eleven; four systems running a mix of operating systems, two with Windows and a single system running BSD Unix.  That's an advantage of 96.4 percent for Linux to 3.6 percent for everyone else, if you're keeping score at home.

The vast majority of these Linux hot-rod computers use cluster architectures with 86.4 percent.  Only 15.4 percent use a massively parallel processor (MPP) design.

A related development, behind the high-tide of Linux, is that most of these supercomputers use AMD and Intel chips.  To be exact, 82 percent use Intel Xeon chips with the Xeon E5 SandyBridge processor leading the way.  9 percent use AMD Opteron and 8 percent use IBM Power processors.  All of these chips can, and do, run Linux on supercomputers.

Just over 10 percent of supercomputers, 53 systems, use accelerator/co-processor technology.  Of these, 38 use NVIDIA chips, 13 systems with Intel's Xeon Phi and two use ATI Radeon.

Looking ahead, the supercomputer testers are well aware that the Linpack benchmark is dated.  Jack Dongarra, distinguished professor of computer science at the University of Tennessee, creator of the TOP500 and Linpack's inventor, is working on a new supercomputer benchmark:  the High Performance Conjugate Gradient.

We don't have a date yet for when the HPCG will appear.  We can, however, be certain that whenever it appears, Linux will still be the top supercomputer operating system.

LINUX - Opinion, 7 Suggested Improvements

"7 Improvements The Linux Desktop Needs" by Bruce Byfield, Datamation 6/7/2014

In the last fifteen years, the Linux desktop has gone from a collection of marginally adequate solutions to an unparalleled source of innovation and choice.  Many of its standard features are either unavailable in Windows, or else available only as a proprietary extension.  As a result, using Linux is increasingly not only a matter of principle, but of preference as well.

Yet, despite this progress, gaps remain.  Some are missing features, others missing features, and still others pie-in-the sky extras that could be easily implemented to extend the desktop metaphor without straining users' tolerance of change.

For instance, here are 7 improvements that would benefit the Linux desktop:

7.  Easy Email Encryption

These days, every email reader from Alpine to Thunderbird and Kmail include email encryption.  However, documentation is often either non-existent or poor.

But, even if you understand the theory, the practice is difficult.  Controls are generally scattered throughout the configuration menus and tabs, requiring a thorough search for all the settings that you require or want.  Should you fail to set up encryption properly, usually you receive no feedback about why.

The closest to an easy process is Enigmail, a Thunderbird extension that includes a setup wizard aimed at beginners.  But you have to know about Enigmail to use it, and the menu it adds to the composition window buries the encryption option one level down and places it with other options guaranteed to mystify everyday users.

No matter what the desktop, the assumption is that, if you want encrypted email, you already understand it.  Today, though, the constant media references to security and privacy have ensured that such an assumption no longer applies.

6.  Thumbnails for Virtual Workspaces

Virtual workspaces offer more desktop space without requiring additional monitors.  Yet, despite their usefulness, management of virtual workspaces hasn't changed in over a decade.  On most desktops, you control them through a pager in which each workspace is represented by an unadorned rectangle that gives few indications of what might be on it except for its name or number -- or, in the case of Ubuntu's Unity, which workspace is currently active.

True, GNOME and Cinnamon do offer better views, but the usefulness of these views is limited by the fact that they require a change of screens.  Nor is KDE's written list of contents, which is jarring in the primarily graphic-oriented desktop.

A less distracting solution might be mouseover thumbnails large enough for those with normal vision to see exactly what is on each workspace.

5.  A Workable Menu

The modern desktop long ago outgrew the classic menu with its sub-menus cascading across the screen.  Today, the average computer simply has too many applications to fit comfortably into such a format.

The trouble is, neither of the major alternatives is as convenient as the classic menu.  Confining the menu into a single window is less than ideal, because you either have to endure truncated sub-menus or else continually resize the window with the mouse.

Yet the alternative of a full-screen menu is even worse.  It means changing screens before you even begin to work, and relying on a search field that is only useful if you already know what applications are available -- in which case you are almost better off launching from the command line.

Frankly, I don't know what the solution might be.  Maybe spinner racks, like those in OS X?  All I can say for certain is that all alternatives for a modern menu make a carefully constructed set of icons on the desktop seem a more reasonable alternative.

4.  A Professional, Affordable Video Editor

Over the years, Linux has slowly filled the gaps in productivity software.  However, one category in which it is still lacking is in reasonably priced software for editing videos.

The problem is not that such free software is non-existent.  After all, Maya is one of the industry standards for animation.  The problem is that the software costs several thousand dollars.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are apps like Pitivi or Blender, whose functionality -- despite brave efforts by their developers -- remain basic.  Progress happens, but far more slowly than anyone hopes for.

Although I have heard of indie directors using native Linux video editors, the reason I have heard of their efforts is usually because of their complaints.  Others prefer to minimize the struggle and edit on other operating systems instead.

3.  A Document Processor

At one extreme are users whose need for word processing is satisfied by Google Docs.  At the other extreme are layout experts for whom Scribus is the only feasible app.

In-between are those like publishers and technical writers who produce long, text-oriented documents.  This category of users is served by Adobe FrameMaker on Windows, and to some extent by LibreOffice Writer on Linux.

Unfortunately, these users are apparently not a priority in LibreOffice, Calligra Words, AbiWord, or any other office suite.  Features that would provide for these users include:

• Separate bibliographic databases for each file
• Tables that are treated like styles in the same way that paragraphs and characters are
• Page styles with persistent content other than headers or footers that would appear each time the style is used
• Storable formats for cross-references, so that the structure doesn't need to be recreated manually each time that it is needed

Whether LibreOffice or another application provides these features is irrelevant comparing to whether they are available.  Without them, the Linux desktop is an imperfect place for a large class of potential users.

2.  Color-Coded Title Bars

Browser extensions have taught me how useful color coded tabs can be for workspaces.  The titles of open tabs disappear when more than eight or nine or open, so the color is often the quickest visual guide to the relation between tabs.

The same system could be just as useful on the desktop.  Better yet, the color coding might be preserved between sessions, allowing users to open all the apps needed for a specific task at the same time.  So far, I know of no desktop with such a feature.

1.  Icon Fences

For years, Stardock Systems has been selling a Windows extension called Fences, which lets icons be grouped.  You can name each group and move the icons in it together.  In addition, you can assign which fence different types of files are automatically added to, and hide and arrange fences as needed.

In other words, fences automate the sort of arrangements that users make on their desktop all the time.  Yet aside from one or two minor functions they share with KDE's Folder Views, fences remain completely unknown on Linux desktops.  Perhaps the reason is that designers are focused on mobile devices as the source of ideas, and fences are decidedly a feature of the traditional workstation desktop.

Personalized Lists

As I made this list, what struck me was how few of the improvements were general.  Several of these improvement would appeal largely to specific audiences, and only one even implies the porting of a proprietary application.  At least one is cosmetic rather than functional.

What this observation suggests is that, for the general user, Linux has very little left to add.  As an all-purpose desktop, Linux arrive some years ago, and has been diversifying ever since, until today users can choose from over half a dozen major desktops.

None of that means, of course, that specialists wouldn't have other suggestions.  In addition, changing needs can make improvements desirable that nobody once cared about.  But it does mean that many items on a list of desirable improvements will be highly personal.

All of which raises the question:  What other improvements do you think would benefit the desktop?

"Microsoft makes source code for MS-DOS and Word for Windows available to public" by Roy Levin (Microsoft Research), Official Microsoft Blog 3/25/2014

On Tuesday, we dusted off the source code for early versions of MS-DOS and Word for Windows.  With the help of the Computer History Museum, we are making this code available to the public for the first time.

The museum has done an excellent job of curating some of the most significant historical software programs in computing history.  As part of this ongoing project, the museum will make available two of the most widely used software programs of the 1980’s, MS DOS 1.1 and 2.0 and Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1a, to help future generations of technologists better understand the roots of personal computing.

In 1980, IBM approached Microsoft to work on a project code-named “Chess.”  What followed was a significant milestone in the history of the personal computer.  Microsoft, at the time, provided the BASIC language interpreter for IBM.  However, they had other plans and asked Microsoft to create an operating system.  Without their own on hand, Microsoft licensed an operating system from Seattle Computer Products which would become the foundation for PC-DOS and MS-DOS.

IBM and Microsoft developed a unique relationship that paved the way for advancements in the nascent personal computer industry, and subsequent advancements in personal computing.

Bill Gates was interviewed by David Bunnell just after the launch of the IBM PC in the early 1980s for PC Magazine’s inaugural issue, and provided the backstory:  “For more than a year, 35 of Microsoft's staff of 100 worked fulltime (and plenty of overtime) on the IBM project.  Bulky packages containing computer gear and other goodies were air-expressed almost daily between the Boca Raton [IBM] laboratory and Seattle [Microsoft].  An electronic message system was established and there was almost always someone flying the arduous 4,000 mile commute.”

Following closely on the heels of MS DOS, Microsoft released the first DOS-based version of Microsoft Word in 1983, which was designed to be used with a mouse.  However, it was the 1989 release of Word for Windows that became a blockbuster for the company and within four years it was generating over half the revenue of the worldwide word-processing market.  Word for Windows was a remarkable engineering and marketing achievement, and we are happy to provide its source code to the museum.

It’s mind-boggling to think of the growth from those days when Microsoft had under 100 employees and a Microsoft product (MS-DOS) had less than 300KB (yes, kilobytes) of source code.  From those roots we’ve grown in a few short decades to become a company that has sold more than 200 million licenses of Windows 8 and has over 1 billion people using Microsoft Office.  Great things come from modest beginnings, and the great Microsoft devices and services of the future will probably start small, just as MS-DOS and Word for Windows did.

Thanks to the Computer History Museum, these important pieces of source code will be preserved and made available to the community for historical and technical scholarship.

OPERATOR SYSTEMS - ReactOS Alternative to Microsoft Windows

ReactOS alternative to Microsoft Windows

ReactOS® is a free open source operating system based on the best design principles found in the Windows NT® architecture (Windows versions such as Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Server 2012 are built on Windows NT architecture).  Written completely from scratch, ReactOS is not a Linux based system, and shares none of the UNIX architecture.

The main goal of the ReactOS® project is to provide an operating system which is binary compatible with Windows.  This will allow your Windows® applications and drivers to run as they would on your Windows system.  Additionally, the look and feel of the Windows operating system is used, such that people accustomed to the familiar user interface of Windows® would find using ReactOS straightforward.  The ultimate goal of ReactOS® is to allow you to use it as alternative to Windows® without the need to change software you are used to.

ReactOS 0.3.15 is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.

As the quote above, this is under development but sounds good considering it is FREE and the developers MAY be more responsive to users than Microsoft.  Also may be more stable in the long run, not having new versions every few years.

Here is a link to their "Missing ReactOS Functionality" page.

My desktop system is WinXP SP3.  I do not like any of the newer versions of Windows which I consider glitzy resource hogs.

We should keep an eye out on progress of ReactOS.  I may give it a try AFTER I can be sure in will install OVER my WinXP and all applications (especially my antivirus) and games will work.

ReactOS Wikipedia

MICROSOFT - Can They Survive?

"Can Microsoft Be Saved?  Maybe Not" by Vivek Wadhwa, PBS Newshour 8/31/2013

Is Microsoft going the way of the Soviet Union?  Vivek Wadhwa, vice president for academics and innovation at Singularity University, director of research at Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, and a fellow at Stanford Law School, thinks so.  A good friend of the Making Sen$e Business Desk, Wadhwa takes another look at Microsoft's future -- an issue he explored earlier this week in his column on the Washington Post's Innovations blog.

Vivek Wadhwa:  When companies become too big, they usually lose their ability to innovate.  There are a few notable exceptions, such as Apple, GE and Google, but most become complacent and focus increasingly on defending their existing turf rather than on creating new markets.  Thus they begin their march into oblivion.

That is the present state of Microsoft.  It has become an old giant, obsessed with defending its aging products.  If Microsoft doesn't change course, it is likely to suffer the same fate as that old superpower, the former Soviet Union, whose obsession with preserving its bloated bureaucracy led to its destruction.

Microsoft has lost ground in practically every emerging field, including mobile computing, music players, smartphones, search and social networking.  Yes, it has had an odd success or two, such as the Xbox, but these are just flukes.

It isn't that Microsoft doesn't have talented people working for it.  Quite to the contrary, it has an abundance of talent.  For two decades, it was the tech industry's strongest talent magnet.  It hired the best of the best.  And most of these geniuses haven't left -- yet.

My former students and friends who work at Microsoft tell me that they love the company, but are stifled by its bureaucracy, turf wars and central planning.  Big ideas get quashed because they don't fit into the corporate vision; products with great potential are killed because they could threaten the company's core products.  These employees believe that their talent is being wasted.  They long for the days when Microsoft was a lean mean fighting machine.

That's why I believe that the best path forward for Microsoft is to break itself up into a number of fighting machines -- smaller companies that compete with upstarts in Silicon Valley and with each other.  These micro-Microsofts need to have the freedom to take risks and cannibalize the company's core products.  That won't happen under its present structure.

The Windows 8 fiasco illustrates the problems that Microsoft faces.  Windows RT, the version of Windows 8 that was designed for tablet computers with touch screens, has a beautiful user interface and functionality.  In many ways, it is better than Apple's iOS and Google's Android.  But Microsoft was obsessed with protecting its Windows operating system and Office tools franchise.  So it bundled a version of Microsoft Office into RT.  To make the desktop version of Windows 8 consistent with RT, it added to it the same tiled user interface and removed the Start button.

Most desktop computers and laptops, however, don't have touch screens.  And Windows users aren't used to computers without Start buttons.  So they hated Windows 8 desktop, and it was a commercial disaster.

The inclusion of Microsoft Office on RT and Microsoft's desire to protect its operating system's pricing structure led it to charge re-sellers a price rumored to be about $85 (the re-seller price is a well-guarded secret).  This is more than what lower-end tablets will soon cost, and competes directly with Android, which Google gives away.  That's why RT, too, was a commercial disaster.

The sensible thing for Microsoft to do would have been to provide a lighter version of RT -- for free.  It would have competed head to head with Android and would likely have won because it has a superior user interface.  Microsoft could have made money by charging for special features and apps such as Office.  If Microsoft's RT division had had the freedom, it might also have done the unimaginable by bundling Google's Office apps and other competitive products into it.

Tablet prices are dropping rapidly.  I expect that next year, there will be several players selling devices that cost less than $100.  Full-featured tablets that cost around $50 -- and less -- are also on the horizon.  When these become available, the market for tablets will explode.  There will be hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of such devices.  Instead of running Microsoft's RT, they will likely run Android.  Microsoft has lost its opportunity to sell additional products on these devices through its obsession with protecting its legacy software.  Windows and Office will likely slip into oblivion like the five year plans and Politburo the Soviet Union clung to.

But there is still hope for Microsoft.  It has a wealth of great people and great technologies in its labs.  They need to be untethered from the central bureaucracy and set free to compete and take big risks.  I am not too optimistic, though, that this will happen.  I worry that Microsoft will go the way of Kodak, RIM and Nokia -- or even the former Soviet Union -- all of which tanked because they were busy protecting old turf.

LINUX- Ubuntu 13.04

Well, Ubuntu 13.04 is released.

My Ubuntu 13, GNOME Desktop (click for larger view)

Note the [Steam] desktop icon (launcher).  That's right, Ubuntu 13 has the Steam Client available from the Software Center.

The upgrade from Ubuntu 12.10 to 13.04, using the Software Updater when notified, was flawless.  Everything came back as before upgrade.  Only had to change a few settings because of new apps.

As to Steam:

The Steam Client runs very well.  The Store has a [Linux] tab that list Linux Games.  And there's the rub.  Not all games listed in the [Linux] tab run properly, which is NOT Steam's fault.  It is the game publisher's fault.

Here is a list of Linux games I've tried:

• Amnesia = Does not run at all.
• Anna = Runs, BUT the mouse speed is so high/fast that the game is unplayable.  And the Main Menu Option to set mouse speed cannot be selected.
• Postal (1) = Seems to run OK..... so far.
• Postal 2 = Runs the Running With Scissors [WARNING] dialog, that automatically closes, then nothing.
• Dungeon Defenders = Supposed to be new, but when started it goes through several Logo Dialogs [Press any key to continue], after those I got a blank-black dialog and that's it.  Even lost the mouse.  Had to use [Alt][F4] to force-close.
• Half-Life (1) - Runs very good, except for sound, an old reverb problem (need to find a way to disable)

The only reason I tried these?  They were cheap.

So when it comes to Steam's Linux game, beware.

LINUX - openSUSE 12.1

Time for an update.

As I have said in previous articles, I have a laptop that I got for the purpose of leaning Linux OS.

It came with Ubuntu installed, I loaded Linux Mint 10 next.  I just loaded openSUSE 12.1 with the KDE desktop. This is an OpenSource version of  Novell SUSE.

This version, or distribution, comes with GNOME and KDE (default) desktops, so you can choose which to install.  I choose the KDE desktop because it looks more Windows-like.

GNOME Desktop

My KDE Desktop

Although I am still experimenting with my installation, I have already found some nice features:

• It can be upgraded without doing a full-install (Linux Mint 10 does not have this feature built-in)
• Right-click the [Application Launcher] icon (far left, Gecko icon) and it has a Menu Editor option
• Note ALL icons you see, including those in the Taskbar, are Widgets in this distribution, and I found out that you have to Lock Widgets if you don't want a screw-up
• It includes a Touch Pad utility that has the option to disable the touch pad if an USB Mouse is connected (nice, very nice)
• Note that the Taskbar is made up of Panels and Widgets, which you can add Widgets and move components IF you Unlock Widgets

My KDE Desktop with Application Launcher open

Note I had to change the launcher configuration (right-click Gecko icon to see option) to Disable Hover to make it easier to use.

My Taskbar close up

I am still playing around with openSUSE, but here's some things I've already found NOT-up-to-muster:

• The included version of System Information (sysinfo) does not work like the one Linux Mint 10 had which could generate a full report on everything on my system that I could print
• Finding some apps in the Application Launcher can be difficult, but it does have a Search Bar which occasionally shows an app that I could NOT navigate to (the search-result does not show location)
• I am still trying to get the [SHARE] folder to actually share with my WinXP Desktop (getting help from forum experts), it was much easier in Linux Mint 10

Well, that all for now. I'll likely be updating this post.

UPDATE (as promised):

 My run of openSUSE failed...

• Had 3  crashes that cause me to do a full reinstall
• Never got SAMBA sharing to work properly (caused one of the crashes)
• Since sharing did not work, of course I couldn't connect to my shared pringer

So, on to something else....

LINUX - Opinion, Mint vs Ubuntu

"Is Linux Mint a Better Choice than Ubuntu?" by Matt Hartley, Datamation 7/12/2011

Excerpt

Could the rapidly growing, user-friendly Linux distro attract converts away from the mighty Ubuntu?

For many advanced Linux enthusiasts reading this, I doubt that any recent changes to the Ubuntu desktop swayed you very much. Most of you already have had plenty of time to select alternative distros -- from Fedora to Arch Linux -- should you decide you want to.

Each distribution has its own set of advantages and differences. But for those people who cannot bear to part with some features that are considered to be unique to Ubuntu, Linux Mint might be a viable option to look into.

Linux Mint is perfect for new users

I've used Linux Mint GNOME edition off and on for a few years now. I have mostly used it in testing, as I'm really not the target audience for this distribution. Yet I continue to be impressed with how simple and user-friendly this desktop is. In addition, there are other factors that I think give Linux Mint a huge edge over Ubuntu for the casual user.

When running the Linux Mint software updating tool, you'll find things are numbered from 1 to 5. Packages numbered with a 1 are from Linux Mint developers while those packages with a "2" or higher come from Ubuntu or a third-party.

This numbering system all but guarantees that you won't hose a system with a bad set of updates from a rogue repository you added and forgotten about.

The next big thing with Linux Mint is how concisely the menu layout is presented. Unlike the old Gnome menus or even Unity, everything in Linux Mint is tightly laid out to make the entire experience as logical as possible. This menu setup makes migrating from another operating system much less overwhelming for newer users. For "old hat users" such as myself, I enjoy finding everything within reach. And if it's not visible, the provided search box takes care of anything that's missing.

Another huge push in the right direction for newcomers would have to be the introduction screen that appears on the first boot. Documentation, support, and so forth is presented right away. From there, items that I think should have been provided by Ubuntu out of the box are a given with Linux Mint.

Gufw (Easy to use Ubuntu Firewall) is installed and ready to go. There is a Mintbackup utility that not only offers the same functionality as SimpleBackup on Ubuntu, but it even backs up your application titles. This means you can take this list to another PC, run the program and install the same software list as before. That’s always been possible via the command line, and now it's nice to see this functionality provided for newer users with a friendly GUI.

Without any doubt, the biggest reason for me to love Linux Mint is that I can install software by name from the control panel -- with greater speed than I could have with apt-get.

Plus I can avoid all the package managers and directly type in the application's name, which presents me with the option to install it. Best of all, it's done very quickly and without the bloat of the software center. It's almost like being able to run the terminal without needing to know how. I love it!

It feels like Ubuntu

One of the biggest reasons I still rely on Ubuntu is because of the huge number of software packages available for it. If there's software for Linux, then there's an Ubuntu package somewhere for that application title.

Luckily, these same applications also work well for Linux Mint as it offers a release based on Ubuntu. This means that should Ubuntu's direction force me to drop it completely I can stick with the same applications.

Below is my laptop's Linux Mint-10 Desktop.

(click for better view)


NOTE: The calendar shown is Rainlendar which has Windows and Linux versions. Rainlendar Lite is freeware, Rainlendar Pro (allows calendar network sharing and MS Outlook sync) is shareware license-fee.

What I run on both my WinXP Pro desktop and Mint laptop is Rainlendar Lite.